Expressões com a palavra GEAR

Have you ever heard of the word gear before? If not, let's learn its meaning first and only then we'll be talking about the expressions. If you can drive a car, you're pretty much used to that word in your language. In Portuguese, that word means, among many other things, marcha. So if you want to say, for example, dar marcha ré in English, "to engage reverse gear" is the correct way. The same logic applies to the other gears, like to engage the first gear, the second gear and so on and so forth. We could go over many other combinations with the word gear in its literal meaning, but this post aims at bringing you some new expressions with it. So without further ado, let's learn them!

I was watching an american talk show one day and after a long time discussing a single topic, the host was desperate to move on to a different topic, so she said: Let's shift gears now and talk about something else. But what does she mean by shift gears? You usually say that when you suddenly change what you're doing or what you're talking about. Imagine yourself hanging out with a friend of yours in your place. You guys have been listening to rock and roll all day long and then you feel like shifting gears and listening to blues. As you must have figured, shifting gears is nothing but a break from what you've been doing in a little while. That expression is based on the idea that a vehicle will change speed when you change gears.

Now suppose you're one of those people who need a little time every morning to make yourself start thinking clearly and effectively. Better yet, suppose you spent the whole night out partying and drinking a lot and now are having the world's worst hangover. The problem is that you just got a call from your boss telling you about this last-minute meeting you're supposed to attend in less than an hour. He tells you over the phone: if you don't get your arse in gear you'll be late for this meeting. Bot wait, what does that mean? If you try to get your arse in gear, you force yourself to start working or to hurry. There are actually many ways to say that. If you're having a hard time trying to stay focused, you might be told to get your brain into gears or simply get into gears. If you're in the middle of your day struggling to keep yourself awake and then you take some coffee that finally wakes you up, you can say after drinking coffee you've swung into high gear. That means you've begun operating at a fast pace and increased the rate of activity. That's it for today guys. Take care!

Você sabe o que smarty pants e fancy-pants significam?

By the title of the post, you must have noticed how similar the two expressions are. They can really have a lot to do with each other, but there are certain things we should always take into account. Let's start with smarty pants. That's a very well known expression I hear all the time on movies and the like. Try to see yourself in this situation: you're in classroom and there's this little guy next to you who's always raising his hand to answer all the questions. You think he's a real apple polisher [someone who attempts to curry favor with authority for personal gain], but what he's really trying to do is to seem cleverer than everybody else. That's a smarty pants. A smarty pants is that person who makes a point to cause a good impression and make everybody think he's smart. Are you a smart pants? Do you know a smarty pants? Many people consider that kind of people very irritating. What do you think?

Now let's move on to our second expression "fancy-pants". You might be wondering why that expression has a hyphen and the first one does not. Well, that's one of the differences between the two expressions [besides their meanings]. Smarty pants is a noun, whereas fancy-pants is an adjective and therefore should always be used before a noun. If you want to make it a noun, all you have to do is drop the hyphen and there you have it. The same way in order to turn smarty pants into an adjective, include a hyphen and use it before a noun. Simple as that. But back to fancy-pants, if something or someone is fancy-pants, it tries to seem too attractive or too clever in a way that is false. What does that mean? Let's use an example to understand the expression better. You go to a very fancy restaurant and you order some expensive french dessert you quite don't understand. All you know is that it is pretty pricey. When it finally comes to your table, you realize it is nothing but a mango cut into little pieces, a fruit that is actually very common in the place you come from. You can't believe you're paying 10 times as much for something you get for free straight from your own mango tree at your backyard. When someone asks you about your experience at the restaurant, you say: The place was great, but not the fancy-pants food. That's it for today guys. Take care!

O que significa "to put it in a nutshell"?

Do you know what a nutshell is? If you have never heard of that word before, just take a look at the picture above. That's what a nutshell is. Simple huh? But now you may be wondering what that has to do with the expression of the day. Well, technically nothing. An expression doesn't have to be necessarily attached to the literal meaning of its words. That's actually one of the main characteristics of an expression/idiom. But let's learn the expression with the word nutshell!

You know those moments when you want to be as straightforward as possible with someone? Maybe you're in a very complicated situation where you have to say something really embarrassing to someone. You want it to be really quick, so you make sure you use as fewer words as possible. For example, you're the boss at a very important company and now you have to lead a meeting with several of your employees to fire them. So, in the middle of the meeting, while you're trying to finally get to your point, you say: To put it in a nutshell, you're all fired.

