Hey, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu vou falar sobre expressões em inglês com a palavra finger. 

Aproveito para esclarecer que finger é uma palavra usada para designar os dedos DAS MÃOS! Os dedos DOS PÉS chamam-se toes.

Transcrição

Hello! How have you all been? 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, yeah! Today we have a few expressions with the word finger. It think it’s safe to say that all of you – maybe with a few exceptions – know what a finger is. A finger is one of the five digits of the hand. There are loads of expressions and terms with the word finger… And here’s our first term for today: point the finger at someone. So imagine someone literally pointing their finger at another person. Let’s say this guy, Andrew, is literally pointing the finger at this other guy, Tom.

So if that looks to you like Andrew is blaming Tom for something, then you got the right idea for what the expression “point the finger at someone” means. Check out this sentence I found on Twitter: People are quick to blame and point the finger but can’t ever take responsibility for what they do. Again: people are quick to blame and point the finger – so the person who wrote this is just emphasising what they mean by using the expression “point the finger”. People are quick to blame and point the finger, but can’t ever take responsibility for what they do. This person is saying that it seems people are never able to take responsibility for what they do – they can’t ever take responsibility for what they do. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, right? Some people do take responsibility for what they do, but there certainly are a lot of people who don’t. Interestingly enough, many people who don’t take responsibility for what they do are quick to point fingers.

Here’s a variation of my previous example: Pointing fingers and blaming others is another way of not taking responsibility. You’ll hear that a lot: “pointing fingers”, or things like “I’m not gonna point any fingers, but our files have been corrupted and we need to be more vigilant from now on”. Or something like “We need to take action in order to prevent another disaster like this. This is not about pointing fingers; it’s about joining forces and working as a team”. Pointing fingers. It’s not about pointing fingers; I’m not gonna point any fingers. That means, I’m not going to blame anyone. I’m not going to openly accuse anyone of doing anything. I’m not gonna point any fingers.

Here’s our second expression of today – listen to this: the world is full of people willing to tell you what needs to be done, but not willing to lift a finger to help. Yeah, our examples today are profound. Food for thought. There’s another expression: food for thought. So, anyway, here’s the example again: The world is full of people willing to tell you what needs to be done, but not willing to lift a finger to help. I think you get the picture… Someone who’s not willing to lift a finger is someone who’s not willing to make even a small effort – you know what I mean? This expression is frequently used in that sense – in the sense of someone who’s not willing to help. Sort of a negative meaning.

However, it is also common to use that to express simply that you don’t want a certain person to make any effort; or that you wish you didn’t have to make any effort, and so on.

Hey, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu vou falar sobre algumas expressões em inglês com a palavra TAP.

Transcrição

Hello! How have you all been? 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.

Let’s begin with an expression that shouldn’t be completely new to those who have been religiously following all the Inglesonline posts. So here it is: What’s on tap for today? Take a look at the picture on the right: that’s a tap and… let’s say that’s a very dark beer. So that’s beer on tap, or beer that comes out of a tap. You can also have bottled beer, of course, which is, I guess, the popular way to get beer in Brazil – beer in bottles or cans. So, back to the picture – that’s a tap and beer’s coming out of it.

So taken literally this question could mean something like “What kind of beer do we have today?” or something like that. However, “What’s on tap for today?” is also used informally to ask “What’s on the schedule for today?” What’s the plan for today? What are we having? What’s happening today? What’s on tap for today?

Here are a few examples I found on Twitter: someone asked “What’s on tap for the birthday celebration?”, obviously referring to some… birthday celebration. One other person tweeted out “Here’s a taste of what’s on tap for this coming Saturday”, followed by a link to a YouTube video. And someone else posted “Let’s discuss what’s on tap”. So here’s my question to you, our listener: What’s on tap for today? What do you have planned for today? Or tomorrow! Please let us know in the comments what you got on tap for today or tomorrow.

And let me take the opportunity to present, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, another very common way to use the word TAP. Here’s something we do all the time: we tap someone on the shoulder. Yeah – in Portuguese we might say “dar uma batidinha no ombro”, right? Tap someone on the shoulder, or give someone a tap on the shoulder. You spot that person you’ve been meaning to have a chat with, they can’t see you ’cause they’re facing the other way, and you walk up to them and give ’em a tap on the shoulder. They turn around, and see you. Why did they turn around? Because you tapped them on the shoulder.

Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I tapped someone on the shoulder. What I usually do when I see someone I’d like to talk to, and they haven’t seen me, is… I call their name. Yeah, I usually don’t walk up to them and tap them on the shoulder. I guess I don’t want to startle them so, usually, I won’t tap anyone on the shoulder. What about you?

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

Key expressions

* What’s on tap for today?

* tap someone on the shoulder

Glossary

a taste of = um gostinho do (algo que está por vir)

you’ve been meaning to (do something) = você queria ( fazer algo); você está/estava com a intenção de (fazer algo)

facing the other way = olhando para o outro lado

startle someone = assustar alguém (tocando a pessoa de repente, abrindo a porta de repente, etc)

Este quiz contém a expressão What’s on tap for today?, além de outras expressões com tomorrow e yeste...

Hello, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu vou falar sobre algumas expressões em inglês com a palavra LET.

Transcrição

Hi, what’s up? 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’m pretty sure almost everyone must know the song Let it be, by the Beatles? Well, if you don’t… In case you’ve never heard this song before, go listen to it now and then come back to this podcast. Well, did you know that let it be is sort of a popular expression in the English language?

Picture this: you’re at work, discussing a project with your colleague John. The project is about building a new residential complex for students in your town. You’re both responsible for the project and all the suppliers have already been hired, and the project is well underway. But John insists that you should have hired a different company to take care of the project design. There’s nothing either of you can do about that now. A design company has already been hired and you’ve already paid them, they’re doing their job in a satisfactory way; all is well. You can’t understand why John is so adamant about this company being a mistake. You’ve asked him about it, and he can’t explain it. He just keeps repeating over and over “We should have hired that other design company”.

Finally, you think you guys have had enough of this discussion. This is going nowhere: it’s too late to do anything about this now and you’re not even sure why John isn’t happy with the current supplier. So you say “John, I know you’re not happy but just let it be. Let it be! There’s nothing we can do about this now.” When you say “Let it be!”, what you’re saying is “Leave the situation alone as it is”. Just walk away, try to forget about it, go do something else with your time, let it be! Just let it be.

So when something’s really bugging you and you can’t stop talking about it; or when you’re worrying about something too much that you really have no power to change, or zero control over what the outcome will be; in these situations someone might say to you Let it be. Just let it be.

And here’s another expression with let: let it slide. This is an interesting one – imagine you’re going somewhere with your spouse and your kids. When you get there – let’s say it’s a restaurant – your daughter misbehaves a bit. What is she doing exactly? She’s punching her little brother and saying she won’t go in. Your spouse just picks her up and takes her inside the restaurant anyway. So, normally, you would have given your daughter a bit of tough love right there, but this time you just let it slide. What does that mean? That means your daughter misbehaved, and you didn’t do anything about it. You just let it slide. Why did you do that, instead of giving her some tough love?

Because you guys were about to walk into the restaurant to meet friends, and you were kinda running late as it was. Since you guys were running late, your daughter misbehaved and you just let it slide. You know when a friend sometimes says something to you that you don’t think is nice, but you just let it slide? Or when someone at work kinda takes advantage of you, but you think “This isn’t such a big deal..

Hello, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu vou falar sobre expressões idiomáticas com a palavra face.

Transcrição

Hi, what’s up? 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 how about we look into a few expressions today with the word FACE? Yep, “face”. Face means the same in Portuguese, at least the noun. Face is also a verb, though. It kinda means the same as our verb “encarar”, you know? So let’s get started with the term “long face”. It won’t really make sense if we translate it literally into Portuguese, but in English we can say that someone has a long face when they look sad. That’s pretty much it: you look at someone and you think that they look sad or upset… And you might ask “Why the long face?”

Of course, you wouldn’t say that to everyone but if it’s a friend or someone you’re kinda close with, you might ask “Why the long face?” Or you can say that you ran into this or that person, and they had a long face. So here’s my question for you – who’s the last person you’ve seen that had a long face? Probably today, or yesterday, or this week. Let us know in the comments.

And here’s another idiomatic expression that is quite popular, I guess: face the music. So what does that mean? Well, imagine you borrowed your dad’s car for a quick weekend trip. Let’s say your dad didn’t even want to lend you his car. And now imagine you got in a car crash with your dad’s car. Not a very pleasant event, of course… Let’s say that’s what’s happened, though, and now you have to face the music. That means, you have to face the unpleasant consequences of what’s happened. You’ll have to accept the criticism or even the punishment for what you’ve done, even if it wasn’t on purpose or even if it wasn’t entirely your fault.

