Podcast Inglês Online

Hello, all. No episódio de hoje, mais um pouco sobre preposições em inglês :) Hoje, falamos sobre o uso básico das preposições in, on e at quando estamos falando de lugares.

Transcrição

Hello, how are you? Here's a 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. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

Today we are going to stick to the basics, everyone. Today we're talking about in, on and at as prepositions of place. I'm going to give you examples of very common ways to use these three prepositions. So today we're not going to talk about exceptions - on the contrary, what you're going to hear are examples of the most basic, general rules of how to use in, on, and at for place.

And what are these basic, general "rules"? Here we go: we use AT, a-t, AT to communicate a specific point or location where something is taking place, or took place or is going to take place. AT is for a specific point or location. At the entrance, at the beach house, at the door, at the bus stop. We use IN when the noun, the object, or the person or whatever, is in an enclosed space. An enclosed space, in theory, is surrounded by something. Examples: a garden, a city, a country, a box, your shirt pocket. So IN an enclosed space. Now, we use ON when a person or object is located on a surface of some kind. On a surface. Here are some examples of surfaces: a wall, the ceiling, a door can be a surface, the floor, a carpet, a page.

So remember that these are general rules, and they're pretty good guidelines for how to use in, on and at when placing something. Of course, there will be exceptions but those aren't our focus today. Alright! Moving along to some examples.

Let's start with AT, for place. As I said before, we use AT to communicate a specific point or location. Jack is at his desk right now. There's someone at the door. There's an ice cream shop at the end of the road. Mary will meet us at the bus stop. So notice how we are positioning these people... and the ice cream shop. It's almost like we're giving their coordinates, only... we're not being that scientific. We're just using common reference points. Jack is at his desk right now. The ice cream shop is at the end of the road. Christine is at Jessica's party. "Hey, Jane, where are you? We're at the entrance...Waiting for you." I saw Richard at the conference.

OK  - let's move on to IN, for place. We use IN for enclosed spaces, something with borders, surrounded by something else. I put all my old photos in a box. I left my glasses in the back of the car. What do you carry in your shirt pocket? My dad carries, like, three pens in his shot pocket. And his wallet goes in his pants pocket. And women - what's in your bag? In my bag I have my wallet, my phone, lipstick, sunscreen, my laptop and its charger. You know the movie Wolverine? Who's in it? I know Hugh Jackman is in it, but... who else? Who else is in this movie? Do you have any pictures in your office? Or bedroom. Who's in the pictures? Your family, maybe? Friends? You? Tell me who's in your pictures. Here in London, most people don't drive. They take public transport. What's it like in your city? My friend spent some time in Argentina last year.

And what about ON? That's when something is located on a surface. Like a wall. There's a painting on the wall. Don't write on the pages of a book. Look at all the toys on the floor. Remember when man landed on the moon? Did you watch that on TV? What's your favorite place on earth? Our office is on the third floor.

Hi, everyone. No episódio de hoje, continuo falando sobre um dos assuntos mais populares e requisitados por alunos de inglês: o uso das preposições. O foco é no uso de IN nas expressões in bed, in church, in hospital e in prison / jail.

Transcrição

Hi - how have you all been? Here's a 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. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline. Today let's take a look at very common ways to use IN regarding places. I thought it would be good to focus on those cases where there is no THE - you know, the article THE. 'Cause we say "in the" a lot... like in the park, in the office, in the house.

So when there's no THE, people tend to miss it. So let me give you this example: I gave my friend a ring, and she was still in bed. It was 11am and she was still in bed. Not "in the bed", but just in bed. If it's a Saturday and someone comes looking for your brother at 8am, you could say "Sorry, he's still in bed". Or you could say "I think he's still asleep" but you can say "He's still in bed". Yesterday I stayed in bed until noon. OK, that's just an example - I rarely stay in bed past 9am. When I wake up in the morning, I enjoy staying in bed for a few minutes before getting up. Are you the same? Do you wake up and stay in bed for a few minutes, or do you immediately get up and get going?