In a nutshell means very briefly, something you say when you want to be very concise. So maybe during that meeting, you would have to go through all the explanations as to why your company needs to make many employees redundant. So to make things faster and easier [at least for you], you put it all in a nutshell and get it over with. The idea behind the expression is that a nutshell is very tiny and therefore it would hold a very small amount of anything. So imagine that when you use that expression, you're using a very small amount of words so it will fit in a nutshell. That's it for now guys. Take care!

O que significa "pet peeve"?

Can you remember of something that's constantly annoying you? No matter what you do, there's no way you're getting rid of it for good. It will always come right back at you and haunt you once more. That's basically what we call a pet peeve. Bu let's dig into it a little further. It will be fun.

Let's think now about women. Everybody knows that women go through a certain sensitive period every month and we as men should therefore be more careful with every move we make around them. Many things can piss them off. One of the biggest pet peeve of theirs is men not putting down the toilet seat for them. We call it a pet peeve because it's a frequent annoyance, a very often encountered annoyance. But everybody has one or more pet peeves, not only women. For me, for example, one of my biggest pet peeves is waiting in line. I'm from Brazil and everybody knows how obsessed with lines we are. Even in places where lines are not even required, people make a point to form them. I just don't get it. It's a big pet peeve of mine. So what about yours? Tell me one of your biggest pet peeve in the comment section below! See you next time!

Você sabe o que significa a expressão "hit and miss"?

The expression hit and miss has basically two meanings. We're going to get to know both of them through the examples I'm about to give you. I got those examples from Twitter, which is actually a very good way to look for an idiom and be certain of how native English speakers use it. I highly recommend it. One of the twits was like this: Blog awards can be really hit and miss. Do you understand what that means? Let's break it down.

When you call something hit and miss, you're saying it was carelessly planned. What the person from twitter meant to say by calling the blog awards hit and miss was that we shouldn't trust it, because it is actually made in such a random way that it shouldn't even be taken seriously. Let's think of a different example. Suppose you're given the mission of putting on a surprise party for one of your friends. All your mutual friends give you their contribution in money and you're expected to think about everything. The thing is, you didn't mention you would be very busy during all the preparations and the party ends up a total failure. The friends who entrusted you with that task get so shocked at how careless the place looked that some of them criticize you very harshly. One of them says: We entrusted you with that very special task and now everything seems like there was no planning. This party is just hit and miss!

A different twit shows the second meaning for the expression hit and miss. This time, we have someone speaking harshly about an actor and his works. The twit goes: He's not done anything funny since his last movie, and that was largely hit and miss. What does that mean? He was saying the only funny movie that actor's been part of was a success that happened by total chance, that is to say, by pure luck. There's another thing that's commonly called hit and miss. You know weather forecasting? it's become more accurate over the past years, but it used to be very hit and miss. It was as likely to be bad as to be good and people couldn't really trust it very much. Do you have your own examples? Leave us in the comment section bellow. See you!

O que significa a expressão "for old times' sake"?

People like to remember old memories right? There's even a very known saying that goes like "remembering is living", which in Portuguese would be something like "relembrar é viver". Old memories are also related to loved people that are no longer too close to you. For example, you had a very good childhood, but all your friends from the past have disappeared and the only thing left now are your memories. Suppose one day, while you're walking down the street, you run into a childhood friend you haven't seen in many years. It takes you a while to recognize him, but soon as it hits you that's your old friend, you run up to him for a very warm greeting. You try to do some catching up, but there's very much to tell. That's when you say: Do you want to have lunch together sometime, just for old times' sake?

When you do something for old times' sake, you do it as a way to remember a happy time in your past. Maybe you and your friend used to go out a lot in your childhood, but now for some reason you can't get together as often. So, for old times' sake, you have lunch together and catch up on each other's news. Speaking of which, if you know and like the american sitcom "Friends", you also must know that since its final episode, which was about 10 years ago, fans have expected them to reunite on the screen someday just for old times' sake. The thing is, Friends was such a huge success in the past. Putting the cast together just for one last time would be a very good idea, but I'm afraid that's never going to happen. That's it for today guys. Take care!