Imagine your boss put you in charge of a very important business account, and you’ve screwed up. You’ve screwed up so bad that your company has lost the account. Guess what? You’ve got to face the music now. Your boss will probably lecture you, and you might even lose your job – who knows? You’ve screwed up, and now you’ve gotta face the music.

And I’d like to mention that it is also very common to say “face the consequences“. You do something, and you face the consequences. This expression, just like ‘face the music’, is used in a context of negative consequences. If you’ve worked hard for twenty years and the consequence is that you’re now a millionaire, we wouldn’t say to you “Well, you’ve gotta face the consequences” unless it was a joke.

That’s very easy to translate into Portuguese, right? “Encarar as consequências”. You spent your life savings in one day and now you’ve got to face the consequences. You lost your cool when arguing with your boss at work, and now you’ve got to face the consequences. You went out in the rain wearing your new night dress and now you have to face the consequences.

So, please, tell us your stories about having to face the music or facing the consequences of your actions. Let us know in the comments and talk to you next time.

 

Key expressions

* long face

* face the music

* face the consequences

Glossary

Hi, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu vou falar sobre algumas expressões com a palavra LOVE.

Transcrição

Hey, how’s it going? 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 how about today we take a look at a few expressions with the word LOVE? Yep, love – L-O-V-E. Listen again: love. So here’s an expression: love something or someone to bits. Again: love something or someone to bits. What does that mean? That means you like or love that thing, or that person… a lot. That’s it. An example: my neighbors are great. I love them to bits. That means I like my neighbors very much. Here’s one more: “The new teacher explains things so clearly and she’s so patient. I love her to bits.”

Now here’s another expression with LOVE that is a bit more intense: love someone to death. Yeah, the word DEATH is in there but, still… it’s a positive expression. In Portuguese we have a very positive expression with the word MORRER, don’t we? As in “linda de morrer”. That does not mean the same as “love someone to death”, by the way. To love someone to death means to feel a really intense affection for that person. That would be appropriate for a really close friend, a girlfriend or boyfriend, a spouse, a family member and so on.

I remember hearing the expression love someone to death very often when someone says something like… “I love her to death, but…” Example: “Look, my mother is always very curious about what my siblings and I are doing at all times… I love her to death but there’s no way I’m gonna tell her every single detail of my life”. What this person is saying is that they love their mother to death – in other words, they really love her, truly and intensely, but still… they’re not going to inform their mom of their every move. One more example: “My boyfriend is just too possessive. I mean, I love him to death but I’m not gonna let him control my life”. Here this person is saying she loves her boyfriend to death; she’s totally in love with him; she feels a strong and deep affection for her boyfriend. Still, she isn’t going to let him control her life.

And here’s a very interesting expression with the word LOVE – maybe you’ve heard about it: tough love. Again, that’s tough love. Tough is spelled t-o-u-g-h, tough. One of the meanings of the word TOUGH is severe, even a bit harsh. So why would this word be used in conjunction with such a sweet word as LOVE? Well… “Tough love” expresses a way of helping someone – or an intention to help someone – by treating them in sort of a severe way. An example would be if you had a serious talk with your friend about all the money she’s been spending on clothes. You were almost angry – you told her she was being irresponsible and you also said that she couldn’t go on spending like that. In the beginning she thought you were joking, but you just kept telling her that it was a mistake and that she should change her ways… You were kinda tough on her.

You just gave her some tough love. You’re doing this because you love your friend to death and you don’t want to see her making the same mistakes you’ve seen other people make. You know she’s out of control with the spending, and you just wanted to shake her up a little, so you thought: It’s time for some tough love. I’m gonna give her some tough love. This is a very common way to use this expression: it&#...

Hi, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu vou falar sobre vocabulário em inglês de Twitter e um pouquinho de football.

Transcrição

Hey, how’s it going? 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.

Today our podcast episode will be a little different, just because my inspiration was a hashtag that is currently trending on Twitter. OK. Who has no idea of what I just said? Take a look at the first picture on this episode’s page on the blog. See that phrase in bold, with the hash symbol (#)? That is an example of a hashtag. Let’s say you’re posting something about “apples” to Twitter, and let’s say you put the hash symbol before “apples”. By doing that, you have just created the hashtag #apples on Twitter. If someone sees your Twitter post and clicks on the hasthtag #apples, that will take them to a list of all the tweets containing that same hashtag. Same thing happens on Facebook, by the way.

