Hi, everybody! What’s up?

Hoje o podcast vai focar na pronúncia de algumas palavrinhas do inglês: focus, closet e chocolate. Por que estas palavras específicas? Por que na minha opinião estas três são as que as pessoas mais erram na pronúncia, incluindo gente que lida com inglês no dia a dia. Se você gosta do assunto, já fiz outros podcasts focando em pronúncia de outras palavras: o primeiro deles gira em torno de blew, o passado de blow.

Transcrição

Hi, how have you been? What kinds of interesting things have you been up to? Today we have a new episode of the inglesonline podcast, as usual. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline. On this episode, we’re going to talk about three specific words: FOCUS, CHOCOLATE and CLOSET. I’m sure at least one of these words is no stranger to you even if you’re a beginner. Why am I focusing on these three words? Because throughout my life what I’ve noticed is that these are probably the three words I hear Brazilians mispronounce the most. Did you get that? Mispronounce… that means, pronounce incorrectly.

Here’s the first time I heard the pronunciation “choco-leit” for chocolate: when I was a kid I went to Disneyland as part of a group, and our guide was a woman who spoke English, of course. One day I saw her chatting with an American and she asked him some question about “chocolate”. But the thing is, she didn’t say chocolate; she said choco-leit. The American guy didn’t understand what she was talking about. She repeated the word choco-leit two more times, I think, until someone realized what was going on and said “Oh, she means chocolate!” And then the American guy finally got it and gave our guide the information she was looking for.

So there you have it: not chocoleit, no. We say chocolate. Again, chocolate. It’s not really “chocoláte”, and it’s not “chocolet” either… it’s chocolate. Chocolate. Fortunately it is extremely easy to find numerous examples of how the word chocolate is used, since it’s such a popular snack (or delicacy) everywhere! Do you like hot chocolate? White chocolate? Brazilian chocolate, or imported chocolate? I have never liked white chocolate, I don’t know why… I just don’t like how white chocolate tastes. Do you? Also, I used to eat a lot more chocolate when I was a kid than I do now. I still love chocolate, don’t get me wrong… I just don’t eat it as often now. How about you? Are you one of the few people in the world who doesn’t like chocolate? Or are you a chocolate-eater like me?

Let’s talk about the second word: focus. Yep, focus. F-O-C-U-S. Focus. Remember that car called Focus? OK, so that’s not how we pronounce focus. We don’t say fócus, and we don’t say fókius either. We say focus. Again: “fôu-câs”. How do we use this word? The meaning is about the same in Portuguese and English, so… Sometimes when a group of people is having a meeting and people start to get disctracted and start talking about something unrelated to the subject of the meeting… When that happens, someone may say “Focus, people, focus!” That means, let’s concentrate, let’s focus on the topic of the meeting. When you focus on something, you put all your attention on that thing, right? And when someone says “Oh, Mary is very focused… she’s a very focused person” that means that Mary has a very clear idea of what she wants and probably a clear idea of what she has to do to get what she wants, and so she’s very focused on getting there.

Hi, everybody! How’s it going?

Hoje eu vou falar sobre uma construção muito comum no inglês. Primeiro eu vou dar exemplos de como essa construção é usada para dizer, aproximadamente, as frases abaixo na língua inglesa:

Você se preparou? / Quanto você se preparou?

E daí, mais exemplos de como dizer coisas assim: Não dá pra acreditar como isso aqui é caro!

Transcrição

Hi, everybody! What’s up? It’s been a week since my last podcast – I’ve been traveling and I just got back so 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 gonna talk about a very common way to say, in English, things we say in Portuguese like these: “Você tá bem preparado ou mal preparado?” or “É incrível como ele é inteligente!” Just keep listening and you’ll get a better idea of what I mean.

Let’s start with this little story: suppose Johnny is a high-school student and he has a Geography test tomorrow, OK? So John has been studying for a few days but he still feels insecure about the test, unfortunately. He asks his father “Dad, do you think I’ll do well on the test? What do you think, dad?” And his father says “Well, it depends. It depends on how prepared you are for the test, and it also depends on how difficult the test will be”.