Você sabe o que significa o termo "backseat driver"?

The idiom of the day called my attention in a special way because I know someone who's a real backseat driver: my mom. I don't have my licence yet, but my brother's had his for a while and since the very first day he stepped into a car to drive, my mom's been giving him instructions from the backseat although she can't drive herself. In English, we call someone like that a backseat driver. Those are the people who continuously tell the driver how they should drive and can be very annoying at times. Do you know anyone like that?

The interesting thing about that idiom is that you can use it with anyone who tries to control things even though it is not their responsibility. People like that usually like to be the leader of everything and have a lot of trouble being controlled. I personally like a very famous brazilian TV show called O Aprendiz, which is actually based on the american TV show The Apprentice. The show stars some business people splitted into two teams competing in an elimination competition. What that show has to do with our idiom is that, since there's a different leader appointed by the two teams every week, we can clearly see who are the real backseat drivers. Those are the ones who always end up leading tasks that are supposed to be led by the leader. They always get in the way of some important decisions and want to have the final word in every argument. Backseat drivers usually get into a lot of troubles because they have a very strong personality. I'm not sure if that's a strength or weakness in the business world. What do you think? See you next time!

O que significa a expressão "give someone a pass"? [expressão retirada do seriado Men at Work]

One of these days, while I was watching Men at Work, a very cool american sitcom, I heard somebody saying something like: I'll give you a pass on that. Do you know what that means? Here's what was happening when that idiom came up: after fighting over silly things, a couple was finally trying to make up. In the middle of their reconciliation, the man said something that was not very appropriate for that moment. The woman was so happy and distracted that she decided not to get mad at him and give it no importance. That was when she said: I'll give you a pass on that.

When you give someone a pass, you overlook something and give it only a cursory examination [even when the person deserves to be criticized]. You can do that for several reasons. Like in the case of the woman in the american sitcom, you may be too happy for caring about what they did or said. If we take a closer look at the idiom, we will realize it has everything to do with the context of a school. For example, a teacher may decide to advance a difficult student out of his grade for simply wanting to get rid of him. So he gives him a pass even though the student is not prepared. Do you have any examples of your own? Leave us in the comment section bellow. Talk to you next time!

O que significa "in one's second childhood"?

The expression of the day is very interesting because everybody is going to relate to it. You know those days when you're feeling like a child and want to do things adult people normally don't do? Our expression has everything to do with that feeling. Imagine, for example, you've always dreamed of going to Disneyland but your parents couldn't afford the trip when you were a child. Now you're all grown up, can afford your own trips and everything in your life has changed except for one thing: you still wanna go to Disneyland. One day, when you finally make it there, you're so blown away by everything in the place that you start acting like a child. People around you say you're in your second childhood. But wait, what does that mean?

When you're in your second childhood, you're interested in things or people that normally interest children. Can you remember of some examples of your own? C'mon! Everybody's like that at some point of their lives. For instance, if you still have your grandmother, don't you feel like you're back in your childhood every time you're around her? Let's suppose you spent the whole weekend at your grandma's and now you're back home talking to a friend of yours. He wants to know about your weekend and you say: It was awesome! Every time I spend weekends or holidays at grandma's, I feel as if I'm in my second childhood. We make cake, I go to the river and throw stones, she tells me all her stories and it's awesome. That's it for now guys. Talk to you next time!

O que significa a expressão "to have a grip on something/someone"?

While I was listening to the song The Only Exception by Paramore, I couldn't help but notice a very interesting line that goes like: I've got a tight grip on reality. Do you know what that means? If you already know the song I'm talking about, you must know it's about a girl who's learnt from her own life experiences not to believe in love. The thing is, after a while, she ends up falling in love with a boy that makes her believe he's the only exception. That's when she says: I've got a tight grip on reality, but I can't let go of what's in front of me.

When you have or keep a tight grip on something or someone, you have control over it. The girl from the song believed to have some kind of control over her reality until she found a boy that made her rethink her attitude towards love. Having control over reality in this case means keeping it real, being as realistic as possible and never leaving room for love. That's it. See you soon!

Como dizer "levanta, sacode a poeira e dá a volta por cima" em Inglês?

