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Como falo em inglês: Acho que a gente já se conhece

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

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Como falo em inglês: Acho que a gente já se conhece

Jun 22

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Como falo em inglês Acho que a gente já se conhece

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Hi, everybody. Hoje o episódio conta com quatro frases em inglês comuníssimas em eventos ou qualquer outra situação ‘social’, quando pessoas estão sendo apresentadas umas às outras.

Transcrição

inglês-havewemet Hi, everybody. 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 today I will review with you guys four set phrases that are used every day, all the time, when people are introducing or re-introducing themselves or other people to someone. A ‘set phrase’ is the same as a fixed phrase. Fixed phrases are phrases whose words are fixed in a certain order – and that order is how people say them. Even if you could say the same thing in a different way, using different words… People just don’t.

Native speakers use set phrases just because… they do, the same way we, in Brazil, use our own set phrases, such as “Tudo bem?” instead of “Tudo está bem?” The second phrase is perfectly correct; it makes sense and everyone can understand what’s being asked. We just don’t speak like that, though. Same thing in English :)

So I love our four set phrases of today because they all use the Present Perfect, which is something every Brazilian learner of English could become more familiar with. So here’s the first one, which we say when we’re introducing someone to someone else: Have you met…this person? For example, Have you met Ted? This is going to sound familiar to “How I met your mother” viewers.

So that’s a great line for introducing two people to each other. “Hey, Sara, come here. Have you met Ann?” Have you met my sister? Have you met John? It’s a question, obviously, but we don’t really expect to get an answer. You don’t really need to say “No, I haven’t”, although you can. You could just say “Glad to meet you, John.”

And here’s our second set phrase: If you’ve actually been introduced to that person already, you can say “Yes, I believe we’ve met.” Someone’s introducing you to James, for instance, but you and James were introduced about a month ago. The two of you have already met. So when your mutual friend Louise says to you, “Have you met James?”, you say “Yes, I believe we’ve met.”

So last weekend someone introduced me to a man named Michael. My friend said “Ana, have you met Michael?” and I said “Hi, nice to meet you.” Then later that night I was introduced to Debbie, who’s someone I’ve actually met before. My friend said “Have you met Debbie?” and I said “Yeah, I believe we’ve met. How are you?”

Now here are a couple of phrases for when you haven’t met someone yet, and you’d like to introduce yourself. You see someone you’d like to talk to but there’s no one there to introduce you to each other. You can just say “Hi, I’m John, or I’m Mary. I don’t think we’ve met“. Maybe this person is standing near you and, why not? You think it’s a good idea to introduce yourself and greet them, maybe have a little chat… So “Hello, my name’s Ana. I don’t think we’ve met.”

And, instead of saying “I don’t think we’ve met”, you can say “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.” Now, that’s something I hear men say more often. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure” is a bit more formal than just “I don’t think we’ve met.”

So there you go. Listen to this episode a few more times and get a bit more familiar with these phrases, especially if you’re going to be at social events with native English speakers. Talk to you next time.

Key terms

Have you met …?
I believe we’ve met
I don’t think we’ve met
I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure

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Ana

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.