Podcast Inglês Online

Hi, there. Hoje eu falo sobre…. senhas! Como você escolhe as suas? Eu conto como escolho as minhas. Enjoy :)

Hi, everyone, how’s it going? How are you doing?

Welcome to another episode of the Inglês Online podcast. You know what I was thinking about, today and yesterday… a little bit yesterday? Passwords. I’m just moving browsers, I’m just kind of switching from Chrome over to Firefox, which I used ages ago.

I was a very loyal user of Firefox until… it just became a bit clunky and it wasn’t working so well. I kind of abandoned it and switched over to Chrome… but now it’s the opposite. Chrome doesn’t suit me anymore, it’s just… I just don’t like the fact that I use so many Google products. I don’t fully trust Google to take care of my personal information. Basically I think I’m giving Google too much personal information. I’m kind of trying to disentangle myself from Google a little bit and Chrome happens to not be working so well.

Chrome sometimes is way slower than other browsers. I’ve tested the same URL on different browsers and Chrome usually comes last, and it just takes up a lot of memory, I found. I’m kind of ditching it for now and it looks like Firefox was completely overhauled, which is great, and I hear it’s awesome. I’m moving everything over to Firefox now.

I started dealing with my passwords and I realized that most of my passwords are something that I can kind of remember, or that I think I can remember, you know what I mean? My passwords are usually a combination of words that mean something to me, like places that mean something to me or people, dates… It’s usually what I use for passwords, which I’ve heard is a bit risky.

Obviously, I try to mix things up and I try to use characters, because… I mean, this is 2019 and obviously we have to be careful, but what I realized was… You know when you go to a website and you’re signing up and you have to come up with a password?

And sometimes your browser will offer up a password that is really complicated – it’s this combination of 20 different letters and symbols and numbers… There’s no way you can memorize that and I realized that I never, I never accept that. I always end up going with my own little combination. Like I said: letters and numbers that mean something to me, and as a result I have sort of a handful of combinations that I use in a lot of places, let’s put it this way.

And even with such a small number of passwords, and passwords that are not that complicated, I need sort of a notepad. I have a page on one of the Google services – I think it’s Google Contacts. I created a page where I write down all my passwords for every website and I frequently have to go to this Google Contacts page and look for my password because I can’t remember…

I’m wondering, what do you guys do? How do you guys manage your passwords? Is there an easier way? And by the way, I found this page yesterday that lists the 50,000 most common passwords. Can you guess what the top one is? The most common password that people use?

That’s right! It’s the word ‘password’. Yes, there are still people that use the word password, oh my God… I’m not that creative with my passwords, but I wouldn’t go that far and use the word password (or in Brazil ‘senha’). Just a few curious ones here: Number 8 is ‘superman’. Number 11 is the name ‘jennifer’. Number 13 is ‘Iloveyou’ and number 14 is ‘starwars’. And I searched the word ‘senha’ on this list and it actually shows up twice. One is ‘minhasenha’ and the other one is ‘senha123’. If you’re using one of these two: ‘minhasenha’ or ‘senha123’, I think it’s time to change your passwords.

Tell me what you think, tell me how you handle your passwords, tell me if… let me know if you’re just like me – if you end up using words and numbers that have personal meaning to you, or if you usually accept those complicated suggestions from your browser in order to be safer.

Talk to you guys soon. Bye!

Vocabulary

switching from Chrome over to Firefox = mudando do Chrome para o Firefox

clunky = desajeitado, desengonçado, confuso

Chrome doesn’t suit me anymore = Chrome não me atende/serve/agrada mais

disentangle = se livrar ou se desvencilhar de algo

ditch something = largar ou abandonar algo

overhauled = passado de overhaul e significa reformular, remodelar ou revisar algo

come up with = bolar, imaginar, inventar algo

handful = um punhado

how you handle your passwords = como você lida/administra as suas senhas

end up = “acabar” no sentido de terminar fazendo algo que você não estava necessariamente planejando fazer

How’s it going? Hoje eu falo sobre uma coisinha que todo mundo vê na aula de inglês básico: o possessive case (‘s). Mas é comum a gente aprender Mary’s car, John’s apple e por aí vai… Os casos em que mais de uma pessoa é “dona” não aparecem com tanta frequência no livro de inglês – e mesmo que apareçam, muita gente acaba não “pegando” por falta de input. Esse é o tema do nosso episódio de hoje – enjoy!

Hey, everyone! This is Ana with another episode of the Inglês Online podcast. How are you doing today?

So, listen to this: Mary’s and Jack’s cars are outside. Let me say that again: Mary’s and Jack’s cars are outside. What does that mean? That means that Mary owns a car, Jack owns a different car and both their cars are outside. So I’m focusing on the possessive case: it’s that way of expressing possession where we use an apostrophe and the letter S. Mary’s and Jack’s cars are outside – each one of them has a car so I’m using one possessive for each: Mary’s and Jack’s cars are outside.

What would happen if… Let’s say a couple of people… Let’s say a husband and a wife – if they shared a car. If they had one car for both of them. Let’s say… Edward and Christine, ok? So, they have one car. Edward and Christine’s car is outside. I’m talking about one car and it belongs to both of them. Edward and Christine’s car is outside – and the order doesn’t matter, so I could say Christine and Edward’s car is outside. same thing.

