795. DOPPELGANGER (Learn English with a Short Story)

hello video people welcome to my podcast I'm going to record an audio episode you'll be able to see the text and stuff on the screen nice one don't forget to like And subscribe okay let's get started I'm now going to start recording the audio right now hello everyone welcome back to the podcast how are you doing out there in podcast land surviving I hope so here's a new episode it's time to do some more English learning with a story in this episode I'm going to read another short story to you and use it to teach you some English I recommend that as well as listening to me read the story out loud today to you that you read this story out loud too and I will give you a chance to do that by repeating after me okay so read the story out loud listen to me doing it but also it would be good for you to read the story out loud as well and all the reasons for that are explained in the previous episode so we'll also look at some vocabulary and grammar from the story during the episode and if you listen until the end I will tell you another story too so two stories in fact one in a moment and then another one at the end so that's that's all going to come later in the episode all the grammar and vocab pronunciation and then another story if you're watching the video version hello don't forget to like And subscribe if you are listening to the audio version then click the link in the description to visit the page for this episode where you'll be able to read a transcript for the whole thing okay because I'm nice and I'm just giving it to you free and you don't have to put your email address in and or any of that business you can just get the transcript it's on my website you're welcome so 100 words stories recently I've been looking for short stories to help me teach English the shorter the better and I found lots of 100 Word Stories on several websites a 100 word story is a story with no more than a hundred words okay maximum 100 words that's pretty short that's really just a paragraph there are a couple of sites where you can find a lot of these 100 Word Stories one site is called 100wordstory.org and the other is Friday flashfiction.com anyone can submit a story to these sites the stories are then checked by the website editors and then published for everyone to read the Only Rule for the writers is that the stories have to have a 100 word limit I think the minimum is 75 words but the maximum is 100 so a story with no more than 100 words that's quite challenging for a writer that's quite a challenge the writers need to be very disciplined they have to choose their words carefully and as a result these stories are very minimal and manage to convey descriptions and emotions using only a few words as a teacher of English I think these stories are great because it gives us compelling and concise samples of English to work with so I do recommend that you get the book there is a a book which contains loads of 100 Word Stories from 100wordstory.org so I just want to point out that there is this book full of these very short stories which you could buy it's called Nothing short of a hundred or nothing short of 100. it's two ways of saying that number one zero zero we can say 100 or we say a hundred two ways of saying it so anyway the book is called Nothing short of 100. selected Tales from 100 word story so it's a collection of stories from the 100wordstory.org website there's a Kindle version as well or a print version it's published by Outpost 19 and it was put together by the team behind the website including Grant Faulkner Lynn Mundell and Joshua Michael Stewart those are some of the The Producers editors of the book it's available for you to purchase and I recommend it if you're looking for bite-sized stories to use for learning or teaching English so that's nothing short of 100 selected Tales From a hundred word story I also recommend visiting 100wordstory.org and Friday flash flashfiction.com where you can find absolutely low loads of stories like this with new ones arriving each week so today's story let's start with this with a story which I've selected from the nothing short of 100 book this story is called doppelganger doppelganger by the way we don't you'll see the title in the title of this story uh there's an umlaut above the a okay so that's one of those and umlaut is a sort of a punctuation mark I suppose I'm not sure exactly we don't have this in English um so a normal amount is two dots above in this case above the a in the word doppelganger two dots above it that's in the title of the story but we don't usually use an umlaut in English by the way so that's like two dots above a letter all right now I think the reason it's got an umlaut in it is because the word is originally German and so that's what maybe the the author just wrote it like that because originally it comes from a from German and I suppose in German the word doppelganger would have a num layout but you don't need to do that in English so what is a doppelganger you might be thinking well any German speakers will know and maybe if you speak a language that's kind of similar to German maybe you've got the similar word as well but anyway what is a doppelganger a doppelganger is someone who looks exactly like someone else but it's creepy and scary like a ghostly copy of someone I think the word I think the word has its origins in German hence the umlaut in the title and translates directly as double goer so your doppelganger is your double a copy of you who looks exactly like you and who goes around walking the Earth in my case that would be Luca Modric the Croatian footballer who doesn't just walk the earth he runs around quite a lot chasing a football and kicking it he's a footballer so My Doppelganger would probably be Luka Modric right that's what people say anyway that Luca Modric is my doppelganger but yes he's My Doppelganger okay I'm not his doppelganger he is My Doppelganger because I was here first okay so um anyway we do use the word doppelganger in conversational English for example we say things like this we say oh I saw your doppelganger in the street today meaning I saw someone who looked just like you in the street or people say things like this they say it's amazing you know he's your complete doppelganger meaning he looks exactly like you okay okay so I don't know if you've ever experienced that has it ever happened to you have you ever seen someone who looks exactly like someone you know have you ever done a double take and been confused for a split second by the way a double take that's when you look for a moment and then you quickly look back again so a kind of a huh that's a double take so you might just be walking down the street you see someone and you you just quickly glance and then you go wait a minute was that Luke from Luke's English podcast and you do a double take so I don't know if that's ever happened to you have you ever have you ever done a double take and been con and Confused for a Split Second uh because you've seen someone who looked exactly like someone else has anyone told you that they'd seen your doppelganger has that ever happened to you anyway now I'm gonna read