Podcast Inglês Online

How’s it going? Hoje, no podcast, eu falo sobre dois idioms com a palavra money – os dois super comuns do inglês de todo dia. Não perca…

How’s it going? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

Ok, so we have two idioms today that are pretty relatable… Meaning, everyone has heard them, at least in Portuguese. Both of them use the word money, which is pretty much one of the first words people learn in English. The first idiom is marry into money, which we use when we’re talking about someone – let’s say it’s John… So, John married someone who’s wealthy or whose family is wealthy.

So, in the future it may happen that one of John’s acquaintances will be talking about him and they will refer to the fact that John married someone who belongs to a wealthy family. And this is what John’s acquaintance might say: You know, John Smith? He just lost his job, poor thing. That’s alright, though. His wife comes from a very wealthy family. Yes, it’s true, didn’t you know? Oh yes, John Smith married into money.

Of course, this kind of thing is never said in a super flattering way – but people will say it. John married into money, your cousin married into money and so on. You know Meghan Markle? You can say “Meghan Markle married into royalty.” There you go… Same structure.

Let’s move along and focus on our second idiom of today: made of money. I’m sure you get the meaning… Everyone’s been there. At least once in your life you must have asked someone – usually a parent – to buy you something, and that person said “It’s too expensive. I’m not made of money!”

And, there are actually quite a few sayings in English that are very similar to what we say in Brazil, both in format and meaning. Like “money isn’t everything”, for example, and “money can’t buy happiness”. Here’s one that we wouldn’t literally say in Portuguese: on the money. When someone’s on the money, that means they are exactly right about something.

Example: you and your friend Gary decided to watch a soccer game and made a bet. You bet team A would win 2-nil, and Gary bet the other team was going to win, 3-nil. You thought “This is the easiest money I’ve ever won. There’s no way the other team is winning. They’re on a losing streak – lost the last three games to mediocre opponents.”

Well, as it turns out, the other team scored three times and team A didn’t score at all. Gary was on the money. He won the bet. How he did it, you do not know. But he was on the money.

Have you ever met anyone who’s good at guessing who the murderer is on murder stories? I’ve never been able to – I’ve read quite a few murder stories in the past and I usually tried to guess who it was before the final chapter, but I was rarely on the money. Are you someone who’s always on the money with your guesses? Let me know and see you soon!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

on a losing streak = com vários episódios seguidos de “perder” algo

acquaintances = conhecidos

Hello! No podcast Inglês Online de hoje eu falo sobre dois idioms que você vai ouvir o tempo todo em sitcoms e filmes americanos (e ouvir de falantes nativos também). Os dois tem a ver com abandonar algo que você estava fazendo. Ouça já!

Hello! You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

We’re beginning with a great expression today: jump ship. That’s it, jump ship. It’s basically like an intransitive verb, just to go back to grammar a little bit. An intransitive verb is a verb that needs no complement. For example, “give” is not intransitive. When someone tells you “John gave.” you feel like asking… John gave what? Like, what did John give? And to whom?

So, jump ship is not like that – when you say someone jumped ship, you’re saying this person abandoned something they were a part of. I think the most frequent kind of example for this expression has to do with, let’s say, a group project of any kind that has a number of people involved in it.

It might be a company with dozens of employees and one day the vice-president of marketing and sales decides to jump ship. Why? Because he and the CEO significantly disagree about the direction the company should go in. After several meetings, the VP of marketing thought to himself “I can’t go on in this company if this is where we are headed. Continuing to ignore our competitors will lead to disaster.” And he quits.

This is a high profile company so his decision makes the headlines on some industry magazines: John Doe, VP of Marketing and Sales at the Green Train, jumps ship over disagreements. And the top of the article reads “I couldn’t go on like that anymore, Mr. Doe said. I can’t watch the company self-destruct because it refuses to pay attention to the competition.”

So, ok, whatever the reason, many people sooner or later jump ship from something. Listen to what Fast Company magazine tweeted out a few days ago – and I will read the first line of the article as well.

https://twitter.com/FastCompany/status/1033613684193546242

So, in this case, Tesla employees are jumping ship – they’re abandoning their positions at Tesla – for better pay at Apple. Tesla is a tech company as well, but they develop electric vehicles, solar panels, and other stuff. So there you go. People may choose to jump ship from a project, a company, an enterprise… for many different reasons.

