Real English: Phrases for finding an apartment

Hi, guys, and welcome back to www.engvid.com. Today, we are doing accommodation, and particularly,

London accommodation. What do you do? You come to London. You need to find a place to

live. This could apply to anywhere in the UK. If you don't know someone and have a place

to go to, you might need to check out a website like Gumtree or Rightmove.co.uk.

Now, what we're going to be doing in today's lesson is looking through a couple of different

flats, apartments that I found on the Internet and talking through the key phrases. And then,

we'll talk about useful questions to ask if you were to visit a house that you wanted

to live in.

So I've -- obviously, question No. 1 you have to ask yourself is how much money can I afford

to give? So London accommodation can be a little bit expensive, so I gave myself a budget

-- "budget" is the maximum I can spend -- of 800 pounds a month. So it's quite a lot.

What I found was a bedsit, a "cozy" -- meaning a comfortable bedsit -- which was priced at

195pw. That means per week. Okay?

Now, some of the useful phrases I found on this advert for this particular place was

that it was a "cozy" bedsit. So this means comfortable. You could also say that it means

"small". So the positive is, "Mmm. Nice and comfortable." But the negative, "Ugh. There's

no room." Okay? A "bedsit".

What a "bedsit" means is that there is a bedroom, but there is no living room. There is no room

for a television, sofas, chairs. It's kind of bedroom, kitchen. Okay? So it's quite a

small flat.

"Presented in" -- that's just a load of crap, really. So you kind of just go, "Oh, it's

in a charming" -- what does that mean? "It's in a nice -- "period" just means "old". It's

in a nice, old building. Okay? So it's a small place in a nice, old building.

It has an open plan. That means if I'm lying in bed, I can see the kitchen. Okay? There's

no wall between bed and kitchen. So "open plan" means no wall. "Fully fitted kitchen"

-- so we talk about when a kitchen is "fitted", it has refrigerator. Maybe there's a microwave.

Put your pizza in. Heat up some food. There's a kettle. Maybe a dishwasher. I can clean

my clothes -- those kinds of things would be a "fully fitted". So I can do everything

I need in the kitchen.

A "shared bathroom" -- to "share" -- if I share my pen with you, then you can use my

pen. So if I'm sharing a bathroom, then someone else is peeing on the toilet seat, okay?

"Selected Sky channels", so that does not mean all. All -- no. It means the landlord

chooses what I can watch on the Sky, so typically, one sport channel, and a couple of useless

channels that you don't really want to watch.

"The rent includes" -- that means it's 195 a week -- I don't have to spend more on electricity,

water, gas, etc.

And then, at the bottom of the advert, it says "to arrange". That means to organize

-- I'm looking at -- because I've got the advert here, so you know, just scanning through

it. "To organize a viewing" -- that means to have a look around -- "please call -- well,

the number is -- what is she called? Maria, at 07 55 79 11 636. Maria is going to get

loads of calls now. Sorry, Maria. But maybe it's good practice for her because she's clearly

Spanish, so she can practice speaking English to you guys.

"Double bedroom" -- this is a slightly different part of time. So this place was in Earl's

Court, a nice central part of London. My next one is in Shoreditch. This is like, the super

cool, kind of, where artsy people are in, so East London. And here, you have a double

room. That means there is a bedroom -- somewhere where I sleep. And then, there are other people

who I am sharing with. Okay? So I'm sharing with other people. Maybe there are three bedrooms.

Now, my key features -- a "feature" is a good point. Okay? It has an eat-in kitchen. That

means I make my food -- boiling -- I've made a cooking video. You should check it out.

So I'm cooking in the kitchen, and then I can eat in the kitchen because there is a

table to sit at. So "eat-in" means plus table. Hopefully with a chair as well.

Again, all bills are included. So my price here, my price here -- kind of where I looked

there. There, 145 a week. So for a month, that's going to be -- what? Who's good at

math? 580 a month. Not too bad. Okay? So it's going to be cheaper if you are sharing with

other people, and maybe quite good practicing English with them as well.

