How’s it going? Hoje, no podcast, eu falo sobre dois idioms comuníssimos (é claro) com a palavra far. Com um deles, você vai poder dizer “longe de mim criticar, mas…” Enjoy!
Transcrição
How’s it going? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download our apps on the Google Play store and the iTunes store for a very easy and organised listening experience of our podcasts. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!
So you know when someone is about to criticise another person but they preface their criticism with something like “Look, I don’t mean to criticise but…” or “No offense, but…” Well, our first expression today is sort of used in the same kind of situation.
So, let me read what this lady, Lizzie Logan, tweeted out and then I’ll explain it a little bit:
So first of all, TSA stands for Transportation Security Administration and I think that’s what she’s referring to when she says there was a TSA agent singing gospel songs at full volume while doing his job – which, by the way, was to monitor metal detection somewhere… So we can tell she doesn’t want to come across as super critical since the language she’s using is very mild actually.
And, the first thing she says is far be it from me to limit someone else’s artistic expression. “Far be it from me to do something” basically means “I’m doing something in a few seconds but that is not really what I mean to do”. Sometimes we just want to criticise something; we just want to express a negative opinion or tell people what we think is wrong about a situation or a person and so on.
So that’s it – when people don’t really want to come across as overly critical they may preface what they’re saying with Far be it from me… Far be it from me to tell you how to do your job, but don’t you think you should have planned your actions more carefully? Far be it from me to rain on your parade but I don’t think this girl is interested in you. Far be it from me to be stingy but I don’t see the value in paying so much money for this hotel.
Now, let’s move on to our second idiom of today’s episode, and this one contains the word FAR as well. So, let’s go ahead and start off with an example – listen up: This restaurant is a far cry from what it used to be when I was a child. When I go there nowadays to have a meal, nothing tastes the same. It just doesn’t taste good. They’ve changed the dishes, the recipes, I don’t know where the original cook’s gone. This food is a far cry from the great stuff they used to offer.
So, when something is a far cry from another thing, it means it’s very, very different and usually in a negative way. It leaves a lot to be desired! So someone will usually say that when they’re not happy. What they see now is just not as good; it’s actually much worse than it used to be. It’s a far cry.
So, I’m sure you can give a few examples from your own life. A place you’ve known since childhood which has changed for the worse. A food place where you used to have your favourite dish. And this is a common one: we, as consumers, can always notice, right, when the quality of a product goes down. This happens a lot with food items. Sometimes I can tell that those biscuits that I like just don’t taste the same anymore and then one day they appear to be about half the original size. A far cry from what they used to be.
What are your examples? Let me know, and see you soon!
Key expressions
Far be it from me to do something
A far cry from
Vocabulary
to come across as = Parecer ser, no sentido de demonstrar ou transparecer sua característica ou qualidade
rain on your parade = jogar um balde de água fria, ser estraga-prazeres
it leaves a lot to be desired = Deixa muito a desejar
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.
