Gramática:  Used to / be used to / get used to

Craig used to live in London. he used to go out with friends, he used to drink a lot of beer. He used to go to record shops and book shops. He used to buy clothes. He used to watch a lot of TV in the UK. He used to watch Mickey Mouse cartoons!

Now in Valencia, he usually goes to the gym. He usually does some work on Sundays.

– Use ‘used to’ for things in the past that are not true today.

– Use the adverb of frequency ‘usually’ for present habits.

It was difficult for Craig to get used to going out late at weekends. But now he‘s used to eating late.

Reza is getting used to his first smart phone.

Pronunciación: /j/

Jazz, June, January / to jump (saltar) Jumping Jack Flash / judge / Not only with the letter ‘j’, but sometimes with the letter ‘g’ as in general / giant / gym and Jim (the name) etc. compare to /je/ vision – television, pleasure, leisure.

Sigue los siguientes enlaces y mejorar tu pronunciación:

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer01_3.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer04_6.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer06_6.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer08_6.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer10_7.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer08_9.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer12_7.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer14_7.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer17_3.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer19_4.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer24_7.htm

 

Phrasal verb: COME OUT

After a long meeting they CAME OUT of the room.

My friend CAME OUT in a rash (rash = sarpullido, erupción).

To COME OUT on strike. To COME OUT in support of the nurses.

The sun, the moon and the stars COME OUT. What time does the moon come out?

To COME OUT (of the closet). To admit in public that you are gay.

Revisa más phrasal verbs aquí: http://www.mansioningles.com/gram54.htm

 

Vocabulary Corner – Sport:

Learn words in groups – Es mejor aprender el vocabulario en los grupos/familias

Football : pitch, stadium, to kick the ball into the net, referee – 1-0 (nil)

Tennis : court, umpire. net 15-0 (love)

Tennis, basketball, volleyball, badminton, squash COURT

to draw a game of football – It’s a draw – Valencia drew with Barcelona yesterday.

Let’s kick off (let’s start) . Let’s kick off this meeting by talking about….

It’s a whole new ball game (It’s a totally new thing)

Right off the bat (to begin with, immediately) – When we started this podcast we had over 1.000 listeners right off the bat.

Golf club – baseball bat – cricket bat – table tennis bat – tennis racket – squash racket.

A ball-park figure (an approximate number). Give me a ball park figure on your expected salary.

To hit it out of the park = to have a lot of success.

Estudia más vocabulario del deporte aquí: http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer07_5.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer07_1.htm

http://www.mansioningles.com/cursointer/cursointer08_10.htm

 

Reza’s Top Tip: Spelling – double letters

Si la palabra termina con consonante, vocal, consonante hay que poner doble consonante al final (ej. running; shop-shopping; putting)

sleeping (termina con -eep); hope-g (termina con -ope)

Regret – regretting (el estrés está el la segunda silaba)

 

limit – limiting (el estrés esta en la primera silaba)

travelling (British English spelling)

traveling (American English spelling)

 

The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called See You Later – licensed by creative commons under a by-nc license at ccmixter.org.

Si quieres mandarnos un comentario sobre este podcast o una pregunta sobre la gramática, la pronunciación or el vocabulario de inglés, Mandenos un email a mansionteachers@yahoo.es.

 

FULL TRANSCRIPTION (kindly contributed by Angélica Bello from Madrid)

C: Hello and welcome to episode 6, bienvenido al episodio 6 de Aprender Inglés con Reza y Craig. Reza, hello.

R: Hi, how are you?

C: I’m very well how are you? Did you have a good week?

R: I did thanks.

C: Good.

R: What about you?

C: I had a very nice week, is lovely and sunny in Valencia, and I went out, did some exercise, and I’m feeling good. Antes que empezamos, un pequeño anuncio, estamos trabajando en una sección nueva en Mansión Inglés.com para colgar todos estos episodios de Aprender Inglés con Reza y Craig, en un sitio. Así que vamos a hacer una sección aparte, y cuando esté (he dicho bien, cuando esté? Si!), cuando esté, cuando esté listo, avisamos en este mismo podcast. Entonces espero que no tenemos que esperar y todos van a estar, todos los episodios van a estar en el mismo lugar aparte de iTunes. Reza, gramática.

R: Gramática Craig, gramática. Qué tenemos? What have we got Craig? Can I ask you a question?

