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Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from betteratenglish.com. Today’s episode is the third in a three part series in which Michael and I discuss the English government’s recent ban on commercials for junk food before 9 pm, when children are likely to be watching. In part three, we go on to discuss banning commercials for cigarettes as well. This conversation features some common slang and idiomatic expressions. If this is your first time listening, you might want to go back and listen to parts one and two before moving on to part three.

Are you ready? Let’s go!

Conversation transcript

Michael: Well, well how about cigarettes? You know?
Lori: Oh, don’t even get me started on cigarettes.
M: Well, I can remember back in the 70′s umm…when I was very young, umm that cigarettes I’m pretty sure could be advertised on television.
L: Yeah, I remember cigarette ads on TV.
M: Yup
L: When I was a kid.
M: And even…the irony of this, I mean, in England, I mean, the…the national game, aside from…from football…soccer, is cricket. And all the…the cricket…the big cricket matches would be sponsored by cigarette manufacturers, you know, so, umm, but you’d be bombarded with these adverts for cigarettes and showing how cool cigarettes are. But eventually it was made illegal you…no more TV ads for this — cigarettes — because we…it’s accepted that they’re bad for you. Umm…So I mean I guess, I mean cigarettes are pretty extreme, they give you cancer, err…
L: Yeah, they do all kinds of horrible things to you.
M: Right.
L: And I’m sorry, anyone out there who really, honestly believes that cigarettes don’t harm you if you smoke them…
M: That’s crazy.
L: You need a serious reality check.
M: Absolutely.
L: I mean, of course you’re…you’re going to find people who are resistant, who can take a lot of, you know, everyone has this story of their “old uncle Joe,” who…
M: Who lived till they were 85…
L: …drank like a fish and smoked like a chimney and…umm…you know, lived until he was 95 when his old ticker just finally gave out. You know we all have stories like that, but overall I mean…
M: Sure
L: You’re just kidding yourself if you think…
M: Well, maybe…
L: That cigarettes are not just pure evil.
M: Right, right. But I think, I think this is good that they…they’re…they’re drawing the line with this because…
L: Definitely.
M: It’s a moral thing, umm…
L; Yeah it will be interesting to see if it has any repercussions. Um, I’m actually looking at…was this on the BBC?
M: That’s right, yeah, it was on the BBC news site which I go to for the…
L: Right,they have a lot of great stories on there. I’m looking, they actually have a poll now up now up on the web site, umm, where the question is, “Should TV junk food adverts be banned?” And I’m looking at the results here of the poll…so far, over 8000 people have voted. And 46% say that “Yes, entirely.”
M: Entirely!
L: Yeah, entirely.
M: Not just for under-16s?
L: No…yeah, that the junk food adverts on TV should be banned entirely. 46% of the voters have voted for that. And then there some other options that both are “yes,” you know, “yes, before 9pm,” or “yes, only on children’s TV”…
M: OK.
L: …that all together add up to 80%.
M: And so…
L: So only 20% of the voters have said that “no”…
M: That they shouldn’t be…
L: That TV junk food adverts should not be banned. Only 20%. So that…I know you can’t draw too many conclusions from a, you know, an online web survey…
M: But it’s and indicator, though.
L: Yeah, that at least it’s a question worth exploring.
M: Absolutely, yeah.
L: I think.
M: OK, so shall we go to McDonald’s now?
[laughter]
L: Yeah, I could really use a Big Mac!
[laughter]

Final words
The article and poll that we discuss in the conversation are still up on the BBC website, except now over 12 000 people have voted. The proportions are still about the same, though. I’ve put a link to the article at the bottom of this episode’s transcript on betteratenglish.com.

That’s all for this time; thanks very much for listening! You can send your questions and comments to our email address: info [AT] betteratenglish [DOT] com. We love hearing from you! And thanks so much for your continued donations; Michael and I really appreciate your support. Bye for now!