Again, Johnny’s dad says “It depends on how prepared you are for the test, and it also depends on how difficult the test will be”. So let’s break it down: “it depends on how prepared you are”. What does that mean? In Portuguese we would say something like “Depende se você está bem preparado ou não” or “Depende do quanto você está preparado”. Johnny’s father might ask him “Did you study a lot? Or did you just read your book superficially? How prepared are you?”

And Johnny might answer “I’ve studied a lot in the past few days. You can ask me anything about Geography and I’ll give you the correct answer. I’m very well prepared”. So, in this case, how prepared is Johnny? Very! He’s very well prepared, actually.

So here’s something else you could ask Johnny: on a scale of 1 to 10, how prepared are you? Johnny thinks he is very well prepared, right? He said he studied a lot in the past few days, and he knows the answer to any question you might ask him. So the answer is “10”. On a scale of 1 to 10, how prepared is Johnny? He’s a 10. He is very, very well prepared.

So Johnny’s dad also said “It depends on how difficult the test will be”. It depends on how difficult the test will be. How difficult will the test be? We don’t know. Only the teacher who created the test knows. It may be a very difficult test, or it may not be difficult at all… it may be very easy, who knows? At this point, only the teacher knows how difficult the test will be.

So this is what people mean when they ask you “How difficult was the test?” They wanna know if the test was very difficult, or if it was just a little difficult, or maybe not difficult at all. When someone asks you “So, how good was the movie? Did it measure up to the hype?”, this person is asking you if the movie was very good, or just good, or maybe not good at all. How good was the movie? So think about the last time you took an exam. How prepared were you? Very prepared, or not prepared at all? How difficult was the exam? Very difficult, or not at all? Think about the last meal you ate. How good was the food? Think about the last movie you watched.

O podcast de hoje fala sobre expressões relacionadas a choro e lágrimas

Transcrição

Hi, how’s it going? This is Ana Luiza with 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 last week I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts… It’s called Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! and it’s set up like a quiz show where every episode they have two or three famous guests on, and listeners can call in, and all the participants have to answer questions about a certain topic, and there are prizes… It’s a funny show, so it’s a nice one to listen to. And there’s a cool thing about this podcast, which is, although it is not made for learners of English, there are transcripts available for parts of the show. So if you want to check out Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, go to inglesonline.com.br, look up this episode of the podcast and you’ll find a link to Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!

So I was listening to an old episode last week and they were talking about a group called Men of Tears. So men in this group… they get together and, basically, they cry. Many of the participants haven’t cried since they were little boys, some of them have never cried, so they get together and revisit sad memories and then, they express their sadness through tears. This group’s philosophy is the more men cry, the less anger and violence in the world.

So, first of all, what do you think about that? Honestly, I think it’s a great idea. And I think that American men may have a harder time crying than Brazilian men. I think Brazilian guys cry a little more often than their American counterparts. What do you think? If you’re a guy, when was the last time you cried? And if you’re a woman, do you remember seeing men cry?

Anyway, I thought I’d present you guys with some expressions concerning tears and crying. They’re not depressing, though, so don’t worry. Let’s start with movies. Have you ever cried watching a movie? OK, if you’ve never cried… have you ever just teared up a little while watching a movie? I’m talking about tearing up. Tearing up is not the same as full-on crying; tearing up is just when… a few tears start forming in your eyes. Some people tear up when they watch a touching commercial… What about you?

Here are a few movies that are generally thought of as tear-jerkers. What is a tear-jerker? A tear-jerker is something, usually a movie, that is guaranteed to make most people cry. Do you remember the movie Ghost, with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze? That’s a tear-jerker. E.T. the Extraterrestrial is probably one of the best-known tear-jerkers in movie history. What is YOUR favorite tear-jerker? Do you even have a favorite tear-jerker?

