expressions with the word bait

First of all, have you ever heard of the word bait? It's very simple to understand if you just take a look at the picture above. That's what a bait is. If the picture still doesn't say much to you, a bait is any food used to entice fish or other animals as pray. So if you decide to go fishing for example, you're going to need, among other things, a bait to get the fish. And now that we've learned the literal meaning of the word bait, let's try to learn some expressions with it.

I heard the first expression with the word bait while watching Orange is the New Black, an original Netflix series. They were discussing the idea of contacting the media and calling its attention to some problems in the prison system, but because of a big storm coming, people had other priorities on the news to talk about. So here's what one of the characters said after being asked about the media's reaction: "Nobody took the bait with the story. There's a storm coming". When someone takes the bait, it means they accept something that was offered to get them to do something. So if the media had taken the bait with what the inmates were trying to tell, their story, it would have acknowledged their complaints about the prison system and done something about it, like making it public.

Now imagine you have someone at your work environment that loves to get on your nerves. And how does he do that? He keeps dropping hints here and there saying very nasty things just to try to get a reaction from you. So while he's talking to other workmates, he makes a point to raise the tone of his voice to make sure you can hear he's speaking ill of you. You know a breakdown or a major outbreak is everything he wants from you, so you'd rather keep calm and not rise to the bait. But wait, what does that mean? When you rise to the bait, you get irritated by what someone has said. But keep in mind they say those bad things on purpose just to get an upset reaction from you. The expression alludes to the idea of a fish coming up from deep waters to seize bait.

god forbid/perish the thought

There are certain expressions we use to express how much we don't want a certain thing happening. It's like just mentioning the thought of something happening causes people a certain uncomfortable feeling and they need to turn to certain kinds of expressions to make it clear how much they hope something bad doesn't happen.

For example, your daughter is going to a party very late at night and you're very worried about her getting mugged or kidnapped or raped or anything bad that's constantly on the news. So you tell her: God forbid that someone causes you any harm out there on the streets. What I want you to focus here is the expression "God forbid", which as religious as it might sound doesn't necessarily imply a belief in God's direct intervention. It's become more of a way to merely express a strong wish. So it doesn't matter if you're a christian or even an atheist, some expressions that seem to have a very strong religious connotation don't necessarily reflect your beliefs and ideologies. Speaking of which, "God forbid" can also be "Heaven forbid", as in "Heaven forbid that they actually encounter a bear".

If you've never heard the expressions I've just taught you, you're very unlikely to know the following one: perish the thought. I don't have much to talk about that expression since its meaning is identical to both "God forbid" and Heaven forbid". If I could spot maybe a single peculiarity of that expression, I would say that this one expresses the idea of not even considering the thought of such a negative thing. It is used as a wish that what was just mentioned will never happen. So, take a look at this example: If you should become ill - perish the thought - I'd take care of you. That's all for today. Talk to you next time!

Textos Traduzidos #001: Convicted of murder at 12, Curtis Jones leaves Florida prison at 29

Convicted of first-degree murder when he was only 12 [Condenado a assasssinado em primeiro grau quando tinha apenas 12 anos], Curtis Jones is a free man at 29 [Curtis Jones é um homem livre aos 29 anos].

Jones left a Florida prison on Tuesday [Jones deixou a prisão em Flórida na terça-feira], according to CNN affiliate WFTV [de acordo com WFTV afiliado da CNN], which also noted he has never had the chance to learn how to drive a car or use social media [que também salientou que ele ainda não teve a chance de aprender a dirigir ou usar as mídias sociais].

The newspaper Florida Today reported that Jones was released at 7 a.m. from the South Bay Correctional Facility [Jones foi solto às 7 da manhã da Instituição Carcerárea de South Bay] , which is south of Lake Okeechobee [que fica no sul do Lago OIkeechobee].

Jones and his sister, Catherine Jones, were found guilty of killing their father's girlfriend [foram considerados culpados pela morte da namorada do pai deles], 29-year-old Sonya Speights, in 1999 in Cocoa Beach.

At the time [Na época], their lawyer alleged that the siblings were being sexually abused by a relative [o advogado deles alegou que os irmãos estavam sendo abusados sexualmente por um parente] and turned to extreme measures after they felt that their father and his girlfriend were not protecting them [e recorreu a medidas extremas ao acharem que o pais deles e sua namorada não estavam os protegenddo]. But prosecutors argued that they were jealous of the victim because they were not getting their father's attention [Mas os procuradores disseram que eles estavam com ciúmes da vítima porque eles não estavam ganhando a atenção do pai deles].

Jones' sister, who is now 30, is also scheduled to be freed this week [também está programada para ser liberada essa semana]. Catherine went to prison at 13 [Catherine foi presa aos 13 anos].

The brother and sister, who lived in Brevard County at the time of killing [que viviam em Brevard County na época do assassinato], took a plea deal and were sentenced to 18 years in prison [fizeram um acordo judicial e foram sentenciados a 18 anos de prisão].

