Learning English with « Friends »

Here is a video to help you work your English listening comprehension

1. This is a scene where Joey goes out on a date with a girl. He hates sharing food and he goes mad when he sees her taking his fries. He pays her back by eating all her chocolate cake when she takes a phone call.

Idiomatic expressions to describe your feelings

Joey goes mad when someone takes his food. This means that he gets very angry. Here are some other expressions you can use to say that you are angry:

• I’m fuming (extremely angry – you imagine smoke coming out of your ears!)
• He lost his cool or he lost his rag (you become hot with anger)
• I’m so cross with her! (UK English)
• When my mum saw my messy bedroom she hit the roof/hit the ceiling (you imagine the person losing control and jumping up high)
• The teacher went off the deep end when the children made a lot of noise (this comes from the idea of jumping in a swimming pool at the deep end where the water is so deep you can’t touch the bottom )

When we are in a good mood we are happy. We can be happy about something or happy with a situation. Here are some other expressions to talk about being happy

• I’m on cloud nine (extremely happy)
• She’s full of the joys of spring this morning! (when you are energetic, cheerful and happy)
• He’s on top of the world this morning (you are on top of the world when you feel wonderful)
• I’m over the moon! My wife is expecting a baby ( I’m delighted)
• I’m in seventh heaven (so happy that you feel like you are in heaven)

Discussion questions

• What about you? Do you mind sharing your food in a restaurant?
• What is your favourite type of food when you go out for dinner?
• Do you have a favourite restaurant where you live?
• Do you prefer to cook at home, to take away food (have a carry-out) or go out to eat?
• Do you like foreign food?
• Are you allergic to any types of food?
• Imagine you are invited to dinner, your host asks you if there is anything you don’t like. What would you reply?

Grammar: Past continuous to describe a situation in the past

Joey describes what happened when he was at the restaurant. He uses the past continuous « we were getting on well together ». Knowing how to use the past continuous allows you to enrich your descriptions of the past, especially when you’re telling a story and want to go into detail about what happened. 

We form the past continuous by using the simple past form of the verb ‘to be’ – was/were – and the main verb in the -ing form.

For example:

I was walking (past continuous) along the road when the car stopped (simple past)

He was sitting at the table when his friend arrived

She was waiting for a train when they announced the strike

Exercises

1. Make some sentences using the situations below:

• Sit on the beach
• Wait for the bus
• Watch TV
• Queue for the train
• Sit in a traffic jam
• Make dinner
• Surf on internet

For example:

I was watching TV when my best friend rang me to invite me to the cinema

2. Tell a story about a situation in the past