Como falo em inglês: Tirar satisfação com alguém

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Oct 15
Como falo em inglês Tirar satisfação com alguém

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How have you been? Hoje, no podcast, eu falo sobre dois idioms super comuns do inglês – e um deles é para dizer “tirou um peso dos meus ombros”. Não perca…

Transcrição

How have you been? 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 me start with an idiom that we use when we want to say that, you know… this person or that person doesn’t particularly enjoy doing this or that, so they avoid it. They shy away from it.

Here’s a very common example: there are many, many people in the world who shy away from confrontation. You know, confrontation? That’s when you confront someone on something they said or did, for example. Look at the title of this episode: that is one way we, Brazilians, say that same thing in Portuguese. Now, “tirar satisfação” usually involves some hostility, and that expression is more informal, I feel. To be fair, when an English speaker says they’re going “to confront someone”, there is going to be some sort of conflict as well, but the difference here is that “confront” is a word you can use in any situation – either formal or informal, it doesn’t matter.

So, let’s say you hear that one of your “friends” is slagging you off behind your back. Say your friend’s name is Joanna. So you hear Joanna has been saying some unkind things about you. And you go “Wow! Why is Joanna saying these things? What is up with that? I thought we were good friends!”

And then the next thing you do is – you go talk to Joanna. You are going to confront Joanna about what she’s been saying. So you go to this place where you know she hangs out at, on weekends, and there she is. And you confront her! You say “Joanna, I heard you’ve been saying this and that about me. What’s up with that?”

So, doing that once in a while doesn’t mean you’re a very confrontational person. A confrontational person is someone who usually won’t let anything slide… Whenever they hear something that someone did and they don’t like it, they will speak to that person and tell them they didn’t like it and they want to know why that person did that… And then they will tell that person that he or she should not have done that, and so on. That would be a very confrontational person.

So, are you a confrontational person? Do you confront people like, every week… or just once in a while?

So, let’s go back to our first term of today: there are many people, on the other hand, who will shy away from any kind of confrontation. They hate conflict so much that they’d rather not say anything ever than risk displeasing someone by confronting them on something.

So, there you go:  you can imagine, like, two extremes. On one extreme you’ve got someone who shies away from confrontation completely and I think what can happen is that this kind of person usually hangs around with people who are kind of bossy. I mean, if you’re a bossy person there’s nothing better than being surrounded by people who will never confront you, right? You can’t be too bossy if there’s no one to boss around.

So, at the other extreme you have someone who shies away from all confrontation and at the opposite extreme, you have a very confrontational person who just feels like they have to speak up every time they hear something they don’t like. So, ok, let’s just hope that we’re all somewhere in the middle. How about that?

That’s it for today – let me know where you fall on the non-confrontational, confrontational scale and see you soon!

 

Key expressions

  • shy away from
  • confront someone
  • be confrontational

 

Vocabulary

slag someone off = falar mal de alguém

Say your friend’s name is… = Vamos dizer que o nome de sua amiga/o é…

hangs out at = frequentar um lugar

and there she is = e lá está ela

once in a while = de vez em quando

won’t let anything slide = não deixa passar nada

bossy = mandão

there’s no one to boss around = não tem ninguém em quem mandar

 

Ana
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Bela 07/11/2018

Love it! Thanks for sharing this with us!
Do you have instagram?
XXX

Eduardo Neto 03/11/2018

Thanks Ana for the tips, it really helps me practice my English!

Vera 17/10/2018

Hi Ana! Well, depending on the matter, if it really cares I’m a kind of confrontational person, though on the daily basis I prefer to be shy away from it.
Com to think of it, I really need to review English expressions.
Thanks for your tips.

ALEX AMARAL 15/10/2018

Thanks a lot for one more very nice tip.

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