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 that. I don’t wanna take any chances.

Sally: How am I going to do that 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 isso 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).

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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.

Aqui é o Marcelo, e hoje vou apresentar a vocês expressões do seriado The Mentalist, Season 04, Episódio 10. Eu, particularmente, sou muito fã dessa série. The Mentalist é um seriado policial mais light do que o CSI e gira em torno do protagonista Simon Baker, que no seriado é chamado de Patrick Jane. Ele, digamos assim, ajuda o departamento policial local a desvendar os crimes usando suas habilidades psíquicas. Nesse episódio, Patrick Jane sofre uma tentativa de homicídio e Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney), ao visitá-lo no hospital, percebe que ele teve uma perda de memória. Se você ainda não assistiu, vale a pena!

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:

Michael: I’ve heard that Matt had a car crash. How did it happen?

Lilian: Some witnesses said that another car went out of control and ran into his car.

Michael: Oh my goodness! He’s been through a lot this year. How is he doing now?

Lilian: Thank God he is now back on his feet!

Michael: I’m relieved to know that he pulled through the accident.

Portuguese version:

Michael: Eu soube que o Matt teve um acidente de carro, como isso aconteceu?

Lilian: Algumas testemunhas disseram que um outro carro saiu fora de controle e bateu no carro dele.

Michael: Ah… Meu pai amado! Ele passou por várias situações difíceis esse ano. Como ele está agora?

Lilian: Graças a Deus ele está agora recuperado!

Michael: Estou aliviado em saber que ele superou o acidente.

Key words│Expressions

• Someone has been through a lot ─  Alguém passou por ou enfrentou situações difíceis, complicadas. Essa é uma expressão muita comum nos EUA que já escutei diversas vezes. Você também pode encontrar outras variações como: “go through a bad phase: Passar, atravessar por uma fase ruim” ou “Go through a difficult situation: Passar, atravessar por uma situação dificil”. Aqui mesmo no Inglês Online a Ana Luiza fez um podcast explicando essa expressão: click here.

Segue mais um exemplo: We have definitely worked hard this year and we’ve been through a lot. (Sem dúvida nós tivemos um ano árduo de trabalho e passamos por vários percalços.)

• To be/get back on your feet ─ Se recuperar de alguma enfermidade quando você está doente ou quando se machuca. Curiosamente, essa expressão do inglês pode também ser usada para descrever quando você se recupera de qualquer situação difícil, seja business, economia, etc.

Segue mais um exemplo: I went through a bad period last year with my business, but now things are getting better and I’m back on my feet. (Eu atravessei um período ruim na minha empresa no ano passado, mas as coisas estão melhorando e agora me recuperei novamente.)

• To pull through ─ Superar uma situação grave, muito complicada. Pode ser usada para descrever quando alguém sobrevive de um acidente ou doença e também pode ser usada para descrever quando alguém supera uma situação grave ou difícil em sua vida. Aqui o Adir Ferreira também explica o uso de “pull through”: clique aqui.

Segue mais um exemplo:  I was on the brink of bankruptcy, but after a loan of 500 billion euro from the European Central Bank I was able to pull through! (Eu estava à beira da falência, mas após o empréstimo de 500 bilhões de euros do Banco Central Europeu eu fui capaz de superar as dificuldades.)

É isso aí, pessoal. Por hoje é só!

Take care, guys! I wish you all the best and Happy New Year!

Mais um post do Marcelo Mendes, um (na maior parte do tempo) autodidata do inglês que adora games e conversar em inglês com nativos. Marcelo está há 3 anos se dedicando ao aprendizado do idioma e suas ferramentas preferidas são podcasts, seriados e sites de dicas. Em seu site, ele cria diálogos utilizando as expressões que aprende. Aguardamos comments! –Ana

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

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

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Transcrição

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key expressions

black and white

in the red

give someone the green light

greenlight something

Glossary

torn = dividido, sem saber qual opção considerar

the solution is straightforward = a solução é simples, óbvia

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

Perguntas

(a) Why is this guy buying veggies? Por que esse cara está comprando legumes/verduras?

(b) What other food items is he going to buy today?  Que outros itens de comida ele vai comprar hoje?

(c) What is he going to do tomorrow? O que ele vai fazer amanhã?

Minhas respostas

(a) Because he made a promise to his mom that he would begin to eat healthier, starting today.  Porque ele prometeu à sua mãe que ia começar a comer de maneira mais saudável, começando hoje.

(b) Capers, artichoke hearts, asparagus, sesame oil, shredded coconut and parsley. Alcaparra, coração de alcachofra, aspargo, óleo de gergelim, côco ralado e salsinha.

(c) Tomorrow he is attending a dinner party at his friend Tony’s. Tony’s food is usually very heavy, but this guy is going to make an effort to eat the healthy stuff for the most part. Amanhã ele vai a um jantar na casa de seu amigo Tony. A comida do Tony é geralmente super pesada, mas esse cara vai se esforçar para comer principalmente o que for saudável.

                 E você? Quais seriam as suas respostas?

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

E o Steve traz mais uma vez 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 clique em HIT para girar a seta e ver que tipo de pergunta você vai responder nessa atividade que o Steve desenvolveu e produziu exclusivamente para você, leitor do site 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.

Enjoy!

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online a gente continua com o assunto amigos e amizade. E lá no fim, a nova aplicação da palavra “friend” em 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 lá em cima).

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 we’re gonna talk some more about vocabulary related to friends and friendship. Remember in the last episode when I said that you were friends with John? That means that John and you were friends. So in the last episode you were friends with John, and actually you and John became friends after Mary introduced you to each other. So Mary is a mutual friend.

Anyway, moving on… when a family moves into a new town, the kids start going to a new school and, what happens? They make new friends, right? They make new friends at the new school. So some people make friends very easily, some people take longer to make friends… Usually, though, when you arrive in a new place, a new city, for example, you make a few friends. You make friends with your neighbor, maybe, or maybe not. You make friends with classmates, and so on.

So, who are your childhood friends? Can you remember their names? Your childhood friends are, of course, people you were friends with when you were a child. They’re the people you befriended when you were all kids. To befriend someone means to become friends with this person. So where are your childhood friends now? Do you still keep in touch with some of them? Do you know where your childhood friends live?

Here’s an example: Jessica grew up in New York City. When she was still a kid, she became friends with two other kids from her neighborhood: Tina and Mike. The three of them were very close. They were close friends. But after they had all turned seventeen, they went their separate ways. Jessica went to college in Boston, Tina moved to Iowa and Mike went to Seattle to work for Microsoft. So now twenty years have passed. Are they still friends? Well, Jessica is still close friends with Tina, but she hasn’t heard from Mike in a long time.

Again: Jessica is still close friends with Tina. Here it goes again: Jessica is still friends with Tina. She is still close friends with Tina. Jessica and Tina are still close friends. That means that they still keep in touch, they still have a relationship, whereas Mike is still a childhood friend, but nowadays they don’t know where he is. So Jessica isn’t close friends with Mike any longer.

So here’s a little recap:

• if you and John are friends, you can say “I’m friends with John”
• if you and John are best friends, you can say “I’m best friends with John”
• if you and John are close friends, you can say “I’m close friends with John”
• if you became friends with some of your new classmates, you can say “I made friends with some classmates”

Guess who man’s best friend is. A dog, of course. That’s the same in English. We say that in Portuguese, and they say the same in English. Also, here’s the most recent application of the word “friend” that I know of: “friending” someone on Facebook. Yeah, “friend” has become a verb, which is something that can happen to almost any word in English, really. So “to friend someone” on a social network means you and this other person have become friends on that network. People usually say “Oh, I’ve friended such and such on Facebook”. “I have friended Mary Smith on Facebook”.

Your turn: let us know about your childhood friends. Are you still friends with them? And who have you friended on Facebook recently? Talk to you next time.

Key expressions

make friends with

befriend

childhood friend

to be (close) friends with

friend someone on Facebook

Glossary

such and such = tal e tal pessoa

Os seriados americanos são uma excelente forma de melhorar o nosso Inglês e ficar antenados com expressões, phrasal verbs e palavras que são usadas no dia a dia por nativos. Pensando nisso, o post de hoje é baseado em uma cena do seriado americano Two and a Half Man, Season 09, Episódio 12.

Nesse episódio, Walden (Ashton Kutcher), e Alan (Jon Cryer) estão se preparando para as festividades natalinas: ambos estão decorando sua árvore de Natal e pendurando as famosas meias na lareira.

Já que o Natal está quase aí, nada melhor do que observar algumas expressões em inglês associadas a esta data. Eu separei quatro delas, usadas nas cenas do episódio. Veja só onde elas aparecem:

Então, criei um mini-diálogo onde estão incluídas. Are you ready? Let’s get started!

English version:

Beth: I love this time of year! To decorate and put lights on a Christmas tree, to hang up the mistletoe on the door…  family coming over to visit us, and do you know what the best part of all this is? It’s to exchange Christmas presents!!!
Ashley: Christmas, Santa Claus! Every year is always the same thing…
Beth: Sounds like you have got the holiday blues!
Ashley: Yeah, you’re right! Every year I feel blue at Christmas.
Beth: Hum… I think I have just the thing to cheer you up!
Ashley: Aw! Stop right there! Do not get any ideas!
Beth: Look on the bright side! Traditionally we celebrate Christmas Eve drinking a gallon of eggnog. I’m pretty sure that after drinking a bit you’ll be in a holiday mood!
Ashley: All right! Try your luck!

Versão em português:

Beth: Eu amo essa época do ano! Decorar e colocar as luzes na árvore de Natal, pendurar o Visco na porta… família chegando para nos visitar, e você sabe qual a melhor parte disso tudo? É a troca de presentes de Natal!!!
Ashley: Natal, Papai Noel, todo ano é sempre a mesma coisa!
Beth: Parece que você ficou deprê!
Ashley: É, você está certa! Todo ano eu fico deprê no Natal.
Beth: Hum… Eu acho que eu tenho algo ideal para levantar o seu astral!
Ashley: Ah…pode parar por aí! Não me venha com ideias!
Beth: Veja pelo lado bom das coisas! Tradicionalmente nós celebramos a véspera de Natal bebendo um galão de eggnog. Tenho certeza que depois de beber um pouquinho você vai entrar no clima de festa!
Ashley: Pois bem! Vamos ver!

Key words and expressions

• Mistletoe ─ Visco – Sabe aquele raminho ou enfeite de Natal que penduramos na porta, o “Visco”? Lá eles chamam de “Mistletoe”. Se você curte Justin Bieber, ouça a música com o título “Mistletoe” e veja porque ele é considerado um sinal de amor.

Segue mais um exemplo: Did you know that the mistletoe is considered a sign of love? As the story goes, if a man and a woman meet under a hanging mistletoe, they have to kiss each other! (Você sabia que o Visco é considerado um sinal de amor? A estória diz que se um homem e uma mulher se encontrarem debaixo de um Visco pendurado, eles tem que se beijar!)

• Exchange Christmas presents ─ Dar e receber presentes de Natal, ou, como às vezes dizemos, “troca de presentes”. Embora fique fácil entender e traduzir “exchange presents”, algumas pessoas ainda podem ter dúvidas quanto a utilização do verbo e as vezes podemos nos confundir facilmente com “give” ou “change” presents; mas nessa situação, você já sabe agora qual usar!

Segue mais um exemplo: I hate exchanging presents for Secret Santa. (Eu odeio troca de presentes de amigo secreto.)

