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How have you been? Hoje eu falo sobre dois idioms em inglês usados para dizer como alguém é conhecido. Não perca…
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How are you? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!
Let’s get started with a really informal way to, sort of have good-natured fun with someone by telling them that they’re famous for something. This term is so informal that it’s not even an entry in dictionaries at this point.
So let’s say your friends Mary and Tom, who are boyfriend and girlfriend, had this big trip to… Paris! Yeah, they went to Paris and spent two weeks there. And, when they came back, you learned that Mary and Tom are engaged. Tom proposed to Mary by the Eiffel Tower. So Mary is now telling you all about it and how Paris is so beautiful and romantic, and it’s the perfect place for a marriage proposal… And you say “Well, they don’t call it City of Love for nothing!”
So what are you saying? First, you’re saying that Paris is called City of Love, and people don’t call it that for nothing! There’s a reason Paris is called City of Love, and the reason is that it is a beautiful and romantic city. So you tell your friend Mary “They don’t call it City of Love for nothing.”
Another example: in your group of friends one of you has the nickname of “the Hulk”. That’s a pretty common one. I think when I was in school everyone knew a Hulk. So that’s usually the tall, muscular, strong guy who can lift a heavy table or something. So you guys all call your friend Tony “the Hulk”. One day you guys are all having a beer in some bar and two people walk in carrying what looks like a pretty heavy box. One of them trips on a broomstick and loses their balance, but before the heavy box lands on your friend Christine, who’s sitting pretty close to the scene, the Hulk swoops in and grabs it.
People cannot believe it. It’s a really heavy box. Jaws are dropping. You say to the woman standing by your side “They don’t call him the Hulk for nothing.”
Ok, and here’s a simple idiom, sort of related to the one I just explained. It’s a term I’m pretty sure many of you have heard before. My question is, though: are you using it? Does it come to you naturally? If you said no, listen on. This is the goal of this podcast: to provide you with comprehensible input to the point where you’ll be so familiarised with idioms that you’ll speak them naturally.
So I’m talking about the idiom well-known for. I’m just going to go ahead and give you examples: Silvio Santos is well-known for being one of the most successful entertainers in Brazil. Robert de Niro is well-known for being a talented actor. Rio de Janeiro is well known for its beautiful scenery and beaches. Brazil is well-known for its tropical weather. Investment banking is well-known for being a very competitive career.
What else? What else is well-known, and what is it well-known for? Let me know. See you soon!
Key expressions
Vocabulary
good-natured = agradável, bem-humorada
lose your balance = desequilibrar-se, perder o equilíbrio
marriage proposal = pedido de casamento
broomstick = cabo de vassoura
swoops in = “vai lá”, entra em ação rapidamente
jaws are dropping = pessoas estão ficando de boca aberta