Native English Conversation with Captions & Explanation

Hello, Anna here from englishlikenative.co.uk.

I've got a fantastic listening exercise for you today.

You're about to hear a very natural, unplanned, unscripted,

unedited conversation between two native English speakers.

After you hear the conversation, I will go back and deep dive into some

of the vocabulary that came up so that you can expand your vocabulary as

well as improve your listening skills.

So, without further ado, let's go.

I broke a bone.

Mm-hmm.

In fact, I've broken lots of bones, but do you remember?

This is a test now, because I've told you about this before, but

do you remember my biggest break?

I do.

I think I could pass the test.

I believe you had a, uh, spiral fracture of your femur.

Wow!

Okay.

I'm surprised because normally you don't listen to anything I tell you.

Um, but yeah, well done.

I spiral fractured my femur.

Do you remember which leg it was?

No.

It was my left leg.

And I could've gone 50/50 on that couldn't I?

Yeah, you could have just tried.

Went with an outright failure from

You just gave up.

Yeah, so I was, I must have been like 10 or 11 years old.

I was still at primary school, so hadn't moved on to high school.

I was giving someone a piggyback in the playground, and I was the horse and

I said, "How fast do you want to go?"

And she said "As fast as you can go!"

So, I was like NEIGH and it was...

I think it was autumn because we had like muddy...

do you remember like, like playgrounds they'd always have these like

sunken bits where maybe they hadn't done the foundations properly.

Right, yeah.

Like sunken concrete.

Poor workmanship.

And so, yeah, and then they'd always get full of mud and then when it rained

they'd just like be little muddy puddles and then this muddy puddle was full of

leaves, but it started to dry slightly.

So, I'm running around as fast as I can with this big girl on my back and...

and my foot caught some leaves and I slipped and went like into full scissor

splits 'kapow' and because of the weight of this girl on my back I was quite

flexible, but she kind of made me go straight down all the way full splits.

Oh, really?

Could you do full splits at that point?

Because that's a lot.

Yeah..

For somebody that can't normally do it.

So, I could if I was warmed up but...

and at a push.

Completely at a push.

But that was too much of a push.

It was too quick with weight.

And so, yeah, I got this really complex fracture all the way down my femur.

I remember going down and then I blacked out.

And then I remember coming to and everyone stood around me and I

pulled my leg in front of me and tried to get up and then my leg felt

like it was just full of concrete.

It was like a dead weight just hanging off my body and the teacher was completely

unsympathetic and just came up and was like, "Oh, stop being a hypochondriac."

Pull yourself together.

Pull yourself together.

She dragged me up off the floor and I tried to put weight on it

and again, it felt like a dead weight and I just collapsed.

And I started crying and whinging and just saying, "Please just

leave me here just leave me".

I was being very melodramatic.

I'll wait till home time and it was raining.

It's just like don't be so ridiculous You've got to come in.

It's raining.

And so my friend left me the other teacher went to get another

teacher and they had my arms over their shoulders and dragged me in.

Doing wonders for your injury.

It could have made it much like it could have splintered the bone.

So, we were very lucky.

Yeah, that was quite a significant break and saw me in traction

in the hospital for months.

What does that mean?

In traction is when you're, uh, you know when you've got like, the leg

wrapped up and then it's, it's held up.

It's like suspended.

Like, like those cartoons where people get run over by trucks.

Yeah, and they're just there in the beds like, like puppets.

Neck brace.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, I was stuck in bed and I couldn't roll over because my leg was in traction.

Um, I got really bad bed sores.

Oh, it was really uncomfortable.

How old were you?

Like 11 years old.

God.

I was going insane.

Yeah, yeah.

But then when I got into a wheelchair — amazing.

And on crutches, I was like Speedy Gonzales on them.

You couldn't stop me.

So, it, it really stands out as one of my most significant, um,

my most significant accidents.

I may have had many.

I broke my toe while I was with you, didn't I?

Yeah, that was weird.

We had two small children at the time.

We had nappy bin bags.

And you put the nappies in this bin and just keep on stuffing them

in until it's completely full.

And then you tie it off, and you pull it out, and it's big, like

a big snake of pooey nappies.

Yeah, yuck!

And, um, and so you then said, "I'll take it downstairs."

And I said, I'm sure I probably very gentlemanly offered you some help.

