Como digo em inglês: pára com isso!

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Jun 08
Como digo em inglês pára com isso

Hi, everyone!

O podcast de hoje fala sobre algumas expressões super comuns e super informais com a palavra knock. Veja como dizer “Isso é imitação”, “Pára com isso” e “Vai fundo!”.

Transcrição

Hi, this is Ana Luiza with a new episode of inglesonline podcast. To see the transcript and download the audio for this and other episodes, go to ingleonline.com.br and click on “Podcasts”.

So, the other day I was talking to a friend and she was telling me she bought a purse made by a famous brand. So she bought this purse off a website. I think the brand was Gucci or Prada… But, actually… the purse she bought was not an original item. It was a replica. In other words, it was a knockoff.

So a knockoff is a replica of the original item. In this case, the purse my friend bought is a knockoff of the original brand-name purse. But the quality of the knockoff is usually not as good as the original, and the knockoff items are cheaper, of course. It’s very common for people to say, “This is just a cheap knockoff…” which is kinda like our expression, “Isso é uma imitaçãozinha barata.”

So knockoff is the first expression with the word knock that I wanted to present today. Knockoff and the other two expressions I’m going to talk about are very informal, OK? Very informal. And you probably shouldn’t use them in formal documents.

Another expression that kinda sounds like knockoff is “Knock it off!” If someone is being annoying, if someone is singing too loud when you’re trying to study, you can just say, knock it off! That means, stop that! Stop what you’re doing, it’s bothering me, knock it off!

Knock it off is not just for… when someone is annoying you. Let’s say you’re at a restaurant with two friends, and all of a sudden they start arguing about something, and their voices get louder and louder… And then the waitress arrives with your food, and you just want to have a peaceful meal, and your friends are still arguing, now they’re on the verge of fighting. And you say, Hey, knock it off, you guys! Let’s eat now and you can argue later. Knock it off, stop fighting.

Or, let’s say there’s a group of people somewhere and one of them keeps complaining about everything… This place is awful, the food sucks, the weather is horrible… So someone might say, hey, knock it off… Relax, and try to enjoy the place anyway.

And here’s another expression with knock: knock yourself out. When you say knock yourself out to someone, you’re usually saying, Hey, go ahead, go right ahead, just do it, feel free to do it. Example: someone at the office gave you a box of candies. However, you’re on a diet so you don’t wanna have candy. That box of candies is sitting on your desk, and then someone approaches you and asks, Can I have some candy? And you say, Hey, knock yourself out. You can have the whole box if you want, I don’t wanna eat them, ’cause I’m on a diet. Take them with you if you want… knock yourself out.

Another example: you and your friend are planning a trip and you have the contact information of the hotel where you guys are planning to stay, but you haven’t had time yet to make reservations. And then your friend comes over to your house and he sees the hotel booklet lying around in your room, and he says “Have you made the reservations? I wanna make sure that this hotel is where we’ll stay, cause it’s a really good hotel, and the food it’s supposed to be excellent.”

And, well, you’re not exactly concerned with where you’re going to stay, and you haven’t had much free time lately. So you tell your friend, Here’s the hotel information, knock yourself out. What you’re saying to your friend is, go right ahead and do it, I don’t care. You wanna do it, so feel free to book the hotel. Knock yourself out.

Now, imagine that someone gave you that new Apple computer, the iPad. The iPad is modern, it looks good, it’s awesome… but you are just not a computer person. You don’t care about computers. In fact, you don’t even know what an iPad is, I mean, to you Apple is just a fruit. That’s how much you don’t care about it.

So some guy steps into your office and, when he sees the iPad, he goes crazy. Wow, you got an iPad, that’s awesome, I wanna buy an iPad, I’m saving money to buy one. You look at him and you think to yourself, Hey, this guy will make good use of the iPad. So you just tell him, Hey, Knock yourself out, the iPad is yours, you know? Enjoy.

Ok, that’s it for today. Well, you’re at inglesonline so knock yourself out… There are other podcasts available and lots of English tips too. See you next time.