Let me give you a few more examples of two people who have two different things. Let’s say I’m talking about two friends – Ted and Tina. One guy and one woman. They are friends – Ted and Tina.

Ted’s and Tina’s dogs are friends. Ted and Tina are friends, Ted’s and Tina’s dogs are friends too. So, Ted has a dog, Tina has a different dog and their dogs are friends. Ted’s and Tina’s dogs are friends.

Ted’s and Tina’s bicycles are inside. Ted and Tina rode their bikes somewhere… Let’s say to the ice cream shop and they brought their bikes inside. So Ted’s and Tina’s bikes are inside.

Karen’s and Christie’s dolls are very pretty. Karen is a little girl, Christie is another little girl, Karen and Christie are friends and each one of them has a very pretty doll. So I’m talking about both of their dolls… Karen’s and Christie’s dolls are very pretty.

Now, let’s talk about a couple of brothers that share lots of things. Let’s say they’re called Timmy and Johnny. Timmy and Johnny are brothers, they’re both eight years old and they share a bike. Timmy and Johnny’s bike is blue – they have only one bike. Timmy and Johnny’s bike is blue. Notice that the apostrophe and the letter S go after the second name, right? The last name. Timmy and Johnny’s bike is blue: it’s only one bike. Timmy and Johnny’s bedroom is very large. They share a bedroom and it’s a large bedroom. Timmy and Johnny’s bedroom is large, and finally… Timmy and Johnny’s mother is German – she came from Germany. So Timmy and Johnny’s mother is German.

Alright! These are my examples for today. I just wanted to go over these two ways of using the possessive case, because… In this way we’re covering a few examples that are not really necessarily present in books or they’re not very frequent, I think. And again, this is something I don’t hear a lot of students using correctly. I thought this would be a good opportunity to go over a few examples. Give it a listen. Get familiar with these ways of using the possessive case.

I hope you’ve enjoyed it and see you next time. Bye!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

Mary owns a car = Mary possui/tem um carro

rode = Passado do verbo ride e no texto significa pedalar/andar de bicicleta

bedroom = quarto de dormir

get familiar with = se familiarizar com algo

What’s up? No podcast Inglês Online de hoje eu falo sobre a expressão ‘bring someone up to speed‘. Mais uma que é super comum no dia a dia dos nativos de inglês.

Hey, everyone, how’s it going? Here’s our podcast for this week. Yes! I’m recording it just now. How have you guys been? It’s been crazy over here at Inglês Online as, I guess, many of you know… This week we’ve opened up enrollment for module one of our Curso Básico. In the past few weeks I… the past couple of weeks I recorded a series of three free classes where I talked about possessive pronouns and it’s been awesome. I got great feedback, people told me that it’s been really useful to finally understand those pronouns and you know what? It’s been a lot of fun.

You know what I just noticed? Everything I said up to now… I’m using the present perfect a lot, so there you go. Here’s a little bit of practice on the present perfect at the beginning of this episode for you. Alright! We’re right now in the middle of the enrollment period for the Curso Básico and, again, I know that you’re probably not part of the target audience for the Curso Básico.

I know that there are many former students of my first version of the Curso Básico here, right now, listening to this podcast and… They tell me that right after they completed the Curso Básico they were able to start listening to the podcast, which is awesome – because this podcast is not exactly just basic English, you know. I just… I just used the present perfect, I use present perfect continuous, I use conditionals, I use complex verb tenses, vocabulary and prepositions, and pronouns, and all kinds of things and expressions. So kudos to you if all you did was complete my Curso Básico and now you have a habit of listening to this podcast. This is amazing and I want you to know that. I want you to be aware of that, okay? This is really… a really great result. Congratulations.

Okay, I was looking at a few posts here, that I did… And I saw this expression – this idiom bring someone up to speed. And let me give you an example from an office situation – because that’s going to be really easy to understand. So, let’s say that you work as part of a team in your company. So you have your colleagues, and you have your manager… And one of your colleagues went on holiday for two weeks, and while your colleague was on holiday your manager asked the team to start working on a new project.

So obviously your colleague who was on holiday wasn’t aware of the new project… but when your colleague came back you had to tell him – let’s say it’s a guy, Mark. You had to tell Mark what the new project is about; what it entails; what you have to do; what the results expected are; what kind of work each of you in the team is going to be doing… In other words you have to bring Mark up to speed.

So, that’s an expression for when there’s something going on… Some kind of project, some kind of activity, some kind of event… And then someone new, for some reason, gets involved in that situation. But because they’re new, they’re not aware – right? They’re not aware of what’s going on, so someone has to bring them up to speed.

Bring someone up to speed is just – to inform them of what’s going on. I mean this happens a lot in work situations, right? I’m pretty sure you can remember the last time at work – or maybe in your personal life – when you had to bring someone up to speed, because they just arrived in this situation which is ongoing. So everyone who’s involved in the situation obviously knows what’s going on, but that new person doesn’t – so you have to bring them up to speed.

