Arquivo para categoria Podcast Inglesonline

How’s it going?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online vamos falar sobre expressões do inglês com a palavra ‘word’. São todas super comuns e fáceis de entender.

Para ver e ouvir podcasts de semanas anteriores, clique em Podcast Inglesonline na barra lateral. Você pode também assinar o feed do podcast ou encontrá-lo no iTunes (veja o menuzinho ali ao lado).

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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 I’m gonna talk about a few simple expressions that use the word ‘word’. I’m calling them simple because they’re very translateable, I guess… I think it will be very simple to get their meanings and many of you will recognize them. There’s an expression with ‘word’ that I say a lot: “in other words”. If you search this expression here on the blog you’ll find it in several articles. And that’s a nice expression for any teacher, since sometimes we explain something and then we want to maybe clarify some parts, or maybe summarize what we just said… So then we can say “in other words…” and we can try to explain that thing again but now in a different way.

OK, so ‘in other words’ doesn’t count. Here’s our real first expression of today. When someone says “I’d like to have a word with you” that means they wanna speak to you in private. This is usually gonna be a short conversation. You know, it’s very common for people to say also “I’d like to have a quick word with you”. In other words, “I would like to speak to you briefly”. In Brazil we say “Posso dar uma palavrinha com você”, right?

People will usually say that when they’re standing next to you, you know? “I’d like to have a word with you”. They’re not gonna yell across a room “Hey, John, can I have a word with you?” For example, your boss might approach you today at the office and say “Can I have a word with you?” And that could mean… several things, I mean, who knows? Your boss might want to simply congratulate you for a job well done, or he or she might want to excuse you from work… forever. In other words, your boss might want to have a word with you because he or she wants to fire you. So, it’s always thrilling when your boss says “Can I have a word with you?”, right?

Here’s another good, very common expression with ‘word’: “take my word for it” or “you can take my word for it”. That would be like “believe me, trust me”. Take my word for it. This is different from “I give you my word”, OK? “I give you my word” would be more like a promise; more like what we say in Portuguese “Te dou a minha palavra”. ‘You can take my word for it’, on the other hand, is just ‘Believe me, you can trust me’.

So let’s see how this expression applies to your life. What kinds of products, or services or companies do you really trust? For example, if you’re a client of Bank XYZ and you’ve actually been a client of Bank XYZ for several years, and that bank has always treated you with the utmost respect and consideration… you have never been disappointed in them. I think in that case you would be able to say “I recommed Bank XYZ wholeheartedly. You can take my word for it”.  You can take my word for it, or, in other words, believe me, trust me, Bank XYZ is amazing, it’s fantastic, you willl love it. Take my word for it.

In my case, my real example would be: give Amazon.com a shot. If you’re looking for books written in English, or just any kind of imported book, open an account at Amazon.com, and place an order. It works really well most of the time. You can take my word for it. I’ve been buying books at Amazon for years and the only problem I’ve had so far was when someone tried to open an account using my credit card number. Amazon runs such a tight ship that they identified my credit card and sent me an email warning me that someone was trying to use it. So, again, just go ahead and open an account at Amazon and become a customer. They’re awesome… you can take my word for it.

What is your example? What would you recommend wholeheartedly, saying “You can take my word for it”?

Now here’s an expression that I think is exactly what we say in Portuguese. It’s something you can say when whoever is speaking in front of you says something and… it’s like they read your mind. They just said something that is exactly what you meant to say, but before you had a chance to open your mouth. So, that thing that person just said? You agree with it very much! You know when that happens? Well, you can say “You took the words right out of my mouth”.

OK, waiting for your example in the comments.  Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

• in other words
• have a word with someone
• take my word for it
• you took the words right out of my mouth

Glossary

to run a tight ship = gerenciar algo de maneira eficiente e firme

agree wholeheartedly = concordo totalmente

whoever = quem quer que, seja quem for

What’s up?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online vamos falar sobre três expressões do inglês muito comuns para descrever ambientes de trabalho (ou ambientes em geral) super competitivos, onde você deve estar sempre alerta se não quiser ser passado pra trás.

