Podcast Inglês Online

Hello, you all. How’s it going?

Este episódio do podcast Inglês Online é todo a respeito de amigos – it’s all about friends. A palavra friend é muito conhecida de quem estuda inglês – até de iniciantes – mas há algumas construçõezinhas envolvendo amigos e amizade que não são assim tão intuitivas para nós, falantes de português. Hoje, neste podcast, você pode ouvir vários exemplos destas expressões que falam sobre amigos em inglês.

Transcrição

Hello, 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 I’m talking about friends. Yep, friends, probably one of the first words English students everywhere learn about. But can you use the word “friend” beyond the well-known and simple constructions “He or she is my friend” or “We are friends”? Let’s have a look at different ways we can use the word friend or other related words. I going to describe the relationship between you and one of your friends, who I’m going to call John. Here it goes:

First of all, friendship is what we call the relationship between friends. So, how do you and another person become friends? Let’s say we are talking about a guy friend of yours. A friend who is a man, or a guy. Let’s say his name is John. How did you and John become friends? Maybe he was a friend of a friend. What does that mean? That means that, for example, your good friend Mary had a friend called John. John was a friend of Mary’s before he became your friend. Mary introduced John to you, and now, you and John are friends too. So Mary is now a mutual friend, right? She’s a friend of yours, and she’s a friend of John’s as well. She’s a mutual friend. You and John were introduced by a mutual friend. Who is the mutual friend? Mary.

OK! So… I have just used several little expressions that revolve around the topic of friendship. They’re relatively easy to understand, but we are going to review each one of them and I’m going to give you a few more examples.

So I said that you and John became friends after Mary introduced you to each other. We can also say that you became friends with John. That doesn’t sound very intuitive to our Brazilian ears. Again: you became friends with John after Mary introduced the two of you. “You became friends with John” means ‘você ficou amigo ou amiga do John’. Think now of three of your friends: what year did you become friends with them? Me… I became friends with Claudia in 2001, I became friends with Lili in 2004, and I became friends with Ana in 2009. What about you?

OK, I also said that John is a friend of yours. How does that sound? He is a friend of yours. That means “ele é um amigo seu”. I just talked about the year I met three friends of mine, right? Claudia is a friend of mine, and I became friends with her in 2001. Lili is another friend of mine, and Ana is also a friend of mine. I became friends with Ana in 2009. So when I say that John is a friend of yours and Lili is a  friend of mine… Here’s the grammar reference for you: we’re using the possessive pronouns. These are the possessive pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours and theirs.

So again: Lili is a friend of mine, and Claudia is also a friend of mine. John is a friend of yours, according to my story, right? Who are your friends? Is João a friend of yours? Is Luciana a friend of yours? Now, my friend Claudia. She has a friend called Livia. Livia is Claudia’s friend. Livia is a friend of hers.  Alexandre is also Claudia’s friend. Alexandre is a friend of hers. This isn’t complicated to understand, I know,

Hi, everyone. How are you?

Hoje no podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre o terceiro condicional, ou como dizer “Se alguém tivesse me falado, eu teria ido” e coisas assim em inglês.

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. How have you been? 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 how about we practice a very nice structure in English? Just for your reference, it’s called “the third conditional” but don’t worry about that. Let me establish the setting: we’re talking about past events, and about possibilities in the past. This is the basic structure:

If something had happened, something else would have happened.

In Portuguese, we would say something like “Ah, se tal coisa fosse assim, isso não teria acontecido” or “Se tal coisa tivesse sido de tal jeito, eu teria ido”. Just two general examples… So again, the basic structure in English is “If something had happened, something else would have happened”. As another grammar reference, here we’re using the “past participle” of the verbs. When we say “If something had happened…”, happened is the participle of happen. When we say “I would have taken…”, taken is the participle of “take”.

I don’t wanna focus on specific verbs, though. I’m going to use common, well-known verbs in the examples because what I really want to practice with you guys is how to express the idea of the 3rd Conditional. So picture this: you’re out with three of your best friends from school. The four of you have been friends for years. So you’re all, let’s say, at an ice cream parlor, enjoying your favorite ice cream, when all of a sudden another friend from high school walks up to your table. Let’s say her name is Sarah. Sarah is chatting with you and your friends and then she tells you that Michael, another classmate, was in the hospital for a month. He was just released last week.

You and your friends are suprised! ‘Cause you’re all good friends with Michael, and yet this is the first time you’ve heard about Michael being in the hospital.

