Introduction
Neil and Georgie have a real conversation in easy English about their morning habits. Learn to talk about when you get up and what you do in the mornings.
Vocabulary
get up
stand up and leave your bed
sleep in
stay in bed later than usual
oversleep
sleep later than usual by accident
morning person
someone who likes the mornings and has lots of energy at the start of the day
skip
not do something you usually do, or should do
Transcript
Neil
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English, the podcast where we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I’m Neil.
Georgie
And I’m Georgie. You can read along with this podcast on our website where you can also find a free worksheet.
Neil
So, Georgie, how are you today?
Georgie
I’m very well, thank you. How are you?
Neil
I’m well, thank you very much.
Georgie
Good.
Neil
What are we talking about today?
Georgie
Today we are talking about our morning routines. That is what we usually do in the mornings before work.
Neil
OK, let’s get started.
Georgie
So, Neil, do you like to get up early or do you prefer to sleep in?
Neil
It depends if I have had enough sleep. If I’ve had enough sleep, I can get up early. If I haven’t, I want to sleep in. How about you?
Georgie
Well, I like the mornings sometimes because I feel like it’s quieter. Not many people are up. I also feel like my brain works better in the mornings, so that helps. But I do like sleeping in sometimes, especially at the weekends.
Neil
So, Georgie, you said that your brain works best in the morning. Does that mean that you’re a morning person?
Georgie
Yes, I think it does. I’m a morning person. That means someone that has a lot of energy at the start of the day.
Neil
Georgie, do you eat breakfast?
Georgie
That also depends. And I have a different breakfast routine depending if I’m working in the office or at home. So if I’m in the office, and you know this, I usually have a pastry or a croissant in the morning and a banana if I’m feeling good. But if I’m at home, I usually have eggs a bit later, around ten. What about you?
Neil
I always have breakfast before I leave the house.
Georgie
Wow.
Neil
Otherwise I’m very grumpy. So, at the moment I am having egg on toast for breakfast and then marmalade on toast as well. But not together.
Georgie
So, you said you always have breakfast. You never skip breakfast?
Neil
Never. Unless there’s a very, very good reason.
Georgie
OK.
Neil
Like, I think the last time I skipped breakfast, I needed to get up at 3am to catch a flight.
Georgie
Yes. It’s very strange to wake up at that time. It changes your routine, doesn’t it? Because you don’t feel hungry then.
Neil
So, how about you, Georgie? Do you skip breakfast?
Georgie
Sometimes I skip breakfast, because when I wake up, I’m not hungry. So if I don’t eat breakfast straight away, I sometimes forget to eat breakfast. But then I have an early lunch.
Neil
Right.
Georgie
So, Neil, you said that it’s hard to get up when you haven’t slept well. Does that mean you oversleep, you sleep too long?
Neil
No. Unfortunately, I never oversleep. In fact, I usually wake up before my alarm. Do you oversleep?
Georgie
Well, I usually wake up with my alarm. I never wake up before my alarm. So sometimes if I don’t set my alarm, I oversleep. That actually happened this week. But it was OK because I woke up in time for work. I didn’t oversleep that much.
Neil
Right. Have you ever overslept so much that you’ve missed work or missed the start of the working day?
Georgie
Never work. But yes, to a flight. That was one of the most stressful mornings I’ve had.
Neil
Is there anything else, Georgie, that you do in the morning regularly?
Georgie
Well, regularly, maybe not. But sometimes if I feel motivated, I manage to do some exercise in the mornings, either running, or actually, this morning I did a Pilates workout. What about you, Neil?
Neil
No, I can’t exercise until later because my body doesn’t enjoy that – especially running. All of my joints hurt.
Georgie
So what do you do in the mornings?
Neil
I like to know what the weather’s going to be like. So I check the forecast and I choose my clothes so that I’m wearing the right thing for the type of weather.
Georgie
That’s very sensible.
Neil
Especially in the United Kingdom because the weather can be different every day.
Georgie
That’s very true. Make sure you’ve got your umbrella.
Neil
Or not.
Georgie
Okay, let’s recap the language we heard during the conversation.
Neil
We heard a few ways to talk about what time we sleep until. We heard sleep in, which means staying in bed and sleeping later than we usually do. And we also heard oversleep, which means sleeping longer than you should accidentally.
Georgie
We had get up, which is a phrasal verb we use to say stand up and leave your bed.
Neil
And we heard a morning person. Like you, Georgie, you’re a morning person. A morning person is someone who likes the mornings, has lots of energy at the start of the day. I’m not really a morning person.
Georgie
We had skip, not do something that you usually do or should do. For example, sometimes I forget to eat in the morning, so I skip breakfast and have an early lunch instead.
Neil
That’s it for this episode of Real Easy English. You can test what you’ve learned with our worksheet on our website. Find the link in the notes and go there.
Georgie
And if you want to learn more language to talk about your morning routine, I’ve made a video all about phrasal verbs for your morning routine. You can also find it at bbclearningenglish.com.
Neil
And next time we’ll talk about our evening routines, what we get up to in the evenings.
Georgie
See you next time.
Neil
Goodbye.