What’s up? Você só fala… Fazer que é bom, nada. Como dizer isso em inglês? Hoje vemos três idioms do inglês muito comuns para comunicar exatamente isso!
Transcrição
What’s up? This is the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast.
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So let’s get right into it: you’re all talk and no action. Whoa… I’m not accusing anyone. Just letting you know what our first idiom of today’s episode is. And while I’m sure some of you have heard this term before – it is, after all, very, very common in English – unless you’re saying it confidently whenever you wanna tell someone they’re only talking a lot about something but never actually doing it… Well, you could use some more listening to get even more familiar with it, and that’s exactly what we’re doing now.
So when your father asks you “Did your brother ever get around to fixing the computer?” You know that John, your brother, hasn’t fixed the computer yet. He’s been telling everyone he’s gonna do it for weeks, though. So you say “John’s all talk and no action. He’s at his girlfriend’s now and the computer’s still broken.” John is all talk and no action.
Notice that you can shorten this idiom to “He’s all talk”. She’s all talk. John is all talk. They talk a lot about the stuff they’re going to do, but they never actually do it!
Your friend Melissa wants to move to an English-speaking country, let’s say Canada. You know she’s really going to do it – she has family in Canada, she’s a nurse, she’s applying for a visa and all that stuff. However, she’s been saying she’ll be able to speak good English come time to move, and you know that’s not gonna happen… She can barely understand “What’s your name?” and her plane leaves in a couple of months!
Every time you see Melissa and ask her about her studies, she reaffirms her intention to learn English. Finally you just look at her and say “Melissa, you’re all talk! You’ve been saying this for months now and you haven’t even started lesson 1!” She’s all talk and no action. She’s all talk…
What about someone who talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk? Picture someone who is very vocal about respecting other people, for example. They can actually speak beautifully about that topic, and you even feel inspired by their speech. However, one day the two of you disagree on something. And, well… Your friend, let’s say his name is Rick, the one who just the other day made a Facebook post about the importance of respect, got mad at you because you didn’t share the same opinion, and started calling you offensive names. Whoa…
Rick talks the talk… but does he walk the walk? Hmm, I don’t think so. Calling you names because you disagree with him… Not very respectful. Rick talks the talk, but he doesn’t walk the walk. Someone, on the other hand, who actually acts or behaves according to what they talk is someone who talks the talk and walks the walk.
So think about the expression: talking about something is relatively easy, isn’t it? Now, aligning your actions with your talk… That may not be so easy. You know, talk is cheap! That’s a great one as well – when you see someone boasting about climbing Mount Everest next year and how they’re ready to do it, you could say “Talk is cheap! You should wait til you get back to say anything.”
You know those politicians who make a hundred promises because they wanna get elected? Talk is cheap. Saying what people want to hear is easy. Look at their track record if you really wanna know whether you can trust them. Talk is cheap!
So give me an example of a situation in your life where you could have said to someone “You’re all talk!” Talk to you next time!
Key terms
you’re all talk and no action
talk the talk and walk the walk
Talk is cheap
Vocabulário
did not get around to doing something = acabou não fazendo algo
to be vocal about = fala muito sobre, acha importante falar sobre
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.
Sim, tem o sentido de “falar é fácil”, porém é dita mais para comentar o nível de dificuldade de alguma coisa. “Talk is cheap”, por exemplo, é mais relacionada à dúvida q você tem sobre se aquilo vai ser feito mesmo pela pessoa ou se ela só está falando por falar.
Hi, Ana!
I like this episode ” Talk talk and no action”.
Many things happen where people are talking about something but nothing happen.
I’m a geologist and i working for any company (Company “A”)… in last June the my company (A) maide a Joint Venture with athor company (Company “B”) and we will be work for a company (B). The companies submit there agremment to the governament so that they can aprove the JV. When they submit, the governament promised that it will take two weeks to be approve.
You do gonna belive…
Since June They are talk, talk and no action.
See you next Time!
