Podcast Inglês Online

Hello, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre algumas expressões em inglês com o verbo lose, como a que quer dizer “ele perdeu a cabeça”.

Transcrição

Hello! 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.

Today I’m going to talk about the word lose. Remember? Lose? That’s what you may use when you can’t find your keys. “I’ve lost my keys”. So you may remember that lost is the past tense and also the past participle of the verb lose. So I’m gonna talk about a couple of expressions and I’m gonna use lose and lost in the examples.

So picture this: imagine someone who has been under a lot of stress lately. Let’s say it’s your boss. He’s lost two great employees recently; he’s going through a divorce; his kid has been getting in trouble in school; and to top it off some big clients have been canceling orders. The atmosphere in your department is pretty tense… you can tell your boss is getting more irritated and impatient by the minute and you’re not sure how much longer he’s gonna be able to keep it together.

Well, not much longer as it turns out. It’s 3PM now and you just stepped out of a meeting with your boss and the VP of Finance, a woman named, let’s say, Tina. Tina came with some bad news: she said there are going to be budget cuts that are going to especially affect the advertising budget. That’s when your boss lost it. He was counting on the advertising budget. He was planning on hiring a new ad agency to try and get some big new clients. So when Tina gave him the news about the budget cuts, he just lost it.

Your boss lost it. What does that mean? That means he lost control of his emotions; he lost his temper, he got really, really angry. He lost it. His face turned red and he raised his voice as he said “So tell me, how am I supposed to recover sales without decent advertising! There’s only so much that can be done with no advertising budget! Who do you think I am, a magician? Am I supposed to perform a miracle? Should I ask my staff to chip in so we can hire a stupid ad agency?” And then your boss stormed out of the room. Your boss completely lost it when Tina gave him the news of the budget cuts.

Have you ever lost it? In public? How often do you lose it? Hopefully not that often ’cause that might make your life a bit hard… And by the way, we say “he lost it”, “she lost it”, also to communicate that that person simply lost control of their emotions… it doens’t mean necessarily that that person became very angry; it could be that he or she became so moved by something they were witnessing that they started to cry. That person might say “My friend was telling me about everything he went through. I was so touched I just lost it and started crying.” I just lost it and started to cry… what does that mean? I lost control of my emotions; I couldn’t control myself any longer so I started to cry. I lost it.

Did you notice I used the expression “lost his temper” about a minute ago? I said that “your boss lost his temper”. That’s another very common expression with lose. Many of you may already be familiar with it. When we say someone lost their temper we’re just saying this person got really angry, usually at someone else. Do you know people who lose their temper often?

And here’s another one with lose just to wrap things up. Gamers will immediately get what I’m saying here. As will compulsive readers.

Hello, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre uma expressão com a palavra black.

Transcrição

Hey, all. What’s up? 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.

Let’s focus today on a couple of idiomatic expressions with the word black. A very simple word, right? One that even beginners learn very fast. Actually, even people who have never studied English sometimes know this word. There are several expressions with the word black in them and today we take a look at a few of them.

Have you ever passed out in public? To pass out means to become unconscious. And we can also say “black out”. As in, “Yesterday I blacked out during dance class”. That means, I lost consciousness; all of a sudden, pouf! I was unconscious. Has that ever happened to you? Not to me, but…  almost. It almost happened once during an exercise class. I think I didn’t eat much before the class, and, you know, exercising on an empty stomach is not a good idea… I started to feel weaker and weaker, but then I just sat on a chair, and then I felt better. I didn’t black out or anything.

People also use “black out” to mean that they forgot everything related to a particular event. For example, some war veterans say they blacked out what happened on a particular day, or a battle. That means they don’t remember, they don’t have any recollection of what happened that day.

Some people use “blacking out” as an excuse… For example, I found a post on some forum by a woman who said she “blacked out during lunch”. She didn’t pass out during lunch or anything. She said she was driving home, ready to make herself a healthy meal for lunch, when all of a sudden she finds herself at the parking lot of a fast-food chain, eating a big hamburger with a side of fries. And then she said I blacked out. I have no idea how this happened. It was very strange.

She was joking, of course. On her way home, she felt like stopping by the fast food place and having a burger and fries instead of the healthy meal she’d been planning to cook. So she joked that she had blacked out during lunch, she had no idea how she ended up at the fast food place, she couldn’t remember what happened.

