falando do diabo, ele aparece! como dizer isto em Inglês?

This must have happened to you more than once. Here you are talking to someone about a mutual friend of yours that has been very absent lately. Just when you're finished talking about him or while you're still talking about him, he appears out of nowhere and leaves you in shock. In a way of acknowledging his unexpected arrival, you say: speak of the devil!

That's a short way of saying "speak of the devil and he will appear". You don't mean in any way to offend that person by calling devil. That expression lost its dark satanic connotation a very long time ago. It's just a way of expression how you feel about the coincidence that just happened. And just one more thing: the verb can be both speak and talk, as in talk of the devil. Take a look at this example:

Alan: I haven't seen Bob for weeks. Jane: Look, here comes Bob right now. Alan: Well, talk of the devil. Hi, there. We were just talking about you. speak of the devil and in he walks.

provar do seu próprio veneno: como dizer isso em Inglês?

So imagine yourself in this situation: You have a friend that likes to gossip about everyone, including yourself. The problem is that when he doesn't have anything to say, he makes up stories about people that end up affecting their lives in some way. One day, you and your friends think about plotting a revenge. You want him to experience the same harmful and unpleasant things he has inflicted on others. So you come up with a very bad rumor about him and very soon it starts to spread everywhere in the city.

When he wants to have it out with you guys, you tell him he needed a dose/taste of his own medicine. Again, you made him get a taste of his own medicine. Remember that medicine here doesn't apply to something good, but something more like poison. If you usually treat people badly and don't expect to receive the same treatment afterwards, someday you'll end up getting a dose of your own medicine. Take a look at a few examples:

1. Now you see how it feels to have someone call you names! You are getting a taste of your own medicine! 
2. John, who is often rude and abrupt with people, was devastated when the teacher treated him rudely. He doesn't like having a dose of his own medicine.

chasing papers

First time I heard someone saying "chasing papers" was when I listened to the song Blue Jeans By Lana Del Rey. The line goes like: I stayed up waitin', anticipatin' and pacin' but he was chasing papers. At first the expression made me confused, but then after a little search I found out its meaning was pretty simple. To chase papers simply means to go after money, sometimes fast cash. So when you're chasing papers, you're tying to make money.

Something extra to add to the expression is that "to be on the paper chase" is to be engaged in raising money. So I could say Susie is on the paper chase because she's got bills to pay. Something important to stress about that expression is that it is very informal. So don't go using it with whoever you want or writing it on an essay or something. Talk to you next time.

como dizer "levar na esportiva" em Inglês?

You know those times when you're mocked but don't wanna sound like you're offended? There are plenty of reasons for you to do that. You may be an easy-going person who doesn't take things always so seriously, or you just don't wanna show people they get to you to avoid seeming vulnerable. Whatever the reason is, the act of taking things smoothly gives us a couple of good expressions to learn. Let me introduce you to all of them.

So imagine you're picking on your friend about something he did, his personality, his looks, anything that inspired you jokes about him. He doesn't seem to be pleased and immediately leaves the place looking pretty disappointed on you. So the friends that are with you when that happens tell you: Don't worry about him. He can't take a joke. So when you say someone can't take a joke, it means they don't know how to take a joke smoothly and laugh at himself with other people.

Some people behave completely different when they're confronted by a joke or when they lose in a competition. They laugh at themselves and don't seem to be offended at all. You can say John's a good sport, for example. He can accept being the butt of a joke and accept a loss in a competition. So, again: John is a good sport. Don't think that has necessarily any to do with his sport skills. Just like Portuguese, when we say "levar na esportiva", we mean to say that he's good at accepting things that are not pleasant to him. That's all for today guys. Take care!

binge watch: o que isso significa? [estudando a palavra binge]

I was watching Orange is the New Black when the main character talks to her fiance about plans they had for the time she gets out of prison. Among the things she said, binge watching a TV series together was one of them. Do you know what that means?

