Podcast Inglês Online

Hello, everybody.

Hoje eu falo sobre idioms super comuns da língua inglesa com a palavra move. Não perca!

Hello, everybody. You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast, and today we talk about idioms with the word move.

Please download our Android app and leave a comment about this podcast at the iTunes store. Thank you very much and enjoy the podcast!

So let’s start today with a simple idiom that we use to tell someone we will soon have a new place of residence. Meaning, the house or apartment we currently live in will no longer be our place of residence. In some time, we will have a new address, and a new place to call home. For example, let’s say that next week I am moving house. I’m not, really, but that’s the idiom, move house.

So I remember when I asked my web developer some time ago to do some work for me and he replied back saying “I’ll be able to do this on Monday. Tomorrow I’m moving house.” As for me, since I came to London I’ve moved house a couple of times. Last time I actually moved into a flat – but that’s how the idiom goes: move house. Last time I moved house was June, this year. By the way – while I was looking for examples around the web I found an article entitled “Is it rude to ask a friend to help you move house?” I guess if it’s a close friend that would be OK. Would you do that – or rather, who would ask to help you move house?

Now, check out our second idiom: move on. If you regularly watch TV shows and films, you have definitely heard this one in phrases like “It’s time to move on”. “He’s moved on”. “You have to move on.” To move on means, essentially, to keep moving forward and it’s usually said in a figurative sense, rather than literally. It’s an expression that will likely come up when someone has just come out of a relationship. Example: John and his girlfriend ended things last month, and his friends have told him he’s got to move on. What does that mean? That means his friends think John should be going out, meeting new people, maybe start going out with someone new. That’s “moving on”.

You can also say move on when you’re having a conversation and you’re done with a certain topic or when you’re at a meeting and – same thing, you’re all done discussing something and it’s time to move on to the next topic.

Our third idiom of today is move in with someone. You’ve heard this one a lot if you watch American shows frequently. When you move in with someone you’re going to share a house or an apartment with them. You’ll probably share expenses as well, as well as every room in the house other than your bedroom – well, sometimes you share a bedroom. It’s very common to hear people say “I’m moving in with my boyfriend” or “My girfriend and I are moving in together”. So, obviously, we’re talking about couples here who, at first, live in separate residences, and eventually decide to live together. It could be that the girl is moving into the guy’s place, or the other way around – the guy is moving into his girlfriend’s place. Or maybe they’ve found a new home and they’re both moving out of their current places and moving in to the new place, together.

Are you familiar with any of our idioms today? Move house, move on, move in? Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

as for me = quanto a mim

Hi, you guys. Hoje a gente tem um episódio especial e com vídeo, além de áudio :-) Foi Guy Fawkes Night aqui na Inglaterra (e em todo o Reino Unido, que também inclui Irlanda do Norte, Escócia e País de Gales), e eu fui na comemoração em um pub aqui em Londres. Aproveitei para gravar um vídeo onde a minha amiga Shereena, que é de Londres, explica um pouco sobre qual a razão de ser e como é feita a comemoração.

Só como introdução, você vai ver que Guy Fawkes fez parte de um plano para explodir o Parlamento britânico! Bom, ele foi pego e punido com a pena capital (que hoje não existe mais no UK). Tudo isso aconteceu em 5 de novembro de 1605, e em todo o país até hoje se comemora o fato de que Fawkes não foi bem sucedido em seu plano. É mais ou menos uma “malhação de Judas” não-religiosa e única do Reino Unido: em parques e no interior do país, um boneco (an effigy) representando Guy Fawkes é queimado numa fogueira, enquanto que em vários pubs e outros locais menores há queima de fogos (a fireworks display).

Foi esse último que eu fui assistir em um pub no sul de Londres. Abaixo, você encontra a) o áudio da minha conversa com a Shereena, b) o vídeo da conversa, e c) a transcrição.

