Perguntas

(a) What are the kids and their father doing at the movie theater? O que as crianças e o pai delas estão fazendo no cinema?

(b) Who is the couple?  Quem é o casal?

(c) Is anyone going to watch a movie in the theater now? Alguém vai assistir um filme no cinema agora?

Minhas respostas

(a) Actually, their mother works at the movie theater and they went there to see her.  Na verdade a mãe deles trabalha no cinema e eles foram lá vê-la.

(b) They’re Hans and Maria. Hans went to high school with the kids’ father, and this is the first time they have met again after graduation. Eles são Hans e Maria. O Hans estudou junto com o pai das crianças e essa é a primeira vez que eles se encontram depois da formatura.

(c) Yes. Hans and Maria are going to watch the new Schwarznegger movie. Sim. Hans e Maria vão assistir o novo filme do Schwarznegger.

                 E você? Quais seriam as suas respostas?

E aqui vai o PDF com o cartoon anterior – Long time, no see – com todas as respostas (editadas quando necessário) para quem quiser guardar.

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre vocabulário relacionado a fazer críticas. 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, all. 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’d like to talk about a business-related topic… criticism. First things first – listen to the word criticism again: CRITICISM. It’s as if you had an “a” between the S and the M: “criticisam”. OK, so for the second time I’m using a newsletter issued by technology company HP, or Hewlet Packard, as inspiration. This time what caught my eye was the vocabulary involved when you’re criticizing someone’s work. Or maybe I should say, when you’re constructively criticizing someone’s work. It is still very common for people to take criticism the wrong way, or to be offended, and… of course, the way you deliver your criticism makes all the difference.

However if you are planning to maintain some kind of professional interaction with American people you probably should get used to giving and receiving constructive criticism. People say ‘constructive feedback’ as well… same thing. In the time I studied and worked in the United States, no matter what kind of project I was involved in there always came a time when we had to meet with other people in order to get some feedback. Of course it can be nerve-wracking, but if you’re lucky enough to have a good boss and peers, you probably won’t be caught off guard by that kind of meeting.

So the HP newsletter I read is all about how to make criticism and the language you can use for that. I recommend reading the entire article since it’s gonna give you some insight into American culture, and also because I’m only going to touch on a few expressions from the article here, so, just click the link here on the podcast and read it to become familiar with a lot more vocabulary related to criticism.

The article splits the suggestions in three categories, and the first one is mild criticism. Mild means soft or weak, something that isn’t strong or extreme. Do you get the idea of mild criticism? Mild criticism comes across more like a suggestion but, don’t be fooled, if it’s your boss giving you the suggestion my guess would be… you’d better take it! Listen to some phrases from the article that can be used to give mild criticism:

• “I think it’s good but there are a couple of things I’d like changed.” Here your boss is basically saying he or she likes what you’ve done and there are a few things you should change.

Here’s a good one:

• “I’m not sure if the figures you quote on page 5 are completely up to date. Could you please have another look at them and adjust them if necessary?” “Figures” means numbers. This is an indirect way to communicate that your boss thinks you made a mistake with the numbers and they would like you to check your figures again.

Let’s move on to a few examples of moderate criticism. This one is, of course, a bit stronger or more comprehensive than mild criticism.

• “It’s basically fine but it’s not quite there yet.” That means, what you did is good, it’s in the right direction, I like it, but it’s not 100% yet; it’s not completely right yet. After your boss says that, he or she will probably let you know in more detail what you should add or change.

Here’s one more:

• “First of all, I don’t think the figures that are included can be right. Could you please take another look at them?” So this is another way to ask you to revise your numbers, right? But this time around your boss is being more direct. It sounds like the mistakes you’ve made here are more serious than in the first example.

And now let’s look at a couple of examples of what the article called heavy criticism.

• “It’s taken me a few days to get back to you with my feedback because there are quite a few points I’d like to discuss with you.” The article points out that “quite a few” means “a lot”, and I would agree with that. When your boss says there are a few points to discuss, he or she means ‘many points’ to dicuss. When they say “Do you have a minute? I’d like to discuss something with you” they really mean “Do you have a half hour?” and so on.

And here’s one more:

• “Do you see what I’m getting at? Does this make sense?” Your boss is asking you if you understand what he or she is saying; if you’re getting the point; if you see what they mean. These are very common phrases to check whether you understand, whether you get what they’re saying. Do you see what I’m getting at? Does this make sense?

So these were my chosen examples for this podcast. I disagree with how the author of the article classified the expressions: some of them don’t sound like heavy criticism to me, but I guess it really would depend on the content of the criticism. What you might notice when you read through the list is that people usually try not to sound aggressive when they’re giving someone feedback. Many people use mild words and expressions to deliver their criticism.

So tell us: have you received some criticism at work recently? How was it delivered? What do you think about the expressions mentioned in the article?  Talk to you next time.

Link para o artigo original

Key expressions

Vocabulary concerning criticism.

Glossary

constructive criticism = crítica construtiva

there always came a time when = sempre chegava uma hora em que

nerve-wracking = qualidade de algo que nos deixa muito nervosos

be caught off guard = ser pego desprevenido, ficar sem reação

if you’re lucky enough to = se você tiver a sorte de

I’m only going to touch on = eu só vou falar brevemente sobre

comprehensive = abrangente

Primeiro de tudo… Se você ainda não ouviu though e although o suficiente para internalizar suas pronúncias corretas, corra para o Free Dictionary e busque as duas lá para ouvir. Essas aí são duas que dão margem a várias pronúncias “criativas”! O problema de ler muito uma palavra em inglês sem conhecer a pronúncia correta antes é que fatalmente a gente a pronuncia mentalmente em português. Se isso ocorrer muitas vezes, pode nascer um certo vício que depois não vai ser fácil tirar.

Começando com ALTHOUGH

Veja estes exemplos:

She works as a salesperson     although     she graduated in medicine.
[Ela trabalha como vendedora]                  [Ela se formou em medicina]

Mary didn’t do well on the test     although     she studied nonstop for almost two weeks.
[A Mary não foi bem na prova]               [Ela estudou sem parar por quase duas semanas]

Although   we rarely talk anymore,                          I still consider Frank a good friend.
[A gente quase não se fala mais]            [Eu ainda considero o Frank um bom amigo]

Nas sentenças acima, eu traduzi apenas os períodos de cada uma isoladamente. Deu pra perceber que cada sentença é composta por dois períodos completos? Um “período”, pra quem não sabe ou lembra, é um sujeito mais um predicado. Veja cada sentença de novo. Notou que, em cada uma, os dois períodos contém ideias constrastantes? Pois é, a função do although é ligar as duas ideias em inglês com o sentido do nosso “embora” ou “apesar de”. Esse é seu sentido mais comum, e se você se acostumar com sua pronúncia vai passar a reconhecê-lo quando fizer listening ou assistir filmes e séries.

Como a gente diria os exemplos acima?

“Ela trabalha como vendedora apesar de ter se formado em medicina // embora tenha se formado em medicina”.

“A Mary não foi bem na prova apesar de ter estudado sem parar por quase duas semanas // embora tenha estudado sem parar por quase duas semanas”.

“Embora a gente quase não se fale mais // Apesar de a gente quase não se falar mais, eu ainda considero o Frank um bom amigo”.

Na TV você ouve muito assim

Imagine que você está assistindo um filminho de mistério ou um episódio de um daqueles seriados policiais onde eles tem que desvendar um crime. O grupo não tem muitas pistas ainda mas tem alguns indícios e depoimentos. Eles estão repassando em voz alta o que já descobriram e trying to make some sense of it all (tentando encontrar algum sentido, entender aquilo tudo):

(Agent A) – Joanna was at the bar around 11PM… So she was definitely there when Mr. Smith was killed.

(Agent B) – We know that Paul was at the grocery store around 11, so he can’t be the murderer…

[SILENCE]

(Agent B) – Although… that witness, the woman who saw him at the grocery store… SHE COULD BE LYING!

Although é muito usado assim, para continuar um raciocínio que parecia estar completo mas que de repente muda de direção porque a pessoa se lembrou de um fato novo ou percebeu algo que não lhe tinha ocorrido antes. No exemplo acima, o Agente B diz que Paul não pode ser o assassino porque ele estava no mercado na hora do crime. E um pouquinho depois ele diz

“Se bem que… aquela testemunha, a mulher que o viu no mercado… TALVEZ ELA TENHA MENTIDO!”

Nossa tradução para este Although seria “Se bem que…”. É aquela continuação do raciocínio, aquela guinada que você dá porque se lembrou de um fato ou percebeu algo novo. E, P.S., dá pra ver porque eu sou professora de inglês e não roteirista de série, né?

Mais um exemplo: Jane está contando para a mãe que está atrasada pra entregar um formulário de inscrição.

 (Jane) Oh, mom… The deadline for sumission is 5 o’ clock. I’ll never make it. I still have 12 pages to fill in.

(Mom) That’s too bad, Jane… Maybe next year.

(Jane) Although… They do accept late submissions when they come from out of state! I’ll just take the bus to Las Vegas, fill in the papers while I’m in the bus and mail it from there!

E aí ela lembrou que se o envelope viesse de outro estado, o formulário seria aceito mesmo se chegasse atrasado.

E você, como vê although por aí? A continuação dessa dica vem depois do podcast dessa semana.

Não deixe de visitar também o canal do Steve no You Tube, ou em Aprendizado Para a Vida Toda, na seção de vídeos educacionais do You Tube.

Learn English Live 6 com Steve Ford

Activity

Já viu o vídeo algumas vezes e se familiarizou com o vocabulário? Então tente a atividade que o Steve desenvolveu e produziu exclusivamente para você, leitor do Inglês Online.

É isso, pessoal. Aproveitem bem os vídeos do Steve (tem muitos outros aqui no blog) e conheçam também o site dele, o Private English Portal.

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre expressões com MAKE. 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.

Let’s talk about a few expressions with the word make. We’ve had a podcast before that revolved around MAKE, but today we have different expressions. The first one is really easy to understand, and it is one way… It is one more way you can agree with someone, or a way to express that you feel the same way as someone else. Imagine that you’re dicussing movies with a friend. She says that she enjoys watching a good drama, but she can’t stand excessive violence in movies. You realize that your friend has described exactly the way you feel about movies, and so you say That makes two of us. What does that mean? That means that, just like your friend, you enjoy a good drama but you can’t stand watching too much violence. So when you hear your friend express her opinion, you say That makes two of us. You and I have the same opinion.

Another example: you’ve just gone through a one-hour long karate training and you feel exhausted. You think the instructor is pushing his students a little too hard. Too much weight-lifting! You don’t understand why you should have to do so much weight-lifting for a karate class. You’ve been sore for weeks, and you tell another student “I don’t know why our instructor is pushing us so hard. What’s with all the weight-lifting? I’m thinking about quitting this class”. And, to your suprise, the other guy says That makes two of us. I’m glad I’m not the only one. What is he saying? He’s saying that he feels the same way and he’s been thinking about giving up karate and taking up tap dancing. So when you tell him that you’re tired of this class and you’re thinking about quitting, he says That makes two of us.

Now let’s focus on another term that also has the words make and two, although this one is used for a different purpose. Let me give you an example: you’re at a bar with people from your office, and you order a beer. John, who’s sitting by your side, immediately tells the waitress Make it two. Make what two? Hmm… the number of beers, I guess. Instead of bringing only one bottle of beer, the waitress will bring two. So what John meant when he said Make it two was, I want the same thing that he or she just ordered. Instead of bringing just one unit of that, bring two units. Make it two.

Well, you said you wanted a beer, then John said Make it two, and then Molly, who was sitting next to John said Make it three! She wants to have beer as well. So now she’s telling the waitress that she should bring three units of beer. In Portuguese we would say something like “Pra mim também, uma cerveja” or “Mais uma pra mim”, right? In English, if the person next to you orders exactly what you want to order, you can say Make it two. Or if someone has already said Make it two because this person is ordering the same as another person, you can say Make it three, and so on.

And here’s our final expression with make: imagine you’re driving somewhere with your family. Your wife or husband, and the kids. It’s a long trip and you’re tired, and you can’t wait to get to your final destination so you can rest and relax. But one of your kids is desperate to pee, so you make a stop at a gas station, and you tell your kid Make it fast! What does that mean? That means you are telling your kid to be fast. Don’t go into the restroom and spend 5 minutes looking at yourself in the mirror; don’t go into the convenience store, don’t start a chat with the store clerk. Just get in and out as fast as you can. Make it fast.

Here’s another example: you’re waiting for an important phone call in the next thirty minutes. Your friend Melissa sees your cell phone and says Can I use your phone real quick? I just have to let my friend know that I’m going to be late. You say OK, but make it fast. I’m waiting for a life-changing phone call. Make what fast? Make ‘the act of calling your friend’ fast. Don’t be long. In my previous example, the one at the gas station, make ‘the act of going to the restroom’ fast. “Make it fast” to me sounds a bit more bossy than “Don’t be long” or “Please don’t be long”, so don’t say that to your boss, for example.

Talk to you next time.

Key expressions

• That makes two of us
• Make it two
• Make it fast

Glossary

sore = dolorido(a)

What’s with… ? = que que é todo esse negócio de…?

to take up (an activity) = começar a fazer uma atividade

tap dancing = sapateado

you can’t wait = você não vê a hora

bossy = mandão, autoritário

don’t be long = não demore

Veja esta sentença:

Every person killed is one too many.

Percebeu a expressão em negrito? Leia a sentença de novo: Every person killed is one too many. O que ela quer dizer é que cada pessoa assassinada (every person killed) é “uma pessoa assassinada em excesso” (is one too many). A mensagem é que “um” pode ser um número pequeno em outros contextos, mas em se tratando de assassinatos, “um” já é demais, é muito.

Eu acho que normalmente ninguém falaria “Cada pessoa assassinada é uma pessoa assassinada em excesso” em português – talvez a gente dissesse “Um assassinato já é demais” ou “Até um assassinato já é muito”. Mas essa expressão one too many é mais uma daquelas que a gente não traduz do inglês literalmente para o português… Além disso, é bem comum, ou seja, vale a pena compreendê-la e ver mais exemplos.

Veja só este, de um site americano que orienta quem quer ser dog walker profissional (lá existem guidelines a serem seguidas e quem leva o negócio a sério tira uma licença):

If running tires you out quickly and two dogs is one too many, then just walk one at a time.

“Se correr te cansa rápido” (If running tires you out quickly), e “dois cachorros já são demais” (two dogs is one too many), “então ande com um por vez” (then just walk one at a time).

Two dogs is one too many é uma sentença que pode parecer estranha não só por causa do “is one too many”, que traduzido literalmente para o português fica sem pé nem cabeça, mas também por causa de “Two dogs is” – como assim, is depois de Two dogs? Pois é, é assim mesmo.