While incarcerated [enquanto estavam encarceirados], Jones became an ordained minister [Jones se tornou um ministro ordenado]. Catherine became a married woman to a pen pal [Catherine se casou com um amigo que trocava correspondências com ela].

source: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/28/us/young-killer-curtis-jones-freed-florida/index.html

expressões com a palavra button

I have a bunch of expressions with the word button, so I got to be careful not to get carried away. I want to provide you with the most interesting ones and spare you from unnecessary information. So, without further ado, let's try to remember some of the ways the word button alone is used in different ways. For example, you're telling a joke and when you finally get to the button, you realize you told the whole joke wrong. If you're confused with what I just said, that's because you've probably never heard of the word button being used as a synonymous for "the punch line of a joke" or the "termination of a recitation".

The word button also reminds me of the term "belly button", which is basically what we all have in the belly where the umbilical cord was attached. If you call an issue a hot button, you're talking about an issue that's become very important to people and which they feel very strongly about. If you've heard of the expression "a hot potato", which means basically the same thing, it won't be hard for you to remember the expression "a hot button". If we try to remember some of the hot buttons we have these days in Brazil, we could think of economics issues, politics issues, etc.

Now let's finally know some expressions that are a little bit less intuitive to understand in the case you come across them for the first time. For example, if you push the right buttons, what does that mean in a subjective way? Imagine you are new at a company and then one of your coworkers comes to you to give you a piece of advice. While teaching you the ropes, he tells you that you need to push the right buttons if you want to become successful. But what does that mean? If you push the right buttons, you do what is necessary to get the result that you want.

Another expression that's actually very similar to the previous one is "push someone's buttons". Imagine you have a very jealous girlfriend. You know that's her weak point, so you know exactly what would draw a strong reaction from her. Things like exchanging messages with a female friend on the telephone, hanging out with girls she doesn't know, complimenting a girl are the kind of attitudes that would drive her crazy. If you did any of those things, it would be like pushing her buttons. According to The Free Dictionary, "This metaphoric expression transfers activating some mechanism by pushing buttons to human emotions". I hope this helps. Talk to you next time!

an elephant in the room: o que isso significa?

Imagine you have an elephant right in the middle of your room, but still nobody seems to be willing to address it. They'd just rather ignore its inconvenient presence there. Why would people ignore such an obvious issue in their lives like that? When you say you have an elephant in the room, sometimes a pink elephant in the room, it means there's an issue everybody's aware of, but nobody wants to talk about.

There are many reasons for people to avoid such issues. Sometimes they're sore spots or a stigma, something politically incorrect, anything that makes people somehow afraid of bringing up. Let's try to think of an example here. You have a son that's come out as being gay to most of his friends, including some relatives of his, but never came to you to tell you the truth. You and the people who live with him in the same house, though very aware of the sexuality of your son, are not willing to accept that idea straightforward, but instead of facing it head on, you'd just rather pretend there's nothing bugging you. It's like living in denial.

You go to the table for dinner and there's that awkward silence. Nobody dares to touch the issue with a ten foot pole, including your son who thinks it's best to respect your time. So that matter becomes kind of a big uncomfortable matter that'll always be as inconvenient as an elephant in the room as long as nobody finally decides to come clean. That's all for today guys. Talk to you next time!

reminisce about: o que isso significa?

When I was a kid, I remember spending the rest of the day after getting home from school with my friends on the streets. We would play all those games almost no kid these days are used to. I didn't have any trouble sleeping or worrying about anything. I was just too busy learning new stuff everyday and living a life like every kid should.

See what I just did there? I was reminiscing about my childhood. When you reminisce about something, you think about or tell of past experiences or events. You can be specific while reminiscing. For example, one of these days I was reminiscing about all my teachers from elementary school. It was hard to remember all their names, but it was good to recall the past.

They say it's something for the old to reminisce about the past. Although it may be true they're the ones who think about the past with more frequency, everybody has something good or bad to remember about their past. It's more common to refer to the act of reminiscing when the memories are good though. You had the best trip of your life a few years ago and now you're reminiscing about it.

I heard that word for the first time in one of Lily Allen's songs entitled "Littlest things". The word can be found right in the first line. Here's the video for you check out:

o que significa ser edgy?

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I stumbled upon an article entitled "Eminem rapped mockingly about Caitlyn Jenner to remind us all that he's edgy". So as a way to fill you in on what's the background of that story, I have to tell you that Caitlyn Jenner, the one that's been mentioned by the article, is a transgender who's just gone through all transformative journey and now is publicly declared as a woman.

The thing is, Caitlyn Jenner has always had all the spotlight on herself, even before the big fuss about her transformation. As for Eminem, we all know how much of an attitude he has. The article pointed out that since Eminem became a middle-aged father, he's acted out no more as that bad boy of american music he used to be. But despite of all that, he didn't think twice before tackling such a controversial topic, proving that he's still edgy. But wait, what does edgy mean?

Being edgy means to have the kind of attitude that challenges social norms and usually shows great confidence. Have you noticed how edgy rap singers are? They usually go about singing with a confident tone, dressed in expensive clothes and jewelry, and most importantly, not afraid to speak their mind. It's important to say that edgy as the way I'm teaching you here is a slang and therefore shouldn't be used in a formal context. If you look up the meaning of edgy on a formal dictionary, you'll see that it simply means "nervous", as in "David was starting to feel a bit edgy". So now you see that depending on the context the word edgy is, it'll probably have a different meaning. Take care y'all. Bye bye!