C: You can ask me as many questions as you like.

R: Craig, you used to live in London, didn’t you?

C: I did.

R: Tell me, what did you use to do in the weekends in London?

C: I used to go out with friends on a Friday night, on a Saturday night, we used to go to pubs, we used to drink a lot of beer, I used to sleep late on Sundays, I used to go shopping from time to time in the centre, I used to go to record shops, do you remember those? Do you remember the records?

R: Vinyl records? Vinyl? Wow!

C: I used to go to record shops, and the occasional bookshop with my friends, we used to listen to music, we used to buy records, I used to buy clothes, the usual kind of thing.

R: So these are all things you used to do in London.

C: Correct.

R: But you don’t live in London now. Now you live in Valencia. And tell me, what you usually do in Valencia at the weekends?

C: Well now I’m older. And I live in different country, so at weekends I usually go to the gym in the morning, maybe I’ll walk along the beach, enjoy the weather, enjoy the sunshine, maybe I’ll go for a bike ride, I usually do some work on Sunday, yeah?

R: You said you are older Craig, you don’t look much older. You look as good as ever. I remember you telling me that you used to watch a lot of Mickey Mouse cartoons …do you still now watch Mickey Mouse cartoons?

C: Umh, well, on a public podcast I’m not going to admit to watching Mickey Mouse cartoons, but I used to! I used to watch a lot of television. That’s something I used to do a lot in the UK, I used to watch a lot of TV, and now I don’t so much.

R: You don’t often ok, well you probably notice that we used the word used to, a lot there.

C: Yes.

R: Craig, you were telling me about you used to do in London when you lived there. But now you don’t live in London. So we use used to to talk about things that you did in the past but not now. Habits, repeated actions in the past, but not now. When I ask Craig about now that he lives in Valencia, I said what do you usually do? Usually is an adverb of frequency, used to is a verb followed by an infinitive, used to go, used to shop, used to eat, used to talk, to talk about past actions.

C: In Spanish that would be soler, solía.

R: Solía. Solía or sometimes you don’t need any word in Spanish, you can just say I used to…I used to live in London, vivía en Londres. You could say that.

C: Ok.

R: You couldn’t say, solía vivir en Londres in that case it wouldn’t work. Sometimes you just have to say with the verb used to live vivía. So sometimes just soler, sometimes just a verb.

C: And it’s interesting because some of my Spanish students confuse used to with usually. They use used to when they are speaking about now, the present.

R: The present.

C: They say: Oh! I used to go everyday with my friends to have a coffee…when they really mean I usually go.

R: Yeah, so let’s just clarify now, right now then, don’t confuse used to + infinitive for past actions and events and habits, with the adverb usually. They are not the same. Now, Craig, I’m sure there were very big differences between London and Valencia, when you came to Valencia, was it difficult to get used to the new things here?

C: Oh yes! One thing I remember I used to go out when I first came to Valencia at seven o’clock, half past seven with a friend, have a few beers, because in London that’s what we used to do, we used to start at the evening at about half past seven, seven o’clock in the pub. Used to do that in Valencia the first year, and then by the time we were leaving the pub at half past ten, eleven o’clock, drunk, the Spanish people were coming in. So we were two or three hours behind the local Valencian people who were going out. Then we used to go to a club at twelve, which was empty, because everybody was probably eating…

R: Ok.

C: And then we, we were completely drunk by one o’clock and leave the club when everybody was coming in.

R: Ok so, when you first arrive here, that really surprise you, was it normal for you, but did you get used to it? That means acostumbrarse, is it still surprising for you now, or have you got used to it?

C: No, I got used to it, it took me a few months to get used to it and then I realize that Valencianos go out later. So now I’m used to going out at the weekends at about ten, half past nine, ten, may be eleven o’clock sometimes.

R: You said now you are used to going out.

C: Yes.

R: Aha! So, if you notice there we used first get used to and then to be used to. Now, those two things are similar, and neither of them is the same as used to. Used to, as we said, was for past things which are finished. Now to get used to something means that it’s new for you and you will need to change, to adapt, to…so that you accustomize yourself, become familiar. Acostumbrarse.

C: Can I ask you a question?

R: Yeah!

C: You just got a new mobile phone.

R: That’s right, yeah!

C: When did you get it?

