Hi, how are you? Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre duas expressões com think e thought.
Transcrição
Hello. What’s up? Nothing much? Well, 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.
Everyone, today I’d like to talk about two very common constructions that use the word “think”. Actually, one of them uses “think” and the other one uses the past participle form of ‘think’, which is “thought”. Remember the other day when I did an episode on the word ‘thorough’? And I said “Do not confuse thorough with through”…? Well, today we have an expression with ‘thought’, which isn’t ‘thorough’ and it isn’t ‘through’ either. ‘Thought’, again, is the past participle form – and also the past form – of the verb ‘to think’.
The first phrase of today is “Who would have thought?”, which is actually a question; and the other one is “You’d think!”, which is a contraction of “you would think”, and these two set phrases are pretty frequent in everyday conversation. Let’s dive right in: listen to the first phrase. Who would have thought? Slowing it down a little… Who would have thought? If we translated that literally into Portuguese, we’d have something like “Quem teria imaginado?” I think in Brazil, at least where I live, we say stuff like “Quem ia imaginar? ” or “Quem podia imaginar?”.
So as you’ve probably realized, people say “Who would have thought?” when they’re expressing their surprise at… something. It’s like saying “I would never have guessed that this thing could happen”. And, just notice that this is a question, right? Who would have thought? It is a question, but it isn’t really supposed to be answered. It’s more like an expression of amazement. For example, let’s say there was a kid… let’s call him Timmy – so there was this kid from your neighborhood who never liked to study, was always skipping class, got kicked out from a couple of schools… Some people even said he would never amount to anything. But that was twenty years ago, and this morning you were talking to an old neighbor, and she gave you an update on Timmy.
She said “Remember little Timmy? Get this: he got into Harvard University, graduated from Law School and is now a highly successful lawyer”. You are amazed. You can hardly believe what you just heard. Little Timmy? That kid was impossible! You thought little Timmy was hopeless… but apparently not! Who would have thought? And that’s what you say to your neighbor: Who would have thought? Who would have ever thought that little Timmy, that little devil, would turn out to be a successful lawyer, a Harvard graduate?
So now think of the last time something in your life turned out in an unexpected way. You were definitely not expecting that to happen, and when it did it took you by surprise, and you were amazed, and you could have said “Who would have thought?”
Now the second set phrase I want to give you examples for is “You’d think!” Like I said before, “you’d think” is a contraction for “you would think”. People will almost always say the contraction; “You’d think!”. And, the intonation here is really important, ok? You’d think! Let me start with an example for this one. Imagine your sister tells you that a guy bumped into her this morning and knocked her over! You say “Well, then he helped you get up, right?” And she says “You’d think! He just kept walking and left me there!” You’d think he would have helped me. You’d think he would have been concerned about my well-being. You’d think! But no, he wasn’t! He just walked away.
So when your sister says “You’d think”, what she means is “That’s what you would expect, that’s what I would expect too… but that didn’t happen; something else happened”. Here’s another example: your friend John is telling you about this five-star hotel, where he stayed for a week. It was a super expensive stay, and so you say “Wow, your room must have been amazing”. John looks at you and says “You’d think! You’d think that, with those rates, my room would have been the most comfortable room in the world! Well, it wasn’t! The bed was awful and my back’s aching; the bedsheets had holes in them; and there was a cockroach in the bathroom when I arrived!” Whoa… right? A super expensive hotel.. you’d think the room would be amazing. You’d think! But it wasn’t.
So what are your examples for both of these expressions? Let us know and talk to you next time!
Key expressions
Who would have thought?
you’d think!
Glossary
dive right in = começar, entrar de cabeça
he would never amount to anything = ele nunca ia ser nada na vida
he was hopeless = ele não tinha salvação
knocked her over = derrubou-a
Whoa… = expressão que denota surpresa e/ou incredulidade
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.
Olá, gostaria de receber uma dica para conseguir guardar os tempos. Não consigo guardar quando uso have/has, did, does, do, are, am, is e misturo tudo past simple, past perfect, present simple. Faço uma confusão, apesar de estudar, estudar, não fixa na minha cabeça. Existe alguma forma, uma dica, um macete?
Obrigada.
Olá Laura! Tente clicar com o botão direito no link de download e escolha a opção “salvar link como” ou “salvar destino”.
Ou então tente usar outro navegador.
Olá, como faço para baixar os podcasts?
Sempre que clico pra baixar aparece a reprodução do podcast, mas não consigo baixá-lo efetivamente?
Desde já, obrigada
Olá Ana, os seus post cast são excelêntes mas nunca sei qual é o nível deles. Seria uma boa ideia organizar eles por categorias para ajudar aqueles que estão agora a começar.
