Hey! How is it going?

Welcome to another episode of Walk ‘n’ Talk Level Up, our all-English podcast series! No diálogo de hoje, vamos acompanhar uma personagem que perdeu um prazo da faculdade e está compartilhando o momento de frustração com o amigo dela.

Não se esqueça de repetir as frases em voz alta, junto com a teacher Becs, para praticar bem a sua pronúncia e confira o material extra que preparamos para você aqui abaixo!

Nos vemos na próxima semana, see you! Have an awesome week!

Vocabulary Expansion

In this episode of Walk 'n' Talk Level Up, you got to practice your pronunciation and learn many structures and now you can continue studying here by reading the dialogue, and checking out the written explanations with loads of examples. Don’t forget to repeat all the sentences!

Dialogue:

Lucy: You’ve got to be kidding me!
Bob: What happened?
Lucy: The results were published two days ago!
Bob: So…?
Lucy: I should have signed up for the position immediately after the results were announced.
Bob: Don’t worry, I’m sure you still have time.
Lucy: We’ll see. I’m emailing my professor right now.‍

New expressions and Vocabulary!

Should have

Here, in the dialogue, our character Lucy needed to sign up for a position right after she got some results, but she didn’t. She used “should have” to describe that it was her responsibility or obligation in that past moment. 

We can do that with other modals as well, maintaining their meaning but making them refer to the past. The affirmative structure is: modal + have + participle form.

Emma should have called you last night.
You should have sent Luke another message.
Tom should have opened the windows before cooking.
‍

I could have done the laundry for you.
She would have called me if she knew.
Luke might have made a mistake.

The negative structure is the same, but with “not” after the modal:

Emma should not have called you last night.
You should not have sent Luke another message.
‍‍Tom should not have opened the windows before cooking.
‍

I could not have done the laundry for you.
She would not have called me if she knew.
Luke might not have made a mistake.

And the interrogative structure has the inversion sending the modal to the beginning of the sentence:

Should Emma have called you last night?
Should you have sent Luke another message?
Should Tom have opened the windows before cooking?

Could I have done the laundry for you?
Would She have called me if she knew?
Might Luke have made a mistake?‍

So

This is another one of those words that can be used in numerous different ways. In the dialogue, you saw it as a question similar to “what’s the problem?” or “why is it important?”. It can sound a little rude depending on the context, so it’s more common between friends and family: 

A: My mom called me today.
B: So..?
A: It was strange, she never calls.

Professor
Even though “teacher” is the common word to describe someone who teaches any subject, there is a different word that is used for professionals with PhDs who teach at a university or college, which is the word “professor”. To refer to a specific professor, we usually use their last name after the title:

Professor Roberts looks very happy today.
Excuse me, Professor Johnson, can we talk about the essay?
You are going to meet your new professor today.

Listen to this episode as many times as you wish, and follow it up with this extra content. That way, you'll be able to memorize these new structures! You’ll also be able to use them in conversations in the future. And remember, the more daily contact you have with the English language, the better you’ll get. So make sure you don’t miss out on our next episode!

Lucy: You’ve got to be kidding me!
Bob: What happened?
Lucy: The results were published two days ago!
Bob: So…?
Lucy: I should have signed up for the position immediately after the results were announced.
Bob: Don’t worry, I’m sure you still have time.
Lucy: We’ll see. I’m emailing my professor right now.