And, you know, sometimes when you're sick, when you're ill... you have to spend a lot of time, where? That's right, in bed. When we're sick, sometimes we have got to spend a lot of time in bed. Now, if you're still sick after a while, you may need to be hospitalized. So let's say that your parents take you to the hospital and check you in. So after a few days, your friend Mark gives you a ring and obviously you're not home. Your mom gives Mark the news: you're in hospital. She tells him that you've been in hospital for some time now, but you're getting better. So that's it: if someone's in hospital, that means they have been hospitalized. They're in hospital. Maybe they'll have to spend two, three weeks in hospital. They may need to stay in hospital for the whole month.

Here's another one: he's in church, she's in church. Not "in the church", just in church. So you may call someone up and their mother, or husband, or whoever will say "Oh, she's in church right now. She should be back in an hour." Or maybe you're the one who goes to church every Sunday. And maybe there's someone in your family who doesn't go to church with you, so while you're in church this person is home watching TV, maybe. And let's say your neighbors are church-goers as well. So you always see them in church. You keep running into them in church. And there are lots more people in your neighborhood that go to the same church. And you know that because you always see them in church.

And here's one more: Jack is in prison. In prison. If you're the kind of person who often reads the news in English, you're probably familiar with this one. In prison, and you can say 'in jail' as well, actually. Same thing. So Jack is in prison; he's doing time in prison. You bump into an old friend, Tom, and you say "So how's Michael doing?" Let's say Michael is a mutual friend of yours. So you ask Tom if he knows how Michael is doing,

Hello, all. No episódio de hoje, falo sobre um dos assuntos mais populares e requisitados por alunos de inglês: o uso das preposições IN e ON. Como vamos ter muitos exemplos, o episódio fica apenas na função "tempo" dessas preposições (mais usos nos próximos) e mostra o que usar quando dizemos "em trinta dias", na quarta-feira, em janeiro, em 2004, e em 12 de maio. Repare o que eu uso para cada um desses!

Transcrição

Hey, everyone! What's up? Here's a 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. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

So due to popular demand, today's episode will be about... prepositions. Basic use of prepositions IN and ON, to be more specific. So this will probably turn into a series and we will have future episodes to talk about other uses of IN and ON. So let's get started with how to use IN and ON to speak about the time something happened, will happen, or usually happens and so on and so forth. You guys know that I usually give lots of examples so I may have to concentrate on the most common ways to use these prepositions, rather than including every single possible use.

OK. Are you ready for many examples using IN and ON? This is going to be simple and straightforward. Let's start with examples of things that are going to happen IN a few days. My coffee will be ready IN a minute. IN sixty seconds, I'll have my coffee. I'll have some free time IN two days. Today's Wednesday, so IN two days I'll have more free time. I will be working on the next podcast IN a week. A week from now. Many Brazilians will go on vacation IN about two months, right? It's May twenty-one today, so IN about two months it'll be the middle of July and there will be lots of people going on vacation, I guess. When you get to the doctor's office, sometimes the receptionist will tell you "Dr. So and So will be with you IN a minute". IN a minute, IN two minutes, IN thirty minutes. The book you've ordered will be here IN three days. Your book should be here IN three days. So can you notice how, whenever we wanna communicate the amount of time it's going to take for something to happen, or be completed, we say... What? IN two hours. IN three days. IN a month, and we can also say "IN a month's time".

Alright, now let's focus on when exactly something happened, or will happen, or usually happens and so on. So what are the most common ways to say that? We use the days of the week, for example: Monday, Tuesday, etc. Or a date: January 1st; July 13th, for example. Months: February, March... A year: 1985. Or 2006. So listen to this: Brazil won the World Cup IN 1994, and then it won again IN 2002. Brazil lost IN 2006 and it lost again IN 2010. What will happen IN 2014? I honestly don't know. Everyone's expecting Brazil to win IN 2014, right? After all, we're the hosts and they say our team is really good now...? We'll see! We will have presidential elections IN 2014. I moved to London IN 2013. And I don't know if everyone knows that, but Inglês Online got started IN 2006. Late 2006. Got it?

