Learn a fun new idiom and how to use conditionals with "unless"

Date: Jan 11 2011

Themes: Soap Opera

Grammar: Conditionals with "Unless"

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Intro

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Some things are just so unlikely, so ridiculous, that you use a completely ridiculous idiom to describe them. That’s where the flying pigs come in.

See, if you want to say something will never happen, you can say it will happen when pigs fly. Because, you know, pigs don’t fly.

If you love to eat pie and someone suggests you eat candy instead, you could say, “Oh, OK, I’ll choose candy instead of pie…when pigs fly!” Or, if some fool thinks you’re on Ebaby! too much, you can say, “I’ll stop using Ebaby! when pigs fly!”

Jason gets to use this fun phrase when Jeff asks him about his relationship. He also finds a few opportunities to use the conditional and the word “unless.”

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Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Jeff

Jason

Dale

Jeff: So, yeah, what’s the deal? You called me a while back and wanted to hang out when your leg was broken. What…what’s the deal? Devan wasn’t around to take care of you? Are you guys still together?

Jason: Yeah, yeah! We’re totally still together! She was just driving me a little nuts when my leg was broken. But, you know. You know how those things go.

Jeff: But…so you and Devan aren’t…You’re not gonna break up?

Jason: Oh, yeah, when pigs fly! I mean, I wouldn’t break up with Devan unless something really drastic happened. You know? Unless she…made out with someone else. Um, you know, I wouldn’t break up with her unless she took my credit card and maxed it out, and spent all my money. You know, something like that. It would take something really extreme.

Jeff: What about if all her hair falls out again?

Jason: Oh…

Jeff: That wasn’t good.

Jason: All of her hair falling out…Well, you know, even that, it would be, like…

Dale: Hey, that’s a pig! It’s flying! It’s a flying pig! It’s…flying! There’s a pig! It’s flying. It’s a flying pig.

Jason: Really?

Dale: That’s a flying pig!

Grammar Point

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Discussion

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Jeff asks Jason if he and Devan are going to break up. He knows they had some difficulties in their relationship recently.

But Jason says everything is fine. In fact, he says he’ll break up with Devan when pigs fly. He goes on to list some extreme cases that might cause him to break up with her, like if she kissed someone else, stole from him or lost all of her hair again. But those things seem so unlikely, they’ll only happen when pigs fly, so Jason and Devan should be OK.

Suddenly, Dale comes and says that he sees a flying a pig out the window. Now, Dale can be a little crazy, it might be nothing, but Jason looks concerned. What do you think is going on? Can you think of something so unlikely that it will happen when pigs fly?