Para ver e ouvir podcasts de semanas anteriores, clique em Podcast Inglesonline na barra lateral. Você pode também assinar o feed do podcast ou encontrá-lo no iTunes (veja o menuzinho ali ao lado).

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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.

So I got my inspiration for today’s episode when I read a short paragraph on a public forum that was written by someone who worked for a well-known technology company.  I’ve selected three terms from that paragraph, and they are all very common and kind of interesting. You’ll be able to listen to the paragraph that inspired me at the end of this podcast.

So here’s the first term: dog-eat-dog. Nope, we don’t say “dog eats dog”. People say ‘dog-eat-dog’. I’m going to exemplify how this expression works as an adjective, and therefore, for our purposes the expression will be hyphenated. It’s like when you say “a ten-year-old boy”, you know? “Ten-year-old” is hyphenated, and it works as an adjective. We have written about this topic before here at Inglês Online, so make sure to check it out.

But what kind of adjective is ‘dog-eat-dog’? What does that expression mean? Let me give you an example of how someone might use it: one day you arrive at the office and you say ‘Good morning’ to John. He replies: “Are you kidding me? It’s not a good morning. This is a dog-eat-dog world”. You’re kinda taken aback by John’s reply, so you ask him what happened. He tells you that he has just been laid off. His boss told him that the intern he has been training for a couple of months is going to fill his position. He’s feeling betrayed. So he says “It’s a dog-eat-dog world. I’ve trained this intern and he stole my project and sabotaged my work. Now the boss thinks he’s a genius and I’m incompetent!”

So your colleague feels that the intern acted very dishonestly in order to steal his job. This situation illustrates what a dog-eat-dog environment would be: that’s when people are really competitive and will do anything to be successful even if what they’re doing is harming others. Some industries are said to have dog-eat-dog environments, like investment banking. What do you think? If you have a job, what kind of industry are you in? Would you describe your work environment as dog-eat-dog, or as relaxed and pleasant?

A dog-eat-dog situation doesn’t mean necessarily that people will be dishonest to get what they want, although I would say that… that can happen very often. Another term for such an environment is cutthroat. Cut, throat. Can you imagine what a cutthroat environment is like? That’s a very competitive place, where you’d better work hard and be smart and always alert, or else you’ll be stabbed in the back.

Stabbed in the back – that is actually our third expression of today, but let me get back to cutthroat. If someone describes their workplace as cutthroat, you can pretty much assume that this is not a place where people will be super nice and understanding all the time. It’s a place where people are very competitive and will do whatever it takes to get ahead. It’s the kind of environment where people never let their guard down because if they do, they may very well lose their job.

So dog-eat-dog and cutthroat are two terms that often go hand-in-hand. One thing that seems to be common in dog-eat-dog, cutthroat businesses is people stabbing other people in the back. Not literally, of course… But, let’s say you’re literally stabbed in the back. You can’t see the aggressor, right? You are caught by surprise and you don’t have enough time to defend yourself. So figuratively speaking, you can imagine what that means in a business environment.

You will usually use that term when someone you trusted does something to harm you, whatever that may be, and you feel betrayed. It’s a really strong expression.. this is not for the silly stuff. Someone you consider a friend, for example, might steal your ideas and leave you with nothing, and then you say “Michael stabbed me in the back”. Someone else who you trusted with a secret goes to your boss and tells the boss everything you had told her in confidence. You get fired, and you could say “She stabbed me in the back”.

Alright, so here’s the paragraph that inspired today’s episode, with all three terms in it:

I used to work at this company but I left 4 years ago. Part of the reason I left was that the environment inside the company is dog-eat-dog. For each person who gets a “good” performance review, an equal number of people must receive a “bad” performance review. This leads to cutthroat internal competition, a lack of empathy or friendship in the office, and generally an unfriendly environment. The benefits are great, the pay is great, but the people you work with are definitely out to stab you in the back.