(Ana) Hi, you guys. This is for a new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Tonight I’m here at a pub.. We’re celebrating Guy Fawkes Night, which happens to be a very traditional celebration, or a very traditional day in the UK and I thought it would be nice to let you guys know what this is all about. So I’m here with my friend Shereena, who happens to be a Londoner and she can tell us everything about Guy Fawkes Night. So, I’m gonna ask her right now… This is Shereena! Hi, Shereena…

(Shereena) Hi…

(Ana) So tell us – what is Guy Fawkes Night all about?

(Shereena) So, I don’t know what year it was but, in Britain… I think Britain is the only place where we celebrate Guy Fawkes. And Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament… I don’t think it was just him, I think he’s just the guy that got the bad name. So, there was like, a dozen people. And, um… So, yeah, even though he tried to blow up Parliament, for some reason we celebrate it every year! And… Because there’s a gunpowder connection, we, we use fireworks and, yeah… It’s an excuse to have a party, really.

(Ana) Alright. So… So is this, is this a traditional way to celebrate Guy Fawkes, like, you come to a pub… We watched the fireworks, by the way. There’s like, fireworks everywhere. Is it all across the UK?… for the fireworks display.

(Shereena) Yeah. Yeah, so it’ll be all across the UK. Traditionally it’s gonna be at a park and they’ll have a big bonfire, and they’ll put an effigy of Guy Fawkes at the top and so obviously… kill him off for doing a bad thing. So that’s kind of the tradition. I think the fireworks are… just the gunpowder connection. Yeah.

(Ana) But they don’t do that in London anymore, do they? [estou perguntando se eles não fazem mais a comemoração com a fogueira em Londres]

(Shereena) They do, in the parks. Yeah, they do. It starts off with a bonfire countdown. A countdown just, like… the bonfire, and that’s the kind of, main kind of thing.

(Ana) Alright.

(Shereena) But the fireworks are just the gunpowder connection.

(Ana) OK. So thank you, Shereena.

(Shereena) Thank you, Ana.

(Ana) And… you can either do that, or you can do what we did. Come to a pub, you know, pay five quid and watch the fireworks display. OK, so that’s it for today. I hope you guys enjoyed it and see you next time :-)

which happens to be / who happens to be = que é; que por acaso é

a dozen people = uma dúzia de pessoas

gunpowder = pólvora

five quid = cinco libras (contos, pilas, mangos – é gíria pra libra, e não tem S no plural)

Hi, all.

Hoje eu falo sobre idioms super comuns do inglês com a palavra ball. Não perca!

Hi, all. You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast, and today we look into idioms with the word ball.

Please download our Android app and leave a comment about this podcast at the iTunes store. Thank you very much and enjoy the podcast!

So let’s get started today with an idiom that you will hear all the time. Seriously, I’m not even exaggerating. Both of our idioms today are actually quite common in the English language and if you’re in the habit of watching American or even British TV shows, you’ve probably heard them many times already.

Just this week I was watching an English reality show and heard our first idiom: the ball is in your court. That means, it’s up to you now. It’s your decision or it is up to you to take the next step. So let’s say I invite my friend Mary to go on a trip to Buenos Aires with me. I tell her that I can book the accommodation and prepare our itinerary. All she has to do is let me know whether she wants to come along!

So now the ball is in her court. It’s her decision, it’s up to her, and once she’s made up her mind she will let me know whether she’s coming or not. The ball is in her court. Here’s one more example: Robert and Dana were boyfriend and girlfriend. They had been in a relationship for two years. One day, they had a fight because… Robert did something that Dana didn’t like. As a result, they broke up.

However, Robert later apologised to Dana and explained why he did what he did. She understood, but still wasn’t sure if she wanted to get back together with him. Robert said “Well, you know how I feel. The ball is in your court now.” That means, it’s up to Dana. It’s her decision. The ball’s in her court.

Now on to our second expression of today… Imagine that you have a favourite band that you love. You’ve got all their albums, you’ve been to their concerts… You’re a huge fan. One day their new CD comes out and when you listen to their new songs you can’t help but feel hugely disappointed. You hardly know what to think! The songs are just… awful! Is this really the band you know and love? More like the band you thought you knew… So your brother wants to know if you like the new CD and you tell him the truth: your favourite band really dropped the ball this time.