• Holiday blues ─ Ficar deprê, chateado, triste nos feriados. Muitas pessoas nessa época de Natal ficam tristes, deprê mesmo por algum motivo. “Holiday blues” pode ser aplicado em qualquer feriado anual, mas ocorre com maior frequência nas festividades natalinas! Aqui você encontra mais detalhes sobre Holiday Blues.

Segue mais um exemplo: Every year I get holiday blues. I don’t even feel like leaving my house. (Todo ano eu fico deprê. Eu não sinto vontade nem mesmo de sair de casa.)

• Eggnog ─ Eggnog é uma tradicional bebida norte-americana, servida na ceia de Natal. Ela é preparada com conhaque, leite, ovo e açúcar, e servida com uma pitada de noz moscada. Eu diria que o eggnog é uma “gemada” alcoólica, diferente da nossa, que não possui teor alcoólico.

Segue mais um exemplo: I can’t wait to spend some time drinking eggnog and watching Christmas specials. (Eu não vejo a hora de passar o tempo bebendo eggnog e assistindo os especiais de Natal.)

Por hoje é só pessoal, e lembre-se… Quer melhorar o seu inglês? Então fique ligado nos tópicos aqui no Inglês Online e assista bastante seriados/filmes e mantenha o seu listening sempre ativo, e certamente seu inglês vai melhorar muito!

Take care and all the best!

Pessoal, esse foi o post de estreia de Marcelo Mendes, um (na maior parte do tempo) autodidata do inglês que adora games e conversar em inglês com nativos. Marcelo está há 3 anos se dedicando ao aprendizado do idioma e suas ferramentas preferidas são podcasts, seriados e sites de dicas. Em seu site, ele cria diálogos utilizando as expressões que aprende.

Que vocês acharam do vocabulário natalino? Já conheciam? Ainda não? Deixem seus comentários aqui :)

Este episódio do podcast Inglês Online é todo a respeito de amigos – it’s all about friends. A palavra friend é muito conhecida de quem estuda inglês – até de iniciantes – mas há algumas construçõezinhas envolvendo amigos e amizade que não são assim tão intuitivas para nós, falantes de português. Hoje, neste podcast, você pode ouvir vários exemplos destas expressões que falam sobre amigos em 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 lá em cima).

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 I’m talking about friends. Yep, friends, probably one of the first words English students everywhere learn about. But can you use the word “friend” beyond the well-known and simple constructions “He or she is my friend” or “We are friends”? Let’s have a look at different ways we can use the word friend or other related words. I going to describe the relationship between you and one of your friends, who I’m going to call John. Here it goes:

First of all, friendship is what we call the relationship between friends. So, how do you and another person become friends? Let’s say we are talking about a guy friend of yours. A friend who is a man, or a guy. Let’s say his name is John. How did you and John become friends? Maybe he was a friend of a friend. What does that mean? That means that, for example, your good friend Mary had a friend called John. John was a friend of Mary’s before he became your friend. Mary introduced John to you, and now, you and John are friends too. So Mary is now a mutual friend, right? She’s a friend of yours, and she’s a friend of John’s as well. She’s a mutual friend. You and John were introduced by a mutual friend. Who is the mutual friend? Mary.

OK! So… I have just used several little expressions that revolve around the topic of friendship. They’re relatively easy to understand, but we are going to review each one of them and I’m going to give you a few more examples.

So I said that you and John became friends after Mary introduced you to each other. We can also say that you became friends with John. That doesn’t sound very intuitive to our Brazilian ears. Again: you became friends with John after Mary introduced the two of you. “You became friends with John” means ‘você ficou amigo ou amiga do John’. Think now of three of your friends: what year did you become friends with them? Me… I became friends with Claudia in 2001, I became friends with Lili in 2004, and I became friends with Ana in 2009. What about you?

OK, I also said that John is a friend of yours. How does that sound? He is a friend of yours. That means “ele é um amigo seu”. I just talked about the year I met three friends of mine, right? Claudia is a friend of mine, and I became friends with her in 2001. Lili is another friend of mine, and Ana is also a friend of mine. I became friends with Ana in 2009. So when I say that John is a friend of yours and Lili is a  friend of mine… Here’s the grammar reference for you: we’re using the possessive pronouns. These are the possessive pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours and theirs.

So again: Lili is a friend of mine, and Claudia is also a friend of mine. John is a friend of yours, according to my story, right? Who are your friends? Is João a friend of yours? Is Luciana a friend of yours? Now, my friend Claudia. She has a friend called Livia. Livia is Claudia’s friend. Livia is a friend of hers.  Alexandre is also Claudia’s friend. Alexandre is a friend of hers. This isn’t complicated to understand, I know, but it’s always good to hear this stuff and get a bit more used to these expressions.

And I said before, in my little story, that John was a friend of Mary’s. So this is a common way to describe friendship between two people: John is a friend of Mary’s. Using my example, Alexandre is a friend of Claudia’s and Livia is also a friend of Claudia’s. My friend Mariana is friends with Joana and Renata. So Joana and Renata are friends of Mariana’s. Again: Joana is a friend of Mariana’s and Renata is also a friend of Mariana’s. They’re both friends of Mariana’s, right?

Now, my friend Mariana and I… we have a few mutual friends. That’s how we say “amigos em comum” in English: mutual friends. So Mariana and I have a few mutual friends. For example, I’m friends with Claudia, and Mariana is friends with Claudia too… so Claudia is a mutual friend. Sueli is another mutual friend: she is my friend, and she is also Mariana’s friend.

So what are your examples? What year did you become friends with João, Paulo, Marcos…? Are you friends with Lucia, Teresa or Carla? Is Julia a friend of your sister’s? Do you and your brother have any mutual friends? Tell us in the comments! Talk to you next time.

Key expressions

to become friends with

a friend of mine / of hers / of ours

a friend of Mary’s

a mutual friend

to be friends with

Acontece, às vezes, de alguém me escrever ou tuitar uma dúvida do tipo “como falo isso em inglês?” ou “como eu uso do e does?” No início do site, lá atrás, quando meu trabalho online ainda estava começando, eu tirava muitas dessas dúvidas por email.

Mas não demorou muito pra que eu percebesse que, se continuasse fazendo isso, eu ia acabar virando plantonista online de inglês e sem muito tempo pra fazer mais nada. Por isso, já faz um tempo que a maioria das perguntas que recebo são arquivadas em uma pasta na minha Caixa de Entrada chamada “sugestões de posts”. Assim, a dúvida de alguém pode virar uma dica pra todos os leitores.

Mas de dezembro de 2006 pra cá deu tempo de escrever MUITA dica, e não só aqui no Inglês Online. O English Experts, o Inglês na Ponta da Língua e o Tecla SAP, só pra citar os mais antigos, produzem dicas quase diárias desde aquela época. E os mais novos, então? E o que tem de gente dando dica de inglês pelo Twitter?

Veja onde estou querendo chegar: atualmente, se você digitar essa pergunta no Google

Como eu digo [qualquer expressão em português] em inglês?

é muito provável que você encontre uma boa resposta – ou mais de uma.

O volume de dicas de inglês, em português mesmo, já é imenso hoje em dia. Tem desde dica pra iniciante – como usar o verbo to be, como formar o presente simples – até expressões idiomáticas, gírias, phrasal verbs e muito mais.

Aqui vão as minhas sugestões do que fazer pra tirar suas dúvidas:

1. Comece usando a busca no Inglês Online, no Tecla SAP, no English Experts e no Inglês na Ponta da Língua. Para achar o que você quer nesses sites, procure a caixinha de busca em cada um deles, insira algumas palavras chave e clique para ver os resultados. Clique aqui para conhecer outros sites para você explorar.

Acho que na maioria destes sites já é até possível procurar a frase inteira na Busca se você colocar a expressão entre aspas – por exemplo, “present perfect”, “verbo to be”, etc. Aqui no Inglês Online, funciona.

2. Você pode também ir diretamente ao Fórum do English Experts, que atualmente é o melhor lugar na Internet brasileira pra perguntar “como digo isso e aquilo em inglês” e obter uma resposta. Faça seu cadastro e deixe sua pergunta lá, que já, já alguém te ajuda.

3. Vale a pena olhar o English Made in Brazil, que tem uma seção com muitas respostas sobre dúvidas de inglês de todo tipo: vocabulário, gramática, dicionários, estudo no exterior, metodologia e mais.

4. Você pode simplesmente “jogar no Google”, como coloquei ali em cima: Como eu digo [[qualquer expressão em português]] em inglês?

Já saíram os 5 ganhadores da nossa promoção lá na página no Facebook…

Sem mais delongas:

OS GANHADORES!

ALAN VITOR PINHEIRO ALVES ganhou uma inscrição no Curso Básico Inglês Online.

DANYLO ACIOLI ganhou um livro com CD English The American Way, de Sheila M. Murtha, M.A. e Jane A. O’Connor, M.Ed.

WEDLLA OLIVEIRA ganhou um iPod Shuffle 2GB na cor verde.

ELIANA MIALICHI ganhou um iPod Shuffle 2GB na cor cinza.

LENE BARBOSA ganhou um player de mp3 Sansa Clip+ 4GB na cor azul.

Devido à não confirmação do ganhador do iPod Shuffle verde dentro do prazo, um novo ganhador foi sorteado:

VAGNER LUIZ GOMES ganhou um iPod Shuffle 2GB na cor verde.

O QUE FAZER SE VOCÊ FOR UM GANHADOR

Verifique sua caixa de entrada pois já entrei em contato com você por email! Aguardo sua resposta o mais breve possível – quem sabe você não recebe o prêmio antes do Natal?

Obrigada a todos que participaram. Adorei a agitação da página do Inglês Online no Facebook… que turma animada!! Se não foi dessa vez que você ganhou, aguarde. Quem sabe na próxima? ;)

As inscrições fecham essa 6a feira. Todas as instruções estão lá na página. Não deixe de participar!

Clique aqui para se inscrever.

Hoje no podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre o terceiro condicional, ou como dizer “Se alguém tivesse me falado, eu teria ido” e coisas assim em 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 lá em cima).

Baixe o mp3

Baixe o PDF

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.

So how about we practice a very nice structure in English? Just for your reference, it’s called “the third conditional” but don’t worry about that. Let me establish the setting: we’re talking about past events, and about possibilities in the past. This is the basic structure:

If something had happened, something else would have happened.

In Portuguese, we would say something like “Ah, se tal coisa fosse assim, isso não teria acontecido” or “Se tal coisa tivesse sido de tal jeito, eu teria ido”. Just two general examples… So again, the basic structure in English is “If something had happened, something else would have happened”. As another grammar reference, here we’re using the “past participle” of the verbs. When we say “If something had happened…”, happened is the participle of happen. When we say “I would have taken…”, taken is the participle of “take”.

I don’t wanna focus on specific verbs, though. I’m going to use common, well-known verbs in the examples because what I really want to practice with you guys is how to express the idea of the 3rd Conditional. So picture this: you’re out with three of your best friends from school. The four of you have been friends for years. So you’re all, let’s say, at an ice cream parlor, enjoying your favorite ice cream, when all of a sudden another friend from high school walks up to your table. Let’s say her name is Sarah. Sarah is chatting with you and your friends and then she tells you that Michael, another classmate, was in the hospital for a month. He was just released last week.

You and your friends are suprised! ‘Cause you’re all good friends with Michael, and yet this is the first time you’ve heard about Michael being in the hospital.