So take a look again at the first picture on this episode’s page. It shows the hashtag #ThingsFootballFansDontSay. I said in the beginning of this episode that this hashtag was trending. What that means is, enough people have posted tweets containing this hashtag… that it has become one of the most popular hashtags on Twitter in that moment. Take a look at the second picture. It says “Trends” at the top. Those were the top ten most popular hashtags in that moment. Those were all the hashtags that were trending in that moment.

So the hashtag that caught my attention was the third one on the list: #ThingsFootballFansDontSay. Bear in mind that these are the trending topics in the United Kingdom, so all the examples I’m gonna read now refer to English football:

* #ThingsFootballFansDontSay I’ll just watch for five minutes

* #ThingsFootballFansDontSay That manager seems to know what he’s doing

* #ThingsFootballFansDontSay Call it ‘soccer’: it sounds better

* #ThingsFootballFansDontSay What a performance by England that was

So you can see that, according to those, no one would say “I’ll just watch for five minutes”, because apparently it is impossible to watch football for just five minutes. Do you agree with that? Are you a fan? If so, which team do you support? Here’s another one that football fans wouldn’t say… in the UK, at least: call it soccer – it sounds better! Yeah, I think the United States is really the only country in the world that calls it soccer – please someone correct me if I’m wrong. Here in the UK, everyone calls the sport football, so you definitely wouldn’t hear people say “Call it soccer”.

And there’s another one kinda making fun of England’s performance in general, right? Someone wrote “What a performance by England that was!” So apparently people don’t say that a lot. And, finally, someone contributed this one “That manager seems to know what he’s doing”. Felipão, Parreira, Zagallo, these have all been football team managers. So this seems to be something no football fan says: That manager seems to know what he’s doing. I would think that is mostly true for Brazil as well. You hear a lot of criticism towards managers and not a lot of compliments – unless the team becomes a champion under his management, of course.

Hi, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu vou falar sobre a expressão “olhar vitrine” em inglês, e também reviso a estrutura “go (verb)ing” com vários exemplos.

Transcrição

Hello – how have you been? 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 let’s talk about a term in English that describes something that many women love to do: window-shopping. Yeah, maybe there are men who enjoy doing that a little bit, but I think it’s more of a woman thing. Many women get out of the house when they wanna kill time and go window-shopping. And what does that mean? That means you go out to where the shops are and you look at lots of store windows – well, you actually look at the objects behind the store windows but you don’t really buy anything. A store window is that big chunk of glass behind which goods for sale are exposed. So you just go walking down the street and looking at the objects for sale behind the store windows… and you don’t actually buy anything. You are just window-shopping.

OK, now I wanna know:  who enjoys going window-shopping? Is that you? This could be your hobby: window-shopping on the weekend. Maybe you go window-shopping every Saturday morning. And notice that I’m using the following expression, “go window-shopping”. Maybe you go window-shopping every Saturday, that’s what you enjoy doing.

Let’s take the opportunity to recap a few expressions that follow the same structure: GO, followed by a verb in “ING” form. Many activities in English are referred to in their ING form. What I mean by that is, it’s as though their name was the ING form. Let me give you examples: some popular weekend activities include dancing, playing soccer, swimming, going to the beach, drinking beer… I have just listed out a few activities, haven’t I? Dancing, playing soccer, swimming, going to the beach, drinking beer. These are like the names of the activities – the ING forms. I’m not gonna get into too much detail about this, because there’s a post at Inglês Online that covers that.

What I am going to do in this episode is give you lots more examples that use this structure. The reason is, I think this is considered a basic structure – I remember it was in one of the lessons of the English book I used to teach from – and yet, I don’t see many Brazilians using it. So let’s dive right into it: I guess there’s no better way to present examples of this structure than to talk about popular activities, like fishing, dancing, swimming, kayaking and bowling.

The activities I just mentioned are all examples of things you GO doing. My grandfather used to GO fishing almost every weekend. He really enjoyed fishing – that means “ele gostava de pescar, de pescaria”. He used to go fishing almost every weekend. Now that means “Ele costumava ‘ir pescar’ quase todo fim de semana”.