Bonus link

BBC junk food article and poll

Vocabulary list

irony
There are many types of irony (in drama and literature, for example), but here Michael means that the pairing of football and cigarettes is not what you would expect. Football/soccer is an athletic sport that you wouldn’t expect to be associated with something unhealthy such as cigarettes, and vice versa.

reality check
This is an informal way of saying that someone needs to consider facts, not just their emotions or beliefs.

resistant
If you are resistant to something (in this case) it means that your body is not affected by something generally considered harmful. If you are resistant to damage from cigarette smoking, it means that you suffer few or no harmful effects.

take
If you can take (a lot of) something, it means that you accept or tolerate it.

drank like a fish
If someone drinks like a fish, it means that they drink a lot of alcohol. Usually somewhat disapproving.

smoked like a chimney
If someone smokes like a chimney, it means that they smoke a lot of cigarettes (or other smokable substance).

ticker
Ticker is an informal/slang word for heart.

gave out
If something gives out, it stops working, usually after a long time of working well.

kidding yourself
If you are kidding yourself, you are fooling yourself or not being honest with yourself. Informal.

drawing the line
If you draw the line, you don’t do or support certain actions because you think they’re entirely wrong.

repercussions
A repercussion is the (usually bad) effect of an action, situation, or event.

draw (too many) conclusions from
This idiomatic phrase means that you form an opinion or make a decision about something after considering the available information and evidence.

I could really use
This is an idiomatic way of saying that you have a strong desire or need for something. For example, “Wow, it’s stuffy in here; I could really use some fresh air.” Or “I’m having a terrible time with my boss lately; I could really use your advice.”

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversation: junk food (part 3 of 3)

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of 2-minute English from BetterAtEnglish.com. This episode is in response to a question from Seref, a teacher of English in Turkey, who sent in a question about the sentence I feel like kicking myself. Seref is curious about the level of formality of this idiom and wonders if there are any synonyms.

Idiom
According to my trusty Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, if you kick yourself you feel “annoyed with yourself because you did something foolish or missed an opportunity.” You can also see the definition of to kick oneself in the Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms.

Lori is kicking herself for not buying Google stock back in 2004

Michael bought Google stock when it was at 300 dollars a share, but he still kicks himself every day for not doing it sooner.

Formality
The phrase to kick oneself is neutral, informal and conversational. So it’s perfectly OK to use it in all but the most formal situations.

Synonyms
The core meaning of the idiom to kick oneself is the idea of regret: regret for something you did or for an opportunity that you missed. So Seref, if you need a synonym that would suit formal situations, you can use the verb regret.

to (deeply) regret (v +ing) something

In general, many people consider idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs to be less formal than lexical verbs. So in formal situations of a grave or somber nature, you should definitely go with regret, or you may end up kicking yourself.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of 2-minute English, and special thanks to Seref for the question. By the way, if I’ve been horribly mispronouncing your name I will totally kick myself! You can find some additional links and the full transcript of this show on the website, www.betteratenglish.com. And remember, your continued donations make this show possible, and we really appreciate them. Bye for now!

Research authentic English Usage

Google provides the worlds biggest corpus for doing quick’n'dirty research into language usage. Follow the link below to see examples of how to kick oneself is used “out in the wild.”
See usage examples of to kick oneself on Google.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Idioms: to kick oneself

Transcript

Hello and welcome to another edition of 2-minute English, here at Better at English dot com. This post is in response to an email question from E.G. (who I think comes from Greece).

I have a question about a phrasal verb that I read in a will. What exactly does
pay over mean and what does survivorshipmean?

Thanks very much for your question, E. Unfortunately, to give you a really great answer I would need to have a lot more context. And because I am not a lawyer, you should probably take what I say with a very large grain of salt. Legal documents use language in very special ways, and it’s easy to be misled if you apply everyday English knowledge to legal texts. So with that disclaimer out of the way, here is what my research has turned up for to pay over (I’ll cover survivorship separately).

