Como digo em inglês: Falou no diabo, ele aparece

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Nov 07
Como digo em inglês Falou no diabo, ele aparece

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Hi, everybody. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre algumas expressões com SPEAK em inglês.

Transcrição

Hi, 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.

So today I thought I’d center the podcast around the word speak. The reason for that is, I had an e-mail exchange with my web developer this week and I ended up using a very common expression with that word. So here’s the backstory: I asked him to implement a new feature on the website, and he did. He sent me an e-mail saying he’d done what I asked and I was out in a mall when I got his email. I was using the mall’s wifi and the connection was a little iffy, so I took a quick look at the website and I had the impression that everything was working the way I wanted it to.

I shot him an email saying “Looks good… Good job” and he responded saying he was glad everything worked well. Well… The next day I was home and decided to take a better look and check the new feature. And as it turns out, it was NOT working so well. I checked the website pages in detail and I was able to find a few errors that I failed to spot the day before. So I fired up Gmail and sent my developer a message that started with “I spoke too soon. The new feature is actually not working”.

I guess that’s kind of intuitive. “I spoke too soon”. What did I mean by that? I meant what I had said the day before was a mistake. I didn’t have all the information I needed when I said that everything was working. I thought I knew what was going on; I thought the new feature had been perfecly implemented. Turns out I was wrong, so when I shot him that e-mail saying that everything was perfect? Now I know, I spoke too soon.

So I told him, “I spoke too soon”, and I explained that I had found a few errors. Can you think of an example of your own? You know when you say “This is great!” or the opposite “This sucks!” and then a few seconds later you get some new information and you realize you were completely mistaken? That’s when you can say “I spoke too soon”. Let us know in the comments. I can tell you that it’s not uncommon for me to say or think that phrase…

And here’s another one with SPEAK: “speak of the devil”. Have you ever heard that one? Imagine you’re with a friend at a bar and you guys are talking about a third friend… John. John isn’t at the bar right know. You don’t know where John is, but you and your friend are talking about John’s… victory in the latest table tennis championship. Your friend is really impressed by John’s table tennis skills, and you’re agreeing with her, when all of a sudden… who enters the bar? John himself. You’re facing the door so you see him and you say “Ha! Speak of the devil…”

What does that mean? Of course, it does not mean that John is the devil. It means that someone that was mentioned in a conversation all of a sudden appears, or enters the room. The person you guys were talking about suddenly shows up, and you say “Speak of the devil… There’s John”. I think everyone can relate to this. It’s a pretty common thing to happen, right? I can’t remember the last time this happened to me – you know, the last time I was talking about someone and that person suddenly showed up. Can you remember the last time it happened to you?

And here’s just one more to wrap things up: speak up! That means “Speak more loudly”. Please be louder! So when you’re speaking, especially in a classroom, or in front of an audience, someone may say “Please speak up”. If there’s no microphone, that is. If there is a microphone, people may ask you to “speak into the microphone”. That means, bring your mouth closer to the head of the microphone so that your voice is actually amplified.

That’s pretty common too, right? Sometimes you’re watching a lecture but the person giving the lecture is kind of… ignoring the microphone and someone might ask them to “Please, speak into the microphone”.

What are your examples for this episode? Let us know in the comments and talk to you next time.

 

Key expressions

  • I spoke too soon
  • speak of the devil
  • speak up
  • speak into the microphone

 

Glossary

I thought I’d (do something) = eu resolvi (fazer algo)

backstory = o que aconteceu antes disso que estou dizendo, o que levou a isso

iffy = incerta (nesse caso, instável)

Turns out I was wrong = acabou que eu estava errada

Ana
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Rafael 28/08/2017

Muito bom o post. Um dos melhores que eu já ouvi na categoria de ensinar inglês. Conhecem algum sobre espanhol? Vou viajar para Argentina em 1 ano e queria melhorar o espanhol :(

Rubens 07/08/2017

The best podcast ever teaching us how to study English!