Qual é a mensagem ali em cima? Que se dois cachorros já for cachorro em excesso – ou seja, se você não consegue dar conta de dois cachorros de uma vez – então saia com um cachorro só de cada vez! If two dogs is one too many, then just walk one at a time.

Mais um exemplo com one too many:

Mary’s going to the theater with her boyfriend on Friday. It’s just Mary and him, so three tickets is one too many.

Deu pra pegar? Mary e o namorado, e só os dois, vão ao teatro na sexta. “Três entradas” é uma em excesso – só duas são necessárias.

Veja que essa expressão pode ser usada, em tese, com qualquer número. Veja o exemplo que encontrei numa manchete em um jornal australiano:

Five-man selection panel is two too many

A notícia fala de um painel de cinco pessoas encarregadas de um processo seletivo (a five-man selection panel). Na opinião do jornalista, este painel deveria ser composto de no máximo três pessoas. Ou seja, um painel com cinco pessoas (A five-man selection panel) é um painel com duas pessoas em excesso (is two too many).

Mais um exemplo: “Three Ninjas” is three too many – crítica de um jornal americano ao filme de 1992 Three Ninjas, dizendo que 3 ninjas são três ninjas em excesso – ou seja, não precisa de ninja nenhum (claro, eles acharam o filme péssimo). E é muito comum ver sentenças parecidas com o exemplo inicial, que diz que um assassinato já é assassinato demais, com qualquer coisa considerada ruim: One child’s death is one too many. One tragedy is one too many. One act of dishonesty is one too many.

Só uma obs. antes de finalizar: one too many também é utilizada de outras maneiras, mas isso fica para uma próxima.

E você – tem algum exemplo? Com quantos cachorros você passearia de uma vez? Pra mim, three dogs is one too many. Só dou conta de passear com dois ao mesmo tempo ;)

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre get away with, uma expressão super comum no inglês. 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, all. 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 begin with a pretty interesting phrase: get away with something. Let me give you a very simple example: imagine you work in an office with your boss and two other people. So there’s three of you reporting to the same person, the boss: you, and your coworkers Monica and Jacob. Now, your boss doesn’t like it when you or Jacob are late. Yesterday, Jacob arrived ten minutes after eight and the boss reminded him that work starts at eight. Last week you were only five minutes late, and the boss told you he expected you to be on time every day. However… when Monica is late that’s a different story.

Monica arrived fifteen minutes past eight last week, and the boss didn’t say anything! Yesterday she had a long lunch and got back to work at two thirty and, again, the boss didn’t say a peep. Monica is obviously your boss’ favorite, and she can get away with almost anything. Again: Monica can get away with almost anything. What does that mean? To get away with something is to escape the consequences of something you did. Not just any consequences, though: unpleasant consequences. When someone gets away with something, that means this person isn’t facing potentially unpleasant consequences that other people might face if they did the same thing.

For example, if you’re late to work every day, there are probably going to be some unpleasant consequences, like… your boss is going to give you a warning. If the dress code at work is business formal and you wear jeans, there may be consequences. If you’re young and live with your parents, and they give you a curfew – in other words, you have to be home by 9 PM every night, and then one night you arrive at midnight, there are probably going to be consequences, right?

So when someone gets away with something, that means they do that thing that, in theory, no one can do, but nothing happens to them. Somehow, they don’t suffer the unpleasant consequences. Like Monica, at your office. She gets in late, and nothing happens. She forgets to turn in her weekly expense report on time, and the boss doesn’t say a word. So Monica can get away with being late… and she also gets away with not being on time with her report. She can get away with mostly anything… she’s the boss’ favorite.

Do you have any examples of your own? For example, when were you able to get away with something and you were actually surprised you got away with it? Maybe you didn’t follow some rule somewhere, and you thought you wouldn’t be allowed to participate in something, but you got away with it somehow… Maybe when you were underage you wanted to go to a party where only people who were over eighteen were allowed in, and you managed to get in. How did you get away with it? Did you present a fake ID at the door?

Here’s a very common phrase that you’ll hear a lot in movies and sitcoms:  You’ll never get away with it. That’s what your friend will say if you tell him or her that you are going to sweet-talk your teacher into raising your grades. You’re going to tell your teacher a very sad story about how you didn’t have enough time to prepare for the exams because you were caring for a sick relative. Your friend hears that and says “You’ll never get away with it! Forget it.” You think you’ll get away with it. You have rehearsed your story and you think it’s pretty convincing. You’re pretty sure you’ll get away with it. Your friend thinks it’s a waste of time. He says “You’ll never get away with it”.

One more example: your local movie theater has a promotion for this weekend where kids younger than 12 years old get in for free. Your niece, who is 14, says she’ll try to pass for a twelve-year-old in order to see a movie for free. You look at her and say “You’ll never get away with it! You’re tall and you don’t look like a kid anymore”. You think she’ll never get away with it. She’ won’t be able to pass for a 12-year-old.

So I’m waiting for your example in the comments… When was the last time you were able to get away with something that even you didn’t expect to get away with? Talk to you next time.

Key expressions

• get away with
• You’ll never get away with it

Glossary

a curfew = hora-limite para uma criança ou adolescente estar em casa, por exemplo

sweet-talk (someone) into (doing something) = convencer alguém a fazer algo por você (que normalmente a pessoa não faria) só no papo

Aqui é o Marcelo, e hoje eu trago expressões do seriado Two and a Half Men, Season 09, episódio 21.

Separei três expressões usadas nas cenas do episódio, e mais uma que não é de lá e que coloquei apenas a título de curiosidade.

Vejam só onde as três primeiras aparecem no vídeo abaixo:

Como de costume, e para ajudar a fixar as expressões em inglês, eu criei um minidiálogo onde elas estão incluídas.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

English version:

Lucy: What happened to you? You look upset.

Edgar: I had a fight with my brother! You know that he and I don’t gel.

Lucy: Is there anything I can do for you?

Edgar: Don’t worry Lucy… I’ve got a headache, but I’m waiting for the painkillers to kick in.

Lucy: Well…just for the record, if you need something… I’m here for you. I know a good home remedy that may be just what you need!

Edgar: Uh, thanks but I’m familiar with your home remedy…

Portuguese version:

Lucy: O que aconteceu com você? Você parece chateado.

Edgar: Eu tive uma briga com o meu irmão! Você sabe que eu e ele não nos damos muito bem.

Lucy: Tem alguma coisa que eu possa fazer por você?

Edgar: Não se preocupe Lucy… Eu estou com dor de cabeça, mas estou só esperando os analgésicos começarem a fazer efeito.

Lucy: Bem… Só pra constar, se você precisar de alguma coisa… conte comigo. Eu conheço um bom remédio caseiro que pode ser exatamente o que você precisa!

Edgar: Hã, obrigado, mas eu conheço bem o seu remédio caseiro…

Key words│Expressions:

• Gel with somebody ─ Se duas ou mais pessoas “gel”, ou se alguém “gel with someone”, estas pessoas se dão bem, se relacionam, se encaixam, se misturam ou se associam bem uma com a outra. Veja que o inglês é um idioma muito rico: para cada palavra ou significado podemos encontrar várias formas de nos expressar. Outra forma que poderia ser usada aqui é um sinônimo muito comum, que é “get along with somebody“. É real a importância de sempre manter o contato com o idioma constantemente.

Segue mais um exemplo: I gel very well with my stepdad. (Eu me relaciono muito bem com o meu padrasto.)

• Kick in ─ Se alguma coisa “kicks in” ela começa a ter efeito. Segue mais um exemplo: Aspirine doesn’t take too long to kick in. (Aspirina não leva muito tempo para começar a fazer efeito.)

• Just for the record ─ Apenas para constar, apenas para ficar registrado. Segue mais um exemplo: Just for the record, I think you’d better not do this. (Só para constar, acho que é melhor você não fazer isso.)

• Home remedy ─ Remédio caseiro. Essa aqui ficou fácil, né? A título de curiosidade, aqui no Brasil quando ficamos gripados é comum fazer um chá de limão com alho ou alguma outra coisa; lá nos Estados Unidos o “home remedy” comum pra gripe é uma sopinha ou canja de galinha, a “chicken soup”. Evidentemente que eles também usam chás, mas “chicken soup” é o mais comum para curar sua gripe na terra do Tio Sam.

É isso aí pessoal, por hoje é só!

Take care guys, all the best!

Quando você acertar, verá a explicação da questão imediatamente. Caso contrário (se errar) terá que ir até o fim antes de ver a explicação.

Quando você terminar, clique em “Get Results“ para ver suas respostas novamente, além das respostas corretas e explicações.

O quiz também pode ser feito tranquilamente a partir de aparelhos touch, como iPod e afins.

Enjoy!

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre expressões muito comuns no inglês, que começam com That’s… 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, everyone. How have you all been? Here’s 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 I picked four expressions… more like four set phrases that start with That’s… All four of them start with “That’s…” They’re all very, very common in everyday conversation and if you’re used to watching TV shows or movies, you’ve definitely heard them before.

Here’s the first one: That’s it! What does that mean? I’m gonna use an example to illustrate the meaning of “That’s it!” Let’s say Jennifer is having dinner at a restaurant. She orders a pizza. When the pizza arrives, she takes one look at it and immediately spots a band-aid. Yes, someone’s band-aid ended up on Jennifer’s pizza. She calls the waiter and he takes the pizza away, and ten minutes later comes back with another pizza. By now Jennifer is really hungry, and she’s about to go for her first slice of pizza when she realizes that this is a pepperoni pizza! She didn’t order pepperoni. She hates pepperoni! She ordered the cheese and mushroom toppings on her pizza.

Jennifer returns her pizza once again. She’s starving now, and she’s not pleased at all that this restaurant screwed up her order twice! Finally the waiter brings her the pizza with cheese and mushrooms. Her mouth is salivating and she’s ready to dig in, when… The waiter sneezes all over the pizza. Jennifer stands up and says “That’s it! This place is awful, service is ridiculously bad! I’m never setting foot in this place ever again.

So when Jennifer said “That’s it!”, what did she mean? She meant that she had had enough. First, she found a band-aid on the pizza. Then, they messed up her order: they brought pepperoni instead of cheese and mushrooms. The last straw was when the waiter sneezed all over her pizza. That was the last straw! That’s when Jennifer decided that she wasn’t going to spend another second at that restaurant, even tough she was starving. That was the moment she said “That’s it! That is it!” Enough of this! I’ve had enough. I have to do something, I can’t stay in this restaurant another second! That’s it!

Do you recognize this phrase, “That’s it!”? It’s very common so you’re bound to hear it if you regularly watch TV shows and movies made by English-speaking countries, especially the US. Now, I just used this expression a few seconds ago: That’s the last straw! That means about the same as “That’s it”. I don’t know the origin of the expression; I’m not sure why there’s a straw in it… In Portuguese we say something about “gota d’agua”, right? We say “foi a gota d’água”. In English, people use the present tense a lot too: That’s the last straw! That’s it!

So what was the last straw, in Jennifer’s case? The sneeze, right? The band-aid… she was pretty annoyed, but didn’t leave the restaurant. The messed-up order, with the pepperoni pizza… again, she was annoyed but she didn’t leave. But when the waiter sneezed on her pizza… that was the last straw. She couldn’t take it anymore. She said “That’s it! That’s the last straw.” and left.

Alright! Let’s move on another expression. Actually, to a couple of expressions that are the English version of this episode’s title.When we want to say “Por mim, tá OK”, we do not say “For me, it’s OK”. Nope! Here’s how it goes: That’s fine by me, or that’s OK with me. Or you can say “That’s fine with me” or “That’s OK by me”. Fine by me, fine with me, OK by me, OK with me. Any one of those will work. So when your spouse suggests a restaurant for lunch, you can say “That’s fine by me”. When your friend gives you two choices of movies and asks which one you prefer, you can say “Either one is OK with me”. You usually drive to the beach but today your friend says he would like to take the bus. You say “That’s fine with me”.

So, tell us about the last time you said (or thought) “That’s it!” That’s the last straw! I wanna read your story in the comments.. C´mon! Talk to you next time.

Key expressions

• That’s it!
• That’s the last straw.
• That’s fine by (with) me
• That’s OK by (with) me

Glossary

toppings = coberturas da pizza

screwed up her order = errou o pedido dela

dig in = “atacar” a comida, começar a comer

I’m never setting foot in this place = nunca mais piso nesse lugar

sneezed = espirrou

Perguntas

(a) Who’s the woman greeting Annie? Quem é a mulher cumprimentando a Annie?

(b) Who is the other woman?  Quem é a outra mulher?

(c) What is Annie going to do now? O que a Annie vai fazer agora?

Minhas respostas

(a) She’s Vera, Annie’s mother’s cousin.  Ela é Vera, prima da mãe da Annie.

(b) That’s Sonia, Vera’s neighbor, who happens to be close friends with Annie’s mother. Essa é a Sonia, vizinha da Vera, que por acaso é amiga íntima da mãe da Annie.

(c) She’s going to spend the afternoon playing with Vera’s kids. Ela vai passar a tarde brincando com as crianças da Vera.

                 E você? Quais seriam as suas respostas?

E aqui vai o PDF com o cartoon anterior – You’re doing very well – com todas as respostas (editadas quando necessário) para quem quiser guardar.

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre boatos, e como prometer que não vai contar nada pra ninguém.

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, all. How are you today? This is the 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, do you know what a rumor is? Rumor. A rumor is a piece of information, and this piece of information is unverified, which means no one really knows whether it’s true or not, and no one really knows who started it. Usually no one knows who actually started the rumor. I’ll bet every one of you listening knows what I’m talking about. When I worked for corporations, there were rumors all the time about this manager and that director not getting along, or a rumor that sales people were going to be laid off and so on.

So like I said before, a rumor is a piece of information that no one can really vouch for, right? It’s that kind of thing you hear from a colleague, or when you’re eavesdropping on someone else’s conversation… No one can say “This is the truth. This piece of information is true”. No, it’s always like “There’s a rumor that this or that is going to happen” or “Have you heard? There’s a rumor that Jenn is gonna be the next VP of Sales”. “Hey, I’ve heard that blah blah blah”. That’s a rumor, or boato as we say in Portuguese.

Rumors are usually spread by word of mouth, right? What does “word of mouth” mean? That’s when people speak to each other, when they talk to each other, when information is spread through conversation among people. So when someone tells someone else about some story they heard, that may or may not be true… that’s how rumors are spread: by word of mouth.

So you can say “There’s a rumor that Mark is gonna get promoted”. And you can also say “Rumor has it that Mark is gonna get promoted”. “Rumor has it” is a set phrase and it’s a very common way to introduce some piece of information you heard from someone and you don’t know whether it’s true or not. Example… Rumor has it that Ashton Kutcher is gonna be in the next novela das 8. There’s a rumor that we’re gonna have a local CNN channel. Rumor has it that we’re gonna have new employees from Spain. So, what’s the last rumor you heard?