* You say “Wow, if Michael had called me, I would have paid him a visit”

* Your friend Anna says “Lily is Michael’s girlfriend, and I see her every day at the club! If she had told me about Michael, I would have given him a call”

* Your friend Lisa says “Michael’s dad lives in my building! If  he had told me about Michael, I would have sent him a get-well message!”

* And your friend Melissa says “Well, if I had known Michael was in the hospital… I would have called you guys and we would have all paid him a visit together”

So what are you guys saying? You and your friends are all saying what you would have done, if you had known about Michael. If someone had called you, or if someone had told you about Michael being in the hospital, you guys would have gone for a visit. You guys would have paid him a visit, or maybe you would have at least sent him a card, or given him a call! But you didn’t know, no one told you about Michael, so you didn’t visit him at the hospital, you didn’t send him a card, nothing.

Here’s another one: you’re a student, and one of your classmates tells you that someone found a gold necklace in the science lab this morning. Here are a few thoughts you might have upon hearing about the gold necklace:

* If I had known about the necklace, I would have searched the science lab!

* If I had been to the lab and found the necklace, I would have tried to contact the owner.

Hi, everyone. How are you?

Hoje no podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre como dizer em inglês expressões como “não seja tão modesto” e “o mérito é seu”.

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. How have you been? 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 here’s an expression I wanted to talk about today: sell yourself short. Have you ever heard this expression? Can you guess what it means? We usually hear people use it like this:  Don’t sell yourself short. And as you get used to listening to real English, be it from TV shows, or movies, or podcasts, you’ll see that this expression will start popping up here and there. So let’s get on to an example.

Imagine that you have a friend who works at a TV station, OK? Now, he’s very young. Let’s say he’s in his mid-twenties. However, he started working for the station when he was just seventeen, as an intern. He’s a pretty hardworking guy, though, so he’s been promoted quite a few times since then. He’s done a little bit of everything; he has become a true jack-of-all-trades. So, let’s say this is your friend and his name is… Jack, why not? Jack is a jack-of-all-trades.

Anyway, he tells you that the old station manager has quit his job and the station has got to fill the position pretty quickly. They’re looking for someone young (check!), with a lot of initiative (check!) and a minimum of 10 years of experience. So your friend Jack wants to apply for the position, but he’s afraid the station owners will think he is too inexperienced. So you remind your friend Jack of all the important work he has done for the station. You remind him that he’s the one who filled in for the manager last month when the guy got caught in a car accident. And, finally, you remind Jack that he has worked in practically every division of the station, that he gets along very well with everyone and that he was the one to initiate many significant actions that had a huge positive impact on the station’s bottomline.

You say to Jack, Don’t sell yourself short! That means, give yourself credit where you deserve it! By the way, that’s another very common phrase in English: give yourself credit, give someone credit, etc. But back to selling yourself short: you remind Jack of everything he’s done that was important for the TV station, and you tell him to remember all that. You say, Jack, give yourself credit for everything you’ve done. You have worked hard for this station since your first day as an intern and even the old manager himself said that you would be a good candidate to replace him. So don’t sell yourself short!

That’s good advice, in general, right? Don’t sell yourself short! Be aware of everything you’ve accomplished and when someone asks you, you can be honest. Now, that’s different from bragging, of course. What does brag mean? To brag means to talk about something you did, or one of your qualities, in an arrogant way, or in an annoying way… You know, sometimes it’s a little much and you may even get the sense that what that person is bragging about isn’t even true. So there’s a difference between giving yourself credit and not selling yourself short, and bragging, right?

So here’s my question to you: do you give yourself credit for your accomplishments? Has this ever happened to you – you sold yourself short because you wanted to come off humble, and then later you regretted it? What about bragging – when was the last time you or someone you know bragged about something?

Hi, everyone. What’s up?

Hoje o podcast Inglês Online fala sobre a maneira indireta de se “fazer uma pergunta” em inglês.

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. How have you been? 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.

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has left reviews for this podcast on iTunes. I really appreciate it and it’s a great thing that listeners are writing reviews and rating the podcast, since I guess iTunes takes reviews and ratings into consideration, as well as the number of downloads, of course… So they take all that into consideration when deciding which podcasts are the most popular.. And recently I’ve seen Inglesonline on the popular list at the Brazilian iTunes store, so that’s really cool.