• You say “Wow, if Michael had called me, I would have paid him a visit”
• Your friend Anna says “Lily is Michael’s girlfriend, and I see her every day at the club! If she had told me about Michael, I would have given him a call”
• Your friend Lisa says “Michael’s dad lives in my building! If  he had told me about Michael, I would have sent him a get-well message!”
• And your friend Melissa says “Well, if I had known Michael was in the hospital… I would have called you guys and we would have all paid him a visit together”

So what are you guys saying? You and your friends are all saying what you would have done, if you had known about Michael. If someone had called you, or if someone had told you about Michael being in the hospital, you guys would have gone for a visit. You guys would have paid him a visit, or maybe you would have at least sent him a card, or given him a call! But you didn’t know, no one told you about Michael, so you didn’t visit him at the hospital, you didn’t send him a card, nothing.

Here’s another one: you’re a student, and one of your classmates tells you that someone found a gold necklace in the science lab this morning. Here are a few thoughts you might have upon hearing about the gold necklace:

• If I had known about the necklace, I would have searched the science lab!
• If I had been to the lab and found the necklace, I would have tried to contact the owner.
• If I had been to the lab and seen this necklace, I would have done nothing.
• If I had seen the necklace lying around in the lab, I would have called the police.

Imagine you’re the student and someone told you there was a gold necklace in the lab, or in your classroom this morning. If you had found it, what would you have done? Talk to you next time.

Glossary

establish the setting = definir o cenário

get-well message = mensagem de “melhore, fique melhor”

upon hearing about the gold necklace = ao ficar sabendo do/sobre o colar de ouro

lying around in the lab = (jogado ou em algum lugar) ali no laboratório

Vejam abaixo a imagem de um dialogozinho que ocorreu há alguns dias no Twitter entre a Penguin (@penguinusa), que é uma editora de livros didáticos, e a Dutton Books (@duttonbooks):

Essa conversazinha me chamou atenção, em primeiro lugar, por ser meio divertida (coisa que eu não esperaria muito de uma grande editora) e, em segundo lugar, por exemplificar o típico discurso informal americano, cujo significado pode passar batido até para quem estuda inglês já faz tempo.

Por isso, achei que era uma coisa legal para virar dica aqui no blog. Vou comentar o tuíte acima (the above tweet) parte por parte:

Tudo começa com a pergunta da @duttonbooks

Se você não é tuiteiro, provavelmente não está entendendo muito a ordem das frases ali. O que aconteceu é que a duttonbooks postou essa pergunta na página deles no Twitter:

“Can our library look like this, please?” (Dá pra nossa biblioteca parecer com essa, por favor?)

Em seguida à pergunta, colocaram o link para a ilustração (clique aqui para ver). A figura, como você pode ver, mostra uma biblioteca toda moderna, clean, e, principalmente, muito branca.

A pessoa que tuíta na conta duttonbooks obviamente gostou do look da biblioteca, certo?

Resposta da @penguinusa

A pessoa que tuíta na conta penguinusa viu o tuíte da duttonbooks, retuitou a pergunta deles (por isso o RT) e respondeu

“The white is almost blinding, but hey, we’d deal.”

A primeira parte,  the white is almost blinding, quer dizer que o branco da biblioteca é tanto que quase provoca cegueira – blinding é a qualidade daquilo que cega.

A segunda parte, but hey, we’d deal, quer dizer algo assim: mas, ué, a gente daria um jeito (de aguentar a brancura). Esse but hey é muito, muito usado pra comunicar algo assim: o que você está dizendo a gente não tem / a gente não gosta muito / é difícil de fazer, mas [=but hey] ‘faremos mesmo assim’, ou ‘daremos um jeito’, ou ‘a gente consegue’, etc.

We’d deal é we would deal. Você já conhece a palavra deal?  Se sim, qual de seus significados você conhece? Aqui, deal é usada para expressar o significado “lidar”. Por exemplo, como em lidar com alguma situação, ou dar um jeito de aceitá-la. Em filmes e seriados, é muito comum alguém dizer algo assim:

This is our new office (Esse é nosso novo escritório). I know it’s not what you guys were expecting (eu sei que não é o que vocês estavam esperando), but you’re just going to have to deal with it (mas vocês vão ter que dar um jeito de aceitar mesmo assim).

Então: o we’d deal ali em cima quer dizer “a gente daria um jeito de aceitar, a gente lidaria com isso”. Isso o que? A brancura, que a Penguin mencionou que chegava quase a dar cegueira.

Para resumir, a brancura do negócio é tanta que a gente quase ficou cego, mas… a gente ia dar um jeito de lidar com isso (para que você pudesse ter a biblioteca que achou tão bonita).

OK! É isso por hoje. Até mais, e a reminder: ao fim dessa semana acontece o sorteio de 2 iPods, um player da SanDisk, uma inscrição no Curso e um livro com CD. Pra saber mais, vá até a página do Inglês Online no Facebook e veja a promoção!

Perguntas

(a) Why did the man move out of the house? Por que o homem se mudou da casa?

(b) Why is he selling the house?  Por que ele está vendendo a casa?

(c) Who is this couple? Quem é esse casal?

Minhas respostas

(a) Because he inherited a much bigger house three months ago, and he wanted to move into the big house immediately.  Porque ele herdou uma casa muito maior três meses atrás, e ele queria se mudar para a casa grande imediatamente.

(b) Because his wife, Gina, made him realize that they didn’t have enough money for all the expenses a big house entails. Therefore, he decided to put the small house up for sale in order to keep some money in the bank. Por que sua esposa, Gina, fez com que ele percebesse que eles não tem dinheiro suficiente pra todas as despesas que vem com uma casa grande. Portanto, ele decidiu colocar a casa pequena à venda para manter um pouco de dinheiro no banco.

(c) They’re just a couple of passers-by, whose curiosity was piqued by the “for sale” sign. When they realized this man was the owner, they started asking him questions about the house. Eles são só um casal passando por ali, que ficou curioso com a placa de “à venda”. Quando eles perceberam que esse homem era o proprietário, eles começaram a fazer perguntas a ele sobre a casa.

                 E você? Quais seriam as suas respostas?

E aqui vai o PDF com o cartoon anterior – A lot of work to do – com todas as respostas (editadas quando necessário) para quem quiser guardar.

Hoje no podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre como dizer em inglês expressões como “não seja tão modesto” e “o mérito é seu”.

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

Baixe o PDF

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.

So here’s an expression I wanted to talk about today: sell yourself short. Have you ever heard this expression? Can you guess what it means? We usually hear people use it like this:  Don’t sell yourself short. And as you get used to listening to real English, be it from TV shows, or movies, or podcasts, you’ll see that this expression will start popping up here and there. So let’s get on to an example.

Imagine that you have a friend who works at a TV station, OK? Now, he’s very young. Let’s say he’s in his mid-twenties. However, he started working for the station when he was just seventeen, as an intern. He’s a pretty hardworking guy, though, so he’s been promoted quite a few times since then. He’s done a little bit of everything; he has become a true jack-of-all-trades. So, let’s say this is your friend and his name is… Jack, why not? Jack is a jack-of-all-trades.

Anyway, he tells you that the old station manager has quit his job and the station has got to fill the position pretty quickly. They’re looking for someone young (check!), with a lot of initiative (check!) and a minimum of 10 years of experience. So your friend Jack wants to apply for the position, but he’s afraid the station owners will think he is too inexperienced. So you remind your friend Jack of all the important work he has done for the station. You remind him that he’s the one who filled in for the manager last month when the guy got caught in a car accident. And, finally, you remind Jack that he has worked in practically every division of the station, that he gets along very well with everyone and that he was the one to initiate many significant actions that had a huge positive impact on the station’s bottomline.

You say to Jack, Don’t sell yourself short! That means, give yourself credit where you deserve it! By the way, that’s another very common phrase in English: give yourself credit, give someone credit, etc. But back to selling yourself short: you remind Jack of everything he’s done that was important for the TV station, and you tell him to remember all that. You say, Jack, give yourself credit for everything you’ve done. You have worked hard for this station since your first day as an intern and even the old manager himself said that you would be a good candidate to replace him. So don’t sell yourself short!

That’s good advice, in general, right? Don’t sell yourself short! Be aware of everything you’ve accomplished and when someone asks you, you can be honest. Now, that’s different from bragging, of course. What does brag mean? To brag means to talk about something you did, or one of your qualities, in an arrogant way, or in an annoying way… You know, sometimes it’s a little much and you may even get the sense that what that person is bragging about isn’t even true. So there’s a difference between giving yourself credit and not selling yourself short, and bragging, right?

So here’s my question to you: do you give yourself credit for your accomplishments? Has this ever happened to you – you sold yourself short because you wanted to come off humble, and then later you regretted it? What about bragging – when was the last time you or someone you know bragged about something? Come on!

Talk to you next time.

Key expressions

• don’t sell yourself short
• brag
• give (someone) credit

Glossary

be it = seja

start popping up = começar a aparecer

in his mid-twenties = com 25, 26 anos

intern = estagiário(a)

jack-of-all-trades = faz-tudo, pessoa que tem habilidade com muita coisa ou quase tudo

check! = quando uma pessoa diz isso, ela quer dizer que alguma condição está sendo cumprida

filled in for (someone) = fez o trabalho de (alguém) enquanto a pessoa estava indisponível

bottomline = nesse caso, retorno financeiro

come off = parecer

Tô brincando! 

Vamos direto ao assunto: já está aberta a Promoção que comemora os 5 anos desse blog e também a “inauguração” da nossa página no Facebook. Pra juntar tudo, a Promoção 5 Anos de Inglês Online, que é na verdade um sorteio, acontece lá na rede social.

Quais são os prêmios?

• Dois iPods Shuffle 2GB: um verde e um cinza (Valor: R$ 229 cada. Veja mais sobre o iPod Shuffle);
• Um player de mp3 Sansa Clip+ 4GB ( Valor aprox. R$ 139. Veja mais sobre o Sansa CLip+);
• Uma inscrição no Curso Básico Inglês Online (Valor: R$ 137. Veja mais sobre o Curso);
• Uma cópia do livro +CD de áudio English the American Way: A Fun ESL Guide, de Sheila Murtha e Jane O’Connor (Valor: aprox. US$ 12. Veja mais sobre o livro na Amazon)

Not bad, huh? :) A escolha de três players de mp3 como prêmios tem tudo a ver, é claro, com o fato de eu encorajar quem aprende inglês a ouvir o máximo possível. O Curso também é baseado nisso, e, finalmente, o livro também é muito bacana. Eu o descobri por acaso e comprei uma cópia pra mim e uma extra, já pensando em usar como prêmio. Ele usa linguagem de todo dia para falar de situações de todo dia – e ainda vem com o áudio.

Como faço pra participar?

1. Curta a página no Facebook (aqui na barra lateral do Inglês Online mesmo, ou na página);
2. Se ainda não estiver lá, vá até a nossa página no Facebook  e clique em “Promoção 5 Anos de Inglês Online” no menuzinho à esquerda;
3. Clique no botão “Participa” no fim da página;
4. Vá em frente e preencha seus dados;
5. Ao final, use o pop-up para divulgar a promoção em seu mural.

Atenção! Quem não divulgar a Promoção em seu mural não participa :(

É isso!

Não deixe de participar…

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.