OK, so let’s move on to another set phrase in English. This is an expression you can use when someone tells you a secret, and then asks you not to tell anyone. You can say My lips are sealed.  My lips are sealed. When you say that, you’re telling that person that the secret won’t come out of your mouth because your lips are sealed. You won’t tell anyone. You won’t tell a soul.

By the way, this is another very common phrase when you’re saying you’re going to keep something to yourself; you’re not gonna tell anyone: you can say I won’t tell a soul. My lips are sealed, I won’t tell a soul.

So next time someone tells you a secret, you can say “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. My lips are sealed”. Or when your coworker tells you she’s looking for a new job and asks you not to tell anyone, you can say “I won’t tell a soul”.

Please tell us in the comments about the last time you heard a false rumor. Talk to you next time!

Ouça também: Podcast “Não conte com isso”

Key expressions

• There’s a rumor that…
• Rumor has it
• Word of mouth
• My lips are sealed
• I won’t tell a soul

Glossary

I’ll bet = aposto que

be laid off = perder o emprego

vouch for something = assegurar que algo é genuino, verdadeiro

you’re eavesdropping = você está escutando (algo que não é dito para você escutar)

CNN = canal de notícias americano

soul = alma (na frase do podcast, soul simboliza uma pessoa)

Aqui é o Marcelo, e hoje trago novamente expressões de seriados para vocês. Selecionei duas, que você pode conferir no vídeo abaixo.

Como de costume e para ajudar a fixar as expressões, eu criei um mini diálogo onde elas estão incluídas em negrito, e esse foi “mini” mesmo! Tem também mais uma expressão sobre a qual eu falo mais embaixo.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

English version:

Billy: Hey, man. How ’bout we grab some beers and hit on some girls tonight?

Harry: I’m game! Maybe you can set me up with one of your friends.

Billy: All right, I’ll pick you up at 9. Cya later alligator.

 

Portuguese version:

Billy: E aí, cara. Que tal tomar umas cervejas e chegar numas minas hoje à noite?

Herry: Tô dentro! Talvez você possa me arranjar com uma das suas amigas.

Billy: Beleza, passo para pegar você às nove da noite. Até.

Key words│Expressions:

• Hit on ─ Paquerar, cantar, dar em cima de alguém. Segue mais um exemplo: I don’t like to go out by myself… Guys keep hitting on me. (Eu não gosto de sair a noite sozinha, os caras ficam dando em cima de mim.)

• Set somebody up with ─ Apresentar, arranjar, arrumar um encontro entre duas pessoas porque você acredita que elas possam ter algum relacionamento. Segue mais um exemplo: –How did you meet Nick? –A friend set us up! (Como você conheceu o Nick? Um amigo nos apresentou — *Exemplo retirado do dicionário Longman).

• Cya later alligator ─ Essa é uma forma bastante informal de dizer “good bye”. Aprendi com os meus amigos através de jogos. Alguns deles dizem também peace out para se despedir. Nota: cya = See you later

É isso aí pessoal, por hoje é só!

Take care guys, all the best!

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre mais duas expressões super comuns, que tem a ver com aquela sensação de reconhecer alguém ou alguma coisa.

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, everyone. How have you been? 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 talking about a couple of expressions that are really useful and you’re gonna hear them all the time on TV or real life conversations. The first one is He looks familiar, or It looks familiar, They look familiar and so on. You see someone and you think you know them, but you can’t really pinpoint where you know them from. He or she looks familiar. Or you see someone’s handwriting, for example, and you ask your friend “This handwriting looks familiar. Is it Fred’s?” and your friend says “No, it’s mine”. So that’s why it looked familiar.

Has anyone that you had just met ever looked at you and said “Hey, you look familiar”? This happens to me all the time. Someone that I’ve just met says “You look familiar”. And here’s something else that people I’ve just met are always telling me: “You look like my friend Gabriela.” “You look like my aunt Maria”. “You look like someone I know”. So maybe that’s why so many people think I look familiar when they first meet me: they think I look like their friend, their cousin, their aunt…

What about when someone’s telling you a story? Let’s say they’re describing someone to you. Your friend says “C’mon, don’t you know Sally? She’s tall, green eyes, red hair…”. You think you know who your friend is talking about, but you’re not sure. Do you say “Oh, she looks familiar”? No! You’re not seeing this person. Your friend is talking about her. So you say “She sounds familiar”. Another example: your brother is telling you about a book he read and he’s saying how much he enjoyed the book, and then he says “I think you recommended this book. Wasn’t it you?” And you’re not sure. The story sounds familiar, but you can’t remember if it’s because you saw a movie the other day with a similar plot, or if you really read that book and just can’t remember, so you say “Well, it sounds familiar but I’m not sure”. When the feeling of familiarity comes through voice or sounds, that is, when someone’s talking to you about something, or when you hear something, well… That’s because it sounds familiar.

And here’s another great expression, really really common and somewhat related to “looks familiar” and “sounds familiar”. This time your friend is telling you about someone he met… let’s say it’s a girl and her name is Jennifer. He’s telling you about Jennifer and he’s pretty sure you and Jennifer have met before. He’s describing her to you and you just cannot remember having met someone named Jennifer with those characteristics. You’re trying, you’re going as far back as high-school, and… nothing. Your friend insists that you and Jennifer know each other. You finally tell him “Hmm, it doesn’t ring a bell” That means simply that the name Jennifer, combined with the description of her your friend just gave you, doesn’ make you think of anyone in particular that you met in the past. You don’t remember her, you don’t know anyone like her named Jennifer. It doesn’t ring a bell.

Here’s one more example: you’re at work and you bump into your coworker Ted in the hallway. Ted says “Hey, I just talked to Michael right now, and he said you have that sales report from last month. It’s in a red folder”. And you say “Sales report… in a red folder. Doesn’t ring a bell, but let’s look in my office”. That means you can’t remember having any sales report with you, in a red folder. It doesn’t ring a bell.

So tells us about the last time you wanted someone to remember something and you kept trying to help them remember it, and they kept saying “Hmm, doesn’t ring a bell”. Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

• looks familiar
• sounds familiar
• doesn’t ring a bell

Glossary

you can’t pinpoint = você não consegue saber exatamente

you’re going as far back as high-school= você está tentando se lembrar de um ponto lá no passado, dos tempos de escola

somewhat related = tem um pouco a ver

Com a velocidade que praticamente tudo no nosso mundo tem evoluido, você pode imaginar a quantidade de piada que os caras fazem a respeito de efeitos especiais, falas de personagens, roteiro, roupas, as gírias que são usadas, etc. Pois tem uma expressão que me acostumei a ouvir com frequência lá: hold up.

É batata: todo episódio ao menos um dos apresentadores diz

This movie holds up ou I don’t think the movie holds up

Do que eles estão falando? Continue lendo ;)

“Esse filme continua de pé”

Por acaso me deparei (I accidentally came across) com esse tuíte do autor de novela Aguinaldo Silva outro dia.

É exatamente isso: the movie holds up quer dizer o filme continua bom, atual; o tempo passou e ele não se tornou aquele filme que já não tem mais nada a ver ou que provoca mais risada do que qualquer outra coisa. O filme não deixou de ser interessante só porque foi feito muito tempo atrás, quando a visão de mundo, os hábitos, a tecnologia eram outros. Como disse Aguinaldo Silva, na opinião dele “Doctor Strangelove” continua de pé, ou Doctor Strangelove still holds up.

Agora olha o que ele achou de outro filme:

Ele acha que “Jules e Jim” deixa um pouco a desejar hoje em dia. Em inglês, ele poderia dizer There’s something about that movie that doesn’t hold up.

Simples?

Se você buscar ‘movies’ + ‘hold up’ no Google, vai encontrar um zilhão de exemplos. Encontrei esse, super bacana: The true test of a great film is how it holds up over time. O teste de verdade para um filme é ver se ele continua interessando e/ou agradando as pessoas depois que o tempo passa. Você concorda?

No site orble.com há uma série de posts analisando games antigos. Todos eles tem o título “Has it held up? (game title)”. O autor então analisa o game com seu olhar atual, e no fim diz se ele continua interessante e vale a pena jogá-lo, apesar de ser antigo (it has held up), ou se já ficou ultrapassado e perdeu a graça (it hasn’t held up).

Agora a pergunta é pra você: você viu algum filme antigo que você já tinha assistido na época de lançamento? What’s the veredict? Does it hold up?

Se você gosta de games, which old games don’t hold up, and which ones do hold up?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre duas expressões bem comuns com a palavra LESS.

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, all. 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.

Let me tell you about a very common and interesting expression in English: the lesser of two evils. Think about a situation where you had to choose between two not-so-great options. You have to make a choice in order to keep something going, or to fulfill an obligation. An election is a perfect example, when there are only two candidates running and you don’t like either of them.

Let’s say, though, that you firmly believe that, even if neither candidate is that great, you should pick someone. You should vote for one of them, that’s what you believe. You feel like it’s your duty to vote, and you’re not gonna spoil your vote either, so you MUST pick someone to vote for. The problem is, you’re not a fan of either candidate. You’ve heard bad things from trusted sources about both of them. So who are you gonna vote for? Candidate A is the one you were going for, until last week when your good friend Raymond filled you in on Candidate A’s real opinions about public transportation.

You were devastated. You’d been a big fan of Candidate A until that moment. And then there’s Candidate B, and you’re really not a fan. You just don’t think Candidate B has got what it takes to be an effective politician. You’re familiar with his work and you just don’t think he’s competent. So this is a tough choice for you. Since you’re adamant about voting for someone, you are going to choose the lesser of two evils, in your opinion. Both are bad, but you’re gonna go with the least bad, or the lesser of two evils. You’re gonna go with the one that, in your opinion, is going to cause the least damage as a politician. You’re gonna pick the lesser of two evils.

Here’s another example for that: your friends are going to watch a movie tonight and they’re asking you to come along. You’ve heard of this movie, and you think it’s gonna suck. Your other option would be staying home and watching boring TV shows. What to do? You choose the lesser of two evils, which in your opinion is staying in tonight and watching TV.

Here’s another set phrase with the word less: less is more. Less is more. Have you heard that one? How can less be more? Well, imagine that you’re in school and your History teachers gives the students a new assignment. She says you guys should break into groups of six and work as a team on the assignment. Your team spends two weeks working on the assignment and you realize that it’s not that easy to coordinate everyone’s work, or get everyone to agree on something, or find a date for the next meeting that will work for everyone, and so on.

So now your History teacher is giving the class a new assignment, and she tells the students that they should break into groups of three. So you and your two classmates start working on the new assignment and you realize it is much easier to get things going in a small group. The three of you agree on stuff quickly, it’s easier to find a place and time for the next meeting, and so on and so forth. So you come to the conclusion that, in this case, less is more.

“Less is more” means, there are advantages in not having too much or too many of something. It would seem that more people to help with an assignment is always better, right? Well, you don’t think so. Fewer people do a better job in your opinion. So, you think “I’m definitely happier in a smaller group. Less is more”.

And just a reminder that this is a set phrase, OK? It doesn’t really matter what you’re talking about. What matters is the idea that less of something, or fewer units of whatever… produce better results. So whether you’re talking about fewer people doing a better job, or a small computer being more powerful than a large machine, or a tiny fruit containing more nutrients than a larger fruit, you can say that, in this case, less is more.

So when was the last time you chose the lesser of two evils? Let us know in the comments. Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

• the lesser of two evils
• less is more

Glossary

spoil your vote = anular seu voto

you’re adamant about = você faz questão de, tem opinião firme a respeito de

the least bad = a/o menos ruim

the least damage = o mínimo de estrago

What to do? = O que fazer?

not a fan of either = não é fã de nenhum dos dois

fewer units of whatever = menos unidades do que quer que seja

Quando você acertar, verá a explicação da questão imediatamente. Caso contrário (se errar) terá que ir até o fim antes de ver a explicação.

Quando você terminar, clique em “Get Results“ para ver suas respostas novamente, além das respostas corretas e explicações.

O quiz também pode ser feito tranquilamente a partir de aparelhos touch, como iPod e afins.

Enjoy!

Dicas deste blog mencionadas no quiz:

• Podcast É de família
• Diferença entre look, see e watch
• Dica: Acabou que ela estava certa

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre duas expressões com keep, e mais uma super informal e coloquial.

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, all. 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 have two expressions with the word KEEP, and a third expression that doesn’t have the word keep. These are all very, very common terms in everyday conversation, so let’s get to know them and see how you can use them. The first one has to do with remembering something.

Let’s say that you’re on your way to someone’s dinner party with a couple of friends. You say “I heard Cindy is a fantastic cook! Can’t wait to try her food. I’m starving!” and one of your friend replies “I’m not sure who’s cooking tonight. It could be her sister Mindy, who is NOT a good cook! So, keep that in mind”. What does that mean? That means “keep in mind that Mindy may be cooking, not Cindy”. Remember, as you’re about to eat, that the person who made the dishes may not be Cindy, who is a fantastic cook, but Mindy, who’s… not that great a cook. Keep that in mind. Remember that. Keep in mind that the food may not be as good as you expect.

More examples? Imagine that you just moved to the United States and you’re on your first day on a new job. Your boss, who’s also Brazilian, but likes speaking English with you, says “Now that you work for an American company, keep in mind that being late for meetings and presentations is a no-no”. What is “a no-no”? That’s something people are not supposed to do. They shouldn’t do it. If something is a no-no, just don’t do it. Avoid it. In general, if you do something that is considered a no-no, you’ll attract a lot of attention upon yourself, or you will be reprimanded in some way, or you will get a fine… you get the idea.

So what is your Brazilian boss telling you? He’s telling you to keep in mind, to always remember that being late for work meetings and presentations is a no-no. Keep that in mind! Always keep that in mind. In Brazil we are usually more tolerant of lateness than Americans, so, actually if you’re thinking about moving to the US, keep that in mind: lateness is not as well tolerated in the USA as it is here. It’s a no-no in that country.

So, what kind of behavior would be considered a no-no in Brazil? Wearing high heels to the beach comes to mind. I think wearing high heels to the beach is definitely a no-no. I mean, you’re not breaking any laws if you do it, but it’s probably going to be very unconfortable and the sand may ruin your shoes, and… high heels are definitely not suited for the beach. So, I think wearing high heels to the beach is a no-no. You would have to be crazy to do that. You shouldn’t do it. Going to a meeting with your company’s CEO wearing shorts and Havaianas is a no-no. Don’t do that! That’s a big no-no. That shows lack of respect and professionalism, and depending on the company it may get you fired.

Our last expression for today is an interesting one… another set phrase with the word keep. Let’s say you and your teammates are at a meeting with the VP of Marketing discussing a project in order to get her approval. She gives her approval and then says “This project will directly impact our marketing strategy so I need to be informed of everything that’s going on with it. Please keep me in the loop” So the VP of Marketing is asking you guys to keep her in the loop. Please keep me informed of everything, let me know what’s going on, cc me on the emails, keep me in the loop. To keep someone in the loop means to make sure that this person is kept informed about all the news related to something.

