Renting A Car

Marco: Hello everyone! And welcome to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

Catherine: Hi everyone! My name is Catherine.

Marco: What’ve you got Catherine for us today?

Catherine: It’s a good question, well…

Marco: Hehe.

Catherine: Uh, we’ve got a little bit of a Seinfeld situation, so for those of you who are not familiar with this American TV show, which by the way is one of my favorites, uh, Seinfeld is a TV show, a comedy about very awkward, very common situations that are taken to the extreme.

Marco: Hm, right, so it’s a very popular show. It was around for like ten years, I think.

Catherine: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Marco: And, uh, but it’s not airing anymore. Well, they’re not making new episodes anymore.

Catherine: Now you have to see them in reruns.

Marco: Reruns, right. So, um, we have a situation that’s very common, and it was… and it was pretty funny on the show, it’s a guy trying to rent a car.

Catherine: Okay, so he’s probably at the airport or traveling and he… he’s had a long flight and he wants to rent a car, but of course there’re some problems, so…

Marco: Right.

Catherine: This is an elementary level lesson by the way, so keep that in mind as we listen to this dialogue one time.

Voice: Dialogue, first time

Marco: Alright, great, so this actually happens a lot. You make a reservation and either they lose it or they run out of cars. It’s such a common situation.

Catherine: And it’s not just cars. Sometimes this happens at restaurants too…

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: And it really makes me angry.

Marco: Yeah, that happens a lot. You show up and they like “oh, we don’t have a reservation” and you just like “ugh”.

Catherine: Well, and you have to keep yourself in check; you can’t really get angry. But this guy does, so…

Marco: Yeah.

Catherine: Uh, let’s take a look at the “language takeaway” to find out what are some of those words we’re using here to describe renting a car and what kind of car we’re talking about.

Voice: Language takeaway.

Marco: Well, as you mentioned, uh, at rental places they have different sized cars, right? Different sized vehicles.

Catherine: Which by the way cost different prices.

Marco: Right, so, uh, let’s take a look at the sizes that they mentioned in the dialogue, ah, starting with the cheapest one, the least expensive and the smallest. It’s a compact vehicle.

Catherine: Alright, compact. So compact actually means “small”.

Marco: Small.

Catherine: Right, so “compact car” you’re gonna hear it very often even if you’re buying a car.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: Uh, let’s think of an, uh… what’s a… what’s a compact car? The VW Golf…

Marco: Aha.

Catherine: Is a compact car, very small car.

Marco: So usually it’s two doors. Or if it’s a four-door car, it’s very small, not very long, right?

Catherine: Right, exactly.

Marco: So maybe like a Ford Focus could be a small car.

Catherine: Uhu, also.

Marco: Or compact. Now moving up in size a little bit, we would a have a mid-size vehicle.

Catherine: Okay, mid-size vehicle is a… well, it’s a giveaway here, because mid means “middle”.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: So it’s kind of in the middle between the small and the large. And this is your average four-door sedan car.

Marco: Okay, so as an example you would have a Ford Taurus or maybe a Toyota Camry.

Catherine: Yeah, Toyota Camry is maybe one… the most common car.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: Uh, yeah, definitely.

Marco: It’s kind of expensive, but it’s still mid-sized, right?

Catherine: Exactly.

Marco: And, uh, now a bigger car and probably one of the most popular cars in the United States is an SUV.

Catherine: Not anymore, Marco.

Marco: Why? No?

Catherine: With the… the energy crisis and the…

Marco: Gas prices.

Catherine: Uh, well, and the econo… the economy as well.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: People are not driving their SUVs anymore, but, uh, SUV is an acronym that means it stands for three different words. S meaning…

Marco: Sports.

Catherine: U meaning…

Marco: Utility.

Catherine: V…

Marco: Vehicle.

Catherine: Alright, thank you, so SUV – Sports Utility Vehicle means it can go maybe off-road.

Marco: Right, so an example of this would be a Ford Explorer or a…

Catherine: Jeep Cherokee.

Marco: A Jeep Cherokee could be an SUV as well. So right, those are three different types of cars and now obviously there’re many more like a van or a…

Catherine: Limo.

Marco: A limo like a limousine.

Catherine: Hehe.

Marco: But, yeah, these are the most common ones that you would rent at a… a car rental place.