They dropped the ball. They failed. They made a mistake – or a series of mistakes. They did not keep up the good work, that’s for sure. Maybe they’re suffering from depression. Maybe they’re having a bad year. Maybe they’re fighting amongst themselves and it’s affecting their creativity. You don’t know what the reason is… But you know this time they dropped the ball.

Imagine you’re working with a team at your company and you’re preparing a sales proposal for a big client. Gary is the salesperson who is going to meet with the client and present the proposal. On the day of the meeting… Gary sleeps through his alarm and misses the appointment. That’s right… When Gary finally gets out of bed, it’s too late. Gary screwed up. He completely dropped the ball on this one. Your company would have closed the deal if Gary had not dropped the ball on the day of the meeting.

Now, what is your example? What’s your story about someone dropping the ball? Was it you who dropped the ball? Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Hello, everybody.

Hoje eu falo sobre palavrinhas em inglês chamadas interjections – super comuns e bacanas. Não deixe de conferir!

Hello, everybody. You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast, and today I’m talking about interjections.

Please download our Android app and leave a comment about this podcast at the iTunes store. Thank you very much and enjoy the podcast!

So, you know those little words or phrases that we use… generally at the beginning of a sentence, to express some kind of emotion? Like Wow, what a nice house! Or Ugh… That sucks. So wow and ugh are what we call interjections. We have them in Portuguese as well, obviously, and in every language, probably.

Let’s go through a few today. If someone throws something at you all of a sudden and it hurts, you’ll say Ouch! You can also say the shorter version Ow! That’s quite common. Not “Ai!” though… That’s what we say in Brazil and it doesn’t work in English.

Here’s one I say all the time – very respectfully: Jesus! That, to me, expresses surprise or astonishment. There’s also a shorter, more popular version of that – Jeez! Another one of my favourites is Whoa. I say that a lot, when I’m totally caught by surprise by something or someone. For example, “Whoa. You don’t like chocolate! Are you serious?”

And here’s one we say to agree with what somebody else just said: Amen! Your friend says “I’m so relieved the company’s given us Monday off to watch the Big Brother final” and you say “Amen to that”. Or, your brother says “Thank goodness we didn’t go to the beach today. The weather was awful” and you agree: Amen!

And how about this one – aww… That’s when you think something or someone is cute, adorable, sweet and so on. That’s a very frequent one, and… mostly used by the ladies. If you’re used to watching American TV shows and films, no doubt you’ve heard that one a lot. Let’s say your friend shows you a picture of her new puppy dog, who’s obviously super cute. You go “Aww…” That’s pretty much it.

And here’s one that expresses fear, or a bit of surprise, but with a negative connotation: Yikes! Let’s say your coworker Danny is telling you how, on the way back from his holiday, he got a flat tire and he and his family had to spend the night in a hotel room with cockroaches crawling all over the floor. Yikes!… That is a very suitable reaction to this story. Yikes…

There are so many others that we hear all the time. Goodness! Oh my gosh. Bingo!… when someone gets something right or is spot on. Alright! Anyways… All these little words – can you remember a few? Let me know your examples in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Interjections

Vocabulary

is spot on = está precisamente correto (no que disse)

Hi, all. Hoje eu falo sobre vocabulário relacionado a algo muito importante na Inglaterra: fila.

Hi, all. You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast, and today I’m talking about the importance of queueing in the United Kingdom, where I live.

Please download our Android app or leave a comment about this podcast at the iTunes store. Thank you very much and enjoy the podcast!

So… anyone who comes to England for the first time will notice a lot of queueing around them. A queue is the same as a line. We say line in the US, and queue in the UK. Queue, by the way, is how you pronounce the letter… Q.

English people are very organised when it comes to queueing. If there are lots of people waiting to get served and they’re supposed to stand in a queue, then they will patiently stand in a queue – it’ll be a long queue but it doesn’t matter. You will not see the English elbowing one another in a disorganised mass of people trying to get the attention of the person behind the counter. Well, unless you’re in a pub, that is.