Put very simply, from what I can tell “to pay over” just means to pay. To transfer money from one person (or entity) to another. In the context of a will or testament, it means that whoever has the deceased’s money or property would transfer ownership of it to the person it was bequeathed to in the will. For example, if I had left 1000 dollars to you in my will, and then I died, then whoever had the money (probably my bank) would “pay it over” to you once all of the complicated legal processes were finished.

Here are some (very scary) example legalese sentences using “to pay over” in the context of wills and testaments. I warn you, these sentences are not for the faint of heart, so you might want to go to the website and actually read the transcript because it will be a lot for you to process aurally.

If such child shall have then attained the age of 30 years, my trustees shall transfer, pay over and deliver to such child outright the following amount: link

Nevertheless I empower by trustees to advance and pay over to my said sons any part not exceeding one half of the amounts ordered to be retained for their own respective absolute use and benefit if my trustees shall deem it to be for their advantage and expedient so to do link

Oh man, that was a mouthful.

And I hereby direct my executors, the survivors or survivor of them, within six months after my decease, to pay over the sum of two thousand pounds sterling to such persons as shall be duly appointed by the Selectmen of Boston and the corporation of Philadelphia, to receive and take charge of their respective sums, of one thousand pounds each, for the purposes aforesaid. link

Heavy sigh. That last one actually made my brain hurt.

I’m definitely not a legal expert, so those of you with more expertise in this area are welcome to help me out on this one if I’ve gone astray. Part of being a responsible teacher is being able to admit it when you don’t have all the answers!

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of 2-minute English. And thanks to everyone who’s sent questions and feedback about the site over the past few days. I’ll be recording a bunch of new podcasts for you all this weekend, taking your feedback and questions into account. Maybe by then I’ll be over this darn cold that I caught on my trip to Mexico…

As always, the full transcript of this podcast is available at our website, Better at English dot com.

Bye for now!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

phrasal verbs: to pay over (wills and testaments)

Transcript

Hello and welcome to 2-minute English. Brought to you by Better At English dot com.

Today’s word is bubble sitter. It’s a fairly new “slang” word in real estate and economy.

Joe Barker is a bubble sitter. He sold his expensive house just before he retired so that his biggest investment wouldn’t suddenly lose value right before he needed it.

Bubble sitter

Meaning

Bubble sitters are people who think that the bubble is about to burst. They sell off their investments, such as their houses, because they want to get as much money as they can before the prices fall. Another type of bubble sitter is people who wait to invest money in something — or to buy something — because they think that the bubble will burst soon and that the prices will fall again. For example, if you buy a house during the bubble you could lose a lot of money when the bubble bursts and the prices fall again. So you’ve wait. You wait to see what will happen. You wait for prices to fall before you buy. You are a bubble sitter.

So people are bubble sitters. But you can also talk about bubble sitting as an activity or a general economic concept.

Authentic example

Today’s authentic example comes from CNN.

Bubble sitting the pros and cons.

Waiting for home prices to drop before buying a home is tempting. But making the right call isn’t simple. Convinced home prices will fall? So are lot of other Americans. Some, known as bubble sitters, are acting on their conviction. They’re cashing out by selling their homes and renting, figuring they’ll return to the market after prices have fallen. Bubble sitters also include those people who have never owned a home and are waiting to take the plunge, along with folks who are relocating and holding onto their cash until the market in their new hometown softens.

That wraps up this edition of two-minute English. We’ll see you next time, here at Better at English dot com.

Links
Read about economic bubbles on Wikipedia
Lots of articles about bubbles (in the economic sense) are listed here.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Business English vocabulary: bubble sitter

Transcript

Hi and welcome to 2-minute English, brought to you by Better At English dot com. Today’s phrase is

to wing it

"I didn’t have time to prepare this speech, so I’ll have to wing it."