That’s it for today. I’ll just… before I close, I’ll ask you to please forward the emails where I’m talking about the new Curso Básico to your friends and neighbours and family… If you know people who really want to learn English or are really interested in improving their English, and learning how to speak… Please forward my emails to them, because we’re in the middle, like I said, of the enrollment period.

Thank you and speak to you soon, bye.

Key expressions

Vocabulary

enrollment = Inscrição, Cadastro

you know what? = quer saber de uma coisa, quer saber

everything I said up to now = tudo o que eu disse até agora

kudos = parabéns

went on holiday = saiu de férias

what it entails = o que isso significa/acarreta/envolve

ongoing = em andamento

forward the emails = encaminhar os emails

What’s up? No podcast Inglês Online de hoje eu falo sobre a expressão ‘rain on someone’s parade‘, super comum no dia a dia do falante de inglês. Não perca…

Hi, everyone. How is it going? What’s up? How have you been? Today is the day for another episode of the Inglês Online podcast. I’m Ana Luiza and it’s been busy… it’s been a busy week. We’re working on the relaunch of the ‘Curso Básico’- the new edition of our Curso Básico. I’ve also been releasing free video classes, which, if you haven’t watched yet… You should head over to the homepage of inglesonline.com.br, insert your email and watch these lessons because they’re pretty cool.

So, let’s focus on the podcast. Today I just wanted to talk a little bit about this really cool expression, I mean… The meaning, you know… it’s not that cheerful, but it’s a very nice… It’s a nice expression, very common and people use it a lot. Again, if you’re someone… Like I said in previous episodes, if you are someone who watches a lot of movies and sitcoms you have definitely heard it.

The idiom of today is rain on someone’s parade. So, this is pretty easy to visualise. Imagine a parade, let’s see… in Brazil we have September 7th which is Independence Day. So we have a parade. So now imagine that all of a sudden it starts to rain on the parade. And now imagine that you’re using that as a metaphor and – you are the rain on someone’s parade.

I think you can get the meaning. You can get what it means pretty easily, so you’re basically… when you’re raining on someone’s parade, metaphorically speaking, you’re basically killing their joy or you’re basically telling them that whatever they were expecting… Whatever they were very excited about isn’t going to happen for some reason. So, let me give you an example. This is actually based on a true story.

Let’s say you’re planning a really nice day out for the weekend. You’ve looked at the weather forecast. It’s going to be a sunny day – great! You talk to a few friends and you start organising this little day trip to the mountains… It doesn’t matter… somewhere! One of the big attractions in this place that you want to go to with your friends is that they have this shopping mall with some kind of specialty store. Let’s say they sell computer parts and these computer parts are really hard to find, so obviously I’m assuming you and your friends are really into computers.

And you and your friends are really excited about it. So you’re going to this place in the mountains on Sunday and you’re really looking forward to going to the shops. And you are spending a bit of money to buy these computer parts that are otherwise very hard to find. You spend the week chatting with your friends and planning out your journey.

And then Sunday morning comes around and you’re all about to get in the car and your other friend – who didn’t get invited by the way… He calls you on your cell phone and you answer the phone, and you tell him: Hey, well, you know… We happen to be going to that place, that shop to have a look at the computer parts. And your friend says: Hey, I’m sorry to rain on your parade, but those shops are closed. It’s Sunday.

I mean, can you relate? I know I can. I mean, that has definitely happened with me before. You leave one little detail out… I mean, it’s an essential detail – let’s be honest – but at the time it seemed like a small detail, right? One little thing you didn’t think about and BAM… your trip is ruined. You know, whatever. You decide to go anyway and have fun with your friends or you just cancel the day and stay home.

But that’s it, that guy said… I mean, it wasn’t his fault, right? The guy in the phone – but that’s why he said: I hate to rain on your parade. I hate to kill the excitement and the joy that you guys are feeling because you’re finally going to that shop, but here’s the deal: the shops are closed.

So, that’s it, I mean…. Tell me: have you heard this expression a lot? Because it’s a pretty common one. Let me know in the comments and talk to you soon. Bye!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

head over to = ir até

parade = desfile

joy = alegria, felicidade

day out for the weekend = final de semana fora

weather forecast = previsão do tempo

specialty store = loja especializada

computer parts = peças ou componentes de computador

you and your friends are really into computers = você e seus amigos são chegados/gostam muito de computadores

looking forward to something = estar ansioso por alguma coisa

leave one little detail out = deixar um pequeno detalhe de fora

but here’s the deal = ai é que está, o negócio é o seguinte

What’s up? No podcast Inglês Online de hoje eu falo sobre a expressão ‘bear with me‘, super comum entre os falantes nativos. Ouça já!

Hi, everyone… how are you? How are you doing? This is Ana Luiza, with another episode of the Inglês Online Podcast. And this is very impromptu… I was just thinking now of this expression. This idiom from the English language, bear with me. And I thought it would make for a nice episode of the podcast. I’m going to give you mainly two examples or, rather, two kinds of situation where this idiom fits like a glove. It’s perfect for a couple of situations and I’m going to explain them to you right now.