Here's the link to the article I mentioned above by the way: http://www.someecards.com/entertainment/music/eminem-caitlyn-jenner-rapped-controversial/

kindred spirits: o que são?

So today I'm going to talk about something that maybe very few people are fortunate enough to experience: a very strong bond. They can come in many different ways. So I'm not only talking about love stories or the kind of relationship that reaches only the marital love. I'm striving toward a more general kind of bond; the one that happens between friends, lovers, relatives, colleagues, anyone.

So regardless of what brings you together with another soul, if it's true and special connection what you feel for that person, then you are what we call kindred spirits. Sometimes we don't choose our kindred spirits. They just appear in our lives when an opportunity strikes. The concept of kindred spirits also centers around the idea of developing a connection from the same experience two or more people go through. So imagine you and your wife have always been in love, but only after going through a very tough time with your daughter fighting cancer that you've become true kindred spirits. It's like that bad experience has drawn you together on a higher level.

O que significa quirky?

I was going through some profiles on penpalworld, which by the way is a great website for those who want to get in touch with foreigners and learn a lot from them, when I came across a guy trying to describe himself. Among the many things he said, what caught my attention was that he considered himself a shy guy, but with a very quirky personality. But what does quirky mean?

As you can see, he used the adjective quirky much as kind of a way to compensate the fact he's shy. Not that being shy is a flaw, but why would being quirky a positive side? Well, after looking up that word to make sure I did understand it quite well, suddenly a character from one of my favorite sitcoms came to mind: Phoebe. Is there anyone else in the world quirkier than Phoebe?

If you don't know who I'm talking about, which I find very unlikely, here's what Phoebe represents; She is unconventional, surprising, odd, weird, but all in a good way. Imagine you have a friend who's always got the best lines, act in a very unconventional way, with very odd ideas - which kind of make them a little bit crazy - but still, you love being around them. That person is quirky.

You can also describe things as being quirky. In fashion, sometimes you see a lot of weird things going on. Some of them take odd to such an advanced degree that they become cool in some way. And sometimes, what makes it weird is also what makes it cool. The effect it causes on society, the shock it leaves you with when you're first confronted by an unusual piece of clothing or a trend is what makes it weird in a good way.

what is double standard?

Have you ever gone through a situation where you felt like you were part of a group with fewer opportunity or liberty than another group? Whatever situation that is, you could call that a double standard. To make you understand the concept of that expression better, I'll guide you through a very common example of double standard. Bear with me.

You're a girl who likes to have fun. What does that mean? That means you don't have any trouble going out with more than one partner and are very comfortable in your own skin. Your brother's just like you, but he doesn't get as much punishment and disapproval as you get from your parents. They say you're supposed to act differently because you're a girl and the way you feel about having greater sexual freedom will give you a bad name soon. On the other hand, they don't see your brother going out with many girls as a problem. Actually your father takes very big proud in telling his friends how much of a womanizer he is.

When a set of principles allows greater freedom to one person or group than to another like that, we call it double standard. We see it happening in many spheres of society. Sometimes they come disguised as religion, ethics, principles, culture, costumes, beliefs, anything. From the moment an ethical or moral code applies more strictly to one person than another, you can consider it a double standard.

I hope that helps. If you have any example of a double standard, don't hesitate to leave them down bellow in the comment section. Talk to you next time!

comfortable in own skin: o que isso significa?

If somebody asked you if you're comfortable in your own skin, what would you say? Well, before I tell you what that expression means, let me try to get some insight of your own personality and especially the way you present or interact with other people. Are you the kind of person who feels comfortable being yourself and has no kind of identity crisis or anything like that? Then we could say you're comfortable in your own skin.

Imagine you know a middle-aged guy who's always hanging out with young folks. Everybody finds it weird that he doesn't mind being among people that would normally have different interests and ideas, but he displays a relaxed confidence and seems to be enjoying his time with his young friends with no drama at all. Some people say he's just living in denial and is refusing to live his own age, but you don't believe in that theory. You just think he's comfortable in his own skin and couldn't care less for what people think about him.

That's what happens when someone is comfortable is his own skin. They show confidence in a relaxed way, even when their personalities, looks, lifestyles do not live up to what society expects. They just do what makes them happy. Are you like that or know someone comfortable in their own skin? Leave us your stories in the comment section bellow.

in a New York minute

Everybody knows New York is a pretty hectic city where people are pretty much running around all the time. In big cities like that, it seems time works differently. Every second counts and everything happens at a faster pace, unlike small cities where the time is slow and things are quiet.

That's why it's easy to understand the expression I have for you today: in a New York minute. When you do something in a New York minute, it means you do it very quickly, almost instantly. So imagine you have a friend who's daring you to go talk to the prettiest girl at the party and get her phone number. He thinks you would never have the guts to do that, but you consider yourself a very confident person. So you say; I'd get her phone number in a New York minute.

That's all for today guys. Talk to you next time!