the story just one question before I start one question before I start the story how did the person feel at the end of the story and why how did the person feel at the end of the story and why okay so here's the story doppelganger here we go I almost didn't see the you who wasn't you I was walking past the outdoor tables of the French cafe and just at the last second I caught a familiar hand gesture and I looked again it couldn't have been you though my love because your other hand was clasping the hand of the woman opposite your heads were too close she was laughing that abandoned laughing you do when you're totally in the moment totally in love I walked on Heels tapping out a staccato rhythm as I no longer wanted to look at the you who wasn't you okay I'll read that again in a moment and we're going to go into the story properly so you will understand every single thing um but that question how did the person feel at the end of the story I'm actually going to add another question here as well because um when was it last year the year before when I did a story on this podcast and um in the comments section everyone seemed to be confused about the the gender of the the the the the narrator of the story and I was 99 sure that the person who's narrating the story was a was female was a woman um and it might be a similar case here because obviously I'm uh I'm a man right and so uh it might influence the way you interpret the story but I think that the narrator of the story is a woman ma'am you know it could be a man it could be you know anything's possible it doesn't really matter but I think this is probably told by a woman this story which might help you make sense of it a little bit more not that it matters it could be a man anyway so I almost didn't see the you who wasn't you all right so how did the person feel at the end well the person at the end felt um I suppose shocked or stunned or emotion or hurt or um surprised or sad or upset maybe uh she was shocked and suddenly felt horrified and heartbroken Maybe why well let's go into let's let me summarize the story okay so basically what happens what happened is that okay I'll I'll summarize it and I'll look at some language as we go through so I almost didn't see the you who wasn't you so she saw someone who looked like someone else okay so I almost didn't see the you who wasn't you so the you in this case I think is probably her husband or her boyfriend although the story is open to interpretation which is one of the interesting things about it but I think it's a woman who sees someone she knows at a table outside a restaurant okay and it's probably her lover like her boyfriend maybe her husband okay um she sees someone but she's calling him the you that wasn't you so it's not you but it's the you that wasn't you so it's either someone who looks exactly like her husband let's say but isn't her husband or it is someone who looks exactly like her husband and in fact it is her husband but she has decided that it's not her husband because she can't bear the idea that it really is her husband so emotional to protect herself emotionally she has decided to deny the reality that she's seen her husband with someone else I almost didn't see the you who wasn't you that's why she's calling him the you who wasn't you so I almost didn't see the you who wasn't you so she saw him but it was she only just saw him okay I was walking past the outdoor tables of the French cafe so okay so she's walking along she sees someone out of the corner of her eye someone who looks familiar she sees a hand gesture that looks familiar so she does a double take and looks back and then she notices quickly that he's with another woman and she can see the intimacy of the situation instantly she sees that this is a very intimate situation he's holding her hand he's he's maybe he's got a he's gesturing with his other hand maybe in the middle of a conversation and she's laughing um and she's kind of carefree and having a wonderful time and uh it's obvious that they are totally in love and the woman decides oh no it's not it can't be my husband it can't be she said it couldn't have been you because you were with another woman and she seemed to be completely in love with you and so then she just walks on maybe quite quickly maybe with some stress or emotion she just sort of like walks away trying to come to terms with what she's just seen maybe in a state of emotional denial so I was walking past the outdoor tables classic bit of past continuous there that's the verb form I was walking past the outdoor tables you know narratives stories they've always got past continuous in them and they often start with past continuous to set the scene they set the situation they provide the context what was happening at the beginning of the story what was the situation that's the purpose of past continuous it describes a a situation which is then interrupted by past simple actions so I was walking I was walking down the street I was walking to I was walking to work I was thinking about my work and then suddenly I saw you but it wasn't you was it and just at the last second so just in a very brief moment of time I caught a familiar hand gesture so at the last second just before she walked past the the restaurant or just before she'd finished walking past the cafe she just caught a glimpse she caught a glimpse of a familiar hand gesture so a gesture is a movement with your body so it could be like um something you do with your hand when you're talking there's lots of different gestures you know we there's gestures to mean well done okay uh can I have the bill please you know all sorts of different hand gestures that we make but clearly she caught or noticed a familiar hand gesture so this is a movement that this guy probably often does that she's familiar with if you're familiar with something if something is familiar to you it means you know it already you've seen it lots of times before and you know it for example when you go to a new part of a town uh or if you go to a new city that you've never been before everything is unfamiliar you don't know where you are but then when you get back to your hometown you feel a bit more comfortable because everything's familiar because you know it you've been there before you've seen it before if you're with new people you know everyone's a bit unfamiliar you have to take time to get to know them but when you're with people that you know really really well like maybe your husband then obviously everything that person does is going to be very very familiar you're going to know it because you've seen it before so she caught a familiar hand gesture she noticed him just maybe moving his hand in a way that was very familiar to her she thought huh hold on and then I suppose she she did a double take and looked again so walking along and she looked again and then she says it couldn't have been you though meaning it was it was impossible that it was you it was it definitely wasn't you that's impossible so a little bit of grammar it couldn't have been you it couldn't have been you meaning it was impossible so we use this modal verb um it's couldn't now I'm going to talk about modal verbs later on