See, this is different from simply not remembering something because it happened a long time ago. Sometimes you don’t remember exactly how something happened just because you were not paying attention, or because it’s been a long time. In the case of the war veteran, he can’t remember anything because it was probably a very traumatic experience so he blacked it out.

In the case of this woman – the woman who had burger and fries – she’s saying that for reasons she doesn’t understand, she blacked out when she was driving home, and had fast food. She has no idea what happened, because she blacked out. That way, it looks like it wasn’t her fault that she didn’t eat the healthy meal. Of course, “she blacked out” here doesn’t mean she passed out – after all, she managed to drive to the fast food place. It just means that she can’t remember what happened between the car and the parking lot, when she found herself eating burger and fries.

And have you ever blacked out, or passed out, in public? By the way, where were you during the last “blackout”? I was having coffee in a cafe. Talk to you next time.

 

Key expressions

* black out ( = pass out)

* black out ( = have no recollection)

 

Glossary

when she found herself eating = quando ela se viu comendo

during the last blackout = durante o último apagão

Hello, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre algumas expressões super comuns com a palavra twice.

Transcrição

Hi, all. 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.

So the other day we had a podcast about a couple of terms that use the word ‘once‘. Remember? If you’re not all caught up with the podcasts just visit the archives on the blog and get all the episodes and take a listen! Today, let’s move on to the word ‘twice’, which is in a few really good expressions as well.

So, once means ‘one time’, ‘in one occasion’, and twice means ‘two times’, ‘in two occasions’. So here’s our title expression today: in Portuguese we say “Pensa melhor” or “Você deveria pensar melhor”. In English, we DON’T say “Think better” or “You should think better“, no. What we actually say is You should think twice before doing what you’re thinking about doing. You’d better think twice; you should think twice.

A quick search on Google will turn up several good examples: “Why you should think twice before refinancing”. Refinancing means, recalculating your debt, or the amount of money you owe for your house, so that you’ll be able to make smaller payments… or something like that. More examples: “You should think twice before quitting your job”. “You should think twice before you google your date”. Your date would be the person you’re going out with. So you should think twice before you google your date. That means, think twice before you search Google for information on your date. Here’s the title of an article: “Why you should think twice before referring a friend for a job”.

What’s your advice? What would you say to a friend? Maybe “You should think twice before accepting this job offer”. You should think twice before moving to the other side of the country”. “You should think twice before going to a party the night before your final exam”. “You should think twice before spending your savings on a car”.

And the second expression with twice that I’d like to present today is actually a proverb, and it’s kind of a long one. Ready? OK. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. What does that mean? To fool someone means to trick that person, to mislead them, to be dishonest with them, to deceive them. So, if someone fools you once, shame on him or shame on her, the person who fooled you. Shame on her, shame on him? What does that mean? Shame on her! That’s like saying, what a bad thing, what an ugly thing she did! What this person did was awful, bad or embarrassing. Shame on her!

So if you fool me once, shame on you. However, if you fool me twice… shame on me. That means, it’s kind of my responsibility, or my fault, if I let myself be fooled by you again. You tricked me once, and then you went ahead and tricked me again. Shame on me. I should have been alert, I should have been more vigilant so that Iwould not be fooled by you again!

Think about your life -think about someone who tried to take advantage of you in some way, and the first time that happened, it took you a while to realize what was going on. But you did realize it after a while, and then… when that person tried to pull that same trick on you again, they failed because you saw it coming, and you said “No”, or did whatever you needed to do to prevent them from taking advantage of you.

Now,

Hi, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre algumas expressões super comuns com a palavra once.

Transcrição

Hello, everybody. How’re you doing? 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.

Today we focus on a little word: once. It’s a short one, but very useful and always present in conversations. Once means one time. Here are a few examples of how we use ‘once’: “Have you ever had sushi?” someone asks. The answer: “Yes, once. I’ve had sushi once”. Have you seen this movie? Yes, once… but it was a long time ago.

And here’s the first thing you’ll hear a lot: “once in a blue moon”. Once in a blue moon means rarely. So if something happens once in a blue moon, that means it rarely happens. For example, maybe you have a childhood friend that you talk to once in a blue moon. That means you guys rarely get in touch and chat. Or maybe you really dislike a certain type of food but your husband or wife loves it, so once in a blue moon you guys will go to a restaurant that serves that food so your spouse can have it. Or here’s another one: can you cook? Maybe you’re not a talented cook at all (like me) but once in a blue moon you’ll try your hand at putting something together in the kitchen.

