Podcast: Dressing up

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Aug 10
Inglês - Podcast Dressing up

Hoje vamos falar sobre expressões relacionadas à maneira como pessoas estão vestidas.

Transcrição

Hey, everybody! What’s up? 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.

Let’s talk about ‘dressing up’. When you go to a fancy party or to an important event, you usually have to dress up. That means a nice dress for a woman, and a suit for the guy. Usually. For example, let’s say you are a parent – a mother or a father, you’re a parent, and you have six children. You tell them “Next Saturday we are going to our cousin Mary’s wedding. So you all will have to get into some nice clothes and look presentable!” So one of your children says “Oh, we’re gonna have to dress up?” One of your daughters says “Oh I hate having to dress up! Then I’ll have to be all careful to not spill soda on the dress…” And you say “Yes, we all are going to have to dress up. It’s a wedding! We have to dress up for the occasion. It’s going to be a formal party and that means night dresses for women and tuxedoes or formal suits for men. We are all going to have to dress up.”

What are the occasions we usually dress up for? Weddings… If you’re invited to attend the Oscars, you’ll have to dress up. When was the last time you dressed up for something? For me, it was the last time I went to a wedding… I had to dress up a little.

Now, sometimes you dress up for an event, and when you get there, everyone is dressed very casually. Like, everyone is in jeans and sneakers. Has that ever happened to you? You’re the only person wearing a nice dress, or in a business suit; everyone else is wearing jeans. You are overdressed for the event. You are definitely overdressed. That means the stuff you’re wearing is too formal or too sophisticated for the event you’re at. So you look around, you see how everyone’s dressed, and you feel you are overdressed for this event.

Of course, the opposite happens very frequently as well. You may go some place and find out that you are underdressed. That means you look around and see people in, let’s say, tuxedoes while you’re wearing your brown slacks and your Havaianas sandals. You are seriously underdressed for the occasion. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever gone to an event underdressed? I have. I was in school, and someone was going to throw a party and this person invited everyone in our class. Well, I forgot to read the part on the invite that said that it was a formal
party. That definitely meant women wearing dresses. Not me… I totally missed that and showed up wearing black slacks and some t-shirt. Yep, true story.

And here’s another cool way to use “dress up”. We can use this expression “dress up” to mean “wear a costume”. So, for example, many men dress up as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Many people dress up as different things for Carnaval in Brazil. Right? At least when they’re children. There’s no Brazilian Carnaval in the United States, but people still dress up for Halloween. It’s true, in the United States Halloween is an opportunity for women to dress up as a witch, for instance, and for men to dress up as Batman, for example.

Alright, that’s all for now and please tell us your stories about being inappropriately dressed for an event. Overdressed or underdressed, it doesn’t matter – let us know and talk to you next time!

 

Key expressions

  • dress up
  • dressed up as
  • overdressed
  • underdressed

Glossary

slacks = calça comprida

I totally missed that = eu não vi aquilo

costume = fantasia

Ana
Orlando A. Macambaco 19/08/2011

Hi Ana,
I have never heard your voice, but i ncan see in your podcats that your English is quite professional. By the way, i would like to thank for your all advices, i mean lessons you have lounched to us, they have helped me improving my english. That’s it by now… Thanks a lot.
From Maputo – Mozambique.

Wallace 16/08/2011

Hi,Ana! I’ve been enjoying your podcasts a lot. I’m used to listen to it for practicing my listening and getting more vocabulary. I appreciate your stories and they help me a lot to understand what you wanna say. I have a question about what you’ve written above to Aline and Caio: “Loved reading them”. This sentence doesn’t have subject. Could you explain me why you’ve written it like that? Is this a way to say informally in the USA?
Congratulations and keep going on helping us.
Hugs!

Ailson 16/08/2011

I have liked very much of your lessons. You are a great person and give us english help very well. A question (ask) Do you go frquently to Usa? What State you like?

Ricardo 15/08/2011

Very nice text!

You make this appear easy!

Congratulation Ana!

So much didactic!

thanks!

Ricardo.

Elias Oliveira 15/08/2011

Hi Ana Luiza.
Happend whit me a funny history, I work in the saturdays recording weddings and once I had gone work, and a friend invited me to a club, but I can’t go o my home for exchange my clothe, so I went to the club overdressed, all people in the place had been normal, tennis and I dress up suit and tie… Was very embarrassing to me, but today I laugh about.
Thank you for your podcast and kisses, bye.

Ana Luiza 15/08/2011

Thanks, everyone, for the comments/compliments.

Aline and caio: great stories! Loved reading them. I think we ALL have at least one story about over or underdressing.

caio – I could totally see myself going through the same situation back when I had a corporate job.

caio 15/08/2011

On my first week at my job, my Boss told me that people wear jeans and this stuff at friday, because it is the casual day of the week…So, i was very in doubt about how to dress up for the day then I went wearing only a pair of Nike shoes ,a Polo t-shirt and jeans, very casual.

But, you know, for every rule there is an exception,  and turned out that everyone was wearing suit and tie on friday….I asked to my coworker and he said: “ah, you can wear casual, but when there are meeting schedule, we have to go suitable..Like today, the CEO is coming”. I was completely underdressed for the occasion.

Aline 12/08/2011

I guess the last time I dressed up for something it was when I traveled to Serra Gaúcha; I used to dress up myself everyday to go out at night.
When I was a child and I went to the church, I used to think I was overdressed, because the people was in casual clothes and me and my family, overdressed.
Sometimes, I go to the mall, in posh malls, and I fell I’m undressed. But I don’t care.

Junior 12/08/2011

Hey Ana!
So, I’d like to thank you. This website is awesome. OMG
I’ve been learning a lot of here.
Those expression are really cool. Your voice is amazing. haha
Congratulations.
By the way, I am following you on twitter.
Take care.

Nivaldo Leôncio 11/08/2011

Thanks Ana Luiza, you’re getting better and better. you’re great!

Paulo João de Souza 11/08/2011

Oi
Ana Luiza …
Um bom dia para você!!!!
Quero dizer que adoro suas lições e ou melhor todos seus podcast.
Obrigado e tudo de bom a você,
Paulo

Ariane 11/08/2011

Sorry, I wrote totally wrong… is prom (Baile de formatura)

Ana Luiza 11/08/2011

Hi Ariane – both are correct.

Great example… sometimes we’re in a hurry and there’s no time to change! What kind of event is a “proud”?

Ariane 11/08/2011

Hi Ana,

I was reading the transcript and you wrote .. “yes, we all are going to have to dress up”. And the second time that you said the same sentence was “We are all going to have to dress up.”

What is the correct way? we are all going… ?

By the way, once I was totally underdressed for the party. I was in a child b-day party when a friend called me and invited for a proud. I didn’t think to much and went with him. He picked me up in the b-day party and we went to the proud, when I realise that I was wearing shirt and normal T-Shirt while the other girls was wearing nigth dresses was too late for change the clothes. So, I went in this proud definitely underdressed!

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