Let's talk about months now. Inglês Online got started IN November. November of 2006. Christmas is IN December. Brazilian vacations are IN July. Also IN January and December. My cousin's birthday is IN April. My sister's birthday is IN August. I moved to London IN May of 2013. Easter usually falls IN March or April. School year starts IN February in Brazil... right? What else is IN February? Your birthday, maybe?  Carnival, sometimes?

Now let's talk about specific days, be it a day of the week,

Hi, everyone. No episódio de hoje, eu falo sobre o uso de palavras como interesting e interested no inglês.

Transcrição

Hello, all! How's it going? Here's a 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. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

So how about today we focus on another topic that is usually seen as kinda basic, or maybe pre-intermediate...? I'm all for getting a strong grasp of the basics - seriously, if English students mastered the contents of their basic and pre-intermediate courses, they'd be speaking better English than most. Obviously I'm not talking about studying grammar rules like crazy... Nope, we're gonna look at, or rather listen, to pair of words such as interesting and interested; boring and bored, amazing and amazed, and so on.

If right now you're thinking "Oh I already know this" all I wanna tell you is that you have a lot to gain from sticking around and listening to this podcast through to the end. For someone on their way to acquiring a second language, there can never be too much listening - better yet, comprehensible listening.

Alright, so you may be aware that there are tons of adjectives that end in -ING, and usually they appear in the -ED form as well. Interesting, interested. -ING, -ED. So do this: think of someone you know who's a pretty interesting person. Why is this person interesting? Maybe they're very funny. Maybe very smart, well-travelled, maybe they're a good storyteller. Maybe this person has such unique ideas about the world that you can't help but think "This person is so interesting". So when you know someone interesting, you are usually interested in their conversation; you're interested in their opinions, in their views. Maybe you're not romantically interested in them (or maybe you are) - but in any case, there are things about them that you consider interesting, and therefore you're interested in this person in some way.

The -ED form, interested, is usually the past participle of a verb just like in Portuguese. "I'm interested" in English; "Estou interessada, em português". I'm interested; I'm amazed; I'm bored; I'm fascinated. So when I said "I'm interested" that means I have interest; I'm amazed - I'm in amazement of something.  I'm bored means I feel boredom; and I'm fascinated means I feel fascination. So let me ask you a few questions: Are you interested in astrology? Do you find astrology interesting? Do you think astrology is interesting? If you do, then you're probably interested in it.

How often do you feel bored? How often do you think... "I'm bored"? I have to say - sometimes I think I have that Attention Deficit Disorder thing, 'cause I tend to feel a little bored if I have to sit for too long, and in those moments sometimes I have the thought "I'm bored". Here are a few things that I find boring: dramatic movies. People who talk incessantly - I mean those who talk non-stop for several minutes! I don't know too many people like that and I don't know how they do it, and I try to follow them but I just can't. I'll admit, I usually get bored if someone starts talking non-stop and after several minutes, they're still talking! So, guess what? I think dramatic movies are boring; and I think non-stop, incessant talking is also boring. That's why I'm bored when I watch a dramatic movie, and I'm usually bored after several minutes of someone talking incessantly. Unless it's a lecture, of course.

Hi, everyone. No episódio de hoje, eu falo sobre expressões em inglês com a palavra list.

Transcrição

Hello, all! How's it going? Here's a 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. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

Today we'll talk about a few nice and easy idioms with the word LIST. Think of today's episode as a walk in the park on a nice, sunny day. Something really easy; almost recreational. A walk in the park. That's a really cool idiom, by the way, to describe an easy job, something that's really easy to accomplish. So this episode is about a few very popular terms in the English language with the word LIST - and you'll be able to quickly find your own examples.