Catherine: Yeah, definitely. But, uh, what we have to do here is make a reservation.

Marco: Uhu. Now interesting, you make a reservation.

Catherine: Yeah, you don’t have it, you don’t do it, you don’t…

Marco: You make it.

Catherine: Yeah, you do make… these are… these are, uh, words that go together, so we need to keep them together. Um, I can call a restaurant, so let’s say, for example, Marco works at the restaurant, I say: “Hello, I’d like to make a reservation for tonight”.

Marco: Oh, okay, perfect. Now, if you show up at the restaurant you say…

Catherine: Um, where’s my table? I made a reservation.

Marco: Right.

Catherine: And, of course, I throw a fit, because there’s no table for me.

Marco: They don’t have it.

Catherine: So you make a reservation and in this case it was made before.

Marco: Okay, so you make a reservation. Now, why was this guy angry at the rental car place?

Catherine: Oh, long story. Short: the company ran out of cars.

Marco: Okay.

Catherine: Not all cars, just the car that he wanted.

Marco: Right.

Catherine: The mid-size vehicle.

Marco: So they ran out, so that doesn’t mean they’re actually running somewhere, right?

Catherine: No, they’re not putting on their running shoes and then going for a jog. No, in this case to run out, or in this case we ran out means that they don’t have anymore.

Marco: You don’t have anymore, exactly.

Catherine: Uhu.

Marco: I think this word is a nice word for us to take a look at some other examples now.

Voice: Example one.

Speaker: A: We’re going to run out of gasoline. We need to find a gas station soon.

Voice: Example two.

Speaker: B: Can you buy some milk on your way home? We ran out last night.

Voice: Example three.

Speaker: C: My pen ran out of ink. Can you lend me one please?

Catherine: Uh, not a fun phrase, but an important one in case you’re ever in a restaurant or in a hotel or in a place where you can purchase something or rent something and it’s all gone.

Marco: Alright, so I think we’ve taken a look at a lot of great words here, so let’s listen to this dialogue again. We’re gonna slow it down just a little bit and then we’ll come back and explain some phrases.

Voice: Dialogue, second time (slow)

Catherine: And we’re back, so, Marco, we’ve got a couple of phrases here that deserve some attention, uh, so let’s take a look at them in today’s “fluency builder”.

Voice: Fluency builder.

Marco: So the first phrase that we want… that I wanna take a look at is, um, when the agent says “I’m sorry we have no mid-size available at the moment”.

Catherine: Hm, okay, so do they or do they not have any?

Marco: Yeah, s… he says we have no mid-size.

Catherine: Okay, so another way to say this is “we haven’t got any”.

Marco: Aha, or “we don’t have any”.

Catherine: Okay, but in this case you could just simplify it and say we have no.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: Why wouldn’t you say we have none?

Marco: Good question, why?

Catherine: Hehe.

Marco: Hehe.

Catherine: Because we need a thing here: we have no cars, we have no cake, we have no food.

Marco: Uuh.

Catherine: Uh, so this is a very common phrase, uh, in English and remember to put the thing at the end, so, um…

Marco: So, well, for example, can I say, um, I have no money?

Catherine: Absolutely.

Marco: Right.

Catherine: I’m so sorry, Marco, but I’m not gonna lend you.

Marco: I have no money seriously, lend me some money… Um, so have no, this is interesting, because this is not a structure that is usually, uh, learned through textbooks, right? You usually say “I don’t have” or “we haven’t got”.

Catherine: Exactly, this is very spoken, because you would never say I go no.

Marco: Right, exactly. Hehe.

Catherine: Right? We… we have to talk about something that we, uh… that has an object, some thing that we have.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: So here I have no is very spoken, very common. So [missing word] another phrase, uh, that is also not taught so much in those textbooks that we’re just mentioning. So what’s that phrase at the end?

Marco: Well… well…

Catherine: It’s a threat.

Marco: Hehe.

Catherine: It’s a threat. The guy is so angry, he leans over the counter and he points his finger in the, uh… the agent’s face and what does he say?

Marco: He says “yeah, you[‘d] better give me the insurance”.

Catherine: You better.

Marco: You better.

Catherine: Alright, so you better than me?

Marco: No, no, it’s not like better like something is good, right? You’d better is like a suggestion, but a very strong one, right?

