Podcast Inglês Online

What’s up? No episódio de hoje, falo sobre dois provérbios pra lá de comuns na língua inglesa. Não perca!

What’s up? This is the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast.

Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app.

Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglês Online podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes.

Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

So let’s focus today on a couple of proverbs in English. Proverbs are sayings that have stood the test of time. In other words, they supposedly reflect some kind of truth and therefore people continue to say them because… truth never changes.

I’ve talked about proverbs before in our podcasts and I’ve probably already asked the same question I’m gonna ask now: are proverbs always the truth? Well, I happen to disagree with some proverbs, to be honest. So, in my opinion, no, they’re not always the truth.

Wanna hear an example? No pain, no gain. Ok, that’s probably not a proverb per se, but boy is that a popular saying. I think almost every gym in the UK has that saying glued to a wall. OK, when it comes to exercising and training that might be true – no pain, no gain.

If you want to be in great physical shape or become a good athlete, then you’ve got to train, exercise, work out, lift weights, all of that stuff. There’s a bit of pain involved, that’s true. So in order to have some gain – in other words, in order to achieve your goal – you do have to experience some pain. True.

If you want to become really good at something – let’s say, speaking English, you do have to put in time and effort. Unless you’re a baby learning to speak, of course. So – if putting in time and effort equals pain, then there you go: no pain, no gain.

Now, the reason I slightly disagree with this saying is that pain is sometimes relative. Some people really enjoy training and working out and honestly don’t mind doing it. Other people do not mind studying at all – I know people who love to study! So in their case – no pain and a lot of gain.

Also – how about winning the lottery? That’s like zero pain and a big gain. What do you think?

Alright – so let’s move on to our second proverb: Great minds think alike. First of all, ‘think alike’ means ‘think in the same way’. You know when you and your friend say almost the same thing at the same time? That means you guys were thinking the same thing. The two of you think alike. One of you might say “Great minds think alike”.

Of course, it’s always a bit of a joke when someone says that… It’s like, they’re congratulating you for being as smart as they are. After all, you said the same thing they said. One other example for this is, you could be chatting with someone on Facebook and you and your friend post the same thing simultaneously. So you type in next “Great minds think alike”.

Do you have a close friend or a relative, with whom that happens a lot? Please let me know in the comments… And talk to you next time!

Key terms

Vocabulário

have stood the test of time = já duram muito tempo

per se = por si só, em si mesmo

boy is that a popular saying = puxa, como esse ditado é comum

How are you? No episódio de hoje, falo sobre idioms muito comuns no inglês com a palavrinha eye, como o famoso “fulano fez que não viu o que aconteceu”.

How are you? This is the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast.

Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app.

Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglês Online podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes.

Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

OK, so you know when there’s something going on and people ignore it and pretend they didn’t see it? I’m talking about something that should not be happening. For example, your entire class is doing an exam today and the teacher, Mr. Stevens, is there, standing by his desk, watching all of you as you do the test.

So of course everyone knows that they’re not supposed to cheat. They’re not supposed to open their books while doing the test. They’re not supposed to talk to each other nor help each other. Everyone knows that, especially the teacher!

However, let’s say that your classmate Johnny is sitting by your side and you can see that he’s cheating. You can see it! He’s looking at his notes while writing on the test. You lift your eyes to Mr. Stevens, who is looking directly at Johnny. You can tell he knows Johnny is cheating.

You hold your breath for a few seconds, waiting for the teacher to call Johnny out. Instead, silence. You lift your eyes again, and, to your surprise, you see Mr. Stevens pulling up his chair and sitting down. He’s now looking out the window! What?

You can hardly believe it, but it’s true: Mr. Stevens has turned a blind eye to Johnny’s cheating. He chose to ignore Johnny’s behaviour. He pretended not to see it. Mr. Stevens caught Johnny cheating, and chose to ignore it. He turned a blind eye to Johnny’s cheating.

Have you ever done that? Have you ever seen someone do something wrong in a situation where you were supposed to take some kind of action, meaning… You were not supposed to let that person get away with it, but instead you turned a blind eye?

In other words, maybe you were the teacher and you caught a student cheating on an exam, and you did nothing. Or maybe you were reffing a soccer game and you saw one of the players commit a fault, and you said nothing. You turned a blind eye.

Here’s what an Egyptian journalist said, speaking about media censorship in Egypt: “My three friends got a life sentence, strictly for doing their job, for reporting – they’re journalists and the world is silent. The world is turning a blind eye to what is happening in Egypt.” His friends were imprisoned for reporting facts that didn’t make the government look good – and this man says the world is turning a blind eye.