OK, give us your example in the comments. Have you ever worked for a cutthroat, dog-eat-dog business?  Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

• dog-eat-dog
• cutthroat
• stab someone in the back

Glossary

taken aback = surpreso, confuso

understanding (adjetivo)  = compreensivas

whatever it takes = o que for preciso

to get ahead = pra ir pra frente

never let their guard down = nunca baixam a guarda

go hand-in-hand = aparecem juntas

Hi, everyone. How’s it going?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu continuo falando sobre expressões que usam partes do corpo. Hoje, uma delas é sobre “agir pelas costas”, e a outra é sobre fazer valer a sua vontade.

Para ver e ouvir podcasts de semanas anteriores, clique em Podcast Inglesonline na barra lateral. Você pode também assinar o feed do podcast ou encontrá-lo no iTunes (veja o menuzinho ali ao lado).

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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.

Like I said in the previous podcast, there are tons of expressions in English involving a body part, and today we talk about another two terms, or expressions, with the words back and foot. Now, let me start off with an example for the first term. Let’s say you tell a friend that you visited your favorite store today and you found a beautiful dress that you wanted to buy. However, you realized you’d left your wallet at home, so… no way to pay for the dress on the spot. But since this is your favorite store, the manager knows you personally because you’ve been shopping there for years, and she tells you that since you like this dress so much, and since it is the last one they have, she’s going to save it for you for the next 24 hours. Or, she’s gonna hold it for you.

This is perfect, you think. Tomorrow after work I’ll swing by the store and pick up the dress! And, of course, I’ll be really careful not to leave my wallet at home once again. You’re so happy that the next day you tell your coworker, Jane, about the dress. You tell her that the store manager is holding the dress for you and you couldn’t be happier. Jane is impressed and she wants to know where the store is. You, of course, tell her. And here’s what happens next: when you get to the store, the manager is very surprised to see you. She asks “Is everything alright?” and you say “I’m here for my dress!” The manager looks even more surprised and she tells you that your friend Virginia came by around lunch time to pick up the dress. Virginia said that you wouldn’t be able to leave work early, so she was doing you a favor.

You can’t believe what you’re hearing. There’s only one person who could have done that, and her name isn’t Virginia: it’s Jane! You ask the store manager what this Virginia person looked like, and voilá: it’s Jane. You told Jane about the dress and she went behind your back and bought it to herself! Alright, so that’s the first expression: she went behind your back. Easy, huh? We have a similar expression in Portuguese that involves the same part of the body. What does ‘going behind someone’s back’ mean? Well, every time someone uses, let’s say, information about you to their advantage… especially if it’s something that will put you in a position of disadvantage in some way… We can say that person went behind your back and did something that feels like that person betrayed you.

It could be something you told that person in confidence; it could be something that someone found out about you and then they did something with that information to get something out of it, maybe… It could be that they told someone something that you wanted to keep from that person. For example, you didn’t want your friend Mark to know about your new boyfriend. You told your other friend Daniel about your new boyfriend and you asked him no to mention it to Mark. Well, Daniel went behind your back and told Mark everything about your new boyfriend. And now Mark is mad at you and he won’t even pick up the phone when he knows it’s you calling!

So, let’s recap: you told Jane about the dress, and then she went behind your back and bought the dress to herself. You told Daniel about your new boyfriend, and then he went behind your back and spilled the beans to Mark! So, do you have any examples where you feel someone went behind your back and you felt betrayed?

OK, do you remember one of the terms from last week’s podcast, compromise? People who are easygoing and mellow usually compromise a lot. They’re OK with making concessions or making compromises, you know, just to make sure that everyone is OK, everyone is happy in a particular situation, and so on. But even easygoing people will occasionally put their foot down for something. They will occasionally put their foot down. That means, they will occasionally insist that what they want has be done. People may say something like “Tonight I want to watch novela das 8 and that is that! I’m putting my foot down.”