Catherine: Okay, very strong, this is a threat.

Marco: Yeah, this [missing word]

Catherine: You’d better eat your dinner or I’m going to send you to your room all night.

Marco: Exactly.

Catherine: Yeah.

Marco: So, as you can see, it says… he says “you better… you better give me the insurance”, but the grammatically correct way would be…

Catherine: You had better.

Marco: You had better.

Catherine: So…

Marco: So you… the contraction would be you’d better.

Catherine: Exactly, you’d – you had better do this. So this is a… it’s a hypothetical situation – you had better do this. If you don’t do this…

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: Bad things will happen, so…

Marco: Right.

Catherine: Remember that, here we’ve got the grammatically correct form that you should write – you’d better…

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: Or the spoken form - you better.

Marco: You better.

Catherine: Uhu.

Marco: Aha, I think in this one we should also listen to some other examples to get a better idea of how we can use this very strong suggestion.

Voice: Example one.

Speaker: A: You[’d] better go to the doctor before that cold gets any worse.

Voice: Example two.

Speaker: B: You[’d] better watch out; it’s dangerous to go out this late.

Voice: Example three.

Speaker: C: She[’d] better change her attitude or her boss is going to fire her.

Catherine: So what is the threat? You better give me insurance, because what is he gonna do?

Marco: He says “I’m gonna beat the hell out of this car”.

Catherine: Okay, so this is future – I’m going to.

Marco: Yeah.

Catherine: I’m gonna.

Marco: Right.

Catherine: Beat the hell out of this car.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: So this is very strong, right?

Marco: Yeah, it’s very strong and he’s saying he’s going to destroy the car.

Catherine: So beat the hell out of, so that means really just do damage to something.

Marco: So you can use it… towards a person also. It’s like I’m going to beat the hell out of you.

Catherine: And I’ll arrest you for violence.

Marco: Hehe. Right, so it’s a very strong phrase. It shows anger, it shows that you’re threatening somebody, so it’s not… obviously it’s not polite.

Catherine: And it might get you a broken nose in a bar if you ever say this to someone or about someone, so be very careful.

Marco: Right, but you can use it to describe a situation, right? It’s like “yeah, we went to a bar yesterday and Dan beat the hell out of the bartender”.

Catherine: Uh!

Marco: Right?

Catherine: Dan.

Marco: So instead of just saying “Dan hit the bartender” or “Dan got into a fight”, here we’re saying “he hit him and he just…”

Catherine: And he kept hitting him.

Marco: He kept…

Catherine: And he kept hitting him.

Marco: Right.

Catherine: So, yeah, he beat the hell out of him.

Marco: Right.

Catherine: Alright, great, so those are the… the phrases and words that we wanted to talk about today, but, uh, I think it’d be good if we listen to this dialogue one more time just to get a good feel for it. When we come back, we’ll be talking a little bit more about the process of renting a car.

Voice: Dialogue, third time

Marco: You know, I heard that in Florida or in certain… like, uh, cities of California and Florida you can actually rent luxury cars.

Catherine: Oh, yeah, you can do that in most places, uhu.

Marco: You can rent like a…

Catherine: Porsche.

Marco: Like a Porsche or a… or a Lamborghini or a Ferrari.

Catherine: Yeah.

Marco: Obviously it costs a lot of money, but it gives you the opportunity to maybe drive… to maybe drive one of these cars that you’ve… obviously wouldn’t have the money to buy.

Catherine: Yeah, especially if you’re talking about those warm places like Florida or California, you wanna be in the sunshine, you get a convertible.

Marco: Hehe.

Catherine: Right?

Marco: You[’ve] gotta get a convertible.

Catherine: Yeah, so, uh, I think the insurance premiums on those particular cars are very high though, so you’re not only paying for the car…

Marco: Yeah.

Catherine: But you’re also paying for the insurance and possibly the speeding tickets.

Marco: Yeah, of course, I can’t imagine renting one of those cars and not getting a speeding ticket.

Catherine: Exactly, so if any of you out there have experience renting cars or you have some questions about the specifics that are involved in this process, let us know on our website englishpod.com.

Marco: Right, we’re there to answer any questions or doubts and, uh, we’ll see you guys there.

Catherine: Alright, until next time everyone…

Marco: Bye!

Catherine: Bye!