OK – on a lighter note… When you’re punched in the face, your eye turns black.  I know that in Brazil we use the color purple to describe an eye that was hit by a punch, but in English we call it black. If you’re punched in the face you’ll most likely get a black eye. Have you ever had a black eye, by the way? How did that happen? I’d like to hear that story.

So please let me know in the comments… And talk to you next time!

Key terms

Vocabulário

reffing = de refereeing, servir como juiz (referee) de jogo esportivo

got a life sentence = foram condenados a prisão perpétua

on a lighter note = falando de algo mais leve

What’s up? No episódio de hoje, falo sobre aquelas palavrinhas do inglês que podem ser pronunciadas de duas maneiras: com ênfase na primeira sílaba, ou com ênfase na segunda. Tudo depende do uso. Ouça já!

What’s up? This is the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast.

Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglês Online podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes.

Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

So here’s what I want to talk about today: the pronunciation changes in words that can be nouns or verbs. Here’s an example: the word i-m-p-a-c-t. IMpact, or imPACT. Have you noticed that there’s a difference? Words like IMpact, or imPACT. INcrease, or inCREASE. OBject or obJECT.

One is a noun, the other is a verb. With the noun, the stress is placed on the first syllable: OBject. With the verb, the stress is placed on the second syllable: obJECT.

So which one is IMpact? It’s a noun, like in this sentence: The behavior of parents has such a big IMpact on a child.

Now let’s use the verb imPACT – here’s an example: Your donation will impact our organisation’s results. Your donation will impact the results. As a noun again: your donation will have an impact.

So in order to help you get used to this, let me give you a string of short examples with both IMpact and imPACT. Ready? Here they go: low-impact exercises are easier on the body. Our CEO’s speech had no impact on employees. Recession has had a huge impact in our economy and lots of shops are now closed.

Now, technology will continue to impact our lives in the future. Loss of vision will usually impact someone’s independence. Plot twists generally impact the way a story unfolds.

So, in case the difference in pronunciation doesn’t come naturally to you – how are you gonna know? How are you going to learn this? Well, I suggest you do what I’ve done and get a move on with your listening. You could sit down and do focused activities to try and memorise, or internalise, the different ways to pronounce impact – but listening to comprehensible English as much as you can is, hands down, bar none, without a shadow of a doubt, the most efficient, fastest way for these things to become natural to you.

Let’s take another one: progress. I said PROgress, which is the noun. By the way, it’s PROgress in the UK. Technology has brought a lot of PROgress to our lives. We’ve made a lot of PROgress on our reports. PROgress is a good thing.

Now, listen to this: as they got to know each other better, their relationship proGRESsed. Mary didn’t speak any French last year but she has since proGRESsed to an intermediate level. This disease usually proGRESses through various stages.

Here are a few others: there was an INcrease in sales last year. The purpose of our courses is to inCREAse knowledge in our staff. Don’t inSULT me! Sorry, what I said wasn’t meant as an INsult. You need a PERmit to park your car in this area. We can’t perMIT this behavior in our school. I’m studying a few different SUBjects now. We can’t subJECT our employees to poor working conditions.

So, tell me: have you noticed the different pronunciations of these words before? Do you say them right most of the time? Is this new to you? Can you give me a few examples of how you’d use them? Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Key terms

Vocabulário

get a move on with = comece logo a fazer

hands down = definitivamente

bar none = de longe (neste caso)

How’s it going? No episódio de hoje eu faço diferente e te dou alguns updates relacionados ao Inglês Online.

How’s it going? This is the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast.

Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app.

Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglês Online podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes.

Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

So today I’m not going to talk about any specific idioms and expressions. Today I’m going to do more of an update on blog-related news.

So I wanted to start by saying that our recent feed problem is over. If you’re listening to this episode on your mobile you probably know that already… If you have no idea what I’m talking about, well… The feed for this podcast used to be at Feedburner, which is an independent service that is supposed to really help podcast producers by preparing their feed for iTunes.

However Feedburner has been less than reliable for quite a while and last month it was my turn to experience that. My feed simply stopped updating, which meant that feed subscribers didn’t get podcast updates for some time.

It took me a while to find someone to help me ditch Feedburner and fix my podcast feed so that it would work again – but it’s done now, so all’s well.

