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Complete English transcript
Your parcel has been delivered, but it is not outside your door.
A short message tells you where to look.
Can you solve the case?
Welcome to English Detective, from Your English Toolbox.
I am Julia.
And I am Martin.
Today we are looking for a parcel.
Listen once, make a choice, then check the language clues with us.
Here is the message.
We could not leave your parcel by the front door because of the rain.
We left it with your neighbour at number eighteen.
Please pick it up before eight this evening.
Where is the parcel?
By your front door, at your neighbour's home, or at the delivery office?
And what is the latest collection time mentioned?
I heard front door first.
I almost stopped listening there.
That is the trap our attention can fall into.
The message says could not leave it there.
The first location is rejected.
The next sentence gives the actual location.
Our first useful expression is leave something with someone.
It means to put something in a person's care.
We left it with your neighbour.
The neighbour is looking after it until you collect it.
Compare that with leave something by something.
By the front door means beside or near the door.
With your neighbour means in that person's care.
Exactly.
For another situation: You can leave your key with the receptionist.
The receptionist keeps it for you.
That does not mean placing it beside the reception desk and walking away.
Our second expression is pick something up.
Here, pick up means collect.
Please pick up your parcel.
Please pick it up.
When we use a pronoun such as it, it goes between pick and up.
Not pick up it.
Pick it up.
You can also pick someone up from a station, meaning go and collect them.
Our third clue is before eight.
Before gives a time boundary.
Arrive earlier than eight, not at eight thirty.
So the answer is: the parcel is with my neighbour at number eighteen.
I should collect it before eight this evening.
Let us hear the important part again.
We left it with your neighbour at number eighteen.
Please pick it up before eight this evening.
Now I hear the person, the address and the time limit.
Three details that tell me what to do.
Here is a new case.
Listen carefully.
Your repaired laptop is ready.
We have left it with the receptionist, not in the repair room.
Please pick it up before six today.
Where should you go, and when?
To the receptionist, before six.
The repair room is mentioned, but the word not rules it out.
Always listen to the whole message, not just the first familiar place.
Now complete a sentence you might really use: Could you pick up...
Could you pick up the shopping?
Could you pick me up after work?
The situation changes, but the useful phrase stays.
Leave it with someone: put it in their care.
Pick it up: collect it.
Before a time: earlier than that time.
Follow the link in the description to our episode page at yourenglishtoolbox.com.
You can read the message while listening in Cinema Mode.
Case closed.
See you next time.
