Como digo em inglês: Por mim, tá OK

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Apr 25
Como digo em inglês Por mim, tá OK

Hi, all. How have you been?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre expressões muito comuns no inglês, que começam com That’s… 

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. How have you all been? Here’s a new episode of the inglesonline podcast. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

So today I picked four expressions… more like four set phrases that start with That’s… All four of them start with “That’s…” They’re all very, very common in everyday conversation and if you’re used to watching TV shows or movies, you’ve definitely heard them before.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Key expressions

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

 

Glossary

toppings = coberturas da pizza

screwed up her order = errou o pedido dela

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

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

sneezed = espirrou

Ana
Pizzaguy 31/05/2012

Hah, I like pizza :)

amerykanskie 30/05/2012

Nice one, I like podcasts, I can listen to them while I’m doing something else and it’s my solution for succesfull learning

Lipe 13/05/2012

The last that I said “That’s it!’’ was with a fake friend. We were in our job and in the time to have a lunch, I ask for other friends wait for me and she doesn’t like. When I returned for my room she was very nervous and launched a bread into me. That’s the last straw. I never more have talked with her since this time. But it is Ok with me, because I consider her a death girl.. :/

José Nunes 12/05/2012

Hi, Ana.

How I love this podcast !

By the way, let me explain the expression “the last straw”.
The whole sentence was “It was the last straw that broke the camel’s back”.

Possible interpretation: There is a limit to everything.
We can load the camel with lots of straw, but finally it will be too much and the camel’s back will break.
And it is only a single straw that breaks its back – the last straw.
This can be applied to many things in life.
People often say “That’s the last straw!” when they will not accept any more of something.
Note: straw (noun) = dried stalk of grain (like dry piece of grass) (port: palha); also: the plastic item you use to suck through a liquid or water from a glass(port: canudo)
camel (noun) = large long-necked animal used for riding and carrying goods in the desert

(excerpt from http://www.englishclub.com/ref/esl/Sayings/I/It_was_the_last_straw_that_broke_the_camel_s_back_503.htm )

Regards, José

    Ana 13/05/2012

    Thanks, José ;)

Camilla 11/05/2012

Ana,podemos usar: “It sounds good to me” in the same way of That’s OK by (with) me?
Obrigada, um abraço

Caroline Pessoa 04/05/2012

Let me say the last time I said “That´s it!”

There´s not many days, actually was three or four days ago when my college decreed strike in the second consecutive year, unfortunately. And I was so angry that I said “That´s it! We had had enough with the last strike last year, and in this year we have other strike? I´ts unbelivable!”

Bye xD

Caroline Pessoa 04/05/2012

Hello, Ana!

Well, I was reading the text and I saw an expression that I don´t understand,”band-aid”. What this means?
Thanks you xD

    Lipe 13/05/2012

    I have wrote…

Leandro 27/04/2012

great podcast Ana =]

uhm… the last time i said ”that’s it” was when i was at school and the teacher didn’t come,i waited for 2 hours and nothing.
i thought , that’s it, i’m going home right now

thanks Ana for being the best teacher that i have =D

    Ana 01/05/2012

    Leandro, you were very patient – it took you two hours to finally say “That’s it!” ;)

Fernando 26/04/2012

Mais um belo post .Ana, Volta e meia meus amigos pedem para mim ler algum dialogo, ou texto em ingles traduzindo, jogo de videogame, filme etc. Sera k aumento minha habilidade no ingles fazendo isso, ou so fica mais facil de pegar o velho hábito de tradução, k segundo os linguistas é um dos piores habitos para kem estuda ingles? Gostaria da sua opinão Ana. Parabens, adoro seu site. kissus

    Ana 01/05/2012

    Fernando,

    A base de tudo pra mim é muito listening compreensível, como digo nas dicas “Como FAlar Inglês”.

    Antes de ter isso, eu não faria leitura em voz alta – pois se vc não tiver incorporado a fonética/pronuncia da língua, estará se viciando com a pronúncia errada (aportuguesada, provavelmente). OK?

Diogo Higino 26/04/2012

Hi Ana, that’s amazing podcast.

I started to study english with a coworker few months ago, we started off by easy things and all the effort it was to see he motived, so I started to see that the methodology it was getting tired and he was having no attention as much necessary. So I thought, that’s it. I’m here trying to prepare beginners classes without being a teacher to see whether he realise the need to give a step more in languages and all I see is lazy. That’s the last straw.

I took a word with him and we decided to stop. I said “that’s ok by me”, I wished him good luck.

Thanks again, I love learn something else every week.

    Ana 26/04/2012

    Great example, Diogo! Congrats ;)

Karinna 25/04/2012

Oi Ana!

No seu texto a expressão “That’s it!” tem um significado negativo, algo como: “Já chega!”. Mas eu tinha em mente que “That’s it!” era uma expressão com significado positivo, algo como: “É isso aí!”. Fiquei com essa dúvida.

    Ana 26/04/2012

    SIm, Karinna, tem os dois.

Nelma 25/04/2012

Hi Ana,

Once I heard these expressions: “For me everything would”, and “That´s cool for me” meaning: Por mim tudo bem.
Are these expressions correct?

Nice day,

Nelma

    Ana 26/04/2012

    Nelma – pra pessoa dizer

    For me everything would

    ela tem que estar respondendo uma pergunta que comece com “What would…?”, por exemplo (e que tenha a ver com essa resposta, claro). Essa resposta pode ser traduzida como “Pra mim, tudo seria/faria/daria/etc”

    That’s cool for me – pode ser, se a pergunta for “Is this cool for you?”. Pode estar correta dependendo do contexto.
    O que ouço mais é That’s cool with me.

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