Hoje eu queria chamar a atenção de vocês para um trabalho feito pela organização Council of Europe que vai ajudar bastante quem quiser ter uma referência sólida para descrever seu nível de inglês. A ideia veio de uma pergunta feita pelo Guilherme, aluno do Curso Básico, que queria saber que nível de fluência alguém que se dedicasse bastante ao Curso conseguiria alcançar.

Com sede na França, o Council of Europe resolveu ali no fim da década de 80 criar um sistema que oferecesse uma referência padrão para ensino, aprendizado e avaliação de nível de língua estrangeira. Segundo a página na Wikipedia, esse sistema tem sido amplamente adotado na Europa na hora de avaliar a proficiência de alguém em determinada língua.

Esses foram os níveis de proficiência estabelecidos:

(A) Basic Speaker

A1 Breakthrough or beginner

A2 Waystage or elementary

(B) Independent Speaker

B1 Threshold or intermediate

B2 Vantage or upper intermediate

(C) Proficient Speaker

C1 Effective Operational Proficiency or advanced

C2 Mastery or proficiency

Veja a descrição de cada um na página da Wikipedia. As descrições são amplas e, claro, podem dar margem a interpretações subjetivas, mas mesmo assim eu as considero um ótimo guia. Onde você considera que está? Uma observação: lembre-se que seu objetivo não precisa ser necessariamente chegar no C2.

Por sinal, eu respondi ao Guilherme que uma pessoa que aproveite muito bem o Curso Básico já está com um bom pé no nível B1 (que a CEFR considera “intermediate” – mas, até aí, vários alunos já apontaram o fato do curso ir bem além de básico :)

Hoje o podcast Inglês Online fala sobre a maneira indireta de se “fazer uma pergunta” em 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 lá em cima).

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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.

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has left reviews for this podcast on iTunes. I really appreciate it and it’s a great thing that listeners are writing reviews and rating the podcast, since I guess iTunes takes reviews and ratings into consideration, as well as the number of downloads, of course… So they take all that into consideration when deciding which podcasts are the most popular.. And recently I’ve seen Inglesonline on the popular list at the Brazilian iTunes store, so that’s really cool.

OK, today I’m gonna talk about something that I guess most schools consider, maybe, basic or pre-intermediate material. I personally think, though, that this is a topic we could hear more of. I’m talking about asking questions directly versus getting information in an indirect way. Example: How old are you? That’s a direct question. It ends with a question mark, right? Let’s say this is a police interrogation and, for some reason, these are the questions you are being asked:

• How tall are you? Where do you live?
• Where were you last night around 8 o’clock? How did you get there?
• What were you wearing? Who was with you?

So these were all direct questions, right? They all ended with a question mark. Now let’s say the police officer, for some reason, doesn’t want to be so direct. He says to you “I wanna know how tall you are”. Not “I wanna know how tall are you“. We would say “I wanna know how tall you are”.  So, that’s not even a question! It’s just a statement communicating what the officer wants to know. But, wait! The question is “How tall are you?” So why do we have to say “I want to know, or I would like to know how tall you are”? Why can’t I say “I would like to know how tall are you“?

Well, think about some things that you know: your mother’s name, the way to the office, your phone number. Again: these are examples of things you know. You know your mother’s name, you know the way to the office – let’s assume you work in an office – and you know your phone number. So, these little phrases… are they questions? No, they are three different pieces of information that you know. Your mother’s name is a piece of information; the way to the office is another one and your phone number is another piece of information.

So let’s say there’s someone chatting with you… Let’s say it’s a woman and her name is Sally. Sally isn’t a direct person, so she’s not asking you stuff directly… Every time she wants to know something, she begins with “I’d like to know… blah blah blah”. I’d like to know this, I’d like to know that. So she says to you:

I’d like to know [your age]. What would she like to know? Your age.

Then, she says: I’d like to know [your mother's name]. What does she want to know now? Your mother’s name.

Now she’s saying: I’d like to know [the way to your office].

So [your age], [your mother's name] and [the way to your office] are the pieces of information that she wants to acquire. They are the description of what she wants to know. Then, Sally says:

I’d like to know [how tall you are]. Can you see that “how tall you are” isn’t a question? Rather, it is the description of what she wants to know now. What does she want to know now? She wants to know… how tall you are. “How tall you are” isn’t a question, it is just a phrase that describes what she wants to know. That’s why we don’t say “She wants to know how tall are you“.

So take a look at the questions at the beginning of this podcast. Let’s say these are all Sally’s questions. But since she’s not a direct person, she will not ask any questions. She will just state what she would like to know:

• I’d like to know [where you live].
• I’d like to know [where you were last night around 8 o'clock].
• I’d like to know [how you got there].
• I’d like to know [what you were wearing].

So give us a few examples of people who have indirectly asked you something. They wanted to know something about you or about someone else, and they said “I’d like to know…” or “Please tell me…”

And to wrap up this episode, I just wanted to plug the Inglês Online Facebook page once again – since Sunday, over 600 people have liked the page. So, please, if you’re on Facebook, click “Curtir” right here on the sidebar of Inglês Online or go to the Facebook page, it’s facebook.com/inglesonlinebr, and become a fan. I really appreciate your help spreading the word, and, what’s more, by becoming a fan you’re going to have access to promotions – the first one is happening soon, before the end of the year, with some very cool prizes… so, there you have it. Thanks, and talk to you next time.

Veja mais sobre perguntas indiretas aqui

Glossary

wrap up = finalizar

spreading the word = espalhando (sobre o site)

Volta e meia alguém me escreve para agradecer pelas dicas desse blog – e o que às vezes acontece também é que a pessoa quer saber se eu tenho alguma forma de compensação financeira. Bom, eu tenho sim :)  Para quem não reparou ainda, há anúncios espalhados pelo site; além disso, tenho o Curso Básico do Inglês Online (e respondendo a todos que tem perguntado, a sequência do básico está em fase de planejamento!).

Os dois sites – esse onde você está e o do curso – são meu ganha-pão. Foram as dicas gratuitas desse aqui através dos anos que me fizeram ficar mais conhecida, e que fizeram com que as pessoas começassem a conhecer meu estilo e confiar em mim. E foi isso que me possibilitou investir no Curso Básico, que levou mais de um ano para ser desenvolvido: por já ter interagido bastante com leitores e visitantes do Inglês Online, eu já sabia que tinha gente que ia comprar e que ia valer a pena.

Na semana passada, uma dessas pessoas me escreveu agradecendo e sugeriu que eu começasse a cobrar pelas dicas. Como já falei lá no Twitter, não vou fazer isso não! :) Mas falei pra ele que, nesse momento, a maior ajuda que um leitor do site pode me dar é na divulgação. É isso! Pelo Twitter, boca a boca, por email, deixando uma review no iTunes, etc…

E nesse momento em especial, quero te pedir pra divulgar o Inglês Online curtindo a página no Facebook: clique ali na barra lateral ou clique aqui para ir direto pra página e curtir lá mesmo.

Eu já tinha montado essa página há um tempinho, mas nunca tinha dado muita bola. Agora a coisa é diferente! Quem curtir vai acompanhar todos os updates do site lá no Facebook, e mais: vai poder participar da promoção no fim do ano. Sim, promoção com prêmio(s), para quem tiver curtido o Inglês Online :)

Detalhes de como vai ser vem mais adiante, mas já posso adiantar que tem boas chances desse player SanDisk aí ao lado estar entre os prêmios.

Por enquanto, é isso! Agradeço muito, mais uma vez, pelos emails, comentários, palavras de incentivo e feedback que recebo sempre de você. Tenha certeza de que a sua divulgação é super valiosa! Aqui vai o link para a página no Facebook de novo.

Antes de mais nada, ouça a pronúncia de worth aqui. Agora, pense em algumas coisas que você comprou, ou pelas quais você pagou recentemente. Um filme no cinema, uma refeição em algum bar ou restaurante, uma roupa. Quanto você pagou? E mais uma pergunta: valeu o preço? Valeu a pena gastar, por exemplo, 15 reais na entrada daquele filme, 40 reais por aquela refeição, e 90 reais pela blusa?

É exatamente nestas perguntas que worth entra:

• Was the movie worth the price of the ticket? Was the movie worth 15 reais? O filme valeu o preço da entrada? O filme vale (valeu) 15 reais?

• Was that meal worth 40 reais? Was it worth all that money? Aquela refeição valeu 40 reais? Ela valeu todo esse dinheiro?

• Is this shirt worth 90 reais? It’s not even cotton. Is this piece of artificial fabric shaped like a shirt worth that much? Essa camisa vale 90 reais? Não é nem de algodão. Esse pedaço de tecido artificial em forma de camisa vale tanto assim?

Veja que nos exemplos acima estamos sempre perguntando se alguma coisa vale um tanto de dinheiro. Mas podemos perguntar também se essa coisa vale o esforço, o trabalho, a tentativa, qualquer coisa que a gente ache que represente um custo. Fique de olho nas partes de sentenças que estão sublinhadas aqui neste post: são o “custo” nos exemplos.

Vamos dizer que você tenha um trabalho em que ganhe R$ 7,50 a hora digitando relatórios em um computador. Portanto, para pagar a entrada pra ver aquele filme, você teve que trabalhar duas horas. Valeu a pena? Aquele filme valeu duas horas do seu trabalho? Foi bom assim?

Was that movie worth two hours of your work? Aquele filme valeu duas horas do seu trabalho?

Agora imagine que aquela refeição que custou 40 reais foi num restaurante lá longe. Você teve que perder uma aula importante na faculdade, pegar ônibus lotado por uma hora e meia e esperar pra conseguir uma mesa por mais uma hora. Agora a pergunta não é nem se a refeição valeu 40 reais… a pergunta é, valeu a pena fazer tudo isso por aquele almoço?

• Was that lunch worth missing an important class?

• Was it worth being in a crowded bus for over an hour?

• Was it worth standing in line for an hour?

E se você quiser juntar tudo – valeu a pena fazer tudo isso? Valeu a pena perder uma aula importante, ficar no ônibus lotado uma hora e meia, ficar na fila mais uma hora e ainda torrar 40 reais? “Was that meal worth missing an important class, being in a crowded bus for over an hour, standing in line for another hour and then shelling out 40 reais?” Saiba mais sobre o uso de -ING depois do worth com esse post e esse outro.

Mais alguns exemplos

Leia esses exemplos e perceba o que vale/valeu ou não vale/valeu o “custo”

“I studied very hard in 2009 to get into that college, and now I’m not very impressed with the course. I’m not sure it (the course) was worth all the effort”

“The prize is a trip to Mexico, and all you have to do to participate is answer five questions. It (participating and trying to win a trip to Mexico) is worth a shot” Veja mais sobre a shot nesse podcast.

“Mary told me she worked extremely hard as a consultant for five years. I asked her “Was it worth it (working so hard)? She said “Yes. I became a millionaire”

O que o pessoal diz pela net

Veja dois exemplos que encontrei de worth the effort usando o Google. O que as pessoas estão perguntando se vale o que?

“I have a number of old Nikon Lenses. Is there a way to attach to a digital Camera? What kind of camera and what adaptors are needed? Is it worth the effort?”

“I read this book four times, very slowly, in order to understand it. Clearly, it was well worth the effort”

Quais são seus exemplos? O que você fez por algum objetivo, que valeu ou não a pena? Por sinal, a simples pergunta “Valeu a pena?” é “Was it worth it?”

Hoje o podcast Inglês Online atende o pedido da Marianna Carneiro, feito pelo twitter inglesonline, e explica a diferença entre os verbos remember e remind, que podem ser, os dois, traduzidos do inglês como “lembrar”.