So let’s say that… maybe you watched these movies and didn’t cry at all. Not a single tear. Or, maybe you teared up a little. Or maybe you were really touched by the story. You were so moved that you cried like a baby. That means you cried a lot, and you probably cried for a while. You cried like a baby. That’s a very common expression – someone might tell you “John and I went to see Xuxa e os Duendes and he cried like a baby! He was really moved.” You know… it happens.

We can also say that John cried his heart out. He cried his heart out. He was sobbing throughout the entire movie. He cried his heart out. So here are my questions for you: Have you watched these movies? Ghost, E.T. and Schindler’s List. These are all famous movies.  So if you have watched them, what was your crying situation by the end of each one of them? Did you not cry at all? Did you tear up a little? Or did you cry like a baby?

O podcast de hoje fala sobre expressões com MAKE (a inspiração veio de um tweet da Ira – sigam: @iraloiola)

Transcrição

Hi, how’s it going? This is Ana Luiza with 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 today let’s talk about one very common verb, one that every English student, even a beginner, knows of: MAKE. And you may think this is a lesson for beginners, but bear with me… If these expressions are not coming out of your mouth automatically yet, you will likely get something out of this podcast.

I’m gonna use a few expressions with “make” and give you a few examples. Let’s get started with the title of this episode. Yeah, the title in Portuguese. You know the meaning of that title. So picture a little girl in front of you. She’s pretending she is someone famous. Let’s say she’s pretending she is Madonna, the singer. So the little girl is dancing and singing, and then she starts speaking as if she was being interviewed. She’s impersonating Madonna, which means, she’s imitating Madonna’s gestures, facial expressions, Madonna’s voice… She’s impersonating Madonna and you are truly impressed. You think this little girl has potential. Now she’s telling you about a school play she’s in, where she plays the lead role. She starts reciting her lines, and once again you’re impressed. You really think she’s talented. You tell her “You are going to make a great actress”. In Portuguese, we could say something like the title of the podcast. So again “You are going to make a great actress”.

Has anyone ever said something like that to you? When I was a kid someone told me “You’re gonna make a great cook”. That didn’t happen, so I have no idea where they got that from, although to be fair my cooking skills have advanced over the years. So here are a few more examples: you see someone practicing a song for an audition, and you know this person’s dream is to become a professional singer. You could say “You’re gonna make a great singer”. You bump into an old friend at a store and she’s pregnant. You have known her since childhood and she’s a very caring person. You could say “You’re gonna make an amazing mom”. You’re spending your Sunday afternoon at the park and you see a little boy playing soccer with his little friends. You think he’s very talented, so you could say “He’s gonna make a great player some day”.

That makes sense, right? There’s another expression with MAKE right here: “that makes sense”. OK, so it makes sense to say “He’s gonna make a great player”. We learn in school that ‘make’ has to do with creating, building something. So you’re gonna make a great actress, you’re gonna make a great mom. He’s gonna make a great player. It makes sense to use MAKE in these sentences. Would you agree?

Now listen to these sentences: the girl got a new doll on her birthday, and that made her happy. Getting a new doll made her happy. The boy missed his favorite TV show today, and that made him sad. Missing the TV show made him sad. Another one: it always makes me happy when my friends give me a call. Or, it always makes me sad when I watch the news on TV.

Here, we’re using MAKE to communicate that something changes your mood. The little girl felt happy after she got the doll. The doll made her happy. The boy felt sad because he missed the TV show. So, missing the show made him sad. Talking to my friends on the phone makes me happy.

O podcast de hoje mostra como dizer “Foi pego no flagra!”.

Transcrição

Hi, how’s it going? This is Ana Luiza with 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 a few expressions with the word catch. Catch, c-a-t-c-h. I’m also gonna use the past forms of catch: caught and caught. That’s it: catch, caught, caught. I’ve already used an expression with caught in a previous podcast, “caught me off guard”. So today let’s start with “get caught”.

If you’ve ever been in school, you know that during any given exam there’s always someone cheating. Right? That means, there’s always someone looking at a little piece of paper that has stuff written on it that you were supposed to have memorized for the test. Or there’s someone looking for information in a book while the teacher is not looking. Now, some people are really good at that. They cheat on every test, and they never get caught!