"No, no, no."

and I said, "Well, be careful."

and you're like, "Oh, I'll trip over this."

and I'm like, "Well, carry it properly."

and the next thing I hear dung, dung, dung.

"Ah, a toe!"

Well, I knew instantly because my, when I fell, my legs went out to the side and

with our little banisters going down.

That's what they're called, isn't it?

The banisters going down the side, the rail.

The banister is the bit on the top.

It's the, I guess.

The rails.

The rails.

Yeah, probably in the banister.

The foot closest to the banister and the rails had caught, like

two or three toes had caught and obviously I'd kept going, but my toes

were caught and I heard the crack.

I heard it and I felt it and then when I looked at my foot as I came to a

stop, I looked at it and my toe was just pointing out at a right angle to my foot.

I thought, "Yeah, that's definitely broken."

And it was so painful.

I always think that in those situations when someone's dislocated something

or broken something to a point where it's really, um, sitting on the

wrong angle that you would just, you're in pain anyway, you just

grab it and snap it back into place.

But I couldn't let anyone come anywhere near me.

I was like, do not touch it.

This is horrendous.

Even when I got to the hospital, I was like, "Don't touch my toe."

I think you have to do that within the first like, five seconds.

Before the swelling sets in.

But if you, if you cut your hand and you've got skin hanging off, the

first thing I do is just tear it off.

Oh.

Because if you leave it on, it's, it's like perpetual, longer

term, just pain and discomfort.

It's better to just get it off.

Right, let's now deep dive into some of that vocabulary.

So, let's go through again and I will stop when there's something to explain.

Let's go.

" I broke a bone.

Mm-hmm.

In fact, I've broken lots of bones, but do you remember, this is a test now,

because I've told you about this before, but do you remember my biggest break?

I do.

I think I could pass the test.

I believe you had a, uh, spiral fracture of your femur?

Wow!

Okay.

I'm surprised because normally you don't listen to anything I tell you.

Um, but yeah, well done.

I spiral fractured my femur.

Do you remember which leg it was?

No."

Fracture.

I talk about fracturing my femur.

The femur is the biggest thigh bone, and I fractured it.

A fracture is like a crack through a structure, but the

structure remains in place.

So, here we're talking about bones.

I cracked the bone, but the bone didn't change shape.

Everything held together.

Just like if you knock an eggshell, the eggshell might fracture.

You might see a crack appear in the eggshell, but the eggshell

may still hold together.

It doesn't necessarily come apart.

They would need a little more pressure for that.

So, I was lucky.

I fractured my femur, but it stayed in place.

"It was my last.

And I could've gone 50/50 on that couldn't I?

You could have just tried.

But outright failure from

You just gave up."

Here.

Nick said, "I could have gone 50/50 on that."

What he meant was, there was a 50 percent chance that he would have been right, no

matter what he had guessed, left or right.

It was one of them.

So, he was saying, 50/50, I could have been right.

So, I should have just tried.

I should have just guessed left or right.

And I might have been correct.

"Yeah, so I was, I must have been like 10 or 11 years old.

I was still at primary school, so hadn't moved on to high school.

I was giving someone a piggyback in the playground."

Piggyback.

A piggyback is the act of having someone jump up on your back, and they

normally put their legs around your waist, and they put their arms around

your shoulders or around your neck.

And you hold them and you walk them.

So that's a piggyback.

To give someone a piggyback.

And I was the horse and I said, "How fast do you want to go?"

And she said, "As fast as you can go."

So, I was like, "Neigh!"

And it was...

I think it was autumn because we had like muddy...

do you remember like, like playgrounds they'd always have these like

sunken bits where maybe they hadn't done the foundations properly.

Right, yeah.

Like sunken concrete.

Poor workmanship.

And so, yeah, and then they'd always get full of mud and then

when it rained they'd just like be little muddy puddles and then..."

Here Nick said poor workmanship.

Poor workmanship is something that's being crafted in a bad way.

So, if I haven't done a good job at making whatever it is I'm making, then

you can say, "That's poor workmanship.

That shows poor workmanship."

Like if I'm plastering a wall and then painting it and I don't allow the plaster

to dry properly before throwing the paint on it, it's going to look bad.

It's not going to be a good job.

And you say, "Hmm, the paint's a bit shoddy, the plaster all

looks a little bit rushed.

That's poor workmanship."

So, when time and effort have not been put into creating something,

that results in poor workmanship.

"This muddy puddle was full of leaves, but it started to dry slightly.

