Lottery Jackpot
Two friends discuss winning the lottery jackpot. The Grammar focus is on Conditionals.
Waylon: “What would you do if you won the lottery?”
Jag: “I would definitely buy a new house. What about you?”
Waylon: “No question. I would buy a new BMW.”
Jag: “But you could have more than that.”
Waylon: “Well, that would be a good start. I guess I’d go to Hawaii on vacation.”
Jag: “Maybe you could stay on vacation there.”
Waylon: “No, I would not want to stay there. I would travel.”
Jag: “Where to?”
Waylon: “Everywhere. What about you?”
Jag: “I would want land with my house, so I could plant a garden.”
Waylon: “You mean, grow your own vegetables?”
Jag: “Not just vegetables. I want a winery.”
Waylon: “A winery! What a fantastic idea!”
Jag: “Now just give me the moolah.”
VOCABULARY WITH IDIOMS
Moolah is slang for money. Also spelled “moola.” See online Idioms Dictionary.
ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Suggested topic for Comments: Conditionals
“If I won the lottery, I would buy a new house.” Of the two Imaginative Conditionals, the Counterfactual and the Hypothetical, this is the classic Present Hypothetical Conditional formulation in language study. The if-clause expresses something unlikely but theoretically possible and is expressed in the past tense.
INTERMEDIATE-ADVANCED DIALOGUE
New Idioms are “Con game” and “Snowball’s chance in hell.” The Grammar focuses on the Modal “would.”
Taylor: “Did you see that Powerball is up to $800 million?”
Gerald: “I did, and I also know I’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell of winning it.”
Taylor: “I know, but somebody wins these things.”
Gerald: “Maybe nobody does, but they just run a scam on the public?”
Taylor: “Well, you’d probably never know. That’s often the name of the game.”
Gerald: “Actually I think you would. There must be part-time journalists who would run this down and find out the truth. I haven’t personally ever heard of any con game discovered, have you?”
Taylor: “No. But who knows?”
Gerald: “What would you do with that kind of money?”
Taylor: “I’d definitely go to Paris and visit the Louvre and all the great sites, and drink coffee at an outdoor cafe.”
Gerald: “I’d buy a house with a view of the ocean! The waves beating on the cliffs.”
Taylor: “With all these hurricanes and such, I might want to be a little further back than right on the seashore!”
Gerald: “You’re probably right, and with that kind of moolah I’m sure you could find the perfect place.”
VOCABULARY WITH IDIOMS
Snowball’s chance in hell means effectively no chance at all. See the online Idiom Dictionary.
The name of the game means the way things are, the way they can be expected to be. See the online Idiom Dictionary.
Run down means to review something from top to bottom, go over something. See the online Idiom Dictionary.
Find out means to discover, learn something. See online Idioms Dictionary.
Con game means a swindle in which the victim is defrauded after his or her trust has been won. See the online Idiom Dictionary.
ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Suggested Topic for Comments: Meanings and Uses of the Modal “Would”
Modals often break down into conveying logical probability (“That would be my father,” upon seeing him arrive) vs. social interaction (“They would drink together after going shopping”) but the modal “would” has one other core meaning, when speaking of the past: ability/tendency. For example, “When he went fishing, he would always catch something.”
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