R: I got it about a week ago.

C: Is it very different from your old phone?

R: Oh! It’s very different. My old phone was not a smart phone.

C: Ok.

R: This is a smart phone. So right now, I am getting used to owning my first smart phone. It’s a new experience for me, I’m changing, I’m changing, I’m becoming accustomed, becoming used to the new phone, but the process has not finish yet, I’m still getting used to it, I’m changing, me estoy acostumbrando. That’s get used to. But I hope Craig, in a year or so, at the latest, then, I will be used to it.

C: Or less I’m sure.

R: That’s verb to be. Less hopefully, so to be used to something means now the change is finished and now it is normal for you.  So when you first arrived in Spain, when you saw people eating late at night, it shocked you, it surprised you. You were not used to it. Then you stayed here months and months and years and years, and in that time you were getting used to these things.

C: I’ll tell you something…

R: And now is normal for you?

C: Yes.

R: Now you are used to these things.

C: Now I’m used to eating later at weekends, I’m used to going out later, and I think, I really wasn’t used to, my first year I remember the bars and the clubs didn’t close, well the pubs.

R: I remember, yeah.

C: In the UK, you remember, they used to close at eleven.

R: At eleven.

C: Eleven o’clcok.

R: By law, have to.

C: By law. And I arrived in Valencia and they didn’t close, fantastic! So very quickly I got used to drinking all night.

R: Is it easy to get used to that, isn’t it?

C: One final thing to remind the listeners with the grammar of used to, solía, it’s used to + infinitive.

R: Right

C: Used to live, used to drink, used to go. And with the other two, acostumbrarse, get used to and be used to, it’s gerund.

R: That’s right, so get used to staying up late, be used to eating large meals in the middle of the day.

C: Get used to using your new mobile phone.

R: All those things are I-N-G. Or, of course you can have a noun if you like, I am getting used to my new phone.

C: Mhm.

R: But if you use a verb, I-N-G form for the verb.

C: Ok. That’s clear.

 

PRONUNCIATION (9:49)

C: Moving on to pronunciation this week, and I thought we could look at the sound /j/. Does that sound exist in Spanish, /j/?

R: /j/?

C: Because well…

R: No it doesn’t.

C: I don’t think it does, because if you have a place like G-E-R-O-N-A, Gerona, is /g/erona.

R: Gerona.

C: Yeah.

R: In Spanish anyway, might be different in Catalan, but in Spanish language it doesn’t exist.

C: Is Hamón, not Jamon.

R: That’s right.

C: So /j/ it possibly only used in pronunciation of British English. Reza, what kind of music do you like?

R: Uh, all sorts, I like pop, jazz…

C: Stop there!

R: Woooo!

C: Jazz.

R: Jazz.

C: That’s the word /j/, jazz. That’s one of the uses of /j/. Also obviously in months like June, January, and the verb saltar in English, do you know that?

R: To jump.

C: To jump, saltar. For example, Jumping Jack Flash, the Rolling Stone song, and, eh, juez…

R: Judge.

C: That’s quite difficult for Spanish speakers because we have two /j/ sounds, judge, judge. And not only with the letter J, we also have the sound sometimes with the letter G. In words like general, for example, giant, gigante, giant, a giant general, gym, gymnasium, gym…

R: That’s G-Y-M.

C: G-Y-M.

R: Not J-I-M.

C: Not but the sound is exactly the same, the /j/ sound in gym and Jim exactly the same pronunciation, G-I-M…sorry, J-I-M, or G-Y-M. And remember, compare it with the sound we had last week with /je/, which is more like the French je, je suis, in words like vision, television, leisure, pleasure, etc.

R: It’s very similar but is not quite exactly the same, is it?

C: No! No, the /je/ just think of the French /je/, I remember the French sound from school /je/.

R: Je t’aime.  

C: Je t’aime.

R: Not you Craig, I’m just giving an example.

C: Je t’adore Mickey Mouse. And /j/ which is a harder, más duro, harder sound, like jazz, June, July, January, etc.

 

PHRASAL VERBS (12:31)

C: Any phrasal verbs this week Reza?

R: Sure do, the phrasal verb for this week is come out, come out. For example, after a long meeting, they came out of the room exhausted.

C:  So that will be the literal meaning.

R: Yeah, to physically leave, so, movement of the body, they came out.