Now, when someone jumps ship from a situation – listen to this: that doesn’t necessarily mean that this person is a quitter. If someone calls you a quitter, let’s just say… that’s not a compliment, ok. “Quitter” obviously comes from the word “quit” and a quitter is someone who gives up easily. You know, people who will start something up and at the first sign of a hard time they’ll give up? And then they do that repeatedly? That person would be seen very often as a quitter.

So, listen to what this guy, Kurt, tweeted out:

https://twitter.com/KurtInMilwaukee/status/1032671403072528384

“Hang in there” means be strong, endure this tough situation you’re in a little bit longer – don’t be a quitter! Now, I would argue that there is a time to quit and that’s when you look at what you’ve been doing and you realise that you were mistaken about lots of things and your enterprise just isn’t progressing the way you expected, and then you quit.

So, that wouldn’t be an example of a quitter. A quitter would be someone who repeatedly quits something without giving it a proper go. Can you give me an example from your own life? See you soon.

Key expressions

Vocabulary

it makes (the) headlines = vira manchete (de jornal ou revista)

John Doe = nome genérico, mais ou menos equivalente a dizer “fulano de tal”

sooner or later = cedo ou tarde

for better pay = por melhor pagamento

an enterprise = um empreendimento (pode ser um projeto, um trabalho com objetivo definido, uma start-up, etc)

compliment = elogio

give it a proper go = tentar de verdade

How’s it going? No episódio de hoje do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre como dizer “Meu, se controla!” e faca de dois gumes em inglês. Sempre bom saber! Ouça e se familiarize…

How’s it going? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online Podcast app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

So, let’s get started today with a great expression: get a grip! I’ve talked about a similar idiom before in a previous episode. In fact, there are many different ways of saying the same thing, so today we’re going with Get a grip!

You could say that telling someone to get a grip is an expression of tough love. You’re telling someone to calm down. So, that person is obviously in a bad state in that particular moment and you’re telling them to, you know… Get a grip! Take control of their emotions, and lower their voice if they’re angry or shouting… Or if they’re just, like, freaking out about something, speaking really fast and they look like they’re about to hyperventilate, you can also say “Get a grip! You have to calm down.” And like I said before, there are many ways of telling someone to get a grip. Another one would be “get a hold of yourself”.

So, let’s look at a real-life example: something that was tweeted out by a guy named John. He’s advising exam-takers to get a grip on themselves and take control of their nerves. Listen:

Board exam takers, a piece of advice:

Your mind is your greatest enemy. Your ego wields emotion and fear like a double edged blade, either way, you lose. So get a grip on yourself and calm down. Because your mind is a powerful tool, one mindset can change everything.

— (@abarkezz) July 17, 2018

So, apart from some funny comma use, John’s saying that you should use your mind wisely when you’re taking an exam. He basically says that your ego is a double-edged blade, which is also a very interesting term for our podcast, so let’s focus on it a little bit. I’m not going to lie – I hear double-edged sword way more often than double-edged blade so I’m using sword for the examples.

When you say something is a double-edged sword, you’re saying it can help you but it can also cause you trouble. Depending on how you use that thing; depending on the decisions you make; sometimes depending on the circumstances – that thing can be extremely positive or it could be a hindrance. Example: winning the lottery overnight – double-edged sword. That’d be awesome… we all love money, right? Talk to past lottery winners though, and ask them if there were any downsides. I’m betting at least some of them will be able to tell you a few downsides.

Obviously, our minds are a double-edged sword. We can use our minds to do amazing stuff, think up the greatest ideas, get ourselves out of trouble and so on… But before we know it, we’ll find ourselves in a state of panic before an exam or an interview, for example. If you’ve ever found yourself in this exact situation you know what I’m talking about. You may end up drawing a blank halfway through the exam. You may stutter uncontrollably when trying to answer the interview questions. Not fun.

So, that’s what John is talking about, although in my opinion he slightly misused the expression “double-edged blade”. He’s saying that your ego will wield emotion and fear, and “either way you lose”. That means that there’s no positive coming out of your ego. A double-edged blade, on the other hand, can be both: positive or negative, depending on circumstances.

