Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre duas maneiras muito comuns de usar a palavra such em inglês.
Transcrição
Hey, all. Today we have 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.
Remember last week when our podcast talked about how to use the word ‘such’? That’s the most common way to use it I know. There are others, and there are also a few terms with ‘such’ that you’ll hear a lot when you talk to people or watch movies and sitcoms in English.
So for today’s podcast I picked a couple of very popular terms. I’m going to introduce the first one with an example. Just listen to this: We went to the supermarket yesterday looking for cheap food. Really healthy food, such as veggies and fruit, was expensive. Since we were on a tight budget, we ended up buying stuff that is more like junk food, such as cookies, instant pasta and burgers. Large chains such as Walmart and Carrefour usually carry a broad range of frozen meals as well, such as feijoada, strogonoff and pasta dishes.
Did you notice that I used “such as” in order to exemplify the kinds of things I was talking about? I could have said that whole thing without the examples. Listen: We went to the supermarket yesterday looking for cheap food. Really healthy food was expensive. Since we were on a tight budget, we ended up buying stuff that’s more like junk food. Large chains usually carry a broad range of frozen meals as well. So the first time I read the paragraph, I used ‘such as’ to introduce examples.
So from now on when you listen to English try to notice how people use ‘such as’. And by the way, the word ‘like’, as you may know, is also used to exemplify stuff. Some people, even some grammarians, consider ‘like’ and ‘such as’ interchangeable. Others disagree. In any case, a good thing to do is be alert while you’re listening to English materials such as podcasts and radio shows, in order to catch examples of how ‘such as’ is used. See what I did there? ;)
OK. And here’s a common saying in English: There’s no such thing as free lunch. Have you ever heard that one? This is so common, especially in business settings, that I think it’s already becoming incorporated into our Brazilian conversations. I’ve seen it used on newspaper articles once or twice. But what does it mean? There’s no such thing as a free lunch. The literal meaning would be – it’s not really free. They may pay for the lunch, but they’re doing this because they’re expecting something from you. It’s like when sales people take clients out for lunch, dinner, drinks and so on. Of course they may like their clients and enjoy their company, but sales people are actually trained to pamper their clients. They hope their clients will like them better after a few free lunches and dinners, and, ultimately, buy more of their stuff.
So that’s actually where this saying probably originated. When a sales person offers a client a free lunch, is it really a gift? Not really… the sales person is expecting something in return. So it isn’t really a free lunch. Of course, nowadays this sentence is used for anything that looks free, but actually isn’t. For example, imagine that you’re browsing the Internet and you land on a website that’s offering an e-book collection for free! This e-book collection comprises twenty different novels written by your favorite author. Since the books are in the public domain, the website can offer them for free. They have managed to find some pretty rare books and you’re excited to get your favorite stories all in one volume. And it’s free, absolutely free! Or, is it? Actually, they ask you to give them your email before you’re given access to the e-book. Well, still free, right? Not really…
From now one you’ll be getting a ton of unsolicited email from all kinds of vendors. Sure, some of them will fall directly into your Spam folder, but many of them will get through to your Inbox and you’ll start to see lots of offers you’re not really interested in. That’s because the website offering free e-books is collecting the email addresses of those who downloaded the book, and then they sell those emails to Internet companies. So you tell your friend John that you’ve been getting a lot of unsolicited email, also known as spam, and John says “Have you given your email to any random websites?” You tell him about the site with the free e-books and John says “There’s no such thing as a free lunch!… They may not charge you money for the e-books, but now your email is on their database and they’re selling it to vendors all over the Internet”.
So what would be your example of “There’s no such thing as a free lunch?” Let us know in the comments. Talk to you next time.
Key expressions
such as
(There’s) no such thing as a free lunch
Glossary
on a tight budget = com orçamento apertado
pamper = mimar, agradar com coisas
ultimately = em última análise
Or, is it? = Mas será que é mesmo?
unsolicited email = email que você não expressou interesse em receber
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.
There are several people that call to our house offering a lot of courses or whatever it is and speaking that theses courses are free, but, when you go to close business with the companies they tell you should pay a small fee! Then… there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
My sister, one time, reiceved an invite of the Math Teacher to received tips in her extra classes and with the time, she noticed, that in the trully, the teacher was falling in love her and he wanted to spend more time with her.■Since the beggining I thought strange, but she was innocent.
Giving tips in his free time?(There’s) no such thing as a free lunch
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch”, is an usual speech atributed to Milton Friedman, an american economist that better represents the neo liberal economic school. Using this frase, he just want to say that everything that’s free is a problem, like we can see looking day by day in Brazil. For example, there are some students and teachers who says that the education should public and free, but it can’t be free because every spent made from the goverment is expensive and paid by everybody, from the terribles taxes. Another example? Public healthy Sistem, everybody says it’s important and priority, but it has never runned and wil be ever useless and unefficient.
