coffee break english season 1 episode 1 [Music] hello everyone and welcome to coffee break english my name's josie and my name is mark and we are very happy to be here josie tell us a little about coffee break english coffee break english is a podcast which will help you improve your english if you're learning english each week we listen to a text from somewhere in the english speaking world and we focus on a language point something about grammar or maybe vocabulary and what level is coffee break english for well we'll be starting off quite basic
to start with we'll review some basic grammar so i would say the level is about a2 or pre-intermediate so if you already know some english and you want to get even better this podcast is for you we are going to be listening to texts from all over the english-speaking world but mark and i are both scottish and we live in scotland we'll be hearing lots of different accents in the episodes of coffee break english so this will help you understand lots of people that's right mark so let's get started [Music] okay josie tell us about
today's text today we're listening to katrina who is also scottish but she lives in manchester in the uk at the moment she's on holiday in italy and she's telling us all about what she's doing there okay and what language point are we learning about we are learning about the difference between the present continuous tense and the present simple tense that sounds good let's listen to the text this week i'm on holiday with my family in italy i'm with my husband our son my sister and her three children we are staying in a small house in
the countryside on the amalfi coast we live in manchester which is a busy city in the uk so it's very quiet for us here the weather is beautiful today the sun is shining and it's very hot in manchester it isn't usually warm it's usually rainy and cloudy the children are enjoying the sun because they love playing outside and swimming in the pool back home we often go swimming in the local pool but we never swim outside it's too cold at the moment we are having breakfast in the garden the adults are drinking coffee and the
children are drinking fresh orange juice and we are all eating some chocolate pastries at home we hardly ever have pastries for breakfast we normally have cereal and toast we are enjoying the cool morning weather and planning what to do today this morning we are going to the beach and then later we are having lunch in a little pizza restaurant the food here is delicious especially the ice cream in the uk we rarely have ice cream but at the moment we are buying it every day oh well we're on holiday sounds like katrina's having a lovely
time she's very lucky okay now let's read the text again more slowly and we'll explain about the vocabulary and the language that we hear mark would you like to start reading the text again okay katrina said this week i'm on holiday with my family in italy good remember holiday in british english and we can say vacation in american english i'm on vacation with my family i'm with my husband her son my sister and her three children we are staying in a small house in the countryside on the amalfi coast good so they're staying in the
countryside the countryside is not the city so where the mountains and the green spaces are not in the city so katrina says we are staying in a small house here she uses the present continuous tense we are staying why do you think she says we are staying instead of we stay mark because she's seeing what she is doing at the moment exactly we use the present continuous tense to say what we are doing at the time of speaking so it's for actions in progress or temporary actions josie how do we form the present continuous good
question to make the present continuous we take a part of the verb be in the present tense in this case the subject is we so we use we are next we take the main verb so the verb with the meaning in this sentence and we add ing to the end staying this is also known as the gerund staying doing making playing they are all the gerund okay shall we continue let's go we live in manchester which is a busy city in the uk so it's very quiet for us here good so here katrina says we
live in manchester in this case she uses the present simple tense because she lives in manchester all the time in general so when we talk about something which is generally true like a routine or a habit we use the present simple tense but when we talk about an action in progress or a temporary action we use the present continuous we are staying we live okay the weather is beautiful today the sun is shining and it's very hot okay today the sun is shining here we have another example of the present continuous katrina says this is
happening today so we use the present continuous is shining in this case we use the third person form of the verb be is the sun is it so we use is the sun is shining but katrina said it is very hot why is that the case good question the present continuous doesn't work for all verbs so for the verb to be we don't use that in the present continuous we can't say it is being very hot for example that's right it sounds a bit funny yes it does so even if we're talking about an action
in progress we just use the present simple form of to be it is very hot okay in manchester it isn't usually warm it's usually rainy and cloudy yes this is typical uk weather isn't it rainy and cloudy absolutely yes but warm that's somewhere in between hot and cold the perfect temperature i think and in this sentence it isn't usually warm katrina uses the present simple again because she's talking about something in general in manchester in general it isn't usually warm this word usually this tells us that we should use the present simple it's called an
adverb of frequency and we'll see more adverbs of frequency later in the text the children are enjoying the sun because they love playing outside and swimming in the pool yes so the children are enjoying the sun again this is an action in progress with the present continuous because they love playing outside this means not in a building not in a house so outside in this case in the pool outside back home we often go swimming in the local pool but we never swim outside it's too cold yes so here we have more examples of the
present simple we often go and we never swim katrina also uses adverbs of frequency here often and never okay you said often and i said often that's right i didn't make a mistake and you didn't make a mistake either we can say often or often they're exactly the same that sounds good okay we're going to take a short break now and we'll be back soon to find out more about katrina's holiday on the amalfi coast [Music] each episode of the coffee break english podcast is free and you can use our podcast to help you improve