in the episode but it's just worth noticing that this means it was impossible there's no way it was you it couldn't have been you this refers to the Past it's like saying I am sure it wasn't you it couldn't have been you we'll come back to that we'll come back to that bit of grammar we'll look at modal verbs for talking about the past and modal verbs for talking about the present there's basically three different ways that we do this it's either when we are sure about something in this case if we're talking about the past it's like if we're sure oh it must have been you that's when you're sure it was it was someone um and if you're not sure we've got three options it couldn't have been you no no sorry if you're not sure it's well it might have been you it's it could have been you and it may have been you but I'm not sure and then if it's impossible we'd say it can't have been you or it couldn't have been you now that sort of language might seem a little bit illogical we're going to come on to that in a in a moment so she basically she sees this person is very familiar but she basically denies the fact that she thinks it's impossible that it's her husband let's say now it says it couldn't have been you though my love also though is is worth pointing out what's the purpose of saying though in this sentence and it's pronounced though well it's like saying but okay but but with but we put that at the beginning of a sentence don't we we'd say but it couldn't have been you right I saw someone familiar but it couldn't have been you so we put but at the beginning like that but then we put though which is essentially doing the same thing it sort of expresses the same idea as but we put though after the um after the Clause so but it couldn't have been you or it couldn't have been you though it does exactly the same thing it's very very common in English you might have noticed people saying though at the end of a sentence or at the end of a a clause or something okay okay so I I wanted to I wanted we wanted to have a picnic it's raining though okay so let's move on it couldn't have been you though my love so she called him my love which obviously shows it's someone she's in a relationship with someone she loves because your other hand was clasping the hand of the woman opposite so this means that so he was making some gesture with one hand while he was talking and his other hand was holding the hand of the woman sitting opposite him so clasping as well not just holding but clasping so to clasp something means to hold tightly okay we also have um the word clasp the word the word clasp is also used as a as a little as a tool that can can grip something for example if you have a camera and you want to get one of those little tools that will attach your camera to a pole or something like that um it's you could be it you can use a clasp which is like a clip which you can use to attach something to something else and I'm demonstrating on the video I've got like a little uh clasp or clip which would allow me to attach a light or a camera to um the wall in front of me for example I've got my my webcam here is attached to a clasp which is attached to the wall uh so that when I bang the table it doesn't bounce and Shake around I've been doing my best to try and make the videos presentable so his other hand was clasping the hand of the woman opposite it was holding her hand tightly another sign that there's something intimate going on here your heads were too close meaning too close for it to be her husband their heads were very close again another sign that this man and this woman were having sort of an intimate moment he was holding her hand their heads were very close and she was laughing that abandoned laughing you do when you're totally in the moment so abandoned if you abandon something it means you leave it you just just leave it behind you you don't bring it with you so abandoned laughing well what what has been abandoned here when this woman is laughing without any cares or without care you know without any worries in the world a sort of an abandoned laugh is when you laugh um completely and you forget about everything in the world and you sort of uh leave all sorts all of your self-control behind so she was laughing in in an abandoned way so she was like laughing fully not even thinking about what she was doing totally lost in the moment again another sign that something very intimate was going on between these two people the abandoned laughing you do when you're totally in the moment now this you here the aband that abandoned laughing that you do this you she's not referring to her husband here but this is just the universal you foreign which could be in the in in the past we would have said one for this that abandoned laughing one does when one is totally in the moment these days we just use U for that as well so in English we've got like you could be used for three different things it could be you plural meaning when you're talking to a group of people I'm very glad that you came here today meaning all the people who came and I saw you today that's you one person and then you know the sort of thing that you do you know the thing you say when you see someone you know that is like saying one which is a universal um sort of uh all-inclusive um pronoun do I make sense am I making sense I hope so so that abandoned laughing that one does or that you do when you're totally in the moment totally in love so what a shocking moment that she's just walking along and that she totally doesn't expect it but she sees wait is that my husband sharing a very intimate moment with this woman I've never seen before no it can't be my husband can it and she walked on so I I walked on meaning I continued walking I kept walking I I just carried on heels tapping out a staccato rhythm so the heels are the uh the back part of the shoes that touch the ground so I guess if this woman she I don't know if she's wearing high heels but she's wearing shoes with heels that make a noise so um the sole of the shoe is the the underside of the shoe and the bit at the back that's often raised those are the heels and so she walked on Heels tapping out a staccato Rhythm so a staccato Rhythm this is a kind of steady um sharp rhythm okay so in music I remember from when I learned piano as a child staccato is when you play the notes like this ding ding ding ding ding with with gaps between each note spaces between each note and it creates a more dramatic effect or maybe even a sort of uh slightly more stressful sound ding ding ding ding instead of going ding ding ding ding like that or with no gaps between them ding ding ding ding ding ding ding it's more in this case that it represents the noise being made by her feet as she walked quickly away with a sort of stress um you know the emotion of seeing her husband and then quickly walking off her heels tapping out tap is uh is the tap is is um a word that means to uh hit something lightly so in this case her heels were tapping tapping out you tap out a rhythm to tap out a rhythm [Music] in this case a staccato rhythm is she as she quickly walked away the poor woman as she quickly walked away and it's the last line is as I no longer