Steve: Hi Jill.
Jill: Hello Steve.
Steve: We are told that our nice weather is about to end as we head into our weekend.
Jill: Yeah, I think tomorrow is supposed to be ok still, cooler but no rain and then I've heard that Sunday is supposed to be quite a lot cooler and cloudy but I don't know about rain. I haven't heard a lot about rain. Steve: What have you got planned for the weekend?
Jill: This weekend? Actually not much I don't think. Steve: Good.
Jill: For a change.
Steve: Me too. Take it easy.
Jill: Relax, yes.
Steve: Alright, we have here a list that's been sent to us by Marianne, one of our learners in France. And these are words that she has selected from I think, a variety of content items and so we're going to try to weave them into a little discussion so that people can listen to it and then we'll put the text into our library and people can read it and maybe save some of these words or save other words and hopefully you know, get a better understanding of them. Not only Maryann but also other learners because I think these are very, very good words and words that are very useful.
The first one Jill is?.
Jill: Enhanced.
Steve: Alright, what can we say about the word enhanced?
Jill: Usually, to me if you, if you enhance something you make it better.
Steve: Right.
Jill: So you can enhance a picture. You can umm, if the sentence here is your enjoyment of the language will be enhanced.
Steve: Now that's, we often use enhanced with enjoyment. We might say that a nice wine will enhance the pleasure of a meal for example. You know, Sumiko had a word some while ago, embellish. Now, at a certain level embellish and enhance are similar but they are used in different ways. So, you can embellish a story by making it sound better than it really is but enhance is real improvement.
Jill: That's right. Steve: You might enhance a dish by adding a certain spice.
Jill: That's right. You make something better. You improve it.
Steve: Right.
I'm trying to think if there's anything in the word hance that connects with any other word because the point is that h-a-n-c or n-c-e, hance doesn't suggest better. There is no connection there with anything else. I can't think of any other English word that helps us so, entranced, enhanced, fancy, whatever helps you remember but enhanced means made better. Ok, here's another, ongoing. I'm sure that the meaning is understood but the question is how do we use it? Jill: Right.
Steve: What would you say about the word ongoing? It's continuing. Jill: It's continuing, an ongoing process. If you are, if you are in the middle of moving for example, it's an ongoing process because you're going to do it over a period of time. You are not going to move all in one day, get everything moved and unpacked and put away. It's ongoing. It's continuous. It will take some time.
Steve: So it's going on because that means it is actually happening right now. It means it is going on but it's an ongoing process means that it is in the midst of taking place and the reference here in particular is to improving in a new language and this is an ongoing adventure we say because it's something that never stops. Jill: Right.
Steve: You are always enhancing your ability if you want, or your enjoyment and it's an ongoing process. Jill: Right.
Steve: Harsh.
Jill: So, harsh, I mean you can use harsh words, weather can be harsh.
Steve: We often think of the word harsh with bitter.
Jill: Right.
If a person is harsh or harsh sounding they will tend to say things that maybe are ?
Steve: Mean.
Jill: mean, yeah.
Steve: But we also talk about a harsh wind, like a bitter, a bitterly cold day, harsh climate so, and I think the connection with hard and harsh, obviously there is a connection there so I think people can get a sense of the meaning of the word.
Stiff. And, of course, stiff here, we can talk about the actual stiff, like a piece of wood can be stiff.
Jill: Right.
You can't bend it. Steve: Well that's right. But here it's used more to apply to a stiff writing style, so what does it mean there? Jill: I think it means sort of inflexible writing style. You're very rigid and you can't really deviate from one style. Steve: Overly formal perhaps.
Jill: Overly formal.
Steve: We talk about people being stiff in a social setting.
Jill: Right.
Steve: And we picture someone whose clothes don't fit very well and has a very formal suit on or something and is just ? Jill: Kind of uptight.
Steve: Uptight. There's a good word, uptight. Jill: And just you don't picture somebody, you would not use the word stiff to describe somebody who is really outgoing, has a good sense of humor, Steve: Is relaxed. Jill: is relaxed and at ease, at ease. It's generally somebody yeah, who's quite uptight. Steve: But it also has the, the meaning in sort of a material sense, if you starch a shirt the shirt will become stiffer.
Jill: Right.
Steve: Ok. If something gets frozen, if you hang your wash out to dry and all of a sudden the weather drops below zero the clothes will all be stiff because they will be frozen stiff.
Jill: Frozen stiff and we use that expression in English, sometimes if you're really, really cold you could say, oh I'm frozen stiff and obviously you are not literally frozen stiff but it just means that you are so cold. Very, very cold.
Steve: Right.
Unthinkingly. Here if we take the sentence, this incident has always remained with me as an example of how people can unthinkingly stick together and so forth and so on.
Jill: So they, people do things sometimes without thinking about it. It's not, they're not choosing? Steve: But specifically I think it refers to the idea of unintentionally.
Jill: Right.
Steve: It's unintentionally. It's not that you unthinkingly walked into the door, well it could be that too, but it implies a certain lack of sensitivity to other people to some extent or does it not necessarily? Jill: I don't know if it does to me really. Steve: No, you're right. Jill: I'm just sort of thinking more that it's? Steve: Without thinking.
Jill: Yeah just without thinking. It's not even crossing your mind. You're just, you know, maybe you moved to a country and you become friends with people who speak your native language and you don't even think that you're not integrating with the other people. Steve: Right, if we refer to this example.
Jill: It just happens.