your english but there's more that's right we have a full course available on our website which will help you make faster progress and understand everything much better for every lesson we offer videos bonus audio recordings lesson notes with exercises and vocabulary lists in lots of languages all this is available on the coffee break academy so visit coffee break academy dot com [Music] welcome back let's continue with the text at the moment we are having breakfast in the garden good that sounds nice doesn't it breakfast in the garden absolutely yeah we rarely do that in scotland
but katrina is doing this at the moment in italy so she uses this phrase at the moment to say that it's happening at the time that she's speaking is at the moment an adverb of frequency a good question it's not an adverb of frequency adverbs of frequency always go before the verb in the phrase so for example we often go we never swim however when the verb is to be the adverb of frequency goes after for example it is usually rainy so to return to your question at the moment is not an adverb of frequency
it's just a short phrase that we put at the beginning of the sentence to tell us when the action is happening so usually when we use at the moment we use the present continuous that's right okay the adults are drinking coffee and the children are drinking fresh orange juice and we are all eating some chocolate pastries good so all of these actions are happening as katrina is speaking so they are all in the present continuous are drinking our drinking and we're eating some chocolate pastries that sounds delicious i'm feeling hungry at the moment and good
use of the present continuous there mark thank you okay at home we hardly ever have pastries for breakfast we normally have cereal and toast good so katrina is comparing her breakfast in italy to her breakfast at home so she uses the present simple to talk about the breakfast at home we hardly ever have pastries we normally have cereal and toast this is what she does every day it's a routine for her so we use the present simple so hardly ever and normally are these adverbs of frequency yes they are hardly ever means almost never nearly
never and normally well that's the same as usually generally okay let's continue we are enjoying the cool morning weather and planning what to do today good so katrina is back to the present continuous we are enjoying and planning that's also the present continuous we are planning this morning we are going to the beach and then later we are having lunch in a little pizza restaurant good so here we're using the present continuous again this morning we are going to the beach but katrina already told us that at the moment she is having breakfast right mark
yes she can't do both things at the same time no exactly so here we have a different use of the present continuous we can use it to talk about our future plans or arrangements when we are very sure about what we're going to do in the future so katrina knows that soon they are going to the beach and later they're having lunch that's right these are their plans so they use the present continuous so mark i could ask you what are you doing this evening this evening i am watching a film with my family that
sounds lovely what are you doing this evening hmm this evening i'm not watching a film i'm reading a book i think okay that sounds good too let's continue with our text the food here is delicious especially the ice cream good so the food here is delicious delicious means very good very tasty food i agree with katrina italian food is delicious yes i love it too okay let's continue in the uk we rarely have ice cream but at the moment we're buying it every day good so in the uk we rarely have ice cream so present
simple here talking about katrina's normal life we rarely we almost never have ice cream but at the moment present continuous we are buying it every day oh well we are on holiday and here katrina says we are on holiday so remember no present continuous with the verb to be we are on holiday even though she's on holiday at the moment that's right okay shall we listen to the text again that sounds like a good idea so we can listen and listen out for everything we have talked about today sounds good this week i'm on holiday
with my family in italy i'm with my husband our son my sister and her three children we are staying in a small house in the countryside on the amalfi coast we live in manchester which is a busy city in the uk so it's very quiet for us here the weather is beautiful today the sun is shining and it's very hot in manchester it isn't usually warm it's usually rainy and cloudy the children are enjoying the sun because they love playing outside and swimming in the pool back home we often go swimming in the local pool
but we never swim outside it's too cold at the moment we are having breakfast in the garden the adults are drinking coffee and the children are drinking fresh orange juice and we are all eating some chocolate pastries at home we hardly ever have pastries for breakfast we normally have cereal and toast we are enjoying the cool morning weather and planning what to do today this morning we are going to the beach and then later we're having lunch in a little pizza restaurant the food here is delicious especially the ice cream in the uk we rarely
have ice cream but at the moment we are buying it every day oh well we're on holiday [Music] that's all for this episode now don't forget you can improve your english even more with the coffee break english course we provide extra materials for each lesson and you can find out more about this at coffee break academy dot com that's right mark and if you'd like to practice your english you can also do so on social media just search for coffee break english on facebook and on instagram where we post regular language challenges and cultural information
we'll be back next time with another text what's the topic for the next lesson josie next time we'll be talking about cinema that sounds great thank you for listening to coffee break english we'll be back soon bye for now goodbye you have been listening to a coffee break languages production for the radiolingua network copyright 2021 radiolingual limited recording copyright 2021 radiolingual limited all rights reserved