Key expressions

  • a knockoff
  • knock it off!
  • knock yourself out

Glossário

a brand name purse = uma bolsa de marca

she bought something off a website = ela comprou algo em um website

brand = marca

is kinda like = é meio parecido com

it’s bothering me = está me incomodando

all of a sudden = de repente

their voices get louder = suas vozes ficam mais altas

the food sucks = a comida é muito ruim

go right ahead = vá em frente

feel free to = fique à vontade para

he sees the hotel booklet lying around in your room = ele vê o livrinho (com informação sobre o hotel) ali no seu quarto – por exemplo, em cima da cama ou na estante.

some guy steps into your office = algum cara entra no seu escritório

he will make good use of the iPad = ele vai fazer bom uso, vai aproveitar o iPad

Ana
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Aline 09/05/2019

O que significa o “sitting on” nessa frase?

That box of candies is sitting on your desk…

Thanks is advance, Ana!

    Marcelo - Equipe Inglês Online 10/05/2019

    Olá, Aline, como vai?

    Quando dizemos que alguma coisa está ‘sitting’ em algum lugar, significa que esta coisa ou objeto está lá parado por um tempo, meio que sem uso.
    No exemplo do Podcast a pessoa está fazendo dieta e não quer comer doce, então a caixa de doces ficou lá sitting on the desk (parada na escrivaninha) porque a pessoa não quer comer para não engordar.

Placid 03/11/2011

Hello Teacher Ana, It´s ever a great pleasure reading and listening your work. Your voice sounds quite nice and the material is very useful.

Congrats for the picture, smiling is good to health.

Thanks for your great lesson.

Norberto 03/11/2011

Parabéns! Você é a melhor! Você é a melhor professora de Inglês que eu já conheci.

Ana Luiza 13/07/2011

Vera – pode ser
I have a knack for painting (tenho jeito pra pintura)

Vera Graña Cruz 10/07/2011

There are so many people who buying knock off items, ‘cause brand ones are quite expensive.I’m one of them…

By the way, what does it mean?

I’m knocking for painting- seria…Eu tenho jeito para pintura?

Ana Luiza 05/07/2011

@Marilia: yes, I’m giving him the iPad.

Marília 05/07/2011

Ana, I have a question… in the last example, did you mean that I’m giving the IPad to my friend or just letting him use it for a while???

Daniel 18/04/2011

As expressões dos podcasts são, em geral, somente do inglês dos EUA ou se aplicam também na Inglaterra?
Obrigado pelo seu trabalho.

Vera Graña 21/11/2010

Hi Anna!

In fact I did not know about those expressions, many thanks by the tips.
There are so expensive items that unfortunatelly I have to buy a knockoff of them.

Ana Luiza 26/06/2010

Pedro – glad it’s useful, enjoy
Celestino – same thing.. thanks!

Celestino Bambi 26/06/2010

Hi Ana, thank you for your job sending me english lessons. In matter of fact i need it too much because i’m learnner and want to know more and more how speark it well.

Pedro Henrique 16/06/2010

Hi, Ana luiza Congratulations you are so good, i´m pleased with site, that´s a excellent job help us

Ana Luiza 12/06/2010

Ira, André, Celso, Fernanda: many thanks… and like Fernanda said, knock yourselves out smile

Ira, nice that you’re learning… you know it’s a two-way street! Yeah, we hear that one all the time on tv… very common. Knock it off – also very common.

Fernanda 11/06/2010

This podcast is awesome! i like it very much. I get emails from inglesonline every day and i´m really doing what you sugests: knock myself out!

Celso 11/06/2010

Just awesome!!! Ana, your podcasts are the greatest I’ve known so far. I really like it.
Thank you.

André 08/06/2010

sexy voice.. S2

Iramaia 08/06/2010

Ana, congrats!

I’ve seen “Knock yourself out” on TV. And I still can remember the scene. So now it was kind of review this expression. The article is full of new expressions for me,though.

Thanks for sharing it. Excellent pronunciation! I have a lot to learn from you.

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