Talking about housework

Introduction Georgie and Phil have a real conversation in easy English about housework – the jobs we need to do around the house to keep things clean and tidy. Learn how to talk about hoovering, sweeping and mopping the floor, and find out which chore Phil is most likely to put off. Vocabulary housework general term for any jobs around the house chores specific jobs we have to do in the house laundry washing clothes, bed sheets, towels etc hoover/vacuum use a machine to suck up dust and small pieces of dirt from the floor sweep use a brush or a broom to push dust and dirt into one place mop get the floor wet and then scrub it clean it with a long-handled tool  put (something) off delay something until later Transcript Georgie Hi, Phil. How are you doing?   Phil I'm good, I'm good. A little bit tired, but yeah. I'm good.   Georgie Oh no. Why?   Phil Lots of housework this weekend. We had to get the house ready so, yeah, a lot to do.   Georgie You said ready? Ready for what?   Phil Oh, we've got some people coming to visit, so we had to... we had to get ready for that.   Georgie Well, Phil, we are talking about housework today in Real Easy English. So, housework is all of those jobs you do in the house. So, cleaning, washing, cooking – things like that.   Phil Yep. All really important things. Just before we start, I just wanted to remind everyone that they can go to our website to get a worksheet to get even more practice, and that is bbclearningenglish.com.   Georgie So, Phil, you said at the weekend you did a lot of housework. What did you do?   Phil Well, I mean we share out the housework, but I was... I had to make sure I was cleaning the kitchen. I also did... We say do the hoovering or do the vacuuming, around all the carpets to make sure that's nice and clean, under all the furniture. So, Georgie, do you do a lot of housework?   Georgie Well, I live in a shared flat, so I have two housemates, who are not super clean, so I have a bit of a routine with them. Every weekend, one person will clean the communal areas. So, those are the areas that are shared – so the kitchen and the living room. One person will clean those properly. So, wipe the surfaces, wipe away the crumbs. So, the crumbs are little bits of food. Then hoover or sweep the floor. So, that removes the crumbs from the floor so that the floor is ready to be mopped. So, when you mop, that's when you make the floor wet and properly clean.   Phil That's a really impressive system. I like the way you've got it so organised. We always find we run out of time to get a lot of housework done, or we're doing stuff at the weekend or we're working during the week, and so some of those jobs, they get put off and put off and put off, which isn't good. But yeah, it happens sometimes.   Georgie Well, there's also just so many other things we would rather be doing. So, yeah, it's easy to put off – to delay.   Phil Georgie, we're talking about household chores. Is there one that you really hate doing?   Georgie Yes, Phil, there is one job that comes to mind immediately, which is cleaning the bathroom – specifically cleaning the toilet.   Phil Oh yes.   Georgie Not very nice!   Phil Yeah. No, not at all.   Georgie Do you have one that you hate the most?   Phil I think what I really dislike is trying to clean things – the bits on the cooker where everything gets stuck on, and you have to really rub it and scrub it really hard. I hate those jobs.   Georgie So, do you... You said that you share... you share the chores. Do you get your kids to do chores?   Phil Now, that's a really good question. We ask the kids to do chores and sometimes they do something.   Georgie OK.   Phil But not a lot. I'd really like them to be able to keep their rooms tidy. That's never going to happen, it feels. I'd really like it if they could, you know, help out cleaning the living room and putting things away. But, yeah, we haven't taught them very well.   Georgie Oh, maybe one day!   Phil Maybe.   Georgie It's when you become an adult, I think, that you really appreciate a clean space, so hopefully that will come.   Phil I was terrible as a teenager. I didn't do much as a teenager at all, so this is just coming back to me now. Georgie Yeah. Well, me too! So, we've talked about chores that we hate doing, but are there any jobs that you enjoy doing?   Phil Well, you know what? Laundry or washing – that's washing your clothes. That can sometimes be really satisfying when you get a lot of it done. And actually, I've just got a new washing machine and it's much bigger than the one I had before, so I can do so much in one load.   Georgie Phil, that is so exciting.   Phil Even better – because it's summer at the moment, I can get it dry so quick. It's amazing!   Georgie I love that! Putting a... putting a load of washing in the washing machine and then having it dry by the end of the day. That is so good.   Phil It's the best thing.   Georgie Teenage Georgie would be so disappointed that I'm excited by laundry, but here we go...! OK. Phil, let's recap the vocabulary we used in this conversation, starting with housework. So, this is the general term for jobs that we have to do in the house. And then we had chores, which are the specific jobs that you have to do – for example, laundry.   Phil Yes. So, laundry is washing your clothes. We say do the laundry, or just do the washing.   Georgie Yes. And we had some other chores – for example, hoovering and sweeping the floor, which is what you do when there are crumbs on the floor. After you've swept the crumbs, you can mop the floor, which is when you make the floor wet and clean it like that.   Phil Yes. We also talked about jobs that you hate, and sometimes when you really hate a job, you end up putting it off – that means to delay it. If you put something off, you delay something, sometimes because you just don't want to do it.   Georgie So, that is the end of this episode of Real Easy English, but we'll be back next week, won't we?   Phil Yes, we'll be back with another episode. Also, don't forget about that worksheet that's on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.   Georgie Goodbye for now.   Phil Bye! Now try this... Watch The London Letter Challenge. Download a free worksheet. Discover more programmes for your level.  Find all our latest programmes.