One of them would be… let’s say you’re explaining something to someone or… you’re sort of having a chat with someone and you’re telling them a story. And your story has a point, right? You’re going to get to the really interesting part in a few seconds or maybe in a minute, but first you have to kind of set up the whole story. You have to give the other person some background information, right? You have to tell them how… how you’re going to get to that point. You have to tell them the events that led up to that interesting point, to the point that you want to make… To the part of the story that’s really interesting, so it’s going to take maybe a minute or two. You have to tell this person about a few events; you have to give them some information. You have to set up the story but the other person doesn’t know… The other person is waiting; they’re expecting to hear that interesting part, so you tell this person… Just bear with me. Bear with me.

“So, the other day I went to this place or that place and I met with this person and that person and this happened or that happened…” You’re telling your friend – you’re telling them a bunch of stuff that they don’t really understand right now. What does that have to do with the really interesting thing that you said you were going to tell them? but you know it’s important; you know that this is important information for the other person to understand the really interesting part that is coming in the next minute or two. So you tell this person “Just bear with me while I tell you the story”. Basically, bear with me means “Just have a little patience”, okay? Stay with me, don’t go away, have a little patience while I give you all this important information and we’re going to get to the really interesting point very soon.

And the other example, you guys, I’ll give you a real… A very real example in my life when something happens to my website. My website is full of basic English exercises. There’s a whole section of “Inglês Básico” at Inglês Online which is just about interactive English exercises and it’s really cool, it’s very popular, people love it… Let’s say, for some reason, there’s a problem and all of a sudden none of the exercise pages are available. So I go to Inglês Online and I write a post, and I say: “Guys, unfortunately we have a problem with the exercises. We have a problem with the plugin that we’re using to provide the exercise for you. We’re working on it as fast as we can… Please bear with us and we’re going to get it fixed as soon as we can.”

I’m asking you guys to bear with us – just have patience and bear with us. Have patience because we’re working on it as fast as we can, okay?

So bear with me – that’s how you’re going to hear it most of the time. Very, very common expression… So listen to this episode a couple of times, get used to it and I’m sure you will start noticing this expression, ok?

Talk to you next time. Bye!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

impromptu = de improviso

fits like a glove = cai como uma luva, perfeito para tal situação

set up the whole story = preparar, criar toda a história

led up to  = passado de ‘lead up to’ (conduzir a, levar a). Nota: falantes nativos de inglês frequentemente escrevem a forma passada como “lead up to”, o que é incorreto.

we’re working on it as fast as we can = nós estamos trabalhando nisso o mais rápido possível

get used to it = se acostumar ou habituar-se com algo

Hi, there. Hoje eu falo sobre uma maneira super comum de usar a palavra ‘though‘ – os falantes nativos usam o tempo todo, mas você raramente vai encontrá-lo nas suas aulas ou no livro de inglês. Ouça bem o episódio e se familiarize! Quanto mais você ouvir, mais você internaliza as expressões e estruturas do idioma. Enjoy! :-)

Hi everyone, this is Ana Luiza with another episode of the Inglês Online podcast. How are you doing? How’s it going? Today I want to talk to you about another one of those words that you will see, sort of briefly, in English schools and in your English books… If you go to school, if you go to… If you have English classes I’m sure you will have learned it, you will have done exercises about it.

But again: this is another word that I don’t hear a lot of Brazilians speak or, at least, speak naturally and today our episode is going to center around a particular use of this word which is really… It’s really interesting and it’s really common, of course. It’s very useful. The title of this episode gives it away, obviously. I can tell you that I hear this all the time and if you master this, I’m telling you… You’re going to be that much closer to speaking English like a true native. Okay?

Let’s go to the examples. So, the word of today is though: T-H-O-U-G-H, though! Notice that there’s a bit of a difference in the pronunciation, for example, of dough. Dough is what you use to make bread… to make cake, you mix flour, water, sugar and eggs together and you make dough. And the word of today is: though. It’s a bit different.

So, just listen: Let’s say you’re talking to your friend. And you have a mutual friend called Mary. Your friend – the one who’s in front of you, talking to you – says: “Mary likes fish”. You know, Mary likes fish. And you say: Does she, though? Does she, though?

What does that mean? That means you’re questioning the veracity of what your friend just said! I mean, does Mary really like fish? You don’t think she likes fish… You have been with Mary to restaurants before and you ordered fish. You asked her: do you want to try my fish? And she said: Ugh… no! Thanks! Ugh! I don’t like fish. So, you’re not really… you can’t really believe your friend, when your friend says: Mary likes fish. You are questioning it, you’re saying: does she, though?

And why am I using “does”? Your friend said: Mary likes fish. That’s the present simple and the auxiliary word for ‘likes’ is ‘does’, so instead of asking the full question “Does she like fish, though?”… You don’t need that. You only use does: Does she, though?

So, here’s another example. The same friend says: “Simon told John the truth”. And you hear that and you think, well… I was there when Simon was talking to John and I heard what Simon said to John. I don’t think he spoke the truth. So when your friend says, ‘Simon told John the truth’… You answer with: Did he, though? Did Simon really tell John the truth? Did he, though?

Let’s go through a few more examples: Your friend says “She has moved on from the breakup with her boyfriend”. And you say… Has she, though? You’re doubting everything, you’re doubting everything your friend is saying today.