Other than that, though, I can tell you that the system works and everyone here is used to it and they expect newcomers to know their place – that is, at the back of the queue. A couple of times, someone has cut in front of me while I was queueing. Yes, I just conjugated a verb – that’s how important queues are out here. I was queueing and someone cut in front of me. Now, both times, it was someone from some other country where queueing isn’t that… important, let’s put it that way. English people wouldn’t be caught dead jumping the queue.

I have to say I quite like orderly queues. I think they make our lives easier!  Who’s with me? If you jump the queue, or – another way of saying that is, ‘cut in line’ – so if you jump the queue here in the UK, someone might call you on it. I’ve seen it happen more than once – people will say “Um, excuse me, there’s the back of the queue over there.”

It has actually sort of happened to me. One day I went to this street market and spotted a stall selling bread. I was really in the mood for bread so I immediately headed over to the stall and I just went ahead and told the person there which bread I wanted. So the guy very politely explained to me that there was a queue of people waiting to be served and they might get a bit angry if I got served first. I turned my head and saw a line of about five or six people, all silent. Oh, oh… I didn’t really notice there was a queue. I was kind of embarrassed so I apologised and told the guy I would come back later.

So that was my story. Has anything similar happened to you? What do you do when someone cuts in front of you?  Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

wouldn’t be caught dead jumping the queue = não furariam fila nem mortos

Who’s with me? = Quem concorda comigo?

call you on it = chamar sua atenção por ter feito isso

Hey, everyone!

Hoje eu falo sobre alguns idioms em inglês com a palavra temper, incluindo uma expressão para “pavio curto”.

Hey, everyone. You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast, and today we look into idioms with the word temper.

Mark

Please download our Android app or leave a comment about this podcast at the iTunes store. Thank you very much and enjoy the podcast!

So let’s get started today with the term short temper. If someone’s got a short temper, that means they have a tendency to become angry very easily and very quickly. Most people know someone like that, right? Let’s say Mark is someone who has a short temper. By the way, we can say short fuse as well. Same thing.

So Mark has a short fuse and can be easily provoked into having fights and arguments with people. He frequently gets into trouble for not being able to control his temper. His friends have advised him to learn to hold his temper in order to avoid getting in trouble.

But here’s a… like, here’s a valid question: how can people with a short fuse hold their temper, though? Do you know anyone who used to have a short fuse in the past and has now learned how to hold their temper? Like, they have actually changed their behaviour and are now able to keep their cool in situations where before they would definitely have lost their temper. Do you know anyone like that?

It’s certainly possible to change – some people do anger management treatments, others seek a hypnotherapist to get their temper under control. Let’s go back to Mark, the guy who frequently loses his temper. Mark has a short temper, or a short fuse.

One day he was having lunch in the company cafeteria and his colleague accidentally spilled some tomato sauce on his shirt. Mark was fuming! He totally lost his temper over the spilt sauce on his shirt. He screamed at his colleague, punched the table and said his shirt had been ruined. He made a big scene while his colleague tried to apologise.

And that wasn’t the first time Mark had lost his temper. One day he was in a meeting where he and his peers were discussing their strategy for the coming semester. Someone disagreed with Mark and, unfortunately, again, his short fuse got the better of him. Mark wasn’t able to hold his temper and he and his colleague got into a heated argument that lasted almost twenty minutes!

So I guess you can get the meaning of “hold his temper”, right? When somebody can hold their temper, that means they can keep calm, they can keep their cool even in face of disagreement or any unwanted situation, really.

What really made Mark lose his temper was the fact that the other guy criticized a decision Mark had made about a month before. His decision did not produce the good results he was expecting, and apparently he’s touchy about it… So when his colleague brought that up, Mark just lost it. His short temper definitely got the better of him and things got very heated.

