O podcast de hoje fala sobre expressões com MAKE (a inspiração veio de um tweet da Ira – sigam: @iraloiola)

Transcrição

Hi, how’s it going? This is Ana Luiza with a new episode of the inglesonline podcast. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

So today let’s talk about one very common verb, one that every English student, even a beginner, knows of: MAKE. And you may think this is a lesson for beginners, but bear with me… If these expressions are not coming out of your mouth automatically yet, you will likely get something out of this podcast.

I’m gonna use a few expressions with “make” and give you a few examples. Let’s get started with the title of this episode. Yeah, the title in Portuguese. You know the meaning of that title. So picture a little girl in front of you. She’s pretending she is someone famous. Let’s say she’s pretending she is Madonna, the singer. So the little girl is dancing and singing, and then she starts speaking as if she was being interviewed. She’s impersonating Madonna, which means, she’s imitating Madonna’s gestures, facial expressions, Madonna’s voice… She’s impersonating Madonna and you are truly impressed. You think this little girl has potential. Now she’s telling you about a school play she’s in, where she plays the lead role. She starts reciting her lines, and once again you’re impressed. You really think she’s talented. You tell her “You are going to make a great actress”. In Portuguese, we could say something like the title of the podcast. So again “You are going to make a great actress”.

Has anyone ever said something like that to you? When I was a kid someone told me “You’re gonna make a great cook”. That didn’t happen, so I have no idea where they got that from, although to be fair my cooking skills have advanced over the years. So here are a few more examples: you see someone practicing a song for an audition, and you know this person’s dream is to become a professional singer. You could say “You’re gonna make a great singer”. You bump into an old friend at a store and she’s pregnant. You have known her since childhood and she’s a very caring person. You could say “You’re gonna make an amazing mom”. You’re spending your Sunday afternoon at the park and you see a little boy playing soccer with his little friends. You think he’s very talented, so you could say “He’s gonna make a great player some day”.

That makes sense, right? There’s another expression with MAKE right here: “that makes sense”. OK, so it makes sense to say “He’s gonna make a great player”. We learn in school that ‘make’ has to do with creating, building something. So you’re gonna make a great actress, you’re gonna make a great mom. He’s gonna make a great player. It makes sense to use MAKE in these sentences. Would you agree?

Now listen to these sentences: the girl got a new doll on her birthday, and that made her happy. Getting a new doll made her happy. The boy missed his favorite TV show today, and that made him sad. Missing the TV show made him sad. Another one: it always makes me happy when my friends give me a call. Or, it always makes me sad when I watch the news on TV.

Here, we’re using MAKE to communicate that something changes your mood. The little girl felt happy after she got the doll. The doll made her happy. The boy felt sad because he missed the TV show. So, missing the show made him sad. Talking to my friends on the phone makes me happy.