Understanding Grammar: Exceptional Circumstances Introduction

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rich: and I’m Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: Where we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rich: In this week’s roleplay, we’re going to be talking about how our lives have changed recently.

Jack: At the moment, many of us are doing things in very different ways to what we are used to and in this podcast, I’m going to talk about what I’m doing differently in the UK.

Rich: And I’m going to talk about things that are being done differently in Spain.

Jack: We are also going to talk about some other people who have been doing some amazing things recently.

Rich: We’re going to focus on both grammar and vocabulary this week as we’re going to look at one keyword and how it is used in different ways.

Jack: The word we are looking at is except.

Rich: And your task this week will be to tell us what changes have recently taken place in your country and to tell us about someone who has done something amazing or exceptional in your country.

Jack: If you’re listening to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcast platform, you should also check out our website.

Rich: That’s because on the Premier Skills English website you’ll also find the transcript, examples and activities to help you understand the language, a task for you to do and a community of friendly listeners to interact with, in our comments section.

Jack: And that includes Rich and me - we’re always around to answer questions and join the discussions.

Rich: A lot to get through today and before we get into all that we need to look back at last week’s football phrase.

Last week’s Football Phrase

Jack: If you didn’t hear our football phrase last week we’re going to give you one more chance to guess now.

Rich: The phrase was *** ** ***. When a match is described as *** ** *** it means that both teams are attacking a lot and the play is moving from one side of the pitch to the other. *** ** *** matches are usually exciting to watch, have lots of attacking play and lots of goals.

Jack: We’ll give you the correct answer at the end of the show when we give you a new football phrase.

Rich: The first listener to get it right last week was Sabanoleg from Ukraine. Congratulations Sabanoleg - you were the quickest for a second week in a row.

Jack: A big well done to Marco from Mexico who was just a few minutes behind Sabanoleg, Luibomyr also from Ukraine and Elghoul from Algeria who all got the right answer last week.

Rich: Remember we’ll have a new football phrase for you to guess at the end of the show.

Introduction to Roleplay

Jack: In this section, you’re going to hear a roleplay. I decide to give Rich a Skype call to see how life is going under lockdown.  

Rich: Jack and I speak about lockdown in the UK, where Jack lives, and lockdown in Spain, where I live. We speak about what life is like in general and what life is like in our houses.

Jack: While you listen we have two questions for you to answer:

Rich: The first question is: Is there a difference between lockdown in Spain and the UK?

Jack: And the second question is: Is there a difference between what’s going on in my house and what’s going on at Rich’s house?

Roleplay

(Skype call)

Jack: Morning, Rich.  I haven’t spoken to you for a while so I thought I’d check in - give you a call and see how things are going in lockdown - Spanish style. Is that someone screaming?

Rich: Playing. Not screaming. Hold on. Boys! Dad’s on a call - quiet!

Jack: Everything OK?

Rich: Yeah - everything is quite relaxed here except for not being able to go out, of course.

Jack: It’s the same here - we can’t go out except when we go to the supermarket, for our daily exercise, or to go to work if you can’t work from home.

Rich: That’s one more exception than here. We can’t go out to do exercise.

Jack: We go out for a walk every day, except when it’s raining. Is that the dog barking?

Rich: Oh, yeah. She needs to go out for a walk. That’s another exception. We can’t go out except to do those things and to take the dog for a daily walk. How’s homeschooling going?

Jack: We’ve done science and art this morning. I think the kids enjoy having mum and dad as their teachers. I’m enjoying it too except for maths - they have this new method and I can’t quite get my head around it yet.

Rich: Yeah, yeah I think I have this homeschooling thing under control.

Alex: Dad? Can we have another cartoon?

Jack: What was that?

Rich: Er … we’re just doing science too. There are some great science cartoons.

Jack: So nobody has been outside for, what is it, six weeks now?

Rich: Nobody except me. I do the shopping and take the dog.

Jack: We’re all in the same boat I suppose but it’s especially tough for children at the moment, except if they have a garden.

Rich: We’re lucky, it’s much tougher for those that live in flats in the city.

Jack: I’ve heard that kids are going to be allowed out next week.

Rich: Yes, at last! I’ll be able to add more PE to our homeschooling timetable.

Alex: Dad! I love Garfield. Can I watch another?

Jack: Garfield? The cat?

Rich: These are exceptional circumstances, Jack!

Language Focus 1

Rich: Before the roleplay, we asked you two questions.

Jack: The first question was: Is there a difference between lockdown in Spain and the UK?

Rich: Well, in lots of countries at the moment there are rules about when you can leave the house and for what reasons you can leave the house.

Jack: In the UK, you can’t leave the house except ... to go to work, if you can’t work from home, to go shopping for essential things like food, and to do some daily exercise.

Rich: In Spain, you can’t leave the house except ...  to go to work, if you can’t work from home or to go shopping for essential things like food.

Jack: There are some other exceptions, but the main difference is that in the UK, at the moment, you can go out and do some daily exercise but in Spain you can’t.

Rich: We also asked you about what was going on in our houses at the moment. Now, remember this is a roleplay and it may not reflect the truth 100%!

Jack: I’m sure it doesn’t, Rich! Yes, the second question was: Is there a difference between what’s going on in my house and what’s going on at Rich’s house?

Rich: Well, it appears that things are much calmer in Jack’s house. His children are enjoying being educated at home and they go out for calm, relaxed daily walks.

Jack: In Rich’s house, the kids are screaming, the dog is barking and everyone seems to be watching cartoons all day.

Rich: You just caught me at a bad moment!

Jack: Let’s take a look at some of the language we used in the roleplay. Our main focus this week is on the word except and the different ways it can be used.

Rich: We used except a lot in the roleplay. Except generally means not including or excluding.