So one day Mark’s boss finally had a serious conversation with him about his conduct and gave him an ultimatum. He said “Mark, we expect you to get a hold of yourself and Tina from Human Resources will advise you on some anger management programs that you’re welcome to join. You need to learn to hold your temper and control your short fuse.”

Tell me – do you know anyone who has a really short fuse? Are you able to hold your temper in most situations? Let us know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

fuming = morrendo de raiva

to make a scene = “dar um show” no sentido de ter uma reação desagradável que chama atenção em público

got the better of him = passou a controlar seu comportamento

about a month = mais ou menos um mês

to lose it = perder a calma completamente, explodir

get a hold of yourself = se controlar emocionalmente

Hi, what’s up? 

Hoje eu falo sobre alguns idioms em inglês com a palavra God.

Hi, what’s up? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast, and today we’re looking into idioms with the word God.

Please download our Android app or leave a comment about this podcast at the iTunes store. Thank you very much and enjoy the podcast!

“Thank God it’s Friday”
Photo by bark / Creative Commons

I guess one of the most commonly heard expressions with God is Thank God! We say basically the same thing in Brazil – thank God is what we say when we’re relieved that something happened or didn’t happen, and so on. “Thank God you got here on time! No one can get in after the gates have been closed.” Reminds me of Vestibular in Brazil every year…

“Thank God they have my size in blue.” Thank God we were able to find a place to eat. Thank God it didn’t rain last weekend. Thank God we have the Internet. Thank God it’s still sunny outside… and so on and so forth. Oh, this one: TGIF – thank God it’s Friday. Most of you listening to this episode are probably pretty familiar with Thank God. So please leave an example in the comments – how would you use this idiom today?

Now check this out – “My friend is ill and I am going to see her in three weeks, God willing.” God willing literally means if God wants it to happen. Of course, nowadays even people who are not religious and do not believe in God use that idiom. It just means something like “hopefully.”

Here’s one I found on Twitter: “God willing, one day I’ll write a book about my career.” My next vacation I’m going to a beach, God willing. Someone else said “God willing eight months from now I hope to be living in my new house.”

And how about this one – for God’s sake! Also, for God’s sakes. This one’s considered a bit rude over here – why? Because you say that when you’re annoyed and, everyone, I can tell you that people in this country – the UK – are very discreet about showing annoyance. Basically, they don’t. You can hardly ever tell when an English person is annoyed or angry. So when someone blurts out “For God’s sakes!”, you know they’re mad.

And here’s another way to vouch for your sincerity – say honest to God. “Honest to God, I didn’t see that car coming and before I knew it, it was too late.” What you’re doing here is saying that this is really true. Here are a few nice quotes from Twitter: I honest to God don’t know what’s going on with my hair today. I am truly and honest to God shaken at the Brad and Angelina divorce news. I am not fibbing when I say I get at least four mosquito bites every day. Like honest to God, every day. And one more: Honest to God I almost threw up now from laughing so hard. OK.

So these are all expressions that we also use in Brazil, in Portuguese obviously. We say these things every single day so please leave your own examples in the comments, and talk to you next time.

Key expressions

Vocabulary

blurts out = fala sem pensar

fibbing = inventando, contando uma mentira.

How are you doing?  Hoje eu falo sobre as palavras fancy e posh. “Fancy” é comum tanto nos EUA quando no Reino Unido, mas com um significado diferente em cada país. Já “posh” é bem mais comum no Reino Unido. Confira!

a posh / a fancy restaurant

How are you doing? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast, and today I’m talking about two little words that I hear a lot here in the UK – posh and fancy.

Please download our Android app or leave a comment about this podcast at the iTunes store. Thank you very much and enjoy the podcast!

Today I’m talking about a topic that always seems to attract a lot of interest from English learners: differences between American and British English. My focus is on the words posh and fancy. So let me start out by saying that before I moved to the United Kingdom, I hadn’t heard the word “posh” that many times. And why is that? Well, that’s because I was used to listening to, almost exclusively, American English – really, like, almost 100% of the time.

