Hi, there. Hoje eu falo sobre uma maneira super comum de usar a palavra ‘though‘ – os falantes nativos usam o tempo todo, mas você raramente vai encontrá-lo nas suas aulas ou no livro de inglês. Ouça bem o episódio e se familiarize! Quanto mais você ouvir, mais você internaliza as expressões e estruturas do idioma. Enjoy! :-)

Hi everyone, this is Ana Luiza with another episode of the Inglês Online podcast. How are you doing? How’s it going? Today I want to talk to you about another one of those words that you will see, sort of briefly, in English schools and in your English books… If you go to school, if you go to… If you have English classes I’m sure you will have learned it, you will have done exercises about it.

But again: this is another word that I don’t hear a lot of Brazilians speak or, at least, speak naturally and today our episode is going to center around a particular use of this word which is really… It’s really interesting and it’s really common, of course. It’s very useful. The title of this episode gives it away, obviously. I can tell you that I hear this all the time and if you master this, I’m telling you… You’re going to be that much closer to speaking English like a true native. Okay?

Let’s go to the examples. So, the word of today is though: T-H-O-U-G-H, though! Notice that there’s a bit of a difference in the pronunciation, for example, of dough. Dough is what you use to make bread… to make cake, you mix flour, water, sugar and eggs together and you make dough. And the word of today is: though. It’s a bit different.

So, just listen: Let’s say you’re talking to your friend. And you have a mutual friend called Mary. Your friend – the one who’s in front of you, talking to you – says: “Mary likes fish”. You know, Mary likes fish. And you say: Does she, though? Does she, though?

What does that mean? That means you’re questioning the veracity of what your friend just said! I mean, does Mary really like fish? You don’t think she likes fish… You have been with Mary to restaurants before and you ordered fish. You asked her: do you want to try my fish? And she said: Ugh… no! Thanks! Ugh! I don’t like fish. So, you’re not really… you can’t really believe your friend, when your friend says: Mary likes fish. You are questioning it, you’re saying: does she, though?

And why am I using “does”? Your friend said: Mary likes fish. That’s the present simple and the auxiliary word for ‘likes’ is ‘does’, so instead of asking the full question “Does she like fish, though?”… You don’t need that. You only use does: Does she, though?

So, here’s another example. The same friend says: “Simon told John the truth”. And you hear that and you think, well… I was there when Simon was talking to John and I heard what Simon said to John. I don’t think he spoke the truth. So when your friend says, ‘Simon told John the truth’… You answer with: Did he, though? Did Simon really tell John the truth? Did he, though?

Let’s go through a few more examples: Your friend says “She has moved on from the breakup with her boyfriend”. And you say… Has she, though? You’re doubting everything, you’re doubting everything your friend is saying today.

And then your friend says: “Laura and Mark are going to the beach this weekend”. And you say: Are they, though? I spoke to Laura and she said she doesn’t even like the beach. She doesn’t want to go to the beach… ever again. So, when your friend says “Laura and Mark are going to the beach this weekend”…. You say: Are they, though?

Then your friend says: Well… he wants to buy a new computer. And you say: Does he, though? Didn’t he just buy a new computer last month? Now, your friend is saying: Well… Karen studied a lot for the exam. And you say: Did she, though? I saw her the day before the exam. She was out and about having an ice cream.

And finally, your friend says: That store slashed all their prices. And you say: Did it, though? I just walked past that store and I found all the prices so high… Everything is so expensive. So, when your friend says “That store slashed all their prices”, you say “Did it, though?”

That’s it everyone. Have a listen, this is… like I said in the beginning, this is a structure that we don’t see a lot in English lessons, so take advantage of this episode. Give it a good listen and you will see that from now on, you will start to recognise this structure and you will start to… Just to notice it a lot more often when you listen to, or when you watch movies or sitcoms.

Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

dough = massa

briefly = rapidamente, de forma resumida, por pouco tempo

to master something = tornar-se excelente em alguma coisa

you’re going to be that much closer to = você vai estar mais próximo de algo

question the veracity of something = questionar o quanto algo é verdade/verdadeiro

give it away = entregar, revelar, denunciar

breakup = separação, término de um relacionamento

out and about = por aí, dando uma voltinha

that store slashed all their prices = aquela loja reduziu/abaixou todos os preços

I just walked past that store = eu acabei de passar por aquela loja

Obs.: Uma nota para finalizar! Repare que, quando alguém fala “Does she, though?”, essa pessoa já desconfia que não seja verdade por algum motivo – algo que ela sabe, e que vai na direção oposta ao que o outro falou.