And then your friend says: “Laura and Mark are going to the beach this weekend”. And you say: Are they, though? I spoke to Laura and she said she doesn’t even like the beach. She doesn’t want to go to the beach… ever again. So, when your friend says “Laura and Mark are going to the beach this weekend”…. You say: Are they, though?

Then your friend says: Well… he wants to buy a new computer. And you say: Does he, though? Didn’t he just buy a new computer last month? Now, your friend is saying: Well… Karen studied a lot for the exam. And you say: Did she, though? I saw her the day before the exam. She was out and about having an ice cream.

And finally, your friend says: That store slashed all their prices. And you say: Did it, though? I just walked past that store and I found all the prices so high… Everything is so expensive. So, when your friend says “That store slashed all their prices”, you say “Did it, though?”

That’s it everyone. Have a listen, this is… like I said in the beginning, this is a structure that we don’t see a lot in English lessons, so take advantage of this episode. Give it a good listen and you will see that from now on, you will start to recognise this structure and you will start to… Just to notice it a lot more often when you listen to, or when you watch movies or sitcoms.

Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

dough = massa

briefly = rapidamente, de forma resumida, por pouco tempo

to master something = tornar-se excelente em alguma coisa

you’re going to be that much closer to = você vai estar mais próximo de algo

question the veracity of something = questionar o quanto algo é verdade/verdadeiro

give it away = entregar, revelar, denunciar

breakup = separação, término de um relacionamento

out and about = por aí, dando uma voltinha

that store slashed all their prices = aquela loja reduziu/abaixou todos os preços

I just walked past that store = eu acabei de passar por aquela loja

Obs.: Uma nota para finalizar! Repare que, quando alguém fala “Does she, though?”, essa pessoa já desconfia que não seja verdade por algum motivo – algo que ela sabe, e que vai na direção oposta ao que o outro falou.

How’s it going? No podcast Inglês Online de hoje eu falo sobre algumas formas comuns de usar a palavra ‘Either’.

Hello, everyone, how are you doing? This is Ana Luiza with another episode of our Inglês Online Podcast. And today we have a quick episode. I want to get right into it. It’s something that is really, really useful and very common in the language and the reason I want to focus on it… Ok, so let me tell you what I am talking about: I’m talking about the word “either”. Either, which is also pronounced ‘AITHER’ and sometimes E-I-T-H-E-R.

Ok, and the reason I want to focus on the word either is that it is really common in the language. People use it all the time; it’s a really good word. It’s not difficult and if you’ve done English classes before, if you’ve gone to English school and if you’ve gone as far as… I don’t know, maybe pre-intermediate or definitely intermediate, either is there. It’s there in your books, but that doesn’t mean that students come out of English school being fluent on how to use either, ok?… I’ll be honest with you… This is a word that even Brazilians who have gone a bit far, you know, in English schools with classes… They are not using this word naturally, and I think everyone should. So, that’s why I’m focusing today on a couple of different ways that we use either… Really, really common ways. So, I’m not going through all the possibilities with the word either, but just on a couple of really common ways that we use either every day in the English language, ok?

Listen up!

First one: your friend says… I like dogs. And you say: I like dogs too. You know, we both like dogs, you like dogs, I like dogs too… And then your other friend says: I don’t like cats. And you know what? You don’t like cats either, so you say: I don’t like cats either. So, what’s the difference there? I like dogs, I like dogs too. I don’t like cats, I don’t like cats either. When you are being positive, when you are saying that you do something or that you are something or that you like something, and you are going to agree with that person, you use ‘too’. Now, when the person is saying that they are not something or they are not doing something or they didn’t do something or they didn’t like something and you are going to agree with them, you use ‘either’. And obviously, again, you can say ‘AITHER’. It’s just that ‘EITHER’… It’s the way that I say it.

Let’s have a look at this. I don’t like cucumbers. Oh… my friend Mary doesn’t like cucumbers either. You know, my cousin Tony, he can’t sing. Oh… I can’t sing either. My friend Tina… She doesn’t like cooking in the afternoon. I don’t know why, but she doesn’t like cooking in the afternoon… she only cooks in the morning and at night. Yeah, she doesn’t like cooking in the afternoon. She watches TV all afternoon. Oh… that’s a coincidence, I don’t like cooking in the afternoon either, ok? You know my neighbour Candace? She doesn’t like the colour green. Oh… What do you know? I don’t like the color green either. Well… you know, my dad. He doesn’t like to work sitting down. He only works standing up. He doesn’t like to work sitting down. Huh… Wow, what a coincidence, I don’t like to work sitting down either, cool? So, someone doesn’t like cucumbers, I don’t like cucumbers either. Another person can’t sing, oh… I can’t sing either. Someone else doesn’t like cooking in the afternoon. Wow, I don’t like cooking in the afternoon either. That person doesn’t like the colour green. I don’t like the colour green either. So and so doesn’t like to work sitting down. I don’t like to work sitting down either. Are we cool? Cool!

Moving on.