Maybe you’re chatting with your two friends Mary and Jane about going to Mexico for a week next month. Mary is very excit ed; she’s game, she’s definitely going to Mexico with you. Jane isn’t so sure because she doesn’t know whether she’ll be able to get a few days off next month. She really wants to go, though, so she says “Guys, I really wanna go to Mexico so please keep me in the loop”. That means “When you exchange emails, cc me. When you start looking at hotels and plane tickets, I wanna know all about it. If you meet again to discuss the trip, let me know and I’ll come too. Please keep me in the loop” Jane isn’t sure she’s going to Mexico, but she wants her two friends to keep her in the loop.

So give us your examples of no-nos, in your opinion. Is going to a birthday party without a gift a no-no? Is being late a no-no? Let us know in the comments. Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

• keep in mind that
• a no-no
• keep someone in the loop

Glossary

comes to mind = é algo que vem à mente, é um exemplo que me veio

get a fine = levar uma multa

sandy = com areia, cheia de areia

she’s game = ela está dentro

cc (someone) = carbon-copy someone on an email, so that they’ll get the message even though they’re not the main recipient

Não deixe de visitar também o canal do Steve no You Tube, ou em Aprendizado Para a Vida Toda, na seção de vídeos educacionais do You Tube.

Prepositions and Time References

Activity

Já viu o vídeo algumas vezes e se familiarizou com o vocabulário? Então tente a atividade que o Steve desenvolveu e produziu exclusivamente para você, leitor do Inglês Online.

E para finalizar: aproveitem muito os vídeos do Steve. Ele é super didático, simpático, criativo e adora ensinar. Lembre-se também que memorizar as regras vai te ajudar especialmente se você for 1) Fazer um exame escrito ou 2) Conversar com alguém que espere você se lembrar da regra e aplicá-la, toda vez que for responder a pessoa.

Conhecer as regras também pode, sim, fazer você reparar melhor no que ouvir daqui pra frente. Você pode até reconhecer a regra no meio de um listening ou conversa (“Ah, olha lá, ele usou going depois do to“). Tudo que facilite a aquisição e absorção da língua é bem-vindo!

E, na hora de adquirir a língua, nada, mas nada mesmo, pode sustituir exposição massiva a áudio, gente falando, filme, etc, que você já compreenda. Veja todas as dicas sobre isso neste link: Como Falar Inglês.

Aqui é o Marcelo, e hoje as expressões não são apenas de um único seriado, como eu geralmente faço. Dessa vez eu fiz um mix de dois seriados para aumentar o leque de opções para vocês, leitores do Inglês Online.

Selecionei três expressões usadas nas cenas dos seriados e que você pode conferir no vídeo abaixo.

Como de costume e para ajudar a fixar as expressões, eu criei um mini diálogo onde elas estão incluídas em negrito.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

English version:

Miguel: Carlos, if we don’t sign the new contract with Funny-Toy… all bets are off!

Carlos: Don’t worry about that. We’ll get this contract.

Miguel: Speaking of Funny-Toy, have you told Mark about the new products yet?

Carlos: I just sprung them on him.

Miguel: Why did you do that?

Carlos: Just wanted to see his spontaneous reaction. He actually said all products are great, but asked me to narrow the list down to two. Let’s work on this so we can sign the contract next week.

 

Portuguese version:

Miguel: Carlos, se a gente não assinar o novo contrato com a Funny-Toy… só Deus sabe o que pode acontecer!

Carlos: Não se preocupe com isso. A gente consegue esse contrato.

Miguel: Falando sobre a Funny-Toy, você já contou pro Mark sobre os novos produtos?

Carlos: Acabei de pegar ele de surpresa com isso.

Miguel: Por que você fez isso?

Carlos: Queria ver a reação espontânea dele. Ele na verdade disse que todos os produtos são excelentes, mas me pediu para reduzir a lista para dois. Vamos trabalhar nisso pra gente assinar e contrato semana que vem.

Key words│Expressions:

• All bets are off ─ Essa expressão é usada quando um acordo ou uma decisão anterior se torna inválida devido a alguma circunstância externa, e a partir desse ponto qualquer coisa pode acontecer a qualquer momento: tudo é possível, ninguém sabe.

Segue mais um exemplo: Usually we can predict the return rates for this kind of investment. With the economy in turmoil, though, all bets are off. (Geralmente a gente consegue prever as taxas de retorno pra esse tipo de investimento. Mas com a economia em turbulência, tudo é possível.)

• Spring something on somebody ─ Pegar, contar, surpreender alguém. Dependendo do “peso” da surpresa, podemos entender como “soltar uma bomba em cima de alguém”.

Segue mais um exemplo: I’m sorry to spring this on you, but… I got fired. (Desculpe vir com essa bomba, mas…  eu fui demitido.)

• Narrow something down ─ Esse quer dizer limitar, reduzir ou restringir o número de opções de alguma coisa. Geralmente usamos quando temos muitas escolhas ou opções para algo, e precisamos, por qualquer motivo, restringir para algumas poucas alternativas.

Segue mais um exemplo: The police have narrowed down their list of suspects. (A polícia reduziu sua lista de suspeitos.) *Exemplo retirado do dicionário Longman.

Você se lembra de alguma situação recente onde teve que diminuir o número de opções (narrow down a list of options)?

My example: my sister liked four different suppliers, but she narrowed it down to two, and then talked to her boss about the two options.

É isso aí pessoal, por hoje é só!  Take care guys, all the best!

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre duas expressões super comuns: it’s not over ’til it’s over e not worth the trouble.

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).

Baixe o mp3

Baixe o PDF

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.

Imagine that you’re watching a game of soccer on TV. This is a very important game to you… let’s say it’s the World Cup Final and Brazil is playing… Argentina, why not? So your eyes are glued to the game and you’re starting to sweat. Why? Because we’re thirty minutes into the second half and Brazil is losing. The current score is 2-0 (nil) in favor of Argentina. But you’re hanging in there. Still fifteen minutes to go. You’re on the edge of your seat, following every move of every single player and… Argentina scores again. That’s it. You can’t take it anymore. You get up and you tell your friends, who are all watching the game with you: I can’t take this anymore! Argentina’s the winner and I can’t watch Brazil lose yet another World Cup. I’m outta here.

And then one of your friends says “Hey, it’s not over ’til it’s over! Calm down, we still have fifteen… fourteen minutes to go. Who says Brazil can’t turn this game around? Just because we lost way before the finals in the last two World Cups, that doesn’t mean Brazil can’t score three, uh, four goals in… thirteen minutes. C’mon! It’s not over ’til it’s over.” So what is your friend saying? That as long as the players are in the field, playing, you don’t know what the final result will be because the game is not over yet. Anything can happen! It’s not over ’til it’s over.

“It’s not over ’til it’s over” is a very common set phrase and you may hear it in situations where there’s a particular outcome that you’re hoping for, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Here’s another example: you’re trying to convince your boss at work that your latest idea about how to increase sales should be implemented. Your boss has met with you and let you present the idea, but after your presentation he told you he just doesn’t see it happening, he doesn’t feel like your idea would be well accepted by the sales team. So it’s not looking good for you, right? Your coworker Stuart asks you how things are going with that great idea you had, and you tell him “Well, the boss kinda shot it down after our first meeting, but I get the feeling he’s still open to it. You know how strongly I feel about this. When the time is right I’m gonna bring it up again. It’s not over ’til it’s over“. So that means you’re hopeful, right?

And it’s very common for people to say “It ain’t over ’til it’s over”. It ain’t over ’til it’s over. “Ain’t” is a very informal term and some people use it in everyday speech instead of am not, is not, has not or have not. Be careful, though… Don’t use “ain’t” all the time, especially in the workplace. Not only is it informal, but it is considered improper English by many, so… unless you’re chatting with close friends, or just trying to be funny, best to avoid it.

Let’s move on to another interesting set phrase in English. Here’s an example: let’s say you’re home, hanging out with a few friends and one of them says “I’m hungry. Let’s order some pizza”. You have just moved into this house, and you haven’t bought any plates yet. You have no plates in your house. You got rid of the old ones ’cause they were all old and chipped, and you still haven’t gotten around to buying new ones!

So you say to your friends “Should I run to the store down the street and get us some plates?” And your friend says “It’s not worth the trouble. We’ll use napkins” So what your friend meant was, don’t bother. This isn’t worth the trouble, it’s not worth the effort of taking the elevator, going to the store, buying plates and then coming all the way back. You can have pizza on napkins. You’re among friends, no one cares. Should you go buy plates? Nah, it’s not worth the trouble. Don’t bother.

Are you familiar with today’s expressions? How would you use them? Talk to you next time.

Ouça aqui Lenny Kravitz cantando It ain’t over ’til it’s over

Key expressions

• it’s not over ’til it’s over / it ain’t over ’til it’s over
• not worth the trouble /don’t bother

Glossary

eyes are glued to = olhos estão pregados (colados) no

thirty minutes into the second half = em trinta minutos do segundo tempo

you’re hanging in there = você está aguentando firme

got rid of = se livrou de

Quando você acertar, verá a explicação da questão imediatamente. Caso contrário (se errar) terá que ir até o fim antes de ver a explicação.

Quando você terminar, clique em “Get Results“ para ver suas respostas novamente, além das respostas corretas e explicações.

O quiz também pode ser feito tranquilamente a partir de aparelhos touch, como iPod e afins.

Enjoy!

Teste seu inglês: Expressões e frases com PLAY

Para cada questão, escolha a alternativa correta.

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Congratulations! You have completed Teste seu inglês: Expressões e frases com PLAY Parabéns! Você completou Teste seu inglês: Expressões e frases com PLAY You scored %%SCORE%% out of %%TOTAL%% Sua pontuação foi %%SCORE%% de um total possível de %%TOTAL%%

Your answers are highlighted below.

Question 1

Leia o trecho abaixo:

"We played phone tag for three days until I finally got a hold of him on my way to the airport"

O que quer dizer "We played phone tag"?  

	Eu ligava pra ele, ele não estava. Ele me ligava, eu não estava. Daí eu ligava de novo, ele não atendia.
	A gente ficou passando trote um no outro, até que uma hora um dos dois resolveu falar sério.
	A gente passou um tempo só batendo papo no telefone, sem falar sobre o assunto principal.

Question 1 Explanation:

"We played phone tag" é o que está lá na resposta correta mesmo: a gente ficou ligando um para o outro por um tempo, e uma hora um não atendia, outra hora era o outro que não atendia, etc. "I got a hold of him" quer dizer "consegui localizá-lo" ou, nesse caso, "consegui pegá-lo no telefone" "on my way to the airport" = quando eu estava a caminho do aeroporto

Question 2

Leia o trecho abaixo:

Steve is planning every move for his first meeting as the CEO. Whatever issues may be raised during the meeting, he's determined to stick to the agenda.

Qual alternativa abaixo descreve o contrário do que Steve pretende fazer?

	Steve is going to play hardball at the meeting.
	Steve is going to be playful during the meeting.
	Steve is going to play it by ear at the meeting.

Question 2 Explanation:

A questão diz que Steve está planejando cada movimento seu para a reunião, e que, quaisquer que sejam os assuntos levantados, ele vai se ater ao plano. O contrário disso pode ser "He is going to play it by ear", que quer dizer "Ele vai ver o que fazer à medida que as coisas forem acontecendo". "be playful" = ser brincalhão "play hardball" = ser durão, agressivo (veja questão neste quiz)

Question 3

"I heard Carrie is going out with Peter. She should watch out... Peter is the biggest player I know"

Como poderia ser explicada a palavra player neste exemplo?

	Player, in this example, means someone who is usually dishonest and will try to steal from you.
	That's someone who usually has more than one romantic/sexual partner at the same time.
	In this example, a player is someone who is addicted to gambling.

Question 3 Explanation:

"Player" é uma gíria muito comum usada para homens que namoram ou saem com várias mulheres ao mesmo tempo.

Question 4

Leia o diálogo:

(Anthony) Jane spoke the truth. She didn't take the money. (Michael) Are you sure she didn't take the money? Where was she last morning? (Anthony) She was at school! Are you saying you don't believe her? (Michael) I'm just playing devil's advocate. She will be interrogated by the police and she'd better have a good alibi.

O que significa a frase em negrito?

	Estou fazendo o papel do opositor, para testar o que ela está dizendo.
	Estou representando o papel do advogado dela.
	Estou fazendo de conta que acredito para ver até onde ela vai.

Question 4 Explanation:

Quando alguém "plays devil's advocate", essa pessoa faz o papel de alguém que está contra você, para que ela possa questionar e testar a validade dos argumentos que você está usando.

Question 5

"They say that Tom Cruise played hardball in his divorce from Nicole Kidman"

O que quer dizer a expressão played hardball neste exemplo?

	Não levou o processo a sério, atrapalhando a ação dos advogados e pessoas envolvidas com ausências, enganos, etc.
	Foi agressivo e usou métodos não necessariamente honestos para conseguir o que queria.
	Empenhou-se e colocou muito esforço para que ela mudasse de ideia em relação ao divórcio.

Question 5 Explanation:

"play hardball" é ser durão/durona e agressivo para conseguir o que se quer. É uma expressão muito usada em ambiente de negócios e geralmente implica que a pessoa está usando métodos não muito aceitáveis para chegar onde quer.

Question 6

Leia o trecho abaixo: It's hard to tell whether Christine is interested in Mark or not. She turned him down when he asked her out yesterday, so... She might be indifferent to him, or she might be playing hard to get. O que quer dizer a expressão em negrito?

	namorando outra pessoa
	se fazendo de difícil
	interessada apenas em amizade

Question 6 Explanation:

"play hard to get" quer dizer "se fazer de difícil", e é também usada em situações onde a pessoa recebe uma proposta de trabalho e demora para se decidir, etc.

Question 7

Leia o trecho:

I go to that restaurant because of the food. It's cheap and tasty. The fact that the waitresses are hot also plays into it.

O que quer dizer a parte em negrito?

	também é essencial
	também não ajuda
	também é uma razão

Question 7 Explanation:

"Also plays into it" pode ser entendido como "também ajuda, também é algo que pesa na decisão". Podemos dizer também "Price also played into my decision to buy this car" (o preço também contou na decisão).

Once you are finished, click the button below. Any items you have not completed will be marked incorrect. Get Results

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Need more practice! (Precisa de mais prática!)

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Perguntas

(a) Who is this woman? Quem é essa mulher?

(b) Why is she saying that?  Por que ela está dizendo isso?

(c) What are they going to do now? O que elas vão fazer agora?

Minhas respostas

(a) She is the librarian at the Public Library in their town.  Ela é a bibliotecária da Biblioteca Pública na cidade delas.

