Na semana passada eu publiquei a dica Como digo em inglês: Mas você nem conhece essa mulher!, e eu disse que ia ter um podcast para complementar o post com exemplos em áudio. Aqui vem eles: ouça frases como You don’t even have a car! e as perguntas equivalentes, como Do you even have a car?
Transcrição
Hey, how’s it going? This is Ana Luiza with a new episode of the inglesonline podcast. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.
So today I’m gonna talk about this little word EVEN. Last week I posted a tip on how to use “even” and this week I follow it up with this podcast. So let’s start out with the examples I used in the post: I told a little story about you and your friend seeing someone famous. A famous actress. Let’s say you guys see her in a store. And then your friend says that he’s gonna ask this actress to have lunch with him.
Now, think about it. This woman is a famous actress, she’s just going about her business, she probably has lots of fans, she gets lots of attention everywhere she goes. So right now she probably
just wants to do some shopping and be left alone. And then your friend says “I’m gonna ask her to have lunch with me!”. And what’s your reaction? You say “What? Are you gonna ask that actress to have lunch with you? That famous actress? Are you insane? You don’t even know her!” Your friend doesn’t even know her. It’s like… at the very least, your friend should know her personally if he wants to ask her out to lunch. But he doesn’t even know her.
And here’s another example that I used: your cousin is fascinated by everything that has to do with China. The people, the country, everything. So you guys go to the beach one day and you see a few Chinese people hanging out at the same beach. You can hear their conversation so you know they’re not speaking Portuguese, or English… it must be Chinese. Your cousin says “I’m gonna go there and introduce myself and just chat with them”. You look at him and say “You don’t even speak Chinese. How are you gonna talk to them?” I mean, at the very least, if you wanna chat with Chinese people you should know a little Chinese. Your cousin wants to chat with those guys but he doesn’t even speak Chinese. He doesn’t even speak Chinese. How’s he gonna do that?
And here’s the other way we can use EVEN with the same meaning as in the examples above: in a question. You said to your friend who wanted to ask that actress out to lunch “You don’t even know her!”. You could have asked your friend “Do you even know her?” Do you even know this woman? Do even know this famous actress?” You’re not thinking about asking someone out to lunch that you don’t even know, right? Do you even know her?
And to your cousin, you said “You don’t even speak Chinese”. You could have said “Do you even speak Chinese?” I mean, you need to at least speak Chinese if you wanna talk to a Chinese person. Do you even speak Chinese?
So let me give you a few more examples of how to use EVEN in this type of question. I’m gonna use the little activity I included at the end of last week’s post. Notice the stress on the verb right after EVEN:
If someone told you they were going to make a phone call to TV Globo to complain about some soapopera, what would you say? Well, you might ask “Do you even have TV Globo’s phone number?” or “Do you even know their phone number?”
If someone told you that they were going to buy an amazing apartment by the beach, what would you say? You might ask them “Do you even have the money to buy an apartment like that?”. Or you might say “Can you even afford an apartment like that?”
If someone told you that they’re gonna watch a Russian film with no subtitles, you might say “Why are you gonna do that? Can you even understand Russian?”
And, finally, if someone told you that they’re going to fix a broken computer by themself, you might say “Do you even know how to fix a computer?” What else? “Do you even know what’s wrong with the computer?”.
Alright, that’s it for today. And let me ask you something: do you even know how many English tips we have at Inglesonline? Lots and lots. So after you’re done with this podcast, take a look through the archives and knock yourself out! Talk to you next time.
Key expressions
you don’t even know her
Do you even speak Chinese?
Glossary
she’s going about her business = ela “tá na dela”, fazendo as coisas dela
that has to do with = que tem a ver com
Can you afford (something)? = Você tem meios para comprar (alguma coisa)?
Ana criou um blog de dicas de inglês em 2006, e depois de muito pesquisar o que faz alguém ganhar fluência numa segunda língua, criou seu primeiro curso de inglês em 2009.
e leia as dicas na barra lateral “Como ter progresso na fluência” e coloque em prática. É a melhor coisa q posso recomendar.
