Hoje tem a primeira parte do podcast que gravei com Steve Ford – aquele dos vídeos Aqui nós tivemos a chance de falar sobre as perguntas da Sonia, do Marcello, do Osvaldo e a primeira do Wallace. Foi muito legal também ter surgido na conversa o tópico “inglês que eu aprendi no livro X inglês que eu ouço por aí” – é comum a gente ver as regrinhas – muitas vezes em livros publicados lá na década de 80 ou 90, ou até nos mais atuais – que dizem uma coisa, e quando a gente assiste a série da TV ou lê uma revista, vê outra. Que é isso?!
Ouça e/ou leia o que o Steve e eu dissemos sobre isso, e também:
Whose cat is this X Whose is this cat?
Watch a movie X See a movie
I have no cash X I don’t have money
Pronúncia de palavras com sons T e D
Obs.: Só um aviso (just a heads up) – essa conversa foi gravada no Skype, e por isso infelizmente o volume da minha voz saiu um pouco mais baixo do que normalmente sai nos podcasts.
Transcrição
(Ana) Hi everyone, this is Ana Luiza of inglesonline.com.br and this is another episode of inglesonline podcast. Today we have a special guest, teacher Steve Ford. I interviewed Steve a while ago and we have lots of videos made by Steve on Inglês Online so if you have been following our blog you may know him. But, otherwise, he’s an English teacher, he has a very popular video page on You Tube and that’s youtube.com/privateenglish…
(Steve) That’s right, that’s right Ana. Hello, hello, hello!
That’s a long name, I mean, that’s a lot of letters to type in.
(Ana) I knew that one. I rehearsed that one… Alright, so it’s great to have you back, Steve.
(Steve) Great to be here.
(Ana) Just so you guys know, Steve made the suggestion that I asked for questions. You know, I posted on the blog, asking that readers sent in questions and I received lots of questions both on the comment area of the blog and… email. So today we’re gonna do our best to answer, or talk about, as many questions as we can.
(Steve) You bet!
(Ana) Is there anything you wanna say before we dive into the questions?
(Steve) Oh no, no, I’d just like to say thank you to all of your users for, you know, participating with the questions and also leaving comments for my videos on YouTube. All of their comments and support is always welcome, it’s great to see. I’m happy that I’m helping so many of you and… yeah, I hope to have some fun today as well.
(Ana) Alright! So let’s get started. What do you think?
(Steve) You bet. Yeah, sounds good!
(Ana) OK. Sonia asked: which of these options or which of these sentences is correct: Whose cat is this? or Whose is this cat?
(Steve) Right, I have that, yeah, down my list here, yes, Sonia… Definitely the correct one… my radar is going toward “Whose cat is this?”.
“Whose is this cat?”… that sounds like a direct translation from Portuguese, don’t you think? Like, if you were, if you were to translate that, like “De quem”, right?
(Ana) Yeah. Yeah, “de quem é esse gato?” You’re right. Yeah, it sounds like a direct translation. You know, the funny thing is, I have… I don’t remember ever seeing anywhere that the second sentence is wrong, but… really, it doesn’t sound that common. Right? It doesn’t seem like I have heard that a lot.
(Steve) No, exactly, exactly. I didn’t look it up, but, I mean… definitely the one that we would teach by the book would be the first one. Maybe the second one is used… Who knows, maybe it’s an influence on American English from Spanish. We don’t know, but… Definitely, to be on the safe side I would say, go for the first one.
It’s a good question. Very tricky. Sonia must be an English teacher.
(Ana) Yeah, may be. For example, if we had “Whose is it?”, then now it’s a very common construction, right? Whose is it?
(Steve) Yeah, yeah, for sure. “Whose is this?”, it could also be. But it would sound strange to say “Whose is this cat?” It just doesn’t even, kind of, flow or sound right to me. You know, “whose cat is this?”. That sounds right for me.
That’s a tricky thing, that’s like a word order thing. Like, sometimes, I don’t know if they ever study the adjective order. There’s something called “op-sh-co”, it’s like opinion, shape, color… Like when you have to order the adjectives, you know, before a noun… And that’s also very flexible.