Now, this place has numerous windows throughout. That means "a lot of" or "many". Yeah? You

can see the root. "Numero", from the Latin, means "number". So there's lots of windows

all over the place. "Making it full" -- "full". "My glass is full of water." This house is

full of natural light. So that means, you know, light from outside comes in, which is,

you know, good, except in winter when there isn't much natural light.

Now, they want something from you. I'll tell you something. These adverts, many people

looking at these adverts and going, "Hello. Can I come and have a look at your house,

please?" So these people are choosing you in London, okay? So what do they want? They

want you -- "You must be" -- okay? An imperative. "You must be an easy going person." That means,

"Yeah. I'm okay. No problems. I just, you know -- I pay my rent, and I go to work, and

I'm cool." Yeah? Easy going -- no problems, a no problems person. "And sociable", okay?

From the same sort of root as "society", means a collection of people. So if I'm "sociable",

I like talking to people. I don't just sit in my room and read my magazine and then go

out. I have to be able to talk to people. So very good if you're an ESL student.

And it says "a pretty", which means -- these are quite English adjectives. "Pretty", "quite",

"a bit" -- because we like to be polite in our speech. We don't say things, kind of,

very directly. So we say, "It's a little bit of a flexible contract." What that means is

you don't definitely have to stay there for a year. You could stay there for a shorter

amount of time.

Now, I'm not going to give this person's number out because I'm a bit worried about poor old

Maria over there. But I'm going to give Laura a ring and see if we can go and pay her a

visit. Back in a sec.

Oh, hi, there. Maria? Yes. My name is Benjamin. Yeah. No. I saw your advert on Gumtree. Yeah.

It looks really nice. I think I'd like to come and have a look at it. Is that okay?

Right. You've got two Swedish girls living there? They're single and aged 20. Right.

Okay. That shouldn't be too much of a problem. When would be a good time to come and see

it? Monday afternoon. Yeah. Okay. That works for me. That's a good time for me. And how

exactly do I find it? Where is it? What was the address? Right. I get out of the Tube.

I turn left, and it's the third house. I get out of the Tube. I turn left, and it's the

third house on the right. Great. Okay. Well, I'll see you at 4:30 on Monday afternoon.

I look forward to it. Yeah. Okay. Bye, Maria.

Ah. She sounds nice. So obviously, we've looked at our advert, and we think it looks really

nice, especially the Swedish girls. So we ring up. Okay? And, "Hi, there." Tell them

your name, you'd like to come and have a look, when would be a good time, how to find it.

Now, a knock on the door. "Hi, Maria." I'm at the place. These are some things we might

want to say if we are looking around a flat, a house, a bedsit, a cozy bedsit, even. Start

with small talk. Here, in Britain, we love talking about the weather. "Ah. It's been

raining all day today." Or we like talking about the traffic. "The traffic was bloody

awful." Okay? "Bloody awful." That means really bad. "The traffic was awful." So start with

a bid of "small talk". It means a bit of chat. Okay? Unimportant conversation.

Now, you might want to ask about some rules. "Am I allowed to play loud music? Practice

my guitar? Am I allowed to smoke? Am I allowed to cook in the kitchen?" Okay. Find out the rules.

"Do I have to share?" Again, really useful verb when we're talking about accommodation.

"Do I have to share the bathroom with the Swedish girls? Okay. That's fine." "How much

notice?" If I want to leave the flat, I have to give my notice and say, "I'm really sorry,

Maria. I'm going to leave now." Normally, they ask you to say that one month in advance.

Okay? So one month is normal. And they might ask you to write it down. Okay?

And if you really like it, if you really like them all, you say, "When can I move in? When

can I move here?" But you say "in". "When can you move into the house?" But if you don't

like it, you would say, well -- because you don't want to say "no". "No. I hate it. It's

rubbish. I don't like it. It's a really nasty flat." You don't say that. You say, "I think

I'd like to think about it. Yeah. Thank so much." So you don't say "no"; you say, "I'll

think about it."

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would like to. And if you need extra assistance, do check out Exquisite English, link below.

Thanks for joining me again. Bye.