So, I'm running around as fast as I can with this big girl on my back and...

and my foot caught some leaves and I slipped and went like into

full scissor splits 'kapow'."

Scissor splits.

Now the splits is when you separate your legs out and

they go in opposite directions.

Like flat against the floor, your legs go fully flat against the

floor in opposite directions.

There are two types of splits that you can do.

Scissor splits is where one leg goes forwards and one leg goes backwards,

just like a pair of scissors.

But the other splits are called box splits.

That's where your legs both go out to the sides.

So, one out on the left, one out on the right.

I did the scissor splits.

"And because of the weight of this girl on my back, I was quite

flexible, but she kind of made me go straight down all the way."

To be flexible.

To be flexible just means that you can bend very well.

So, if you can stand up straight with your knees locked and bend down to touch

the floor with the palms of your hands, then you are probably quite flexible.

"...full splits.

Oh really?

Could you do full splits at that point?

Because that's a lot.

Yeah..

For somebody that can't normally do it.

So, I could if I was warmed up."

I mentioned being warmed up.

We warm up before working out or before performing.

So, we will often warm up our voice or warm up our bodies.

It's just the act of doing some movement to get the blood

flowing and to get everything ready to perform or to work out.

"But an at a push, completely at a push, but that was too much of a push.

It was too quick."

Here I said at a push.

This is a phrase that means if I really have to or at the

very extremes of my ability.

So, I can lift 50 pounds at a push.

If you really pushed me to my limits, if I really was trying very,

very hard, I could lift 52 pounds.

So, I might be able to go that extra little bit further if I have to,

or if I'm being strongly encouraged to, or I'm really trying to motivate

myself to go beyond my own limits.

"With weight, and so yeah, I got this really complex fracture

all the way down my femur.

I remember going down and then I blacked out."

Here I use the phrasal verb black out.

I said I blacked out.

So, if you black out it means that you faint or become unconscious.

Now this is not the same as going to sleep.

Although if you're extremely tired or maybe you've had a few

drinks then you might say, "Oh, I completely blacked out last night."

But it is quite extreme.

So, this is usually reserved for when you have an accident, if you're hit

in the head or something shocks you so much that you suddenly fall unconscious.

This is blacking out, to blackout.

"And then I remember coming to and everyone stood around me."

After that, I said, "When I came to."

To come to, in this context, is when you wake up after

blacking out or after fainting.

So, you're unconscious for a little while and you finally open your

eyes and you're back in the room.

You have come to.

"And I pulled my leg in front of me and tried to get up and then my leg

felt like it was just full of concrete.

It was like a dead weight just hanging off my body."

I describe my leg here as a dead weight.

When we talk about dead weights, we just mean a weight or the weight

of something that is not moving.

So, like and inert object, imagine if you were carrying a huge sack full

of potatoes, that's a dead weight.

It's just a weight that doesn't help you at all, which is different to

picking up a child of the same weight.

They move and they're more dynamic.

And so they're slightly easier to lift because they kind of help you by gripping

on and adjusting their body and being as light as a feather in their mind.

But if something is a dead weight, then it doesn't help you at all.

And in this case, my leg was like cut off.

My brain had said, "Don't move this leg."

So, it's like my brain had stopped my muscles from responding and

my leg was just hanging off my body and it was really heavy.

So, my leg was a dead weight.

"And the teacher was completely unsympathetic and just came up and was

like, "Oh, stop being a hypochondriac."

Pull yourself together.

Pull yourself together.

She dragged me up off the floor and I tried to put weight on it.

And again, it felt like a dead weight and it, I just collapsed."

I describe myself here as a hypochondriac.

A hypochondriac is somebody who is extremely worried about their health.

And they're usually the kinds of people who go, "Oh no, look,

I've got a cut on my finger.

Do you think I need to see a doctor?

It might be infected.

I might get septicemia, I might die."

So, a hypochondriac is someone who is excessively concerned and

worried about their own health.

And Nick goes on to say, pull yourself together.

This is a command.

That you would give someone to say, stop panicking or stop being emotional.

You need to be calm and you need to think straight and you need to stop

reacting in such an emotional way.

So, if I, um, talking to my friend and she starts getting really upset and

emotional and behaving in an erratic way.

I might have to say to her, "Look, pull yourself together.

It's not that bad.

They don't have tea and coffee.

That's okay.

You don't need to get emotional.

Pull yourself together."

