Podcast: I’m sure my invite got lost in the mail

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Sep 04
Inglês - Podcast I’m sure my invite got lost in the mail

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Hi, everyone. O episódio de hoje é sobre uma expressão do inglês que eu acho bem engraçadinha… e com a qual quase todo mundo vai conseguir se identificar de vez em quando.

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. Here’s 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. Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglesonline podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes. Thanks for telling your friends, your neighbors, your family and keep listening!

So let’s get on to the idiom, or term I’d like to talk about this week… I’ve heard it twice, actually, this week. Once from an American, on a podcast, and once from an English man on a TV show. This idiom has the word mail in it – the American version has the word mail in it, to be more accurate. What’s “mail”? It’s a verb that we use when we want the post-office to deliver our letter to someone, for example. You have to mail your letter – so you drop it into one of those mailboxes… If I remember correctly I think they’re blue in the United States. And then a postal worker will come by some time later and open the mailbox and collect all that mail. You know, all the letters, cards, maybe small packages – all that stuff people need mailed to someone else. So “mail” is also a noun – it means correspondence.

Now, I find this expression kind of funny, and the reason is… Well, let me give you an example that will make it clearer. So… I was listening to this podcast that is hosted by three people. They have been doing the podcast together for a while. One of them was telling about how he had a few friends over on the weekend and they were eating potatoes and something funny happened and blah blah blah… And then one of the other hosts said “Well, I’m sure my invite got lost in the mail!”

She said it as a joke – what does that mean, though? Well, it means that she wasn’t invited to that little gathering on the weekend, so she’s being sarcastic and saying that she is sure that she actually was invited but the problem was, her invite got lost in the mail. Something happened to her invite. Maybe the postal worker lost it or mishandled it somehow, so she never got the invite and THAT is the reason why she wasn’t aware of her friend’s little party.  So that’s why the woman said “I’m sure my invite got lost in the mail.” Obviously, she’s joking and it’s ok to say that to a close friend, for example.

Sometimes people say that because they are actually upset that they were not invited to something. That’s the case of the English man on the TV show I watched this week. His friends told him they were going on a ski trip, and the guy said “Well, I’m sure my invitation got lost in the post.” In the United Kingdom it’s very common to say post instead of mail. Also, invite is kind of an abbreviation for invitation… So invite or invitation, it doesn’t matter.

I think it’s usually kind of funny when someone says “Well, I’m sure my invite got lost in the mail” to a friend, because they’re actually teasing the friend, right? Do we have an expression for that in Brazil? Maybe “Valeu por me chamar” or something like it?

Can you remember feeling left out of a party and thinking “I’m sure my invite got lost in the mail”? Let me know and talk to you next time.

 

Keywords

  • I’m sure my invite got lost in the mail / post

 

Glossary

gathering = reunião de pessoas (geralmente por motivo social)

teasing = provocando

Ana
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Fatima Regina 11/09/2014

Hello Ann!

I cannot say today: “I am sure my invite got lost in the mail”; I never have party to go, maybe in the past I would say, that time I had more party to go than now.
Thanks Ann!

Jonata fontela 10/09/2014

I remembered once when I was a kid my cousin had a party and didn’t invite ..i felt really upset hahaha i could’ve said that!

Rickas 09/09/2014

Kkk,that is funny,i think that happens a lot when we are chillin’ with our folks,specially those we like to be with,maybe because we want to be together wherever possible…

Nillo 05/09/2014

Nice expression, hopefully i can stumble upon a situation where i could use it! thanks!!

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