Anyway, John ends up telling exam-takers to get a grip on themselves and calm down. We all know it’s better to be calm when you’re taking an exam, right? I guess what people don’t know sometimes is how to get to that calm state.

So, what’s your recipe to getting calm? Let us know and see you soon!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

comma = vírgula

blade = lâmina

to hyperventilate = começar a respirar muito rápido porque você está nervoso ou ansioso

hindrance = algo que pode ser um obstáculo, empecilho, entrave

But before we know it = antes que a gente perceba, antes que se dê conta

You may end up drawing a blank halfway through the exam = você pode acabar tendo/dando um branco/apagão no meio do exame

stutter uncontrollably = gaguejar incontrolavelmente

Hello! Hoje, no podcast, eu falo sobre uma expressão do inglês que eu não ouço muito nas bocas dos brasileiros – e que, no entanto, é super comuns entre os falantes nativos… além de vocabulário prático sobre passar roupa, como “tirar o amassado da camiseta”.

Hello! You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

Today I’m talking about a little idiom that you’ll hear a lot when listening to native English speakers talk – be it the news, TV shows, movies, it doesn’t matter. And I’m so happy that today I’m talking about it, because I don’t hear it enough when Brazilians are speaking English. So today is the day: you’re going to receive massive input on iron out.

Iron out. Let’s start with a brief pronunciation tip: even when we “get” the ways of the English sounds in our heads, sometimes we will still be surprised. I’ve done podcasts about unusually pronounced words before… So you can look in the archives for that but the point here is, IRON is one of those words. Considering how we say things in Portuguese, if you haven’t listened to this word enough times, you’re still going to mentally consult your frame of reference for pronunciation, which is… Brazilian Portuguese. And then you’re going to go ahead and maybe say something like “iron”.

So, there you go: people don’t really pronounce it “ai-ron” or “ai-ran”. It’s more like “ai-arn”. So, of course, when you’re saying things fast it all gets jumbled together and before you can discern anything the speaker is already on a different topic. So let me tell you this: don’t be too hard on yourself, OK? Just pay attention to what I said, listen to this podcast (which you already are), have a look at the transcript so you can read my suggested pronunciation, and after you’re done go over to Forvo.com and look up iron. You’ll be able to hear a few more people say it.

So, let me start with the literal use of this idiom… For example, your t-shirt just came out of the dryer and it’s all wrinkled. So you grab your clothes iron and you use it on your t-shirt to iron out all those wrinkles. So you press that t-shirt with the steam iron, or whatever the kind of iron it is that you use, and you make it all flat and wrinkle-free. You have just ironed out all the wrinkles from your t-shirt.

How about pants with a crease? Do you know what a crease is? It’s that sort of line or mark that runs vertically down the front of some pants – usually pants that are meant to be worn in more, like formal or social occasions. You won’t see a crease in most denim pants or in tracksuit bottoms. So back to the crease: when you buy a pair of pants with a crease, it’s actually not recommended that you iron out the crease in them. The crease is there for a reason, right – to give your pants a more sophisticated look.

So, obviously, “iron out” is the perfect expression to be applied metaphorically when you’re talking about little things or issues that need to be resolved in any situation in life. For example: my coworker and I have been working on this project together. I’m taking care of the purchasing and he is handling marketing. We’re having a meeting today to iron out a few details, such as the fact that some expenses he has planned for marketing will exceed my purchasing budget, and also the fact that I’m using an old version of the company logo and he wants to redo it but we don’t know when it will be ready. So just a few details we need to iron out; a couple of things we need to discuss and clarify.

When you’re working on a project with a team, you may need to get together periodically to iron out a few details. You can even say “I got together with my team yesterday to iron out a few wrinkles on this project we’re working on”. It’s bound to happen.