(b) Because she is helping Sandy improve her reading skills by suggesting good books to her. She thinks Sandy has made a lot of progress. Porque ela está ajudando a Sandy a melhorar sua habilidade de leitura sugerindo bons livros a ela. Ela (a mulher) acha que a Sandy tem progredido muito.

(c) They are going out for some ice cream. This woman is friends with Sandy’s mom, so Sandy is in good hands. Elas vão sair pra tomar sorvete. Essa mulher é amiga da mãe da Sandy, e por isso a Sandy está em boas mãos.

                 E você? Quais seriam as suas respostas?

E aqui vai o PDF com o cartoon anterior – This is our bestseller – com todas as respostas (editadas quando necessário) para quem quiser guardar.

Aqui é a Ana. Tenho notado nesse começo de ano que o ritmo de comentários deixados pelos leitores nas dicas aqui no site diminuiu.

Aqui vai o pedido: Deixe comentários! No plural mesmo, mais de um. Vou te mostrar por que é legal comentar.

Pra deixar um comment, você tem que ler/assistir/ouvir a dica. Só aí, você já absorve alguma coisa nova ou reforça algo que já tinha visto.

Eu sempre peço pro leitor pensar em um exemplo da própria realidade. Isso faz com que você relacione a expressão ou palavra com a sua vida, com algo que te é familiar.

E por fim, quando a gente se envolve, quando a gente interage, participa, contribui, nosso interesse por aquilo aumenta. Interesse é algo poderoso, que nos impulsiona e faz com que tarefas antes meio tediosas se transformem naquele tipo de atividade onde a gente não vê o tempo passar.

Por fim, eu e todo mundo que escreve dica no blog AMA ver comentário! É gratificante pra nós (por isso nos esforçamos para responder o maior número possível).

Veja algumas dicas só dos últimos dias para você comentar:

• Gírias de Inglês com the Big Bang Theory – gírias pra lá de comuns. Dica com vídeo do Marcelo.
• Podcast Como digo em inglês: Melhor prevenir que remediar – expressões suuuuper comuns. Qual foi a última vez que você usou essa frase?
• Diferença entre Menos dinheiro e Menos gente – tem certeza que você sabe? Deixe seu exemplo!
• “Tô segurando vela” em inglês” – outra dica divertida com vídeo do Marcelo. Quem nunca segurou uma velinha…? Conte!

Vamos lá? :) São pequenos investimentos que fazem a diferença!

Espero vocês,

Ana

Esse episódio do podcast Inglês Online é um pouquinho diferente, pois eu vou falar de três errinhos que eu tenho escutado ou lido com certa frequência quando vejo brasileiro falando inglês.

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).

Baixe o mp3

Baixe o PDF

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, today’s podcast is about stuff that is usually considered very basic. You know, you’ve seen this on Lesson 3 of your Basic English book and… check! Done, and you’ll never talk about it again.

You know how it works, though: it can take some time until we internalize stuff we’re being exposed to, and the more we’re exposed to that stuff, the faster we’ll acquire it. That means, the faster we will internalize it. Students may have seen or heard about the basic stuff while attending English school, and that doesn’t mean they’re actually using that stuff correctly when they speak or write.

So this is my goal today: talk about three little mistakes I’ve seen, or rather, heard, people make, kinda often, lately. They are all what I would consider details, so English learners tend not to pay as much attention to them as they do the big stuff. You know, verbs, nouns and other big words.

So here’s the first thing I hear often: I’m engineer, and she’s teacher. We speak that way in Portuguese: eu sou engenheiro e ela é professora, but not in English. In English we say I’m an engineer and she’s a teacher. I’m an engineer and she’s a teacher. More examples? I’m a teacher and an engineer, she’s an architect, he’s a doctor, she’s a dentist, he’s a race car driver, she’s a publicist, he’s a police officer, she’s a dog walker, he’s a businessman, she’s a scientist, he’s a librarian, etc.

So what are you? Do you work or study? Are you a student? Do you take care of your home while other people are out? If so, you’re a homemaker, or a stay-at-home mom, or a stay-at-home dad – in case you have kids. I have a friend who lives in the US and she’s an HR executive, while her husband is a stay-at-home dad.

OK, moving along to mistake #2… I read this the other day: I’m fan of… something. Again, we say it just like that in Portuguese, right? Sou fã disso, sou fã daquilo. Not exactly so in English. In English, we say I’m a fan. I’m a fan of soccer, I’m a fan of comedies, I’m always a fan of restaurants with good service, I’m a big fan of Indian movies… He’s a fan of homemade ice cream, she’s a fan of sitcoms, he’s a big fan of soapoperas… Imagine that you show up to the opening of a new Greek restaurant in your town. Your neighbor sees you and he’s all surprised! He says “Wow, I didn’t expect to see you here! I didn’t know you were into Greek food.” And you say “Oh, yeah. I’m a fan. I’m a big fan.”

So what are you a fan of? Are you a fan of soapoperas? Are you a fan of water sports? What are you a fan of? Let us know in the comments.

And, last but not least, here’s the third mistake I’ve seen recently. You know how in Portuguese we say Eu não gosto de laranja. Eu gosto de maçã. Não aguento mais político. Detesto peça de teatro mas adoro filme. Well, in English we do not say I don’t like orange (unless we’re talking about the color orange). We would say I don’t like orangeS. And we don’t say I like movie. We say “I like movieS”. For all the stuff we can count, we use the plural. We can count oranges, apples, pens, movies, as in three oranges, four apples, five pens, two movies and so on. So in order to talk about them as a category, so to speak, we use the plural.

I don’t like orangeS. I like appleS. I’m sick of politicianS. I hate playS but I love movieS. I’m sick of all these carS in the street! I don’t like antS, I love beetleS, I don’t like monkeyS but I love lionS. I don’t like sitcomS but I really like foreign movieS. Here are more examples of when we use the plural form when speaking about things we can count, as a category:

• Speaking of movieS… Have you seen anything good recently?
• PancakeS are a good choice for the company breakfast. Everybody loves them!
• Merry-go-roundS are cool, but nothing beats rollercoasterS.
• I wish there were more towelS in this room.

Notice how we would say these sentences in Portuguese: Falando de filme… Panqueca é uma escolha boa… Queria que tivesse mais toalha.Now, again in English: Speaking of movieS… Have you seen anything good recently? PancakeS are a good choice for the company breakfast. Everybody loves them! Merry-go-roundS are cool, but nothing beats rollercoasterS. I wish there were more towelS in this room.

So keep an eye out for the plural form from here on out. And why not come up with your own examples in the comment area?  Talk to you next time!

Glossary

three little mistakes I’ve seen… = três errinhos que eu tenho visto…

…or rather, heard… = …ou melhor, ouvido…

…people make, kinda often, lately. = …as pessoas fazerem, com frequência, ultimamente

tend not to pay as much attention to them as they do the big stuff = tem tendência a não prestar tanta atenção a eles quanto prestam a coisas grandes

publicist = profissional de relações públicas, que pode trabalhar gerenciando a imagem de uma figura pública

stay-at-home = que fica em casa

HR = Human Resources (Recursos Humanos)

the opening = a inauguração

last but not least = por último, mas não em importância

beetle = besouro

nothing beats = nada melhor que

from here on out = daqui por diante

Aqui é o Marcelo, e hoje eu trago expressões do seriado The Big Bang Theory, Season 05, Episodio 18.

Esse episódio, para variar, foi muito engraçado, e eu selecionei três expressões usadas nele e que você pode conferir no vídeo abaixo: that was uncalled for; pull something off, e it’s on you.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

Como de costume e para ajudar a fixar as expressões, eu criei um minidiálogo bem informal onde elas estão incluídas em negrito.

English version:

Patrick: Dude, that chick is checking you out! Go get her!

Jeff: Nah, I’ll just stay here in my little corner. Besides, I don’t like bottle blondes.

Patrick: What’s wrong with you? You’re turning into such a lame-o.

Jeff: Hey, that was totally uncalled for, man. Ok, I’ll go get her!… But if I can’t pull it off, it’s on you.

 

Portuguese version:

Patrick: Mano, aquela mina está olhando pra você! Vai lá pegar ela!

Jeff: Não, eu quero ficar aqui no meu cantinho. Além disso, eu não gosto de loira oxigenada.

Patrick: Qual é o teu problema? Você está virando um enrolão de primeira.

Jeff: Não precisava dessa, cara. Ok, eu vou lá pegar ela!… Mas se eu não conseguir, a culpa é tua.

Obs.: lame-o (“lei-mou”) não quer sempre dizer “enrolão”, mas é uma gíria super informal que amigos usam entre si quando um deles está desanimado, não quer sair, ou não quer falar com uma garota, etc (pode ser usada para alguém que não faz parte do grupo também, é claro).

Key words│Expressions:

• Uncalled for ─ Quando se diz algo que é desnecessário no sentido de “Não precisava dizer/fazer isso; foi um pouco demais”, inapropriado, sem necessidade.

Segue mais um exemplo: He thinks the criticism from FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke was totally uncalled for. (Ele acha que as críticas do secretário geral da FIFA foram totalmente desnecessárias.)

• Pull something off ─  “pull something off” é um phrasal verb que quer dizer ter sucesso em fazer algo, conseguir uma proeza ou uma espécie de façanha. É muito comum ouvir em seriados um personagem dizer ao outro “You can’t pull that off”, ou “Você não consegue (fazer isso)”. Veja um exemplo de uso neste episódio de Friends: a cena começa mais ou menos em 4:50.

Segue mais um exemplo: I’m learning a new maneuver and I think I can pull it off at the skateboarding championship.  (Estou aprendendo uma nova manobra e acho que eu consigo fazer no campeonato de skate.)

• It’s on you ─ A culpa é tua, a responsabilidade é tua, você assume as consequências, etc. Essa expressão é geralmente usada quando alguém pede para você fazer algo que não está afim. Quando você decide fazer, meio a contragosto, você diz “OK, mas se não der certo você assume / se vira / é com você”.

Segue mais um exemplo: Basically, if anything goes wrong, it’s on you. (Basicamente, se alguma coisa der errado, você se vira pra dar um jeito na situação.)

É isso aí pessoal, por hoje é só!

Take care guys, all the best!

P.S. Que tal colocar nos comentários um exemplo de algo que aconteceu com você, onde você poderia ter dito “That was uncalled for!”

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online a gente fala sobre algumas expressões comuns com a palavra better.

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).

Baixe o mp3

Baixe o PDF

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’s word is “better”. As in, Coke tastes better than Pepsi, or Pepsi tastes better than Coke, whatever your opinion is. Better, as in I like coffee better than tea. As in, I’ve had a cold since Saturday but I’m getting better now. I think you get the gist.

So I’m gonna talk about three really common expressions, or set phrases, with better. So for the first one, picture this: you’re about to get out of the house for the whole day. It’s early in the morning and you won’t be back home till after the sun has set. It’s been raining a lot where you live, but you take one look outside and you can’t see a cloud in the sky. All you can see is the clear, blue sky… no clouds in sight. You think to yourself that maybe today is going to be different – it’s not going to rain. But then you think again, and you remember that, sometimes, the weather can be unpredictable. Sunny in the morning, rainy in the afternoon. Who knows? So, again, you think to yourself: You know what? Better safe than sorry. It’s sunny right now, but what if it rains later? I’m gonna take my umbrella with me, just in case. Better safe than sorry.

So that’s what this expression means: it’s better to take extra precautions than to take risks and maybe suffer some undesirable consequences. So maybe you’re in your car early in the morning and the tank is only half full, but you know you’re not gonna need to drive too far today. Then you remember your boss might ask you to do a last minute delivery… It’s not likely, but… who knows? You decide to stop by the gas station anyway and fill up the tank. Better safe than sorry.

The other two phrases aren’t very pleasant things to say, but hey, we’re not always pleasant, right? So let’s move right along to the next set phrase. Let me give you an example: imagine that you and your friend are visiting some touristic town for the first time and, actually, you guys have just returned from a day-long tour. You’re both tired and starving, and the first two restaurants you stumble upon are closed already. So you finally spot this little place that looks like a bar, and you guys get a table and, after a quick look at the menu, order some sandwiches. As you’re taking a sip of your Diet Coke, you ask your friend “How do you like your sandwich?”. Your friend says “Better than nothing”.

That means your friend doesn’t really like it. It’s the same in Portuguese, right? Better than nothing. It’s not good, to be honest, but I’m starving and it’s food, so it will do. Better than nothing. Can you remember the last time you had this thought? “Eh, better than nothing”. Maybe you had been wandering in the streets somewhere, looking for a restroom and just when you’re about to give up and call a cab, you finally find a public restroom. It’s dirty and it stinks, but you think to yourself “Better than nothing”. That’s based on a true story, by the way and… that’s all I’m gonna say.

And here’s the last one. You’ll say this one when you’re kinda annoyed at something or someone. Again, it’s very similar to what we say in Portuguese: Tenho mais o que fazer. You can say “I’ve got better things to do”, or simply “Better things to do”. Imagine someone asks you how your conversation with your neighbor went. So here’s the question: How did things go with your neighbor?” And you answer “Oh, I gave up. We simply can’t see eye to eye on this. I’ve got better things to do”. So what does that mean? That means you wanted your neighbor to agree with you on something, but that’s not gonna happen. You guys do not see eye to eye on this, trying to convince your neighbor is a waste of time, so you gave up. You’ve got better things to do with your time.

So give us your examples: when was the last time you thought “better safe than sorry”? And what about “better than nothing”, and “I’ve got better things to do”?  Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

• better safe than sorry
• better than nothing
• I’ve got better things to do

Glossary

as in = assim como em

you get the gist = você pegou a ideia

till after the sun has set = antes (até) do sol ter se posto

no clouds in sight = nenhuma nuvem à vista

a day-long tour = um tour que durou o dia inteiro

taking a sip = dando um gole

It will do. = Serve.

We don’t see eye to eye = a gente não concorda, não vê as coisas do mesmo jeito

MENOS DINHEIRO

Como eu digo menos dinheiro, menos tristeza, menos pressão e menos informação?

• less money
• less sadness
• less pressure
• less information

O que money, sadness, pressure e information tem em comum? Todos aí são coisas que a gente não conta: não dizemos two moneys, one sadness, three pressures, twenty informations. Parecido com o português, a não ser no caso de informação, em que dizemos duas informações etc. por aqui mas não no inglês.

Em inglês, dinheiro, tristeza, pressão e informação dão nome mais a uma categoria de alguma coisa do que a uma unidade de coisa. Compare com “moeda”, “lágrima”, “empurrão” e “notícia” – todas essas aí dão nome a unidades de algo. Mas não vamos entrar muito em contáveis vs. não contáveis nessa dica: para ver mais sobre isso, clique neste link.