wanted to look at the you who wasn't you okay I think it's a really good little story there's so much packed into it and different interpretations here are some possible interpretations as far as I can see so she saw her husband or boyfriend cheating on her having an affair with another woman and she suddenly realized it was happening and it was all a bit too much for her to accept and she quickly walked on because what she saw was so upsetting to her that she quickly walked on now she could have gone over and got angry with him or something but she was obviously so hurt that she just carried on that's one interpretation another interpretation is that it wasn't her husband or boyfriend it was just someone who looked like him but it still Disturbed her because she's terrified that he could cheat on her so if she you know her husband or her boyfriend who she loves so much and if she saw someone who looked just like him and for a moment maybe she believed it was him and then she decided no it can't be but it still Disturbed her because just the idea of him cheating on her or him leaving her is so upsetting so it's still um upset her to see it even though it wasn't him or maybe it was her ex like her ex-husband or her ex-boyfriend someone that she split up with and someone that she's still in love with maybe that's who she saw and they're not together anymore and it seems that he's moved on he's found love with someone else but she hasn't she still loves him and so maybe she moved on because she she walked on because she realized that there's nothing that she could do because they've already broken up but he's moved on and found love with someone else but she's still kind of got feelings or she saw a guy who she loves but they're just not together and they've never been together and she sort of loves him from a distance and she just can't bear the fact that he's with someone else or perhaps she lost her husband maybe her husband died a few years before and she just saw someone who reminded her of him and which again sort of adds more emotion to that moment um okay so anyway I'm curious to know what you think of the story as I said before I'm going to give you a chance to repeat after me and actually practice saying the lines from the story too it would be good practice for you before we do that let's do a little bit of language analysis I'm just going to quickly fly through some sentences so the first thing is that I saw the you who wasn't you so I don't know if you noticed or if you were wondering why it's the you who wasn't you and why not the you who weren't you I mean that just sounds wrong right um you wouldn't say that would you the you who weren't you you wouldn't you would say you weren't you weren't there that's correct right because it's you were or you weren't I am uh sorry I was he was she was you were or you weren't but it's the you who wasn't you I don't know if that's a question that came up in your mind but I'm gonna answer it anyway so although you the pronoun you takes normally takes are or were as the form of B it's not plural so U is not plural in this case it's singular and so the relative pronoun that goes with it who the you who that is singular and so as you the you who wasn't you okay I'm you know I'm sure you're delighted that I answered that question and they were thinking great story Luke very emotional but why is it the you who wasn't yeah okay and it's the you who wasn't you the the article there is important because it would be I saw you but then it wasn't you it was another you so in this case there's two U's there's you and then there's another one and in order to distinguish exactly which one we're talking about to distinguish that it's the other one we have the and also we often use the uh the definite article when the noun is defined afterwards by a relative Clause like the you who wasn't you the man um the man who works in the shop the woman who looks after my daughter okay uh when you have a defining a relative Clause that comes after it that defines the noun it's very common to have a have the the beginning you're welcome everyone I know that you were desperate for me to answer that particular question that you had in your mind um let's move on so just at the last second so we've got at the last second which is a nice phrase meaning at the very last moment and I thought maybe you you might be thinking about other Expressions which are similar like we have on time and in time so we've got at the last second at the last second at the last moment and also on time and in time so if you are on time or if you do something on time it means you do it um at the correct time at the agreed time okay so for example if the meeting was scheduled to start at two and yes I say scheduled not scheduled because I'm British so um if the meeting was scheduled to start at two and the meeting started at two you can say that the meeting started on time it started at the agreed time okay now if if the meeting is scheduled to start at two and you arrive at 1 55 then you arrive in time for the meeting so you arrived before or with enough time before the thing actually starts okay all right so the train arrived the train was scheduled to arrive at 3 30 and the train arrived at three to at 3 30. so the train arrived is it on time or in time the train arrived on time okay and it was okay we weren't late um we were at the station when the train arrived and we got on um we didn't miss this train there was no stress so we arrived on time or we arrived in time well we arrived in time for the train and sometimes you arrive just in time that's where you run down the platform the train is there the doors are open the the noise of the doors is going dude like that and you managed to get in the train just before the uh doors closed so you you arrived just in time in that case and you got on the train just at the last second at the very last moment so at the last second means at the last moment on time means at the agreed or uh scheduled time and in time means before or with enough time so that you're not late okay next is the word familiar a familiar hand gesture again that's just something that you know because you've seen it lots of times a gesture is a movement that you do with your body all right so that that's um normally a movement you do with your hands you can also do a facial gesture for example if you frown like that or you do that like what look huh that's a facial gesture as well but normally gestures are with your hands like nice one for example that's a gesture can I get the bill please uh what else anyone fancy a pint do you fancy a pint when you you pretend to lift a pint glass to your mouth that's uh do you fancy a pint okay and when you uh put your thumb over your shoulder like let's leave let's go shall we that means let's go um also we've got the other rude gestures like the middle finger like which is obviously very rude and in England in the UK If you do that your your two fingers your index finger and your middle finger with the back of your hand facing the person meaning with two fingers up if you give the v's that's very rude did you know that that means up yours mate that's just in the UK for some