That’s it for today – let me know about the last time you ironed out a few wrinkles, either from your shirt or for a project you were working on. Talk to you soon!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

don’t be too hard on yourself = não seja muito duro/rigoroso consigo mesmo

wrinkled = amassado, amarrotado

crease = vinco

tracksuit bottom = calça de abrigo

metaphorically = como uma metáfora, ou seja, com sentido figurado

purchasing budget = orçamento de compras

it’s bound to happen = sem dúvida, vai acontecer

How are you? Hoje o podcast tem, só para variar, dois idioms do inglês pra lá de comuns – e é a vez da palavrinha off. Listen and enjoy :-)

How are you? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

OK. So, I love our first idiom of today. I love that I’m talking about it on this podcast because, you’ll see, it’s not a difficult expression to understand and it’s not hard to say or pronounce at all! However, it’s not really an idiom that lots of students learn – I don’t see it really being taught even to intermediate students… Maybe even advanced students! So, let’s get started.

Our first idiom is off-putting. When you say that something is off-putting, what you’re communicating is something like “This thing here makes me dislike that thing; it makes me want to go away or not get involved with it.”

An easy example: your friend offers you a beautiful sandwich, and you’re so hungry. The sandwich’s got everything you like: two slices of crunchy bread, a bit of lettuce and tomato, some mayo, melted cheese and let’s say, salami… It looks so yummy to you. Gorgeous! Then, your friend says: “You know what the best thing about this sandwich is? There’s a layer of mussels between the salami and the cheese. Yum!”

Now, I don’t know if you know what mussels are – they’re a kind of seafood. And granted, lots of people love oysters and mussels, and all kinds of seafood and that’s all fine; other people however can’t stand the idea of it. And for the sake of this little story, you are now one of them.

(By the way: to see a picture of what mussels look like, have a look at the episode over at the Inglês Online website.)

OK, on with the story: so you hate mussels. And you were really looking forward to eating that sandwich. Now your friend has told you that there are mussels mixed in with the cheese and… that is just so off-putting to you! Knowing that there’s a bunch of mussels in the middle of that yummy-looking sandwich is seriously off-putting. Quite simply, you don’t want to eat that sandwich anymore. You’re looking at it differently now. It’s not the same sandwich. That beautiful image of the sandwich that was making you salivate has now been shattered, just like a glass window being hit by a million rocks. OK, I think you get the idea.

If this has been hard for you to imagine because you’re someone who loves mussels, just picture a food that you really dislike and imagine that someone stuffed that thing in the middle of your favourite sandwich or something. Let’s pick a different food… Say, tomatoes. Some people can’t stand tomatoes – I’ve met a few of them in my life.

So, listen to this: tomatoes put you off. They’re off-putting to you and another way of saying it is, tomatoes put you off. Basically, “off-putting” is the adjective, so you say that something is off-putting to you or to your cousin, to your friend and so on. And then, you can talk about that thing that is off-putting to you by saying that… it puts you off.

Sometimes a dish doesn’t look very good. It may taste delicious, but its appearance is off-putting and it makes you not want to eat it. The appearance puts you off eating that food.

I heard someone on TV say once that one of her friends had a complicated relationship with her boyfriend, and their relationship put this person off having a relationship. It’s like, she looked at their relationship and thought “Oh, their relationship is off-putting. It puts me off wanting to have a relationship.”

Smell is something that can frequently put people off doing something. So here’s my question for you: what is the one ingredient that puts you off eating a dish, if that ingredient is present? Tell me! See you soon.

Key expressions

Vocabulary

crunchy = crocante

mayo = maionese, maneira informal da palavra mayonnaise

can’t stand something = não suportar, aguentar ou tolerar algo

for the sake of this story = para o propósito dessa história

How have you been? Hoje, no podcast, eu falo sobre dois idioms super comuns do inglês – e um deles é para dizer “tirou um peso dos meus ombros”. Não perca…

How have you been? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

So, let me start with an idiom that we use when we want to say that, you know… this person or that person doesn’t particularly enjoy doing this or that, so they avoid it. They shy away from it.

Here’s a very common example: there are many, many people in the world who shy away from confrontation. You know, confrontation? That’s when you confront someone on something they said or did, for example. Look at the title of this episode: that is one way we, Brazilians, say that same thing in Portuguese. Now, “tirar satisfação” usually involves some hostility, and that expression is more informal, I feel. To be fair, when an English speaker says they’re going “to confront someone”, there is going to be some sort of conflict as well, but the difference here is that “confront” is a word you can use in any situation – either formal or informal, it doesn’t matter.