Ok, here’s the other way, you guys. This is so common. So let’s say you only have a choice of two things, ok? You only have two alternatives for whatever, ok? Whatever. Let’s say you are going to a costume party and your friend fixed you up with a costume for the costume party, and you have two choices of colours, let’s say… You can go either with the pink outfit or you can choose the yellow outfit, and you tell your friend: Does it have to be pink or yellow? Can I go with the blue outfit? And your friend says: You know what, it’s either pink or yellow. What does that mean? That means that you only have two alternatives. It’s only two choices, ok? It’s either pink or yellow. There isn’t a blue outfit available, there isn’t a black outfit available, there isn’t a white outfit available… You have two choices: it’s either pink or yellow – that is it.

Ok, usually when we go to school… If you are a teenager and you are going to school… You have to pick a language. In some schools, that’s how it works. I remember when I went to school – it was either French or English, ok? Either French or English. There was no Spanish, no German, no nothing. We had to choose between French or English. It was either French or English, you guys, it was either one or the other.

Let’s go back to the initial… the first example I gave at the beginning with the pink outfit and the yellow outfit. There’s no other choice, it’s either pink or yellow. It’s either one or the other. That is it.

I hope you guys enjoyed it, I hope this is useful and speak to you next time.

Key expressions

Vocabulary

cucumbers = pepinos

work sitting down = trabalhar sentado

work standing up = trabalhar em pé

costume party = festa a fantasia, baile de máscaras

your friend fixed you up with a costume = seu amigo conseguiu/arranjou/descolou uma fantasia/traje

outfit = roupa, traje, conjunto

Listen up! = ouça com atenção

you have to pick a language = você tem que escolher um idioma

What do you know? = Olha só… E não é que…?

You know what? = Quer saber?

How’s it going? No podcast Inglês Online de hoje eu falo sobre vocabulário relacionado a entrega de correio (especialmente encomendas) aqui na Inglaterra.

Hi, guys, how are you doing? This is Ana with another episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Last week I talked about ‘dad jokes’ and bugs, and stuff. So, this week we are talking about a more interesting topic: mail delivery.

So, here’s what I got for you. I placed an order online for some food and this stuff is coming from far away… a bit far from where I live. The company posted the parcel and gave me a tracking number. And you know when you have the tracking number and you go online, and you go to the website of the delivery company. And you type in the tracking code and then you can follow the journey of the parcel and have a… Actually, sometimes, a pretty good idea… They give you a one-hour window of when you are going to get the delivery. Sometimes they tell you, “you are going to get it today between 3 and 4PM”. So it depends – it depends on the company, but when they do that, it’s pretty cool.

I had actually forgotten that I put this order for this food product, because… I actually ordered it, like, three or four weeks ago and they still haven’t delivered it. I’m looking now at their web page that is supposed to have that tracking information and this is what is says. The status is – ‘We have collected your parcel’ and under “Estimated delivery day” it says: Unavailable at this time. So it’s not looking good, you guys, it’s not looking good. They collected the parcel like, over a week ago and they don’t have any information. I’m not very cheerful about this right now.

But ok, let’s talk about other vocabulary related to mail delivery, I mean… why not? So, one thing that’s pretty cool when you place an order online and I think it’s more and more common… At least here in the UK when I place an order on Amazon… is that you can sort of give them information about ‘safe places’ for the delivery person to leave your parcel in case you are not home. So for example, on Amazon… I think Amazon it’s probably the website I order from the most. They just have so much stuff and their price is usually OK. So, I’m looking here at my account page on Amazon and I was actually going to update the information on the safe place for my next delivery… And they have this little pop-up that asks me: Where is it safe to leave packages when you are not available?

So, let me give you a few options that I’m seeing here. One of them is the ‘front porch’. so what is a porch? If you have watched lots of American movies, I’m sure you have seen houses with porches before… And we have them in Brazil as well, obviously. So a porch is this little area, usually at the front of the house. It’s attached to the house and it’s covered, but it’s usually open. You could call it a ‘veranda’ as well.  So usually people put nice, comfy chairs in the porch and when it’s sunny they just go and sit in the chairs and, you know… They read a book or they have a chat. So, that’s the porch. The front porch is one of the places that you can usually choose as a safe place for the delivery man, or woman, the delivery person… to leave your parcel in case you are not home.

So here’s another option: the ‘rear porch’. Same thing but instead of being in the front it’s at the back of the house.

Another option is ‘garage’, and then you have “behind the wheelie bin’. So, a wheelie bin is a huge trash can, but here in the UK people don’t really say trash can, not even garbage bin or garbage can. They say ‘bin’ and they call garbage ‘rubbish’, so usually you say rubbish bin. A wheelie bin [see image] is this big bin for rubbish, but it has wheels underneath. So that’s why it’s called a wheelie bin… Why does it have wheels? Because every week, or every two weeks, you put the bin outside so that the bin men can collect your rubbish. So it has wheels. The wheels obviously make it easier, right? So, you put them out and then after the bin men have collected the rubbish, you bring them back in. So “behind the wheelie bin” is another option for a safe place for the delivery person to leave your parcel.

Another option is ‘garden’; there’s another option here – ‘the receptionist’, in case your delivery address is for a company… And then the last option is with a ‘neighbour’. You know, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it works out depending on where you live. If you know the neighbours and you know they are reliable and you can trust them… Usually it’s a good option.