You’ll see people changing the order of that, changing the order of adverbs, you know…
(Ana) Steve, that’s totally true, yeah.
(Steve) So, exactly. I think that sometimes you just have to say what sounds right. But coming from a grammatical point of view, “whose cat is this?” – that’s the right one.
(Ana) Alright! Let’s go to another question here that I… let me find it, question #2. Oh, OK. This is a good one. Marcello José asks: I’d like to know more about the differences among verbs like to see, watch and look. This is a favorite… this is a favorite question.
(Steve) Yeah, yeah. I remember, I remember teaching in a class when I was living in Brazil, and I remember that, like, I actually taught this class of engineers on Friday. And then, there was another teacher that taught them on another day of the week. And she had taught, you know, taught them by the book that it should be watch, and…
(Ana) Like “watch a movie”?
(Steve) Yeah, like “watch a movie”, and then “see” should be like a sensory verb, like something you do involuntarily all the time. And then I went in, and I said “Well, actually we can say ‘see a movie’ too” And I remember this older student, he stood up… He was furious, like “Oh, come on!” You know? Like, “It’s one or the other”. And, it really isn’t. You know, like I was thinking about it, you know, when I was preparing for this, that there’s a very famous song by John Lennon, A Day in The Life, and he says “I saw a film today, oh boy” I saw a film. To see a film. We use both.
Definitely, once again, by the book, watch would be the preferred one, but a lot of people say see, as well. Is it grammatically correct? Not really, it’s a sensory verb. But we do use it, we break the rule. Bad native speakers!
(Ana) I know. And I get lots of… oh, come on! You know, I think it’s great that this kind of issue, or kind of topic is coming up – and by the way, we have another question involving the words topic and issue.
(Steve) Oh, right! Good segue.
(An) Yeah, anyway… still on this one. It’s a good thing that this kind of thing is being… is coming up because, I get lots of questions, you know, especially… Just in general, I get lots of questions, you know, “I learned that the rule is this and now you said something else” or “I saw, like on a movie. People said something different. So, which one is it? I mean, I was taught by the book that I should use this word, but I see that… You know, I’m confused… which one is it?”
And, I don’t know, I think there are many aspects to this and one of them is, language evolves. I think it’s true for all languages. And, you know, it happens in Portuguese, it happens in English, it happens everywhere. And things that, maybe, were completely incorrect, like, twenty years ago, nowadays… People are saying those things and it’s not considered, like, this horrible mistake anymore.
(Steve) No, not at all, not at all. And I understand it from both points of view. For the English teachers who are trying to maintain some kind of rule, some kind of logic to teach the students, but… It has changed, you know. Kind of on the topic of, you know, like “see”, which is a sensory verb. There are other verbs of opinion and sensory verbs that should not, grammatically, be put into the -ING form, but a lot of them are. In American English, like you’re not supposed to say… You come to Canada, and “Are you liking Canada?” What?! That’s not grammatically correct! That sounds like Portuguese.
(Ana) That’s not what I was taught.
(Steve) Right. So I totally agree with you. It’s dynamic, isn’t it? It’s… They’re gonna have to rewrite the Raymond Murphy or the Betty Azar grammar bibles, you know?
(Ana) Yeah, yeah, I know. OK, so, to answer Marcello, you can say both I saw a movie and I watched a movie. I don’t know, would you like to give other, other examples, like… Differences between, or among see, watch and look?
(Steve) I know that the big one is between see and watch. Look is definitely a sensory verb, so, I mean, you wouldn’t use that in the same context of, like… You wouldn’t say “I looked at a movie”. Look is more, like, at that moment you’re looking at something.
(Ana) You’re directing your eyes to something, right?
(Steve) Right, it’s a one-time kind of thing at that moment. It’s not a continuous… not that continuous, I guess… then it turns into staring, doesn’t it? We could go on for hours about that topic!
(Ana) I know. Alright, let’s see another one. Oh, OK. Osvaldo sent a question. He included two sentences in English. One is “I have no cash” and the other one is “I don’t have money”. And then he asks “Is there any difference between the above? When do I use NO, as in ‘no cash’, or DON’T (I don’t have any money).
(Steve) It’s an excellent question, and I know why…
(Ana) Is there any difference at all?