C: They came out of the office.

R: Yeah, come out, so that’s not too surprising, that’s logical, you could figure that out. But there are other uses of come out, which are perhaps not so obvious, for example, a friend of mine, Arantxa, recently, she came out in a rash, she came out in a rash. To come out in a rash, that means, your skin goes red and is itchy.

C: What is rash in Spanish? (rash=sarpullido,  erupción)

R: I’m not quite sure what that means.

C: We should check that.

R: We will check that for next week. But when your skin is red and irritable, that’s a rash. Very often is used when you are not quite sure what causes this problem. You said oh! I come out in a rush, I don’t know why but I come out. And that’s Arantxa’s case, she is not sure why, but she is come out in a rash, her skin is gone red.

C: And my girlfriend too, when she eats peppers she is allergic to red peppers and green peppers.

R: Oh that’s right!

C: Do you know what happens when she eats red and green peppers?

R: She comes out in a rash.

C: She comes out in a rash.

R: I know because I once accidentally put it in a meal I made for her, that’s how I discovered.

C: She comes out in a rash.

R: Now Craig, have you heard that there has been a lot of strikes recently in Spain?

C: I have. It’s been on the news for a couple of years now.

R: Strike so strike, just in case the listeners don’t know, strike is when workers refuse to work, for a day or two or a week, a period of time. Not forever, just for a period of time.

C: una huelga.

R: Una huelga, a strike. And to strike can be a verb, hacer huelga. So, very often when a group of workers has a strike, another group of workers comes out in support of the first group. For example, imagine that nurses had a strike, and then policemen felt that the nurses had a just cause, so they said Oh! we would like to come out in support of the nurses, that means they will also have a strike to come out in support of someone.

C: Does anyone come out on strike recently?

R: Yes, right at the moment as we speak, the rubbish collectors in Madrid are on strike.

C: I didn’t know that.

R: They are on strike.

C: For more money?

R: Not so much for more money, I think is not to have their salary reduced, which is the proposal, but I don’t think anyone else has come out in support of them, they are the only group striking at the moment.

C: I just thought of another use of come out.

R: What’s that?

C: Aaah, the sun comes out.

R: That’s right.

C: Yeah! The moon comes out at night and the sun comes out, comes up in the morning.

R: You can say come out or come up.

C: Yeah, more for the the moon, what time does the moon come out at night?

R: Depends, not sure. Depends on where you are, the time of year. Yeah, you say the sun comes out everyday, yes, in Valencia. Not sure about Ireland or England though.

C: It comes out but you can’t see it.

R: You can’t see it’s behind the clouds.

C: Stars come out as well.

R: Yeah! There is another meaning of come out, I suppose is quite a modern meaning. To come out has this colloquial meaning of publicly admitting you are gay.

C: Ah! like to come out of the closet, but not literally.

R: Not literally, so a closet is a like a wardrobe, closed is preferred by Americans, wardrobe is preferred by – wardrobe or cupboard- by British people.

C: Yeah, but you wouldn’t say come out of the wardrobe.

R: No, is always specifically a closet. You are right yeah, come out of the closet. Or people just sometimes say come out, without closet.

C: I’ve come out.

R: Or he’s come out, that means. He’s come out of the closet, he said ok I’m gay, I admit it.

C: He is openly gay, so he is come out, yeah.

R: He’s come out. This obviously is quite new meaning of come out.

C: But a very popular one, a very common one.

R: Very popular, yeah. So, those are some meanings of come out, that’s probably enough to do us for today, do you reckon?

C: I think so, shall we move on to vocabulary?

R: Let’s move on.

 

VOCABULARY (17:20)

C: What is written here, vocabuley? Vocabuley corner. Welcome to vocabuley corner, sport this week. Do you in your classes tend to teach words in groups, in families?

R: I try to.

C: As they are in course books? What do you think are the advantages of teaching words like all the sport words together, or the money words together, or the holiday words together, all the travel vocabulary, is there an advantage?

R: Yes, I think any context helps you remember words easily. If I just give a student a list of twenty completely unconnected words and tell them to try and memorize those words, and I will test them next week, I’ll be surprise if they could remember four. But if I give them twenty, all about football, I’m sure they could remember at least fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, because you just visualize a football match for example, in your mind and you think ok, yes the kick off, the start of the game, they kick the ball, or maybe they head the ball, they pass it to another person, you are going to remember the verbs a lot more easily, I think.