So what is on your wish list? Let's say, your wish list for life. A wish list is... a list of things you wish for. For example - you know amazon.com? They now have a Brazilian "branch", so to speak: amazon.com.br. The original American site, however, amazon.com, has been active for years and I've been a client of theirs for a long time. So I do have an Amazon wish list. It's a list of items I wish to buy in the future, from the Amazon website. And what's on my Amazon wish list: a few books about cooking; a few DVDs; and a few home appliances... one of them is a vacuum cleaner. Yep.

Anyway, that's my Amazon wish list. Do you have a wish list somewhere online? Submarino, Americanas, or maybe Amazon? What's on your wish list?

And here's another very common term: shopping list. Do you actually make a list before you go, let's say, grocery shopping? You know, when you realize you're out of fruit, milk, meat, rice, beans, etc and then you plan a trip to the market. Do you actually write down everything you need to buy on a piece of paper? In other words, do you make a shopping list?

I have to say - I rarely ever do that, but I've made myself a shopping list a few times in the past before going to the market. That was after I came back from the market and realized I had forgotten a couple of itens. So I started making a list. A shopping list. Are you the kind of person who never goes shopping without your shopping list?

And here's one term that may be less well-known to you: a laundry list of something. Usually complaints or issues. Of course, laundry list can still be used for its original meaning. If you run a dry-cleaning shop, for example - maybe you'll ask your customers to fill in a laundry list when they come in so that you'll be able to keep track of their items.

Nowadays, however, laundry list is more frequently used when you're talking about a long list of something. You will frequently hear people say that someone had a laundry list of complaints about the hotel, for example. What this means is, this person had several complaints about the hotel; a really long list of complaints; a laundry list of complaints.

Another example: I have a laundry list of things to do today. A really long list. Someone said on Twitter: "I hate telling people about my laundry list of allergies". Oh boy, can you imagine? This person has so many allergies, that he refers to them as a laundry list of allergies. One more: I have a laundry list of tasks to get through next month.

What are your examples? A laundry list of chores? Of problems? Of complaints? What about your wish and shopping lists? Let us know in the comments and talk to you next time!

Keywords

* laundry list of (something)

* shopping list

Hello, all. No episódio de hoje, eu falo sobre a maneira coloquial de se dizer o segundo condicional do inglês.

Transcrição

Hello, all! How’s it going? Here’s a 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. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

So let’s use today’s episode to hone our “conditional” skills. To hone a skill means to perfect that skill, to make it more efficient, more accurate. And just a side note: notice how I said “perfect”, the verb, and not “perfect”, the adjective. Two different pronunciations there. So here I’m saying that we are going to hone our “Conditional” skills, and by that I mean we are going to perfect our skills. We’re actually going to focus on the second conditional – and if you don’t which conditional that is, not a problem. I’m talking about this structure: If I had the money, I would buy a new car. Or If I won the lottery, I would travel around the world.

Just a quick recap – this is the structure that communicates a wish, only… it’s an imaginary situation like the examples I’ve just given you. If I had the money… I would buy a new car. Do I have the money? No. Therefore I’m not going to buy any new cars right now, but if I had the money, I would. I would buy a new car.

So here’s the deal, everyone: most of the time what we’ll hear in conversation, in movies, or sitcoms, isn’t this very clearly pronounced “If I had the money, I would buy a new car”. No, what we’ll hear most of the time is the contracted form of I and would, or he and would, or they and would, and so on and so forth. This is what you’ll hear most of the time: If I had the money, I’d buy a new car. There’s a D sound in there, and it’s the D for WOULD. Again: If I had the money, I’d buy a new car. If I won the lottery, I’d travel around the world.

So if you’re familiar with the second conditional; if you know what I’m talking about and if you’re still with me – and what I mean by that is, if you understand what I’ve said up to now, then let’s go ahead and get you a little bit more used to those contractions in second conditional structures. When you say If I won the lottery, I’d travel around the world, the D sound is very quick, sometimes almost imperceptible. And as you get used to hearing this structure and understanding it, you won’t even miss that D sound. You’ll totally get what’s being said.

