Hello, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online vamos ver (ouvir!) como dizer em inglês algumas expressões em português, como “Estamos a caminho”, “Quando você estiver saindo” e “no caminho pra tal lugar”.

Transcrição

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So today I wanna talk to you about how to use the word WAY properly in a couple of situations. I’ve written an English tip about WAY before, but this time I’d like to focus on a few things we say in Portuguese and how to use WAY to say them in English. What am I talking about? I wanna be very clear, so I’m gonna read the kinds of things we say in Portuguese that are related to today’s expressions:

* A gente tá a caminho;

* Pega o lixo quando você estiver saindo

* Vi um artista famoso no caminho pro trabalho hoje

We can say all of those using the word WAY. And actually, we use kind of the same expression, or term, for all of them. And, again, this is something I don’t hear a lot of students say. I don’t know whether this is considered basic or advanced; what I know is, that’s a pretty useful little expression and you’ll hear it all the time in movies and TV series.

So here it is: ON my WAY, ON his WAY, ON their WAY. I’m on my way somewhere. That means I’m en route, I’ve already left my house and I’m moving toward my destination. Maybe I’m on a bus right now, maybe I’m on the train or just walking. I’m on my way. Let’s say my friend rings me up while I’m on the bus. Why am I on the bus right now? Because I’m on my way to meet my friend… at a restaurant. So my phone’s ringing, I answer and it’s my friend. She asks me “Are you on your way?” She wants to know whether I have already left. What’s my answer? I’ve already left; I’m on the bus that is taking me to the restaurant where I’m going to meet up with her. So I say “Yeah”. Or, for learning purposes… “Yes, I’m on my way” which would be totally fine to say as well, by the way.

Here’s another example: you’re in a meeting with five other people from your company and you’re all waiting for a client. The client phones in and lets everyone know she’s on her way and should be there in fifteen minutes. “Ela está a caminho”, right? She’s on her way to the meeting. She’s on her way. She’s not home, sleeping or watching TV. She’s on her way.

Why do we use ON and not IN or AT? I don’t know, people. It’s ON. That’s how it is. We say “I’m on my way”; “They’re on their way”; “She’s on her way”. So that covers the first example in Portuguese I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast. “A gente tá a caminho”; we’re on our way. It also covers the third example: “Vi um artista famoso no caminho pro trabalho hoje”. We could say “I spotted a celebrity on my way to work today”. Here’s a different situation: We stayed in a hostel on our way to Rio. I got a flat tire on my way to work yesterday.

And here’s the second one: imagine you’re home and you’ve just made carrot cake. Your sister’s about to leave – she’s going… somewhere, and you say “Hey, get some cake on your way out”.