یکی از اشتباهات بزرگ وقتی که شما اتوبوس را از دست میدهید مرتکب می شوید

This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 206: “One Huge Mistake You’re Making When It Comes to Missing the Bus.” Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, where you’ll finally get real, native English conversation with your hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the ‘English Adventurer’ and Gabby Wallace, the ‘Language Angel’, from Boston, USA.

Hey guys, do you take the bus or the train? Don’t make this big mistake in English when you talk about it.

Hey guys, if you wanna (want to) get fluent in English, there’s (there are) two main steps. First, you have to listen to a lot of English. And you’re doing that by listening to the All Ears English podcast. So congratulations, you’re halfway there. The second step, the most effective way to get fluent in English, is to speak English. You have to start practicing. And I recommend that you find a Native English speaker to practice with and to learn from. Now, I found a great website where you can do that. It’s Italki. And for a limited time only, if you come to AllEarsEnglish.com/Italki, you can get ten US dollars to use on Italki services like English lessons from professional teachers. So check it out at AllEarsEnglish.com/Italki. That’s It-a-l-k-i.

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Hey, Gabby.

Hey, Lindsay. How are you?

Good. What’s shaking?

Not much. What’s going on in Boston?

Oh, you know the usual. It was another gorgeous day today and I went for a jog… Aw.

…through the streets of Cambridge which was nice.

Oh, beautiful.

Yeah, yeah.

That’s wonderful.

I like going running, (you know), stay in shape a little bit here.

Do you, do you always run everywhere you go?

Literally. I often run for the bus because I usually miss the bus.

Oh, yeah. Well, I remember in Cambridge and in Boston sometimes the bus schedule is not really clear.

Oh my God.

(Like), you can, you can check the time, but then the bus doesn’t actually come at that time. I don’t know if it’s just really early or really late, or what.

I know, that’s true, but in Japan, on the other hand, the schedules are perfect.

Yeah.

And the trains are never late.

They say you can set your watch according to the trains that they’re so accurate.

That’s amazing.

Yeah.

I miss that. I really miss that about Tokyo. That was such a cool thing.

Yeah, it’s very rare that there’s a delay in service.

Yeah, that’s awesome. So you, you never have to worry about, about missing the bus, or not catching the bus, or the train, or it’s always on time and things are good.

Yeah, well actually it’s interesting because, (um), I, I am able to walk a lot of places because I’m living in Central Tokyo. So – and I love to walk. I know you love to walk too and I’ve actually started doing more walking.

(Hm).

(Um), and I’ll start riding my bicycle everywhere too, but I usually walk and bike everywhere, but walking is nice because you can listen to podcasts.

That’s right and that’s what I, that’s what I do all the time. I don’t know about you, but I’m addicted to podcasts.

Yeah, for sure.

Oh, yeah. So, (um), but today we wanted to talk a little bit about one common mistake that we’ve been… (Um-hm).

…hearing, especially from people that speak Portuguese, but this is… (Um).

…probably something that a lot of you guys are making this mistake, right?

(Um). Yeah, yeah. It could be. For sure, and even if you’re not making the mistake it might be good just to make sure that you’re saying it, (um), correctly and maybe, (uh), just to clear up any misunderstanding or any doubts.

Yeah, exactly. So what’s wrong with this phrase when I say, “I lost the bus?” What am I actually saying, Gabby. When I say, “I lost the bus this morning,” what does that actually mean?

Yeah. Well, ‘to lose’ or ‘lost’, the past tense, can have several different meanings, but when you say you ‘lost the bus’ the bus being an object, (uh), you, you mean that you had ownership of the bus.

Right.

The bus was your object.

Right, like maybe you were the bus driver and you drove it somewhere and you walked away and you lost it.

Exactly. Right. So other things that I might lose, “Oh, (uh), I lost my wallet. Oh no.”

Oh, no.

Or I…

Did you really?

No. Or, “I lost my keys. Where are they?”

Yeah.

(I mean), common things to lose, right?

Yeah.