reason like um they don't care about that in America if you go to America and go ah they go what what two what what do you what are you saying uh so there you go so just be careful with that the v's the other way around is fine when you've got the palm of your hand facing outwards that means peace and you know uh when someone takes a photo you could do that or piece like that that's fine but if if you've got the back of your hand facing out that's rude so if you go to the pub and you ask for two drinks say two drinks with your with the palm of your hand facing not the other way around because you might offend someone so anyway watch out for the gestures uh next to catch something or to catch a look at something is just to quickly get a glimpse of something okay I'll just put that here to get a glimp of something though though which is used at the end okay all right like um I don't know like you're looking in the window of a guitar shop this is this is what happens to me all the time whenever I walk past the guitar shops and there are a few in the street not far from where I live whenever I walk past the guitar shops I always stare into the windows and go oh that's a lovely guitar oh it's beautiful guitar that's fantastic I'm not going to buy it though okay or uh oh it's a fantastic guitar isn't it it's too expensive though which is another way of saying it's a lovely guitar but I'm not going to buy it uh it's a lovely guitar but it's too expensive it's a lovely guitar it's too expensive though it's a lovely guitar I'm not going to buy it though so though at the end of a sentence it's like saying but at the beginning okay we also have although a-l-t-h-o-u-g-h which is a bit more formal you might use it in writing and although can go at the beginning of a sentence actually yeah that's this is a whole other lesson for another time um discourse markers and uh contrast words like although however despite in spite of um though and other ones let's just keep it simple and say that though it's very common in spoken English and often it goes at the end where you would put but at the beginning all right clasping clasping her hand remember that one clasp like you have a clasp that you can use to attach a camera to something you can also clasp someone's hand meaning hold their hand tightly to clasp uh to clasp your cup of tea in your hand I was uh clasping my phone in my hand because I didn't want anyone to take it uh abandoned laughing if you do something in an abandoned way it means you do it Carefree without thinking about yourself at all you're just lost in the moment okay to be in the moment to be totally in the moment or to be lost in the moment to walk and to walk on to walk on means keep walking don't stop like that song Walk On By which is a great song heels heels um so your foot the the the heel is a part of the shoe and it's also a part of your foot so if your foot at one end you've got the toes you got the sole of the foot underneath and then at the back of the foot is the heel and above the heel is the ankle and then the leg right also on shoes same thing um the part of the shoe that goes under your heel is also called the heel of the shoe and often when if women uh wear high heels usually it's women wear high heels then it makes a sound when they walk along the ground it makes a tapping sound tapping and a staccato Rhythm if you walk in a bit of a hurry it might make a stuck a staccato Rhythm on the floor that kind of repetitive um uh a rhythm sound with no with with quick sudden um sounds tap tap tap tap tap rather than tap tap tap tap tap tap that's a staccato rhythm okay also there's that grammar it couldn't have been you my love I mentioned that earlier uh it couldn't have been you so couldn't is a modal verb here and so this is classified in the grammar books as using modal modal verbs of deduction right deduction this is when you look at something and you try to guess what it is okay like for example if you're Sherlock Holmes and you're looking at the evidence and you try to guess what happens you try to work out or speculate about what has happened so let's just do a very quick look at modal verbs of deduction not too long because I don't want you to fall asleep or pass out or turn into a skeleton while you're listening to this just freeze um we'll we'll cover this briefly okay so modal verbs of deduction so the thing about modal verbs right the thing about modal verbs could might may should um must and so on the thing about modal verbs is that when students of English approach the learning of modal verbs what they want to do what and I understand why you would do this but I don't think it's the right way to do it but what people want to do is they want to get each modal verb and they want to understand what that individual modal verb means and how it's used every time but this isn't actually the best way to approach the learning of modal verbs what you should do is consider the ways the different functions that modal verbs have and there are lots of different functions that they're used for like deduction or speculation for expressing permission for expressing ability for expressing uh uh probability about the future okay so for those different categories of use you'll find that the modal verbs are used slightly differently so it's best to approach it like that look for the different categories of use like you know function like ability uh possibility uh deduction advice and so on and then under those categories you have to learn the way that modal verbs are used in those specific cases I'd suggest doing it like that because you'll find that modal verbs are used differently in different situations so you should learn the situations and the language used to express those those different things in those situations rather than the specific meanings of the modal verbs okay so if we're talking about modal verbs of deduction we've got past and present so the the situation that we need is maybe you've just seen someone and you're wondering who's that or maybe that's in the present who is that and it's in the past is who was that okay now that makes a difference the present is a little easier uh the grammar is just a bit easier it gets a bit more difficult in the past so who is that like you're not sure who it is wait a minute who is that you're trying to see someone in the distance maybe you're not wearing your glasses who is that now you've got three things that you were expressing here basically either you are sure or you're expressing that it's possible or you're expressing that it's impossible for example I'm sure it's you or I'm sure it's Dave and that's Dave isn't it is he I'm not sure I'm sure it's Dave okay just a bit of editing there to change the example sentence so we're talking about Dave who's Dave I don't know it's just one of your friends is that Dave so I'm sure it's Dave I'm certain it's Dave it's definitely Dave so that would be it must be Dave it must be Dave it can't be anyone else look it looks like Dave he's wearing Dave's clothes he's got Dave's face he's carrying he's carrying a big sign with letters across the sign that say I'm Dave he's got a badge on his shirt that says Dave he's holding his