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What Would Make Your Day?

Announcer: This is an All Ears English podcast Episode 1015: “What Would Make Your Day? How to Use This Phrase to Describe What Brings You Happiness.”

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Announcer: Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 50 million times. We believe in Connection NOT Perfection ™, with your American hosts Lindsay McMahon, the ‘English Adventurer’, and Michelle Kaplan, the ‘New York Radio Girl,’ coming to you from Boston and New York City, U.S.A.

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Announcer: And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to AllEarsEnglish.com/subscribe.

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Announcer: What makes you happy in life? If someone does something great for you or if there is an experience that lifts your spirits, how can you express this? Find out today.

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Michelle: Hey (hi) Lindsay, how are you?

Doing well, Michelle. How are you?

Michelle: I’m good, I’m good. You know what really makes my day?

Lindsay: What’s that?

Michelle: When we get good reviews from our listeners.

Lindsay: Totally makes my day, me too.

Michelle: Ohh my gosh, yeah (yes). I know, it’s amazing. Like, guys, we really appreciate your reviews and Lindsay always sends me them and I look at them and I’m, like, “Aww, you guys are the best.” Thank you always for, you know, reviewing us. It’s so nice of you.

Lindsay: Yeah (yes). And you know what else makes my day? When I have a really good ice cream cone.

Michelle: That also makes my day. Lately, it’s funny because lately I’ve been eating a lot of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Lindsay: That is the best flavor, that’s a great flavor.

Michelle: It is, it is, it is. Guys, maybe you realized, we’re using this phrase “make my day”. So, one episode, 1007, we spoke about the phrase “makes my day”. So when I talked about, when I gave away the news that I’m pregnant and we talked about, I told the story about how somebody used it with me and how that made me feel. And there are many ways to use this phrase that it can, you know, with slight differences. I think it’s a great phrase for connection. Don’t you think, Lindsay?

Lindsay: Ohh totally, it can make someone feel really special or can just kind of show how you feel about something, celebrating life. So, I love this phrase.

Michelle: I love that.

Lindsay: Yeah (yes), celebrating life.

Michelle: Yeah (yes).

And guys, if you want to listen to 1007, maybe you didn’t have a chance to catch that one, that big news, so go and search, if you’re using the iOS app, you can actually search right inside the app, type 1007 or come back to our blog, AllEarsEnglish.com/episodes, and type 1007 in the search bar on the blog.

Michelle: Definitely. So, yeah (yes). We used it there and then we decided let’s make a whole episode about it because it’s a very versatile phrase that we think you guys should be throwing into your conversation. It also makes me think of a movie quote. Have you ever heard, “Go ahead, make my day.”

Lindsay: Yeah (yes). What movie is that from? Yeah (yes), I’ve definitely heard it.

Michelle: I have no idea, but I looked it up. It’s from Sudden Impact. Have you ever seen that?

Lindsay: No, I didn’t see that, but that’s funny that I don’t know that. That movie was, like, such a famous movie, but certainly the phrase became kind of well-known. “Go ahead, make my day.” Maybe it also was in other movies too. I’m not sure. Yeah (yes).

Michelle: Who knows, I’m not sure. But yeah (yes), it’s funny that we both know this phrase but we didn’t ever see the movie.

Lindsay: But that was used in a slightly more negative way, right? That’s kind of used in a confrontational way in that movie, I’m guessing.

Michelle: Yeah (yes), I mean, just because the tone is, like, “Go ahead, make my

day.” as far as I know it. It sounds, like, very tough and, you know, like, almost, like, sarcastic, like, I challenge you to make… I don’t know. So, that’s a little bit different, guys. But if you want to, maybe you could YouTube a clip from that and just hear how it’s used so you know what we’re talking about here. But a good one to know. So, other ways that this phrase can be used, right? So, what’s another context where somebody would use this, Lindsay?

Well, this is the way it’s used the most, I think, is when someone does something nice for you. Especially when it’s, like, a surprise or a favor or something you didn’t ask for. That is a big way that we would use this. Yeah (yes).

Michelle: Right, right. So, Lindsay, maybe I guess we’re on the ice cream topic.

Lindsay: Ice cream, ice cream. I love ice cream; I’m crazy about ice cream. “So,

Michelle, I got you your favorite ice cream, mint chocolate chip.”

Michelle: “Thanks, Lindsay. Ohh my gosh, it completely makes my day. Yum.” Okay. So yeah (yes), I mean, I would definitely say that if you got me a mint chocolate chip ice cream, for sure.

Lindsay: Ohh my gosh, yes. That makes me want to go get an ice cream today.

Michelle: Me too. It also makes me want some now, but it’s not even ten in the morning. I don’t know if that’s a good idea, but now I want ice cream. But yeah (yes). Guys, I said that completely makes my day. Right? That just made it even more so than a regular “makes my day”, right? I intensified it a little bit because it’s so yummy.

Lindsay: Yeah (yes), adding that intensifier really makes it sound more native and natural, guys. So, if you’re at that level, you’re ready to do that, go ahead and do that to make it sound more emphatic as well.