The other news I have is that I’ve been expanding the basic English section of Inglês Online. Just go to the site and hover your mouse over “Inglês Básico” on the top green menu and you’ll see the options. I mean, if you’re listening to this podcast you’re probably way beyond the basics, but if you know of anyone who’s in need of some basic learning, send them our way!

For now, all I’m doing in the Inglês Básico section is written articles and activities. I have been updating the basic English tips regularly and also creating new activities and I intend to keep doing that for a while. So check it out and pass it on to your friends.

Now, I hope you’ve been enjoying the podcasts and if this is your first time listening, welcome! I recommend you read “Como Falar Inglês“, which is a series of tips I wrote in 2009 explaining the importance of Listening and the exact steps you should follow in order to get the most out of your listening activities.

And the last thing I would like to address here is… probably the question I get the most from anyone that gets in touch with me, readers, students, everyone: are you going to release an intermediate course? Will there be a sequel to your basic course?

And while I can’t give you any details right now, all I’m gonna say is, yes. There is going to be a sequel, I am going to teach intermediate English and it’s not going to take that long – so sit tight, stick around, keep following me on the blog, on Facebook, on Twitter and you’ll be the first to know about it when it’s time.

Everyone, that’s it for today and next week we’re back with our regular programming of idioms, expressions and general English teaching. See you there!

Vocabulário

ditch Feedburner = abandonar o Feedburner

send (them) our way = manda (eles) pra gente

stick around = fica por aqui

How are you? No episódio de hoje, você aprende como falar de “pequenos” acidentes que acontecem corriqueiramente com nossos pés, como “torcer / distender o tornozelo” e “dar uma topada no dedo do pé”.

How are you? This is the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast.

Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app.

Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglês Online podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes.

Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

So a couple of weeks ago I twisted my ankle while doing a gym class. It wasn’t just any gym class. It’s called Combat and it’s sort of a combination of aerobics and punching and kicking. There’s a whole lot of moving around, running and jumping, and… yeah, I ended up twisting my right ankle.

Actually, there’s an even better word to describe what  happened: I sprained my ankle. Have you ever sprained an ankle? It’s happened to me so many times I’ve lost count. When you sprain your ankle, that means you have injured a ligament around a joint in your ankle. A ligament connects one bone to another at the joint. So when you twist your foot, or your ankle beyond its limit, that might hurt your ligament and give you a so-called sprained ankle.

Like I said, that’s happened to me a number of times while I was walking, exercising, running and so on. They made me fill out an ‘incident report’ at the gym. I had to leave the class ’cause my foot and my ankle hurt.

When I got home I didn’t even put ice on it. I just had this feeling that this wasn’t too serious and I would just wait it out. So for the rest of the week I skipped the gym, and that was it. In a week or so I was back and there was no pain left.

Now, here’s another common accident involving our feet: stubbing a toe. You stub your toe when you strike it against something – let’s say, a table leg or a wall – accidentally. I don’t know which one is worse – stubbing a toe or spraining an ankle. I guess the pain from a stubbed toe is sharper, but it kinda goes away sooner. I have to say – I haven’t stubbed a toe in a while  – knock on wood!

If you walk around barefoot regularly, you’ll probably stub a toe sooner or later.

Now, before we wrap up our episode, here’s one that I have yet to see happen: slip on a banana peel. Anyone! I haven’t seen this happen to anyone and it’s never happened to me either. I grew up hearing this phrase, in Brazil, but I’ve never seen anyone actually slip on a banana peel. Have you?

I mean, I’ve seen it happen in cartoons and that’s it. So now I’m thinking this is something cartoonists made up and it doesn’t really happen in real life.

Now, tell me – which of the accidents I just described have happened to you? How did you recover? Have you sprained your ankles a million times, like I have? Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Key terms

Vocabulário

joint = articulação

so-called = assim chamada

wait it out = esperar isso passar, acabar

knock on wood = frase dita enquanto a pessoa bate na madeira, para ter sorte e evitar o que ela falou

How’s it going? No episódio de hoje, eu falo sobre como dizer em inglês duas expressõezinhas nossas do dia a dia: “Oi, sumido” e “Vê se aparece”.

Hi, what’s up? This is the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast.

Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app.

Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglês Online podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes.

Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

So today I’m gonna talk about a couple of expressions with the word stranger. What does stranger mean?

Hi, stranger!

Well, a stranger is basically someone you’ve never met. This person’s not a friend nor an acquaintance.

So when someone says to you “Hi, stranger!” – are they calling you a stranger?

