8. France Loses Two National Holidays

Now the vocabulary in more detail, where we talk about the important aspects of usage and pronunciation.

So the first piece of vocabulary was bank holiday, and this is a day’s holiday from work or school. It’s a public holiday, but we very often say bank holiday in English.

Why do we say that? It’s because, originally, banks closed for the day and if they weren’t open, most other businesses closed too.

The term comes from the Bank Holidays Act of 1871 introduced by Sir John Lubbock. That law officially named a few days each year when banks had to close. Before that, banks only closed on religious festivals and Sundays.

You can use this term in a longer phrase, so, for example, bank holiday weekend or bank holiday Monday.

And in the UK, bank holidays are generally Mondays, which means we don’t get bridges where an extra day is added to make a long weekend. And I think this is quite sensible.

So how many days do we get? Well, I told you in the news story – we get eight. And I’ll tell you what they all are. This is in England and Wales, by the way, so Scotland and Northern Ireland have slightly more.

We get New Year’s Day, which is the 1st of January. This can be any day, and if it falls on the weekend, you get the next Monday off.

Good Friday. That’s what we call the Friday before Easter Sunday: Good Friday, that’s a bank holiday.

And then the Monday after Easter Sunday is just called Easter Monday – that’s also a bank holiday.

Then it’s not just France that has lots of bank holidays in May. We have some too. We have the Early May Bank Holiday, which is the first Monday in May and the last Monday in May, which is the Spring Bank Holiday.

We also have a bank holiday in August, which is the Summer Bank Holiday.

These are all Mondays.

Then, of course, Christmas Day. And if that falls on the weekend, then you get the next working day off.

And we also get the 26th of December, which I think is unusual in Europe. Am I right? And do you know what we call this day, the 26th of December? We call it Boxing Day.

So those are our bank holidays in England and Wales.

Number two, vocabulary item number two was axe. This can be used as a noun or a verb, and I’ll give you examples of both.

And literally, an axe is a tool with a heavy metal blade and a long handle used for cutting wood. You hold it with two hands and bring it down quickly onto the wood, and it cuts it.

And just as an axe cuts down trees or wood in metaphor, it represents someone or something being cut off or removed, often suddenly and decisively.

It can also mean, and commonly does mean, someone losing their job. So for example, After the budget cuts, several employees got the axe.

So you can use it like that : to get the axe. It means they get rid of you. You no longer have a job.

So you can say, get the axe. Face the axe. This means that you are expected to be got rid of soon. I’m facing the axe. I might be axed soon.

And things can also be axed. So if you’re talking about television, for example, you can say, The show was axed after just one series. So here it’s a passive verb, and it means that they ended the show after just one series.

Other ways of saying axe would be scrap. So France might axe two bank holidays. Or you could say they might scrap two bank holidays: S, C, R, A, P.

You can say cut as well. They’re cutting bank holidays.

Get rid of, of course.

And what’s a formal way of saying axe, scrap, cut? Abolish, abolish. So you could also say that France are thinking about abolishing two of their bank holidays.

Axe is spelt A-X-E in British English. In American English, you don’t have that final E, but you’re not here to learn American English, are you?!

Number three was put the cat among the pigeons, which is an idiom. And I really like this one, although I feel sorry for the pigeons. And this means that you cause trouble, upset people or create a disturbance, especially by saying or doing something unexpected that shocks or worries others.

And of course, it comes from the image of a cat entering a group of poor pigeons, and the pigeons scatter in all directions in panic, just as people do when a situation becomes tense or difficult.

So we heard in the story that the Prime Minister has set the cat among the pigeons with his idea for removing, for abolishing, two days off.

But you can also use it in other contexts. For example, in a work context, His resignation set the cat among the pigeons, just days before the election.

And there I said, set the cat among the pigeons, S-E-T, which is slightly less common but we can also say that: put the cat among the pigeons, or set the cat among the pigeons.

And you can also say amongst, in case you’re wondering that. That’s a bit more formal, but still quite common in British English – amongst. Set the cat amongst the pigeons, or put the cat amongst the pigeons is fine as well.

So do you like that idiom? I think it’s great. Very visual.

Number four was day off, and this is really important to use correctly because I don’t think many learners would naturally use this. It probably isn’t translated literally, word for word, into other languages. So try to use this when you’re talking about time away from work.

And a day off is a day when you don’t have to work or go to school, and it’s usually a rest or a break.

So how do you use it in a sentence. Well, you take a day off if you decide not to work that day. So for example, I’m taking a day off tomorrow. I’m taking a day off tomorrow.

You can also say, by the way, I’m taking tomorrow off. I’m taking tomorrow off. So you can use it just with off, without day, like that as well. Or you can say, I’m taking Wednesday off. It’s very flexible.

There’s also the plural, so days off, and you can use it with the verb get, which means what you receive from your employer. So for example, We don’t get many days off during the busy season. We don’t get many days off during the busy season.

It can also be used when you’re talking about when you typically don’t work, so in a schedule, in a work rota. So for example, maybe you generally work Monday to Thursday, but you don’t work Friday. You work in a shop, for example, and you don’t work on Friday. So you can say, I won’t be in tomorrow. Friday’s my day off.

I won’t be in. That means I won’t be at work. I won’t be in tomorrow. Friday’s my day off.

Let’s focus on the pronunciation for a minute. When we speak more quickly, we link the two words, and it sounds almost more like day-yoff. Day-yoff. So the y attaches to the beginning of off: day off, day off.

You can also say time off. I told you it was very flexible, this off word. This is any amount of time away from work, which can be a day or several days, or, in fact, just an hour or so.

So, for example, I took some time off this afternoon to visit the doctor. I took some time off this afternoon to visit the doctor.

Or you can specify. So if it was one hour, you can say, I took an hour off this afternoon to visit the doctor.

I’m linking again. Did you hear that? Hou-roff. I took an hour off this afternoon to visit the doctor.

Work-life balance. That was number five. How do you use this in a sentence? Well, for example, I have a good work-life balance, or It can be difficult to get the right work-life balance.

You can also say many people struggle to maintain a healthy work-life balance when working from home.

How about you? Do you have a good work-life balance? Or do you work too much?

Thinking about the pronunciation for a second – work-life balance – the second vowel sound in balance is a schwa, my favourite vowel sound. It can be represented by any letter [any vowel, I meant]. Here it’s represented by an A. /ə/. Balance. /əns/. Work-life balance.