passport out and you can see on the passport it says Dave in big letters it it must be Dave right that's if you're sure so must is the modal verb must be it must be Dave um now if the second category is it's possible but you're not sure okay it's possible um not sure okay so there you would say well it could be Dave it might be Dave or it may be Dave now those three could might may same okay same meaning same level of possibility it's just the same each time you might be thinking but may is a bit more possible than might and no same okay there you go trust me all right I'm an English teacher I know what I'm talking about it's basically the same level of possibility yeah it could be Dave it might be Dave all right maybe Dave same thing each time I personally tend to use could and might more right now you also might be thinking but it may be Dave it's like permission may I come in you may come in yeah that is true may we do use May and can and other things and could and stuff for permission and for politeness and stuff like that yeah but that's something else different category don't think about that we're just talking about deduction so in this case could might may same okay it could be Dave not sure it might be Dave could don't know maybe Dave we don't know okay and then the third category is it's impossible that it's Dave there's no way it's Dave because Dave is dead maybe Dave is dead and he's like wait is that Dave you said your friend says is that Dave and you're thinking look no way there's Dave's dead Dave died in the in uh uh I don't know how what happened to Dave um uh a piano landed on Dave uh nine years ago don't you remember the great piano tragedy of nine years ago when Dave was tragically killed by a piano that landed on his head outside that big building the big department store the piano the great piano tragedy of nine years ago remember it's like yeah I remember how could I forget anyway that's another story for another time so is that Dave hey go then you'd say it can't be Dave or it couldn't be Dave now you might be thinking but wait a minute couldn't is the past isn't it well yeah kind of yeah but here remember what I said just for the function of deduction or speculation can't and couldn't are used in the same way they mean the same thing I know it's crazy isn't it it is crazy there it is get used to it it's language languages are normally quite crazy they don't normally work in a logical way they work in and a lot they don't work in a logical way they work in an illogical way okay say that they don't work in a logical way they don't work in a logical way they work in an illogical way right so it can't be Dave it couldn't be Dave same thing it couldn't be Dave does not refer to the Past here it refers to the present right but what about if you are you saw Dave during the day and that you're sitting at home you're drinking your tea with your with your flatmate and you're still talking about what you saw was that a ghost did we see a ghost of Dave you're still thinking about it but now you're talking about the Past who was that you might say so now we're talking about the past all right same thing we're expressing the same different uh ideas of I'm certain and it's possible but we're not sure and um and it's impossible okay but now we're referring to the past so I'm sure it was Dave would be it must have been Dave didn't you see the t-shirt that he was wearing that said it's def I am definitely Dave it must have been Dave it can't have been anyone else it must have been Dave so if you're certain it was Dave it must have been Dave right uh what about it's possible that it was Dave but we're not sure we don't know then well it could have been Dave it might have been Dave it may have been Dave we don't know okay so could might may same thing but notice that it have been right because we are talking about the past have and the past participle this is how we use these modal verbs to talk about the past instead of conjugating the modal verb itself we add these auxiliary verbs or we add the auxiliary verb have and a past participle of the main verb we're using so it must have been Dave not it must did be Dave no it must have been Dave it could have been Dave not it could it could have been Dave yeah not it well there's no other way of doing it is there you can't say it could it could it could have been Dave that's impossible could have been Dave might have been Dave it may have been Dave and if we want to express that it's impossible it was Dave then again we're using can't and couldn't but we conjugate them with have and a past participle it can't have been Dave and it couldn't have been Dave unless he's back from the dead okay there you go now you could go away and practice that you could just Google it you know you could just Google modal verbs past deduction practice and see if you've got it okay otherwise well I'll just I'll give you a chance to do it now so uh huh all right so Dave died in a piano in the big piano accident but who dropped the piano who dropped the piano now here's a bit of a backstory for you so who dropped the piano so Simon who who um was um Simon hated Dave because Dave uh ate the last biscuit which is obviously a terrible thing to do so there's biscuits right in a pack of biscuits and Dave ate the last biscuit which is a crime and Simon was so angry that we all know Simon was incredibly angry with Dave and the last thing we heard from Simon is Simon said I'm so angry I'm going to go up on the roof I'm Going Up on the Roof which is by the way where the piano I don't know why but the piano was on the roof I don't know little a big piano with wheels on just happened to be on the roof maybe they were moving it Simon was like I'm so angry with Dave don't talk to me I'm going on the roof and we all said okay well we're all gonna go out now with Dave and then next thing a piano landed on Dave killing him instantly it's not funny at all I don't know why you're laughing it's just not funny but anyway what happened so who killed Dave who dropped the piano so now I'm you could say this I'm certain it was Simon how do you know because I saw uh because he said he was gonna do it he said to Sandra he said you know what I'm so angry with Dave I'm gonna kill him I'm gonna kill him he said Sandra says that she heard Simon saying that he was gonna kill Dave so I'm sure it's day if I'm sure it's Simon I'm sure it's Simon how would you how do you say that I'm sure it is Simon Well we'd say it must be Simon okay what about if you you want to say this well it maybe it's Simon but we're not sure well you can say one of three things well it could be Simon it might be Simon it it may be Simon but we don't know um I think that um putting Simon in prison for the rest of his life is a bit of a risk because it it might not be Simon it may not be Simon but not could not be Simon no because that means it's impossible that it's Simon interesting so the negative versions are it may not be and it might not be so it could be Simon it might be Simon it may be Simon right but the negatives are only it might not be and it may not be we don't know but if you say it it couldn't be Simon that means it's impossible okay so