Então quando queremos dizer que há menos, ou havia menos, ou temos ou teremos menos de alguma dessas coisas que não contamos, usamos LESS.

We have less money now then we did a year ago.

There’s less sadness in this house since the dog arrived.

I’m glad you’re taking the course with me. It’s less pressure this way.

We’re all overwhelmed with so many newspaper subscriptions. We actually need less daily information, not more.

Que exemplo real você poderia dar sobre sua vida neste caso? Você pode falar, por exemplos, dos casos acima, ou de less control, less food, less fear, less free time, less meat ou less salt, por exemplo.

No meu caso: I have less free time now that I’m working on new English materials. E você?

MENOS GENTE

“Gente”, por outro lado, nós podemos contar. “Gente” em inglês é normalmente people, que é (neste caso) o plural de person. É o mesmo caso de qualquer objeto, animal, lugar, e qualquer outra coisa que designe uma unidade de algo. Quando dizemos “menos gente”, “menos carros”, etc. estamos dizendo “menos unidades de pessoas” e “menos unidades de carros”, não é?

Para expressar que havia menos carros, ou que você tinha menos canetas, ou que alguém tinha menos amigos antes que agora, usamos FEWER.

There were fewer cars parked on the street last night, compared to Saturday.

Now that she works in New York, Paula has fewer friends but they’re all good friends.

Now that we live in a small town, we have fewer options of what to do at night.

This is a good supermarket but it carries fewer brands than my old grocery store.

Qual exemplo de sua vida você pode dar? O meu: I have fewer dogs than my friend Lili. Actually, I have only one dog.

E uma obs.: um erro relativamente comum entre falantes nativos de inglês é dizer less dogs, por exemplo. Incorreto, mas talvez você ouça ou leia por aí.

Veja mais sobre few e contáveis e incontáveis nesta dica, e nesta outra.

É fácil de navegar: você pode ir e voltar nas questões.

Quando você terminar, clique em Get Results para ver as respostas novamente, assim como as explicações.

Você pode clicar em List a qualquer momento para ver quais questões já respondeu e quais ainda não. O quiz também pode ser feito tranquilamente a partir de aparelhos touch, como iPod e afins.

Enjoy!

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online a gente fala sobre como pedir licença e terminar uma conversa quando você precisa (ou quer) ir embora.

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, all. How’s everything? 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 here’s an interesting topic for our podcast: you’re having a nice conversation with someone, either face to face or on the phone, and all of a sudden you realize you’re late. You have an appointment, or you gotta be somewhere else very soon. Or, you simply realize that, for whatever reason, you’re kinda done with this conversation and it’s time to end it, but the thing is… The other person won’t stop talking. Today’s podcast is about presenting you with several different ways to get out of a conversation, you know, without being rude or unpleasant.

And the inspiration for this episode came from an HP newsletter that someone forwarded me. You know HP – Hewlett Packard, the technology company? They have a newsletter where they talk about their products and other stuff, and on this particular edition, they were… There was this business tip with a list of things you could use to say goodbye to someone who won’t stop talking. For this podcast I’ve selected my favorite ones, but I’ve also included the link to the original newsletter article at the bottom of this post, in case you wanna check out their other suggestions.

So imagine you’ve been talking to this person for a while, and now it’s time to go. He or she has been talking incessantly and you’re just waiting for a pause! When they finally take a breath, here are a few things you can say:

• Well, Michael, it’s been wonderful talking to you! or OK, Catherine, it’s been really good talking to you; or
• I really enjoyed meeting you!; or
• Thank you so much for your time! It’s been so helpful talking to you; or even
• Hey, it’s been great to catch up! See you around.

The last one was very direct; right? You’re telling the person you appreciate the conversation you guys just had and then you’re saying goodbye. In all of the above examples you’re signaling the other person that you’re ready to say goodbye. You could also indicate that you would like to continue at a later time. For example, you could say…

• That is very interesting. I’ll need to think about it, but I’ll be in touch; or
• Great! So we’ll see each other on Friday, or next week, or at that conference in April, right?, or
• Look, I really have to go now but I’d love to talk more about this. Can I call you tomorrow?

So these are all very nice ways to wrap up a conversation, while at the same time conveying that you’re interested in what the other person is saying and would like to hear more about it.

Yet another way is just being honest about why you need to leave. Maybe you don’t mind sharing your reason for saying goodbye, and you could use one of these:

• Sorry! I really have to leave for the airport now, but it’s been great talking to you!; or
• I’m sorry, I have to run now – I’m late for a meeting. Here’s my business card. Let’s keep in touch!; or
• I have just seen someone I need to talk to. I gotta catch her before she leaves. Will you excuse me?

So when was the last time you had to excuse yourself from a conversation? What did you say? Me… it was a phone conversation and I had to get some work done, so I just said “I need to get some more work done before noon. Can I call you later?”

Let us know about your experiences. Talk to you next time!

Artigo: Como se despedir de uma pessoa que não para de falar!

Key expressions

Ways to end a conversation

Glossary

for whatever reason = qualquer que seja a razão

you’re kinda done with  this conversation = pra você, essa conversa meio que já deu

to convey = expressar

Alguns exemplos de como é usada:

• Without a doubt, this is the best sandwich I have ever eaten [Sem dúvida,...]
• He went to the party without his friends [...sem seus amigos]

E se  você não estiver familiarizado com a pronúncia de without, ouça-a aqui.

Nos casos que vou apresentar nesta dica, without tem função de preposição. Talvez você já conheça a regrinha: quando você tem preposição seguida de verbo, o verbo aparece na forma -ING. Numa prova escrita, bastaria você se lembrar disso, não? Olha a sentença do título como fica:

He left without saying goodbye [Ele saiu sem falar tchau]

Mas como na hora da conversa em tempo real é difícil lembrar de regra, eu vou colocar aqui vários exemplos dessa estrutura para que você tenha um pouco mais de exposição a ela. Com exposição e compreensão suficientes, uma hora você se pega usando a dita cuja!

Veja mais ideias que a gente pode expressar daquela maneira:

• A gente precisa ter uma conversa sem ser interrompido.
• Ontem eu andei cinco quilômetros sem parar.
• Ela conseguiu passar no teste sem fazer o curso.
• A Julia saiu da aula sem chamar atenção.

Ou, em inglês:

We need to have a conversation without being interrupted.

Yesterday I walked five kilometers without stopping.

She was able to pass the test without taking the course.

Julia left the class without drawing attention to herself.

Se isso é algo que você ainda não diz automaticamente em inglês, de agora em diante fique ligado/a nas séries de TV. Como essa construção com without é muito, muito comum na conversa em inglês do dia-a-dia, não demora muito e você começa a ouvi-la.

Você acabou indo embora de algum lugar sem falar tchau para sua amiga? I left without saying bye to my friend.

Você finalmente comprou uma TV com controle remoto e agora consegue mudar o canal sem se levantar? I can finally switch channels without getting up.

Você descobriu um supermercado online e agora faz suas compras sem sair de casa? Now I can grocery shop without leaving home.

Ela pegou o colar sem que ninguém percebesse

Viu essa construçãozinha aí do subtítulo? Um pouquinho diferente, né? Acho que muitas pessoas, eu inclusive, diriam apenas “Ela pegou o colar sem ninguém perceber” (She took the necklace without anyone noticing).

Mas esse outro jeito de falar em português, que contém o chamado “pretérito imperfeito do subjuntivo’, também é muito comum:

• Ela pegou o colar sem que ninguém percebesse.
• A gente atravessou a sala sem que o bebê acordasse.
• Ele pegou umas laranjas sem que ninguém se desse conta.
• A polícia conseguiu resgatar as crianças sem que ninguém se machucasse.

E como fica quando queremos expressar estas aí em inglês? Se você está achando que vamos ter que usar uma estrutura diferente ou mais complicada… enganou-se.

É exatamente a mesma:

She took the necklace without anyone noticing.

We walked across the room without waking up the baby.

He took a few oranges without anybody realizing it.

The police were able to rescue the children without anyone getting hurt.

Agora, é com você

O que você fez ou disse sem que alguma coisa acontecesse? O que alguém fez sem acontecer alguma coisa? Olha só um exemplo real meu: I learned all about Internet marketing without spending a dime.

E o seu exemplo?

Obs.: A dime = 10 centavos de dólar. Without spending a dime equivale a ‘sem gastar um centavo’.

Aqui é o Marcelo. Fiquei uma semana sem poder postar, mas hoje volto novamente com expressões do seriado Two and a Half Men, Season 09, Episodio 14.

Eu separei quatro expressões usadas nas cenas do episódio. Vejam só onde elas aparecem no vídeo abaixo:

Obs.: No último exemplo, a mulher diz “…just stop me nagging”. Este me não é o pronome me com o qual estamos acostumados – por exemplo, como em Tell me. A personagem que disse isso é inglesa, e em certas partes da Inglaterra, e também em outros países como a Irlanda, algumas pessoas dizem me com o sentido de my. Por isso, entenda o que ela disse como “…stop my nagging”.

Are you ready? Let’s get started! Aqui vai o diálogo que eu criei com as expressões:

English version:

Kathy: I don’t wanna be the third wheel, but do you guys mind if I hang out with you until lunch?

Anna: C’mon… you’re not the third wheel. Have a seat.

Kathy: What are you guys in the mood for?

Mario: Oh, we are just trying to find someone we can nag at.

Portuguese version:

Kathy: Eu não quero segurar vela, mas se importam se eu ficar com vocês até a hora do almoço?

Anna: Deixa disso… não tem essa de segurar vela. Senta.

Kathy: O que vocês estão a fim de fazer?

Mario: Ah, a gente só está tentando encontrar alguém para encher o saco.

Key words│Expressions:

• Be a third wheel ─ Segurar vela. Segue mais um exemplo: I hate it when I’m the third wheel. (Eu odeio ter que segurar vela.)

• Hang out with ─ Acredito que muitos já conhecem essa expressão mas achei interessante adicioná-la pois pode ser que para alguns seja novidade. É uma expressão muito usada no dia a dia por nativos, e quer dizer passar o tempo com alguém, sair com alguém, se divertir, se juntar a alguém ou grupo. Segue mais um exemplo: I love just going to a bar and hanging out with my friends. (Adoro ir para um bar e passar o tempo com os meus amigos.)

• Be in the mood for ─ Estar a fim de fazer algo, estar querendo fazer algo, estar no clima para algo. Segue mais um exemplo: I’m in the mood for dancing tonight. (Estou afim de dançar hoje a noite.)

* Não confundir com”be in a mood”, que é não estar a fim de fazer algo por estar irritado, impaciente. Geralmente alguém que está de “mau humor” é “someone who is in a bad mood”

• Nag at ─ Pertubar, irritar, encher o saco de algúem. Segue mais um exemplo: I said no, stop nagging me! (Eu disse não, pare de me enchar o saco.)

É isso aí pessoal, por hoje é só!

When was the last time you were a third wheel? How often do you hang out with your friends? Esperamos seus comentários!

Take care guys, all the best!

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online vamos falar sobre algumas expressões muito comuns no inglês, todas com a palavra ‘would’.

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.

Today I’m gonna focus on a few very common ways to use the word ‘would’. Would, as in… If I had a million dollars, I would travel around the world. There are some short phrases with ‘would’ that… They’re almost set phrases that people say very, very often in everyday conversation. They’re not hard to understand and I’m pretty sure that most of you listening would get the meaning if someone said one of these phrases, but the goal here is to expose you to them a little bit more and, who knows? Tomorrow one of them might come out of your mouth just like that.

So in order to introduce the first phrase with would, I’ll ask you to imagine that you’re at work right now, and just casually chatting with a colleague. There’s been a rumor going around the office today that everyone is going to be asked to leave at 3PM because of some kind of safety inspection or something… You’re hopeful. You feel super tired and you would love to be able to take a nap before dinner. So you ask your colleague – let’s say her name is Helen – so, you ask Helen, ‘Do you think we’re going home early today?’. And what does Helen say? She says ‘I wouldn’t count on it’. She seems so sure about it; you’re devastated. You ask her “Why?” and she says “I just talked to the boss and he said it’s business as usual until 5 o’clock”.

Helen’s answer to your question was “I wouldn’t count on it”. That means she doesn’t believe that that’s gonna happen. She doesn’t believe that people at the office are going home early today. Why does she think that? Because she talked to the boss, and the boss basically said that today is just another regular day at the office. So Helen is saying “I wouldn’t count on it. I don’t believe we’ll be going home early today. I talked to the boss, and he indicated that that’s not gonna happen, so… going home early today? I wouldn’t count on it.”

So whenever someone asks you if you think something is going to happen, and you’re relatively sure that that’s not going to happen, you can say “I wouldn’t count on it”. Is Brazil going to be the next World Cup champion? I wouldn’t count on it. Honestly? I wouldn’t. Are soapoperas going to be banned from our TV programming? I wouldn’t count on it. Are cats gonna start barking? I wouldn’t count on it.

But you haven’t given up yet. Helen thinks today’s business as usual, but she could be wrong so you move on to another colleague. You see Steve coming through the glass door so you think you might as well ask him what he thinks. “Steve, rumor has it that we’re all leaving the office early today. Do you think that’s true?” And what does Steve reply? He says “Oh, I wouldn’t know. I’ve just come in. I just arrived in the office, I haven’t talked to anyone yet, so… Sorry, I wouldn’t know”. There’s no way Steve would know whether this rumor is true or not. How could he know? He has just stepped into the office, he has just arrived, he hasn’t talked to anyone today, so there’s no way he would know anything about this. So when you ask “Steve, do you think it’s true?”, he says “Oh, sorry, I wouldn’t know”. That means, there’s no way he would know the answer to that question. Maybe someone who’s been in the office all day would know. But Steve? He wouldn’t know.

So if someone asks you, for example, “Is soccer a popular sport in India?” you can say “Oh, I wouldn’t know”. Unless you do know the answer, of course… I’m assuming that, like me, you don’t know which sports are popular in India. Or someone may ask you “Is it going to rain next week?” and you can say “I wouldn’t know”. How would I know? I wouldn’t know.

And, finally, here’s another very common expression with ‘would’… Let’s say you’re still at work, and you need a ride home today. So you ask your friend Michael: “Michael, can you give me a ride home today?” Michael drives to work and he lives in your neighborhood. So, again, you ask Michael “Can you give me a ride home today?” and Michael says “I would if I could. My car’s at the shop. We can share a cab”. So Michael can’t give you a ride today. Why not? Because his car is at the shop. He doesn’t have his car right now. If he did, he would give you a ride, of course! He would, if he could. He can’t, because his car is at the shop. So when you ask Michael if he can give you a ride today, he says “I would if I could”.

Picture a situation where someone asks for help, and you would be very happy to help, if you could. You would help, if you could, but for some reason you can’t. In cases like this, you can say “I would if I could”. Maybe someone asked you for a ride, but your car’s at the shop. Maybe someone’s asking to borrow your umbrella right now. “Would you loan me your umbrella real quick?” You say “I would if I could! I left it in the car, sorry”. Or someone asks you to give them a hand with their Math homework. You say “I would if I could! I’m hopeless at Math”.