OK, today I’m gonna talk about something that I guess most schools consider, maybe, basic or pre-intermediate material. I personally think, though, that this is a topic we could hear more of. I’m talking about asking questions directly versus getting information in an indirect way. Example: How old are you? That’s a direct question. It ends with a question mark, right? Let’s say this is a police interrogation and, for some reason, these are the questions you are being asked:

* How tall are you? Where do you live?

* Where were you last night around 8 o’clock? How did you get there?

* What were you wearing? Who was with you?

So these were all direct questions, right? They all ended with a question mark. Now let’s say the police officer, for some reason, doesn’t want to be so direct. He says to you “I wanna know how tall you are”. Not “I wanna know how tall are you“. We would say “I wanna know how tall you are”.  So, that’s not even a question! It’s just a statement communicating what the officer wants to know. But, wait! The question is “How tall are you?” So why do we have to say “I want to know, or I would like to know how tall you are”? Why can’t I say “I would like to know how tall are you“?

Well, think about some things that you know: your mother’s name, the way to the office, your phone number. Again: these are examples of things you know. You know your mother’s name, you know the way to the office – let’s assume you work in an office – and you know your phone number. So, these little phrases… are they questions? No, they are three different pieces of information that you know. Your mother’s name is a piece of information; the way to the office is another one and your phone number is another piece of information.

So let’s say there’s someone chatting with you… Let’s say it’s a woman and her name is Sally. Sally isn’t a direct person, so she’s not asking you stuff directly… Every time she wants to know something, she begins with “I’d like to know… blah blah blah”. I’d like to know this, I’d like to know that. So she says to you:

I’d like to know [your age]. What would she like to know? Your age.

Then, she says: I’d like to know [your mother’s name]. What does she want to know now? Your mother’s name.

Now she’s saying: I’d like to know [the way to your office].

So [your age], [your mother’s name] and [the way to your office] are the pieces of information that she wants to acquire. They are the description of what she wants to know. Then, Sally says:

I’d like to know [how tall you are]. Can you see that “how tall you are” isn’t a question? Rather,

Hi, everyone. What’s up?

Hoje o podcast Inglês Online atende o pedido da Marianna Carneiro, feito pelo twitter inglesonline, e explica a diferença entre os verbos remember e remind, que podem ser, os dois, traduzidos do inglês como “lembrar”.

Transcrição

Hello, everybody! How have you been? 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 focus on two words. Two verbs, actually: remember and remind. Remember is a pretty popular verb and you’ve probably heard this word or one of its conjugations at least a few times. So let’s get started with ‘remember’.

Remember basically means… lembrar. When you and a friend are chatting about a place you both visited years ago, you say to each other “Remember this? Remember that?” For example, Remember when we were in Rio and you got mugged?” And the other person may say “Yes, I remember that” or “No, I don’t remember being mugged”. And then your friend might say “This is what I remember: I remember going to an expensive restaurant with you, and then when the bill came you said you’d left your wallet at the hotel”.

Another very common way to use remember is when someone has a list of tasks they’re supposed to complete throughout the day, for example. Let’s say John has to run a few errands in the afternoon, and maybe at the end of the day someone asks John “So, did you remember to pick up the dry cleaning? Did you remember to pick up the groceries? Did you remember to post that letter? Did you remember to stop by the library and return that book? Did you remember to buy stamps?”

So here are a few questions for you: think of your last vacation. Do you remember where you went? Do you remember what you did? Do you remember resting on your last vacation? Do you remember having fun? Me.. I’m thinking about my last vacation and I remember exactly what I ate, and where I went, and I remember having a lot of fun. I do not remember resting a lot on my last vacation… I definitely didn’t have a lot of time to rest but I remember enjoying myself a lot.

Here’s another question for you: what are some of the tasks that you had to complete, say, last week? Or some of the errands you had to run last week? Did you remember to do everything you were supposed to do? As for me, I actually made a list last week with four or five items on it. I remembered to buy dog food, I remembered to get a haircut and I remembered to pick up some food at the supermarket. But I forgot to buy office supplies. What about you? What was on your list that you actually remembered to do?

Alright! Let’s move on to the word ‘remind’. “Remind” is often translated as “lembrar”, but it’s a different kind of “lembrar”. “Remind” means something like ‘make someone remember something’. So when someone says to you…

“Let me remind you that…”

This means that this person wants you to remember something. He or she is making you remember something. This person is giving you a reminder. They are putting something on your mind again. They are reminding you, or giving you a reminder. In Portuguese we could say “um lembrete”, a reminder. Here are a couple of examples:

* Let me remind you that our shop closes at 6. They are reminding you that their shop closes at 6. They want you to remember that; they don’t want you to forget it. So they’re giving you a reminder.

