Hoje eu falo sobre alguns idioms em inglês com a palavra temper, incluindo uma expressão para “pavio curto”.
Transcrição
Hey, everyone. You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast, and today we look into idioms with the word temper.
Mark
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So let’s get started today with the term short temper. If someone’s got a short temper, that means they have a tendency to become angry very easily and very quickly. Most people know someone like that, right? Let’s say Mark is someone who has a short temper. By the way, we can say short fuse as well. Same thing.
So Mark has a short fuse and can be easily provoked into having fights and arguments with people. He frequently gets into trouble for not being able to control his temper. His friends have advised him to learn to hold his temper in order to avoid getting in trouble.
But here’s a… like, here’s a valid question: how can people with a short fuse hold their temper, though? Do you know anyone who used to have a short fuse in the past and has now learned how to hold their temper? Like, they have actually changed their behaviour and are now able to keep their cool in situations where before they would definitely have lost their temper. Do you know anyone like that?
It’s certainly possible to change – some people do anger management treatments, others seek a hypnotherapist to get their temper under control. Let’s go back to Mark, the guy who frequently loses his temper. Mark has a short temper, or a short fuse.
One day he was having lunch in the company cafeteria and his colleague accidentally spilled some tomato sauce on his shirt. Mark was fuming! He totally lost his temper over the spilt sauce on his shirt. He screamed at his colleague, punched the table and said his shirt had been ruined. He made a big scene while his colleague tried to apologise.
And that wasn’t the first time Mark had lost his temper. One day he was in a meeting where he and his peers were discussing their strategy for the coming semester. Someone disagreed with Mark and, unfortunately, again, his short fuse got the better of him. Mark wasn’t able to hold his temper and he and his colleague got into a heated argument that lasted almost twenty minutes!
So I guess you can get the meaning of “hold his temper”, right? When somebody can hold their temper, that means they can keep calm, they can keep their cool even in face of disagreement or any unwanted situation, really.
What really made Mark lose his temper was the fact that the other guy criticized a decision Mark had made about a month before. His decision did not produce the good results he was expecting, and apparently he’s touchy about it… So when his colleague brought that up, Mark just lost it. His short temper definitely got the better of him and things got very heated.
So one day Mark’s boss finally had a serious conversation with him about his conduct and gave him an ultimatum. He said “Mark, we expect you to get a hold of yourself and Tina from Human Resources will advise you on some anger management programs that you’re welcome to join. You need to learn to hold your temper and control your short fuse.”
Tell me – do you know anyone who has a really short fuse? Are you able to hold your temper in most situations? Let us know in the comments, and talk to you next time!
Key expressions
a short temper / a short fuse / a quick temper
hold one’s temper
lose one’s temper
Vocabulary
fuming = morrendo de raiva
to make a scene = “dar um show” no sentido de ter uma reação desagradável que chama atenção em público
got the better of him = passou a controlar seu comportamento
about a month = mais ou menos um mês
to lose it = perder a calma completamente, explodir
get a hold of yourself = se controlar emocionalmente
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.
Good, I have a question about this podcast Ana. On the sentence you wrote “But here’s a… like, here’s a valid question: how can people with a short fuse hold their temper, though?” the word “thought” sounds a little bit out in this position. I never saw one sentence written like this one. Make my english becomes better one more time giving me a good explanation about this question.
Hello Ana! My name is Newton and I’m from Recife. Have a long time I have followed your podcast and I can say that it have been a pleasure for me. My listening have been improved since I started listening to your podcast. So, I don´t want be longer but before I finish my mensage I want leave a sugestion: Please, give us more podcast with the theme “Phrasal verbs”. If I made some grammar mistake in my mansage, please make a comment because I believe that error is one more way to learn. rsss
Thanks a lot and God bless you.
