Hello, there! How’s it going?

Alguns leitores escreveram pedindo um podcast somente em inglês e como você sabe que eu adoro séries resolvi explicar algumas expressões em inglês. Use este podcast para seu estudo diário, ouça bastante, pratique a pronúncia das palavras que você ainda não souber, tente traduzir o texto e entender as expressões. Shall we start?

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Yo, yo, yo, what’s up?

Some readers have written and asked for an English-English podcast because they want to practice their listening skills and also learn some vocabulary. And this podcast won’t be about grammar, or how to use a certain verb tense or which preposition goes with each adjective. This podcast will be about learning two very interesting expressions I’ve heard while watching my favorite series, yes, the Mentalist, Glee, Bleep my Dad Says, The Big Bang Theory, among others.

The most useful aspect of watching series is that you have fun and you also learn vocabulary, how to use words, practice your listening with real English, not textbook English, and you also have the option of choosing between watching it subtitled, if you’re watching it in your subscription channel, or subtitled in English if you’ve rented or bought the DVD. And let’s be honest, if you like to download your episodes the next day they were broadcast in the US, you can also download the subtitles two or three days after this episode was broadcast.

OK, let’s cut to the chase and get down to business. Adir, what? Cut to the chase? Get down to business? What on earth are you talking about? All right, let’s start off with these two expressions. To cut to the chase means to go directly to the point, to say something directly and not beat around the bush, I mean, not use evasive ways of saying things. This expression comes from the movies where people want to see the car chase or the bad guy chase scene, and not watch the boring dialogs. So when you’re telling a story and people tell you to cut to the chase, they want you to go directly to the point because you’re being too wordy, long-winded, that is, you’re talking too much and not saying things clearly.

Now let’s move on to our next expression, to get down to business. To get down to business means to basically talk about what the subject that will be discussed or to start working on a project or task that needs to be carried out. Usually in business meetings after the introductions people get down to business, because they don’t want to waste any time. Let’s take the example of Sue, a 15-year-old teenager in the United States. Sue likes to talk on the phone with her friends, IM them, text them, and of course forget about her homework. So her mom usually comes into her room and says, “Sue, dear, I think it’s time you get down to business and start doing your homework.” By that she wants Sue to stop goofing off, I mean, wasting time, and start working on her school assignments. So, let’s get down to business, shall we?

Our next expression is to turn out to be. This expression is widely used in English so let me give you a situation where it can be used. Suppose your sister met this guy some months ago and fell in love with him. At first, to impress her, he bought her flowers, took her to fancy restaurants, opened the car door for her, he was a real gentleman. But, as time went by, he started to show who he really was, he was rude to her, didn’t like to work hard and some people say he was involved with some illicit business. So, at first he was a gentleman but he turned out to be a crook, a dishonest person, a swindler, a thief. He wasn’t at first, or wasn’t thought to be a crook at first, but he turned out to be one, he turned out to be a crook. Here’s what happened to me, I went to the movies last week and I’d read somewhere that the movie was bad, so I had that bad movie idea in my mind, but actually the movie turned out to be good, you know, it was not bad at all. I thought it was bad, but this opinion of mine changed, so the movie turned out to be very good.

All right, out last expression is up and running. I like this expression because it gives a positive idea, something that is up and running is working correctly, perfectly, is in operation, functioning properly. I can say that the new copy machine in the office is up and running, it’s working perfectly and it is dependable, that is, we can trust it to work when we need it. Here’s another example: a hospital in my city has been remodeled and is trying to get its new wards up and running as soon as possible. That means that those new wards are going to be useful to a lot of people when they’re functioning properly, up and running. This expression, up and running, is used specially with systems and machines, not with people, ok?

Yay, I hope you’ve liked this rather long, but really interesting podcast about some expressions in English. Now let me give you a really useful tip. Download it, listen to it in your iPods, cell phones, mp3 players, on your computer and practice repeating the words you’re not so sure of and listen, listen, listen, and listen some more. You’ll see that this is the key to your fluency.

Now I gotta go because I have a thousand errands to run, I mean, a thousand things to do, so I see you soon with another really cool podcast. Take care and have a good one!