Steve: Hi, Jill.
Jill: Hi, Steve, how are you?
Steve: Not too bad. What are we going to talk about today?
Jill: Ah, we're going to continue our conversation about important words and phrases related to the content item The Power of the Linguist. Steve: Right.
Last time we covered Part 5 of this little, simple story. So, why don't we play Part 6 here of this ongoing drama and, hopefully, people are listening and enjoying and then you and I can talk a little bit about the words and phrases that are contained there. * * *
Maybe he lost your email address. This can happen.
Why do you think he has stopped writing to me?
How should I know why he has stopped writing to you?
I am sure the girl is the reason why.
There could be other reasons why he does not write.
Like what for example?
Maybe your brother is angry with you for some reason.
That is no reason. At least it is not a good reason.
There could be many different reasons why he does not write to you.
Why do you say that there are many reasons?
I am just trying to help. You need not worry about him.
* * *
Steve: I think that our friends will have heard the excerpt already.
Steve: What do you have here? What phrases should we talk about here?
Jill: Well, the first one is'a sentence is: Maybe he lost her e-mail address? And then, its': This can happen. Steve: Aha, right.
Jill: And I think people sometimes get confused with a word like this. They don't understand, okay, what is this? They don't know what you're talking about when you say this because they don't, we haven't repeated what was in the first part of the sentence. Steve: Right; exactly and, of course, if you go by rules, all of these pronouns like "this" are supposed to refer to the noun that is closest to it. Steve: So, according to the rule this here should refer to the address, but it doesn't; it refers to the whole action. Jill: Losing the e-mail address.
Steve: Right.
So, things happen; this can happen. It's just a very, again -- seems to me -- idiomatic way of saying things and we have to sometimes try to get a feel for what does this pronoun refer to? What makes sense? If we just follow the rules sometimes it doesn't make sense. Jill: Aha.
Steve: And we've all had the experience when we learn another language that things just don't make sense. If we listen enough, three months later we read the same little story and it makes sense.
Jill: Right.
Steve: So, then I see one here: Why do you think he has stopped writing to me? Why do you think he has stopped writing to me?
Again, it;s just the way the words are put together. Why? people might want to say why you think? You think? Why you think? But, as we discussed the other day, you have to put the "do" in there when you create a question. Steve: Why do you think this is so? Why do you think he didn't come over tonight? Jill: Why did you do that?
Steve: Why did you?
Jill: Change it to the past, if you're talking about the past, Steve: Right; yes.
Jill: but you have to have "do". Steve: "Do". And, of course, the order has been reversed.
Steve: Okay.
Then we have: He stopped writing to me. Okay.
It's not he stopped to write to me. He stopped writing. He stopped eating. She's on a diet; she stopped eating. He stopped writing to me. He started, ah, or she started eating again or she started writing again. So, it's just a very common phrase pattern. Jill: And, you're right, a lot of people have problems with that and they say, they would say: he stopped to write or he has started to eat it. Well, you can say that, but?
Steve: The reality is that... I shouldn't say the reality is, but so often with these things what we recommend in the Linguist System is save the word stop or start and you will see situations where it's stopped or stop writing and other situations not so much with stop, but with start -- you'll often have start to. Please start to eat. You know, please start to read the book. But, you can also say please start reading. Please start speaking.
Jill: Exactly.
Steve: So, it seems that sometimes it can go either way and sometimes you can only use one of these.
Steve: Again, as you know, our philosophy at The Linguist is listen to enough, read enough, save words and phrases and eventually you'll start naturally saying it the way native speakers say it. Jill: And, the next is a question. How should I know why he has stopped writing to you?
Steve: But, it's two phrases. Jill: Two phrases, yeah.
Steve: How should I know? How often do we hear that? We hear that quite often. How should I know?
I should know. But, it's a question. How should I know?
Jill: Why? it means why would I know?
Steve: Why would I know? Right.
Jill: Why? basically, he's saying he has no idea Steve: Right.
Jill: and why would you ask me because why would I have any idea
Steve: Right.
Jill: about that
Steve: And, of course, the interesting thing again is in English when we ask the question we reverse the order.
Jill: Aha.
Steve: I would know. Why would I know I should know. How should I know?
Alright?
Steve: But, the second one is: Well, how should I know why he has stopped writing to you? There we don't reverse the order. In other words, if we because it is indirect. In other words, if we didn't say how should I know? Then we'd say why has he stopped writing to you? But, in this case, we're saying how should I know why he has stopped writing to you? So, I think those kinds of structures are very confusing for people.
Jill: Aha, yeah.
Steve: And, again, the only thing is to get used to this phrase. If I were learning English, I would listen to the first phrase over and over again, the second phrase over and over again and then the whole sentence over and over again and I would repeat it. And, slowly in doing that the language starts to feel natural and that might take months. It's not going to be immediate but, eventually -- I think it's important to believe that eventually -- the language will start to feel natural. Okay.
Steve: What's the next one? Jill: The girl is the reason why.
Steve: The reason why. The girl is why. It's a bit of a strange construction. Jill: The girl is the reason, you could just say.
