Hey, everyone. What’s up?

Hoje eu vou falar sobre duas expressões em inglês que são mais ou menos relacionadas: elas tem a ver com acreditar ou não em alguma desculpa ou ideia de alguém.

Transcrição

Hi, everybody! What’s up? Today we have 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.

Today let’s talk about a couple of expressions with the words buy and sell. But we’re not going to focus on the more traditional meanings of buying and selling, like… buying a bicycle or selling a house. Here, we’re talking about ideas, excuses, reasons for doing something and stuff like that.

An example: let’s say you have a ten year old son, little Jimmy, and one day he comes home with a note from his teacher, Ms. Johnson. The note says that he’s been acting up and kinda disrupting the class. So you ask little Jimmy what’s going on. Why is he acting up?, you wanna know. And Jimmy says “I’m not acting up! I’m always quiet in class! Kenny is the one who’s always joking and acting up! She tought it was me because we look like twins.” So this is Jimmy’s excuse: he is actually an angel in class while Kenny is the one who can’t be quiet. But Jimmy and Kenny look so much alike that their teacher mixed them up! She sent Jimmy home with a note, instead of giving Kenny the note.

So Jimmy tells you this little story and you are just not buying it. You are not buying this story. That means you are not convinced. You don’t think his story is credible. You know your son, he’s impossible! And he’s very creative too. You know that it is highly unlikely that Jimmy is quiet in class. So, yeah, you’re not buying it. You’re not buying his story. Here’s another example: your friend had agreed to go to the movies with you tonight and now he’s just called you and said that he’s feeling a little tired so he won’t be able to go tonight. You know this guy well and you know that he was really looking forward to going to the movies, so… you’re not buying it. You’re not buying his excuse. That’s a lame excuse! He’s tired? You’re not buying it. You think the real reason why he canceled on you is something else entirely. You’re not buying that he’s too tired to go to the movies.

Now, here’s the opposite idea… for example: let’s say your friend is telling you about her trip to some beach town you had never heard of before. She tells you it was wonderful, the beach was amazing and the weather was so nice. You say “Hey, I’m sold! That beach town sounds amazing and I wanna go there!” I’m sold – that means… you’ve convinced me, I see what you’re saying, I believe you.. I’m sold. I still remember one day, when I was living in the US, and I told my roommate that I had eaten a, I think it was a salami bread or something, and that it also had parmesan cheese on it, and she said “I’m sold!” That means she thought the bread sounded delicious and she wanted to have some herself.

So I’m gonna present you with a list of things that someone might say to you, and you tell me whether you would say “I’m not buying it” or “I’m sold!”.

* Someone says to you “My Internet course will teach you how to become a millionaire in less than a month! You’ll never have to work again. And it costs only ten thousand dollars. Remember, you’ll become a millionaire in a very short time.” What would you say?