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

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Transcrição

Hello, everybody! 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 I’m going to focus on two words. Two verbs, actually: remember and remind. Remember is a pretty popular verb and you’ve probably heard this word or one of its conjugations at least a few times. So let’s get started with ‘remember’.

Remember basically means… lembrar. When you and a friend are chatting about a place you both visited years ago, you say to each other “Remember this? Remember that?” For example, Remember when we were in Rio and you got mugged?” And the other person may say “Yes, I remember that” or “No, I don’t remember being mugged”. And then your friend might say “This is what I remember: I remember going to an expensive restaurant with you, and then when the bill came you said you’d left your wallet at the hotel”.

Another very common way to use remember is when someone has a list of tasks they’re supposed to complete throughout the day, for example. Let’s say John has to run a few errands in the afternoon, and maybe at the end of the day someone asks John “So, did you remember to pick up the dry cleaning? Did you remember to pick up the groceries? Did you remember to post that letter? Did you remember to stop by the library and return that book? Did you remember to buy stamps?”

So here are a few questions for you: think of your last vacation. Do you remember where you went? Do you remember what you did? Do you remember resting on your last vacation? Do you remember having fun? Me.. I’m thinking about my last vacation and I remember exactly what I ate, and where I went, and I remember having a lot of fun. I do not remember resting a lot on my last vacation… I definitely didn’t have a lot of time to rest but I remember enjoying myself a lot.

Here’s another question for you: what are some of the tasks that you had to complete, say, last week? Or some of the errands you had to run last week? Did you remember to do everything you were supposed to do? As for me, I actually made a list last week with four or five items on it. I remembered to buy dog food, I remembered to get a haircut and I remembered to pick up some food at the supermarket. But I forgot to buy office supplies. What about you? What was on your list that you actually remembered to do?

Alright! Let’s move on to the word ‘remind’. “Remind” is often translated as “lembrar”, but it’s a different kind of “lembrar”. “Remind” means something like ‘make someone remember something’. So when someone says to you…

“Let me remind you that…”

This means that this person wants you to remember something. He or she is making you remember something. This person is giving you a reminder. They are putting something on your mind again. They are reminding you, or giving you a reminder. In Portuguese we could say “um lembrete”, a reminder. Here are a couple of examples:

• Let me remind you that our shop closes at 6. They are reminding you that their shop closes at 6. They want you to remember that; they don’t want you to forget it. So they’re giving you a reminder. They’re reminding you that their shop closes at 6.
• Another example: I just wanted to remind you that you have a meeting with the sales team in the afternoon. Here, someone wants you to remember that you have a meeting later. They are reminding you that you have a meeting. They’re making you remember the meeting; they’re giving you a reminder.

So, what about you? Can you remember an occasion in the past when someone was kind enough to remind you about an appointment that you had, and because that person gave you a reminder, you actually showed up for the appointment?

Talk to you next time.

Veja mais sobre remember aqui

Glossary

you got mugged = você foi roubado (na rua, no metrô, etc.)

run errands = ir no banco, passar no supermercado, comprar selo, tirar dinheiro, etc. etc.

A gente tem muito trabalho pela frente!

Perguntas

(a) Who is the man? Quem é o homem?

(b) Who are the woman and the boy?  Quem são a mulher e o garoto?

(c) What is this guy talking about? Sobre o que esse cara está falando?

Minhas respostas

(a) The man, Michael, is a new resident on Mercy Street.  O homem é um novo morador na rua Mercy.

(b) They’re mother (Sally) and son (Johnny). They have lived on Mercy Street for years. Eles são mãe (Sally) e finho (Johnny). Eles moram na rua Mercy há anos.

(c) Michael rescues and feeds stray animals from the street. Today he’s rescued five animals, and Sally and Johnny have offered to help take care of them. So Michael is saying that they have a lot to do. Michael resgata e alimenta animais da rua. Hoje ele pegou cinco animais, e Sally e Johnny se ofereceram para ajudar a cuidar deles. Então Michael está dizendo que eles tem muito a fazer.

                 E você? Quais seriam as suas respostas?

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

Hoje o podcast Inglês Online tem a solução do lateral thinking puzzle apresentado na semana passada. Algumas pessoas conseguiram encontrar a solução (a Ira foi a primeira) – congratulations a quem conseguiu, pois não era uma solução trivial, não! Hoje também falo e dou exemplos sobre linguagem politicamente correta 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 lá em cima).

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Transcrição

Hey, 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 if you caught our last podcast – the episode was called Lateral Thinking – you know that it involved a little story about a guy who left his building in the morning and then returned at night, got into the elevator and then, depending on whether or not it had rained that day, or whether or not there was someone else in the elevator, this guy would go straight to his floor or he would get out on the 10th and then take the stairs. If this sounds confusing, just go back to the last episode and take a listen.

So the question was Why does the guy behave the way that he does? Why does he do that? Why does he get out on the 10th floor when it’s not raining, or when there’s no one else in the elevator? Well, a few people actually got the answer right! Some people figured out the solution. They figured it out, they solved the problem. Yep, Inglês Online readers are smart :) I have to admit I already knew the solution because I read it on a website. I didn’t figure it out on my own. I didn’t try too hard, to be honest… I got curious so after I read the problem I just went ahead and read the solution.

So here goes the solution: the guy who gets in the elevator every evening… He’s a dwarf. The guy is actually a dwarf. Remember the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? This guy is like those seven guys in the fairy tale, which means that he’s a short guy. So because he is short, he can’t reach the button for the twelfth floor on the elevator panel on his own. When it’s raining, he has an umbrella on him so he can use the umbrella to reach the button for the twelfth. And when there’s someone else all he has to do is ask that person to press the button.

Therefore, when he’s alone and doesn’t have an umbrella on him, he goes up to the tenth floor (he’s tall enough to reach that button) and then climbs the stairs to the twelfth. That’s all!

By the way, take a look at the image right beside the text of this podcast. It’s a fairy tale dwarf, right? The word “dwarf” isn’t acceptable when you’re referring to people… Neither is the word “midget”. You can refer to a person who is very short as a little person – as far as I know, that’s the acceptable, or non-offensive, or, some would say, the politically correct way to refer to a person who’s very short in stature.

And in the United States you’ll very often hear expressions like these: African-American, Asian-American, Italian-American, etc. “African-American” refers to people who are black or who have African ancestry. And we can usually just say “a black woman”, “black people”, that’s fine. If you want to sound just a bit more formal, maybe a bit more educated… you can say “an African-American woman, blah blah blah”.

And here’s something else I learned back when I was going to grad school in the US: girls over a certain age – I’d say around 21 – aren’t girls anymore; they’re women. One day my friend was chatting with another student and he said, “You should have come to the bar.. all the girls were there” He was referring to female students in our class. The other student said “Not girls… women!”. So when talking about females in your work environment, for example, you should probably use the word “women” rather than “girls”.

Here’s another one: many, many words in English that describe occupations are gender-neutral. What does that mean? If a word is gender-neutral, that means it is used for both men and women. It’s the same word for both of them. So it used to be common for us to read on the newspaper, or on business articles, something like this: “When the company CEO makes a decision, he has to take full responsibility for it”. In the past, everyone used “he” a lot when speaking in generic terms about executive positions and other jobs traditionally held by men. Nowadays, people are way more careful and they use “she” or even “they”, in order to be neutral.

Do you want to see several examples of this? Go to Seth Godin’s blog and look up the word “she” on the front page. You’ll see that Seth very often writes ‘she’, and not ‘he’, to exemplify customers, executives and other gender-neutral positions.

Alright! Let us know in the comments what else you’ve noticed about politically correct language. Talk to you next time.

Glossary

on my own, on his own = sozinha/por conta própria, sozinho/ele mesmo/por conta própria

he has an umbrella on him = ele tem um guarda chuva com ele

grad school = escola de pós-graduação

Hoje um amigo me contou que estava fazendo um curso de inteligência artificial online pela Universidade de Stanford e eu achei que ia ser legal ver o que mais tem disponível por aí em inglês.

Você tem interesse em arquitetura? História? Estatística? Várias universidades pelo mundo, em especial nos EUA, oferecem aulas online gratuitas para quem quiser acessar. A maioria funciona como se fossem palestras; algumas, como o curso de inteligência artificial que mencionei, requerem inscrição e dão certificado. A maioria das aulas está em formato mp3.

Veja apenas alguns exemplos de sites:

MIT Open Courseware – a renomada universidade oferece gravações em mp3 de aulas de anos anteriores em praticamente qualquer área que você imagine.

Stanford on iTunes U – para acessar os cursos online de Stanford, você precisa ter o iTunes instalado. Vá para essa página para ver como fazer.

UC Berkeley – Berkeley é uma das mais conceituadas universidades públicas dos Estados Unidos e oferece gravações de várias de suas aulas desde 2001, também através do programa iTunes. Aqui você encontra novamente o full range de disciplinas acadêmicas.

Nada melhor do que ouvir coisa que a gente compreende e acha interessante. Por isso, se esse é o tipo de material que você curte e se sua compreensão do inglês já chegou aí, aproveite essas super oportunidades. Uma grande vantagem de ouvir professores universitários é que eles costumam ser claros e cuidadosos ao falar.

Veja outras dicas de aulas e cursos em inglês neste link.

Hoje é dia de olhar de novo um assuntozinho do inglês do qual já falei aqui. O pré-requisito pra dica de hoje é estar por dentro dessa outra aqui: Como eu uso a forma -ING como sujeito da frase?

Everyone on the same page? Deu pra pegar a dica anterior? Great! Quero dar mais exemplos sobre isso, pois é uma estrutura que raramente vejo alguém usar por aqui.

Vou colocar algumas falas aqui. Onde estão as ações ou atividades aí? Elas não serão necessariamente o sujeito nas frases, mas tem função de substantivo, ou “nome”.

“Olha, tudo isso que você disse… acordar cedo, se aprontar em 15 minutos, tomar café correndo, isso faz parte da rotina de quem trabalha.”

“Andar 10 kilômetros não é nada! Experimente correr 10 kilômetros.”

“O primeiro problema dela foi entregar o relatório depois do prazo. O segundo foi não comparecer na reunião de segunda-feira.”

“Se você já gostava de jogar tênis antes, espere até você ver a nova quadra.”

As ações/atividades foram marcadas nos dois primeiros exemplos. E nos outros?

No terceiro, você tem “entregar o relatório depois do prazo” e “não comparecer na reunião de segunda-feira”. Na última, tem “jogar tênis”. Em todos esses exemplos, tempos o ‘nome’ da ação ou atividade em inglês, que em português usamos o infinitivo (-AR, -ER, -IR, -OR) para descrever.

Podemos falar de todas elas usando -ING:

“Look, all the things you mentioned… waking up early, getting ready in 15 minutes, wolfing down your breakfast, that’s part of the routine of people who have a job.”

“Walking 10 kilometers is nothing! Try running 10 kilometers.”

“Her first problem was turning in the report after the deadline. Her second problem was not showing up for the meeting on Monday.”

“If you enjoyed playing tennis before, wait till you see the new court.”

Faça progresso

Quer progredir mesmo nessa areazinha do inglês? Aqui vão duas coisas que sugiro pra você – são tranquilas:

1) Fácil: faça uma lista agora do que você gosta de fazer. Tem que ser atividade.

“I like walking my dog, waking up early and working with a computer.”

Super fácil: faça uma lista do que você acha difícil de fazer.