What’s your example? Tell us about when someone asked you a favor and you wanted to help, but you couldn’t. Is this a time when you could have said “I would if I could”? Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

• I wouldn’t count on it
• I wouldn’t know
• I would if I could

Glossary

just like that = de repente, sem que você espere, sem mais nem menos

you’ve been told that = te disseram que

you need a ride home = você precisa de uma carona pra casa

my car is at the shop = meu carro está no conserto (ou na manutenção)

hopeless at Math = sou péssimo com matemática

Perguntas

(a) Why is that man buying flowers? Por que esse homem está comprando flores?

(b) Is he going to buy the bestseller?  Ele vai comprar o campeão de vendas?

(c) Why is this the bestseller? Por que esse (buquê) é o campeão de vendas?

Minhas respostas

(a) He is buying flowers for himself, simply because he loves flowers. He’s a sensitive guy who loves music, art and literature, and he thinks flowers cheer up the place.  Ele está comprando flores para ele mesmo, simplesmente porque ele ama flores. Ele é um cara sensível que ama música, arte e literatura, e ele acha que flores alegram o lugar.

(b) No, he isn’t. He is going to buy a much larger bouquet with sunflowers. Não, não vai. Ele vai comprar um buquê muito maior com girassóis.

(c) This is a bouquet of white gardenias, and the legend says that Thomas Morris, first mayor this city ever had, offered a bouquet just like this one to his girlfriend the night he proposed. Since then, white gardenias have been the bestselling flowers on special occasions. Esse é um buquê de gardênias brancas, e diz a lenda que Thomas Morris, o primeiro prefeito que essa cidade teve, ofereceu um buquê como esse à sua namorada na noite em que a pediu em casamento. Desde então, gardênias brancas são as campeãs de vendas em ocasiões especiais.

                 E você? Quais seriam as suas respostas?

E aqui vai o PDF com o cartoon anterior – Are you sure you wanna sell it? – com todas as respostas (editadas quando necessário) para quem quiser guardar.

É fácil de navegar: você pode ir e voltar nas questões e as explicações, quando há, aparecem logo depois de cada resposta sua.

Outra coisa legal é que a partir de agora os quizzes estão hospedados no Inglês Online, ou seja, não tem mais perigo de outro site sair do ar e nossos quizzes desaparecerem.

Você pode clicar em List a qualquer momento para ver quais questões já respondeu e quais ainda não. E, finalmente, nosso quiz hoje usa expressões do inglês que incluem as palavras ‘rock’ e ‘stone’.

Enjoy!

P.S. O desenvolvedor fez essa ferramenta com internet móvel em mente: segundo ele, os botões do quiz estão prontos para responder a touch. Quem testar, me conte!

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online vamos falar sobre algumas expressões muito comuns com a palavra ‘call’.

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 we have three expressions with the word ‘call’. Yeah, I’m talking about call, the same word we use when we telephone someone. But only one of the expressions today has something to do with giving a phone call, so, let’s get started with that one.

Here it is: “Don’t call us; we’ll call you”. That means, of course, please do not get in touch. We will contact you, we will let you know if we want to talk to you any further. So, for example, you had a job interview this morning and, at the end, you asked the interviewer “When do you think you’ll make a decision?” And the interviewer says “Don’t call us, we’ll call you. Thank you for coming!”

This phrase “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” is often understood as, and it often actually is, a dismissal. It’s like that person is saying “Don’t bother, OK? Don’t bother calling us. If you get the job, we will let you know”. Sometimes you see that on sitcoms: one of the characters comes back from a job interview and a friend asks “So how did the interview go?” and the character answers “The interviewer said ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you’”. And the friend says “Oh, sorry to hear that. I’m sorry it didn’t work out”.

This phrase is often understood as a rejection, although, I mean, that’s not necessarily true, of course. It could be that the people at the company decide that they like you and that you’re a good fit for the job and they end up calling you, so… who knows? In any case, if you hear “Don’t call us; we’ll call you” at the end of an interview, you know what to do: nothing. And keep looking for a job, right?

Our second expression with ‘call’ today is a great one. I’m going to start off with an example which, I think, will make it easier for you guys to get the meaning. Picture this: you and your work mates are in the office, working on a spreadsheet. It’s a super important spreadsheet with a ton of calculations and you’ve all been crunching numbers for hours, and snacking on some pizza, and now you’re revising the numbers again… So finally, around 5 o’clock, your work is done. The spreadsheet is ready to be emailed to the VP of Sales. You take one final glance at the spreadsheet, save the file and zip it up.

You’re about to hit “Send” when John, one of your teammates, interrupts you and says “Wait! We’d better make this file ‘read-only’, you know, just to be safe. A couple of people other than the VP will be able to open it, so… Let’s make it a read-only file’. Everyone looks at John and you say “Good call!” No one but John thought of the security aspect. That spreadsheet is full of confidential information and you guys worked so hard on it. The least you can do is protect it from being modified, even accidentally. So that’s why, when John thought that it would be a good idea to make the spreadsheet read-only, you said “Good call!”

That means, wow, what a great thing to think of, what a great thing to notice! Here’s something that’s really important; it’s such an important and simple detail, and no one else even thought of it, but John. And that is why you said “Good call, John!” In Portuguese I guess we could say something like “Que sacada! Nossa, que sacada boa”. I think you get what I’m saying and next time someone in your team says “Good call!” you know you’ve noticed or realized something really useful or important before anyone else did.

And here’s one more very common expression with ‘call’: let’s call it a day. Let’s call it a day. That means simply ‘let’s end whatever it is we’re doing now, let’s be done with this for today’. People usually say that when they have been engaged in some sort of activity for some time… let’s say, for a few hours, and they’re ready to just be done with it for that day. Maybe they’ll continue tomorrow, but they’re done for today so they say ‘Let’s call it a day’, and then they say goodbye and go home, maybe. Or perhaps you’re having drinks with your work mates at a bar after work and it’s already 9PM, and one of your colleagues suggests that you guys go to a different bar now. You’re tired, you’re ready to go home so you say “Hmm, I think I’m gonna call it a night. See you all tomorrow at the office”.

Or maybe you met with your old highschool friends at the mall and you guys have been chatting and catching up all afternoon and all of a sudden you realize it’s already 5PM and you’re supposed to pick up your kid at school. So you tell your friends “It was great seeing you all, but it’s time I call it a day”.

So, has anyone ever told you “Don’t call us; we’ll call you?” Let us know in the comments.  Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

• don’t call us; we’ll call you
• good call!
• let’s call it a day

Glossary

a dismissal = uma dispensada

don’t bother = não se dê ao trabalho

crunching numbers = processar uma quantidade enorme de dados, fazer muitas contas

you zip it up = você zipa o arquivo

no one but John = ninguém, a não ser o John

A ideia básica de cada post tem tudo que eu gosto: imagem, contexto, ideias interessantes e vários exemplos. Frank pega uma expressão de uma tirinha ou um cartoon, explica – tudo em inglês – e vai dando exemplos adicionais.

É difícil achar alguém que não goste, ou nunca tenha gostado de quadrinhos… A própria premissa já desperta interesse, e com a boa frequência dos posts esse blog se torna um recurso super recomendado pra quem quer se familiarizar mais com expressões do inglês.

Acesse o Natively Speaking Comics

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online vamos falar sobre várias maneiras diferentes de responder a pergunta How have you been?

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, all. How have you been? 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.

Notice that I didn’t ask “How are you?”. I said “How have you been?” and that is another way to greet someone and ask how they have been lately, how they have been recently, maybe, or how they have been since the last time you two saw each other. How have you been? What have you been up to?

Of course, in the United States and, I believe, in other English-speaking countries as well, you’re not really supposed to launch into a detailed account of everything you’ve been doing or every illness you’ve had since you last saw that person… Remember this is a way to greet someone, so unless this is a really close friend or relative, your answer should probably be brief, and this is what we’re gonna talk about today.

So here’s one way you could answer someone who asks you ‘How have you been?’ – you could say “I’ve been keeping busy” or simply “Keeping busy”. That obviously gives the idea that you have been… doing stuff, whatever it is that you do. You’ve been studying, working, taking care of your kids, collecting stamps, cooking, whatever. You’ve been keeping busy. So if anyone asks you “How have you been?” you may answer “Keeping busy” or “I’ve been keeping busy” or even “I’ve been keeping myself busy”.

Here’s another phrase that people say a lot in answer to “How have you been?”: I’ve been keeping out of trouble, or just ‘Keeping out of trouble’. This can be kind of a facetious answer, you know… Facetious means slightly humorous. It could be that you really HAVE been keeping out of trouble – maybe you used to commit crimes and after some time in jail you decided to keep yourself out of trouble, so, hey, that’s literally what you mean, right, when you say “I’ve been keeping out of trouble”. But usually people just say that in a more tongue-in-cheek way, you know. How have you been? Oh, keeping out of trouble.

Now, if you want to express that you’re kinda going through some hard times, or that things haven’t been easy, you could say “I’ve been getting by”. Hey, how have you been? Getting by. I’ve been getting by. “Get by” is a so-called phrasal verb, right? When you get by, that means your life may not be ideal, you may not be performing at your best in some kind of situation, but you’re doing just enough to go on with your life or… you’re doing your best to overcome whatever difficulty you’re facing. So when you say “I’ve been getting by”, you’re saying that you probably wish things were different. There’s something going on that is kind of a setback in your life right now, so it’s not an ideal situation, but you’re getting by.

Here’s another one you may use in case you have been feeling a little sick, a little indisposed maybe… And, of course, you feel like sharing it so when someone asks you ‘How have you been?’, you can say ‘I’ve been under the weather’. When you say you’re under the weather, you’re saying you’re not feeling very well, you’re probably ill so… ‘How have you been?’ ‘I’ve been under the weather, but feeling better today’, if that’s the case. Also, let me bring the pronunciation of ‘under’ and ‘weather’ to your attention: under, and weather. For the second syllable of weather, the tip of your tongue will go briefly between your teeth, so… just something to notice. Under and weather.

Now let’s wrap things up with something you can use right now in case you’re in Brazil. Today in São Paulo we have a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius and I know that it’s a lot hotter in other places such as Rio and the northeast. And you know that the weather is one of people’s favorite things to talk about when they’re making small talk. So if someone asks you today “How have you been?” you could answer “Keeping cool”. “I’ve been keeping cool”. Well, in case that’s true, of course. That answer would make sense today, I think anywhere in Brazil, since it’s so hot. What have you been doing to keep yourself cool? I’ve been drinking water and staying out of direct sunlight for the most part.

So how have you been? Now it’s time for your answer in the comments. How have you been? Have you been keeping cool? Have you been under the weather? Have you been keeping busy? I know I have. Have you been… getting by? Let us know in the comments and talk to you next time.

Key expressions

• (I’ve been) keeping busy
• (I’ve been) keeping out of trouble
• (I’ve been) getting by
• (I’ve been) under the weather
• (‘I’ve been) keeping cool

Glossary

launch into a detailed account = começar um relato detalhado

to greet someone = cumprimentar alguém

tongue-in-cheek = irônico, pra ser engraçado

so-called = assim chamado, chamado

a setback = algo indesejado que veio para atrapalhar/atrasar

small talk = conversinha com estranhos na fila ou no consultório do dentista, pra quebrar o gelo, passar o tempo, etc

O vídeo está SUPER bacana! Quem ainda não conhece o trabalho do Steve tem que conferir, e o de hoje é ideal – as imagens e animações estão incríveis. O nível de inglês é aproximadamente intermediário, e o professor aproveita para falar sobre o past perfect também.

Como sempre, Steve traz uma atividade exclusiva para os leitores do Inglês Online. Assista o vídeo várias vezes e depois give the activity a shot (dê uma tentada no exercício).

Não deixe de visitar também o canal do Steve no You Tube, que é simplesmente o canal mais popular de inglês em vídeo naquele site.

Learning English TV 9

Activity

Já viu o vídeo algumas vezes e se familiarizou com o vocabulário? Então leia as instruções e comece o jogo da forca que o Steve desenvolveu e produziu exclusivamente para você, leitor do Inglês Online.

E para finalizar: os vídeos do Steve estão em vários lugares da web – aqui mesmo no site, é só buscar “Steve Ford” pra encontrar um monte. E, pela qualidade de suas produções, tanto no conteúdo quanto em aspectos técnicos, não é de se surpreender que seus vídeos tenham passado a ser parte do catálogo do canal EDU do YouTube, onde figuram lado a lado com produções de renomadas universidades. Veja os vídeos do Steve na seção Aprendizado Para a Vida Toda.

Aqui é o Marcelo, e hoje eu trago expressões do seriado Modern Family, Season 03, Episodio 13.

Eu separei três expressões usadas nas cenas do episódio. Vejam só onde elas aparecem no vídeo abaixo:

Como de costume, e para ajudar a fixar as expressões em inglês, eu criei um minidiálogo onde elas estão incluídas.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

English version:

Paul: Ok, Sally, I have bad news for you. Our spokesman got sick so you’ll have to give the speech instead.

Sally: What? Are you out of your mind? Good plan… throw me for a curveball at the last minute.

Paul: Sally, you are perfectly capable of doing it. I don’t wanna take any chances.

Sally: How am I going to give a speech if I’m shaking like a leaf?

Paul: Sally, get a grip. You’ll be fine!

 

Portuguese version:

Paul: Ok, Sally, eu tenho uma má notícia para você. Nosso portavoz ficou doente e por isso você vai ter que discursar em vez dele.

Sally: O que? Você está louco? Que ideia boa… Me dar esse abacaxi pra descascar em cima da hora.

Paul: Sally, você é perfeitamente capaz de fazer isso. Eu não quero assumir risco.

Sally: Como eu vou fazer discurso se estou tremendo que nem vara verde?

Paul: Sally, controle-se. Você vai se sair bem!

Key words│Expressions:

• Throw someone for a curveball ─ Colocar, deixar alguém em alguma situação complicada ou embaraçosa e de forma inesperada sem você saber o que fazer. Você pode encontrar algumas variações como  “Throw someone a curve/curveball“, sem a preposição “for“. O mais comum é a segunda, sem a preposição “for”.

Segue mais um exemplo: My brother threw me a curveball when he slipped the exam’s answers in front of my teacher. (Meu irmão me deixou em uma situação delicada quando ele tentou passar as respostas das provas na frente da professora.)

• Take any chances ─ Arriscar-se, assumir algum risco. Um outro sentido desta expressão é tentar a sorte.

Segue mais um exemplo: (Retirado do Dic. Longman) - The rope might break, but that’s a chance we’ll have to take. (O corda poderá se arrebentar, mas é um risco que nós teremos que correr.)