So, let’s say you hear that one of your “friends” is slagging you off behind your back. Say your friend’s name is Joanna. So you hear Joanna has been saying some unkind things about you. And you go “Wow! Why is Joanna saying these things? What is up with that? I thought we were good friends!”

And then the next thing you do is – you go talk to Joanna. You are going to confront Joanna about what she’s been saying. So you go to this place where you know she hangs out at, on weekends, and there she is. And you confront her! You say “Joanna, I heard you’ve been saying this and that about me. What’s up with that?”

So, doing that once in a while doesn’t mean you’re a very confrontational person. A confrontational person is someone who usually won’t let anything slide… Whenever they hear something that someone did and they don’t like it, they will speak to that person and tell them they didn’t like it and they want to know why that person did that… And then they will tell that person that he or she should not have done that, and so on. That would be a very confrontational person.

So, are you a confrontational person? Do you confront people like, every week… or just once in a while?

So, let’s go back to our first term of today: there are many people, on the other hand, who will shy away from any kind of confrontation. They hate conflict so much that they’d rather not say anything ever than risk displeasing someone by confronting them on something.

So, there you go:  you can imagine, like, two extremes. On one extreme you’ve got someone who shies away from confrontation completely and I think what can happen is that this kind of person usually hangs around with people who are kind of bossy. I mean, if you’re a bossy person there’s nothing better than being surrounded by people who will never confront you, right? You can’t be too bossy if there’s no one to boss around.

So, at the other extreme you have someone who shies away from all confrontation and at the opposite extreme, you have a very confrontational person who just feels like they have to speak up every time they hear something they don’t like. So, ok, let’s just hope that we’re all somewhere in the middle. How about that?

That’s it for today – let me know where you fall on the non-confrontational, confrontational scale and see you soon!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

slag someone off = falar mal de alguém

Say your friend’s name is… = Vamos dizer que o nome de sua amiga/o é…

hangs out at = frequentar um lugar

and there she is = e lá está ela

once in a while = de vez em quando

won’t let anything slide = não deixa passar nada

bossy = mandão

there’s no one to boss around = não tem ninguém em quem mandar

How’s it going? Hoje eu foco em um idiom que eu já usei muito nos podcasts do Inglês Online quando explicava outros idioms. Mas no episódio de hoje, ele é o centro das atenções. Não perca!

How’s it going? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

So, if your friend Jim comes up to you and says “You know, I’ve been thinking about learning how to cook. Just thinking! I haven’t cooked anything yet. Not even close. Still eating frozen lasagna every day. But I’m thinking it would be good to learn and make some food”.

So, you just say  “Give it a go! Just go and do it, see how it turns out. It’ll probably be better than frozen pasta”.

Give it a go! Just give it a go. If you’ve been listening to the Inglês Online podcast for a while, you have definitely heard me use this idiom dozens of times, like dozens of times. If this is the case for you, today I want to make sure you’ll hear it many more times and that you will be soon on your way to saying it spontaneously to the next person that tells you “Hey, I feel like trying this or that.” You’ll just open your mouth and say “Give it a go! Why not?”. Well, unless you have a good reason to tell them not to, of course.

So, check out what this (apparently famous) person tweeted out:

https://twitter.com/AnnaSaccone/status/1023283650945839104

So, she’s going through the last few days of her pregnancy and she’s thinking that watching a fun reality show will help her get through it. And her question is, should she give “Southern Charm” a go? I’ve no idea, I’ve never watched it but you get the gist.

Your friend says “I like that girl. Should I ask her out?” You say “Yeah, ask her out. Give it a go. You’ll never know if you don’t”.

Your father’s trying to show you how to drive a tractor. You’re sitting by his side watching him drive, and he says “Hey, it’s your turn now. Let’s swap seats so you can give it a go”.

Your friend Anna says “My friends want to go scuba-diving. I’m not crazy about scuba-diving… and I’m not going” So, you know Anna has never tried it so you say “Hey, give it a go! You never know – you might like it!”.

And sometimes you give something a go, and it turns out you don’t like it, or it doesn’t work for you, it’s not what you expected, whatever. In these cases, you can say “Hey, I gave it a go, and it didn’t work. I didn’t like it. It wasn’t what I expected”.