And here’s another very common term: ‘once in a lifetime’. People use it a lot to describe something that isn’t likely to happen again in your lifetime. For example, let’s say you receive a job offer from a top company in your field. Not just that, but the salary is twice as much what you’re making right now and the benefits are unbelievable. The only downside is, you’d have to move to the other side of the country.

Your friend Mark thinks you’d be crazy to pass this up. You’re torn: on the one hand, it is an amazing opportunity with an incredible company. But on the other hand, your current job may not be spectacular but it pays the bills and you enjoy living where you live. Mark says “Dude, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Tell them you’re moving there yesterday.”

Mark said “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”. Notice how he’s using this expression as an adjective. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You’ll hear this a lot in conversations, movies, TV shows, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And, of course, no one really knows for sure whether you’ll have a second opportunity like that in your life again, but people say that to express that it’s just an incredible offer, or event, invitation, etc.

So maybe you teach French at a language school and one day a talent scout hears you just when you’re singing a French song, and he thinks you have incredible talent and wants you to sign a deal with a major record label. Everyone around you says that an opportunity like that doesn’t come by often. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. What to do? Well, that’s up to you, of course, but people think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

And here’s another way to say that: an opportunity like that only comes along once in a lifetime, or it only comes around once in a lifetime.

So tell us: can you remember a great opportunity you had, or maybe someone close to you, that is the kind of thing that only comes along once in a lifetime? What about things you do once in a blue moon? Any examples? Let us know in the comments. Talk to you next time.

 

Key expressions

* once in a blue moon

* three is a crowd

Hey, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre alguns outros idioms com os números five, nine e ten.

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. 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.

Last episode I gave you two idioms with the word “two”, and this episode we take a look at expressions with numbers five and nine. So, what would you do if someone said to you “Give me five!”? Well, after you’ve listened to this podcast, you’ll know what to do. Just slap your open hand against their hand – which will be raised and waiting for the slap.

That gesture, with the hands raised and the slap, is called a high-five. Americans love to high-five each other when they’re celebrating something, even something small, so if you’re around Americans and one of them says to you Gimme (=give me) five, just raise your hand and slap theirs. That’s all their asking!

Here’s another one with “five”: Let’s take five. Let’s take five is short for ‘Let’s take five minutes off’. You know when someone says “I’m taking the day off”, meaning they’re not working that day? So when someone says  Let’s take five, that means “Let’s take five minutes off”. Let’s take a short break. Let’s take a break that lasts approximately five minutes. Let’s take five.

So when would it be usual for someone to say that? When, for example, you’re at some project meeting working on something with your team, and you guys have been working for three hours already, and the team leader decides it’s time for a break. He or she says Let’s take five. Or let’s say you’re in ballet practice right now, and you and other dancers have been working hard the whole afternoon. You’ve been working so hard that the ballet teacher looks at you and says John, good job. Great legwork today. So the teacher decides it’s time for a break and says to the class Let’s take five, everyone.

And I also wanted to throw in a very popular set phrase that has the words nine and ten in it. When we say that something will happen nine times out of ten, that means that thing will almost always happen; that is usually what will happen. Example: Nine times out of ten Brazilians will eat rice and beans in a meal. Maybe I’m exaggerating? I don’t know. Do you eat rice and beans almost every day? Another example: a computer technician explains that even unexperienced computer users can solve most problems on their own. He says “Nine times out of ten, you can fix the problem yourself”.

Here are my own examples: when I go to a café, nine times out of ten I’ll order a café mocha, which is coffee, milk and chocolate syrup. When I’m home for dinner, nine times out of ten I’ll cook my own meals. That means that I’ll almost always order café mocha, and almost always cook my own meals when I’m home.

Also, notice how I said “Nine times out of ten I WILL cook my meals”, although I’m talking about a habit. That’s a topic for a future podcast or English tip.  So what are your examples? Let us know in the comments and talk to you next time.

 

Key expressions

* Gimme (give me) five

* Let’s take five

* nine times out of ten

 

Glossary

Hey, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre algumas expressões com two e three.

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. 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.

Let’s take a look today at a few idiomatic expressions that have a number in them. An example? Our first idiom of today is “put two and two together”. That just means that you realize or figure something out because you have some information available which… helped you in figuring that thing out!

