5 Phrases to Express Powerlessness

This is a short, daily podcast for intermediate to advanced English learners who want to build natural English vocabulary through stories and real-life usage.

In this penultimate episode of Season Three of The English Like a Native Podcast, Gabriel arrives at the hospital after yesterday’s devastating news and is forced to wait for updates. Feeling that everything is beyond his control, he reflects on how life is often unpredictable.

Tune in to learn five useful phrases for talking about uncertainty and situations outside your control.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hello and welcome back to your English Five a Day on the English Like a Native podcast. You're here for your daily dunk into the English language because by doing this on a regular basis, you are helping yourself to increase your vocabulary, improve your listening skills, which in turn builds your confidence when dealing with the English language. My name is Anna, and today we are hurtling towards the end of season three. Yes, this is the penultimate episode. We are on week twelve, day four of our story following Gabriel across the UK. Yesterday Gabriel received devastating news and began his journey to the hospital. Today he arrives and faces something we all experience at times situations that are completely beyond our control. Now supporting materials for this entire season are available at joinelan.com forward slash plus. There you'll find free grammar guides that support the season and the option to continue your learning with the full book available in digital or print and a guided study pack with comprehension questions and writing tasks. So if you've been enjoying the story and want to take your English further, then everything is there for you. But now let's begin the penultimate episode with a snapshot of what's to come. At the hospital, Gabriel quickly realizes that the situation is out of his hands and not up to him to change. Everything feels beyond his control, and even his plans seem no match for reality. As events unfold, it almost feels like there are mysterious forces at work shaping what happens next. Okay, let's now go to our vocabulary breakdown. The first phrase I want to look at is no match for reality. No match M A T C H for reality R E A L I T Y. If something is no match for reality, then it's like a plan or expectation is weaker than real life. For example, our plans were no match for reality. So for example, imagine you are planning to feed everybody at an event, and you plan to make a huge stew that will feed ten people. But in reality, you've invited thirty people. So your plans to feed everyone were no match for reality. Next we have the phrase out of our hands Out of our hands. Hands H A N D S, the things at the end of your arms. If something is out of one's hands, then it's not something we can control or change. For example, the situation was out of our hands. If you come to me asking me to make a decision about your fate at the company, but I no longer have the power to decide your fate, then I'd say to you, I'm sorry, it's out of my hands. Next we have the phrase not up to us. Not up to us. If something is not up to you, me or somebody else, then it's not their decision or responsibility. My children will often ask Daddy if they can have something, and Daddy says no. So they come and ask me, Mummy, can we have this thing that daddy said we can't have? And I say, it's not up to me. If daddy said no, then daddy said no. It's not for me to decide if daddy's already made the decision. So you might say, it's not up to us to decide. Next we have the phrase beyond one's control. Beyond one's control. Beyond B E Y O N D Control C O N T R O L. If something is beyond your control, then it's impossible for you to change or influence. For example, the outcome was beyond his control. The last phrase we're going to look at is mysterious forces at work. Mysterious forces at work. Mysterious M Y S T E R I O U S Mysterious Forces F O R C E S Mysterious Forces At Work W O R K If Mysterious Forces are at work then it means events that seem guided by something unknown or unexplained. For example, it felt like there were mysterious forces at work. Fantastic. Now listen carefully for those phrases as we head into storytime. When Gabriel arrived at the hospital, he said who he was and explained the situation. The staff were sympathetic but professional. As Gabriel was not a family member, they weren't allowed to tell him anything. It was out of their hands. Even so, Gabriel asked the nurse to tell Sophie's parents that Sophie was coming. Before dragging his suitcase over to the cafe. He felt absurd, as if he were at some sort of surreal airport where you brought your luggage of the past in order to wait for someone who was already there, but who might never leave. It had actually crossed his mind briefly to dump his suitcase somewhere, but in a weird way, it served as something he could look after. Everything else was beyond his control, so the suitcase was something that he could still manage, a hopeful symbol of Sophie's emotions and her parents' condition. The last time he had been in a hospital was with his grandmother. So many things in life were not up to us. She had passed away too soon, and Sophie's parents were much younger than her. Gabriel thought bitterly that our human plans are no match for reality. Life is not tidy or predictable for long. It is often spontaneous, cruel and inexplicable. There is destiny and there is fate. Which one was this? he asked himself. He sat at a table and pulled out his mobile. The last call was from the unknown number. He'd just hung up on them, but he saw that they had left him a message.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Hello, Gabriel. I started to speak to you just now, but we were cut off. I'm Val from Legacy Lens. I met you briefly at the travel writing final Q ⁇ A. In a nutshell we'd like to feel you out about doing some travel writing for us, in English and French, about the French Pacific and Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Give me a call when you can. Merci.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Truly, there were mysterious forces at work. All right, let's pause the story there and bring today's vocabulary back into focus. I will repeat each phrase twice, leaving a space for you to repeat after me. Try to match my pronunciation and tone. Here we go. No match for reality. No match for reality. This is when something like a plan or expectation is weaker than real life. Next, repeat after me. Out of our hands. Out of our hands. If something is out of our hands, then it's not something we can control or change. Next, not up to us. Not up to us. We use this when something is not our decision or responsibility. Next, repeat after me. Beyond one's control. Beyond one's control. This is when something is impossible for someone to influence. And finally, repeat after me, mysterious forces at work. Mysterious forces at work. This is something we say when events seem to be guided by something unknown or unexplained. Fantastic. Okay, so these expressions are very useful for talking about uncertainty or life events or when situations are out of our control. Now, as Gabriel waits, everything is still uncertain. Tomorrow, in our final episode, everything comes together, and Gabriel faces one last unexpected turn that will stay with him forever. That's all from me for today. As always, if you do enjoy this podcast, then there's one little thing that you can do to help support me to make more. And that's simply leaving a like, a rating, or review. And if you know anyone who's learning English, then recommend the English Like a Native podcast to them. Until tomorrow for our final episode, take care and goodbye.