Lose your keys, you lose your wallet, important things.

(Mm).

(Um), you don’t usually lose a bus.

No, unless you’re the driver. It’s (ver-) – and so this is what we hear a lot. We hear, “I lost the bus,” but it’s really funny. So what should we say…?

Yeah.

…instead of, “I lost the bus.” What should we say?

Well, if you’re – lets say the scenario is you wanted to take the bus, or catch the bus, or ride the bus, or go on the bus, whatever, (um), but you were late.

Yeah and the bus went without you.

Yeah. If the bus passed you by, you, (uh), you ‘missed’ the bus.

Yeah, you did not ‘lose’ the bus guys.

Yeah.

You ‘missed’ the bus and I’m so sorry if that happened to you today, but maybe you had more time to listen to All Ears English podcast if that’s the case.

That’s great. Yeah, I think this is one of those, (uh), mistakes that comes from direct translation because sometimes you can’t directly match verbs from your native language to the verbs in English.

(Um-hm).

So that’s why it’s so important to really learn words in English for their meaning and not related to the word in your language.

Yeah, exactly and a couple weeks ago we talked about another direct translation which is, I, (you know), to ‘invite’ someone and what that actually means when you say it in English and when you’re saying it in your native language it might have a slightly different meaning, right, so… Exactly.

Yeah, so “I missed the bus.” And what about this other sense of ‘missing something’ (like), you, you feel a sense of fondness in your heart and you feel sad. You’re missing a person or missing a situation.

Yeah. That’s probably why it feels so funny to say, “I missed the bus,” because, (you know), you might be thinking you’re talking about (uh), a person who you have feelings for.

Right, right, right, exactly.

Yeah, it, it sounds strange, but that’s just because the verb ‘to miss’ has two different meanings.

(Uh-hm), (uh-hm), exactly.

So we can use it in different situations. So, (um), if you miss the bus it has no emotional meaning.

Yeah, yeah. Although you could be sad that you missed the bus, but you’re not saying that you’re actually missing – but you could ‘miss’ your, your old car. (You know), I miss my old Volvo. Gabby, when I was 16 and I got my license I actually, (um), I was driving a, a Volvo. So cool, I know.

Aw.

And it actually had a hole in the floor. Which is even… Oh my gosh.

…funnier. (Um), so we had like the Flintstones thing going, right?

Oh my Gosh.

But I have to be honest and say that I miss that car. I miss that car.

Yeah.

(You know), I have fond memories.

Well, y-you, yeah. I was gonna (going to) say you must have fond memories. You must have had some fun times driving your first car around.

Oh, heck yeah. What was your first car Gabby? Did you, did you drive when you were in high school?

Yeah. Well, when I was 16 I started driving and I had a part-time job and I saved my money and I bought my first car which was a Ford Focus I believe.

Ooh, that’s a cute car.

Wait, no, maybe it, now I’m, I’m not remembering right. I think a Ford Focus is something entirely different.

Yeah, it’s like a little one, like a hatch back type thing.

(Um).

That’s not you.

It was, it was a Ford, but it was… Did you drive a, did you drive a pick-up truck Gabby? That’s pretty cool.

No, it, it was a station wagon.

Oh, even cooler. Love it.

But it was a fun little car.

Oh, I know it’s so funny. So, so in the US we drive at a young age, (right). We start driving at 16. In a lot of other countries people start driving a little bit later I think. So sometimes it’s… Yeah.

…it’s quite a ritual, but that’s a whole nother podcast topic that we could actually do about driving and when people start driving in the US, but, (um)… Yeah, good idea.

Yeah, yeah.

But when it comes to ‘missing’ the bus or ‘missing’ the train.

(Um-hm).

…that’s when you didn’t catch it on time.

Exactly. So that’s it. So I think we pretty much covered that topic really well today. Cool. So thanks for… Awesome.

…chatting today Gabby.

Thanks Lindsay.

All right.

If you wanna (want to) put your ears into English more often, be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes on your computer or on your smartphone. Thanks so much for listening and see you next time.