maybe Sandra or maybe Janice not Janice maybe uh Terry Terry said no I saw Simon he was downstairs um eating a chocolate uh cake at exactly three o'clock when the accident happened so sorry it's impossible that it's Simon so you'd say oh it can't be Simon it couldn't be Simon and if we're talking about the past same thing um like um same thing it's like I'm certain it was Simon you'd say it what it um it must have been Simon if we're not sure then it could have been Simon might have been Simon may have been Simon okay it may not have been Simon might not have been Simon we don't know and if you are certain that it's not so it's impossible that it was Simon then it can't have been Simon and it couldn't have been Simon there you go you're welcome folks for that little grammar lesson let's move on just some pronunciation we're nearly finished here we've been going for about an hour here's some pronunciation it's really important that you read the story out loud as well it would it would be a very good idea it would be wise so I'd like you to repeat the story after me line by line try to say each line with no pauses between words and notice which word has the main emphasis or stress in each line and just don't sound like a robot okay so I don't want you to do this I almost didn't see the you who wasn't you no it should be I almost didn't see the you who wasn't you okay so just repeat the story after me here we go doppelganger so I'm going to leave a pause after I say the line and that's where you repeat it I'll say it twice then you repeat it and then I'll move on okay doppelganger doppelganger I almost didn't see the you who wasn't you wait a minute I almost didn't see the you who wasn't you okay your turn go I almost next I was walking past the outdoor tables of the French cafe I was walking past the outdoor tables of the French cafe and just at the last second and just at the last second I caught a familiar hand gesture I caught a familiar hand gesture you and looked again and looked again it couldn't have been you though my love it couldn't have been you though my love it couldn't have been it couldn't have been you because your other hand was clasping the hand of the woman opposite because your other hand was clasping the hand of the woman opposite your heads were too close your heads were too close she was laughing she was laughing that abandoned laughing you do when you're totally in the moment that abandoned laughing you do when you're totally in the moment totally in love I walked on I walked on walked on heels tapping out a staccato rhythm heels tapping out a staccato rhythm as I no longer wanted to look at the you who wasn't you as I no longer wanted to look at the you who wasn't you okay so what I've been doing there with the vocab and the pronunciation and stuff and the grammar that's the sort of thing that I normally do in LEP premium in my premium episodes but every now and then I'll kind of do a little bit on the normal free podcast as well to kind of give you a little taste but if you want more of this kind of thing then you can sign up to Luke's English podcast premium where I do language analysis vocab and grammar explanations and pronunciation practice every time and so if you go to teacherlook.co.uk premium you get two options you've got LEP premium which is where you get all of the premium content or you can choose LEP episodes with no advertising that's where you can just listen to the normal free podcast in your podcast app but with no advertising at all so there will be no advertising interruptions with the premium one you get all of the premium episodes and the free episodes will have no advertising as well so that's kind of LEP premium is the recommended one because you get all the premium content and no advertising okay so that's the one I recommend and in the premium section there are stories and Language Reviews for conversations which are which have appeared in episodes of Luke's English podcast that's where I go through conversations I've had in episodes and I break down all the language and explain it and help you practice it and pronounce it and stuff um and also there are there are stories as well like the one I've done today if you sign up to LEP premium you can add all the premium episodes to your podcast app of choice on your phone and also get links for video versions and PDF worksheets uh teacherlook.co.uk premium and you'll find the link in the description so how about another how about another story so we've been going for just over an hour but we're not finished yet there's maybe a few more minutes left in the episode so I'm going to read you another story this one is also about a doppelganger so I'll just read the story to you now and then I'm going to do some language work in a premium episode which is coming soon to the premium subscription okay so I'll just read the story to you and then I'll do all of the language teaching and stuff in a premium series and if you want to get it you can get it by signing up to lepremium and yes okay I am trying to persuade you to sign up to my premium subscription but I do think it's worth it because you get so much content and if you do you'll be supporting the podcast too which is very helpful no pressure though of course if you don't want to sign up or you can't that's fine no worries so I'm going to read the story to you in this free episode now this this second story I'm going to read it to you and then I'll do the language work in a premium series okay I hope you enjoy it let's get started so this one is called doppelganger as well and it's written by Sue Clayton and you can find it on Friday flashfiction.com I've adapted the story very slightly okay I've just made a few little changes but I'll just read the story to you now see if you can understand it okay so what happens why does it happen and what what happens at the end what is the twist at the end I'll give you a little summary at the end but the proper language work will be done in the premium podcast okay so here we go this book says everyone has a doppelganger a mirror image and if you meet yours face to face you'll die Janice my flatmate closed the book finished her tea and toast and slammed out of the door for her a e shift at St Margaret's Hospital just down the road she loved any kind of fantasy literature always immersed in some Supernatural genre book not my cup of tea at all give me a good Nordic Noir mystery anytime after taking a shower I went to brush my teeth if you meet your doppelganger face to face you'll die my reflection in the bathroom mirror laughed as I recited the words if you meet your doppelganger face to face you'll die my reflection laughed as I recited the words but they'd begun to worm their subliminal way into my subconscious waiting to claw their way to the surface and pounce one day a couple of weeks later I headed for the front door ready to set off into town where I worked at a music store doppelganger I froze as my mind hissed the Insidious word toppleganger what if I saw me on the train or stood behind me in the line at the coffee place what if I came into the shop to buy a record and had to serve myself the words shot through my mind I let go of the