There are many, many people who enjoy dancing. They enjoy it so much that, if they could, they would go dancing every night at a nightclub, or at a dance club or something. I know people who go dancing as often as they can. They just love it. They try to go dancing every Friday and /or Saturday. Now, what about swimming? Are you a swimmer? Do you go swimming with any kind of regularity? I never go swimming, really, but I know people who do, regularly. Are you a regular swimmer?

Hello, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu vou falar sobre duas expressões em inglês com a palavra foot.

Transcrição

Hey, how’s it going? 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 in today’s episode we’re going to hear examples for a few expressions with the word FOOT. You know, foot, that part of your body you stand on. And just to recap: foot is singular, feet is plural. We have two feet. So we’ve had a quiz here at Inglês Online on expressions with the word ‘foot’ and one of those is in today’s episode as well. Which one? It’s coming up. but you’ll have to keep listening to find out.

So, picture this: you’ve just arrived at a party and you strike up a conversation with someone you just met. The two of you start talking about food and you mention you hate Italian food. Therpe’s a pause in conversation and you decide to change the topic. You ask him – let’s say it’s a guy… So you ask him what he does for a living, and he says “I own a restaurant… an Italian restaurant”. Now, of course you could not know. But that’s good example for our expression because now you feel you put your foot in your mouth.

You regret now saying that you hate Italian food. You feel like that was insulting to the guy and you’re very embarrassed – after all, he owns a restaurant that makes Italian food. You feel like you put your foot in your mouth. Yep, that’s the expression for when you say something that feels really stupid and insulting after you’ve said it. It’s usually because you didn’t know, right? I think most people don’t do that on purpose, but still… We’re used to being embarrassed after something like that. So you’ve just told an Italian restaurant owner that you hate Italian food. You look at him and you say “Alright, so now I’m just gonna take my foot out of my mouth”. It’s common to hear that – you just say that you’re going to have to get your foot out of your mouth…

So, again: the expression is put your foot in your mouth; or she put her foot in her mouth, or he put his foot in his mouth. And that happens when you say something insulting, embarrassing, etc. usually unintentionally. I think most people have been there. So when you tell the other person “Okay, I’m gonna take my foot out of my mouth now” you’re admitting and acknowledging you said something silly or stupid. What are your examples? C’mon, let us know in the comments!

Here’s another expression with ‘foot’: get off on the wrong foot with someone. Can you kinda guess what this one is about? When you get off on the wrong foot with someone, that means the two of you get off to a bad start. That means your initial contact wasn’t good. Something bad happened, such as a strong disagreement, or even a fight. Or maybe one of you put their foot in their mouth, and the other person took offense! You tried to apologize but it was useless. The two of you got off to a bad start.

Has that ever happened to you? Maybe you were in a bad mood the day you met this person; you were just not feeling well and not in the right mood to be friendly. I’ll admit: I’ve been there. I was supposed to do a job with someone else in a company I used to work for and we just got off on the wrong foot and it seemed like we were about to have a really unpleasa...

Hello, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu vou falar sobre algumas expressões em inglês com um verbo muito, muito conhecido de todo mundo que estuda esse idioma há algum tempo: talk. Você pode já conhecer essas expressões, mas você já usa na conversa? Ouça estes exemplos várias vezes pra ficar cada vez mais familiarizado. Enjoy!

Transcrição

Hey, how’s it going? Today we have a new episode of the inglesonline podcast. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline. And today’s episode is all about talking. Well, just like any other episode, right? I talk, and talk and talk, but what I mean by this is, we’re going to get this started with a couple of expressions with the verb talk. The expressions are talk someone into something and talk someone out of something.

Now, if you’ve heard these expressions before; even if you’re familiar with them – hang on. Ask yourself if they’re part of your conversation – are you using them naturally? If you’re not, keep listening ’cause this episode will give you lots of examples and make you a bit more familiar, a bit more used to them. So these terms, or expressions, kinda mean the opposite of one another. So let’s dive right in: when you say you you talked someone into doing something, what does that mean? That means you have persuaded that person to do that thing. You have convinced them to do it. Example: you’re at the food court of some mall with your friends Jack and Tom. Let’s say that, for some unknown reason, all three of you have to eat at the same restaurant. So you and Jack have your hearts set on McDonald’s.