Steve: The girl is the reason. I think the other day we had one, too, the reason
Jill: Yes.
Steve: or the reason why
Jill: Yes.
Steve: or why. Again, there's no real good reason why, but this is just fairly common structure and our learners simply have to get used to these. Jill: But you can you could say I'm sure the girl is the reason. Steve: Yes.
Jill: I'm sure, so, you could say all of those are correct. Steve: That's right; that's right. Jill: It's just you choose which one you want to use. Steve: Exactly.
And, in my experience, you start to get comfortable with a certain form and that's the one you use. Jill: Aha.
And, if you always use just one, that's fine. Steve: Absolutely.
Jill: You don't have to use all of them. Steve: Absolutely.
Jill: Ah, the next one is another question. Like what, for example?
Steve: You know, that's an interesting one because, here again, in English emphasis is very important. Like what for example?
wouldn't make sense. Like what? Exactly the way you said it. I mean, you just the emphasis has to go on what.
Jill: The intonation. Your voice has to go up
Steve: Right.
Jill: when you say the word what.
Steve: Exactly.
And, that's why in learning these phrases it's so important for people to listen to them and then repeat them themselves, many times, with an emphasis on, you know, the same intonation as the native speaker. Jill: Yeah, exactly.
Steve: Exactly.
Jill: It's like when you pronounce a word and you pronounce the wrong syllable. You instead of saying, um, well a word like syllable, for example, you say: sy llable.
Steve: Right, like our former Prime Minister.
Jill: Yes, exactly! So, it's just people won't necessarily really know what you're saying. Steve: Right.
So, intonation is very important and, particularly, when we're dealing with questions. And, today and also in the previous podcast from this easy content, there were a lot of questions and very often it's your intonation that conveys the question. Jill: Right.
Steve: Okay.
Jill: Ah, the next one is: Maybe your brother is angry with you for some reason; angry with you for some reason.
Steve: Right.
We normally say angry with you. We don't say we could say angry at you. Jill: Aha.
He's mad at you. Steve: Mad at you.
Jill: Angry at you.
Steve: We wouldn't say mad with you, Jill: No.
Steve: but we do say angry at you; angry with you. Angry with you seems
Jill: better
Steve: better. Yes.
Jill: We wouldn't say mad mad with you. Steve: No. Mad about you, maybe.
Jill: You say mad yeah made at you.
Steve: Right.
Jill: I think angry with you and not at you.
Steve: Right.
And, would you agree that mad at you is not as good. No, that's more common almost Jill: Yeah.
Steve: slangy.
Jill: Yeah.
Steve: Angry with you is sort of the more elegant or the more accepted way of saying it.
Jill: If you're just speaking with somebody casually, you know, and somebody, you know, will say oh well, yeah, I'm really mad at this person Steve: Right.
Jill: for whatever reason --
Steve: Right.
Jill: completely acceptable
Steve: Right.
Jill: and fine to say.
Steve: Yeah.
Jill: But, yeah, angry with you is'is a little bit more elegant, Steve: Right.
Jill: as you say.
Steve: Okay.
And, what have we got here?
Jill: And, the last one is: I'm just trying to help; trying to help . Steve: Right.
Yeah, I mean, here again, trying to do something; trying to help; trying to study English; trying to do something. I am just trying to do something. The just, I think, is a word that's very useful, too. Jill: I use just a lot, actually, in writing as well.
Steve: Aha.
Jill: I find it can sometimes soften what you're saying, too. If you're sending an e-mail, for example, to somebody and you're saying and you want to tell them something, you want to let them know about something and maybe you don't want them to think that you are telling them to do something so, you can say I'm just letting you know this because of such and such. So, I often use just.
Steve: You know, it's, um, it's one of these very useful little words like still, even, only that we use that, as you say, that can soften the meaning or provide some additional meaning and very often these words are stressed; right? If you say I am just trying to help you
Jill: Right.
Steve: it's the just that gets the emphasis. Jill: Yeah.
Steve: I'm only trying to help you. Jill: Right.
Steve: Even though I tried to help you, you didn't' you weren't able to solve your problem. So, very often, these words like still I'm still trying to help you, even though you don't accept my help. So, the still, the just, the even, very often, those are the words that seem to get the emphasis in a sentence. They're important little words. Steve: Again, in the Linguist System, I would recommend that people even though they know these words save these words and see what kinds of sentences, sentence examples you're able to generate in the Review Section, particularly people who are beginner or lower intermediate. If you are good at using these words, these little words it will make your English seem more natural.
Jill: Right.
Steve: So, I think that's good enough for today. Ah, www.thelinguist.com, Jill and Steve and what do we want people to do with this? We want them to refer to the content that they can find in our Library
Jill: in our Library, yeah.
Steve: Listen to the original content many times and read it and save words and then listen to our little discussion. People who are not members of The Linguist, please come to www.thelinguist.com. Today we have been working with beginner and lower intermediate content. On other occasions we will talk about, ah, more advanced content.
Jill: Right.
Steve: Okay, thank you.
Jill: Thank you.