In fact, I knew of the word “posh” only because I knew that British girlband Spice Girls, and one of the members was nicknamed Posh Spice. In all my years hearing American English I don’t think I’ve heard the word ‘posh’ once, except to refer to that artist. Now, the United Kingdom is a different story (for those of you who don’t know, by the way, the United Kingdom is a country comprised of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). The word posh is used here all the time – for example, if someone has a posh accent, that means they speak the way rich people or upper class people speak.

That’s what “posh” means, in general: anything related to the upper classes, or anything luxurious, sophisticated – whatever it is, it’s about something that upper class people, or at least wealthy people would do, have or be. Now, that’s not what people say in the United States. Americans use the word “fancy” instead. If you tell an American that you’re going on a five-star cruise to the Greek islands, they might say “Oooh, fancy!”. That’s pretty much the same as our “Que chique!” in Brazil.

So in the US you will often hear people refer to a fancy restaurant, a fancy hotel and a fancy car; whereas in the UK you’ll hear people talk about posh people, posh places, posh accents and so on. As I said before, though, you don’t hear the word “posh” that often in American English. That’s not the case for the word “fancy” in the UK, however. You do hear it a whole lot, but with a different meaning.

To fancy, in the United Kingdom, means to like, to have a desire for something… or someone. As soon as I moved to the UK I started hearing things like “Fancy a beer?” or “Let’s get something to eat. What do you fancy?” In these questions, fancy is used with the same meaning as “feel like” as in “Do you feel like having a beer?” and “What do you feel like having for dinner?”

I still say “feel like” or “want” instead of fancy, but I’ll admit I quite like this word – it sounds kinda nice :-) Also, the simplest way to say that you’re attracted to someone or that you like them in a romantic way here in the United Kingdom is to say “I fancy him” or “I fancy her”. It’s rare to hear “I have a crush” but if you say you fancy someone, everyone will know you’re romantically interested in that person. So, tell me: who do you fancy at the moment?

That’s it for today. Let me know if the words posh and fancy are new to you and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

I knew of the word posh = eu tinha conhecimento da palavra posh

What’s up?  Hoje eu falo sobre combinações perfeitas entre advérbios e adjetivos, usadas pelos nativos todos os dias.

Confira!

What’s up? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast, and today I’m talking about adverbs that go really well with adjectives, also known as adverb-adjective collocations.

Please download our Android app or leave a comment about this podcast at the iTunes store. Thank you very much and enjoy the podcast!

So today I’m talking about adverb-adjective collocations… ugh. Kidding, it’s not boring, really, ’cause it’s not a grammar lesson. I only mentioned “adverb-adjective” so you have a reference for what the general topic is for this episode. Let’s get right into it with the first example: instead of saying someone was aware of something, you can say that person was fully aware of what was going on. Let’s say we’re talking about a guy named Jack here.

So Jack wasn’t just aware. Jack was fully aware of, let’s say, the sales meeting that happened this morning. It’s not like he just heard something about the meeting in passing. No, he had all the details. He got an in invitation to the meeting, and RSVP’ed yes. Jack was fully aware of the sales meeting this morning.

Fully aware is used instead of just “aware” when, obviously, you want to emphasise that someone knew full well that something was going to happen and so on. It’s a handy expression when people are trying to avoid taking responsibility for something or when they want to pretend they had no idea something was going on. In those cases you say “Nope, you were fully aware this was going on.”

And that’s why “fully aware” is a collocation. That’s how people speak. That’s the combination of words native speakers use. They don’t say, for example, “You are wholly aware” or “entirely aware”. Are these wrong? Nope. People will get it, they just don’t use them – at least not often.

Here’s another one: if you think Inglês Online is going anywhere, you are sadly mistaken. That means, you are completely mistaken. You think English is impossible to learn? You’re sadly mistaken. It’s just that you haven’t been trying to learn it the right way. If you think we don’t have sunny days in London you’re sadly mistaken. We have plenty of sunny days out here.