C: Entonces estamos de acuerdo que es mejor aprender las palabras en un familia, en un grupo.

R: Sin duda, si.

C: Which words do you think of when you hear the word football? Where is football played in Ireland? Is it played…

R: Pitch.

C: Is it played on a pitch?

R:  Yes.

C: Would you say is it played on field?

R: No.

C: Football field?

R: No. Football pitch. Occasionally people say field in very colloquial English but is not really the correct word, is pitch. And if people are sitting in seats built around the pitch, then that would be a stadium.

C: Yes.

R: And there is the ball.

C: Yeah ok.

R: And where you try and kick the ball to get a goal is the net.

C: What is the name of the judge in a football match?

R: The referee.

C: The referee.

R: But in some sports there is a different name, isn’t there?

C: That’s right, in tennis for example, in cricket, it’s umpire.

R: Umpire.

C: The umpire. And if football is played usually on a pitch, which sports are played on a court?

R: On a court, let’s see… tennis court, basketball court…

C: Yeah.

R: Volleyball court.

C: Volleyball.

R: Badminton…

C: Badminton court…

R: Squash…

C: Squash court, yeah.

R: Off course the word court is also where you find the judge that you mentioned earlier.

C: That’s true.

R: But that’s another type of court.

C: The judge works, appears in court.

R: Yeah. Different meaning of court, where legal proceedings happen.

C: That’s true. Also the scoring in football is interesting, because, well in all sports, because 1-0, we wouldn’t say one-zero, or one-naught, we’d say one-nil.

R: One-nil.

C: Whereas in tennis we’d say fifteen love. So love is zero in tennis and nil is zero in football. What else do we have? Let’s see…

R: One of the two teams, both have no points in football, so one team have nil and the other team have nil, how we do say that quickly?

C: Then it’s a draw, a draw. So I would say Valencia drew with Barcelona yesterday. Past of draw, drew, irregular verb. So, lets kick off with… aha! You see?  Kick off as you said before, can just mean to start, so we take some vocabulary from sport and use it in everyday conversation. Let’s start, for example, let’s start this meeting, let’s start this podcast, let’s kick off, let’s kick off by speaking about vocabulary, for example.

R: Or, I’ve just thought of one, if you think of a completely new experience, people say, it’s a whole new ball game.

C: That’s right. It’s a new ball game.

R: Ball game yeah?

C: Or you could say, right off the bat, which is an American expression I like, which means immediately or to begin with. For example, when we started this podcast, we had over one thousand listeners right off the bat, immediately, at the beginning, right off the bat. And that is interesting because some sports use a bat, some sports use a racket, and some sports use a club, golf club. Baseball bat, cricket bat, squash racquet, tennis racquet, so racquets have strings, is that right?

R: Yes.

C: And bat has no strings.

R: You know, one my students often get wrong, and native speakers often get wrong, what the people use to hit the ball with in table tennis.

C: Is a bat.

R: Bat, but many people say racket.

C: Because is roundish…

R: Tennis, but is not, is a bat.

C: No strings you see?

R: No strings attached.

C: No strings attached. And finally to round off vocabulary corner, another American expression that I like is ball-park figure. Ball-park figure, from baseball, which means an approximate number. Give me a ball-park figure on your expected salary. Or give me a ball park figure of how many people are listening to this podcast.  Is an approximate guess of a number, a ball-park figure. And off course, if this podcast is incredibly successful, and we get to Hollywood, we will hit it out of the park. As in baseball, they hit the ball out of the park or out of the stadium, which is a total success. So we hit this out of the park, we had a lot of success with a project.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

TOP TIP OF THE WEEK (23:27)     

C: Reza, your top tip this week.

R: Ok, this week my tip is about spelling. English spelling is not easy, not at all. Native speakers make many mistakes, intelligent native speakers make many mistakes.

C: I know, I do, my students often teach me.

R: Me too. And we are teachers. It is not an easy language to spell at all. Here is a tip. Specifically, spelling I-N-G and E-D, participle words, and more specifically, final consonants, should you double it or not?  For example stopping. How many P’s in stopping Craig?

C: Two.

R: The same with stopped. Stopping I-N-G or stopped E-D, the same rules apply, double P. What about in writing?

