Hello, everyone. No episódio de hoje, falo sobre dois idioms do inglês muito comuns com a palavra head.
Transcrição
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Let’s get started today with a very nice idiom that means, basically, to collaborate in order to find an answer or solution to a problem. Let’s say you and your classmates John and Mike are working on a group assignment and in a few days you’ll meet again to put everything together and turn in the assignment. However, Mike gives you a call and says he’s having a really hard time figuring out what to do. And in the end you agree with Mike – you wouldn’t know what to do either. Here’s what you think: you, Mike and John should get together tomorrow specifically to discuss Mike’s part of the assignment. Mike can’t figure it out; you can’t figure it out, but maybe if you put your heads together you’ll be able to figure it out together.
So that’s our first idiom today: let’s put our heads together and try to find the solution. Let’s share ideas and thoughts; maybe something you say will spark an idea in someone else. Let’s get together and discuss the problem, let’s put our heads together and see if we can figure this out.
In theory, many meetings are carried out in companies with the purpose of having a few people put their heads together to figure something out, right? That’s useful when you’re working on any kind of team assignment, be it a work assignment or a school assignment. The team leader could call a meeting anytime and say “We’ve hit a roadblock and it would be great to get everybody’s contribution on the issue. Let’s put our heads together and see what we can come up with.”
If you work for a company, have you ever been in a meeting like that? A meeting for all the participants to put their heads together and try to solve a problem, find a solution, figure something out. Please let us know when that happened in the comments…
Now here’s another very popular idiom with the word HEAD… When someone has a good head on their shoulders – well, I think you can guess the meaning. Someone has a good head on their shoulders – when we say a good head, that doesn’t mean “beautiful”, “big”, or anything like that. A good head here means a sensible head; someone with common sense and intelligence.
I have a recent real-life example for this one. I was telling my friend Carolina about someone I know… When I told Carolina one particular detail, she expressed concern that the third person might be a bit naive. So I told Carol “Don’t worry. She’s got a good head on her shoulders.” She’s sensible, she’s intelligent, she’s got common sense.
Sometimes we refer to other people in that way in Brazil. We all know someone who’s mature, sensible… It’s usually someone we trust and we think they are capable of taking care of themselves. Do you know anyone like that? Who are the people in your family or circle of friends that would fit this idiom? Can you say “My cousin so-and-so has a good head on his shoulders.” Or “My neighbor Maria has a good head on her shoulders. You don’t need to worry about her.” Who’s your example?
Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!
Keywords
put (our, their, your) heads together
have a good head on one’s shoulders
Glossary
turn in the assignment = entregar o trabalho (para o professor)
we’ve hit a roadblock = a gente emperrou, chegou num obstáculo
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.
Hello Ana,
I got a question. Let’s say I complimented someone after a clear explanition regarding a Math matter saying ‘you are so smart’. Would it be polited if this person says ‘thank you, I’ve got a good head on my shoulders’?
By the way, your posts are very helpful ;)
You, Ann, is my example, ok! “You have a good head on your shoulders since you are so expert in English, and I believe that you are in others subjects too.”
Thanks, take care!
Congratulations, Ana Luiza. This website is amazing! Thank you for the podcasts because they are helping me a lot.
I’m sure that my father has got a good head on his shoulders.