Going back to the example from last episode, you wanted to have pasta for dinner and your spouse wanted salad. Remember? Let’s say that for some strange reason you guys can’t have both. It’s either one or the other. And let’s say that you have eaten salad for a week already and you’ve had enough! You tell your spouse “I’ve had enough salad and tonight we’re gonna have pasta! I’m putting my foot down”

So why don’t you give us your example in the comments? You can say something like this: my brother wanted to go to the beach and I wanted to go to the mountains. So I put my foot down, and we went to the mountains. Or you can say “My girlfriend wanted to watch an art movie, but I put my foot down. We went and watched Transformers”
Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

• go behind someone’s back
• put (my, his, etc) foot down

Glossary

swing by =dar uma passada

this Virginia person = essa tal de Virginia

something you wanted to keep from that person = algo que você não queria que aquela pessoa soubesse

and voilá = e não dá outra

it’s either one or the other = é um ou outro

Hi, everyone. How’s it going?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre duas expressões que usam partes do corpo, mais uma palavra bônus! (nada a ver com corpo, mas super comum e interessante).

Para ver e ouvir podcasts de semanas anteriores, clique em Podcast Inglesonline na barra lateral. Você pode também assinar o feed do podcast ou encontrá-lo no iTunes (veja o menuzinho lá em cima).

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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 we talk about two expressions containing body parts. Yeah, body parts, like nose, arm, leg, foot and back.  These are all very common terms, so you may have heard them before and if you were not very clear on what they meant, this podcast is for you. And actually there are tons of expressions in English that include a body part, so I may come back to this topic in a future podcast, but today we’re kicking things off with two of them.

So here’s the first one: pay through the nose. Can you imagine what that means… pay through the nose for something? That means you’re paying a lot of money for whatever it is you’re buying or renting. Let me give you a few examples. Let’s say you want to have some kind of plastic surgery done on you, and your friend Mary recommends a plastic surgeon she knows. She says “He’s really capable, very skilled, and not very expensive”. When you hear that, you’re like… hmm, he’s very skilled but not very expensive? You’ve always thought that plastic surgery was something that would cost anyone a lot of money, so now you tell your friend Mary that you’re gonna do it with another surgeon, who charges twice as much. Mary says “You’re insane. You’re gonna pay through the nose for that doctor’s work. Are you sure it’s worth it?”

So what Mary is saying is that you’re gonna pay through the nose if you decide to have plastic surgery done by the other surgeon. Paying through the nose means that you’re probably paying way more than necessary for something. That is exactly what Mary thinks. The surgeon she knows is very skilled, in her opinion, and he would charge half as much as the other guy. Here’s another example: you wanna buy an imported car. Your friend Gary thinks you’re crazy. He says “You’re crazy. Do you know how hard it is to find a good mechanic for this car? You’re gonna pay through the nose for simple maintenance jobs and tune-ups. I think you should definitely go with a US car; it’s gonna be way cheaper in the long run, and just as good as the imported car”. So Gary is saying that if you buy that imported car, it is gonna cost you a lot of money in the long run, way more than you would have to spend if you just bought a US car. He’s saying that you’re going to pay through the nose for maintenance of that imported car… Maybe when you need to replace parts, those parts will be imported too.

And here’s a similar expression, with different body parts: this time, we have ‘arm’ and ‘leg’. Going back to the plastic surgery example, Mary thinks that if you choose to have surgery with some other doctor, instead of the one she recommended, it is going to cost you an arm and a leg. You’re gonna have to pay through for surgery; or you can say that the surgery is going to cost you an arm and a leg. Same thing with the imported car: your friend Gary thinks that maintenance of an imported car plus other associated expenses are gonna cost you an arm and a leg. You’re gonna have to pay through the nose for maintanance and other expenses.

And here’s one more for this episode. It’s a single word, actually, and it’s not a body part but it’s a very interesting and common word in English. Let’s say you’re a pretty easygoing person and you’re used to compromising pretty often. You’re used to compromising very often. What’s compromising? First of all, this is what many people know as a “false friend”. Compromise doesn’t mean ‘compromisso’. It means something else entirely.

When you compromise, you give up part of what you want, in order to reach an agreement with the other person. Example: let’s say you want to eat pasta tonight, and your spouse wants to have salad instead. You’re really in the mood for some spaghetti in tomato sauce, but you’re going to compromise. You tell your spouse that you’re gonna make a pasta salad. That’s not what you originally wanted; you wanted a hot pasta dish, and a salad is served cold, not hot. However, you want to reach an agreement with the other person while still having pasta, so you propose you guys have a pasta salad. So, that’s compromising.