" She didn’t spend much time getting ready for the meeting; she just kind of winged it"

"I don’t have time to study for the test tomorrow, so I’ll be winging it"

to wing it

Meaning

To wing it is an idiom that means to improvise, to do something without proper preparation or time to rehearse. People often talk about winging it when they have to do something difficult that they didn’t have time to prepare — like a make speech or give a presentation. They might say something like "Sorry if I seem a bit disorganized, I’m totally winging it." You tell people that you’re winging it, that you’re improvising, so that they won’t expect too much from you, or so that they will be more forgiving if you make a mistake.

I have a little note about pronunciation for you. In rapid native-speaker speech, the final g on the i-n-g tends to disappear. So it sounds like

I’m wingin’ it
I’m wingin’ it
I’m wingin’ it here

Rather than I’m wingING it. Do you hear the difference?

WingING
Wingin’

Authentic example

In today’s authentic example we’ll hear a bit of Seth Godin’s presentation at the GEL 2006 conference.

And I want to…talk about what I think seven of those reasons might be. But first I gotta take a minute…I gotta explain…I’ve never given this presentation before, not one word of it, not one picture, and I may never give it again. But I’m wingin’ it so we’ll see what happens…But…what does it mean to be broken?

If you are an upper-intermediate or advanced learner, I highly recommend you watch the full presentation on Google video. It’s really funny, entertaining and full of useful vocabulary.

Thanks for tuning in to 2-minute English. We’ll see you next time!

Look up to wing it in the dictionary.

See examples of how to wing it is used.

Link to further listening resource

You can find the full video of Mr. Godin’s presentation, “It’s Broken,” at Google Video. If there are words or phrases you’re curious about, let us know: we may feature them on an upcoming podcast!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

English idioms: to wing it (to improvise)

Transcript

Hi and welcome to Better at English!

Do you ever have to pay for things that you wish you didn’t have to spend money on? For example, if you get a parking ticket, do you enjoy paying the fine? If your computer breaks, do you enjoy buying new parts for it or having to pay to have it fixed? If it’s been a really hot summer, do you like paying for that huge electric bill you got because you had to run your AC so much just to keep yourself from melting in the heat? I sure don’t like having to pay for those things. In fact, it’s a real drag to have to fork over my hard-earned cash to pay for boring things like that.

Today we have an upper intermediate lesson for you, and a slightly different, longer format than our normal two-minute English podcasts.

We’re going to look at a group of phrasal verbs that all have the meaning of to unwillingly or reluctantly pay for something. What do reluctant and unwilling mean? Well, if you’re reluctant or unwilling to do something, it means you don’t want to do it.

I’ll say each phrasal verb twice slowly so that you can listen and repeat:

to shell out

to cough up

Meaning

All of these phrasal verbs have the idea of reluctance or unwillingness built into them. You can use them when you have to pay for things that you aren’t happy about.

For instance, buying a sexy new laptop because it’s super cool, you really want it and don’t mind spending the money on it is one thing. But buying a new laptop because you spilled coffee all over your old one and ruined it beyond repair is something you probably wouldn’t be too happy about.

If you use an attitude-revealing phrasal verb like to cough up or to fork out instead of a neutral verb like to spend or to buy or to pay for, you let the listener know not only that you spent some money, but also how you feel about spending the money: in this case, it made you feel unhappy, unwilling or reluctant.

To fork over and to fork up are a bit broader in meaning than the other three in this group. We mainly use to fork over and to fork up about spending money, but you can also use these two to talk about having to give people things in general. For example, if your annoying little brother Nigel has taken something of yours, you want him to give it back, and you know he won’t be happy about it, you can tell him:

Hey Nigel, that’s mine! Fork it over!

This means, “Hey Nigel, that’s mine. Give it to me.” Of course, you could also ask him a bit more politely: “Excuse me, Nigel. Would you mind giving that back to me?” But sometimes the more direct approach works better with annoying little brothers.