“I think that working at home, making your own shoes and writing a book are difficult things to do.”

Você pode fazer essa lista com o que acha fácil, legal, chato, etc.

2) Fique atento/a de agora em diante quando ler e ouvir inglês. Essa estrutura aparece toda hora – anote em uma folha de papel por um mês e/ou venha aqui nos comentários e diga o que encontrou.

Uma atividade (com vídeo)

Assista um pedacinho de um episódio de Friends no YouTube, onde um dos personagens usa essa estrutura (-ING como substantivo) – assista o vídeo aqui.

Deu pra pegar? Use a transcrição abaixo para ajudar, se precisar.

(Joey) Hi! Hey, who wants pizza?

(Joey) This is great. Can you believe I found this on the second floor?

(Monica) Who is it?

(Officer) NYPD.

(Phoebe) Oh my God!

(Joey) Just a minute, officer!

(Officer) I’m looking for Phoebe Buffay.

(Phoebe) Oh damn, it’s that cop! I can’t believe that he found me!

(Rachel) God, Phoebe, are you gonna go to jail?

(Phoebe) Well, if I’m going down, you guys are going down with me. Harboring a fugitive? That’s one to three years minimum. Good luck, Chandler.

Agora uma pergunta: qual personagem está falando sobre uma ação, e usa a forma -ING?

Responda assim: O personagem ……….. está falando sobre lavar o chão / escovar o dente / sambar / etc.

Deal? (Combinado?)

Hoje tem um lateral thinking puzzle or problem. É um probleminha que requer pensamento criativo e original para ser resolvido. Por que a pessoa da historinha tem esse comportamento? Não vale postar a resposta aqui! (semana que vem eu posto).

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

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 on our podcast I’m gonna talk about lateral thinking. What does that mean? Well, the Wikipedia… you know Wikipedia? Wikipedia.org. The Wikipedia says that lateral thinking is when you solve a problem using an indirect and creative approach. That means that the solution isn’t obvious and that you won’t find the solution through traditional logic. In other words, to use a popular expression, you have to think outside of the box to solve lateral thinking problems. To think outside of the box means to think creatively, to be original or unusual, stuff like that.

So there are many lateral thinking puzzles, or problems available on the Internet and for this episode I’ve selected one that is probably the most well-known lateral thinking problem of all. So, before I present it to you, let me establish a few ground rules: you can easily find the solution to this puzzle by googling it. That means, doing a Google search. You can do that if you want, or maybe you’ve heard of this problem before and you know the solution. Whatever the case, please do not post the answer in the comments.

Deal? OK, here’s the puzzle:

A man lives on the twelfth floor of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. In the evening, he gets into the elevator, and, if there is someone else in the elevator — or if it was raining that day — he goes back to his floor directly. Otherwise, he goes to the tenth floor and walks up two flights of stairs to his apartment.

So, what do you think? Are you familiar with the puzzle? Let’s break it down: a man lives on the twelfth floor of an apartment building. That’s floor #12, right? Tenth, eleventh, twelfth… So he lives on the twelfth floor. I live on the fifth floor, by the way. Which floor do you live on? So, moving right along… This guy takes the elevator every morning, down to the lobby, and then leaves the building. He probably goes to work every day, or maybe he goes to school, we don’t know.

Anyway, in the evening he gets into the elevator… but here’s the interesting part: if there is someone else in the elevator when he gets in, or if it was raining that day… he goes to his floor directly. Now, if there’s no one in the elevator when he gets in,  or if it didn’t rain that day, then he goes to the tenth floor, floor #10. And he gets out of the elevator on the tenth floor. Not on the twelfth floor, where he lives. If there’s no one in the elevator, or if it didn’t rain, he takes the elevator up to the tenth floor, gets out, and walks up two flights of stairs to his apartment on the twelfth floor.

Now, why does he do that? When he gets back home, in the evening, he’ll go directly to the twelfth floor if there’s someone else in the elevator, or if it rained that day. Otherwise, he gets out on the tenth, and climbs two flights of stairts to the twelfth. Can you imagine why someone would do that?

So leave us your comments, tell us what you think. And I’ll give you guys the answer probably later this week or on the next podcast. Talk to you next time.

Glossary

deal? = combinado?

whatever the case = qualquer que seja o caso

moving right along = continuando

flights of stairs = lances de escada

Como você diz É de arrepiar? Morri de medo? Fiquei apavorada? Isso e muito mais vocabulário de medo, cemitério, enterro e fantasma, você verá no vídeo. Adorei as imagens e os efeitos de som!

Além de tudo isso, o Steve fez, mais uma vez, um exercício exclusivo para os leitores do Inglês Online. Veja logo abaixo do vídeo.

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.

Peppy 23

Exercício

Já viu o vídeo algumas vezes e se familiarizou com o vocabulário? Então tente fazer a correspondência entre palavras e significados clicando em uma das alternativas na coluna da esquerda, e então na setinha que aponta para o significado correto.

E para finalizar: você tem até 6 de novembro para assistir a extended version do vídeo Parallel 1 em HD (high definition) – é só se inscrever gratuitamente no site do Steve: Private English Portal.

Tem duas palavrinhas em inglês que geralmente provocam confusão por causa da concordância verbal não muito intuitiva para nós: police e news. Inglês tem dessas coisas… Pois então nosso podcast hoje será sobre isso.

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

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Transcrição

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.

So, do you know those words in English – police, and news? The way they are used is not very intuitive to us, Portuguese speakers.  Why? Because the word “police” sounds like the Portuguese word “polícia”, which is a singular word, right? We say “a polícia é isso, não é aquilo” so once we start using “police” we sometimes slip and say “the police is” or “the police was“. The correct way to say those is “the police are” and “the police were”. And the other word I mentioned is “news”. “News” ends with the letter “s”, and that, to us, means “plural”. So we would say “the news are“, right? Nope, people don’t say that in English. They say “the news is…” and “the news was”.

If “the police are” and “the news is” sound strange to you, then you’re in luck: this episode is all about giving examples of how these words are used and providing you with the opportunity to get a little bit more used to them. So let’s get started with the word “police”. And by the way, do you remember a recent episode where I talked about the pronunciation of “focus”, closet and “chocolate”? I said that those three words were some of the most mispronounced words by Brazilians… You know what? “Police” could have made that list.  I’ve heard many people say “police” and by now you’ve heard me say it police several times, so, that’s it. Police. Not “police”, police.

Alright, so here are some things that we might read on a newspaper:

• The police are looking for a missing girl. Again, there’s a missing girl… she disappeared, and the police are looking for her.
• In some countries, the police are well equipped to deal with all kinds of crime.  What does that mean? That means that in some countries the police are well trained, they are well prepared, and they have everything they need to deal with all kinds of crime. In some countries, the police are very well equipped.
• In some places, the police are using infrared cameras to help them identify criminals. So the police are using infrared cameras in some places.
• There was a robbery in my neighborhood yesterday, and the police were called immediately. The police were called immediately.
• Everyone waited outside while the police were investigating the crime scene.

Do you have your own example? Can you remember the last time the police were in your neighborhood? I remember once when there was a fight at a bar near my house and the police were called.

OK, let’s move on to the word “news”. “News” is like the word “information”. We don’t say two informations, three informations, and we don’t say two news either. We say, for example, I’ve received some information or They had no information for us. Likewise, we can say I’ve received some news and They had no news for us.

You know how some people say that “No news is good news”? What does that mean? No news is good news. That means that if you haven’t heard from somebody, if no one has bothered to call, it is usually because everything is going well. That is good news. If there is no news… that is good news. Some people disagree, of course. They think that no news is bad news. If someone has gone away and hasn’t called you… that means that something bad has happened. So, in this case, no news is bad news.

Here’s another pretty common thing that people say a lot:  I have bad news and good news. Which one do you wanna hear first? So, the bad news is, blah blah blah and the good news is, blah blah blah. You know what else happens a lot? Someone gives you news that isn’t so good, and then they immediately say  But the good news is… What does that mean? That means that, although what they said initially isn’t that good, there is an upside to it. There’s a positive side, there’s some kind of advantage to this situation. So someone might say “Well, they’re out of chocolate pie! We’re not gonna have our favorite dessert this time around. But the good news is, we now have a good excuse to stop by the ice cream parlor”.

And here’s a song that has “news” in it: A day in the life, by The Beatles. If you’re a fan, knock yourself out!  Talk to you next time.

Key expressions

• police
• news
• no news is good/bad news
• good news and bad news

Glossary

we sometimes slip = às vezes a gente escorrega

you’re in luck = você está com sorte

could have made that list = poderia ter aparecido na lista

likewise = da mesma maneira

no one has bothered to call = ninguém se deu ao trabalho de ligar

an upside = um lado bom

Perguntas

(a) Who are Tim and Tina? Quem são Tim e Tina?

(b) Why is this woman talking about them?  Por que essa mulher está falando sobre eles?

(c) What is the guy (in the picture) going to do now? O que esse cara (na imagem) vai fazer agora?

Minhas respostas

(a) Tim and Tina are this woman’s dogs. She treats them as though they were human beings!  Tim e Tina são os cachorros da mulher. Ela os trata como se eles fossem seres humanos!

(b) Because she’s crazy about them and she just loves talking about them. Porque ela é louca por eles e ela adora falar sobre eles.

(c) He’s going to ask more questions about Tim and Tina. He’s a dog lover, like the woman. Ele vai perguntar mais sobre o Tim e a Tina. Ele (é uma pessoa que) adora cachorro, como a mulher.

                 E você? Quais seriam as suas respostas?

E aqui vai o PDF com o cartoon anterior – I’ll be right back – com todas as respostas (editadas quando necessário) para quem quiser guardar.

O Inglês Online mudou, mas é muito simples: ele funcionava em uma determinada plataforma (ExpressionEngine), e agora funciona em outra (WordPress). É isso!

Não tem quase nada de diferente para quem lê as dicas, mas o que mudou foi pra melhor: agora os comentários vem com um botãozinho de resposta, o que torna possível responder alguém ali mesmo onde a pessoa comentou.

Por enquanto, é só isso… Mas como o novo site inaugurou ontem, algumas coisas ainda precisam ser traduzidas para o português aqui e ali, e alguns posts ainda estão com a formatação um pouco estranha.

Só para não perder o hábito, vamos aproveitar o bonde da mudança e colocar dica de inglês aqui também. Vou aproveitar a situação de “antes era desse jeito e agora é assim” para colocar alguns exemplos aqui com used to.

Era desse jeito, e agora é assim

Se você tem contato com inglês há algum tempo, provavelmente já ouviu falar da expressão used to. Não estou falando de I’m used to doing this or that (que quer dizer “estou acostumada a fazer isso ou aquilo”), mas do used to que comunica o que alguém costumava fazer, comer, desenhar, plantar, ser, etc.

Por exemplo, o Inglês Online ficava antes numa plataforma chamada “ExpressionEngine”, e agora está em WordPress. Veja:

• This website used to be powered by ExpressionEngine. Now, it is powered by WordPress.

Que mais… os comentários antes eram lineares, ou seja, apareciam por ordem cronológica. Agora, a gente tem comentários no estilo que alguns chamam de “aninhados”, ou seja, as respostas a um comentário podem ser dadas abaixo do mesmo, e fica tudo agrupado.

•  We used to have linear comments on ExpressionEngine. Now, we have threaded comments on WordPress.

