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Como falo em inglês: Ele se virou do avesso para ajudar
By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online
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What’s up? Hoje, no podcast, eu falo sobre dois idioms pra lá de comuns, e um deles é usado para descrever aquela pessoa que fez de tudo e mais um pouco para ajudar alguém.
What’s up? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!
So let’s get started today with a nice expression: leave no stone unturned. I like this idiom because it’s very easy to imagine what it means in your mind – isn’t it?
Let’s say you were actually looking for something in your backyard… maybe you were holding your bank card when all of a sudden you just had an urge to pop out to the yard and sit near your begonias. And while you’re there enjoying a bit of fresh air you get lost in thought, and then you hear the phone ring.
It’s time to get back inside. You’re too late for the phone (it stopped ringing when you came in), but you realise nonetheless that you’re not holding your bank card anymore. Darn! You must have dropped it somewhere in the backyard.
So you go back and you start searching thoroughly. You look under every leaf and under every stone. You’re even turning over the stones in your little garden – you got to find this card. You end up finding it, of course… You dropped it under a begonia. You literally left no stone unturned, though. You covered them all in your search.
People say they “left no stone unturned” when they’ve made every possible effort to find or get something. Let’s say your sister is an accountant and, when she woke up today, she said she dreamed that she owned a business in Romania. Yeah. So now she feels that dream has to become reality. She turns to you and says “Hey, I need to find out everything about how accounting works in Romania. Their laws and regulations, the particularities of the market, costs involved… everything? Will you help me?”
You’re always there for your sister, so you tell her “We’re in this together. I’ll help you become the number 1 accountant in Romania. We’ll find everything you need. We’ll leave no stone unturned!”
Which leads me to our second idiom of today: bend over backwards. It fits our example just great, because that is what you do for your sister. She needs help to break the accounting market in Romania and you’ll help her get there.
In order to help her, you start researching online every day for about an hour. You go to the local library and check their information. You seek out the Romanian community in your town to get some information from them. In other words, you’re bending over backwards for your sister. You’re putting in a whole lot of effort and doing everything you can.
People can bend over backwards to get any kind of result they really want, though – it doesn’t need to be a situation where they’re helping someone. You could be preparing for an exam, for example, and bending over backwards to be well prepared. You’ve hired a private tutor, you’re studying long hours, you’ve downloaded computer programs that will help you get there and so on. It’s fair to say you’re bending over backwards to achieve a good score.
I think these two expressions are very relatable – anyone can think of real-life examples for “leave no stone unturned” and “bend over backwards”. So, when did someone do that for you? Or, when did you do that for someone? Let me know and see you soon.
Key expressions
Vocabulary
have an urge (to do something) = ter uma vontade repentina (de fazer algo)
pop out = sair de forma rapida para algum lugar, dar uma escapadinha
nonetheless = mesmo assim
darn! = Expressão usada para demonstrar desapontamento ou irritação, semelhante ao nosso ‘caramba/droga’
break the accounting market = entrar no mercado de contabilidade
seek out = procurar ou buscar algo