Usage

These five phrasal verbs are all separable. That means that you can put objects between the mighty VERB and its cute little adverb or preposition friend. So you can say, for example,

to shell out money or to shell money out

to fork over 50 dollars or to fork 50 dollars over

to cough up a lot of cash or to cough a lot of cash up

to fork out two billion dollars or to fork two billion dollars out

Just remember that when you have separable phrasal verbs and pronoun objects, you always put the pronoun between the verb and adverb or preposition. So you say

Cough it up! Shell it out! Fork it over! Fork it out!

But not

Cough up it. Shell out it.. etc. [Your can find a concise overview of the do's and don'ts of phrasal verbs here link ].

Even though you can separate these verbs and still be grammatical, native speakers prefer to keep them together. It’s far more frequent to say something like “Darn! We’ll have to shell out 500 dollars for a new printer” than to say “Darn! We’ll have to shell 500 dollars out for a new printer.” It’s definitely not WRONG to separate, but it’s more common not to.

Authentic example

Here are seven authentic example sentences for you to investigate. Do you notice any usage patterns, like which prepositions are used?

1. So, the tax payer is asked to shell billions of dollars out to try and fix this mistake of a war and Bush decides to go ahead and throw a party? [ link] [this is an example of a rare separable use of this phrasal verb]

2. In June, BT said it owned the patent to hyperlinks and wanted ISPs in the US to cough up hard cash for the privilege of using them. [link ]

3. The county is facing the prospect of having to cough up well more than $2 million to renovate the dilapidated facility, which has been decertified by the Tennessee Corrections Institute for failing to comply with the state’s minimum standards for local jails. [link ]

4. Five big Wall Street brokerages coughed up $8.25 million in fines in December for failing to preserve electronic messages, as securities rules require. [ link ]

5. Employees in some U.S. metropolitan areas may soon be forking over nearly 10% of their salary for gas needed to commute to and from work. [ link ]

6. …he doesn’t have any money because he’s had to fork it over to all his ex-wives [link ]

7. No way am I forking out $100 or whatever insane price they want for it. [ link ]

Finally, the phrasal verbs we’ve looked at here today are often used in combination with to have to for obligation — when have to means must. Like in example 3:

The county is facing the process of having to cough up…

or in example 6: He doesn’t have any money because he’s had to fork it over…

Combining phrasal verbs like fork over or cough up with have to really emphasizes the idea of unwillingness, don’t you think?

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of Better at English! Here’s hoping that you won’t have to fork over any of your hard-earned cash on anything dull or boring in the near future; only fun things, cool things, things that make you happy! See you next time!

Look up these phrasal verbs in the dictionary
to shell out
to fork out
to fork up/over
to cough up

Note: The opinions expressed in the authentic example sentences do not necessarily reflect our views here at Better At English. They are provided in the sole interest of giving learners a variety of examples of real-life, authentic English usage.

payday loans when money is tight

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

phrasal verbs: spending money unwillingly for boring stuff you don’t want

Transcript

Hello and welcome to 2 minute English, brought to you by Better At English dot com.

Today’s phrase is to ramp something up.

To ramp something up.

To meet the demand for our widgets, we have to ramp up production to 100 000 units per week.

We need to ramp up our customer service if we want to stay competitive.

To ramp something up.

Meaning

To ramp something up means to increase it or do more of it. A business can ramp up an activity, such as production. It can also ramp up things in general, such as speed: Intel has ramped up the speed of its processors yet again (surprise, surprise!).

Usage

To ramp up something or ramp something up is a separable phrasal verb that follows this pattern — you can say:

We ramped up our production by 100%.
We ramped our production up by 100%.
We ramped it up by 100%.

But you can’t say

We ramped up it by 100%. [incorrect]

Authentic example

Today’s authentic example is from CNN:

"The fourth-quarter demand is higher than anticipated so we have to ramp up holiday production," said Harold Chizick, spokesman with Ontario-based toymaker Spin Master. "But because of the labor issue in China, it could be difficult to increase production [of some products] the further we get into the holiday season."

