Your English Five a Day #5.1

E104: Are you one to complain or would you rather not stir the pot? Join me, your host Anna, as we put the verb 'complain' under the microscope in this enlightening episode of Your English Five a Day. But hold on, we've got more than 'complain' on the table. Get ready to unravel the mystery of the idiom 'to have beef', decode the adjective 'inadequate', and dissect the verb 'resolve'. We'll also expand your vocabulary with 'justly', an adverb that can punctuate your sentences with a sense of righteousness. All this is woven into a fascinating narrative about Pete's adventures with his new car dealership.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

Hello and welcome to the English. Like a Native podcast. I'm your host, anna, and this is week five, day one of your English Fiver Day, where we deep dive into five pieces of vocabulary and kicking it off, we have a very common verb, and it is the verb complain. Now, if you complain, it means you express dissatisfaction or annoyance about something or someone. Are you a person who is likely to complain if you're unhappy with something? Do you complain about people, about services, about the bus always being late, about the fact that your food is cold, or do you just bury your head in the sand and get on with life? It's very typical for Brits to avoid being direct and confrontational, and I am a typical Brits in this respect. I hate complaining. I hate conflict. I will usually just put up with being unhappy. But let me give you an example sentence with our verb complain. The bank cashier was so rude to me yesterday. I'm going to complain to her manager and tell them how disappointed I am. Next on our list we have the idiom to have a beef. This might remind you, if you've been listening for a long time, of a podcast episode called my Beef with Theme Parks. I think that was the title. That was definitely the content. It was all about having beef with the theme parks. This is an idiom and it means that you have a complaint or a problem with something or you have a disagreement with someone. If you're having a little bit of a fallout with somebody, you're not getting along and you're being horrible to one another, then you guys have got beef. You have a beef with each other. So it's to be unhappy with something. Here's an example hey, what's your beef with John? I've noticed you to avoiding each other recently. You used to be so close. Number three on our list is the adjective inadequate Inadequate. If something is inadequate, then it is not good enough. Basically, it's too low in quality, it doesn't suit what you need, it doesn't fit, it's inadequate. Here's an example sentence my new work computer is totally inadequate. I didn't look into it properly before buying it. Number four on our list is the verb resolve, resolve. This means to settle something like a disagreement or to find a solution to a problem. So if I've been fighting with my computer all day because it's slow and certain programs aren't opening, then I need to resolve that problem in order to be productive. Or if there has been a misunderstanding and maybe too much money has been taken out of my account for a purchase, then I'll contact the company and say what's going on, there's a problem here and it needs to be resolved. Or if I'm having a fallout with my boyfriend, then we certainly need to resolve that fallout, that problem, that disagreement, whatever issue it is that we have with each other. We have to resolve it in order to have a happy relationship. Here's my example sentence. I can't figure out how to resolve the issue with this hoover. It's blowing dust out instead of sucking it in. Number five on our list is the adverb justly, justly, justly. This means with good reason or quite rightly, that it's justified. Here's an example sentence Sarah has justly complained to the hotel management after she was put in a room that hadn't been cleaned. There was mess everywhere. Okay, so that was our five for today. Let's recap. We had the verb to complain, which is expressing dissatisfaction. We had the fun idiom to have beef with something or someone. We have the adjective inadequate, when something is not good enough, it's inadequate. We have the verb to resolve, to settle or solve a problem. We had the adverb justly, which means justified, with good reason. Let's now work through those four pronunciations, so please repeat after me. Complain To have beef. Inadequate, resolve Justly Good work. Let's bring them all together now in a little story. After receiving his yearly bonus, pete eagerly went out and purchased a brand new sports car. Despite his initial excitement, he realized that the car didn't live up to his expectations and, being so unhappy with its performance, he decided to complain to the dealership and request a refund. Pete felt that the car was inadequate for his needs and believed that he was justly entitled to a refund as the car failed to meet the promised standards. However, the car salesman explained that you cannot simply return a vehicle because you don't like it anymore. After all, the test drive Pete went on was great. He was more than happy with the car at that point. The beef that Pete had with the salesman grew with each word uttered, and so he took the manager to the sales director with hopes of finding a more suitable vehicle and being able to resolve the situation. Nine months later, and he is still driving the same car. His attitude towards the salesman and the director did not help his cause, poor Pete. Okay. That finishes today's episode. I do hope you found it useful. Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.