Not really. “Hi, stranger” is a facetious way of saying “Hi, I haven’t seen you in a while”. “We’ve met before, I know you, but you’ve been out of touch (maybe).”

Here’s an example: let’s say you have this friend who works at a computer shop. You haven’t seen her in a couple of months.

And then one day, out of the blue, your computer crashes. You try to revive it but nothing works.

So you decide to take your computer to the shop – I mean, it’s not like you have a choice.

You don’t know how to fix your computer and you’ve got a lot of work to do, so.

Anyway, you get to the shop and there’s your friend – the one you haven’t seen or spoken to in a couple of months.

As soon as she sees you, she says “Oh hello, stranger! How are you doing?”

Every time you see a friend or anyone you’re close to after a period of absence you can say “Hello, stranger.” That’s it!

And our second idiom of today also has the word stranger in it and it’s something people say when you’re saying your goodbyes: Don’t be a stranger.

That means, don’t disappear. Keep in touch. Make contact. Give me a call or come by for a visit some time.

That’s pretty much what we mean in Brazil when we say “Vê se aparece” or “Não some”.

By the way, that reminds me of the last couple of times someone said “Não some” to me.

It’s funny how people who say that are frequently the ones that are kinda lousy at keeping in touch – have you noticed?

I used to be a bit lousy at keeping in touch, so I understand!… It’s kinda funny, though, how sometimes we try to keep in touch with someone and they’re always too busy to meet up…

And when it finally happens, they’re the ones who say “Don’t be a stranger!”

Anyway, let’s wrap up with one more term – listen to this: John is no stranger to blind dates. What does that mean?

John is no stranger to blind dates. That means John is familiar with blind dates. He’s been on a few blind dates.

He has gone on dates with women he had never met before. He’s done it. He is no stranger to blind dates.

One more example: my friend Mary decided to organise her wedding entirely on her own. She is going to plan every single detail of her wedding.

I’m not worried for her – Mary is no stranger to party planning.

She has a lot of experience planning all kinds of parties, actually. She worked at an event planning business for ten years! She’s no stranger to party planning.

So, you – the one who’s listening to me right now: do you say things like “Hey, stranger” or “Don’t be a stranger”?

Are you good at keeping in touch with friends? Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Key terms

Vocabulário

acquaintance = conhecido

facetious = de brincadeira

revive it (the computer) = reavivar (aqui, usado de maneira figurada)

lousy at keeping in touch = não mantém contato (são ruins nisso)

Hi, what’s up? Sabia que em Londres também tem escola de samba? :-) Pois no episódio de hoje do podcast Inglês Online, eu falo um pouco sobre uma inglesa que desfila numa escola de samba brasileira aqui na Inglaterra.

Hi, what’s up? This is the new episode of the Inglesonline podcast.

Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app.

Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglesonline podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes.

Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

So have you heard that there are “samba schools” outside of Brazil? Here in London they call it a “school of samba”, actually.

It is called Paraíso. How do I know? I’ll tell you all about it.

So around October last year I started looking for a place to live in London. That’s because I had to leave my old place, obviously.

I put an ad on a well-known website saying I was looking for accommodation and talked to a few people, and checked out a few places.

And then an English lady answered my ad and said she had a spare room she would like to show me. She emailed me a few pictures, I liked them… And then we set up a meeting.

A big yellow carnival headpiece hanging on a wall

So when I first met Teresa – that’s her name – face to face, she told me she loved samba and Brazilian carnival and she was actually a member of a Brazilian school of samba in London: Paraíso.

I was a bit surprised to hear that. I mean, I know many foreigners who are into samba and Brazilian music, but this lady actually went to samba dance classes every week and participated in an actual “escola de samba”!

Just to give you a better idea of just how much Teresa is into Carnival, when she was giving me a tour of the house we got to the dining room and I saw a big yellow Carnival headpiece hanging on a wall.

That’s actually a headpiece that Teresa wore in a carnival parade with her school of samba, Paraíso, a few years ago.

Yes, Teresa dressed up in costume and paraded alongside dozens of ‘passistas’.

The carnival I’m talking about is an annual event in Notting Hill, London.

Every year many different groups parade in the streets of Notting Hill, and Paraíso is one of them.

They claim to incorporate all the main elements of a Rio carnival parade, although their group is a bit smaller.

A ‘passista’ chatting with the London police

Apparently in Rio samba schools in the Grupo Especial parade with up to four thousand people, whereas Paraíso puts two hundred and fifty people in the street.

So this year I actually went to Notting Hill to see the carnival parade… I didn’t get to see Paraíso though. It was raining, we got there around 2PM and my two friends wanted to grab a bite.