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of 2-minute English. We’ll see you next time!

Look up to ramp something up in the dictionary.

Investigate how to ramp something up is used.

Would you like us to ramp up anything in particular here at Better at English? Just get in touch and let us know! Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Phrasal Verbs: to ramp (something) up

Transcript

Welcome to 2-minute English! Today’s word is perk.

One of the perks of my job as a salesperson is that I get to travel around the world.

Perk.
Meaning

In business contexts, a perk is an informal advantage or benefit that you get because of your job. In everyday English contexts, a perk is some kind of advantage or benefit in general.

Authentic example

We have two authentic examples for you today. The first is from CNN, from an article describing how a company gives its employees free towels to use in the company gym. The benefit, the perk, is that the employees save time and energy.

As the economy rebounds and the labor market tightens up … companies are once again trying to find new ways to attract and retain talent. And time-saving perks seem to be the answer.

Here is the second authentic example, about perks in everyday English. It’s also from CNN.

Bourbon, Spam and ski weekends are just some of the things you can get free or at discounted prices as long as you’re a shareholder. Shareholder perks are a pleasant, if monetarily insignificant, diversion from the normal headaches of owning most stocks. Unknown to many shareholders, they are sometimes eligible to receive free or discounted goods and services from the companies whose stock they own…While none of [the] perks are good enough reason to buy a company’s stock, they do spice things up a little.

Thanks for tuning in to 2-minute English. Don’t forget to contact us with your comments and questions! Write to [ADDRESS]. Bye for now!

Look up perk in the dictionary.

See how perk is used.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Business English vocabulary: perk

Transcript

Welcome to 2-minute English, brought to you by Better at English dot com.
Today’s phrase is to deal with.

The government proposed a treaty designed to deal with the problem of global warming.

There is far more information available today than people can deal with

To deal with.

Meaning

To deal with something means to do something, to take action to achieve something. We often talk about dealing with problems, issues, or concerns. For example, many business people need to learn to deal with stress. They need to learn to do something to help them manage their stress so it isn’t a problem for them anymore.

To deal with something can also mean to be about something. For example, this website deals with English. It’s about English.

You can also say “to deal with someone.” To deal with someone means to talk to a person about something. It’s usually something unpleasant or difficult. For example, public relations specialists deal with dissatisfied customers. Or, a manager may need to deal with an employee who is unpleasant or who’s doing a very bad job.

Authentic example

Today’s authentic example is from the BBC Online:

[Bill Thompson says:]

Speaking at the RSA Security conference last week, [Bill] Gates admitted that Microsoft has ‘an overly complex system today’, and promised a simpler, easier and safer model for future Windows users.

It’s a compelling vision, and since I’ve argued repeatedly that we need to deal with the problem of how we tie our real-world identities to our online activities, I have to support Microsoft’s new-found interest in the issue.

That wraps up this edition of two-minute English. We’ll see you next time here at Better at English dot com.

Look up to deal with in the dictionary.

See how to deal with is used.

	PROTECT YOUR FAMILY GET QUOTE Mortgage Home Insurance UK Policy Insurance Quotes

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

idioms: to deal with (something)

Transcript

2-minute English is brought to you by Better at English dot com.

Today’s phrase is to keep track (of something).

Most business people use a calendar to keep track of their appointments.

If you travel on business, you need to keep track of your expenses so the company can reimburse you when you come home.

To keep track of something.

Meaning

If you keep track of something, you make sure to know about what is happening (or has happened) to it. You can keep track of things or people. The opposite is to “lose track of something.”

Usage

Keep is an irregular verb: keep kept kept.

Authentic example

Today’s authentic example comes from The Boston Globe Online:

Ask Wendy Bellissimo, who designs nurseries for celebrities, what an organized day for her looks like — it’s filled with equally urgent priorities and huge chunks of unstructured time.