It's not the kind of thing that you should use loosely because it can upset

people if it's a sensitive moment, if they're genuinely upset about

something that deserves to be upset about telling them to pull themselves

together can seem like you don't care.

I would only use that if you think someone is being melodramatic.

I'll explain that in a minute, or over the top, not really thinking

logically, they're just letting the emotions get the better of them.

"And I started crying and whinging and just saying, "Please just leave me here.

Just leave me."

I was being very melodramatic."

Okay, here I say whinging.

And I use the word melodramatic.

To whinge is to complain or cry in often a consistent and annoying, irritating way.

"Oh, oh, mum, I'm hungry.

Mum, mum, my tummy hurts.

I'm really hungry.

I'm really hungry."

That's whinging.

Stop whinging.

I was whinging about the fact that my leg hurt and I didn't want to go

inside, which was you know, valid.

But to be melodramatic is to be overly dramatic, to be

over the top in your reaction.

"Oh, my leg is falling off.

Leave me here!

Don't touch me!"

That's a little bit melodramatic, okay?

So, I was being over the top in my reaction and I was whinging.

"Oh wait, it's our home time and it was raining.

She's like, "Don't be so ridiculous.

You've got to come in.

It's raining."

And so my friend left me.

The teacher went to get another teacher and they had my arms over

their shoulders and dragged me in.

Doing wonders for your injury.

It could have made it, like, it could have splintered the bone.

So, we were very lucky."

Here, Nick said that would do wonders for your leg.

So, to do wonders for, this is used in a sarcastic way here, but you can use

it in a, in a way that's not sarcastic.

So, to do wonders for something means that it almost works miracles on the thing.

It does a fantastic job.

So, for example, a good diet and a morning walk can do wonders for your health, or a

daily walk will do wonders for your mood.

A weekly date night will do wonders for your relationship.

So, to do wonders for just means it will be very beneficial.

It will be very good for that thing.

But we do like a bit of sarcasm here in the UK, and that's part of our humour.

We like to say things that just are the complete opposite.

So, dragging my leg, dragging my whole body with my with my broken

leg, my spiral fracture all the way into the school up to the head

office was not beneficial for my leg.

It was the worst thing to do, and it could have resulted in much

worse damage and long term issues, but Nick used it sarcastically.

He said, "Oh, they dragged you in with a spiral fracture in your femur.

That would have done wonders for your leg."

He was being sarcastic.

Ha ha ha ha.

"Yeah, that was quite a significant break and saw me in traction."

Now here I said that this saw me in traction.

Now here, obviously, 'saw' is the past tense of 'see', but here

I'm, I'm using it to mean the result of this was me in traction.

So, I might say, "Committing a crime saw me in prison for 20 years."

"Taking this course saw me achieve my goals and getting a job."

Okay, so we can use saw to mean resulted in.

This isn't a very common usage, but this was a very off the

cuff, unplanned conversation and it was used in conversation.

"In the hospital for months.

What does that mean?

In traction is when you're, uh, you know when you've got like

the leg wrapped up and then it's, it's held up, it's like suspended.

Like, like those cartoons where people get run over by trucks."

Here, Nick used a phrasal verb, run over.

He said, uh, the characters who get run over by trucks.

So, to get run over is to be hit by a moving vehicle.

So, it runs you over, or it runs over you, but we "Say, you have been

run over, that person was run over."

I always say to my children, "Don't run out into the road,

you might get run over."

Be careful, you might get hit by a car.

"Yeah, and they're just there in the beds like, like puppets.

Neck brace.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, I was stuck in bed and I couldn't roll over because my leg was in traction.

Um, I got really bad bed sores.

Oh, it was really uncomfortable.

How old were you?

Like 11 years old.

God.

I was going insane.

Yeah, yeah.

But then when I got into a wheelchair — amazing.

And on crutches, I was like Speedy Gonzales."

I refer to a character here, Speedy Gonzales.

Now I'm assuming that everyone knows who this character is, but you may not.

Speedy Gonzales is a cartoon character from when I was a child, back in

the 80s, who could run really fast.

That's why he was called Speedy Gonzales.

And so this little mouse is a character that comes up in regular conversation

when I'm talking about being fast.

I'll say, "Oh, I'm like Speedy Gonzales running all over the place."

So, to run really, really fast as a pop culture reference.

"You couldn't stop me.

So it, it really stands out as one of my most significant, um..."