There are some things that people will not compromise. For example, some people feel very strongly about their beliefs or principles, and they say “I will not compromise my beliefs in order to do what you’re asking me to do”. For example, let’s say your friend asks you to make him a copy of a software you bought. In other words, he wants you to pirate the software for him. You say “Sorry, I can’t do that. You’re my friend but I believe in being honest and I can’t compromise my beliefs to do what you’re asking me”.

So, what about you? When was the last time you compromised on something you wanted? Tell us in the comments about a situation where you feel you paid through the nose for something. Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

pay through the nose

cost (someone) an arm and a leg

compromise

Glossary

kicking things off = dando início (a alguma coisa)

skilled = habilidoso em sua área

half as much (as) = metade de, metade do que

tune-ups = serviços de regulagem

in the long run = a longo prazo

feel very strongly about = levam muito a sério

Hi, all. What’s up?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online a gente fala sobre algumas expressões em inglês com cores.

Para ver e ouvir podcasts de semanas anteriores, clique em Podcast Inglesonline na barra lateral. Você pode também assinar o feed do podcast ou encontrá-lo no iTunes (veja o menuzinho lá em cima).

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Transcrição

Hello, everyone. What’s up? Today we have a new episode of the inglesonline podcast. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

Let’s take a look at some terms or expressions with colors today. Here’s the first one: black and white. That’s the expression: ‘black and white’. What does it mean? For example, let’s say you work for a small company that makes custom computers. So one day the owner of the company tells you that he is facing a difficult situation: many suppliers of computer parts have increased their prices. That means that it is now more expensive to make a computer. Unless the company increases computer prices for the final consumer, you guys are going to start operating in the red real soon.

By the way – here’s another expression with a color; the color red: “in the red”. If a company is operating in the red, it means that that company is not making a profit right now; it is actually losing money. I think we’ve all heard of companies operating in the red. So again: the owner says that unless he increases his prices, the company is going to start operating in the red. When you hear that, you’re not really sure why the owner looks so torn. To you, the solution to this problem is really straightforward: just increase the prices of computers! Prices of parts and components have gone up… Easy! The prices of our computers will have to go up as well! Let consumers pick up that tab. After all, you think, our company can’t stay in the red. What about wages, and payments to suppliers?

Well, when you say all that to your boss, the company owner, he says “This is not a black and white issue. I can’t raise my prices simply because parts have gone up”. He then proceeds to explain that, actually, what his suppliers are doing – you know, raising the prices of parts and components… So what they’re doing isn’t right, since other major suppliers have not raised their prices. So he thinks that his suppliers shouldn’t be raising their prices either. He also explains that he can’t raise computer prices any more, or he will not remain competitive.

You hear all that and then you rememember that your boss said “This is not a black and white issue”. Now you can see that he is right. It’s not that simple. There is no simple solution to this problem, according to what your boss has told you. It’s not as black and white as you had thought. Your original thinking was “Well, if parts and components have gone up, we’ll increase computer prices. Simple! Problem solved.” But your boss showed you that there are other things to consider. There are aspects to this problem that you were not aware of before. Your boss is right: this is not a black and white issue. It’s a bit more complicated than you thought; there are other aspects to consider before making a decision.

Now, picture this: you had a brilliant idea yesterday about how to increase sales for your company. However, you cannot go ahead and implement your plan before your boss gives you the green light. Green light. In Portuguese, we would say “sinal verde”. So you need your boss to give you the green light. That means, you need your boss to authorize your actions, you need him or her to say “Go ahead”. You need your boss to give you the green light, or you need him to greenlight your project, so that you can go ahead and implement it. So this is a great expression for those of you who work in a corporate environment and who usually need someone’s greenlight in order to implement projects and ideas.

So, do you work? Do you have a job? When you have an idea, or when you want to implement a project, is there anyone in your office who has to greenlight your project? Do you need your boss to greenlight your plan?  Talk to you next time.

Key expressions

black and white

in the red

give someone the green light

greenlight something

Glossary

torn = dividido, sem saber qual opção considerar

the solution is straightforward = a solução é simples, óbvia

pick up that tab = pagar essa conta (sentido figurado para “pagar o aumento dos produtos”)