Tom, however, isn’t so sure. His last experience at McDonald’s wasn’t the best. He felt sick afterwards. So… He’s not crazy about McDonald’s right now. But you and Jack tell Tom that it was probably the heat that day that made him feel sick. You tell him that if it wasn’t the heat, then it must have been just bad luck. You guys tell him that, actually, McDonald’s now has better lunch options and that Tom probably didn’t pick the right sandwich. Tom finally agrees. He says “Alright, I’ll give McDonald’s one more try”.

So what happened there? You and Jack talked your friend Tom into eating at McDonald’s, that’s what happened. You convinced Tom to go to McDonald’s.  He didn’t want to eat there, and then you guys talked him into eating there. Have you noticed the -ING in ‘eating’? Yeah, I’m not gonna get into that now (there are other posts on this blog that talk about this). Just notice that we say “I talked my cousin into going shopping with me yesterday”. Or I talked my father into getting a dog. My friend Mary talked me into buying a new car. Our older brother talked us into selling our bikes. We didn’t want to sell the bikes at first, but he convinced us. He talked us into it. He talked us into selling our bikes.

Alright, now let’s look at the McDonald’s example from another angle. Let’s say Tom really wanted to eat at KFC (that’s Kentucky Fried Chicken, a fast food restaurant just like McDonald’s for those of you who don’t know). Tom wanted to have fried chicken. His heart was set on it, and he even said “I don’t care. I’m going to KFC. You guys do whatever you want”. What did you and Jack want, though? McDonald’s. Both of you wanted to have a Mcburger or something like that,

Hello, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu vou falar sobre o verbo wear, e uma expressão com esse verbo que ouvi de uma australiana. Enjoy!

Transcrição

Hey, how’s it going? Today we have a new episode of the inglesonline podcast, and to get started, let me fill you in on the context for today’s first expression. So I live in a shared house, and I have a live-in landlady. What’s a shared house? That’s easy: it’s a house you share with other people. That means you’re not the only person living there. You’ve probably got one or more roommates, or housemates. The literal meaning of the word roommate is, someone who shares a room with you.

This word roommate is, however, sometimes used for people who just share a house with you; not necessarily a bedroom. Now, housemate or flatmate are more appropriate, I guess, for the people who live in the same house you live. So, currently, I have a total of four housemates if I count every single person living in the house. There’s a couple from Australia, there’s a guy from London and then there’s the landlady. That’s the second time the word ‘landlady’ has come up in this post, so for those of you who don’t know what it means…

‘Landlady’ is the owner of the house or apartment you live in. If that was a man, the word would be landlord. I haven’t looked into the origin of such terms, but to me they sound like something reminiscent of the middle ages, when people owned a lot of land and other people paid them and got to live in a piece of that land.

Anyway, yesterday I was in the kitchen making juice. I added several pieces of fruit to a bowl, plus juice and some spinach, and then before I fired up the mixer I covered the front of my shirt with a dishcloth. Kate, my Australian housemate, saw that and asked, jokingly: “Occupational hazard?” By the way, an occupational hazard, as applied to an actual job or professional activity, would be any situation in that job that could potentially cause injury or illness. Kate was, of course, joking, since I wasn’t working but just making juice. The joke made sense, though, since there was a strong possibility that once I fired up the mixer, some juice would splash on my shirt.

Alright. So I made the juice and in the meantime, Kate left the kitchen. She came back later, when I was washing the bowl, and then she asked “So, did you wear any?” And that’s our expression for today: she asked me if I wore any juice. So before we really get into this expression, let’s take a closer look at the verb “to wear”. It would be incorrect to always translate wear as “vestir”. Why is that? That’s because in Portuguese we say “vestir” when we’re talking about clothes only. In English, people say ‘ wear ‘ for lots of things that you put on your body to cover it, like clothes… or glasses, or a mask. Or you’re putting these things on your body because you think they’ll make you prettier… like makeup, or earrings or a necklace. We also say ‘ wear ‘ for shoes. So those are different from what we say in Portuguese, right? I’m wearing brown shoes right now, I’m not wearing any makeup, and… I rarely wear my glasses. What about you? How often do you wear makeup? Do you wear glasses to watch a movie? What kind of shoes do you wear at night?

So the expression that my Australian housemate used was kinda funny because she wanted to know if I was wearing any juice. In other words, she wanted to know if juice had splashed on my shirt. So when she asked me that, I said that I didn’t get her question and then she gave me more examples – sh...