Some criminals never get caught. There was a movie starring Leonardo diCaprio where he played a thief, I think, and the guy went on for years without getting caught. I can’t remember if he ever got caught in real life. I think he did, and nowadays he works as a security consultant or something like that… I’m not sure.

So let me give you an example: let’s say John just arrived at school after a great weekend at the beach and when he gets to the classroom, all his classmates are getting ready for an exam. They’re all sitting at their desks quietly, leafing through their books trying to quickly recap parts of the subject. John senses that something’s up and he asks Mary what’s going on. Mary looks at him, surprised, and says “We’re having an exam in five minutes”. Now, I have to say, this happened to me once when I was in college. I got to school and there was an exam going on which I knew nothing about, but that’s a story for another day. OK, so John forgot all about the exam, he didn’t prepare at all and now he thinks his only chance to do well is to leave the book open under his desk and try to look for the answers during the exam.

But John is not an experienced cheater. Up to now he has never cheated, so, guess what? His first attempt at cheating fails miserably. He’s looking at the first chapter of the book, trying to find the answer to question 1, and all of a sudden he sees his teacher standing right beside him. The teacher says “John, please hand me your exam and head straight to the Principal’s office”. So… John was caught red-handed. In Portuguese we could say “O John foi pego no flagra”. His teacher saw the book under John’s desk, and he saw John looking at the book. John was caught red-handed.

Other examples of being caught red-handed? Let’s say you left your wallet in a room, and left. After a while you come back and you open the door in the exact moment someone is taking money from your wallet. There’s no denying it – you saw it, you saw this guy holding your wallet in one hand and taking money from the wallet with the other had. You caught him red-handed.

Why do we say red-handed? It has to do with catching someone with blood in their hands, which might prove that this person committed a murder, or a crime. So John was cheating and he was caught red-handed, and that guy was taking money from your wallet and you caught him red-handed. And here’s another great way of saying that: John was caught in the act. He was caught in the act (ele foi pego no flagra). John was caught in the act, and you caught that guy in the act when he was trying to steal your money.

O podcast de hoje como dizer em inglês “Ele começou a mil por hora” e outras expressões.

Transcrição

Hi, how’s it going? This is Ana Luiza with 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 was inspired by a sketch I watched on Saturday Night Live the other day. Saturday Night Live is a long-running sketch comedy show that has been on TV for several years. Sketch comedy show is… well, Casseta e Planeta is a sketch comedy show, TV Pirata was a sketch comedy show. I think some sketches are funny and some aren’t, but overall I like Saturday Night Live. OK, so from now on, I’m gonna say only SNL, OK? SNL stands for Saturday Night Live.

So the other day I saw an old SNL sketch where one of the actors played George W. Bush, back when he was President of the US, and a journalist asked President Bush what his plans were for Iraq. Bush basically said that he didn’t know, but was considering the possibility of restoring Saddam Hussein into power. And remember, this is a comedy show and this sketch is old! So Bush said he was considering putting Saddam Hussein in charge again. After all, he said, Saddam is experienced and he would hit the ground running.

Listen again: Saddam is an experienced guy, and he would hit the ground running. Hit the ground running… what does that mean? When someone hits the ground running, let’s say, on their first day at a new job, it means this person is ready! For example, let’s say today is Jack’s first day on his new job as a sales director for an insurance company. Jack is a very experienced manager and he’s worked in the insurance industry for two decades. So he doesn’t need any training because he knows everything there is to know about the business. He knows the ins and outs of this job. He knows the ropes. Again: he knows the ins and outs of this job. He knows the ropes. That means he knows what the job is, he knows what he has to do, he knows how it works, he knows the details, the secrets, the mechanics of the job.

So what happened to Jack on his first day at the new job? He hit the ground running. He got there at 8 o’clock, called a meeting with all his new employees and one hour later he was on the phone talking to some big clients. After that he had a private meeting with each and every one of his employees where they discussed what was being done and how they could improve their work. Jack definitely hit the ground running, right? He hit the ground running.

