Lend Me Your Ears
In today’s episode I want you to lend me your ears, listen carefully and learn some new expressions using the words Lend and Borrow. Hope you enjoy today’s short and sweet :)
Transcriptions
Kia Ora muchachos – You are listening to English Made Simple, this is episode number 75, numero setenta y cinco.
Hello amigos, welcome to today’s Short and Sweet episode, where we will learn some English expressions and hopefully expand your English vocabulary.
So, happy Wednesday everybody, not! How about, we close our eyes and pretend it’s Friday. How about that?
Nah, ain’t working, still Wednesday, damn it.
My name is Milena from www.englishmadesimple.net
And Kia Ora is actually a greeting in Maori, it’s actually Hello in Maori.
For those of you who live in New Zealand, who are from New Zealand, you might have heard of this expression before, it’s a greeting actually, it’s Maori for Hello.
Cool, let’s carry on!
So amigos, in today’s show I would like us to learn some expressions with the words we learnt in the last episode, the words were: lend and borrow.
Actually, there are more expressions with LEND than there are with BORROW. Well as far as I know, anyway!
Are we ready amigos? For this episode I want you to “lend me your ears” – lend me your ears and listen carefully to what I am about to say…your first expression for today is…
To Lend an Ear to someone or something – it’s a figure of speech, a metaphor if you like > which means I want your full attention, I want you to listen carefully to what I am saying, I want your ears to only listen to me blabbing nothing else.
Blabbing, just you know, talking nonsense.
In Spanish, ears are orejas. We use ears for hearing and listening.
I think equivalent expression in Spanish is Oreja pestaña y ceja, to lend an ear to someone.
Great, that’s your first expression, now the second expression.
To lend someone a hand – now this is what I hear a lot of people say, a lot of native people use as well. To lend someone a hand – means to be helpful.
You can say, can you give me a hand? You can also say can you lend me a hand? Can you lend Carlos a hand with those boxes? In other words, Can you help Carlos with those boxes? To lend a hand…
I recommend you use this one as often as possible, it will make you sound more fluent. Imagine you are crossing a street and there is an old lady struggling with her bags, you can say to her: Excuse Ma’m let me give you a hand? Let me help you. That’s when you can use, give someone a hand.
You can use it with your friends. If your friends are moving houses, you can say Can I lend you a hand.
To lend a hand is to be of assistance to be helpful. Another way to say it is, to lend a helping hand. I hear this often as well. It also means to be helpful. My husband is always willing to lend a helping hand around the house… but only after I nag him to clean it and wash the dishes.
Right….
I really want you to practise these expressions with Lend, the ones you hear in this episode. I have heard them before from native speakers, I also use them myself, and these expressions will come in pretty handy. To come in handy, is to be convenient or practical. It’s also a good expression to learn…
The next expression using the word Borrow. I know a couple of expressions with Borrow…as a matter of fact, I only use one of them, which is:
To beg, to borrow or steal > in Spanish, suplicar, prestar o robar.
According to Weon Inteligente, – well hello there, weon – you are back – So according to weon inteligente, What this means is: to do whatever is necessary to get something.
For example, I am going to get those Jimmy Choo shoes, whether I have to beg, borrow or steal them. Basically, one way or another, I am going to get those shoes. They are quite expensive. I want them soooo bad. Jimmy Choo is just a designer.
The second expressions is: to live on borrowed time.
I think this is the last expression in this episode.
I hear this one often in movies, but it’s a bit dark. To live on borrowed time means, when someone or something is on borrowed time, it means that they are not likely to be alive or active for much longer. It’s often used with “living on borrowed time”, which means the person is not expected to live much longer. It’s a bit sad, a bit dark.
For example: John knew he was living on borrowed time after two heart attacks.
A bit of a dark and sad example, but we are about to finish this episode guys.Thank you for joining me in today’s episode. I hope you learnt something new as always.
That’s it folks, thank you for lending me your ears. Hope you enjoyed today’s episode.
I shall see you next time, toodle-oo kangaroo!