(Steve) Yeah, sure, sure. And I know why he’s asking that, because… basically, NO goes before a noun and not before a verb. So ‘have’ is a noun… sorry, ‘have’ is a verb. So it’s “I do not have”, “not have”. What’s ‘have’? Have is a verb, so we say ‘not have’. But ‘no’ is coming before ‘cash’. Is ‘cash’ a verb? No! It’s a noun. It’s a thing, so we use ‘no’.
So that’s the difference… is that, you use ‘no’ before a noun, in the negative, and ‘not’ before a verb. Another thing I wanted to suggest is to be careful of double negatives too. So it’s very common for people to say, even in North America, or the UK, in kind of like a “street talk” kind of way, you know, to say “I don’t have no cash”. And that’s a double negative…
(Ana) Yeah, you hear that in movies a lot.
(Steve) Right, yeah, yeah. There’s the Rolling Stones song “I can’t get no satisfaction”, you know? So that’s another thing to watch out for, are double negatives, not just… You know, once you know that you put “no” before a noun, be careful also that, if you’re using an affirmative sentence – which you have used in this case – you use ‘no’. But if it’s a negative sentence, you have to use ‘any’.
(Ana) Alright, OK. So let me add a little something to this question. What about, what would you say… Is there any difference at all between “I don’t have any cash” and “I have no cash”?
(Steve) No, it’s the same. It’s just two ways, two different ways of saying it.
(Ana) OK! This is going well. What do you think?
(Steve) Oh, it’s awesome! Poetry in motion.
(Ana) You really are an artist.
(Steve) Then I should get out my guitar and we should start doing…
(Ana) So do you have your guitar fired up, or geared up, or whatever it is… Do you have your guitar ready to play for us?
(Steve) No, no, actually I’m just kidding.
(Ana) Ah, ok. So, here’s another… this is actually a couple of questions that were sent in by Wallace. Wallace Rodrigo sent two questions. First one is about pronunciation. And, you know, he’s asking “How do you pronounce words with T and D”, and let me exemplify. Words like letter, beatle and data, and sometimes you hear those words as leTTer, beaTle and daTa. So, what do you have to say about this? Is it a characteristic of American and Canadian English, or, what is it? Is it local, does it have to do with geography, is it the same?
(Steve) That’s an awesome question, yeah. This is a really good question, so Wallace, congratulations on your question. That’s awesome. Definitely in American English, North American English, the T does become a D. You know, that’s very, very common. And, more and more in British English I would say they are also adopting that.
There is the belief that British only say “beTTer” and “buTTer” and that the American say better and butter. That’s starting to mix now with globalization and you know, like… If you watch, like, British Idol or American Idol… Like, they all try to sound kind of, this cool, informal, American pronunciation. So, I mean, by the book, once again, you would say better in American English, beTTer in British English, leTTer in British English, letter in American English.
What I liked about his question, particularly, was that he went a little further and he started to ask about… whether Americans can get so relaxed in their speech that they even omit the D, which formally was a T sound. And that’s true. So, a good example, and I’m sure you know this too, Ana, is like… Internet. The T is dropped altogether and they say “inernet”. Or maybe instead of letter, they might say “ledder”. Like, the person thinks they’re saying the D sound there, but they’re really not. It’s a very relaxed pronunciation. So that does happen, definitely, where the whole sound disappears.
But I think, what I would like to say to that is that… the British do it too, and… If any of you are Lily Allen fans… She’s a very popular British singer. She actually went to school, the same school as Prince Charles had gone to. So she came from a family that sent her to very, very good English schools in the UK. But regardless of that, she sings many times with a Cockney accent, and once again, she will omit the T sound or even the D sound, say “leh-er”. You know, she’ll say “I wrote you a leh-er”
(Ana) Oh, is that… is that the Cockney accent?
(Steve) Yeah, yeah. So once again, this idea that, all British pronounce it with a T and Americans with a D… I mean, both, in informal English can omit the whole thing. So, I think that’s important to realize.
(Ana) And Wallace has a second question, and his second question is about the word “assunto” in Portuguese, and he offers three different translations that assunto… assunto may have in English.
(Steve) Oh, I like your English pronunciation of that, it was good.