Marcelo Moreira 08/09/2013

Ana!
Parabens pelo site, estou aprendendo bastante aqui. Só tenho é que agradecer mesmo mas também vou aproveitar para tirar uma duvida. No texto acima tem esta passagem: “I asked him to implement a new feature on the website” No caso ai minha duvida é em relação a palavra feature. No dicionario Macmillan eu encontrei:
1 – an important part or aspect of something
2 – [USUALLY PLURAL] a part of your face such as your eyes, nose, or mouth
3 – a newspaper or magazine article that concentrates on a particular subject
4 – OLD-FASHIONED the main movie that you see after a short movie at a movie theater
link: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/feature

Pelo contexto acredito que o significado que mais se encaixa é o do item 3. Seria isso mesmo? Se eu fosse tentar traduzir seria algo do tipo: “Pedi que ele colocasse no site um novo artigo/post”

Obrigado pela atenção.

Abraço e mais uma vez parabens.

Everlon 16/11/2012

Hello Ana Luiza
I do thought very interesting your podcast, as all that I have seen from you. I didn´t know this expression and I have lived some situation together with my family that I have said “I spoke too soon”. Mainly when you have children, I have a couple of children, and every time it has occurred with me, for example, one day in the past, we (I and my wife was going to the Mass) sometime occurs any unforeseen when we are going to the Mass and those moment the situation was very well, nothing unmoral had occurred yet. When we arrived at Church, my daughter stepped at a puddle, in front of the Church. Certainly I have said “I spoke too soon”.
When we thought that the situation is under control, probably we will have reasons to say, I spoke too soon.

Victoria 13/11/2012

I cannot dowload the podcast :(

    Al 14/11/2012

    Click com o botão direito sobre “baixar mp3” e, quando aparecer as opções, escolha “salvar link como…”. Irá abrir uma janela dos seus documentos, então, salve numa pasta em seu computador. Espero ter ajudado, pois não sei se fui suficientemente didático.

      Ana 14/11/2012

      Obrigada pela ajuda!

taty 12/11/2012

hi Ana….
very usefull your podcast i am learn a lot..thanks

    taty 12/11/2012

    learning

Raymundo de Jesus 12/11/2012

Hi, Ana,

I have an example of ‘speaking of the devil’, but
not as the same way: I was speaking to a neighbor a-
bout another person’s behavior that annoyed me very much.
After finishing my speech I realized that I’ve been after
that person, who’ve heard everything said.

Raymundo

    Marcos Cardoso 13/11/2012

    Please, what means “behavior”?

      Al 14/11/2012

      Behavior=comportamento.

      Marcos Cardoso 14/11/2012

      Thank you!

Renan 09/11/2012

Nice!

Priscila 09/11/2012

Hi Ana! I think these podcasts are wonderful!!!

But, would you help me with a grammar question?

When we use the past form of the verb and when we’ve to use the auxiliar verb “did”? Have any difference? Once a teacher tell us in class that he forgot how to say “read” in the past form, so he used “did read”, but he tell us that it sounds a bit strange, like he was expressing something different or wrong. Is it true?

    Ana 10/11/2012

    Not different or wrong… Nope!

    “did read” –> DID is used for emphasis, and it is correct grammar.

    Please look up my tip about “auxiliares” (faz uma busca por “auxiliares além das short answers” pois eu falo sobre isso)

      Marluce Maciel Antunes Pires 10/11/2012

      I am learning this (did read for emphasis) now.
      thanks very much, Ana Luiza.

jennifer 08/11/2012

Hi Ana!I had just comment with my husband about the good behave of my little boy, when all of a sudden my boy call me to show me that he was able to cook him own meal.He has six.Can you imagine about the mess? I really spoke too soon.Kisses

    Ana 10/11/2012

    hahahahahah…. good one~!!

Hígor 08/11/2012

Amazing podcast as ever… good job Ana Luíza, I love your site and I have improved my english

very much since I started to listen to the podcasts. Thanks a lot and Congrats..

    Ana 10/11/2012

    Happy to hear that ;))

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