Jack knows the ropes. He didn’t need anyone to show him the ropes. When someone starts a new job, usually they need a more experienced person to show them the ropes. This is a very common expression. Every time you start in a new position, even if it’s a volunteer position, it’s great when there’s someone to show you the ropes. You know, every office, every organization has their own way of doing things. You have to know where they keep important documents, how to use the software system, how to use the company intranet… the ropes.

So if you get hired by a company where everyone speaks English, someone may tell you on your first day: Hi, I’d like to introduce you to Silvia. She’s gonna be your mentor in your first two moths. She’s very experienced and she’s been with us for eight years. She will show you the ropes.

So what are your examples? When you started in your current job… Who showed you the ropes? Do you know all the ins and outs of your activity? Are you an expert? Let us know in the comments. Talk

to you next time!

 

Key expressions

* hit the ground running

* ins and outs

* the ropes

 

Glossary

O podcast de hoje fala sobre expectations, e como dizer que algo não correspondeu às suas expectativas ou deixou a desejar.

Transcrição

Hey, what’s up? This is Ana Luiza with 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: there’s a new blockbuster out in the theaters. What’s a blockbuster? That’s a movie that makes millions of people go watch it and that makes tons of money. Think Harry Potter, Avatar, Transformers… Those were all blockbusters. So back to the story… Imagine that there’s a new blockbuster at the theaters and everyone is talking about it. Every time you turn around there’s a magazine cover, an interview with the lead actor, a photo, or someone saying they’ve watched it and loved it.

Not surprisingly, your expectations for this movie begin to mount. In the beginning, meh… You were not that interested. But you’ve heard so much from your sister, your friends and your coworkers that now you’re not only curious but you can’t wait to go see this movie. By now, you have high expectations for this movie. You are convinced that you’re gonna have such a great time at the theater. You buy your ticket online in advance, you choose the best seat in the house and you don’t even tell your friends that you’re going, ’cause you don’t want to hear your friends chit-chatting throughout the movie… No, you want to give this wonderful movie your complete and undivided attention. You’re so sure you’re gonna have the time of your life.

Can your expectations get any higher? Not likely. The state I just described is a state of high expectations, very high expectations. Sometimes our high expectations are met. And everyone’s happy. But very often, we have high expectations for something and we end up disappointed. Why? Because we’ve built this thing up in our minds, we’ve imagined something based on other people’s opinions, and… that doesn’t always correspond to reality or we realize

that we have a different opinion.

So if you go into a movie or into a play with high expectations, let’s say that there’s a good chance you may be disappointed. Sometimes we go to a restaurant with high expectations. Sometimes we sign up for a course, or buy a computer with high expectations. Now, some people say it’s better to always have low expectations in general about everything – this way, you never get disappointed. What do you think? I think this is hard to control and sometimes my expectations are high and sometimes they’re low. When I began this website, I had low expectations. I wanted to see it grow a little bit, I thought it would be cool if some people came by and if I made a little money with ads, but the truth is, Inglês Online grew beyond my highest expectations. So there’s an example of something I had low expectations for… my website. Sort of, sort of low expectations. Not that low.

And here’s an expression that is somewhat related to expectations: “measure up”. So let’s say you went to see the blockbuster and you had such high expectations that, after the movie ended… you were left with a feeling of “Is that it? That’s the movie everyone’s talking about? Huh.” You were less than impressed. You weren’t all that impressed. You expected a whole lot more out of this movie based on all the buzz. Now that you’ve seen it, you realize that this movie didn’t measure up. It did not measure up to your expectations. It didn’t measure up to what you were expecting. I guess in Portuguese we could say “Não ficou à altura”. The movie didn’t measure up to your expec...

O podcast de hoje fala sobre expressões como “rachar a conta”, “cada um paga o seu” e “tal pessoa ofereceu/pagou pra todo mundo”.