(Ana) Yeah, yeah.
(Steve) I should say Rio de Janeiro… OK, go ahead.
(Ana) Yeah, I’m gonna say all Portuguese words like that now. Obrigado.
(Steve) “Trabaio”.
(Ana) Poder falar agora?
(Steve) Exato. Porta!
Em breve, as partes 2 e 3 chegam aqui no site. Não perca!
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.
Right now it seems like Movable Type is the preferred blogging platform available right now.
(from what I’ve read) Is that what you’re
using on your blog?
very good! I learning so much with you… I am late but still well that I come visit and learn more a little… Thank you! Congratulations!
Excuse my english, I am learning… I need to improve it..
Hello, Ana and Steve! Thank you very much to answer my questions. I’m so glad! I just have a doubt how to pronunciate this sound. Should I put my tong leaning on the my mouth’s top or exists another way to do it ? Ana, you pronounce this sound very well.
Hi Jesiel – glad to hear that! Enjoy.
Ana: vai ter que ficar pra próxima, pois já gravamos o podcast. Visite a página do Steve no YouTube, pois ele também recebe perguntas por lá.
Hi Eduardo – thanks and I agree with you re. Eslpod… Dr McQuillan does a great job.
I appreciated you cited ESLPOD.com. That’s an amazing website.
I’m getting used to visit you every day so on. The poscast is great. You and Steve make a nice couple.
Keep up your nice job.
Hello Everybody on Inglesonline. I am happy you are enjoying the podcast that Ana and I recorded to answer your questions. We got together last weekend and had a great time making this special podcast:
Valério: I am happy you noticed that Ana and I try to give you ‘quality’ information which is the result of years and years of teaching English.
Renato: Hey Renato! Boa pergunta! For sure we can talk about your question in a future podcast.
Luciano Nascimento: Hello Luciano! You are getting the idea there. Excellent. You are starting to understand that you can learn a lot of English by yourself. Bravo!
Emilia Goncalves: Hello Emilia! Thanks for your comment!
Lívia: Hello Livia, com certeza é importante criar o que em inglês é chamado de ‘head space’. Ou seja um espaço dedicado só para falar/escutar/escrever em inglês. Assim você vai longe!
Liliane Amaral: Hello Lili, é muito importante receber comentários como os seus.
Cláudio Mayworm: Hey Claudio, I am happy you are taking advantage of the resources we offer.
That’s everybody!!!!! See you next time!!
Bye! Bye!
Steve
PS Sorry for the lack of accents in Portuguese!!!!!!!!
Gente, esse professor é TUDOOOOOOO!!!!! Como ensina bem! Ana, tenho que lhe agradecer milhões de vezes por trazer esse professor fantástico mais pertinho de nós! Eu sou fâ No. 1 dele. Assisto a todos os seus vídeos no Youtube. Cool!!!
Eu confesso que tenho muita dificuldade em aprender Inglês, mas quando Steve fala, eu entendo tudo! It’s amazing! Todos os professores de Inglês que eu já tive até hoje (e não foram poucos) me faziam sentir nada por não conseguir entender direito o que eles falavam ou explicavam. Já com o professor Steve, é o contrário. Ele explica e eu entendo. Ele fala e eu capto 100%! Ele me faz sentir TÃO mais inteligente! Thanks, Steve!!!! Obrigada, Ana! Sua pronúncia também é maravilhosa!
Me encontrei nesse site!
Faço curso de inglês 2x por semana, mas como minha professora mesma diz, “falamos português todos os dias, a toda hora, com inglês também deve ser assim”…por isso, treino lendo e ouvindo suas matérias everyday!
Hello Ana!
This was amazing podcast!
I also had these doubts!
I saw a film yesterday and saw that!
I can understand now:
– You “wath” the peaple on street. (Involuntarily thing)
– I “saw” a film. “To see a film”. (We can use both), “I looked at a movie” is different because “I’m not looked a movie”, but “I saw a movie!”, right?
– We use “no” before noun and “not” before verbs. So correct is “I have no cash” or “ I don’t have money”.
– And words words with T and D pronunciation.
Ouça e/ou leia o que o Steve e eu dissemos sobre isso, e também:
