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.
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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
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?
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.