Steve: Right, so without thinking about it, without thinking about it, unthinkingly. Yeah, yeah, a nice word, by the way. I think it's a good word. Overflowing.
Jill: Overflowing. So, you can be overflowing with emotion.
Steve: What happens if you have a glass full of water and you try to pour more water into the glass?
Jill: It overflows.
Steve: It overflows.
Jill: If there is too much water in the glass then the water will overflow. It will fall out.
Steve: Well, pour over.
Jill: Pours over the side.
Steve: Flows over. Flowing, overflowing means that it flows over. If we have very heavy rains, very often the river will overflow its banks.
Jill: That's right. Steve: And, it might flood the countryside.
Jill: Right.
Steve: In this particular case the example sentence that Maryann provided, of course we had an overflowing audience, so that if the capacity of the hall was 200 people and there were 250, then the hall was overflowing with people.
Jill: Right, too, more than, than Steve: The capacity. Jill: The capacity. Right.
Steve: Ok, some phrases, set out. Ah, so set out actually has two meanings, right?
Jill: I was going to say you set out to do something.
Steve: You set out to do something but here it's different, you set out the main issues. So, you present. Present exactly, yeah. To set is to place something.
Jill: Right.
To lay out, to present.
Steve: To lay out but the unfortunate thing is that set out normally means to start on a journey.
Jill: That's right, that's right. Steve: To set out on a journey.
Jill: I set out on my, my learning adventure or I set out on my trip to Europe.
Steve: Right.
Jill: That's usually what it means. Steve: So it has those two meanings. One is simply to lay something in front of someone but the other is to start on a journey.
Carry over. Ok, here again, from the sentence, here we're saying to people try to speak and write the same way because if people speak or write correctly and write in a manner that's similar to their speaking then their corrections in the writing will carry over. They will be brought over.
Jill: Or transferred over.
Steve: They will transfer over. So I think very often when we're speaking we use these words that have a literal meaning like to carry is to literally pick something up and move it somewhere. Jill: Move it, yeah.
Steve: But in this case it could be well we'll simply transfer over as you say. You could use other words of motion to convey the same meaning.
To back that up.
Jill: So, generally, Steve: Interesting idiomatic expression. Jill: Yeah, if you, I mean, generally if you, you know, have an opinion about something, you're presenting an opinion, I mean you need to have some facts to back up your opinion. If you just make a blanket statement about something and it's just, you've pulled it from nowhere, you really have nothing to back it up with, no, no proof, Steve: Support. Jill: no support, no evidence, that doesn't make your argument very strong. Steve: Right.
Jill: You need to have back up.
Steve: So you back up an argument but I could also say to you Jill, say for example you're having an argument with your boss and I'll say Jill, you go tell your boss that your boss is wrong and I'll back you up. Jill: I'll support you. Steve: I'll support you. Jill: I'll agree with you. Yeah. I'll support you. Steve: Or, you want to make sure that you have enough facts as you say to back up your end of the argument so if you are going to argue with your boss you have all the facts to back yourself up and I'm going to come along and back you up. Alright?
Nuts and bolts.
Jill: The basics.
Steve: The basics, right.
Jill: Basically the basics. I mean, nuts and bolts are the basic materials that you would use to build something.
Steve: The details. The details and we can understand the image there because we have a nut and a bolt. A bolt in that long thing and the nut is a little thing that you screw it into. Normally these are, I mean, nuts and bolts are used to fasten things together, to hold them together so it's very much the details of something. This is quite a common expression. Again, I think learners would certainly, would easily use this expression. The nuts and bolts and we often refer to words and phrases as the nuts and bolts of language.
Jill: The basics, yeah.
Steve: The basics. Step out and step up.
Jill: You know, Steve: That's not such a useful?. Jill: I can't say that I've ever actually used that before, Steve: No. I have heard that. Again, it's one of these phrases that suggest you know, to take responsibility, to get out there, get going, do it. Jill: Right.
Steve: It's not so commonly used. I would suggest that our learners not try to ?
Jill: To worry about it.
Steve: to worry about it. I mean, inevitably a lot of people have their own favorite little phrases that they may have heard someone say and that they use and aren't so widely used. So I would say this one is not so widely used but again the image of stepping out and stepping up means you're going to go and get at something and really do it. In a similar vein.
Jill: So, in a similar way.
Steve: No.
Jill: It's hard to describe. Steve: We talk about a vein, you know again I should really look these things up in a dictionary, the word vein, but we talk about a vein for example, it means in a similar style is what it means.
Jill: In a similar style, there you go.
Steve: It means in a similar style but I'm just wondering what the origins, I mean they talk about a vein of ore, a vein of mineral, so an area where, it sort of implies that it's a layer, it's a layer which might be a little different color in which is where they say the minerals is valuable, you know, mineral is located. So, it's sort of like in a different color, in a different flavor, in a different style, or in this case, in a similar vein, in a similar vein. Jill: Right.
Steve: So yeah, I guess this is again, not so very common. I wouldn't recommend that they speak it. Jill: It's pretty difficult yeah. Steve: It's a difficult term. Some of the other expressions here like to back that up, nuts and bolts, those are more useful, but at any rate, I hope that that has been of use to Maryann and I think it should be and to also our other learners. So, thank you very much Maryann for sending that in.
Jill: Yes, thank you.
Steve: You know we should run this like a radio program, you know, because we've selected Maryann's list we will send to her, you know, whatever. But unfortunately we don't do that Maryann but thank you very much for sending in your list nevertheless. Jill: Thank you.
Steve: Ok, and thank you Jill.
End.
