Hello, everyone!

O podcast de hoje fala de algumas expressões idiomáticas. Ouça como dizer:

* É de família

* falar rapidinho com alguém

* Pare de enrolar, de fazer rodeio

Transcrição

Hi, this is Ana Luiza with a new episode of inglesonline podcast. To read the transcript for this podcast go to inglesonline.com.br and type Como digo em inglês: é de família into the search box. This podcast was published on January 30, 2010.

So today I was thinking about some idioms, or idiomatic expressions that I heard or used recently. Here’s one of them: something that runs in the family. That means something that several members of a family share in common. It can be anything, really. It can be a personality trait, or a physical trait, some kind of behavior. So for example: in my case, thick hair runs in the family. My mother has thick hair, and it’s the same with me and my sister. We all have thick hair, so we say that thick hair runs in the family.

I remember when Julia Roberts, the actress, was pregnant and she announced that she was expecting twins. And I remember that she said that twins run in the family. So that means that other people in her family have had twins, maybe she has relatives who are twins… so twins run in the family.

Another expression I want to talk about is touch base. When I worked in sales, my boss would sometimes call me in the middle of the day and she would say, Ana, I just wanted to touch base with you and see how you’re doing. So for example when you call someone and say that you want to touch base with this person it means that you want to make contact, you want to talk to this person briefly, maybe to see how he or she is doing, maybe to let this person know about some change of plans, or just to make some contact.

For example, I usually touch base with my sister via email or Skype. Oh, and in case you’re curious, touch base is an expression that comes from baseball, the sport. And here’s another expression that I have been hearing a lot recently: beating around the bush. When someone is beating around the bush, this person is not saying things in a very direct way. This person is being indirect or vague because maybe they are afraid to say what they really think about something, or they don’t want to hurt someone else’s feelings. You will usually hear people say “Stop beating around the bush” or “Quit beating around the bush”, which means stop being vague, you know, say what you really mean, say what you really think. So, stop beating around the bush and be direct.

So what are your examples? What runs in your family? When was the last time you asked someone to stop beating around the bush?

Talk to you next time.

 

Key expressions:

* It runs in the family (é de família)

* to touch base (fazer um contato com alguém, geralmente breve, a respeito de alguma coisa)

* beating around the bush (dando volta, fazendo rodeio, sendo indireto)

 

Glossary

personality trait = característica de personalidade

briefly = rapidamente

be vague = ser vago

 

What runs in your family?