So here we go – listen to these examples without any contractions first: (1) If she owned a house, she would be in a better situation. (2) If we had dinner earlier, we would be able to watch the show. (3) If I saved money, I would feel better about spending it. (4) If I had a dog, I would walk it myself. (5) If they had more patience, they would find a better house. (6) If I liked lettuce, I would eat it every day.

Got it? Cool. So now listen to those examples with the contractions. (1) If she owned a house, she’d be in a better situation. (2) If we had dinner earlier, we’d be able to watch the show. (3) If I saved money, I’d feel better about spending it. (4) If I had a dog, I’d walk it myself. (5) If they had more patience, they’d find a better house. (6) If I liked lettuce, I’d eat it every day.

Listen again to the second half of each sentence: She’d be in a better situation.

Hey, everyone. No episódio de hoje, eu falo sobre tablóides e suas notícias aqui na Inglaterra.

Transcrição

Hey everyone! How’re you doing? Here’s a 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. To download or just listen to the other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

So last week on my way out of the supermarket I glanced at the tabloid covers, as I always do, and spotted this headline: Millionaire’s killer having his baby. That’s right: this millionaire British guy called Andrew Bush was supposedly killed by an ex-girlfriend, and she now says that she’s pregnant with his baby. But wait! There’s more. Andrew Bush, 48, had a new girlfriend: Maria, a twenty-year-old girl from Russia. So they had been dating for a few months, after he broke up with his former girlfriend, Mayka, who’s 24.

So this girl Mayca is the ex-girlfriend and she’s from Slovakia,  a country in Eastern Europe. So here’s the story on the newspapers: Mayca and Andrew Bush had a relationship for a couple of years and one day they split up. Andrew then went on to date 20-year-old Maria. So a few days ago Andrew and Maria went on holiday to his mansion in Costa del Sol, Spain – but the thing is, apparently the ex-girlfriend Mayca showed up uninvited and shot the millionaire dead. Maria, the new girlfriend, was in the car outside the house when she heard the gun shots. So how do they know Mayca is the killer? Because she apparently turned herself in a few days later in her native country, Slovakia.

She turned herself in –  what does that mean? That means she went to a police station of her own free will, voluntarily, and presented herself for questioning. Well, she probably felt she didn’t have much of a choice, right… Maria, the current girlfriend, saw Mayca at the mansion and there were probably other witnesses as well, so… that puts Mayca pretty high on the suspect list. So that’s what she did after she got to Slovakia: she turned herself in to the Slovakian police. And, there’s more! According to the headline I read last week, Mayca is now saying she’s pregnant and Andrew Bush is – or was… the father. I’m not all caught up on the details so that’s all I know up to this point.

So here’s a couple of examples* I’ve found on the Internet with “turn yourself in”: Richmond homicide suspect turns herself in to San Francisco police. And this one: Woman accused of stealing 300 thousand dollars from church turns herself in. How about a few examples in Brazil? I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head. Can you remember any examples of criminals in Brazil who have turned themselves in to the police? Please let me know in the comments.

So I can tell you that here in England there are quite a few popular tabloids and I remember a Brazilian tabloid called “Notícias Populares”. Is that one still around? So a tabloid is a newspaper, right? But I guess we could say that tabloids give the news in a more sensational, or sensationalist format. Tabloids have more of an entertainment purpose, I guess, then regular newspapers.

What’s the weirdest tabloid headline you have ever read? Let us know in the comments, as always, and talk to you next time!

 

Keywords

* turn oneself in = entregar-se (à polícia)

 

Glossary

I’m not caught up = não estou totalmente por dentro

off the top of my head = assim de imediato

Hi, all. No episódio de hoje, eu falo sobre algumas maneiras de usar a palavra excuse em inglês. Um deles é aquele “Como é que é? ” indignado.

