Colloquial 2.7 – In Town: 10 Town Idioms in English

Katie starts this one with a confession: “we’re not really in town at the moment, we’re on the edge of town in a park aren’t we?” Which is fitting, because almost none of the expressions in this unit are about towns either. A crossroads becomes a life decision, a corner becomes a business tactic, and the underground becomes somewhere you hide from people who want their money back. Two conversations, ten expressions, and one very convincing horse noise.

What you'll hear in this episode

The first conversation is Katie sitting in the street with a coffee with Clare, playing the game the pack uses throughout: Katie describes an expression, Clare has to guess it. Clare gets at a crossroads almost immediately and explains it herself — a moment in life with “two possible ways to go, if you like”. She lands to cut corners next, though not before adding, “I’m not saying that I’m the type of person to cut corners.” Then come three uses of the same word: to corner the market (“Oh, lucky guess I think,” she says), to corner someone at a party you can’t escape from, and finally to go underground, which Clare describes as “almost like to become invisible”.

In the second conversation Katie is in the park with Tom. He guesses a man about town and immediately sees the follow-up question coming: “I knew you were going to ask me that.” Asked whether he still qualifies, he offers an alternative — “a man about house”. He supplies a real example of the talk of the town (“Barcelona lost a football game last night against Bayern Munich… four zero, four nil”), works out a one horse town from Katie's sound effect and then takes it literally for a joke: “So that means there’s just one horse, in that town.” A night on the town and to hit the road finish the set, and one of the speakers admits the previous night's small night on the town is why he's “not quite as well today”.

Quick facts

Episode	Colloquial 2.7 – In Town
Pack	Colloquial 2
Level	2
Duration	19 minutes 09 seconds
Recorded	On the edge of town, in a park
Expressions taught	10, with politeness ratings 1–3
Speakers	Katie, Clare and Tom

What you'll learn

The real difficulty with these expressions isn't the vocabulary — it's the small words around it. Tom's first guess for “to leave” is “to hit town?”, which Katie confirms is a genuine expression that means something completely different: going into town, usually for a night out. One preposition apart, two different meanings. The workbook drills exactly this: it's at a crossroads, not in a crossroads; the talk of the town, not on; a man about town, not on.

You'll also hear corner working as a noun, a verb and part of a fixed phrase inside a few minutes, which is a useful reminder that learning the word isn't the same as learning the expression. And because the conversation is unscripted, you get the guessing process itself — Katie feeding Clare the first sound (“C…c…c”), Clare checking “Is that right?”, Tom hesitating on “One something town” before the answer arrives. That's how native speakers actually retrieve idioms under pressure, and it's good listening practice at a level where everything is signposted.

After each conversation, a scripted Meaning and Pronunciation section asks you to recall each expression from a definition and repeat it after the beep, with a model sentence like “He cornered me and talked to me for ages.”

Vocabulary from this episode

to cut corners (1) – to not do something well or properly because you want to finish it quickly or because you want to save money — Clare's favourite of the set
at a crossroads (1) – at a point in life where you need to make a big decision about what to do next
to corner the market (1) – to have most of the business for a particular product or service — “more of a business expression”, as Katie puts it
to corner someone (1) – to have somebody in a situation where it is difficult for them to get away from you
to go underground (1) – to hide, especially to avoid the police or a difficult situation
a man about town (1) – a man who is very sociable and goes to all the most fashionable parties and places
the talk of the town (2) – the subject of everybody’s conversations, what everyone is talking about
a one horse town (1) – a very small and boring town
a night on the town (2) – a night out, usually to have a party / drinks
to hit the road (1) – to leave a place, to start a journey

In the workbook

The workbook carries the full transcript of both conversations, so you can check anything you missed in Clare's explanations or Tom's asides, plus the scripted teaching sections written out. The glossary lists all ten expressions with a 1–3 politeness rating, so you know that the talk of the town and a night on the town sit at level 2 — best kept for people you know well.

There are two exercises. Practice Exercise 1 is a matching task: six sentence beginnings, six endings, including “They have completely cornered…” and “Didn’t you hear? It's…”. Practice Exercise 2 is error correction, and it targets precisely the mistakes learners make with these phrases — in a real crossroads, the talk on the town, a real two horse town, a man on the town. Full answers are included.

This workbook is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack — every episode, every transcript, every exercise, for €39.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Common questions

Is the conversation scripted?

The conversations are unscripted — Clare and Tom are genuinely guessing, and it shows. The teaching sections that set up the tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

What level is this episode?

Level 2. The expressions are idiomatic, but Katie defines each one before asking for it, so you meet the meaning first and the phrase second.

Do I need the workbook to follow along?

No — the audio works on its own. The workbook adds the transcript, the glossary with politeness ratings, and the two written exercises.

Why do so many of these phrases have nothing to do with towns?

That's the point of the unit. Corners, crossroads and undergrounds are all real features of a town, and English has quietly repurposed every one of them into something figurative.

How long is the episode?

19 minutes 09 seconds, split into two conversations with a recall-and-repeat section after each.

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