So, tell me something: what is your favorite place – do you know your mailman or your mailwoman… Your mailperson? Do you have a relationship with them? Have you actually asked your mailperson to leave your parcels in a safe place when you are not home? I’m curious. Let me know and talk to you soon.

Key expressions

Vocabulary

parcel = encomenda, pacote (que o carteiro entrega)

type in = digitar

tracking code = código de rastreio ou rastreamento

one-hour window = intervalo de uma hora

front porch = varanda

comfy chairs = cadeiras confortáveis

trash ou garbage (American English) / rubbish (British English) = lixo

wheelie bin = lixeira/coletor de lixo com rodinhas

you put them out = você as/os coloca do lado de fora (na calçada)

you bring them back in = você os traz de volta para dentro

bin men = lixeiros ou pessoas que fazem a coleta de lixo

mailman/mailwoman/mailperson = carteiro/a

neighbour = vizinho

How are you? No podcast Inglês Online de hoje eu falo sobre a expressão “dad jokes”, entre outras.

Já ouviu falar?

Ouça mesmo assim :) Listening é sempre bom, especialmente se você mora no Brasil!

Hi, everyone! This is Ana, today we have another episode of our impromptu podcast. Just to give you an update on the weather, like a couple of weeks ago I said that it was unbearably hot… and the temperature fortunately has dropped a few degrees. So today we didn’t even have a sunny day, I mean, it was reasonably warm but not unbearable, y’know… So it was good, I mean, it was a bit cloudy, but that’s fine, it was not too hot.

So, how are you doing? What have you been up to? What’s the weather like? Is it still cold in Brazil? What part of Brazil are you in, and what’s the weather like where you are? I mean, if you are in Rio you don’t even need to answer because I know it’s super hot, but if you are in other parts of the country, what’s the weather like right now? Probably not too hot, but getting warmer, right?

Ok, so, I’m looking up right now and I’m looking at this abandoned spider web and I have to say something. In Brazil I think everyone can relate… in Brazil where I grew up, anyway, we had cockroaches. In terms of insects and bugs it was like, cockroaches and ants. Every house I lived in, every place I lived in… Every once in a while we would see like a cockroach, ant…like on the kitchen-top if you left anything sugary, like a jar with sugar or any kind of sweet, a candy bar, anything! I mean, in ten minutes that thing would be covered in ants.

So, here in the UK, it’s kind of weird, I just haven’t gotten used to it. It’s not that I miss the cockroaches and the ants, I don’t! But I have been in the UK for six years now and I have never seen a cockroach. Honestly, there are no cockroaches here and to be very honest with you I never see ants either. Maybe if I look for them outside I will be able to find some ants, but let me tell you what I see here all the time- it’s spiders! Now, let me know how you feel about spiders. If I had to pick between cockroaches and spiders, I would pick spiders all the way. However, with that said- here in the UK in every place I’ve lived in I have seen the biggest spiders I have ever seen in my life. When I lived in Brazil I never saw spiders this big. We don’t have cockroaches, but we have spiders and if I leave my window open, let’s say it’s hot and I want to feel the breeze from the street and so I open my window. Let’s say I leave it open for a couple of hours, I mean, you can bet the next few days I’m going to see spiders crawling on the floor, I’m going to start seeing spiderwebs, it’s just…ugh… I can’t kill anything, so I what do is I trap the spider inside a glass jar and I release it outside, y’know, that’s what I do. But anyway, that’s what we have here, no cockroaches which I’m very happy about but spiders- and gigantic ones.

Ok, so, the other day I just heard this expression so check this out. I don’t think we have this expression in Brazil which is ‘dad jokes’, not “dead” as in the opposite of “alive”, no. Dad as in D-A-D, the word for father. So, we have this expression here in… not just here actually, not just in the UK. This is an expression that people say, people use in the US as well, ‘dad jokes’. So, what is a dad joke? Well… have you ever been at a family… like any kind of event where you have family? Like your uncles, your aunts, your father, your mother, your brothers, your sisters, your cousins, whoever in your family. And then either your father or your grandfather or your uncle make that joke, you had the dessert right? Someone like your aunt or your mother usually made the dessert and it was “pavê de chocolate” and someone said: “ok, é pavê ou pra comer”? That is the quintessential dad joke.

If you ever had an uncle or a father or a grandfather tell that joke, then you know what a dad joke is. Dad jokes are not the funniest jokes, right? You are not going to laugh because they are hilarious, it’s usually more of an affectionate laugh, right? You are laughing because y’know, it’s you uncle or it’s your dad or your grandpa, so you laugh because the situation is kinda of funny but not because the joke is hilarious.