Before getting into that expression, let's get to know a lit bit more about the word binge itself. Binge can be used as a noun and a verb. As a noun, binge means a drinking or drugging spree. When you binge, this time as a verb, you drink heavily. So, in a general way, binge refers to something you do in an excessive way. Having said that, if you binge watch a TV series, that means you watch it very excessively. Many people binge watch a whole season of a sitcom in just one sitting [all at one]. In Portuguese, it's more common for us to say something like "I'm having a Friends MARATHON". That's just a different way of saying the same thing.

So when was the last time you binge watched your favorite series? Take care!

no time like the present: vamos estudar este cliche?

There's always something that encourages me to come up with a topic for my posts. What's been happening to me lately is that I've been postponing important and not so important tasks for tomorrow or the future in general. In other words, I'm a big procrastinator. And I believe I'm not alone on this. So if someone could give me a very suitable advice for the moment, that would be "no time like the present".

As you can see, there's no much to talk about that expression, since it's so intuitive and self-explanatory. But imagine you have a big exam for the next week, but you'll probably leave all the studying for night before. That's when someone comes along and tells you: no time like the present. Start studying for the exam now, instead of waiting till the night before.

Alright, that's all for today guys. Talk to you next time!

O que significa "raise a stink about something"?

I was watching Orange is the New Black when I was confronted by this situation: the main character is illegally sent to the solitary and then an officer comes along to say what that situation is bringing about: "her fiance is raising a stink...". What happens is that the income's fiance is a writer and has the privilege of having the public attention to what he writes. So what they worried about was that he may possibly make a loud complaint about the system in prison by just publishing an article. He can raise a stink about that. So, as a way to avoid that problem, they decided to let her out of the lock-up.

That expression can also have a much general meaning: to complain about something. So imagine you go to this fancy restaurant hoping to have the best dinner of your fine, but after hours waiting for your food to be served, you see all orders have been mixed up. When you finally have someone fix your orders, what you have on the plate is nothing like you saw on the menu. The only fancy thing about the restaurant is the high price you had to pay to be there and nothing else. So you don't think twice before looking for the manager and creating a big stink about everything. In other words, you make a lot of criticisms about the place.

So what I want you to see now about that expression are two things: first, it can be used in more than one way. Second, it can have three different verbs in its construction, as in raise a stink/ create a stink/ make a stink. They all mean the same thing. That's all for now. Take care!

O que significa a expressão "I'll be damned"?

"I'll be damned if I know how I'm going to tell Ellie about it" - Pet Sematary, by Stephen King.

I decided to start today's article by quoting Stephen King because, one, I just got finished reading Pet Sematary, a book I'd encourage anyone in the world to read, and second, because it kept on reminding me of an expression I've been willing to talk about here on the blog in a while: "I'll be damned". Do you have an idea of what that means by just looking at it?

The first thing you have to learn about that expression is that it can be used in more than one way. In the quote you see right above, "I'll be damned" means that you have a hard time believing something's going to happen. Suppose you forgot to study for a test you're doing today in school and now you really don't believe you're going to get a good grade. So you say: I'll be damned if I know how to tell my parents about my grades later.

The second way to use that expression is way easier. That's because you just need a reason to be surprised or shocked. For example, you find out your best friend is in love with you. You never thought that could happen. It caught you off guard. So you say: I'll be damned. My best friend's in love with me!

And finally, the third way of using the expression. I chose to leave this one for the end because I could say - after reading the book I mentioned before - it's the most common meaning to the expression. So imagine this situation: You're part of a group in class for a project. When you and your classmates get together for the first time to discuss the project and come up with ideas, you see that there's one specific person that's trying to boss everyone around. He wants everything his way and doesn't take any suggestion as if it was an individual assignment. So here's what you say to one of your classmates: I'll be damned If I let him boss me around like that. Who does he think he is?

That's it guys. I hope you like it. Take care!

O que significa e como usar a palavra "antsy"?

I've been inspired to create this post because I read an article somewhere on the web talking about some of the most used words by american folks. Among those words were awesome, dude, cool, gosh, and then, antsy. You must agree the last one may not sound as familiar as the other ones for an ESL student. So I'm here to help you if you want to incorporate that word into your active vocabulary, since they clam it to be so popular.