Transcrição

Hi you guys! How’s everything? Today, guess what? We have a 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. To download or just listen to the other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

So what if I told you that this podcast is about a simple word that almost every English student learns about in their first few classes? Yep, it’s a basic expression and it’s usually lumped together with all those greetings covered at the very beginning of that first English book. I’m talking about the word, or term, rather, “Excuse me”.

I wanted to expand on the ways we can use this little expression and go beyond that very basic meaning. I still remember being in my very first English class at some school in São José dos Campos, which is where I grew up, and this expression came up… It was one of the very first lessons in the book, and I can’t remember exactly what the teacher said about it – but all I can tell you is that during my first few years of learning English… probably for the first two or three years, in my head I thought  “Excuse me” meant something like “I’m sorry”… I knew it wasn’t exactly the same thing but that’s what, that’s the meaning that stuck with me. That’s what I got from what the teacher explained, probably. So today we’re gonna clear things up and we’re going beyond that meaning and taking a look at other common ways to use the term “Excuse me” and the word “excuse”.

So here’s what I had learned after one year in my first English school: that “Excuse me” meant something like “I’m sorry”. Well, not really. When you say I’m sorry, you mean one thing. When you say “Excuse me“, you mean something else. So in what kind of situation, typically, would you say “Excuse me”? When you’re talking to someone and you cough, or sneeze – people say “Excuse me”. Or when you’re talking to someone and your phone rings, and you think you need to answer it. You say “Excuse me, I gotta take this one”. So basically when you’re interrupting the conversation for some reason and you say “Excuse me”.

When you want someone’s attention, when that person is engaged in a conversation, or they’re walking past you and for some reason you want their attention, you wanna talk to them but they’re not looking at you, that’s what you say: “Excuse me. Can we have a word?” or “Excuse me. How do I get to the post-office?”. When you interrupt a meeting because you need to give your boss an urgent message, or when you  knock on your boss’ door and then you open it, you say “Excuse me”. Basically, you’re interrupting something: a conversation, their work, their meeting, their walk, whatever it is. So you begin with “Excuse me”.

Here’s another one: you’re in a crowded place and you need to move. Everyone knows what I’m talking about. Think of a crowded place. The subway station at 6pm on a Friday. Or a party, or the shopping mall Saturday night. There are people everywhere and as you start walking you bump into a few people ’cause you need to move towards the exit. So you say “Excuse me. Excuse me”.

Hello, everyone. No episódio de hoje, eu falo sobre uma construção muito comum do inglês e que não pode ser traduzida literalmente!

Transcrição

Hi, all. How are you guys? Today we have a 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. To download or just listen to the other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

OK, imagine you have done someone a big favor. Let’s say your friend Allan needs a place to crash for a night since the hotel he had booked had a mix-up with the reservations and now he doesn’t have a bed for the night. So just when Allan thinks he’s going to have to sleep on a bench in the park, you tell him your couch is available. Allan is so relieved! He says “Wow, can’t thank you enough. You’re a real friend”.

He said “I can’t thank you enough“. That means that it is impossible to thank you enough. Allan could thank you a thousand times, and it still would not be enough to express his gratitute. Obviously, no one says “Thank you” a thousand times, and “I can’t thank you enough” is a bit of an exaggeration if you think about it – but it’s used anyway to express great gratitude for what someone has done for you. I can’t thank you enough. There is no way I would be able to thank you enough. It will never be enough. I am so grateful for what you have done for me, that I’m not able to, I just can’t thank you enough.

Now, listen to this one: I can’t say enough good things about Jack. Even if I use all the words that I know, even if spend three hours saying good things about Jack, it won’t be enough, because I can’t say enough good things about Jack. That means that I think Jack is wonderful, excellent, amazing; he’s almost perfect. I just can’t say enough good things about him. And people frequently use a shorter version of that: “I can’t say enough about Jack”. It’s the same meaning; same thing. I can’t say enough about Jack. He is reliable, hard-working, honest, competent, knowledgeable. I can’t say enough about Jack.