I was once watching an interview with a girl who said she liked a boy and she told him that she liked him a few times, and tried to sort of get him to go out with her, and he still wasn’t interested. The girl said “I gave it a good go but it didn’t work”.

I gave it a good go. I really tried. I put a good amount of effort into it and it still didn’t work.

So, please tell me – when did you last give something a good go, and it turned out that it didn’t really work? See you soon!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

to turn out = resultar, revelar-se, acabar em

be on the/your way to something = estar prestes ou próximo de conseguir fazer ou alcançar algo

you get the gist = você entendeu (o que eu quis dizer)

to ask someone out = convidar alguém para sair

What’s up? Hoje o podcast Inglês Online tem dois idioms super interessantes e, claro, muito usados por falantes nativos no dia a dia. Ouça já!

What’s up? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

So, listen to this: Mary’s parents have been getting on her case because she hasn’t been doing well in school. If you’re familiar with this expression, you understand what I just said, of course. But even if you’re not familiar with it, you may get it: Mary’s parents have been getting on her case about her grades! She hasn’t really been studying too hard and her grades are slipping.

That means Mary’s parents have been telling her “Mary, you need to study harder. Let us help you with Maths and Geography.” “Mary, have you done your homework?” They’ve been getting on her case ever since her grades started to slip.

Teachers can sometimes get on your case. Have you ever had that experience? Parents will get on their kid’s case, and also some friends, boyfriends, wives, etc will also get on their friends’, girlfriends’ and husbands’ cases.

And bosses! How could I forget? Sometimes it’s your boss who’s been telling you to do something this way or that way, or maybe he or she has given you a deadline to get a task done, and… they’re worried you may have forgotten, or they’re anxious. Who knows? In any case, they start getting on your case because they haven’t seen the results yet. “Have you done it? Why haven’t you done it? When are you going to do it? It’s time you did it.” They’re getting on your case a bit.

To be fair, if your boss is asking you all the questions I just said, it’s more a case of them breathing down your neck. That is a bit stronger than just “getting on your case”. When you say someone’s breathing down your neck, that means they’re watching you more closely. That person is sort of monitoring you and probably being overbearing.

I’ll give you an example: my friend used to rent a room in a house that belonged to a woman who also lived in the house. One day my friend left the house and forgot to turn off the light in her room. The woman saw the light was on – and, small detail, in order to have seen it she would have had to get in my friend’s bedroom while she wasn’t there.

The woman called my friend and told her off for leaving the light on. A week later my friend forgot again, and the woman called her again. She was monitoring my friend’s bedroom, getting in there while my friend was out. My friend wasn’t happy about it, of course, and felt like the woman was breathing down her neck.

So, check out what this person tweeted out:

https://twitter.com/rideout___/status/1025039709083521024

So, she’s pretty happy that she can wear sweats to her job – to be honest, unless I was a personal trainer, I’d rather not. What do you think?

Have you ever had the feeling that someone was breathing down your neck about something? Was it a parent, your boss, a friend? What happened? Let me know and see you soon.

Key expressions

Vocabulary

be overbearing = tentar controlar, dominar

tell someone off = repreender ou dar bronca em alguém

sweats = blusa e calça de abrigo

Hi, there. No podcast de hoje você me ouve falar um idiom super, super comum com a palavra nail. Ouça e confira!

Hi, there. You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

Our first expression of today uses the word ‘coffin’. Yep, coffin, that sort of box that we use to bury people who have passed away… dead people. The idiom is nail in the coffin. I think it’ll be easier to get it if I give you an example, so let me read to you what this guy, Scott Mendelson, tweeted out:

https://twitter.com/ScottMendelson/status/1024703974308438016

So, let’s break this down a little bit: the first part of his question is “Will the new Terminator cement Paramount’s comeback”. He is, of course, talking about the Terminator franchise, the series of movies starred by Arnold Schwarzenegger… at least the past ones were. I don’t know if Arnold is in the new one, but, you know, moving on…

So, that guy is asking if this new Terminator movie will cement, or solidify, Paramount’s comeback. A comeback is a return after recovering from a state where things were not so good. So, again, I don’t know a lot about the state of this huge movie studio, Paramount, but I assume things have not been going so well for them. Otherwise, why would they need to have a comeback?