Before telling you what antsy means, does that word remind you of any other? The word I want you to remember is "ant", that small insect that always comes around if you leave something sweet on the table. So what they did with that word was turning it into an adjective. They say it comes from the expression "to have ants in your pants", which is not a very comfortable situation to be in. So if you're antsy, you're anxious, impatient, nervous, fidgety, just like you'd be if you literally had ants in your pants.

So imagine you're a big fan of a famous TV series and you can't wait till they release the next season, which is not coming around for a few months. While talking to a friend of yours, who shares the same interests in the series with you, you say: I'm getting all antsy just waiting for the next season to come out. That's all folks. I hope this helped. Take care!

O que significa a expressão "for what it's worth"?

You know those expressions you come across all the time but never really get the time to understand them properly? It's like you're avoiding them with the hope they'll eventually become irrelevant, but unavoidably they show up now and then. "For what it's worth" has been one of these expressions for me. Until now. I finally got up the courage to look right into it and make sure it will grow deep roots in my brain. But if you've never heard of that expression before or, just like me, haven't given it a try to understand it, here's your chance.

If you want to understand that expression in a very simple way, just keep in mind that whenever you use it, it means you're not very secure about what you're saying. And even if you know what you're saying is right, you lack some kind of confidence. So imagine you're in the middle of a discussion with your classmates on the assignment you're supposed to hand in the next day. You have an idea about making things work smoothly but you don't know if it has any value or importance. So you say: My idea - for what it's worth - is to split the group into two so we can work better. So, in other words, what you're saying is: Even though my idea may not be important or valuable, I'm going to say it anyway. That's all for now. Take care!

Expressions with the word JACK

I was reading Pet Sematary, by Stephen King, when I stumbled upon an expression that I had heard before but never gave too much importance. The expression is a little too long but easy to understand: all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. If you don't understand the expression by looking at it, you probably have never heard of the word dull. It's the same thing as monotonous, boring, tedious, etc. So when you say that expression to someone, you're telling them that people who work all the time and don't save a time to have fun eventually become boring. I thought that expression was old-fashioned, but I've seen many young people using it and it won't sound weird at all.

The second expression with the word jack is "jack of all trades". Once again, if you can't guess the meaning of that expression, you may not understand one of the words being part of it. Trade is a word that you may have never heard. Some of the synonymous for that word are business, commerce, deal, etc. But I'm afraid those words are not intuitive enough to make you understand the expression. When you call someone a Jack of all trades, it means they are versatile, that is to say, someone who has many skills or who does many different jobs. I could say my father is a jack of all trades. We hardly ever have to pay for someone else to fix something at home. He can handle almost it all.

fist bump, high-five, handshake: famosas maneiras de cumprimentar alguém em Inglês

HANDSHAKE: Essa é a maneira mais comum de se cumprimentar alguém. Afinal de contas, nós estamos falando do tão famoso e cordial aperto de mão. Se você acabou de conhecer alguém ou não tem intimidade o suficiente pra cumprimentá-la duma maneira mais casual, um aperto de mão é o melhor caminho. They sealed the agreement with a handshake.

FIST BUMP: Essa é uma maneira mais "descolada" de se cumprimentar alguém. Com os punhos fechados, as duas pessoas se cumprimentam dando uma leve batida. É muito comum que esse gesto aconteça entre amigos que acabaram de se encontrar ou querem apenas demonstrar celebração ou concordância. Politicians were soon fist-bumping one another on TV chat shows.

HIGH-FIVE: Nesse cumprimento, duas pessoas batem a palma da mão aberta dum do outro com seus braços levantados. É geralmente um sinal de celebração e alegria, mas também pode ser simplesmente um cumprimento mais animado. They gave each other an exuberant high five in the middle of the press center.

FIST FIVE: Você pode ter ouvido falar de todas as outras formas de cumprimento listadas anteriormente, mas é provável que fist five soe novo para você. Mesmo assim, se você reparou bem, fist five nada mais é do que a mistura de fist bump com high-five. O que acontece nesse gesto é o seguinte: enquanto uma pessoa permanece com o punho fechado como se fosse fazer um fist bump, a outra vem com o high-five. "Dude why did you just punch me?" "I didn't. I gave you a fist five"