Here’s another popular one: I can’t get enough, or I can’t get enough of something or someone. What does that mean? That means you love that thing. Let’say you suddenly fell in love with Tony Ramos and you’ve been watching his movies for a week. Every day, a new Tony Ramos movie. And when your friend asks you “So, what’s up?” you say “Oh, I’ve been going through my Tony Ramos DVD collection this week. I just can’t get enough of him!”. You watch one movie, then tomorrow another movie, and then another one, and another one, and it’s never enough. At the end of every movie you’re left wanting more Tony Ramos in your life. You just can’t get enough!

What’s the food that you don’t eat very often, but whenever you have it in front of you… you just can’t get enough? For me, now that I don’t live in Brazil anymore, I would have to say ‘pão de queijo’. There’s a supermarket not too far from where I live and they have a Brazilian section! They sell Bis, Bono, Brazilian coffee, beans, and one or two brands of “pão de queijo” powder mix. So when I make pão de queijo… I just can’t get enough of it.

What about you? Let us know in the comments, as always, and talk to you next time!

 

Keywords

* I can’t thank you enough

Hello, everyone. No episódio de hoje, eu falo sobre duas expressões muito bacanas e bastante usadas do inglês.

Transcrição

Hi, all. How are you guys? Today we have a 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. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

So I was listening to a podcast this morning and this sentence came up: “Star Wars is such a ubiquitous, cross-generational thing”. What? OK, let’s break this down. For those of you who don’t know, Star Wars is the more general name of the sci-fi trilogy from the late 70’s that tells the story of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo, among other characters. It’s made history; it’s pretty famous and well-known and more recently another Star Wars trilogy was made that was supposed to be the prequel – which means, it’s about what happened before the original trilogy.

OK, now that you’re all caught up – listen to that sentence from the podcast again: “Star Wars is such a ubiquitous, cross-generational thing”. Here’s the word I’d like to focus on right now: ubiquitous. What does that mean? Well, it’s related to what I just said a minute ago: that Star Wars is pretty well-known… all over the world, really. The podcaster was saying that Star Wars is ubiquitous. If something, or someone is ubiquitous, that means they’re everywhere, or that everyone talks about them, or maybe everyone is aware of  them. That thing is ubiquitous in conversations, or in people’s minds or maybe on television. I feel like some actors become ubiquitous and everywhere you turn there’s a movie with them in it. That was my impression about this actress Rachel McAdams a while ago. It seemed like she was in all the new releases. She was ubiquitous!

Listen to this word again: ubiquitous. Now, it may sound like a super sophisticated word, but… it is relatively common in conversation. You probably won’t hear it from teenagers that speak really informal English full of slang and so on, but you will hear it from people who speak English just on a slightly higher level. I’m not even talking about professors or intellectuals; I’m talking about people with all sorts of backgrounds that speak fairly good English in everyday situations. Such as the podcast I was listening to.

Can you think of an actor or actress that seems to be ubiquitous on Brazilian TV? This person seems to be everywhere: they’re on a soapopera, commercials, a new movie that’s just been released. You fire up your Internet browser and there they are on some advertisement or a newspiece. Who’s the most ubiquitous celebrity in Brazil today? I wanna know what you think: please leave your answer in a comment.

And the second term used by the podcaster is quite interesting as well: cross-generational. “Star Wars is such a ubiquitous, cross-generational thing”. When something is cross-generational, it involves multiple generations. Maybe it’s popular with people from different generations, like people in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and so on. Maybe all these people want to participate in that thing, they like it, they know about it, and that’s what makes it cross-generational. Maybe it affects different generations equally. A cross-generational thing makes its way across multiple generations, it affects them in some way. So Star Wars, in the words of the podcaster, is such a ubiquitous, cross-generational thing.

And I agree with that. I like Star Wars,