Focus on vocabulary. Part 2

Steve: Well, that's the beginning of a story that appears in, I think, 26 episodes and the story gets more and more difficult as we go along. But, Jill, what can I do for you? What does that mean?

Jill: What can I help you with? Is there something that you need from me?

Steve: It's not obvious from "what can I do for you?" that that's what it means; but, that is what it means. Can I help you? What can I do for you?

Mark: Typically, you'd get this from a storekeeper or if you phone somebody up, some kind of business up on the phone, that the person that answers the phone very often would say that to you. Steve: What can I do for you? In this case, in the story, these people arrive unexpected and so the person opening the door sees two people that he doesn't know and he says: "What can I do for you?" Jill: And, I guess, it's not in here but, we could mention that it would be very common to say, as well, how can I help you? Steve: Very good. How can I help you?

Jill: Which means the same as what can I do for you?

Steve: Right.

Mark: And, I guess, with both of these phrases, I think that non-native speakers, especially if they are first being introduced to the language, and they show up and because there are different ways of saying different things, very often if you're only used to hearing one way of sort of asking what people can do for you or can they help you or whatever, when people hear this they might sort of be taken aback. Ah, what did they say to me? They feel kind of threatened because it's not the expression they were expecting. Steve: Well, that's an important point and I think as a matter of strategy for learners, make sure that there is one that you can use. You don't have to be able to use them all, but try to recognize all of them. So, may I help you? Can I help you? What can I do for you?

Is there anything I can do for you? Those are all good. Learn to recognize them, but have one that you're comfortable using. Let's move on; the next one -- glad to meet you. Jill: I'm happy to meet you. Steve: Nice to meet you.

Jill: Nice to meet you. It's a pleasure to meet you. Steve: A pleasure to meet you; very common greeting. Glad to meet you. It's short for I am glad to meet you. But, I think if a non-native speaker can say glad to meet you with the right intonation, he will sound or she will sound very natural.

Jill: The next one is nice to meet both of you.

Steve: Again, it's nice to meet you. But, if you meet two people you might say nice to meet both of you. You could even say nice to meet you both.

Jill: And, if there's more than two you could say nice to meet all of you. Steve: Exactly. So, it's a continuation of that glad to meet you, nice to meet you. It's important that people know how to greet people. Now, who are you looking for? That's not so common. What are you looking for? Can I help you? What are you looking for? Here, I think we should just tell our users to go and listen to the story and they'll see from the context why this is the phrase that's used. Mark: You may have someone saying who are you looking for, if you show up at an office or something, and they're wondering, you know, who are you looking for? I'm looking for George or whatever the case may be. Steve: Very good point. The receptionist may very well say hello. Who are you looking for?

How may I help you? Who are you looking for?

Jill: Right.

Steve: I'm looking for Jill. I want to talk to her about my account.

Mark: I want to ask her how I can sign up for The Linguist, you mean.

Steve: Right.

Okay. Tell me his name.

I think that is a structure: tell me. Not tell to me. Tell me. Give me.

Jill: You're asking for information. Tell me his name.

Steve: Right and you're asking for someone to do something for you. But, I think the interesting thing there is I listen to him but, I tell him. Next one?

Jill: I am younger than him.

Steve: I often, when I talk to our learners, even learners who have been learning English for 10 years, they will say I am younger as him; often. So, younger than, if there's a difference. Bigger than, faster than, younger than, taller than, but, I am as good as him, as fast as him.

Jill: Equal to.

Steve: Equal to. So, as implies an equal relationship than implies a difference.

Mark: That is a difficult concept for a lot of people to get a handle on for sure.

Steve: It's not again, the way we, of course, teach at The Linguist, we don't want it to be so much of a concept as a habit; younger than, younger than, bigger than, faster than. You hear an "er" it's a than. Just get used to it. Don?t worry about why, it just is.

Jill: Which one of you is taller?

Steve: Now, there is a little more difficult structure for our beginners. Which one of the many? Which one of those three belongs to you? Which car do you want to buy? Which blouse of those five blouses do you want for yourself? Which one? The construction that which one of? which one of the ones that you saw in the store?

Jill: Which one do you like best?

Steve: Which one do you like best?

Jill: Yes. It implies that there's more than one. Theres a choice to be made between more than one.

Steve: Right.

Okay and the last one was my brother is taller. Again, if it was a matter of comparing my brother to me, my brother is taller than me. Alright, I think we've kind of covered this. Alright, we'll stop it here. Mark: Once again, though, I want to remind all of you to make sure to visit our site at thelinguist.com where you'll be able to study this item and, of course, the other 25 parts and get a full transcript, look up the words and phrases that you don't know, save those words and phrases; review them. Of course, write to us, have your writing corrected; speak to our tutors; a full range of services that we offer at a very reasonable price. So, please, there is a free 14-day trial and I encourage you all, if you're not members already, to come and check out our site. Steve: I think it might be worth adding too, Mark, that this is an easy one. We will also do intermediate and advanced ones. So, we will vary it.

Mark: Okay. I think that's good. Steve: Thank you.

Mark: We'll see you all next time. Steve: Alright. Bye, bye.

Jill: Bye, bye.

End.