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Speaker 1: Thirteen years ago, Hurricane Sandy blew into New York and

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caused tons of problems for a lot of people, especially

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my friend Harry, who lived on the fiftieth floor in

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a sixty story condo in Midtown. Since the power went out,

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he had to walk down fifty flights of stairs just

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to leave the building. Luckily, there was a deli on

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the first floor there that he could get some food,

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but he still had to walk up the same fifty

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flights to get back home.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from

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New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.

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Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael

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here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.

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And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight, twenty one

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floor story flight condo apartment. Hello and welcome. Thanks for

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joining me for another episode of the Happy English Podcast.

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I'm your English teacher Michael, and I'm so glad you've

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decided to tune in and check it out. Today, we're

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gonna look at some pretty unique vocabulary that we use

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to talk about where we live and work. Let's start

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with the word floor. We use floor to refer to

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each level in a building. Like Jack's apartment building has

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six floors. In Macy's, the shoe department is on the

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third floor. By the way, American English, the first floor

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of a building is the same level as the ground

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or the street I know that's different from British English,

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but for Americans, when you step into a house or

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a building, you are on the first floor. One floor

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above street level is the second floor, and so on.

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And if that building has an elevator, the button marked

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one brings you to the floor on the street level,

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which again is the first floor. You can use the

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word floor to talk about the bottom of the ocean too,

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like lobsters live on the seafloor. We also use the

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word story to talk about how many floors a building has. Basically,

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story is used to talk about the height of a building,

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like it's a two story house, or Jack works in

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a forty story office building. Did you know the Empire

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State Building has one hundred and two stories, So you

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can say you live in a ten story apartment building

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and your apartment is on the third floor. You can

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also use the word flight when you talk about the

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steps between the floors of a building, so like one

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flight means one set of steps from one floor of

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a building to the next floor. So we use flight

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when we talk about the distance between the ground and

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a certain floor. So like if I say my office

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is six flights up, it means my office is on

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the sixth floor of the building. When I lived in

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that old apartment building in Brooklyn, Jack lived one flight down,

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I walked up two flights to reach the barber. And

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speaking of apartment buildings, if you live in a city,

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you might live in a building that you share with

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other people and families. If you pay rent, then this

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building is called an apartment building. And in that apartment

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building there are many spaces that different people live in.

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Those spaces are also called apartments. So the word apartment

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means both the building itself and the space you rent

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inside that building. Like Jenny has a two bedroom apartment

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on seventy ninth Street near the Museum by the way,

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this would be called a flat in British English, but

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Americans just call it an apartment. So again the word

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apartment means both the building and the individual living spaces

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in that building. Tommy's apartment was built in the nineteen twenties.

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Since I mentioned when it was built, you can assume

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the word apartment there means the building Tommy lives in.

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You need to understand the context and know which meaning

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the word apartment is being used with. And as I

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just mentioned, an apartment is the space you rent inside

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the building. In some cases there are actually buildings where

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the individual living spaces are owned and not rented. That

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kind of building is called a condominium or condo for short,

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and the individual living spaces are also called condo. Donna

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has a one bedroom condo on the Upper east Side

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of Manhattan. And let's talk about bedrooms for a moment.

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In American English, when we talk about the size of

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a house, apartment, or condo, we generally mention how many

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bedrooms it has. We assume that a living space has

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a kitchen and a dining room or living room and

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a bathroom, so we just count how many bedrooms it

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has when we talk about the size. We live in

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a two bedroom house. And speaking of bathrooms, in most

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houses in the States, the bathroom is the place where

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you can find the bath, the shower, and the toilet

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all in one room. A room with just a toilet

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is called a half bath. Yeah, a half bath. So

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for example, Steve lives in a three bedroom house with

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two and a half baths. Let me say that again.

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It's a three bedroom house with two and a half baths.

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That means there's a kitchen, living room, three bedrooms, two

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full bathrooms with a bathtub and a toilet, and one

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room with just a toilet. He lives in a three

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bedroom house with two and a half baths. Keep in mind,

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the best way to remember English like this and any

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other word or phrase in English, is to take that

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word or phrase, write it in a sentence that's true

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for you or true in your world, and then memorize

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your sentences and remember this. You can get more practice

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using your English when you join my podcast Learner's study group.

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There you can make new friends, join us for live

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group lessons every week where we practice these podcast lessons together.

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Plus you get access to the pdf, transcript and audio

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download for every Happy English podcast in the past and

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in the future. And on top of that, each episode

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has exercises where you can practice this English point with

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speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more, just

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visit Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast lesson eight

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twenty one. Remember, learning another language is not easy, but

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it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you on

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your journey.

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Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please

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visit Myhappy english dot com. Show your support for Happy

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English by leaving us a review. Get English, Get happy,

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Happy English.