So when we finally got to the actual area of the parades, Paraíso had already passed.

I got to see a few other groups, though, and listen to their carnival music.

I have to say – I’m one of those Brazilians who couldn’t care less about Carnival, to be honest!

I don’t even like to travel in Brazil during Carnival, ’cause there’s so much traffic coming and going to the beach (where else?), so…

It’s pretty funny that I ended up sharing a house with an English woman who’s crazy about samba and Carnival.

So where do you stand regarding Carnaval? Are you with me, or are you a typical Carnaval-loving Brazilian?

Do you know anything about Carnaval in other countries? Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Vocabulário

wore = passado de wear – usar (no sentido de “vestir” ou usar algo no corpo)

grab a bite = comer alguma cois

How’s it going? No episódio de hoje do podcast Inglês Online, falo sobre maneiras de usar o verbo STICK.

How’s it going? This is the new episode of the Inglesonline podcast.

Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app.

Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglesonline podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes.

Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

So let me tell you a story: years ago, I was in a public speaking class.

Basically, we all had to write a speech about whatever we wanted and then…

Every one of us gave the speech in front of the class and listened to everyone’s feedback.

Our job then was to incorporate whatever useful feedback we got and work on the speech to make it better.

After a couple of weeks, we then presented again what was, hopefully, an improved version of our initial speech.

So when I gave my speech for the first time, this is the feedback I got: “I don’t understand what you mean“.

I had spoken about one of my favourite books when I was a teenager, but the other students couldn’t really understand where I was going with it.

Actually, it wasn’t even apparent to them what the story of the book was about. It was THAT bad.

Well, in that moment I though the topic I had picked was the problem.

The speech revolved around this book that meant a lot to me, but it wasn’t really straightforward to those unfamiliar with the story.

Some people gave me a puzzled look while I spoke… They were definitely not getting it.

So, obviously, I got some private feedback from my teacher and he discussed several points with me.

I just told him I was going to pick a different topic. In that moment I thought it would be impossible for me to write an interesting speech about that book.

I’d taken a stab at it and it had not gone well, and I was feeling a bit discouraged…

My teacher thought differently, though. He thought I should stick with it, and that is the expression I want to focus on today: stick with it, or stick with something.

When you stick with something, that means you don’t give up on it even when things get a bit tough.

My teacher wanted me to stick with my topic. He wanted me to talk about that book. He didn’t want me to give up on it just because my first attempt wasn’t successful.

He wanted me to stick with it, and that’s what I ended up doing: I stuck with it. Yep, that’s the past of the verb to stick: stuck. I stuck with it.

The teacher gave me a few guidelines, and then I set off to rework my speech.

And what do you know… The second time I gave that speech, it was like I was telling a completely different story.

It went great and after I was done some of my classmates came to me and congratulated me on the speech.

And then my teacher said, “Aren’t you glad you stuck with it?” Aren’t you glad you didn’t give up on this topic?

Now, think about some activity in your life that turned out to be harder than you initially thought, but you stuck with it and you’re glad you did. So tell me about it in the comments!

And one more thing: notice that I’m saying things like “I will stick with it”, or “I stuck with it”. Stick and stuck are the main verbs in those sentences.

It’s a different thing to say “I am stuck with it“. In this case, stuck is the past participle of stick.

Example: I am stuck with this crappy car. I spent all my money on it, and it is crap.

Now I can’t buy a new car, and I can’t sell ’cause nobody wants to buy it. I am stuck with it.

It has become a burden; something undesirable that I can’t get rid of.

Another example: I got some takeaway food on my way home, but when I opened the bag I had the wrong order! Worst of all, it was food I didn’t like.

I called the restaurant and they were already closed. So now I am hungry and  stuck with this food that I don’t like.

So tell me about how you stuck with something and it paid off. Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Vocabulário

it was that bad = foi ruim demais, ou pra você ver o tanto que estava ruim

straightforward = simples de entender ou fazer

take a stab at something = tentar realizar algo

it paid off = o resultado valeu a pen

Hello, there. No episódio de hoje do podcast Inglês Online, falo sobre duas expressões com a palavra head, e uma delas é parecida com o que a gente fala no Brasil: assim, de cabeça, eu só lembro desse ou daquele.

Hello, there. This is the new episode of the Inglesonline podcast.

Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app.

Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglesonline podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes.

Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

So let’s get started with the term a big head. I’m going to talk about the figurative meaning here.

