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Episode 24: Bush Retreat

Transcript

We look at the easily confused words bought and brought, and show you how to list things.

I'm Paul Dymock, one of the owners of Huon Bush Retreats and Huon Bush Retreats is just 50 minutes south from Hobart. We have 3 studio cabins, 2 two bedroom cabins, 2 tepees and a campground.

Listen again to how Paul lists his accommodation.

We have 3 studio cabins, 2 two bedroom cabins, 2 tepees and a campground.

Only the last thing is introduced with 'and'. Here's another list:

We are on 1 square kilometre of various habitats here including forest, sub-alpine heathland and of course the accommodation village.

Again, he only uses 'and' for the final thing.

So what do you find in these various habitats?

Being a private nature reserve we've got all sorts of critters that live here in the wide range of habitats that we have.

All sort of critters. Critters is slang for creatures or animals.

What critter is he holding?

This little fella here - his name's Rory and he's a rufous wallaby. We've raised him from a little joey.

It's a wallaby. They've raised him from a joey - that's the term for a baby kangaroo or wallaby.

So why do they have him?

Someone brought him up when his mum got killed on the road and we've had him for about 6 or 8 months now.

His mum got killed on the road and he was still alive in her pouch. Someone brought him up - this means someone brought him to the bush retreat. Here brought is the past tense of bring. You bring things to places. In the past someone brought the joey to Paul.

Now listen for the word 'bought':

We actually bought this property from a logging company with the idea of saving it and then the Huon Bush Retreats business came along as a way that we could actually afford to do that.

Bought is the past tense of buy. They bought the property a while ago. Notice that bought, like buy, has no 'r'. Look and listen: buy bought; bring brought.

What do people do at the bush retreat?

We have 4 kilometres of bushwalking tracks We've got an easy half to three quarter hour loop. Most people can do that with ordinary fitness, ordinary street shoes. People can have a really nice 5 or 6 hours just enjoying our whole bushwalking track network.

They can go bushwalking, which is walking in the bush, or wild country.

So we've seen that lists have only one 'and' at the end, that brought is the past tense of bring while bought is the past tense of buy and that critters are creatures.

We'll finish with the expression 'where we're coming from', which means the sort of ideas or philosophy people have.

We want our guests to understand where we're coming from with the conservation thing. It's a great place where people can actually come and experience alternative energy and alternative ways of looking after the environment. Try it out for themselves and go away with some ideas of maybe how they can look after the environment in their own homes in the future.

English Bites is an informative and entertaining way to improve your knowledge of the English language.

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