Hi, everyone. What’s up?

Hoje o podcast Inglês Online tem a solução do lateral thinking puzzle apresentado na semana passada. Algumas pessoas conseguiram encontrar a solução (a Ira foi a primeira) – congratulations a quem conseguiu, pois não era uma solução trivial, não! Hoje também falo e dou exemplos sobre linguagem politicamente correta no inglês.

Transcrição

Hey, 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.

So if you caught our last podcast – the episode was called Lateral Thinking – you know that it involved a little story about a guy who left his building in the morning and then returned at night, got into the elevator and then, depending on whether or not it had rained that day, or whether or not there was someone else in the elevator, this guy would go straight to his floor or he would get out on the 10th and then take the stairs. If this sounds confusing, just go back to the last episode and take a listen.

So the question was Why does the guy behave the way that he does? Why does he do that? Why does he get out on the 10th floor when it’s not raining, or when there’s no one else in the elevator? Well, a few people actually got the answer right! Some people figured out the solution. They figured it out, they solved the problem. Yep, Inglês Online readers are smart :) I have to admit I already knew the solution because I read it on a website. I didn’t figure it out on my own. I didn’t try too hard, to be honest… I got curious so after I read the problem I just went ahead and read the solution.

So here goes the solution: the guy who gets in the elevator every evening… He’s a dwarf. The guy is actually a dwarf. Remember the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? This guy is like those seven guys in the fairy tale, which means that he’s a short guy. So because he is short, he can’t reach the button for the twelfth floor on the elevator panel on his own. When it’s raining, he has an umbrella on him so he can use the umbrella to reach the button for the twelfth. And when there’s someone else all he has to do is ask that person to press the button.

Therefore, when he’s alone and doesn’t have an umbrella on him, he goes up to the tenth floor (he’s tall enough to reach that button) and then climbs the stairs to the twelfth. That’s all!

By the way, take a look at the image right beside the text of this podcast. It’s a fairy tale dwarf, right? The word “dwarf” isn’t acceptable when you’re referring to people… Neither is the word “midget”. You can refer to a person who is very short as a little person – as far as I know, that’s the acceptable, or non-offensive, or, some would say, the politically correct way to refer to a person who’s very short in stature.

And in the United States you’ll very often hear expressions like these: African-American, Asian-American, Italian-American, etc. “African-American” refers to people who are black or who have African ancestry. And we can usually just say “a black woman”, “black people”, that’s fine. If you want to sound just a bit more formal, maybe a bit more educated… you can say &#...

Hey, everbody. How’s it going?

Hoje tem um lateral thinking puzzle or problem. É um probleminha que requer pensamento criativo e original para ser resolvido. Por que a pessoa da historinha tem esse comportamento? Não vale postar a resposta aqui! (semana que vem eu posto).

Transcrição

Hi, 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 on our podcast I’m gonna talk about lateral thinking. What does that mean? Well, the Wikipedia… you know Wikipedia? Wikipedia.org. The Wikipedia says that lateral thinking is when you solve a problem using an indirect and creative approach. That means that the solution isn’t obvious and that you won’t find the solution through traditional logic. In other words, to use a popular expression, you have to think outside of the box to solve lateral thinking problems. To think outside of the box means to think creatively, to be original or unusual, stuff like that.

So there are many lateral thinking puzzles, or problems available on the Internet and for this episode I’ve selected one that is probably the most well-known lateral thinking problem of all. So, before I present it to you, let me establish a few ground rules: you can easily find the solution to this puzzle by googling it. That means, doing a Google search. You can do that if you want, or maybe you’ve heard of this problem before and you know the solution. Whatever the case, please do not post the answer in the comments.

Deal? OK, here’s the puzzle:

A man lives on the twelfth floor of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. In the evening, he gets into the elevator, and, if there is someone else in the elevator — or if it was raining that day — he goes back to his floor directly. Otherwise, he goes to the tenth floor and walks up two flights of stairs to his apartment.

So, what do you think? Are you familiar with the puzzle? Let’s break it down: a man lives on the twelfth floor of an apartment building. That’s floor #12, right? Tenth, eleventh, twelfth… So he lives on the twelfth floor. I live on the fifth floor, by the way. Which floor do you live on? So, moving right along… This guy takes the elevator every morning, down to the lobby, and then leaves the building. He probably goes to work every day, or maybe he goes to school, we don’t know.