Transcrição

Hey, what’s up? This is Ana Luiza with 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 let’s say you have some friends coming to visit from out of town and you’re so excited about seeing them again that you feel like surprising them with a really nice dinner at a great restaurant. You’re so happy that your friends are coming to your neck of the woods that you’re going to treat them to dinner at this very fancy restaurant. What does that mean? When you say you’re going to treat your friends, you’re going to treat them to dinner at a fancy restaurant… that means you’re going to pay the bill for the entire dinner. You are going to pick up the tab, you’re going to treat your friends to dinner.

You can let your friends know that you’re treating… You can tell them as you’re being seated “Hey you guys, I’m treating” or “Tonight’s dinner is my treat”. Or you can be more low-key about it and just kind of ask the waiter to discreetly hand you the check at the end of dinner. And if any of your friends protest, which often happens when someone’s treating, you can say “Hey, it’s my treat. Tonight I’m treating my friends to dinner… it’s my pleasure”.

So, think about it: who’s treated you to an ice cream recently? Or to dinner? Has anyone treated you to anything, recently? My father treated me to lunch the other day. It was my birthday, and he treated me to lunch. When I visit my family in Rio, my aunt often treats me to lunch when we go out.

Now think about a different situation: let’s say you’re hanging out with a close friend and you guys decide to go out for a bite. You know, you feel hungry all of a sudden and you tell your buddy “Hey, let’s go grab a bite at Taco Bell”. So you go to Taco Bell with your friend, you both have tacos but no one is treating. You’re not treating your friend, your friend is not treating you to tacos, no. You guys order two taco meals, two sodas, and you go dutch. That means, you split the bill. You and your friend go dutch. You pay half, your friend pays half. So here’s the expression again: go dutch.

Dutch is a word that means ‘from the Netherlands, from Holland’. Dutch is a nationality, right? But this expression “go dutch” doesn’t have anything to do with Dutch people and it doesn’t mean that Dutch people never treat their friends to anything, as far as I know… There’s a reason for the expression, but I’m not gonna get into that right now. So when telling someone about how you and your friend or how your group of friends split the bill for something, you can say “We went dutch”. That’s all: we went dutch. That means, we split the bill, we shared the cost, we went dutch.

Let’s say you’re planning a trip with two friends, and you’re going dutch on everything. The three of you are staying in the same hotel room, you’re paying for plane tickets, you’re gonna have to hire a cab to pick you guys up at the airport… And you guys are going dutch, no one’s picking up the tab alone. The three of you are splitting the costs, you’re going dutch on everything.

Here’s another cool way of saying that: each one of you is paying their own way. So let’s say you’re going on this trip to Fortaleza with your friends Paulo and Marcia. You’re paying your own way, Paulo is paying his own way and Marcia is also paying her own wa...

O podcast de hoje fala sobre palavras muito comuns no vocabulário americano: judge e judgemental; e também mostra duas expressões idiomáticas relacionadas.

Transcrição

Hey, how’s it going today? This is Ana Luiza with 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 wanna talk about a word that is so popular in the English language… If you’re a regular viewer of American movies, or TV series or sitcoms, you have most likely heard this word or one of its variations several times. I’m talking about the words judgement, judge, judgemental and so on. And I’m not referring to anything related to a courtroom. Nope, I’m gonna give you examples of how words like judgemental are used in everyday conversation among regular people.

So let me give you an example of what I mean: if Kevin is judging Anthony, that means that Kevin is disapproving of Anthony in some way. Anthony has done or said something that Kevin disapproves of. So Kevin is judging Anthony, which means that Kevin is thinking, or possibly saying something negative about Anthony. Kevin is saying that Anthony should not have done what he did. He’s saying that Anthony was weak (which is the opposite of strong), or he’s saying that Anthony was dishonest, or something like that. So Kevin is judging Anthony.

When you judge someone, it’s usually because they did or said something you consider wrong, or weak, or in poor taste, or something like that. In general, when we judge someone we are seeing this person as inferior in some way.

