What’s up? Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre a palavra thorough.
Transcrição
Hi, everybody. Today we have a new episode of the inglesonline podcast. Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app.
Let me talk today about one particular word. That word is THOROUGH. Are you familiar with it? Hear it again: thorough. Thorough is an adjective and it is the quality of something that is done or executed completely, perfectly, in a very accurate and detailed way. For example, when someone writes a thorough review of a book, that means they covered every important aspect of the book in their review. This person reviewed the book from every angle: they analyzed the quality of the story, the characters, they compared it to other books in the same genre, they made comments on different passages of the book… They were very thorough in their review. Their review was extensive, comprehensive, and it covered every aspect of the book. It was a thorough review. This person was very thorough in their review.
So let’s say John did some research about vegetation in the desert, and he was very thorough in his research. He interviewed several different experts, he read up on the subject, he searched Google on this topic, he visited several Universities, and so on. John was really thorough in his research. He wanted to know everything about vegetation in the desert. He even visited the desert so that he could learn all about the vegetation. John was very thorough in his research.
Did you notice that thorough can be used to qualify John as well as John’s research? Listen again: John was very thorough in his research. Who was very thorough? John was. Now, check this out: John did a thorough research about vegetation in the desert. What was thorough here? The research John did. Mary spent three months searching her long-lost sister in the south of… Germany. Mary was very thorough in her search. She went door-to-door asking about her sister, she asked the local authorities to help her in the search, she visited fifteen different towns and talked to hundreds of people, all to try and find her long-lost sister. She was very thorough in her search. Mary conducted a thorough search for her sister in the south of Germany. Here’s one more: Jake is an economist and he analyzed the current economical situation in his country. He was very thorough in his analysis. He spoke for one hour and a half. He did a very thorough analysis of the economic situation. So now I’ll ask you again: did you notice how a person can be thorough, and an analysis, a research study, a search or a review can also be thorough?
Now, the adverb form of thorough is also very popular. Let’s go back to our examples: John researched the topic “vegetation in the desert” thoroughly. What does that mean? He researched it extensively, deeply, completely. Now, here are a couple of other common ways the adverb thoroughly is used: I thoroughly enjoyed this film. My friend thoroughly enjoyed the play. That’s right, thoroughly and the verb enjoy are a frequent combination. When you thoroughly enjoy something, that means you really like it, you love it, you had a great time with it, you can’t think of anything that’s wrong with that thing.
Can you remember the last film you saw that you thoroughly enjoyed? You were enthralled by the film; before you knew it, ninety minutes had gone by and you didn’t even notice; you only have good things to say about this film. I’ll be honest with you – I can’t remember the last film I thoroughly enjoyed… honest to God. I remember movies I simply enjoyed, or movies that I liked… let’s say, fifty percent of what I saw. A movie that I thoroughly enjoyed, though? I can’t remember. What’s yours? Please let us know your pick in the comments.
So how many of you took a glance at the text and read THROUGH instead of THOROUGH? The word thorough has an extra O after TH at the beginning. And also, these two words have completely different meanings. It is much easier to tell them apart when you hear someone say them. Through and thorough. Very different, right?
OK, so let us know your examples, and when they happened in the comments. Have you ever conducted a really thorough search for something or someone? Have you ever written a really thorough review? There are plenty of thorough book reviews in the Amazon website. If it’s films you’d rather read about, you’ll find many thorough reviews over at imdb.com . Talk to you next time!
Key Expressions
He was thorough in his research
He conducted a thorough search
He researched it thoroughly
Glossary
comprehensive = abrangente, completa
read up on the subject = leu muito, leu tudo que estava disponível sobre aquilo
long-lost sister = irmã que ela não vê e não tem notícias, não sabe onde está há muitos anos
enthralled = maravilhado, cativado
honest to God = (Aprox.) juro pelo que é mais sagrado
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.
Honest to God! Congratulations for this post, you explained this topic for me perfectly. I understood everything. I thoroughly enjoyed about this issue. :P was interesting.
Hi ana, first of all, thanks again, you always hits the targets in your podcasts.
Last week my whole family and I have seen the movie ” Hansel e Gretel “, and i do not deny, me and my younger son really thoroughly enjoyed.