Anyway, in the evening he gets into the elevator… but here’s the interesting part: if there is someone else in the elevator when he gets in, or if it was raining that day… he goes to his floor directly. Now, if there’s no one in the elevator when he gets in,  or if it didn’t rain that day, then he goes to the tenth floor, floor #10. And he gets out of the elevator on the tenth floor. Not on the twelfth floor, where he lives. If there’s no one in the elevator, or if it didn’t rain, he takes the elevator up to the tenth floor, gets out, and walks up two flights of stairs to his apartment on the twelfth floor.

Now, why does he do that? When he gets back home, in the evening, he’ll go directly to the twelfth floor if there’s someone else in the elevator, or if it rained that day. Otherwise, he gets out on the tenth, and climbs two flights of stairts to the twelfth. Can you imagine why someone would do that?

So leave us your comments, tell us what you think. And I’ll give you guys the answer probably later this week or on the next podcast. Talk to you next time.

 

Glossary

deal? = combinado?

whatever the case = qualquer que seja o caso

moving right along = continuando

Hey, everyone. How’s it going?

Tem duas palavrinhas em inglês que geralmente provocam confusão por causa da concordância verbal não muito intuitiva para nós: police e news. Inglês tem dessas coisas… Pois então nosso podcast hoje será sobre isso.

Transcrição

Hi, 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.

So, do you know those words in English – police, and news? The way they are used is not very intuitive to us, Portuguese speakers.  Why? Because the word “police” sounds like the Portuguese word “polícia”, which is a singular word, right? We say “a polícia é isso, não é aquilo” so once we start using “police” we sometimes slip and say “the police is” or “the police was“. The correct way to say those is “the police are” and “the police were”. And the other word I mentioned is “news”. “News” ends with the letter “s”, and that, to us, means “plural”. So we would say “the news are“, right? Nope, people don’t say that in English. They say “the news is…” and “the news was”.

If “the police are” and “the news is” sound strange to you, then you’re in luck: this episode is all about giving examples of how these words are used and providing you with the opportunity to get a little bit more used to them. So let’s get started with the word “police”. And by the way, do you remember a recent episode where I talked about the pronunciation of “focus”, closet and “chocolate”? I said that those three words were some of the most mispronounced words by Brazilians… You know what? “Police” could have made that list.  I’ve heard many people say “police” and by now you’ve heard me say it police several times, so, that’s it. Police. Not “police”, police.

Alright, so here are some things that we might read on a newspaper:

* The police are looking for a missing girl. Again, there’s a missing girl… she disappeared, and the police are looking for her.

* In some countries, the police are well equipped to deal with all kinds of crime.  What does that mean? That means that in some countries the police are well trained, they are well prepared, and they have everything they need to deal with all kinds of crime. In some countries, the police are very well equipped.

* In some places, the police are using infrared cameras to help them identify criminals. So the police are using infrared cameras in some places.

* There was a robbery in my neighborhood yesterday, and the police were called immediately. The police were called immediately.

* Everyone waited outside while the police were investigating the crime scene.

Do you have your own example? Can you remember the last time the police were in your neighborhood? I remember once when there was a fight at a bar near my house and the police were called.

OK, let’s move on to the word “news”. “News” is like the word “information”. We don’t say two informations, three informations, and we don’t say two news either. We say, for example, I’ve received some information or They had no information for us. Likewise, we can say I’ve received some news and They had no news for us.

You know how some people say that “No news is good news”? What does that mean? No news is good news.

Hey, everyone. What’s up?

Hoje eu vou falar sobre duas expressões em inglês que são mais ou menos relacionadas: elas tem a ver com acreditar ou não em alguma desculpa ou ideia de alguém.

Transcrição

Hi, 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 let’s talk about a couple of expressions with the words buy and sell. But we’re not going to focus on the more traditional meanings of buying and selling, like… buying a bicycle or selling a house. Here, we’re talking about ideas, excuses, reasons for doing something and stuff like that.

An example: let’s say you have a ten year old son, little Jimmy, and one day he comes home with a note from his teacher, Ms. Johnson. The note says that he’s been acting up and kinda disrupting the class. So you ask little Jimmy what’s going on. Why is he acting up?, you wanna know. And Jimmy says “I’m not acting up! I’m always quiet in class! Kenny is the one who’s always joking and acting up! She tought it was me because we look like twins.” So this is Jimmy’s excuse: he is actually an angel in class while Kenny is the one who can’t be quiet. But Jimmy and Kenny look so much alike that their teacher mixed them up! She sent Jimmy home with a note, instead of giving Kenny the note.