Although it is hard to find someone these days still not joining social medias, sometimes there are some reasons that make people quit them altogether. One of these days, while I was talking to some friend of mine, he said he's no longer on Facebook, Twitter or any of the kind because he's been traumatized since the last time he got hacked. What does that mean? He claimed to have opened his account one day only to find out all his friends and family had received some kind of insult. And it doesn't stop there! He got criticized by people who did not understand the situation and almost got fired from his job. Pretty harsh huh? The thing is, it's been too many years since he's been hacked and still he hasn't managed to get over it. I thought it was time for him to give it another try and see how it goes this time, so I said: Man, you should pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again. Do you understand my advice? Let's break it down.

The expressions to pick yourself up and dust yourself off have almost the same meaning. Both means to recover from a fall or problem. You tell people to pick themselves up and dust themselves off when you want them to continue doing something they unexpectedly stopped doing. And the reason they stopped doing it was because it caused them a trauma or fear. In Portuguese, we say: levanta, sacode a poeira e dá a volta por cima. That's actually a very good advice for everybody, don't you think? Let us know in the comment section. See you next time!

O que significa a expressão "burning the midnight oil"?

Today we're going to talk about a very common practice among hard working students: burning the midnight oil. Do you know what that means? Better yet, are you one of those students that are always burning the midnight oil? If you have an upcoming test and you've been working very long hours, it's possible you also study late into the night. When something like that happens, you say you're burning the midnight oil. Let's think of an example to make things easier: your friend calls you up on the phone to invite you to a party. You would really love to go, but unfortunately you have to stay at home working long hours on a project from school. So you say: I'm sorry, but today I'm burning the midnight oil. Maybe next time! If the expression still sounds odd to you and you're curious to know about its etymology, just know that it comes from the use of oil to provide light before the invention of electricity. Up to this day, people still say they're burning the midnight oil to refer to any kind of work they're doing late into the night. That's it for today guys. See you!

Como dizer "deu branco" em Inglês? [post inspirado no comercial da Open English]

If you're Brazilian, you must have watched a commercial of a very famous online English school in Latin America called Open English. During the commercial, we see a well-known brazilian comedian, Paulo Gustavo, doing an interview at the moment he's caught off guard by a question in English. As an attempt to avoid the question, he says he can't speak English by surprise and tries to mumble some words in English that make absolutely no sense.

What makes the commercial funny is that Paulo Gustavo tries to say the expression "my mind went blank" in a very confusing way. He does a direct translation from Portuguese to English that ends up in something like "I give the white color in my mind". As you see, that doesn't make any sense, right? For situations like that, when you cannot think of anything to say, the right expression is "my mind went blank". You can say that when you're asked a question you don't know the answer to or when you really want to remember something but for some reason you can't. During a test, for example, your mind can go blank several times. That's it for today guys. Take care!

Take it down a notch, top-notch [expressions with the word NOTCH]

I have some expressions with the word NOTCH that hopefully you'll never forget. On dictionary.com, notch means "an angular or V  -shaped cut, indentation, or slit in an object, surface, or edge", but that's the literal meaning of the word and it won't play such important role in our expressions after all.

The first expression with the word notch I learned was actually an adjective, "top-notch". I was talking to some random girl on internet in English and she said she had a top-notch upbringing. She was actually showing off some of the trips, schools she'd been to and was trying to say her upbring was the absolute best. That's what top-notch means: the absolute best. You can use it to pretty much anything you jugde as something really really good. You can say: Julie's singing in the musical is top notch. You can say both top notch and top-notch.

Now suppose you were talking to that girl I just talked about. You think she's acting too arrogant and you want to make it stop, so you say: bring it down a notch. No one cares! You say bring it down a notch when you want someone to regulate his or her level of enthusiasm. In portuguese, it's almost like saying "vai com calma aí", it could also be another way of saying "calm down" in English. Another example: you're hanging out with one of your friends when he makes some comment about how pretty your sister is. So you say: take it down a notch. That's my sister you're talking about.

Our next expression is used to describe the quality of things, but only when you want to compare something to something else; when you wanna say something is not quite as good as something else. For example, you and your friend are talking about music. You believe your friend's favorite band is okay but not as good as yours. So you say: Your favorite band's really good, but it's a notch below mine. That expression is used to describe things that are in the same level of quality, but for some reason one is better than the other.