I use the phrasal verb here, stands out.

If something stands out, then it's a prominent thing.

So, I'm talking about memories and I say, "This memory stands out in my mind."

So, I'm saying this memory is prominent.

I remember this particular incident because it was so monumental.

It had such an impact on my life.

It was very painful.

So, I really remember it.

This moment stands out for me.

This was a standout moment.

"My most significant accidents.

I may have had many.

I broke my toe while I was with you, didn't I?

Yeah, that was weird.

We had two small children at the time.

We had nappy bin bags.

And you put the nappies in this bin."

Here, this might be a really obvious one, but because American English

is quite dominant internationally, I thought I should point it out.

A nappy in American English is a diaper.

So, this is a nappy.

We don't use diaper at all.

That's not a word that we use here.

We know what it is, but we don't use it in the UK.

"And just keep on stuffing them in until it's completely full.

And then you tie it off, and you pull it out, and it's big, like

a big snake of pooey nappies.

Yeah, yuck!

And, um..."

Tie off.

So, to tie off means, obviously, to tie a knot in something, but

specifically to fasten something or hold something, usually at its end.

So, we tied off the bin.

So, this was a long bin full of nappies, nappies, nappies that we'd stuffed down.

When you fill it up, you get the end and you tie it off so

that each end has a knot in it.

And then we put it in the big bin outside for the bin men to collect.

"And so, you then said, "I'll take it downstairs."

And I said, I'm sure I probably very gentlemanly offered you some help."

Here, Nick, to use the word gentlemanly, I, in a gentlemanly way,

I offered to carry the bag for you.

Now, to do something gentlemanly, it means you do it in a way that

is in the manner of a gentleman.

So, you behave like a gentleman would, which would be to be kind

and considerate and protective and helpful, particularly towards women.

So, he was offering to help me, because I'm a woman, and he was saying, "I'll do

that horrible job, that slightly risky, dangerous job, um, carrying that smelly

bag of nappies down the stairs, because I can see you might fall and hurt yourself.

I'll do it for you, darling."

Obviously, I declined and broke my toe.

""No, no, no."

And I said, "Well, be careful."

And you're like, "Oh, I'll trip over this."

And I'm like, "Well, carry it properly."

The next thing I hear, dung, dung, dung.

"Ah, a toe!"

Well, I knew instantly because my, when I fell, my legs went out to the side and

with our little banisters going down.

That's what they're called, isn't it?

The banisters going down the side, the rail.

The banister is the bit on the top.

It's the, I guess...

The rails.

The rails, yeah, probably in the banister.

The foot closest to the banister and the rails had caught, like two or three toes

had caught And obviously I kept going but my toes were caught and I heard the

crack, I heard it and I felt it and then when I looked at my foot as I came to a

stop, I looked at it and my toe was just pointing out at a right angle to my foot."

All right, here I mentioned the word right angle.

If something is at a right angle, then it's at 90 degrees.

That's a right angle.

So, my toe was sticking out at 90 degrees from where it should have been.

It was at a right angle.

"I was like, "Yeah, that's definitely broken."

And it was so painful.

I always think that in those situations when someone's dislocated something

or broken something to a point where it's really, um, sitting on the

wrong angle, that you would just, you're in pain anyway, you just

grab it and snap it back into place.

But I couldn't let anyone come anywhere near me.

I was like, do not touch it.

This is horrendous.

Even when I got to the hospital, I was like, "Don't touch my toe."

I think you have to do that within the first like, five seconds.

Before the swelling sets in.

But if you..."

Here, I use the phrasal verb, set in.

So, when something sets in, it begins.

And we usually use this.

Um, when, when talking about health, so talking about swelling or

disease or a substance might set in.

Rot in your house, if you have a leak, then damp might set

in or dry rot might set in.

So, it's when something's begins and starts to spread when you have

an injury, it will slowly start to spread until it really balloons up.

Everything will become inflamed as those processes begin.

So, the swelling sets in.

"If you cut your hand and you've got skin hanging off, the first

thing I do is just tear it off.

Oh.

Because if you leave it on, it's, it's like, perpetual, longer

term, just pain and discomfort.

It's better to just get it off."

Well, I hope you enjoyed that.

If you did find any value in this lesson today, then please give this video a

like, be sure to subscribe, and why not leave me a comment to tell me which word

or phrase you found most interesting.

Until next time, take very good care, and goodbye.