C: Only one.

R: Only one. Do you know why?

C: I think is because if the verb or the word finishes in consonante-vocal-consonante, you double the final consonante. For example stop, S-T-O-P, T consonante, O vocal, P consonante, you double the final P, stopped. But write finishes with an E, vocal, so you don’t double the T, it’s just one T.

R: That’s right.

C: Is that it?  

R: That’s the rule! Even though that E in write is a silent E it doesn’t matter, it’s written, so the final letter of the infinitive is not a consonant, so do not double the T in writing. Very common mistake.

C: The same as hope, H-O-P-E.

R: That’s right. Hoping, do not double the P.

C: Because then it will be hopping.

R: Hopping yes, but H-O-P hop, is saltar en una pierna, and hopping will be double P but hoping, esperar, is one P. That’s it, that’s right. So, let’s test you a bit Craig, one final consonant or double? Putting.

C: Double T. P consonant, U vocal, T consonante, double the final T, putting, two T’s.

R: Running.

C: The same, R consonante, U vocal, N consonante, double N, running or…yeah! Running with double N.

R: What about sleeping?

C: Well, you got S-L- double E-P, so it doesn’t follow the rule, so E-E-P, no, just one P in sleeping.

R: That’s right, because it doesn’t end consonant-vowel-consonant, it ends vowel-vowel-consonant, so we don’t double that, that’s different.

C: Ok.

R: Ok, so far so good. Craig we’ve been talking so far only about monosyllabic verbs, monosyllabic, with one syllable, sleep, run, talk…

C: stop.

R: Get, put, stop, etc. And the vast majority of verbs we use every day are monosyllabic verbs. However some verbs off course, have more than one syllable, and it’s a bit more complicated for those verbs. Tell me Craig, the verb regret, which is arrepentirse o lamentarse de hacer o no hacer algo. For example, I regret not chatting up that girl in the cafe.  I didn’t, I wish I have.

C: Do you regret not getting her phone number?

R: I do, I regret. So, regretting or regretted, one T or double T?

C: Double T.

R: Right, why?

C: Because, is it because of the stress, the stress is on the first syllable, la primera sílaba?

R: No,no.

C: Is on the second!

R: Is on the last syllable.

C: On the last syllable, regret, regret.

R: Exactly. Regret has two syllables re-gret. The stress is on gret, the last one. And it ends consonant-vowel-consonant. So, for words with more than one syllable, if the stress is on the last syllable, and that syllable ends consonant-vowel-consonant, then also double the consonant. Regretting, regretted, double T.

C: So what happens with words in which the stress is on the first syllable?

R: Ah! if the stress is on the first syllable, then normally we don’t double the last consonant. For example, limit. Limiting, limited, one T, not double, because limit, the stress is on li, the first syllable.

C: Limit.

R: So L-I-M-I- one T, ok?

C: And what about travel, travelling? Because sometimes I’ve seen travelling, or travel, with two, with double L, and sometimes with only one L. Where is the rule, is there a rule for that?

R: Well, here is one thing start to get a bit tricky. Yes, traveling with one L and double L, both are correct. In this case it tends to be one side of the Atlantic you live on which determines your spelling.

C: British English, American English.

R: That’s it. British people prefer to write travelling and travelled, with double L. Americans tend to use only one L. We will have to admit Craig that the Americans are more logical, because if you think about the infinitive, travel, travel, there is two syllables, the stress is on the first syllable.

C: …the first syllable, tra-vel.

R: We shouldn’t double the final L. However, in British English for some reason which I cannot explain, we do tend to double L. Let’s just call it an exception.

C: So in this case the Americans are right, they are following the rule.

R: Well, let’s don’t say right or wrong, more logical, they are following the rule yeah. But the double L, the British way, it’s not wrong, but the Americans are more logical.

C: It’s different.

R: There are other words which just seem to be a special case on their own. Words like focusing, focused.

C: I would spell focused with one S.

R: Me too. But, if you check in a good dictionary, you will see that one S and double S, both are accepted. Focusing, focused, one S, double S. Is not a question of British or American English there, it’s just the case of whatever you prefer.

C: Yeah. Reza, thank you for focusing on that spelling rule this week, and thank you to all of you for listening to this podcast. We look forward to see you in the next episode. So, bye for now.

R: Bye.