Expressions with the word bee [to have a bee in your bonnet; to put a bee in someone's bonnet]

In a previous post, I talked about some expressions used with people that won't stop talking. I said you can call those people many different ways, like chatty, motormouth, chatterbox, etc. Today, there's an expression that can somehow relate to someone like that, someone who won't just shut up. The expression is to have a bee in one's bonnet about something. Let's get to know it!

But before going into that expression, it's worth pointing out that there's actually a difference between being chatty and the expression I just mentioned. When you call someone a chatterbox or chatty for example, it means he or she is always speaking. The expression we're touching on today though refers to people that can also speak a lot, but not for any reason or at any time, but for a special reason that makes them really excited about. Maybe you're not a very chatty person in a normal situation, but when it comes to a specific idea or something that you think is important, you become a real chatterbox.

For example, suppose your name is Mary, you're an animal lover, and you think all the dogs should be rescued immediately. It is a really good idea, but it is not something that happens overnight. Still you don't care. You think it is like a priority in your life and you won't stop talking about it until you feel like you mission's been completed. Maybe one of your friends, Derick, thinks you're a little obsessed with that idea and says: She's got a real bee in her bonnet about rescuing dogs. What did Derick mean by to have a been in your bonnet? That means that you keep talking about rescuing dogs again and again and again, and that makes him a little bit annoyed sometimes. When you use that expression to talk about someone else, it generally means you don't care for the idea as much as the person does. For example, Derick might not think the idea of rescuing dogs is as important as you think it is. So he'll say you've got a real bee in your bonnet about it.

But let's suppose you keep trying to make your friend like the dog rescue idea just as much. At first he wouldn't want to listen to what you say very much, but eventually he starts listening attentively to every word you say and ends up getting involved with your idea without even noticing. When something like that happens, he can say: Mary put a bee in my bonnet about rescuing dogs. That means you, Mary, gave him the idea and now he's just as obsessed about it as you. You made him believe the idea. You put a bee in his bonnet about resuing dogs. That's it guys. Talk to you next time!

Expressions with the word RICH

Hey guys. It's been a while I've not come up with posts completely written in English. Maybe I wanted to reach out for more students of different levels for a while and then come back to where I was. But let's forget that for now and jump right into our expressions with the word rich. Being rich is a stigma for everybody, isnt't it? When you talk about it, people seem to have a whole range of opinions. Some usually say they'd rather be healthy and happy than be rich and unhappy [as if one couldn't have it all at the same time]. They may remember of examples of celebrities being filthy rich and still not being happy. But wait, filthy rich? what does that mean? If someone is filthy rich, they're very very wealthy. In Brazil, we could think of Eike Batista, Roberto Marinho, etc. They're perfect examples of filthy rich brazilian people. But let's know some other expressions:

one law for the rich and another for the poor: If you translate that expression directly into our language, it would still make a lot of sense, wouldn't it? Just think of how things work in Brazil: rich people getting away with big crimes while poor people getting seriously punished for stealing something as cheap as cheese at a supermarket. Not that the act of stealing should be measured by how much something costs, but it sounds weird when you put things into perespective. Next time you see something like that happening, you could say somthing like 'we shouldn't have one law for the rich and another for the poor'.

strick it rich: suppose you do not belong to a rich family, you've never been rich before, but still all of a sudden you become rich. There are some ways of making that happen actually, but one of the most famous ways is maybe by winning the lottery. If sometime in the future you come to win the lottely and become suddenlly filthy rich, you can say you've struck it rich. If you know a businesman that has suddenly become rich in a specific field, you can also say something more specific like Joey struck it rich in oil business.

a rich seam: Remember when I said in the beginning of this post being rich is a stigma for most people? If you ask people around about their opinions on what are the pros and cons of being rich, you may find out that topic provides a lot of opportunities to discuss. So we can say that topic is a rich steam because it provides a lot of controversy and discussion. We can be a little more specific with that expression. Take this as an example: Both wars have provided a rich steam of drama for playwrights and novelists alike. I hope this helps. Take care!

