Como falo em inglês: Como é que é?

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Apr 09
Como falo em inglês Como é que é

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Hi, all. No episódio de hoje, eu falo sobre algumas maneiras de usar a palavra excuse em inglês. Um deles é aquele “Como é que é? ” indignado.

Transcrição

Hi you guys! How’s everything? Today, guess what? 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. To download or just listen to the other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

So what if I told you that this podcast is about a simple word that almost every English student learns about in their first few classes? Yep, it’s a basic expression and it’s usually lumped together with all those greetings covered at the very beginning of that first English book. I’m talking about the word, or term, rather, “Excuse me”.

I wanted to expand on the ways we can use this little expression and go beyond that very basic meaning. I still remember being in my very first English class at some school in São José dos Campos, which is where I grew up, and this expression came up… It was one of the very first lessons in the book, and I can’t remember exactly what the teacher said about it – but all I can tell you is that during my first few years of learning English… probably for the first two or three years, in my head I thought  “Excuse me” meant something like “I’m sorry”… I knew it wasn’t exactly the same thing but that’s what, that’s the meaning that stuck with me. That’s what I got from what the teacher explained, probably. So today we’re gonna clear things up and we’re going beyond that meaning and taking a look at other common ways to use the term “Excuse me” and the word “excuse”.

So here’s what I had learned after one year in my first English school: that “Excuse me” meant something like “I’m sorry”. Well, not really. When you say I’m sorry, you mean one thing. When you say “Excuse me“, you mean something else. So in what kind of situation, typically, would you say “Excuse me”? When you’re talking to someone and you cough, or sneeze – people say “Excuse me”. Or when you’re talking to someone and your phone rings, and you think you need to answer it. You say “Excuse me, I gotta take this one”. So basically when you’re interrupting the conversation for some reason and you say “Excuse me”.

When you want someone’s attention, when that person is engaged in a conversation, or they’re walking past you and for some reason you want their attention, you wanna talk to them but they’re not looking at you, that’s what you say: “Excuse me. Can we have a word?” or “Excuse me. How do I get to the post-office?”. When you interrupt a meeting because you need to give your boss an urgent message, or when you  knock on your boss’ door and then you open it, you say “Excuse me”. Basically, you’re interrupting something: a conversation, their work, their meeting, their walk, whatever it is. So you begin with “Excuse me”.

Here’s another one: you’re in a crowded place and you need to move. Everyone knows what I’m talking about. Think of a crowded place. The subway station at 6pm on a Friday. Or a party, or the shopping mall Saturday night. There are people everywhere and as you start walking you bump into a few people ’cause you need to move towards the exit. So you say “Excuse me. Excuse me”. Or you’re in a restaurant and the tables are pretty close together and you need to squeeze past someone’s table to get to your table and you say “Excuse me” ’cause you’re almost touching them. A pretty common translation for “Excuse me” in several of these cases would be “Com licença”.

Sometimes people say “Excuse me?” when they think someone’s giving them false information and they feel offended or upset. John tells his student group “So I have written the report…” and Sara immediately replies “Excuse me? I wrote the entire report. You just wrote the title!”. Or Jane says “So we’re all going to work on our assignment tomorrow morning…” and Mary says “Excuse me? I wasn’t informed about tomorrow. I’ve got a doctor appointment tomorrow morning.” Excuse me? What you just said is baloney.

And, of course, an excuse means “uma desculpa”, meaning a reason why you got out of doing something, or didn’t show up for an appointment, or didn’t do your homework. What was your excuse for not doing your homework? What’s your excuse for being so late? What’s your excuse? Here’s a very popular collocation: lame excuse, or, in Portuguese, “desculpa esfarrapada”. Johnny said he couldn’t come because he got a flat tire. What a lame excuse. He uses that excuse once a month.  What a lame excuse.

I wanna hear from you – what are the excuses you’ve been using? What’s the lamest excuse you have ever heard? Let us know in the comments, as always, and talk to you next time!