If someone says that you have a big head, that means this person thinks you’re conceited or too full of yourself.

Maybe you think you’re more important than everyone else; or that you’re better than everyone else!

Maybe you think you deserve special treatment because because of something you’ve done, or because of a personal trait, or for something you have and so on.

That’s what being full of yourself means: basically, you think you’re more important or better or deserve some kind of special treatment.

And that’s also how you get a big head. A woman said on Twitter today “I have so many new followers. I hope I don’t get a big head.” She was kinda joking, of course, but what was she saying? She was saying that she hopes she doesn’t become conceited. She hopes she won’t become full of herself with all these new followers.

The adjective big-headed is also common. Instead of saying that someone has a big head, you will say that this person is big-headed.

For example, someone tweeted out today that “all girls deserve someone that will treat them well, but girl –  don’t let it get you big-headed“.

Off the top of my head… Ten people are coming.

Don’t become someone with a big head. That guy doesn’t want you to become big-headed.

Now let’s move on to our second idiom of today: off the top of my head. This is a great one – it’s so common!

One possible translation for this term is in the title of this episode – when you say “Off the top of my head”, it usually means that you’re going to answer a question without a lot of thought or research to back it up.

“Off the top of my head” means you’re about to say what you remember first, whatever pops up in your mind at the time you’re speaking.

So when would you use it? Well, if someone asks you how much you’re spending on your birthday party. You don’t know the exact figure but you have an idea, so you say “Off the top of my head… Around a hundred reais.”

Or you could say “I can remember at least five different recipes for orange cake off the top of my head”. That means that, for some reason, you’re really familiar with orange cake recipes.

I mean, you can remember five of them off the top of your head!

Let’s say your mother asks who’s coming to your birthday party and you tell her the names of ten different people who said they were coming. Then, you say “I can’t remember anyone else off the top of my head.”

OK, now: how about you give me an example for “a big-head”, and another one for “off the top of my head?

Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Vocabulário

to back it up = para apoiar (a sua resposta)

Hi, there. No episódio de hoje do podcast Inglês Online, eu falo sobre aquela situação em que você ouve a conversa de outras pessoas sem querer. E também a situação em que você ouve de propósito!

Hi, there. This is the new episode of the Inglesonline podcast.

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Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

So today we talk about eavesdropping. Yep, eavesdropping on someone else’s conversation.

Have you heard that term before?

Here’s a popular definition for the word: eavesdropping means secretly listening to the private conversation of others without their consent.

Basically, every time you pay attention to and try to listen to what other people are saying (and you’re not part of the conversation) you’re eavesdropping.

Well, of course, sometimes you can’t avoid it. I mean, how many times have you been in an elevator and then someone stepped in while chatting on their cell phone and they happily carried on the conversation as though they were alone?

You can’t help but overhear what they’re saying in that case, and that is the second term of today’s episode: overhear.

So the difference between eavesdropping on a conversation and overhearing a conversation is, one is on purpose and you’re kinda not supposed to do it, while the other one happens unintentionally.

Like I said though, if you’re surrounded by people who are loud talkers, you would pretty much have to cover your ears to avoid overhearing, no?

Now, when you know there are two people in the other room and they’re having a private conversation…

And you quietly put your ear to the door – well, then you are clearly eavesdropping. No two ways about it: you are eavesdropping.

OK, now I’m going to ask you to admit to it and let us know about the last time you eavesdropped on a conversation. Who were you eavesdropping on, and did they ever realise you were there? What was the conversation about? C’mon… tell us!

Here’s what someone tweeted out: I’m glad our ears don’t perk up like dogs when we’re eavesdropping on a conversation.

So, yeah! You know how a dog’s ears will perk up when they’re paying attention to something.

If that happened to us human beings, well… I bet we would start thinking twice before eavesdropping.

Now, overhearing what other people say is so common. When we’re standing in line at the supermarket or just walking down the street, we can’t help but overhear all kinds of things.

I mean, there are entire websites devoted to strange or funny things people overhear while out and about.

I’ve overheard many funny things in my life, and I have also gotten a few looks from strangers who’ve overheard me talking to other people.

I wanna hear your stories: tell me about something funny you overheard someone say.

Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Vocabulário

as though they were alone = como se ele/ela estivesse sozinho/a

no two ways about it = não há dúvidas

when a dog’s ears perk up = quando as orelhas de um cão ficam em pé

we can’t help but = não conseguimos evitar

out and about = por aí (quando alguém está na rua, ocupado com atividades indeterminadas)