What to say when you're overcome by emotion and can hardly speak

On sunday afternoons, all you can find on brazilian TV is a bunch of celebrities being honored by their relatives, friends and co-workers. And during one of those TV shows, after being paid such a remarkable tribute, a celebrity found himself completely lost for words. But wait, lost for words? What does that mean? Well it means he was unable to speak because he was very surprised and moved. It's like he lost the words he'd need to show how thankful he was to everybody. He was lost for words.

When he finally tried to pull himself together and speak, he said something like: I'm sorry but words fails me at this moment. That's another great expression to show unability to speak after being surprised or shocked: words fail me. Sometimes it's just that they can't think of proper words that could possibly express all the gratitude they're feeling. So they just say: Words fail me.

He could also have said 'I have my words stick in my throat'. You know that when you're overcome by emotion, you feel like your throat gets dry and it won't let the words come out properly. That's the right moment to say the expression "I have my words stick in my throat'. I hope you liked it. Take care!

O que significa "to be a shadow of one's old self"? [expressões com a palavra shadow]

Hey guys. Today I want to bring you some expressions with the word shadow. Shadow is a very common word, and its literal meaning refers to a dark figure on the ground or some surface by a body interception light. I got that description from dictionary.com, but it can be way easier to define it if we just think a shadow is that image cast that follows you wherever you are.

But what matters the most here is the expressions with the word shadow we're touching on today. They integrate that word in a figurative way bringing to the expression a whole particular meaning. You can tell that by the expression "a shadow of one's old self", which is our first exprerssion by the way. Imagine you're old now. Even getting older in a very positive way, eating healthy, staying active, you just can't deny you're not as you used to be when you were in your twenties. That shows even more especially when you've worked a lot throughout your life, and now you're tired and the only thing you want in life is to finally retire. Let's suppose one day you're remembering of the old days, when you stayed up the whole night and nearly never got sick, and that made you actually get kinda depressed. So you say to yourself: I'm a shadow of my old self. When someone is a shadow of himself, it means he's not as healthy, full and lively as they used to be before. You can use that expressions with things too.

Our second expression is "to be afraid of one's own shadow". We actually have that expression in Portuguese too, which makes it very easy to understand. For example, you've been robbed recentely, and for you it was a really disturbing, dramatic event that caused you a lot of harm, psychological harms. Now everytime you have to leave home, it's like you're living that awful experience all over again. You avoid awkward corners and are always afraid of people you don't know. Actually, you're even afraid of your own shadow. When you say you're afraid of your own shadow, you're easily frightened.

Como dizer "a união faz a força" em Inglês? [esta e outras expressões com a palavra strength]

I'm pretty sure you know what strength means. It refers to the state of being strong, be it in psychological or physical meaning. If you've ever been interviewd in English for a job vacancy, you were probably asked the question "what are your strengths and weaknesses?". They expect you to talk about what you're good or bad at, or your bad and good points. If you've been put through such pressure, I'm pretty sure you found a way to stress your virtues and hide your flaws.

But there are some great expressions containing the word strength, like the one in the title. Below you'll find that one and many more:

Union is strength - That's what you say when you're faced with dificulties and have people to work them out with. For example, you have a project to present the next day, but you feel you're not gonna make it on time alone. That's when you have the idea of calling up a friend and ask him for help. He then comes over and helps you through the things you have the hardest time with. You've now joint together and become more powerful than if it was only you working. That's why union is strength. In Portuguese, we say "a união faz a força".

Tower of strength - Take the previous example I gave you. That friend of yours that came over to help you with your project is a tower of strength. That's because he provided you with support and encouragement when you most needed. You could also call him a pillar of strength. Do you have a friend or anyone who's always a tower of strength for you in times of trouble?

On the strength of something - Let's suppose you do have a person in your life who's a tower of strength for you. If he supports you when you're in need, that's the person you should turn to when you wanna ask for advices, right? Let's supppose you're having problems in your relationship and decided to take a break with your boyfriend, but you're not sure if that's the right thing to do. You still love him and don't want things to fall apart that way. That's when your friend steps in and makes you realize how good of a person your boyfriend is, and therefore you should re-think the break-up thing. Some days later, you go back to your friend and say: Thank you. On the strenght of your comment, I decided to give him another chance. What you meant was 'due to your comment, because of the support your comment provided me with', I decided to give him another chance. You could also say 'on the strength of your advice, your wise words,' anything that can work positively.

That's all for now. Take care!