I can’t remember any dad jokes other than the ‘pavê’ one, and the ones I read in English… I didn’t really find them that funny because they use a lot of local pop culture which is stuff I didn’t grow up hearing, so I don’t really get them. But if you remember any other dad jokes from Brazil just leave a comment, ok? I hope you are having a great week and speak to you guys soon. Bye!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

What have you been up to? = O que você anda fazendo?

spiderweb = teia de aranha

cockroaches = baratas

ants = formigas

every once in a while = de vez em quando

if I had to pick = se eu tivesse que escolher

you can bet = você pode apostar, pode ter a certeza

crawling on the floor = rastejando no chão

glass jar = pote de vidro

check this out = veja só, saca só, veja isso

as well = também

quintessential = ponto principal/central de algo, típico exemplo de algo

affectionate laugh = risada afetuosa/carinhosa

How are you? No podcast Inglês Online de hoje eu falo sobre os idioms “put on a brave face” e “keep a straight face”. Já conhece? Ouça mesmo assim. Listening nunca é demais, especialmente se você mora no Brasil!

Hi, everyone, this is Ana of Inglês Online, yeah, that’s me with another… I guess another episode of our podcast. How are you guys doing? Here where I live, it is so hot right now, like it’s Brazilian heat honestly, it’s… I think today we’ve reached 35º or 36º, it is really, really hot, and I’ve been eating a lot of ice cream and just kind of waiting for some rain, to be honest… to bring down the temperature a bit, like… What’s the temperature like in Brazil right now? Is it… is it still winter, it is a bit lower, right? Well… lucky you! Here it’s just insufferably hot.

Ok, so, you guys, I was thinking today about a few expressions with the word face. So, one of them is put on a brave face, ok… It’s very, very common, I mean, if you are someone who watches, y’know, American movies or sitcoms more likely than not you’ve come across it… someone has said it. So, what does that mean? Put on a brave face. Let’s say you are going through something and then there’s an outcome that you really dislike, y’know, someone says something that you don’t like or all of a sudden someone gives you some news, y’know, that makes you sad or you remember something or your car breaks… I don’t know, or you have to get on with something under not so ideal conditions and instead of showing that you are sad, instead of showing that you are anything… Like desperate or sad or down, you just put on a brave face and you get going, and you do whatever it is that you had to do, or that people are expecting you to do, and you go ahead and you do it, y’know. You put on a brave face and you don’t really show how are you feeling inside.

I’ve heard from some colleagues at work before that sometimes they can tell that I’m putting on a brave face because, when things don’t really go my way and I’m unhappy: “Oh… Ana you just put on a brave face and you go ahead”. I don’t know, I don’t know that I always do that, sometimes I think my emotions really show on my face – sometimes I cannot keep a straight face, I cannot keep a straight face. So a straight face is a face that doesn’t really let on the emotions that the person is feeling in that moment, so they keep a straight face. You can’t really tell. Picture someone when you give them some… I don’t know, bad news, y’know like they hear bad news and you think that you are sure that this person doesn’t like the news, but they don’t show it, y’know, there’s no emotion on their face, you know what I mean. Some people are like that, they are able to do that, it’s like they keep everything inside and so, when you see someone like that you can say, well… y’know, they kept a straight face all the way through.

The most common way though to use the expression keep a straight face is when you are trying not to laugh at people and that is hard, that is something I have an extremely difficult time with. People who know me well know that, it’s really, really difficult for me to suppress like a smile, at least, when someone is telling me a story that I find really funny. It’s really hard y’now, it’s really hard because sometimes you just… I don’t now, for whatever reason – like you are really not trying to be disrespectful to that person but for whatever reason what they are saying reminds you of something that you think it’s funny. And I’m the kind of person that gets distracted very easily and this is something I have been trying to improve – like, listening better and concentrating better on the person that is in front of me talking to me. But sometimes when you get distracted very easily, y’know, naturally – it’s kind of your personality or something, you kind of remember something, or something else that someone said that makes you smile and sometimes it comes across as disrespectful to the person who is talking to you.

So, that is the most common example, everyone, of where the expression keep a straight face could be used. Y’know, in some situations it is very hard to keep a straight face when someone is telling you something that you can see that they are not laughing about it, they don’t think it’s funny, but for some reason you think it’s funny and it’s hard for you to keep a straight face. You wanna know what a very common example is? Actors! Y’know, sometimes they cannot contain themselves and they cannot keep a straight face when they are shooting something and they break character, they start laughing… And that’s most of the I guess, y’know those blooper scenes that we see on Youtube when characters cannot, sorry… When actors actually –  actors, rather, they can’t keep a straight face and they just burst out laughing. I sometimes can keep a straight face and sometimes I just can’t.

Ok, so, those are the two little expressions that I have for today and… have I told you that it’s extremely hot here where I am? Ok, I guess I have, I’m going to just grab a cold drink right now because I am sweating. You guys, you cannot believe how hot it is. I guess I will speak to you soon next week and hopefully things will have cooled down here where I am. Talk to you guys soon – bye!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

to come across = se deparar ou encontrar alguém ou algo por acaso

go through something = passar por ou enfrentar alguma situação difícil ou complicada

outcome = desfecho de alguma situação, resultado final

insufferably hot = insuportavelmente quente

get on with = continuar, seguir em frente, prosseguir com algo

to come across as = parecer ser, dar ou passar a impressão

break character = sair do personagem, parar de interpretar o personagem

blooper scenes = erros de gravação, gafes cometidas pelos atores, muitas vezes são cenas engraçadas retiradas dos filmes