door handle as if I'd been electrocuted and phoned in sick do you fancy a night out at that new wine bar down the street Janice bounced through the front door one afternoon chirpy as a blue bird her shift trauma free for once um not tonight Janice I'm I'm still not feeling very good the image of my other self perched on a stool at the far end of the bar possibly raising a toast was too hard to stomach you haven't been outside for ages Natalie not even for work you'll end up getting fired what's going on with you Janice pressed I'll meet My Doppelganger and die if I go outside I burst into tears knowing how ridiculous I sounded no such thing you need to get help Natalie I've got a therapist friend who works at the hospital I'll fix you up an appointment she wrapped me in a comfort hug you're booked in for 10 o'clock this morning two days later Janice grabbed my arm and pulled me through the front door I didn't stand a chance you won't meet yourself between here and Saint Margaret's she smiled reassuringly and we set off down the street excuse me a hand tapped my shoulder as we waited to cross the busy main road I turned around and my shriek froze the blood of everyone close by before I stepped backwards off the footpath into the path of an articulated lorry I didn't mean to frighten her tears ran down the anguished face of one of the two men who'd been standing behind me he was holding a large six feet square mirror which they were carrying across to the framing Workshop across the road I just wanted to ask her to step to one side okay that's the end of the story let me give you a summary so I'm not going to go into all the language and break it down that's for the premium episode but I will explain the story so the the narrator of the story and by the way yeah what happens at the end well she died at the end okay the the narrator of the story let's call her Sue okay I've just realized that her name in the story is Natalie but uh I forgot that so I'm calling her Sue so sue died at the end of that story and I I do like a story in which the Storyteller dies at the end because obviously it's ridiculous because it doesn't make sense you know I was walking down the street and suddenly a piano landed on my head and then I died like it's impossible you can't if you died you can't tell the story but you know that's the twist isn't it you don't expect it to to to end like that maybe Sue is telling this story in the afterlife or maybe she's a ghost now or something I don't know sometimes with literature you can break all the rules it doesn't really matter but uh still it's quite funny when the when the narrator actually dies at the end of the story that they're telling so the narrator let's call her Sue she lives with her flatmate Janice Janice Works in a hospital in the uh accident and emergency department of the hospital so uh one day Janice um is reading a book and she reads a line from this book it's a scary book that she's reading so she reads a line from a scary book that she's reading and the line in the book says that if you ever meet your doppelganger you'll die it's kind of scary thing that you get in a scary book now Sue doesn't usually believe that kind of thing right she doesn't like those sorts of stories she prefers those sorts of Nordic crime uh stories instead the more hard-boiled detective stories not horror stuff so Janice likes horror Sue doesn't so sue doesn't usually believe that kind of thing she's not superstitious she's not prone to getting scared by scary stories but the idea gets into her head and as she is leaving the house one day a week later she suddenly gets scared that she might meet her doppelganger and die because she says the like after Janice has said this to her and Sue has kind of brushed it off our nonsense when she when she's brushing her teeth in the in the bathroom she looks herself in the mirror and she says the lines if you see your doppelganger you'll die she says while she's looking in the mirror and then about a week later as she's leaving the house her hand is on the door handle to go out and the line comes in her head again if you see your doppelganger you'll die and she quickly takes her hand off the door handle and she she decides to stay at home in fact she keeps staying at home every day the idea of meeting her doppelganger has made her too terrified to leave the house and Janice gets worried about Sue and arranges for her to meet a therapist at the hospital and she assures Sue that nothing can happen to her on the way don't worry nothing's going to happen to you between here and the hospital she assures her so sue agrees to leave the house in fact Janice kind of doesn't give her any choice but at the uh but while crossing the road uh let's say at the main road at the main road which is like a busy road um someone Taps her on the shoulder and Sue turns around and sees her own reflection and she shrieks she screams in Fright in Terror and everyone gets stunned because it's so shocking because Sue has turned around and seen her own reflection she sees her own doppelganger although it's a reflection of herself in a mirror because the man who tapped her on the shoulder was trying to carry a mirror across the road and he wanted to ask her to step to one side to make some space but Sue turned around and saw her doppelganger her reflection in the mirror and she screamed and because she was so surprised she stepped back into the road and was hit by a large lorry a lorry is a big truck sort of big truck that carries lots of a big truck with a big storage container on the back big heavy Lorry now one of those ones um so she stepped back shocked into the street and was hit by a lorry and no doubt killed so there you go a creepy little story with a Twist at the end I thought you might enjoy it but that's it that's the end of the episode check out LEP premium though because I'm going to do a little premium series using that story um we'll look at the grammar we'll look at the vocab I will give you um memory a memory test with it we'll do some pronunciation practice as usual um and all that stuff okay but thanks for watching this episode thank you for listening I hope that's been enjoyable for you let me know what you think leave your comments in the comments section sign up to Luke's English podcast in a podcast app of your choice on your phone just go into your phone whatever podcast app you use it could be Pocket Casts it could be apple podcasts it could be Google podcasts or Podcast Addict or something search for Luke's English podcast you can get the episode archive listen to all my episodes on your headphones and stuff like that and you can get the premium episodes in your podcast app of choice as well um and that's it okay have a lovely morning afternoon evening or night and I will speak to you again soon but for now it's just time to say goodbye bye bye bye bye bye

Channel: Luke's English Podcast

Views: 1,101,998

Keywords: learn, learning, english, lesson, lessons, luke, podcast, luke's, vocabulary, native, speaker, interviews, listening, pronunciation, british, accent, london

Id: d-mL1MnkCD0

Length: 73min 41sec (4421 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 02 2022