Let me give you an example that’ll make things clearer. You’re on the phone now telling someone about how you were at your friend Alice’s last night and then she felt sick. She said she was about to throw up, so you told her to stay put while you ran to the bathroom to get some toilet paper. While you’re getting the paper you glance at the trash can and see a used pregnancy test in it. That’s when you put two and two together: your friend Alice is pregnant.

So, first, Alice feels sick, which is a common indicator of pregnancy (although feeling sick doesn’t necessarily mean the woman is pregnant, of course). Then, you see a used pregnancy test in the trash. You put two and two together, that is, you realize from all the pieces of evidence you got, that Alice is pregnant.

Here’s another example: your friend Mary had told you she had broken up with Michael. You were happy for her because you think Michael is bad news… He cheated on his previous girlfriend, and there are a couple of people who say he owes them a lot of money. So you drop by Mary’s place and, when you guys are on your way to the kitchen to grab a beer you spot Michael’s baseball cap on a chair. You know it’s Michael’s cap because it’s the only purple hat you’ve ever seen. You think to yourself, maybe Michael left it here when they broke up and Mary just doesn’t want to contact him to return the cap.

You guys start talking though and you tell Mary you’d like to see a great movie that has just been released. Mary says she’s busy every night this week. You think that’s weird. You’d think that, now that she’s not seeing anyone, she’d have a lot more free time! But no, she’s busy, she says. By now you think something’s going on that she’s not telling you, but you’re not sure yet.

So Mary grabs her purse because she wants to show you some new pictures she’s taken and she accidentally drops her cell phone. It lands right next your left foot and so you pick it up, and that’s when you see that there was a 15-minute long phone call from Michael just this morning. So you finally put two and two together and realize that Mary and Michael are still dating.

So, again: you thought Mary and Michael were broken up, right? But then first you spotted his baseball cap in Mary’s place; then she said she was busy all week and, finally, you saw the call log on her phone, which showed a long phone call from Michael just this morning. So you finally put two and two together: Mary and Michael are still seeing each other.

You confront Mary, and she confirms: they’re still together. She says “Actually, we’re going to see that movie that you wanted to see. Wanna come with?” You say “Thanks. You know, three is a crowd”.

And that brings us right to our next idiom with numbers. This is the entire expression: two is company, three is a crowd.  People usually shorten that expression to just “three is a crowd”.

Hey, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre esta estrutura do inglês:

Ah, se eu tivesse feito isso (em algum ponto do passado)…

Queria ter feito tal coisa…

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. 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.

Today we’re going to talk about a more advanced structure. It’s related to the third conditional of English – we’ve had a podcast about that before. Are you familiar with it? First things first. Remember last episode when I gave examples of how to say stuff like “I wish I worked for company ABC” and “I wish I had a dog”? So, when you say things like that, you’re wishing your present situation were different, right? It’s like this: right now you work for company XYZ, but you wish you worked for company ABC. If only I worked for company ABC… Remember that example? Right now you do not have a dog, but you wish you had one.

So today we have a different topic. We’re going to talk about a structure that expresses regret over some action in the past, not in the present. What does that mean? That means you regret something you did, or didn’t do, in the past. Or, it means that you wish you had done something – or the opposite, that you had not done something, in the past. That’s the structure right there – I wish I had done this or that at some point in the past.

Whereas in last episode we used the simple past tense, in this episode we need the participle of those verbs. Want an example? The simple past form of TAKE is TOOK; but the participle of TAKE is TAKEN. So if we were to give an example of a present wish, using last episode’s structure, we could say “Oh, if only I took French lessons with Jacques… I would be able to understand what this French woman is saying right now”. What does that mean? “Ai, se eu fizesse aula de francês com o Jacques” If only I took French lessons with Jacques, I would be able to get what this lady is saying.

Now listen to this: “If only I had taken French lessons when I was a child… I think I would be able to watch all these French movies without subtitles. I am regretting the fact that I didn’t take French lessons when I was a child. I wish I had taken French lessons when I was a child!

So here’s the general structure:

If only I had (done or not done something), something else (would have happened)

or

I wish I had (done or not done something), and then something else (would have happened)

Here’s the example again: If only I had taken French lessons when I was a child, I’d be able to watch these movies without subtitles. Using this structure, you can express all kinds of regrets about actions in the past. Fun, huh? For example, your friend bought some cheap t-shirts a while ago. Only now the guy who made the t-shirts is super famous and he’s giving interviews everywhere, and his t-shirts now cost a fortune! You like the t-shirts, but you can’t afford them – they’re really expensive. So here’s one thing you can say: “I wish I’d bought one when it was still cheap”.

