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Some basic vocabulary and expressions you need to know if you're planning to travel by plane. There is a conversation in the first part and some explanations and practice in the second part. Click on "explanations" for the script.

The script is only for the first part of the video, the conversation at the office. First, watch the video and try to understand something (the explanation in the second part of the video will help you). And only then, read this script and the explanations.

Notice that the man speaks with an American accent and the woman with a British accent.

- morning! There’s the ticket. Passport.
We’re going to look at some useful words we use when we talk about travelling (AmE spelling "traveling"). We’re also going to look at WHEN and how to use UNLESS, but first, let’s watch the movie. Anna needs to leave work early, why?
- I’m flying direct to Sidney
...............

- Excuse me. I have to leave early.
- Ok, how come?
- It’s my niece. She’s at the airport. She’s on her way to Japan. She said the travel agent gave her the wrong itinerary. She said she has to make three connections to get to Japan, and it will take two days to fly there.
- It’s gonna take two days? What’s the problem?
- She has to fly to Rome, then Paris, then Singapore, and finally Japan.
- Really? She’s gonna Paris, and she needs to change planes in Rome and then Singapore?
- No, it’s Rome first, and then Paris second.
- That doesn’t make any sense. That’s a bad itinerary. Why d’you have to go to the airport?
- She told me she has to pay a hundred dollar fee to change her ticket. She doesn’t have any money.
- It sounds like she didn’t prepare very well, doesn’t it?
- No, she didn’t. Uh, she is a teenager and she hasn’t travelled before. But, unless she changes her ticket before her departure, she’ll go to Rome and she won’t be able to get a direct flight to Japan.
- Why not just call the travel agent?
- It’s 6:15, they close at six.
- Well, hurry up! You don’t wanna get them off if they made their board announcements.
....................
- I don’t believe it! They cancelled my flight. How could they let them cancel my flight.




END OF THIS TRANSCRIPTION

TRAVELLING= The rule for doubling final consonants before an ending beginning with a vowel is: if a word ends in one single vowel followed by one single consonant, it doubles the last consonant if the vowel is stressed
-1V+1C = CC
Examples:
- Run= running, runner
- Begin= beginning, beginner
- Prefer= preferring, preferred (because the stress is on the last syllable)
*Watch= watching (it doesn’t end in one single consonant)
*Read= reading (it doesn’t end in one single vowel + consonant)
*Soothe= soothing (it doesn’t end in a consonant)
*Monitor= monitoring (the vowel in the last syllable is not stressed)
According to this rule, the verb TRAVEL shouldn’t double the last consonant, because the vowel in the last syllable is not stressed, so in AmE they spell TRAVELING. But in BrE there is an exception to the above rule which says "words ending in -L double the final L always", so we spell it TRAVELLING and CANCELLED.

MORNING!= it’s a very usual way of saying "good morning" (coll.). It is also quite normal to say EVENING! Instead of "good evening". We can also say "NIGHT NIGHT" instead of "good night", but only when you’re saying goodbye to someone who is going to bed at that very moment, or when they are already in bed.

HOW COME?= Why?. Very common in colloquial English (esp. in AmE)

NIECE= my brother’s or sister’s daughter

SHE’S ON HER WAY TO JAPAN= She’s going to Japan

ITINERARY= the different places you have to go through going from A to B

CONNECTION= a CONNECTION (or a CONNECTING FLIGHT or a TRANSFER) is when you have to change planes in the middle of your journey. So if you’re going from Madrid to Santiago de Chile and you have to stop in Buenos Aires, get off and then get on a new plane going to Santiago, then we call that a connection, and the flight from Argentina to Chile would be a connecting flight. Then this is not a DIRECT FLIGHT, it is an INDIRECT FLIGHT, or a TRANSFER FLIGHT or a MULTI-STOP FLIGHT or a ONE-STOP FLIGHT (if you only have one connection). Passengers which get off one plane and then have to get on the connecting flight are called TRANSFER PASSENGERS.

IT WILL TAKE TWO DAYS= it will last two days. The journey will be two days long. You’ll be travelling for two days. If something takes one hour, you need one hour to do it. If something lasts one hour, it happens for one hour.

IT’S GONNA TAKE= it’s going to take. GONNA= going to

SHE’S GONNA PARIS= she’s going to Paris

TO CHANGE PLANES= to leave one plane and get another one. Similarly we can say "to move houses" (to move from one house to a new one).

THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE= that’s not logical, it’s not understandable.

D’YOU HAVE= do you have. This contraction is not usually written like this, but it’s quite common to pronounce it like this in conversational English.

FEE= a sum of money that you pay to be allowed to do something.

UNLESS= if... not. "Unless she changes her ticket..."="if she doesn’t change her ticket".

SHE WON’T BE ABLE= The verb CAN is defective (it doesn’t have all verbal tenses). We can only use it in the present (can), past (could) and conditional (could), so if we want to use other tenses we need to say TO BE ABLE TO, e.g. with WILL (I’ll be able to do it), with present perfect (I have been able to do it), etc.

6:15= We can say this as "(a) quarter past six", but in America it’s more common to say six fifteen", and in colloquial BrE it is getting common too (on this video it’s the British woman who says that).

OTHER AIRPORT VOCABULARY:
-----------------------------------------------

GATE= the boarding area where you have to wait to get on the plane. Gates have usually letters for identification (Gate B, Gate C2)

DEPARTURE= the act of leaving, of going away

ARRIVAL= the opposite of departure, the act of arriving. So at the airport you’ve got information about departures and arrivals, telling you what time planes leave and arrive.

DELAYED= when a flight (or anything else) is delayed, it’s going to arrive (or leave) later than expected. If the flight is cancelled then it’s not going to take place, they decided to eliminate it.

BOARDING PASS= the card they give you when you check in, telling you the time of departure and the number of the gate you have to take to get aboard (to go into the plane).

CHECK IN= when you give your ticket and passport to an air-hostess (a flight attendant) and she gives you the boarding pass and takes your luggage (or baggage).

PASSPORT CONTROL= after checking in, you go through the passport control, where a policeman checks your passport and they scan your hand luggage to see what’s inside.

7:13            
 
 

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