Antes, era um pouco complicado para alguém não-técnica (eu!) fazer mudanças no site sem ajuda de um desenvolvedor. Agora, isso ficou bem mais fácil:

• Before, it used to be hard for me to make changes to the site on my own. Now, it’s a breeze.

On my own = sozinha, por conta própria. It’s a breeze = é super fácil.

Veja que o “it used to be hard…” na verdade correspode a “era difícil…”, ou seja, pra nós, o sujeito é inexistente; no inglês, usa-se “it”.

Mais uma: antes, saía caro fazer mudanças no site. Agora, é mais barato.

• Before, modifying the site used to be expensive. Now, it is usually cheaper.

E você? Passou por alguma situação similar recentemente? Como você pode usar used to na sua vida? Para saber mais sobre o assunto, veja esse post.

Hoje eu vou falar sobre duas expressões em inglês que são mais ou menos relacionadas: elas tem a ver com acreditar ou não em alguma desculpa ou ideia de alguém. Para ver e ouvir podcasts de semanas anteriores, clique em Podcast Inglesonline na barra lateral. Você pode também assinar o feed do podcast ou encontrá-lo no iTunes (veja o menuzinho lá em cima).

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Transcrição

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 let’s talk about a couple of expressions with the words buy and sell. But we’re not going to focus on the more traditional meanings of buying and selling, like… buying a bicycle or selling a house. Here, we’re talking about ideas, excuses, reasons for doing something and stuff like that.

An example: let’s say you have a ten year old son, little Jimmy, and one day he comes home with a note from his teacher, Ms. Johnson. The note says that he’s been acting up and kinda disrupting the class. So you ask little Jimmy what’s going on. Why is he acting up?, you wanna know. And Jimmy says “I’m not acting up! I’m always quiet in class! Kenny is the one who’s always joking and acting up! She tought it was me because we look like twins.” So this is Jimmy’s excuse: he is actually an angel in class while Kenny is the one who can’t be quiet. But Jimmy and Kenny look so much alike that their teacher mixed them up! She sent Jimmy home with a note, instead of giving Kenny the note.

So Jimmy tells you this little story and you are just not buying it. You are not buying this story. That means you are not convinced. You don’t think his story is credible. You know your son, he’s impossible! And he’s very creative too. You know that it is highly unlikely that Jimmy is quiet in class. So, yeah, you’re not buying it. You’re not buying his story. Here’s another example: your friend had agreed to go to the movies with you tonight and now he’s just called you and said that he’s feeling a little tired so he won’t be able to go tonight. You know this guy well and you know that he was really looking forward to going to the movies, so… you’re not buying it. You’re not buying his excuse. That’s a lame excuse! He’s tired? You’re not buying it. You think the real reason why he canceled on you is something else entirely. You’re not buying that he’s too tired to go to the movies.

Now, here’s the opposite idea… for example: let’s say your friend is telling you about her trip to some beach town you had never heard of before. She tells you it was wonderful, the beach was amazing and the weather was so nice. You say “Hey, I’m sold! That beach town sounds amazing and I wanna go there!” I’m sold – that means… you’ve convinced me, I see what you’re saying, I believe you.. I’m sold. I still remember one day, when I was living in the US, and I told my roommate that I had eaten a, I think it was a salami bread or something, and that it also had parmesan cheese on it, and she said “I’m sold!” That means she thought the bread sounded delicious and she wanted to have some herself.

So I’m gonna present you with a list of things that someone might say to you, and you tell me whether you would say “I’m not buying it” or “I’m sold!”.

• Someone says to you “My Internet course will teach you how to become a millionaire in less than a month! You’ll never have to work again. And it costs only ten thousand dollars. Remember, you’ll become a millionaire in a very short time.” What would you say? “I’m sold” or “I’m not buying it”?
• Another one: a friend says to you “You know that chocolate cake you ate at my house the other day? I’m gonna make it tomorrow, so if you wanna come by, you can watch me and learn how to make it yourself.” What would you say? “I’m sold” or “I’m not buying it”?
• You’re going to a U2 concert tonight and your friend tells you “I just met U2′s agent and he gave me backstage passes! We’re gonna meet Bono tonight!” What would you say? “I’m sold!” or “I’m not buying it”? It depends on who the friend is, right?
• Last one: the owner of a language school tells you “Be our student and we promise you’ll be fluent in any language you want in 3 months! We have the best teachers, the best materials, the best snack bar! And you’ll be speaking English like a native in 3 months.” What would say? “I’m sold! or I’m not buying it”?

Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

• I’m sold
• I’m not buying it

Glossary

acting up = fazendo bagunça, se comportando mal

mixed them up = confundiu os dois

highly unlikely = altamente improvável

a lame excuse = uma desculpa esfarrapada

Eu e muitas outras pessoas já progredimos muito no inglês usando música – afinal, você está ouvindo a língua um zilhão de vezes (que é o que a gente faz quando gosta da música, não é?) e provavelmente querendo entender o que está sendo dito.

Então hoje resolvi passar a dica pra você, caso ainda não conheça o site: o Lyrics Training não só oferece a música e o clip, como também mostra a letra da canção (the lyrics) no formato de “exercício para completar” em 3 versões. Na Iniciante (Beginner), apenas 10% da letra está faltando; na Intermediate, fica mais difícil: 25% da letra está faltando, e assim por diante.

Outra coisa muito legal é que você pode ir lá no topo, à direita; selecionar inglês, e então selecionar o nível de inglês das letras. Por exemplo, você pode começar com Easy para trabalhar com letras mais simples.

Acesse o Lyrics Training

Few, very few

Pense em situações onde você diria coisas assim: muito pouca gente sabe disso; muito pouca gente faz aquilo; muito pouca gente gosta deste. Poucos carros conseguem chegar aqui; pouca gente sabe, mas… Deu para pegar a ideia?

Veja:

Few people know this, but this little bakery has the best cupcake in town.
Pouca gente sabe disso, mas essa padariazinha tem o melhor “bolinho com creme” da cidade.

Few cars can accomodate eight people confortably and that’s why I like vans.
Poucos carros conseguem acomodar / Não tem muito carro que consiga acomodar oito pessoas confortavelmente e é por isso que eu gosto de van.

Para dizer “Muito pouca gente sabe disso, mas…” basta colocar Very na frente do few.

Mais dois exemplos:

Few people like our more exotic ice cream flavors.
Poucas pessoas gostam dos sabores de sorvete mais exóticos.

Few schools in this neighborhood have a pool for swimming practice.
Poucas escolas nessa vizinhança tem piscina para treino de natação.

Repare que estamos usando “few people”, “few cars”, “few schools”. O sentido muda bastante se começarmos essas sentenças com “A few people know…”, “A few cars can…”, “A few people like…”, “A few schools…”. Você sabe qual é a diferença? Vá até esta dica para ver exemplos de “a few…”.

Little, very little

Agora pense em situações onde você quer expressar alguma coisa assim: o aluno nem precisa saber muita matemática para se dar bem nessa prova (ou “o aluno precisa saber só um pouquinho de matemática”); não acontece quase nada nessa cidade; não há muito que a gente possa fazer. Pegou a ideia geral?

Dê uma olhada:

Students need to know very little Math to do well on this test.
Os alunos não precisam saber muita (precisam saber só um pouquinho de) matemática pra se dar bem nessa prova.

Very little happens in this town.
Não acontece quase nada (acontece muito pouco) nessa cidade.

There is little we can do.
Não há muita coisa (há pouca coisa) que a gente possa fazer.

Coloquei acima traduções alternativas em parênteses, que são um pouco mais parecidas com as frases em inglês. De novo, o sentido muda bastante se a gente disser “students need to know a little Math”, por exemplo. Veja esta dica para ver exemplos de “a little”.

Repare também…

Um recado!

Não fique tentando muito decorar o que coloquei aqui e esperando que na sua próxima conversa em inglês você vá usar as expressões fluentemente… a decoreba nesse momento vai servir se você estiver estudando para um teste escrito.

Leia bastante os exemplos, compreenda, e comece a reparar de agora em diante nos “few” e nos “little” que você encontrar por aí. Tenha paciência, pois assim como demorou um tempinho pra você saber usar “não tem muito”, “um pouco” e “quase nada” quando ainda era criança, pode levar um tempo pra você internalizar as dessa dica. Mas assim como depois de ouvir e entender o suficiente essas expressões em português você começou a usá-las corretamente, isso também acontece com as expressões em inglês se você se expuser o suficiente através de listening, leitura, videos, etc… que você consiga compreender! Não é de um dia para o outro – mas você não esperava mesmo que fosse, né?

Hoje eu vou falar sobre duas expressões em inglês relacionadas, que tem a ver com nossas expressões em português “Pega leve”, “Dá um tempo pra ela”, etc. Para ver e ouvir podcasts de semanas anteriores, clique em Podcast Inglesonline na barra lateral. Você pode também assinar o feed do podcast ou encontrá-lo no iTunes (veja o menuzinho lá em cima).

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Transcrição

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.

So picture this: you work for a company that sells pencils. It’s a very competitive market and the salespeople in your company work 14 hours a day. You’re the sales manager, so you have to make sure that everyone in your team is at the top of their game and working really hard to bring as much business to the company as humanly possible. So what happens one day is that your boss, the president, presents his protegé to you, and tells you that from now on, he is part of the sales team. So the new guy, Gary, has zero experience in sales. He looks like he doesn’t even like selling. He may not even like pencils that much, you’re not sure. However your boss has asked you to be patient with Gary. He said “Look, I know Gary is not an experienced sales person, but please work with him. Be patient, go easy on him, OK?” Hey, he’s your boss. He’s the president of the company and the one who pays your salary, so you answer “Sure”.

So one of the things your boss said was “Go easy on him”. What does that mean? That means.. be extra-patient with him. Be gentle. Go easy on him. For example, if an experienced sales person lost an important client, that sales person would be in serious trouble! But not Gary. If Gary loses an important client, be patient. Don’t be mad, don’t fire him, go easy on him. This expression “go easy on someone” is very common when we’re dealing with beginners, with rookies… A rookie is someone who’s just starting out in a profession, or an activity. For example, if you enjoy watching cop shows, you’ve probably heard the word rookie before. There’s always a police officer who’s just started working for the force; he or she is a rookie. And when there’s a rookie in the group, you may hear someone say “Go easy on her” or “Go easy on him”. Although I don’t think that’s very common in the police because they like to be very tough, but… I think you get the idea: don’t be so hard on this person. Be patient, because he or she is a beginner, they don’t have much experience, they’re still learning. Go easy on him; go easy on her.

So here’s a related expression: give someone a break. When you’re demanding a lot from someone, and it’s clear that what you’re demanding is more than he or she can handle, someone might say “Give him a break!” or “Give her a break!”. Let’s say you have a new employee, Tony, and he is doing everything he can to do a good job. However, the company is not doing so well. It’s not Tony’s fault… Times are hard, customers have less money than ever before, so everyone in the industry is having a hard time meeting goals.

You think Tony can take the pressure, though. He’s experienced, he’s tough and he’s very smart. So you keep increasing his workload and demanding great results from him. Tony is looking increasingly tired, but you still think he can take it. Your friend Mary, however, thinks you’re going too far. She says “You should give Tony a break. You should definitely give him a break. He’s doing his best to meet your demands and he’s doing very well. He’s already proven himself. Give him a break, or he’ll get sick and you’ll lose him”. So your friend Mary thinks you should give Tony a break. In Portuguese we might say something like “Dá um tempo” or “Dá uma folga pra ele”. Give him a break, he’s doing his best and he’s visibly tired.