And how about when someone’s really shy? We can say he or she is painfully shy. Tony can’t speak to a room full of people. He gets very uncomfortable at a party – he’s painfully shy. I found this example on Twitter – a girl wrote “I hate how sometimes I am incredibly outgoing then sometimes I am painfully shy”. Can you relate?

Let me talk about the word ‘unusual’ now. I like this word. Instead of saying that something is strange, you can just say it’s unusual. That means it’s something that doesn’t happen very often, it’s unexpected and so on. You can emphasise that, saying something is highly unusual. You hear this often in movies and TV shows when someone’s sort of apologising or trying to explain why something didn’t go as planned. They might say “Everything seemed to be under control and then, all of a sudden, the engine exploded. That is highly unusual.” You know what else is highly unusual? How hot it is today here in London. The windows are open and I’m sweating, people.

So here’s the last one to wrap up this episode: a nice way to say that something costs an arm and a leg. Here’s my example: sometimes I go to the supermarket to buy food and when I look at the price tag I immediately change my mind. Frozen food can be ridiculously expensive. It’s just cheaper to make it yourself. I bet you guys can find several examples of stuff that’s ridiculously expensive where you live. Cars, imported products, seafood in some areas and the list goes on. When you say that something is ridiculously expensive, that usually means you have no intention of paying for it.

I wanna hear your examples – let me know, and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

in passing = casualmente

RSVP’ed = deu um RSVP (=resposta a um convite confirmando presença ou ausência)

is going anywhere = vai deixar de existir

costs an arm and a leg = custa os olhos da cara

Hey, everyone.  Hoje eu falo sobre alguns idioms do inglês com a palavra gold. Confira!

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So today we have a few idioms with the word gold. I remember that, a number of years ago, someone referred me to a web developer and said, “He’s gold.” That’s quite a compliment. My friend said that the web developer was gold. That means he thinks the guy is great, has lots of qualities – he is gold.

So that one’s very easy. Here’s another idiom that you’ll hear a lot when you watch American movies and TV shows: gold digger. Gold digger. It’s usually applied to women, but it could be said of anyone, really, who gets in a relationship with someone wealthy, so that they’ll benefit from all that wealth.

We see that a lot in movies, don’t we? And sometimes in real life as well. A girl starts dating a very rich man that she wouldn’t otherwise date. The guy’s rich, showers her with presents, takes her to expensive restaurants and boat cruises, gives her a lot of jewellery and so on. A lot of people would call that lady a gold digger because, for them, it’s obvious that she would not be with that man if it weren’t for his wealth. So that’s a gold digger.

Let’s change the tune a little bit – our next idiom is strike gold. When someone strikes gold, that means something great has happened to that person. Their life has become better in some way. Maybe they hired a new employee for their company and struck gold. Why? Because that new employee turned out to be amazing and your business is doing much better now that you have them on board. You struck gold with this new employee.

Or maybe your friend Jennie bought a second hand car last year and everyone knows by now that she struck gold. She stopped having car troubles when she bought that car. It’s super efficient, reliable, safe, requires little maintenance, easy to park and manoeuvre… Jennie really struck gold with that car.

And let’s wrap up the episode with one more “gold” idiom: a heart of gold. We say that in Brazil, don’t we? It means the same in English. We all know people who have a heart of gold. They’re just good people: generous, caring, giving. Someone with a heart of gold is usually someone who will do good things for others without expecting things in return. They just do stuff out of the goodness of their hearts. When you hear this idiom – heart of gold – is there someone who immediately comes to your mind? Is there someone close to you, or maybe someone you’ve worked with at the same office, who has a heart of gold?

And here’s something else I wanna know – when have you struck gold in your life? Maybe you met someone special a while ago – for a romantic relationship, or simply a friendship – and when you think of that person you feel you’ve struck gold. I certainly feel that way about some people in my life! I wanna hear your stories – let me know, and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

she wouldn’t otherwise date = ela não sairia (com o homem) se a situação fosse diferente (se ele não fosse rico)

now that you have them on board = agora que você tem ele/ela (them é usado aqui para comunicar ele ou ela) na sua equipe

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