Again: I wish I’d bought one when it was still cheap. I wish I had bought one when it was still cheap. I’d bought means I had bought. Oh, if only I had bought a t-shirt from this guy when it was still cheap! So what  do you regret? You regret not buying a t-shirt back when it was still cheap. You think “I wish I’d bought one while it was still cheap̶...

Hi, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre “Eu queria ter isso ou aquilo” e “Ah, se eu tivesse ou fizesse isso ou aquilo” em inglês.

A estrutura geral em inglês é essa:

I wish I [past form of a verb] [some complement]  ou  If only I [past form of a verb] [some complement]

Transcrição

Hello, everybody. What’s up? 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.

How about we recap how to use a certain structure that incredibly common in English conversation? It involves what we know as the past tense, although in Portuguese we sometimes translate it to a Subjunctive tense. In case that’s all Greek to you, I’m talking about something like this: “I wish I had a dog”. How often do you say something like that? Here’s another one: “Oh, if only I had a dog”… These two examples have similar meanings if not exactly the same.

How do we express “I wish I had a dog” in Portuguese? “Ai, queria ter cachorro”. Here are other things you could say: Queria que isso fosse assim ou assado. Queria que já fosse amanhã e etc. So let me give lots of examples using this structure, because I strongly suspect that this is one of those cases that everyone thinks is relatively easy, and… Are you using it in your conversation yet? When you want to express “Ah, se eu morasse na praia…” do you open your mouth and say ‘If only I lived by the beach…”?

So here’s the beauty of English: we use the simple past tense in those structures to express something that in Portuguese may be translated as subjunctive tense, and sometimes as some other tense. The thing is, students acquire the past tense of common verbs relatively fast, but that isn’t always the case with many other verbs that are still common but that are seen as “difficult” or “strange”. I say, listen to them enough and, as long as you understand what you’re listening to, before you know it they’ll be coming out of your mouth.

So let me give you examples with some of my favorite verbs to practice: caught, taught and read, all in the “irregular verb” category, and worked in the “regular verb” category. So here’s the first one: I wish I caught more fish.. in our fishing trips. So here’s the backstory: you go fishing with a couple of friends every five months or so but, for some reason, you never seem to catch that many fish. So there you have it: you’re having this thought right now. “I wish I caught more fish when we go fishing”. Another one: you know there’s a criminal on the loose in your neighborhood and you tell your friend “I wish they caught this guy”. Who is “they”? Probably the police. You wish the police caught this guy. How exactly would you say that in Portuguese? “Queria que a polícia pegasse esse cara”.

Now listen to this:  you’re a teacher who teaches at a school, but you don’t like this school very much. You wish you taught in a different school. You wish you taught at the “International Language School”, where your friend Mark is a teacher. You wish you taught there, because teachers at the International Language School enjoy a great reputation with headhunters and are very well-respected in the market. So you think “I wish I taught there”. Also, you teach French, and today, for some reason, you wish you taught German. You feel this sudden desire to teach German. So you think “I wish I taught German instead of French”.

Hi, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre as palavras plenty e room.

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. 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.

Are you familiar with the word ‘plenty’? That’s p-l-e-n-t-y, plenty. Plenty means a good amount; actually, a large amount of something. Usually when you say that there’s plenty of something, you mean that there’s enough of it or even more than enough.

To exemplify how you can use ‘plenty’ in conversation, let me start with a popular saying: There’s plenty of fish in the sea. What does that mean? That’s usually said in the context of telling someone who just got out of a relationship that this person will definitely find someone new… Why? Because there is plenty of fish in the sea. There’s no shortage of available people to be in a relationship with – or, at least, that’s what the saying means. Don’t worry, you’ll find someone… there’s plenty of fish in the sea.

Now, I’ve said “there IS plenty of fish” because the plural form of ‘fish’ is… fish. Some people say “There are plenty of fish” but “There’s plenty of fish” is what I hear and see most often. When we’re talking about uncountable things, such as food, information, time, room, we say “there’s plenty of food”, “there’s plenty of time”, “there’s plenty of room”, and “there’s plenty of information”. What does that mean again? That means there’s a very good amount of food, of time, of information and of room. There’s probably more than enough food, time, information and room.

