When you need this

If you live in a house, there's a whole second list of jobs outside: the lawn, the garden, the gutters, the driveway, and the snow in winter. Neighbors talk about these things all the time, over the fence or on the sidewalk, and borrowing tools is one of the most common favors in any neighborhood.

A lot of outside work is seasonal, so people talk about it in terms of timing: before the rain, once it warms up, by the end of fall. Borrowing is polite and indirect ("Could I borrow your ladder for an hour?"), and you always say when you'll bring it back.

Phrases

cut the grass

give plants water

take out plants you don't want

collect fallen leaves with a rake

cut the bushes neatly

remove leaves from the channels on the roof edge

clear snow with a shovel

the short private road from the street to your house

asking a neighbor for a tool

promising when you'll return it

a long tube for water

too long or too thick because nobody has cut it

Say it out loud

Tap a sentence to hear it. Say it after the voice.

Practice · 3 min

Say the line that fits. Situation on the left, one natural line on the right.

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Say it today

Use it once in a real conversation before tomorrow. Out loud counts, even to yourself.