So, if this new installment of the Terminator does well at the box office, it may be just what Paramount studios need to come back from whatever troubles they were having.

Let’s get to the second part of Scott Mendelson’s tweet now! Here’s the full question he asked: Will the new Terminator cement Paramount’s comeback, or be a final nail in the coffin? What does he mean by “nail in the coffin”?

This is what he means: Paramount is already in bad shape – again, everyone, I haven’t checked to see if this is true, but I assume it is. So, Paramount is struggling; it’s facing a difficult time. In a case like this, the nail in the coffin is the event or circumstance that finally brings the situation to a complete failure. It terminates the suffering. See what I did there? Pun intended.

It’s more or less what we say in Brazil as “golpe de misericórdia”… I think it’s slightly different but close enough. So, I think now Scott’s tweet is clear: will the Terminator save Paramount, or be the nail in the coffin that makes it go bankrupt, perhaps? We’ll have to wait and see.

So, imagine that this guy Peter starts a new business, but right away he’s running into all sorts of trouble. He hasn’t been able to find a competent assistant and his suppliers have just told him they ran out of pencils, which is what Peter sells. So, his business is struggling and Peter has had to work extremely long hours for several weeks now in order to try and turn things around.

The thing is, a few days ago he found out his business partner Steve ran away and took all his money with him. Like, everything. That was the nail in the coffin – Peter has declared bankruptcy.

So, do you have any examples for nail in the coffin? Let me know, and see you soon!

Key expressions

Vocabulary

let’s break this down = vamos por partes

installment = capítulo

if it does well at the box office = se ele for sucesso de bilheteria

to be in bad shape = estar em maus lençóis, em condições ruins ou críticas. Também usado para dizer que alguém está em ‘má forma’

go bankrupt = ir á/ou abrir falência

pun intended = o trocadilho / jogo de palavras foi intencional

Hello! No podcast de hoje você vai me ouvir falar sobre dois idioms pra lá de comuns (of course :-). Você também vai me ouvir usar a estrutura ‘should have done’ várias vezes – are you ready? Enjoy.

Hello! You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

So, here’s our first idiom of today – before revealing what it is, think about this: you know when something unpleasant happens and, after the fact, you look back at everything that led up to that thing happening… You think of, you know, the people involved, what they said, and then you have that feeling of, I should have predicted that this was going to be the outcome!

Maybe you had a feeling. For a fraction of a second, a thought crossed your mind that was something like “This is a bit off”. This doesn’t sound right. Can I be sure about this situation, can I be sure about this person? But then you brushed it off, you quickly dismissed it. And now, looking back at this unpleasant outcome, you think “I should have seen it coming”.

So, when you say ‘I should have seen it coming’, you’re saying that you should have predicted it, basically. You should have known! Can you relate to what I’m saying? I’m sure you can. I mean, I can think, off the top of my head, of a handful of situations I’ve been through where I had that feeling that something was off, you know, before something happened… that I didn’t want to happen.

In all of them, after the fact, I thought “I should have seen it coming.” How did I not see it coming? I don’t know. When you want something to happen, or when you’re short on time, or when you don’t want to confront something, you kinda brush these feelings off very quickly, don’t you?

So, here’s something else you can say when you realise you could have sort of predicted what was going to happen: in hindsight, I should have spoken to this person first, done this or done that instead, or I should have eaten a hot dog instead of chili beans before that roller coaster ride! Anyway, that’s what ‘in hindsight’ means.

So, of course, it’s much easier to realise your mistakes after the fact. It’s much easier to look back, knowing what you know now, and analyse what went wrong, isn’t it? Let me give you a few more examples to help get ‘in hindsight’ into your head!

What is your example? What happened to you recently that made you think “I should have seen it coming” or “In hindsight, I should have done this or that”? See you soon!

Mais sobre I should have seen it coming

Key expressions

Vocabulary

after the fact = depois do acontecido

you brushed it off = você não deu importância àquilo

off the top of my head = assim de imediato (geralmente usado em conjunto com expressões do tipo “think of something”, “give an example”, etc)

something was off = tinha alguma coisa estranha, que não combinava

to be short on time = estar com pouco ou sem tempo

roller coaster = montanha russa

be a handful = ser alguém difícil de lidar, alguém que dá trabalho