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segunda-feira, 7 de julho de 2014

Expressões com a palavra YESTERDAY

Have you ever used the word yesterday to express how urgent something is? For example, in Portuguese, when we want to make it really clear our need is urgent, we say something like: eu preciso disso para ontem. That's an exaggerated way of saying how badly and desperately you need something. In English, people say it the same way. So imagine your boss left you a little note at your desk asking you to write a very urgent report but now you're too tied up with other things. A few minutes later, when your boss returns to your office asking about it, you tell him you haven't even started it yet. He gets mad and then you ask him "when do you need this?", and he says "I need it yesterday" or "yesterday wouldn't be too soon". Notice that these answers come usually after the question "when do you need this?". It's a way to let the other person know how urgent the thing you need is. I wouldn't say it's always rude to use that expression. It will depend on the way you express it and who you're addressing it to.

Still talking about the situation I just described, imagine that when your boss walks in your office asking you about the report, you get so surprised you come up with an excuse for not having it yet. You tell him you hadn't seen the little note he left you at your desk and had no idea how urgent this was. Your boss can't buy your little story and tells you: I wasn't born yesterday! Do you understand what he just said here? When you say someone wasn't born yesterday, it means he's not stupid to be so easily deceived. That's an expression you can easily hear from parents. Every time their child comes up with an excuse for doing something wrong, it's very likely they'll say "Do you think I was born yesterday?" or "I wasn't born yesterday". That expression comes from the idea that someone too young is easily deceived. That's it for today guys. Take care!

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