So Jimmy tells you this little story and you are just not buying it. You are not buying this story. That means you are not convinced. You don’t think his story is credible. You know your son, he’s impossible! And he’s very creative too. You know that it is highly unlikely that Jimmy is quiet in class. So, yeah, you’re not buying it. You’re not buying his story. Here’s another example: your friend had agreed to go to the movies with you tonight and now he’s just called you and said that he’s feeling a little tired so he won’t be able to go tonight. You know this guy well and you know that he was really looking forward to going to the movies, so… you’re not buying it. You’re not buying his excuse. That’s a lame excuse! He’s tired? You’re not buying it. You think the real reason why he canceled on you is something else entirely. You’re not buying that he’s too tired to go to the movies.

Now, here’s the opposite idea… for example: let’s say your friend is telling you about her trip to some beach town you had never heard of before. She tells you it was wonderful, the beach was amazing and the weather was so nice. You say “Hey, I’m sold! That beach town sounds amazing and I wanna go there!” I’m sold – that means… you’ve convinced me, I see what you’re saying, I believe you.. I’m sold. I still remember one day, when I was living in the US, and I told my roommate that I had eaten a, I think it was a salami bread or something, and that it also had parmesan cheese on it, and she said “I’m sold!” That means she thought the bread sounded delicious and she wanted to have some herself.

So I’m gonna present you with a list of things that someone might say to you, and you tell me whether you would say “I’m not buying it” or “I’m sold!”.

* Someone says to you “My Internet course will teach you how to become a millionaire in less than a month! You’ll never have to work again. And it costs only ten thousand dollars. Remember, you’ll become a millionaire in a very short time.” What would you say?

Hi, everybody! What’s up?

Hoje eu vou falar sobre duas expressões em inglês relacionadas, que tem a ver com nossas expressões em português “Pega leve”, “Dá um tempo pra ela”, etc.

Transcrição

Hi, 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.

So picture this: you work for a company that sells pencils. It’s a very competitive market and the salespeople in your company work 14 hours a day. You’re the sales manager, so you have to make sure that everyone in your team is at the top of their game and working really hard to bring as much business to the company as humanly possible. So what happens one day is that your boss, the president, presents his protegé to you, and tells you that from now on, he is part of the sales team. So the new guy, Gary, has zero experience in sales. He looks like he doesn’t even like selling. He may not even like pencils that much, you’re not sure. However your boss has asked you to be patient with Gary. He said “Look, I know Gary is not an experienced sales person, but please work with him. Be patient, go easy on him, OK?” Hey, he’s your boss. He’s the president of the company and the one who pays your salary, so you answer “Sure”.

So one of the things your boss said was “Go easy on him”. What does that mean? That means.. be extra-patient with him. Be gentle. Go easy on him. For example, if an experienced sales person lost an important client, that sales person would be in serious trouble! But not Gary. If Gary loses an important client, be patient. Don’t be mad, don’t fire him, go easy on him. This expression “go easy on someone” is very common when we’re dealing with beginners, with rookies… A rookie is someone who’s just starting out in a profession, or an activity. For example, if you enjoy watching cop shows, you’ve probably heard the word rookie before. There’s always a police officer who’s just started working for the force; he or she is a rookie. And when there’s a rookie in the group, you may hear someone say “Go easy on her” or “Go easy on him”. Although I don’t think that’s very common in the police because they like to be very tough, but… I think you get the idea: don’t be so hard on this person. Be patient, because he or she is a beginner, they don’t have much experience, they’re still learning. Go easy on him; go easy on her.

So here’s a related expression: give someone a break. When you’re demanding a lot from someone, and it’s clear that what you’re demanding is more than he or she can handle, someone might say “Give him a break!” or “Give her a break!”. Let’s say you have a new employee, Tony, and he is doing everything he can to do a good job. However, the company is not doing so well. It’s not Tony’s fault… Times are hard, customers have less money than ever before, so everyone in the industry is having a hard time meeting goals.

You think Tony can take the pressure, though. He’s experienced, he’s tough and he’s very smart. So you keep increasing his workload and demanding great results from him. Tony is looking increasingly tired, but you still think he can take it. Your friend Mary, however, thinks you’re going too far. She says “You should give Tony a break. You should definitely give him a break. He’s doing his best to meet your demands and he’s doing very well. He’s already proven himself. Give him a break, or he’ll get sick and you’ll lose him”.