Hey, all. Sabe quando alguém te conta uma história, e no fim a pessoa não consegue entender porque a amiga ficou brava com ela… E você pensa “Hmm, nem imagino porque…”, pois está óbvio pra todo mundo, menos para ela? Pois é. Nosso idiom de hoje serve exatamente para isso.
Transcrição
Hey, all. This is the 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. Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.
So almost every time I see the word WONDER being taught to English students, the expression “I wonder if” is there. That would be equivalent to our “Será que…” I wonder if it’s going to rain. I wonder if Brazil will ever win the World Cup again, and so on. The term “I wonder”, however, is not our focus for this episode.
Let’s take a look at another very common way to use wonder. Let’s say your friend Chris tells you that his brother bought a used car at Mike’s Used Cars shop. You look at Chris and you say “I wonder why your brother did that… Mike’s shop is the most expensive place in the area to get a car.” And then Chris goes on to explain to you that although Mike’s cars are indeed expensive, their service is unbeatable. So when Chris tells you that, you say “Oh, ok. Now I get it.”
Now you understand why Chris’ brother bought the car with Mike, even though Mike’s cars are super expensive. Before Chris explained it to you, though… It was a mystery. “I wonder why Chris’ brother would buy a car with Mike. They’re so expensive!”. Hmm, he bought a car from Mike… I wonder why…? You can basically use that for anything. Whenever you don’t get why someone did something, or the reason why something is the way it is. I wonder why they’ve changed their logo; I liked the old one. I wonder why “tanto faz” means “it doesn’t matter.”
So now listen to this one: imagine you’re throwing a party and you decide to hire a florist to decorate. Only, your friend Sally was planning on hiring the same florist for her wedding. In fact, she was the person who told you about the florist. She was very excited about having this person decorate the church, the reception ceremony… So she’s very surprised when you tell her you hired this person to decorate your party, which is a week before her wedding.
You can’t see why that would be a problem, so when you realize Sally hasn’t come to your party you’re really surprised! The two of you are such good friends. You try to call her, and she doesn’t pick up. You tell a mutual friend about what’s going on, saying at the end “Not only has Sally missed my party but now she won’t pick up the phone!” Your friend says “I wonder why…!” You look at her, puzzled, and she says “C’mon! You stole her florist one week before her wedding!” Oh. It all makes sense now. Sally’s mad because you hired the same florist she wanted to hire.
So when your friend says “I wonder why…!” she is being sarcastic, of course. Here’s another example: your brother has an exam next week, but instead of spending most of his time preparing for the exam, he’s really more interested in watching TV and playing videogames. Every time you walk past his bedroom, you notice he’s… not studying. Later that week he tells you he failed the exam. Your reaction is… “I wonder why.” Obviously, you’re being sarcastic. You know very well why he failed the exam.
Tell me: how would you use “I wonder why” in your life? Please let me know in the comments when that happened and what it was about. Talk to you next time!
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.
Ana, I can’t imagine how you help me in my english. You are great teacher and your web site make difference in my life, in my love to study english. Thank you so much.