Jack: In the roleplay, I said that I was enjoying homeschooling except for maths. This means that I’m enjoying teaching all subjects but not maths.

Rich: Here except is being used as a preposition and it’s followed by a noun. Here are a few examples:

Jack: I like all sports except for snooker because it’s so boring.

Rich: I’ve invited everyone to my birthday party except my uncle who’s on holiday.

Jack: Except for pineapple, I’d have anything on a pizza.

Rich: In each of these examples except is followed by a noun - maths, snooker, my uncle and pineapple.

Jack: In some of the examples, we are using just except and in others we are using except for.

Rich: When we use except followed by a noun we can use either except or except for and there is no difference in meaning.

Jack: We can also use except either at the beginning of the sentence or in the middle. I like all sports except snooker or except snooker, I like all sports.

Rich: Except and except for are used in a very similar way to apart from.  Listen to these sentences that have exactly the same meaning.

Jack: I’d have anything on a pizza except for pineapple.

Jack: I’d have anything on a pizza apart from pineapple.

Rich: There is one difference, however, except only can mean excluding but apart from can also mean including. Listen to this example:

Jack: Apart from football, I also enjoy playing tennis and badminton.

Rich: Here apart from means including so it’s not possible to use except.

Jack: Except can also be used as a conjunction. A conjunction is used to connect two parts of a sentence together.

Rich: Listen to these example sentences:

Jack: I’d love to have a slice of your pizza, except I can’t stand pineapple on pizza.

Rich: We go out for a walk every day, except when it’s raining.

Jack: It’s especially tough for children at the moment, except if they have a garden.

Rich: In these examples except is being used as a conjunction and is followed by a clause or an adverbial phrase.

Jack: We also used the word except to create nouns and adjectives in the roleplay.

Rich: We used the noun ‘exception’ a few times in the roleplay. An exception is something that is not included in a general rule or law.

Jack: We were talking about not being allowed out of the house except for some specific reasons. These reasons are exceptions to this general rule.

Rich: One exception is going to the supermarket. Another exception might be going to work.

Jack: An exception in the UK is going out for daily exercise.

Rich: At the end of the roleplay, I said that we are living through exceptional circumstances. The adjective form of except is exceptional and it has two meanings.

Jack: The first meaning is very unusual. The circumstances of our lives - the way we are living at the moment is very unusual - they are exceptional.

Rich: The other meaning of exceptional is unusually good. We use exceptional to describe something or someone that is so good we don’t see it very often.

Jack: We could describe footballers like Alan Shearer or Thierry Henry as exceptional or amazing goals as exceptional. We don’t see players or goals like these very often in our lives.

Rich: We might even use the adverb exceptionally. We might say ‘she played exceptionally well today’.

Jack: We are also seeing normal people do exceptional things at the moment. Did you hear about Captain Tom Moore?

Rich: Oh yes. He’s the old man, isn’t he? How old is he again?

Jack: He’s 99 years old and has been raising money for charity by completing laps of his back garden. He’s raised over 20 million pounds for the National Health Service.

Rich: That can definitely be described as exceptional.

Jack: Are there any similar things in Spain?

Rich: Yes, like in the UK, lots of people are doing truly exceptional things. There was one story this week about a taxi driver who has been driving hundreds of patients for free with coronavirus to hospital in his taxi.

Jack: We are seeing some truly exceptional acts of courage and kindness at the moment.

Pronunciation

Rich: Before we move on to this week’s task we thought it might be worth looking at two words that are sometimes confused.

Jack: The first word is the one we have been looking at in this podcast: except.

Rich: The other word is one that sounds exactly the same: accept but we spell it differently. It’s spelt a c c e p t.

Jack: Here are two example sentences:

Rich: I’d love to accept your invitation.

Rich: I love everything about you, except the music you like.

Jack: The words sound the same accept and except. They are homophones - two words that sound the same but are often written differently.

Rich: We don’t usually confuse the meanings though because accept with an a is usually a verb whereas except with an e is usually a preposition or a conjunction.

Jack: We’ve got a little task for you. We’re going to say three words that are homophones and we want you to write the alternatives for each in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: Our three homophones are: 

TASK

Rich: We have two tasks for you to do this week. The first is to tell us about the exceptional circumstances there might be right now in your country.

Jack: Are you allowed out? What are the exceptions? Can you go out to walk the dog? Can you go to work?

Rich: Our second task this week is to tell us about someone who has done something exceptional recently. We told you about 99-year-old Captain Tom Moore and the taxi driver in Spain who has been driving coronavirus patients to hospital in Madrid for free.

Jack: Is there a similar story that you could share about someone in your country. Why is what she or he has done exceptional?

Rich: Try to use except in your answers and experiment with any new language you may have learned recently.

Jack: Write all your answers in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website or on Apple Podcasts if that’s where you listen to us.

Football Phrase

Jack: It’s your turn with this week’s football phrase, Rich.

Rich: OK, here we go. I think it’s quite difficult. This week’s football phrase is to **** ********* *** ** *** ***. The phrase means to find an answer to something or fix something at the last moment; very often when you are under pressure. A team that is losing might **** victory or a win *** ** *** *** by scoring in the last few minutes after it looked like they would draw or lose. The victory or win is often surprising or not expected.

Jack: That’s quite difficult. I've also heard this phrase with hat. You can **** * ******** *** ** *** *** hat.

Rich: Let’s see who can get it right. Before we leave you we also need to tell you last week’s football phrase. The answer was end to end.

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for this week! Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions and make a guess at our football phrase in the comments below. If you get it right, we’ll announce your name on next week’s show.

Rich: If you have any questions or comments or suggestions for the podcast or anything football or English related, you can leave them on the website in the comments section, on social media, on apple podcasts or you can email us at premierskills@britishcouncil.org.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football!