• Shake like a leaf ─ Essa expressão é legal. Nós usamos muita a expressão “tremer na base” ou “tremer que nem vara verde”. Lá, uma das coisas que eles dizem é “Shake like a leaf”, ou tremer por estar nervoso, irritado ou amedrontado em alguma situação.

Segue mais um exemplo: Miguel was shaking like a leaf when he stepped onto the stage. (Miguel estava tremendo que nem uma vara verde quando ele pisou no palco.)

Quando foi a última vez que you were shaking like a leaf? Ou que someone threw you a curveball? Conte nos comentários!

É isso aí pessoal, por hoje é só!

Take care guys, all the best!

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

Perguntas

(a) What is so special about this lamp? O que tem de tão especial com esse abajur?

(b) Why is Anne selling all this stuff?  Por que a Anne está vendendo todas essas coisas?

(c) What is Anne going to do about the lamp? O que a Anne vai fazer a respeito do abajur?

Minhas respostas

(a) Jennifer (Anne’s sister, who’s talking to her) had a dream last night and in her dream this lamp was worth almost a million dollars. So obviously she doesn’t want Anne to sell it so cheap. She wants Anne to hold off on selling it until she finds a wealthy buyer.  A Jennifer (irmã da Anne, que está falando com ela) teve um sonho ontem à noite e em seu sonho esse abajur valia quase um milhão de dólares. Então obviamente ela não quer que a Anne venda-o tão barato. Ela quer que a Anne espere para vendê-lo quando ela encontrar um comprador rico.

(b) Anne is an interior decorator who likes to follow all the current trends. So every three years or so she gets rid of all her furniture and buys brand new pieces. A Anne é uma decoradora de interiores que gosta de seguir todas as tendências atuais. Então a cada três anos, mais ou menos, ela se livra de toda a mobília e compra peças novinhas em folha.

(c) She’s going to hold off on selling it for another week, and wait while her sister Jennifer consults a specialist. Ela vai esperar pra vender mais uma semana, e aguardar enquanto a sua irmã Jennifer consulte um especialista.

                 E você? Quais seriam as suas respostas?

E aqui vai o PDF com o cartoon anterior – We’re out of beets – com todas as respostas (editadas quando necessário) para quem quiser guardar.

“It’s tough trying to keep your feet on the ground, your head above the clouds, your nose to the grindstone, your shoulder to the wheel, your finger on the pulse, your eye on the ball and your ear to the ground.”

Hi everyone,

Aqui é a Ira. Tenho feito muito exercício de leitura nos últimos dias, meses, talvez ano. Enfim, gosto muito de ler em inglês. Logicamente escolho fontes de leitura que me agradam. E encontro muitos exemplos de expressões em inglês, que sempre aprendo dentro de um contexto.

Como gosto muito de compartilhar tudo isso, principalmente no Twitter, fico de olho nos famosos trocadilhos que são fonte de material para o meu blog. O de hoje está bastante especial, então trouxe aqui pra vocês.

Trata-se de uma única sentença com sete expressões idiomáticas, todas relacionadas a partes do corpo humano. Vou dar uma explicadinha rápida em cada uma delas, com um exemplo, e depois é com vocês. Anotem e fiquem de olho a partir de agora para quando elas aparecerem novamente. Depois de um tempo, tentem usar ou quando conversarem com um nativo, ou escrevendo uma redação ou um e-mail em inglês, ou na escola de inglês com os colegas.

To keep your feet on the ground: to remain calm and stable; to not have your character spoilt by becoming famous or successful – Essa tem tradução direta no português, que é manter os pés no chão. Vejam que na definição do inglês é permanecer calmo e estável; não ter o seu caráter atingido por se tornar famoso, pessoa de sucesso.
Ex.: You’re not going to marry Prince Charming! Keep your feet on the ground.

To have your head in/above the clouds: to be thinking your own thoughts and not concentranting on what is happening around you – Também temos essa em português: ter ou estar com a cabeça nas nuvens, ou, conforme a definição, perdido em pensamentos. Outra maneira de dizer: não se concentrar no que está acontecendo ao seu redor.
Ex.: “Mary, do you have your head in the clouds? You’re missing the point.” asked the teacher.

To keep your nose to the grindstone: work very hard, without stopping – Trabalhar muito, sem pausas.
Ex.: I’ve got only one week before my exams start, so I’m keeping my nose to the grindstone.

To put your shoulder to the wheel: to work hard and make an effort – Trabalhar bastante, esforçar-se.
Ex.: You’d be surprised what you can get done when you really put your shoulder to the wheel.

Your finger on the pulse: be/stay familiar with the most recent changes or improvements – Estar/ficar a par com as mudanças/progressos mais recentes; acompanhar de perto algum assunto/acontecimento.
Ex.: The situation changes daily, so you’ve got to keep your finger on the pulse.

To keep your eye on the ball: stay alert, pay close attention to what is happening – Ficar de olho no que está acontecendo.
Ex.: Keep your eye on the ball and you will surely succeed.

To keep your ear to the ground: try to keep informed about something, specially if there are rumours or uncertainties - Ficar de ouvidos atentos.
Ex.: Her boss told her to keep her ear to the ground so that she’d be aware of any changes.

Bom, pessoal, é isso.

When it comes to English, you’d better keep your ear to the ground, eyes on the ball, finger on the pulse. And put your shoulder to the wheel, if you really want to learn it. Keep you nose to the grindstone every day. At school, don’t have your head in the clouds. And keep your feet on the ground about how much time it will take you to learn it. Rest assured that it doesn’t happen overnight.

[Em relação ao inglês, é melhor você ficar de ouvidos atentos, de olho no que está acontecendo, acompanhar de perto. E se esforçar muito, se você realmente quer aprender. Estude muito todos os dias. Na escola, não fique com a cabeça nas nuvens. E seja realista com relação ao tempo que levará para aprender inglês. Tenha certeza que isso não acontece da noite pro dia.]

Good luck with your studies!

P.S. da Ana: Para quem curtir, aqui vai um artigo da famosa apresentadora americana Oprah, cujo título é Keep your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground.

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

Aqui é o Marcelo, e hoje eu volto novamente com o seriado americano Two and a Half Men, Season 09, Episodio 13. Nesse episódio, Walden (Ashton Kutcher) está sendo forçado a se retirar da presidência da sua empresa pela ex-esposa (Bridget) e também por sua mãe (Robin).

Como nesse episódio houve muitas palavras e expressões relacionadas a negócios e trâmites empresarial, achei interessante compartilhar com vocês. Eu separei três expressões usadas nas cenas do episódio. Vejam só onde elas aparecem no vídeo abaixo:

Como de costume, e para ajudar a fixar as expressões em inglês, eu criei um minidiálogo onde elas estão incluídas.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

In English:

Director: Members, we are going to commence our board meeting in five minutes. Are we all set?

Employee: Yes, Sir, all set. The motion is on the table.

Director: Excellent. As agreed upon in our last meeting, today we have to pass this motion, revise the corporate bylaws, reform a few policies and discuss new measures to avoid bankruptcy. All final decisions will be made by a majority vote of the board. All in favor?

Employees: Aye!

 

Em português:

Diretor: Membros, nós vamos iniciar a nossa reunião de diretoria em cinco minutos. Todos prontos?

Empregado: Sim, senhor, está tudo pronto. A proposta está aberta para discussão.

Diretor: Excelente. Conforme acordado em nossa última reunião, hoje nós temos que aprovar essa proposta, revisar os estatutos da empresa, alterar algumas normas e discutir novas medidas para evitar a falência da empresa. Todas as decisões finais serão feitas por maioria de votos do conselho de administração. Todos a favor?

Empregado: Sim!

Key words│Expressions:

• All set ─  Estar pronto, preparado para alguma situação.

Segue mais um exemplo: The car’s packed. We’re all set to hit the road! (O carro está cheio/carregado. Estamos prontos para pegar a estrada!)

• On the table ─ Caro leitor, você deve estar se questionando agora: “The book in on the table?”. Ok, ok, I’m just kidding (Só estou brincando). “On the table”, nesse contexto, não significa colocar algo sobre alguma superfície, como o famoso “The book is on the table”. Nessa situação, quando se diz “something is on the table” – geralmente um assunto, plano ou idéia – isso significa que aquilo está aberto para discussões ou para ser debatido. É muito comum ouvir esta expressão em seriados.

Segue mais um exemplo: I wanna put our relationship on the table. (Eu quero discutir a nossa relação.)

• Bylaw ─ Regulamento, estatuto interno de uma empresa/companhia.

Segue mais um exemplo: The new bylaw didn’t pass that day. (A nova lei interna não foi aprovada naquele dia.)

• (Company) policies ─ Normas, regras internas de uma empresa/companhia.

Segue mais um exemplo: The new company policy states that employees have the option to telecommute. (A nova regra interna diz que os funcionários tem a opção de trabalhar remotamente.)

Para a diferença entre “bylaw” para “company policy” ficar mais clara, veja este texto retirado do “ehow”:

Qual a diferença entre “Bylaw” e “Company policy”?
Bylaws são os estatutos da empresa, que definem a administração e as regras operacionais de uma empresa como um todo. Policies definem a política interna da empresa com relação à contratação de funcionários, demissões, processo de vendas, relacionamento com clientes, produtos, e outras coisas.

Nota: Commence é um uso formal das palavras “start” ou “begin”. E Aye, como vocês podem observar, é sim e é uma maneira tradicional de dar um “voto afirmativo” em organizações. Quando se diz não – “voto negativo” – geralmente se fala “Nay”.

É isso aí pessoal, por hoje é só!

Take care guys and all the best!

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

Mas quando é usado esse high five? Veja o que diz o livro 101 American Customs, de Harry Collis:

“The slapping of the raised right hand with the open palm of another person’s right hand is a pervasive gesture in American culture that indicates enthusiastic approval and acceptance of a deed or incident.”

Em outras palavras (in other words), para dar um high five faça isso: raise your right hand, and then slap the raised palm of another person’s hand. O high five é um gesto super difundido na cultura americana, que indica aprovação e/ou  aceitação de alguma coisa com muito entusiasmo. Ou seja, você vai ver as pessoas fazendo isso quando forem cumprimentar uma a outra por algo, ou quando as duas estiverem celebrando um resultado bom e coisas assim.

É comum as pessoas dizerem High five! ou Give me five! quando levantam a mão esperando a outra pessoa fazer o mesmo.

E você – já conhecia o high five? Have you ever high-fived anyone?

Torça por mim

Outro gesto bacana que muita gente viciada em seriados já deve ter visto é o fingers crossed. Veja:

(Jane) I have a job interview tomorrow, finally!
(Tom) Awesome! Do you feel ready?
(Jane) I do. I’ve been practicing my interview questions and answers for a while now. I really think I have a very good chance to land this job.
(Tom) I’m happy for you. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!

Seria muito comum também a Jane, do diálogo acima, dizer ao Tom “Fingers crossed!”, mostrando os dedos cruzados ao mesmo tempo. O mesmo livrinho 101 American Customs conta que o gesto de cruzar os dedos vem da crença de que ele protege a pessoa da má sorte. Sei lá de onde veio isso, mas o fato é que é muito comum ver as pessoas pedirem a torcida dos outros dizendo Fingers crossed! enquanto cruzam os dedos, ou a pessoa que oferece sua torcida dizer I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Em que situações você poderia dizer Fingers crossed! a alguém? Você conta pra Mary que My driving test is tomorrow e diz  Fingers crossed! (afinal, você já foi reprovado três vezes). Ou você vai participar de um potluck dinner (aquele em que cada um dos convidados leva um prato) e diz à sua anfitriã que This will be my first time cooking, ever! Frente ao silêncio dela… você diz:  Fingers crossed!

E se você disser a alguém que My final grades will be out tomorrow [Minhas notas finais saem amanhã], a pessoa pode demonstrar seu apoio dizendo I’ll keep my fingers crossed! Ou se você disser Tomorrow is my last chance to find a new apartment before classes start, de novo a pessoa pode desejar sorte: I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

E você? Que teste você vai fazer, ou o que você precisa encontrar / comprar / conseguir? Tell us, and we will keep our fingers crossed!

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).

Baixe o mp3

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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

Aqui é a Ira, e depois de um longo hiatus (= intervalo, hiato. Gosto dessa palavra em inglês pela pronúncia bem diferente), cá estou de volta com uma nova expressão para vocês.

Dessa vez o exemplo vem da revistinha da Mônica, ou Monica’s gang. Pra quem ainda não sabe a Turma da Mônica está disponível em inglês em qualquer banca de revistas e jornais perto de você.

A cena mostra o gatinho da Magali, ou Maggy, o Vanilla, se deliciando com seu prato de comida e vangloriando-se do seu belo físico, apesar da comilança toda.

Então ele diz: “That’s the beauty of being a cat.”

Beauty, que normalmente significa beleza, neste caso significa vantagem. Veja a definição segundo o dicionário Oxford. Então, o gatinho quis dizer: “Essa é a vantagem de ser um gato”, ou seja comer, comer e não engordar. Bem diferente de nós seres humanos, não é mesmo? :)

Vamos a mais alguns exemplos:

• That’s the beauty of fishing.
• That’s the beauty of working with your father.
• That’s the beauty of making a friend.

Percebam que após of o verbo virá com ing no final – veja mais sobre isso nesta dica.

Vocês vão ouvir muito a expressão “That’s the beauty of it” por aí. Separei para vocês um trechinho rápido da série The Bing Bang Theory onde o Sheldon está conversando com o Leonard sobre aumentar o círculo de amizades. O episódio é de 2008, se não me engano, e mostra o dia em que eles conheceram a sua nova vizinha, a Penny. O Leonard acha que eles deviam convidá-la para uma lanche, um bate-papo; já o Sheldon diz que eles nunca fazem isso, a não ser online, já que eles são bem nerds. ;)

Vejam o diálogo:

Leonard: … And that was wrong of us. We need to widen our circle. [...E foi erro nosso. Precisamos ampliar nosso círculo.]

Sheldon: I have a very wide circle. I have 212 friends on MySpace. [Eu tenho um círculo grande (de amizades). Eu tenho 212 amigos no MySpace.]

Leonard: Yes, and you’ve never met one of them. [Sim, e você nunca encontrou nenhum deles.]

Sheldon: That’s the beauty of it. [Essa é a vantagem./ Isso é o melhor de tudo./ O bom da coisa]

Ok guys, that’s it for today. Que tal vocês deixarem nos comentários os seus próprios exemplos? See you next time!

Importante: 

Para ver a explicação de cada pergunta no quiz, siga o seguinte procedimento:

Depois que você enviar sua resposta, clique em “+show previous question” no topo à direita para ver a correção da questão anterior.

E depois que você terminar o quiz, você pode ver na última tela (a que mostra o gráfico) todas as correções usando a barra de rolagem.