6D Travel plans

What about you?

• When you go on holiday, do you ever use a travel agent?
• What can travel agents do to help you?
• Would you book a plane flight over the phone, at a travel agent's or on the Internet?
• Do you think women are better at planning and organizing holidays - or men?
• If you are choosing a flight, a coach journey or a hotel, what is more important to you - the price or the quality?
• Someone says 'I know a really cheap ticket. You can fly around the world for $20.' What questions would you ask about the ticket before you bought it?
• Do you mind waiting at an airport or does it drive you mad/crazy?
• Have you ever had to change planes/trains many times on a journey?
• Do you buy a guidebook when you go to a new place?

->Travel agents can help you with the following: provide you with information, give advice, book flights, hotels, arrange other services such as car hire, insurance, etc.

Language corner

- It's all very up in the air means 'it's still uncertain; nothing has been finally decided yet'.

- A direct flight is one that doesn't stop at other airports during the hourney.

- Hold on a sec means 'wait a second'.

- The flight time is how long the flight takes (not the time the plane takes off).

Language notes

Usually, in English the longer the question, the more polite it sounds (and the rarer it is). In a normal dialogue it would be quite unusual to hear the last three examples from this table:

• You could add please to all the above questions to make them even more polite.
• If or whether are used when the question has a yes or no answer.
• I wonder if ... is often used when you want to ask someone to help you or do something, eg I wonder if you could help me carry the shopping up the stairs?
• The auxiliary verbs do/does/did are usually left out in indirect questions, eg 
• Do you like Rihanna? 
• I wonder if you like Rihanna?
• Why did you move to Europe? 
• I was wondering why you moved to Europe.
• How much does this motorcycle cost?
• Could you tell me how much this motorcycle costs?

Some phrases used to begin indirect questions are:

- Could you tell me...?
- Do you know ...?
- I was wondering...?
- Do you have any idea...?
- I'd like to know...?
- Would it be possible ...?
- Is there any chance...?

Check out the following youtube video on indirect questions:

For further explanations on the topic check out the following link:
Perfect English Grammar: Indirect Questions. It even includes a nice table with examples of direct and indirect questions.

If you want to practice indirect questions, try the following link:
Quiz: Indirect questions

Grammar corner

If you want further practice on the use of the possessive 's/s' check out the following link:

Possessive apostrophe 's 

Pronunciation corner

Following is a Youtube video on word stress (8:30 minutes):