And by the way, that’s right: I mentioned “room” as an example of something uncountable. I’m not talking about the rooms in a house, of course! We can count those, right? How many rooms are there in your house or apartment? Maybe two: one living room and one bedroom. Or perhaps you live in a studio with only one room. So that’s not the kind of room I’m talking about here. Room also means space – let me give you a few examples to illustrate this meaning of the word room. Let’s say you’re a teacher at a language school and you’re planning a class for 80 students. It’s a lot of students, right? Usually the classes in this school are attended by 20, 30 students at most. So you call the school coordinator and you let her know that you need a classroom with enough room for 80 students.

What does that mean? That means you need a classroom with enough space to accomodate 80 people, plus one – you. You need a classroom that’s big enough for 80 students and one teacher. You need a classroom with enough room, with enough space to accomodate 81 people. So when you tell the school coordinator about your plans, she says “Our classrooms are definitely not large enough to accomodate 80 students… none of them. I think our convention center is the only closed space with enough room for that.” That means the school’s convention center is the only closed space large enough to accomodate 80 students. There isn’t enough room in the classrooms for 80 students. In the convention center, on the other hand, there’s plenty of room for eighty students.

Here’s a very common expression: make room for something or someone. Imagine that you work for a small company with three other people, including your boss. Now your boss has decided to hire

Hi, there. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre uma estrutura comum do inglês, que pode soar meio estranha para os brasileiros no início.

Transcrição

Hello, everybody. What’s up? 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.

Today I’ll focus on a particular structure that can sound really weird to our Brazilian ears before we’ve had the chance to hear or read it a lot and get used to it. It involves the verb HAVE, which thankfully is a word most English students are familiar with. So this podcast will present you with a few examples, and hopefully it’ll help clarify how this structure works, and it will enable you to recognize and understand it later on when you’re watching movies or TV shows.

Picture this: Ms. Jones is an admin (which is short for administrative assistant). Look at the picture – that’s her. She’s talking on the phone; actually she’s trying to find someone while the caller waits on the line. This is pretty much what Ms. Jones does all day long. She answers the phone and takes messages for her boss, Mr. Marvin, who’s the president of… some company.

Sometimes, if the call is urgent or very important, she puts the caller through to her boss. Usually she just takes messages, though, since Mr. Marvin is a very, very busy man. So now listen to some of the things Ms. Jones has said today:

* Around 9AM Mr. Marvin’s wife called. Ms. Jones said “Don’t worry, Mrs. Marvin, I will have your husband call you before lunch”.

* Around 10AM Federal Express delivered a package for Tony, the marketing manager. Ms. Jones called Tony and said “Sure, Tony, next time I will have the FedEx guy deliver the package to you directly”

* Around 10:30AM Ms. Jones called the office supplies store and she placed an order for twenty pens and fifteen pencils. She told the store clerk “Please have the delivery person call me once they get here”.

Hear those sentences again: Ms. Jones said “Don’t worry, Mrs. Marvin, I’ll have your husband call you before lunch”. Then, she said “Sure, Tony, next time I’ll have the FedEx guy deliver the package to you directly”. And finally she said to the store clerk “Please have the delivery person call me once they get here”. Notice that the structure for all of them is the same: she will have someone do something. Or, in the case of the office supplies store, she asked the store clerk to have someone do something.

Now, what does that mean? To have someone do something is to ask them to do that thing, and maybe make sure they remember to do it, or to take the necessary steps for that person to do that thing. In other words, to have someone do something is to arrange, to take the necessary steps for that person to do that thing. In the first example, where Ms. Jones said “I will have your husband call you before lunch, Mrs. Marvin”… What did Ms. Jones do? She probably told Mr Jones that he was supposed to call his wife before lunch. And then, one hour before lunch she probably reminded him to call his wife. Then, ten minutes before noon she noticed that he hadn’t called his wife yet, so she knocked on his door, opened it and asked him “Mr. Marvin, would you like me to call your wife and put her through to you? She needs to talk to you before lunch”. Mr. Marvin said “Not necessary, thanks”, and he called his wife immediately. So what did Ms. Jones do? She had her boss call his wife before lunch. How? She told him about it, then she reminded him twice so that he wouldn’t forget.

Notice that “have someone do something” is different from “ma...