 

Keywords

  • Excuse me
  • Excuse me?
  • excuse
  • lame excuse

 

Glossary

lumped together with = agrupada com

or term, rather = ou melhor, expressão

baloney = besteira

Ana
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Thiago, o Gênio 17/05/2014

Olá Ana Luiza, meu nome é Thiago, e acompanho o blog Ingles Online e ouvi seus podcasts no English Expert sobre listening. Minha dúvida é a seguinte, vc defende bastante ouvir o que já entende para um progresso na aquisição da lingua, certo? Mas esse ”entender” é a tradução do texto que vai ouvir ou sua pronúncia quando é falado ou os dois?Pergunto isso porque traduzo bem músicas que gosto, mas as vezes não consigo identificá-las ao ouvir. Me interessei muito pela sua metodologia e mal vejo a hora de pô-la em prática, mas queria esclarecer essa dúvida, fiz a mesma questão pra vc em vários outros canais, pode desconsiderar as outras onde ler primeiro. Desde já agradeço e parabenizo pela iniciativa, thank you very much! See ya!

Junior Sousa 30/04/2014

Hello Ana !
thank you for one more podcast :D
each one better than another !
my last excuse was that I slept too , and didn’t go in my cousin’s house.
see you.

Igor Gudima Cunha 12/04/2014

Hi Ana!

Great podcast, as always!

I believe that excuse is very clear for me now!

Thank you!!!

Bye!

Jair 12/04/2014

So what if I told you that this podcast is about a simple word that almost every English student learns about
in their first few classes?

What do you think…

Wouldn’t be better?

Jonata fontela 11/04/2014

Hey Ana,that’s my example: whenever I go downtown my sister asks me to buy something for her,but I always forget to buy it so when I come back home I say that they were out of the thing she wanted,for example,if she asks me to buy apple,I tell her they were out of apples or out of pens and so on lol :D that used to work a few years ago but she didin’t believes me anymore :)

Fátima Regina 11/04/2014

Hello Ann! Good morning!
I am here again trying to put my example.

My example is about my son: “My son stays with my mother when I am not at home. Another day I went out, and when I came back home, I found the kitchen dirty, so I asked him: “__ Who did it? I let this kitchen clean and now it is dirty! Who did it?”
And he answered: “___ Excuse-me mom! It wasn’t me, it was my grandma who did it!”
What a lame excuse!
Take care Ann!

I

Jennifer 11/04/2014

Hi, Ana! When my oldest daugther had 12 or 13 years old, every single time I’d ask her helping me with some homework she used to say she was sick,until the day we did go out to the pool and she got home because she was “sick”.Since then she become a super healthy girl.

Débora 10/04/2014

Hi Ana! It’s quite common to hear about the traffic Jam.

    Ana Luiza 11/04/2014

    A traffic jam as an excuse, right? I think that’s the most overused excuse ever..!!

      Débora 14/04/2014

      Of course, it is. :)

Elias 09/04/2014

Hello Anna!!! This podcast reminds a friend of mine. I lent him some money a while ago and since then he makes up the lamest excuses in order not to pay me back. I have to admit that sometimes are funny excuses. At least he is creative.

Fátima Regina 09/04/2014

Hello Ann! Good evening!

I don’t get to put my example here!!!

    Ana Luiza 10/04/2014

    Please do!

      Fátima Regina 10/04/2014

      Hello Ann! Good afternoon!

      I tried once more, but I didn’t get!! :(

      Thank you!

      Ana Luiza 11/04/2014

      Hi Fátima!

      Às vezes, o filtro de spam bloqueia um comentário – é por isso que ele não aparece imediatamente.

      Mas não se preocupe em postar novamente, pois eu verifico o spam toda semana e acabo liberando os comentários que foram erroneamente capturados. Thank you :)

Fátima Regina 09/04/2014

Hello Ann! Good evening!

My example is about my son: “My son stays with my mother when I am not at home and when I come back home and I find the kitchen dirty; I ask him: “Who did it? I let this kitchen clean, and now I find it dirty, who did it? And he always says: Excuse-me mom! It wasn’t me, it was my grandma who did it!”

Thanks Ann for more one podcast!

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