Phrasal Verb: TO FROWN UPON/AT

Hey guys. How are you? Today I wanna talk about some phrasal verbs that may be really interesting for you to learn. Those are TO FROWN UPON and TO FROWN AT something or someone. Have you ever heard of them? They're really common and from the moment you learn them, you'll find yourself using them on a really regular basis.

See what I found on a Facebook page:

When something is frowned upon, it means it is disapproved. In other words, the management doesn't approve people slaping the shit out of anyone at work. In this case, who disaproves is not necessarily a person, but the administration, the management of an institution. For that case, you can only use the phrasal verb to frown upon or simply frown on, because it simply means to disaprove. See another example: The Internal Revenue Service frowns on tax cheaters.

But when you look up the meaning of the verb to FROWN on the dictionary, you'll find a description that says something like "to contract the brow, as in displeasure or deep thought". Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to know that only people can do that. Only people can contract their brows in an act of displeasure. That's why there's the second phrasal verb TO FRAWN AT that refers to the literal act of contracting your brow. See the next example: Please don't frown at me. I din't do anything.

Hope you liked it. See you soon!

Como dizer "não quero me gabar" em Inglês?

Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we don't wanna sound like a jerk. What does that mean? It means that at the same time we want to show people we're right or capable, we don't wanna come off as this arrogant bastard. For example, you and your classmates are given a math exercise to do in group. After realizing you're the only one who's solved most of the math problems, you decide to say something before proceeding: I don't want to toot my own horn, but I think I know the answer for that one too.

I don't know if you've heard of the word horn before. According to Dictionary.com, horn is "one of the bony, permanent, hollow paired growths, often curved and pointed, that project from the upper part of the head of certain ungulate mammals, as cattle, sheep, goats or antelopes." I know that's a long description, but it's pretty simple if you simply know horn is what a sheep has in its head. When you say you don't want to toot your own horn, you're figuratively saying you don't want to blow your own horn. I don't know about the origin of that expression, but imagining yourself blowing a horn makes it easier to remember of the expression at least.

Se familiarizando com a palavra thread

Você conhece a palavra thread? Ela faz parte do vocabulário muito usado pelos nativos de língua Inglesa. Thread significa fio, fibra, linha, ou qualquer outro sinônimo que possa se referir àquele pedaço de fio delicado que insiste em sair da costura das roupas. Se caso você encontrar alguém com uma peça de roupa se descosturando, você pode dizer: You've pulled a thread in you jumper. (Você puxou um fio da sua blusa)

Se você procurar a palavra thread no dicionário, verá que também significa uma conexão entre ideias ou parte de uma história. É possível imaginarmos que existe uma associação entre os entrelaçados de fios de uma peça de roupa com os entrelaçados de ideias de uma história. É basicamente assim que as pessoas conseguem fechar raciocínios: elas ligam ideias umas as outras até que enfim o resultado final faça sentido. Quando não conseguimos contar bem uma história ou fazer boas conexões de ideias, em Português podemos dizer que perdemos o fio da meada. Fio da meada, aliás, pode ser a correspondente mais próxima ao que chamamos de thread em Inglês.

O que podemos fazer com o fio da meada de uma história, ou seja, conexões de ideias? Você perde o fio da meada (lose thread), segue o fio da meada (follow/trace the thread), mantém o fio da meada (keep the thread), tece o fio da meada numa conclusão (draw together/ pull together/ weave together threads into a conclusion).

Pra finalizar, vamos conhecer uma expressão idiomática que faz uso da palavra thread, que é "hanging by a thread". Se alguma coisa está "hanging by a thread", significa que está por um triz, ou seja, num estado muito crítico. Veja esta frase: The player's career is hanging by a thread after this latest injury to his knee. (A carreira do jogador está por um triz depois da sua última lesão no joelho).

I hope you liked it. See you next time!