So let’s get on to some more vocabulary: let’s say you’re watching a movie and two characters are having a conversation. One of them says, Melissa gave up college. She’s working as a waitress now. And the other character says What? I can’t believe that. I thought she was a smart girl, but she isn’t! And then the first character says Hey, don’t be so judgemental! Don’t judge Melissa for quitting college. She can’t afford college right now and she’s got to help her family financially. So again, this is very common for people to say: Don’t be so judgemental, you shouldn’t judge her. And, of course, the word judgemental describes a person who judges. When someone judges someone else, the first person is being judgemental.

Sometimes you hear someone say Who are you to judge? Like, who do you think you are to judge? That means something like “do you think you’re perfect? Have you never made any mistakes?” Who are you to judge? Here’s an expression that goes well in this situation: Get off your high horse. “Get off your high horse” means “stop acting as if you were better than everyone else”, you know? Be more humble. Get off your high horse. So again, here goes the combination: Who are you to judge? Please get off your high horse.

And here’s a saying – it’s like a “ditado” in Portuguese: You can’t judge a book by its cover. You can’t judge a book by its cover. Did you get the meaning? The cover of the book has to do with its appearance, right? Perhaps the cover looks lame, but who knows? The interior of the book, you know, the story? The story might be good. So don’t judge a book by its cover. This saying can be used for anything, any situation for which you don’t have a lot of information, you’re just looking at the surface… Maybe it’s a person that you’re about to meet and you take a look at the person and your first impression isn’t a very good one. And then someone says to you “Give it time, get to know him, he’s great… Don’t judge a book by its cover”.

OK,

O podcast de hoje mostra como dizer coisas assim: “Calma, você está exagerando!” e “Fazer tempestade em copo d’água”.

Transcrição

Hey, how’s it going today? This is Ana Luiza with 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: your friend finished reading a book last week and he loved it. So two days ago he told you about the book and you asked him if you could borrow the book. He said “Sure! Here it is”. So you grabbed the book and then you walked to the nearest bus stop, waited a while and when your bus came, you hopped on.

But here’s what happened then: there were no seats available so you just stood near the back exit and you decided to check out your friend’s book while riding the bus. That was a bad idea. The bus driver was apparently in a hurry and, at one point, he made a really sharp turn. In that exact moment, you were trying to hold on to the railing with one hand, and trying to turn a page with the other hand. As the driver made the turn, the book just flew off your hand and out the window. Your friend’s book? It was gone in one second.

So you got home and first thing you did was, you gave your friend a call and told him what happened. Now, people react differently to these things, right? Let’s talk about two opposite reactions people may have.

The first one would be like this: you call your friend and he says “Oh, no worries. It’s not that big a deal.” Your friend says this is not that big a deal. When something is not a big deal, that means it’s not that important, it doesn’t have serious consequences, it’s something that can be easily fixed. You know, it’s not a serious problem, it’s not a big deal, it is not that big a deal.

You know that last sentence – “it’s not that big a deal”? This isn’t very intuitive for us, Brazilians or Portuguese speakers in general. If we try to translate that literally into Portuguese, we’ll end up with something that doesn’t make sense. So, don’t do that! Maybe one day I’ll do a podcast on that particular structure, but for now just know that “it’s not that big a deal” means something like “não é tão sério assim”. You can say “This isn’t a big deal” or “No big deal” or “It’s not that big a deal”, for example.

Now, maybe your friend has the opposite reaction. You tell him you lost the book and he goes ballistic. “He goes ballistic” – that means, he gets insanely angry. He starts yelling at you over the phone! And you tell him “Jack, relax! I’m gonna get you a new copy immediately! In fact, I’m gonna get you two copies of that book.” But that’s not good enough for your friend. He’s still mad at you, and you ask him “Don’t you think you are overreacting? It was an accident!”. Listen again to this question: Don’t you think you are overreacting? This is a very common use of the word “overreact”. Don’t you think you are overreacting?

So, can you guess what overreact means? You think your friend is overreacting. That means that you think he is exaggerating in his anger. You were holding his book and it flew out the bus window. It happens! Why is he that angry? It’s not that big a deal. I mean, you would understand if he got a little upset. But he’s so mad, he’s yelling at you.