In movies it is very common to hear someone tell another person “You should give yourself a break. Don’t be so hard on yourself, give yourself a break!”. That happens when the character, let’s say, John… So John is blaming himself for some mistake he made in the past, and he can’t forgive himself, and he’s suffering… So a friend tells him “John, give yourself a break. You didn’t know what you were doing back then, so just give yourself a break”.

So give us your own examples in the comments! Talk to you next time!

Key expressions

• go easy on someone
• a rookie
• give someone a break

Glossary

at the top of their game = com a melhor performance possível

bring as much business as humanly possible = fazer (trazer) a maior quantidade de negócio que for possível para um ser humano

his protegé = o protegido dele

don’t be so hard on this person = não exija tanto dessa pessoa

everyone is having a hard time… = todo mundo está tendo dificuldade em…

…meeting goals = atingir os objetivos (bater meta, como dizemos no Brasil)

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.

A inspiração veio da série My Boys, que provavelmente nem chegou a passar no Brasil e foi extinta há alguns anos. O dialogozinho que eu usei foi esse:

- You may wanna think about letting him win.
- Oh, God. That’s where I draw the line.

Pra recapitular, uma amiga recomendava à outra You may wanna think about letting him win, ou, em outras palavras “É melhor você deixá-lo ganhar” no jogo de pôquer. Só que a outra discorda totalmente do conselho, e diz Oh, God. That’s where I draw the line. A sentença depois de Oh, God quer dizer, literalmente, “é aí que eu desenho a linha”.

Que linha é essa? É uma linha metafórica, que simboliza o limite para o que ela vai fazer pelo namorado. Deixar o cara ganhar no pôquer não dá! Em português, a gente poderia dizer

“Aí já é demais!”

Uma situação muito comum para se usar essa expressão é quando alguém está te dizendo o que fazer em determinada situação. Você está hesitando um pouco, achando meio “puxado”, mas está ouvindo pois o resultado vale a pena. Daí a pessoa chega num ponto em que coisa começa a ficar estranha/ruim/absurda demais pra você, e você diz That’s where I draw the line.

Veja mais um exemplo:

(John) So, you’re going hiking next weekend! Fantastic. You may wanna think about getting some new boots.
(Richard) Right.
(John) Also, don’t forget your sunscreen [protetor solar]. It’s essential.
(Richard) Of course.
(John) A backpack is also a must for newbies [uma mochila também é fundamental para novatos]. You should bring your own mineral water…
(Richard) Sure.
(John) … as well as nutritious snacks such as seaweed [e também lanchinhos nutritivos como alga marinha].
(Richard) OK, that’s where I draw the line. No seaweed for me [Sem alga do mar pra mim]. Beef jerky OK? [Pode ser carne seca?]

O que uma pessoa poderia dizer pra você, que faria você responder “OK, that’s where I draw the line”? Isso varia de pessoa pra pessoa, é claro. No meu caso, se alguém estivesse tentando me convencer a fazer alguma atividade física fictícia:

(someone) You’ll have to be disciplined.
(me) OK.
(someone) Also, you’ll have to shell out a few bucks [gastar uns cobres] for the equipment.
(me) Sure, that’s to be expected.
(someone) You’ll also have to take four types of vitamins in the morning…
(me) Really? Well…
(someone) … and, of course, you’ll have to get up at 4 in the morning in order to get the most out of the exercises [para aproveitar os exercícios ao máximo].
(me) OK, that’s where I draw the line. There’s no way I’ll wake up at 4 in order to exercise.

Tente se lembrar de alguma situação em que alguém estava tentando te convencer a fazer alguma coisa, e então chegou um momento em que você disse That’s where I draw the line (ou Aí já é demais), e deixe um comentário!

Hoje o
podcast vai focar na pronúncia de algumas palavrinhas do inglês: focus, closet e chocolate. Por que estas palavras específicas? Por que na minha opinião estas três são as que as pessoas mais erram na pronúncia, incluindo gente que lida com inglês no dia a dia. Se você gosta do assunto, já fiz outros podcasts focando em pronúncia de outras palavras: o primeiro deles gira em torno de blew, o passado de blow.

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

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Transcrição

Hi, how have you been? What kinds of interesting things have you been up to? Today we have a new episode of the inglesonline podcast, as usual. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline. On this episode, we’re going to talk about three specific words: FOCUS, CHOCOLATE and CLOSET. I’m sure at least one of these words is no stranger to you even if you’re a beginner. Why am I focusing on these three words? Because throughout my life what I’ve noticed is that these are probably the three words I hear Brazilians mispronounce the most. Did you get that? Mispronounce… that means, pronounce incorrectly.

Here’s the first time I heard the pronunciation “choco-leit” for chocolate: when I was a kid I went to Disneyland as part of a group, and our guide was a woman who spoke English, of course. One day I saw her chatting with an American and she asked him some question about “chocolate”. But the thing is, she didn’t say chocolate; she said choco-leit. The American guy didn’t understand what she was talking about. She repeated the word choco-leit two more times, I think, until someone realized what was going on and said “Oh, she means chocolate!” And then the American guy finally got it and gave our guide the information she was looking for.

So there you have it: not chocoleit, no. We say chocolate. Again, chocolate. It’s not really “chocoláte”, and it’s not “chocolet” either… it’s chocolate. Chocolate. Fortunately it is extremely easy to find numerous examples of how the word chocolate is used, since it’s such a popular snack (or delicacy) everywhere! Do you like hot chocolate? White chocolate? Brazilian chocolate, or imported chocolate? I have never liked white chocolate, I don’t know why… I just don’t like how white chocolate tastes. Do you? Also, I used to eat a lot more chocolate when I was a kid than I do now. I still love chocolate, don’t get me wrong… I just don’t eat it as often now. How about you? Are you one of the few people in the world who doesn’t like chocolate? Or are you a chocolate-eater like me?

Let’s talk about the second word: focus. Yep, focus. F-O-C-U-S. Focus. Remember that car called Focus? OK, so that’s not how we pronounce focus. We don’t say fócus, and we don’t say fókius either. We say focus. Again: “fôu-câs”. How do we use this word? The meaning is about the same in Portuguese and English, so… Sometimes when a group of people is having a meeting and people start to get disctracted and start talking about something unrelated to the subject of the meeting… When that happens, someone may say “Focus, people, focus!” That means, let’s concentrate, let’s focus on the topic of the meeting. When you focus on something, you put all your attention on that thing, right? And when someone says “Oh, Mary is very focused… she’s a very focused person” that means that Mary has a very clear idea of what she wants and probably a clear idea of what she has to do to get what she wants, and so she’s very focused on getting there. How focused are you? Are you determined, driven and focused?

And last but not least we have the little word closet. C-L-O-S-E-T, closet. In Brazil, it is common to hear people say clôset. However, that is not the correct pronunciation. People do not “clôset” in English-speaking countries. They say closet. Again, closet. What is a closet? Well, it’s a space in a bedroom where people keep their clothes and other stuff. It has a door, or two doors, a few drawers, and it’s usually made of wood or some plastic material. When someone is trying to sell a house, they may say “The bedrooms have a lot of closet space”. That means that the closets must be very large, there’s a lot of room inside them, a lot of space, and therefore residents will be able to store lots of things inside them. Do you have a lot of closet space at home? Are your closets small or large? I have to say, there’s not much closet space in my bedroom. My closet is not big. It’s not small either, it’s just average.

OK, so here’s a sentence that contains all three words we focused on today:

Keep your focus on the chocolate in the closet

Let’s pretend there’s a chocolate bar inside the closet and for some reason you have to keep an eye on it… Yeah, it doesn’t make much sense but it puts all of those words in the same sentence, so there you have it: keep your focus on the chocolate in the closet. Talk to you next time!

Key words

• focus
• chocolate
• closet

Glossary

is no stranger to you = não te é estranha

did you get that? = entendeu (isso)?

delicacy = iguaria

don’t get me wrong = não me entenda mal

driven = empenhado, motivado

last but not least = por último, mas não menos importante

keep an eye on = ficar de olho em

doesn’t make much sense = não faz muito sentido

Perguntas

(a) Where is the teacher going? Onde a professora vai?

(b) What are the students going to do while she’s gone?  O que os alunos vão fazer enquanto ela não estiver lá?

(c) Is the teacher going to come back? A professora vai voltar?

Minhas respostas

(a) She’s going to look for a ladies room (she hasn’t peed the whole morning). Ela vai procurar um banheiro feminino (ela não fez xixi a manhã inteira).

(b) They’re going to sit down and rest for a bit, since they just returned from a 2-hour walk in the woods. Eles vão sentar e descansar um pouco, já que acabaram de voltar de uma caminhada de duas horas na floresta.

(c) Actually, no. The bathroom door will get stuck and she’s have to wait until someone shows up and let her out. Na verdade, não. A porta do banheiro vai travar e ela vai ter que esperar alguém aparecer pra deixá-la sair.

                 E você? Quais seriam as suas respostas?

E aqui vai o PDF com o cartoon anterior – I was so surprised! – com
todas as respostas (editadas quando necessário) para quem quiser
guardar.

- You may wanna think about letting him win.
- Oh, God. That’s where I draw the line.

Vou começar comentando e dando exemplos para a primeira fala, e mais pra frente falamos sobre a segunda. Vamos lá?

You may wanna think about…

A amiga diz “You may wanna think about letting him win”. Isso quer
dizer algo assim: “Talvez você queira considerar (a possibilidade de)
deixar ele ganhar”. O que ela quer dizer mesmo é que pode ser bom ou
vantajoso pra sua amiga que ela deixe o namorado ganhar no pôquer. Aqui
no Brasil, eu acho que a gente diria “Se eu fosse você, deixava ele
ganhar” ou “É melhor deixar ele ganhar”.

O fato é que You may wanna think about… é uma estrutura
muito comum que comunica “considere tal coisa, pode ser bom/vantajoso
pra você”. Em tempo: para quem não sabe ou não se lembra, wanna quer dizer want to (wanna é o que want to se torna quando é dito rapidamente na fala de todo dia).

Veja este exemplo usando may wanna think about:

- I’m really glad you’re in the market for a new house, but… you may wanna think about selling your beach house first.
(Tô super feliz que você esteja procurando uma casa nova, mas… acho melhor você vender sua casa de praia primeiro)
- Why? (Por que?)
- Because you don’t make enough money to own and maintain two houses!
(Porque você não ganha o suficiente pra ter e manter duas casas!)

Qual a mensagem ali em cima? É melhor você vender sua casa de praia antes de comprar uma casa nova!

Mais um:

- I’m so happy! I just heard I got into Disney College!
(Tô tão feliz! Acabei de saber que fui aceito/a no Disney College!)
- Congratulations! You may wanna think about getting a car, though. You’ll need one to get to class.
(Parabéns! Mas acho melhor você arrumar um carro. Você vai precisar de um pra ir para a aula.)

Deu pra pegar o espírito da coisa?  Repare como quando recomendamos a alguém que pense em FAZER alguma coisa, esta ação vem com -ING:

• You may wanna think about gettING a job.
• Now that you’re living in France, you may wanna think about learnING French.
• I know you’re not a fan of technology, but you may wanna think about buyING a cell phone.
• You may wanna think about apologizING to your friend.

Na próxima dica, eu falo sobre That’s where I draw the line. Pense em algum conselhinho que você daria a alguém usando You may wanna think about… O que você diria, e para quem?