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ANNE and SARAH plan a meeting.
SARAH is working at her computer. ANNE knocks at the open door.

SARAH
Come in Anne.

ANNE
Good morning!

SARAH
Good morning. Are you feeling better today?

ANNE
Yes thank you.

SARAH
What’s on the agenda?

ANNE
I’m thinking about this trip to the wineries. I want to meet your main suppliers and talk to them about the market.

SARAH
Great. They’ve been dying to meet you. When do you want to go?

ANNE
As soon as possible. How about tomorrow?

SARAH
I can’t tomorrow. I’ve got some other appointments. What about the day after tomorrow?

ANNE
Yes, that’s good. It’s Monday today, so that will be Wednesday. What date is that?

SARAH
The fifth of November.

ANNE
Okay. What time shall we meet?

SARAH
I’ll pick you up at nine o-clock.

ANNE
Good. How many wineries do you think we’ll be able to see?

SARAH
I’m not sure, four or five. Definitely our biggest suppliers, and maybe a few surprises.

ANNE
I can’t wait. Will it take all day?

SARAH
Most of the day. I’ll start ringing now, and let them know we have a very important client all the way from Singapore.

ANNE
Thank you. I’m looking forward to it.

SARAH
Me too.

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1. MAKING ARRANGEMENTS

To make plans or arrangements we have to find out the time that is best by asking:
When do you want to go?
When do you want to meet?

When asks about the time.
 

Want to asks about what the person you’re asking hopes to do.
Often that person will reply:
When do you want to meet?
As soon as possible.
This means that they want to go very soon or in the next few days.
 

To work out what day and time is best for both people you need to make suggestions. You can say:
When do you want to meet?
As soon as possible. What about tomorrow?
or
When do you want to meet?
As soon as possible. How about tomorrow?

Tomorrow is the day after today.
If today is Monday, tomorrow is Tuesday.
 

SARAH
When do you want to go?

ANNE
As soon as possible. How about tomorrow?

 

We use the word shall when making suggestions about the future.
What time shall we meet?
 

ANNE
What time shall we meet?
  We use the word shall in questions about what is going to happen. It has the same meaning as will.
 

You could say
What shall I wear to the party?
or
Where shall we go?
 

The word shall is only used with I and we.
What shall I wear to the party?
Where shall we go?

    3. ORDINAL NUMBERS  

These sorts of numbers tell us the order of things in time.
Monday is the first day of the week.
Tuesday is the second.
Wednesday is the third.
Thursday is the fourth.
Friday is the fifth.
Saturday is the sixth.
Sunday is the seventh.
Sunday is also the last or final day of the week.

All of the adjectival numbers except for first, second and third have a th on the end.
For example
ninth
tenth
eleventh
twelfth
thirteenth
fourteenth
fifteenth
sixteenth
And so on.

Numbers with a v – five and twelve –
change their vs
to fs and drop the e when adding th
five/ fifth, twelve/ twelfth.

Numbers such as twenty, thirty and forty change their ys to is and add eth
twenty /twentieth
thirty/ thirtieth
forty/ fortieth
And so on.

For numbers such as twenty-three and thirty-one we say and write
twenty third
thirty first

We also write these numbers like this:
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
20th
21st
And so on.

Listen to the ordinal numbers.
first
second
third
fourth
fifth
sixth
seventh
eighth
ninth
tenth
eleventh
twelfth
thirteenth
fourteenth
fifteenth
sixteenth
seventeenth
eighteenth
nineteenth
twentieth
twenty first  

  4. DATES

When we say a date, for example November 5, we use the
the fifth of November
and the ordinal number for the day
the fifth of November
and say of
the fifth of November
and then the month:
the fifth of November
 

SARAH
The fifth of November.

    5. AT, ON & IN  

When we talk about the time, we use the words in, on and at in different ways.
 

For exact times we use at:
I’ll see you at nine o’clock.
The meeting is at eleven o’clock.
 

For days and dates we use on:
I’ll see you on Friday.
Let’s meet on Monday.
Let's meet on the fifth of November.
 

We often use at and on like this:
I’ll see you at nine o’clock on Friday.
The meeting is at eleven o’clock on the fifth of November.
 

We use in to talk about the amount of time that will pass before something happens.
I'll see you in a week's time.
 

SARAH
I’ll pick you up at nine o-clock.
 

    6. FRACTIONS  

 Fractions are numbers that are less than one.
 

We call something like this complete circle a whole.  

This is a half of a circle.
We can also say that it’s one half of a circle or use the symbol ½ .  

This is a quarter of a circle.
We can also say that it’s one quarter of a circle or use the symbol ¼ .  

This is an eighth of a circle.
We can also say that it’s one eighth of a circle or use the symbol 1/8

 

Except for a half and a quarter the numbers are the same as the numbers we use for dates and the order of things, but we always say an or a or one before them:
an eighth / one eighth / 1/8
a sixteenth / one sixteenth / 1/16
a twentieth / one twentieth / 1/20

We say an eighth because eighth begins with a vowel sound.
We will explain how to use an and a in episode 14.