Each night, she makes a to-do list and checks her calendar for the next day. She keeps a pen and paper next to her bed to jot down thoughts that wake her up at night.

She keeps track of all tasks and appointments on her PDA, which beeps throughout the day with reminders.

And that’s all for this edition of 2-minute English. We’ll see you next time here at Better at English dot com.

Look up to keep track of something in the dictionary.

See how to keep track of something is used.

	UK Life Insurance Quotes Click Here Visit Now Payment Protection Insurance Cover

My Odeo Channel (odeo/3d438bc809d6d3af)

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

idioms: to keep track (of something)

Transcript

Welcome to 2-minute English — real-life authentic examples that teach you business English vocabulary, slang, idioms, and more! All in just two minutes a day.

Today’s word is "pointer."

Many of my students ask me for advice and pointers about how to improve their English.

Pointer

Meaning
A pointer is useful piece of advice about something. Pointers are often short and simple. Synonyms for pointer include “tip” and “bit of advice”

Examples

Could you give me a few pointers about how to set up my spam filter in Outlook?

Julie asked her boss for some pointers about dealing with difficult customers.

Pointer

Authentic example

Today’s authentic example comes from CNN:

[Mark Horstman] has co-founded a free web site called Manager Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com) that offers down-to-earth, step-by-step pointers on what he calls “the blocking and tackling of management: how to coach, how to give feedback, how to run meetings, how to interview job applicants.” It’s a great resource for anyone seeking specific, detailed guidance — refreshingly free of buzzwords — on these and many other aspects of being a boss.

That’s all for 2-minute English for today. We’ll see you next time!

Look up pointer in the dictionary!

See how the word pointer is used.

life insurance home insurance online mortgages compare products

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

English vocabulary: pointer

Today we give you a two-for-one deal: the phrase to screw something up and the noun screw-up.

"I forgot what I was going to say and completely screwed up my presentation. It was so embarrassing!"

To screw something up.

Meaning

If you screw something up, it means you you make a mistake, damage something, or spoil something.

"What kind of punishment do you give to employees who screw up important projects?"

So, can you guess what it means if you call a person a screw-up?

"Bill is the only screw-up in a family of successes; it seems he can’t do anything right."

If you call someone a screw-up, it means that they are someone who makes a lot of mistakes or very bad decisions.

"Screw up" is also a synonym for a mistake, a blunder, or badly handled situation.

"Bill lost his job because his constant screw-ups were costing the company a fortune."

So Bill is a screw up, and he’s always screwing up!

Authentic Example

Today’s authentic example comes from the BBC Online:

Internet giant AOL has apologised for releasing the search queries of more than 650,000 of its US subscribers.

The company admitted the release to researchers was ‘a screw up’ and had breached the privacy of its users.

See how to screw something up is used.

See how the noun screw up is used.

Dictionary link for "screw up"

That’s all from 2-minute English for today; we’ll see you next time!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

English idioms: screw up

Conversation transcript

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Today’s phrase is “to make a killing.”

“Her new business was a fantastic success; she made a killing in its first two months.”

To make a killing.

Meaning

To make a killing on something means that you make a LOT of money, usually on some kind of investment or business venture, and usually in a short period of time and without too much effort.

Usage

When you talk about making a killing, it’s always singular, always “a killing.” Never “the killing” or “the killings.” You can use an adjective to strengthen the effect. For example “they made an absolute killing!” or “we made a freaking killing!” Note that an adjective like “freaking” is very informal slang. You probably should only use words like that if the group of people that you’re with is comfortable with that type of language.

Authentic example

Today’s authentic example is from CNN:

The fossil remains of now-extinct businesses … litter the Internet. Their founders once thought they would make a killing with their clever Web-based plans. Instead, they folded, either because nobody ever found their site or because those that did never pumped any money back in.

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Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

English idioms – to make a killing