Michelle: Right, right, right, right. So, what’s another way that you might use it, or

another context situation where you might use it?

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Lindsay: So, when you talk about something that just makes you happy in general,

right? So, for example, Michelle, at the beginning you said “Those reviews

that we get every week, they really make my day. Just hearing from students and how the show helps them every day, that makes my day.” Okay?

Michelle: Right. Not necessarily just a certain incident, right, like Lindsay getting me the ice cream, but just general things that make us happy. So, like, for example, “Lindsay, my brother and his family visited us a couple weeks ago.”

Lindsay: “That’s so nice. So, how was the visit?”

Michelle: “Ohh it was great. It makes my day when I get to see my niece and nephew and they give me tons of hugs.”

Lindsay: “Sweet.”

Michelle: Okay.

Lindsay: Yeah (yes), it’s awesome.

Michelle: Yeah (yes). So, something that always, like, in general makes me happy, like, and it doesn’t have to be, like, it makes my specific day, like, a general time.

Lindsay: Yeah (yes), yeah (yes).

Michelle: One day. Right?

Lindsay: Like, which day? Like, Tuesday or Wednesday? [laughter]

Michelle: On Tuesdays it makes me happy, but if they hug me on Wednesday, forget it.

Lindsay: No, no. It’s in general, just something that makes you happy, that you love, that fills up your heart. Yeah (yes).

Michelle: Exactly. And another time you might use it is when you ask for a favor.

Lindsay: Yeah (yes). This is kind of a humble way of asking for a favor. So, “Hey,

Michelle, it would totally make my day if you could do the dishes just this one time.”

Michelle: “Ohh, okay, Lindsay. Fine.”

Lindsay: [laughter] You don’t sound very happy about it.

Michelle: I don’t, I don’t. It’s, like, it sounds like, you know, maybe you are the roommate who always does the dishes and I never do it and you’re trying to ask me a favor. Right?

Lindsay: That’s true, oh jeez.

Michelle: Which makes me a very bad roommate if I never do the dishes.

Lindsay: Yeah (yes), that’s true. Yeah (yes), this phrase is pretty versatile, actually. It can be used in a bunch of different ways, but it’s so natural. That’s why I love that we’re talking about it today.

Michelle: Yeah (yes), yeah (yes), definitely. So yeah (yes), “it would really make my day if”, I think remembering that kind of chunk, “It would really make my day if you could, you know, I don’t know, do my homework for me.” Just kidding.

Lindsay: Yeah (yes). And I took out “really” because in the moment, for whatever reason, it felt more natural to say “it would totally make my day”.

Michelle: Totally.

Lindsay: But both are fine, guys. We’re showing you how to be spontaneous and natural. “It would really make my day if” or “it would totally make my day if”. Okay? Both are good.

Michelle: Right, right, right, definitely. And guys, you know, we were talking a little bit, and the other example about how, you know, it doesn’t just mean “day”, but if you want, you can exaggerate. Have you ever heard somebody say, like, “It would make my year”?

Lindsay: Yeah (yes), if you want to be really big in what you’re saying, “made my year” or “would make my year”. Yeah (yes).

Michelle: Right, right. So, you can say “it makes my week, my month, my year” just

to exaggerate, but again, I think the phrase “make my day”, in general, it

doesn’t have to be about the one day, like we talked about. Unless you’re talking about this specific incident, like, of the ice cream or somebody surprising you a specific time. But the generalized one, I could say, “It makes my whole year when my niece or nephew come to visit.” Or something like that.

Lindsay: Yeah (yes), yeah (yes), I love that. So good. This is great because you guys are going to hear this phrase out in pop culture too. You’re going to hear it in movies, you know, exchanges between characters. You’re going to hear it. It’s just such a versatile one to use.

Michelle: Right, right, right. I definitely agree. Yeah (yes). So, like, if I said, “That vacation really made my whole year, it was fantastic.” Right? Something like that. Like, that’s just, like, not only my day, my whole year, everything is better because of that vacation.

Lindsay: [laughter] I love that, I love that.

Michelle: Yeah (yes), yeah (yes), definitely. Yes. So, guys, just remember, you know, this is a versatile phrase and, you know, think about it, you know, get the transcripts for this one. We used, we weren’t really talking so much about the grammar here, but we used different forms of it, like “really made”, “it would make my day”, like, a lot of different ways that you can use it. So, we were really focusing on, you know, the connection aspect and the situation where you might say, like, many different situations where you would use this phrase. But, you know, you can use it in different tenses.

So, definitely get the transcripts and listen for that.

Lindsay: Yeah (yes). I mean, just keeping in mind on the grammar side that the

verb in here that you’re conjugating, guys, is just “to make”. Right? It’s not any more complicated than that. We said, “It makes my day.” That’s all the time, “it made my year”, last year, “it would make my day”, the conditional. Right? So, guys, don’t make it more complicated than it has to be. Just start using the phrase and you’re just conjugating that verb “to make”.

Michelle: Exactly. That’s a really good point. Yeah (yes), yeah (yes). So, don’t think about it as the whole phrase. Right? Just “to make”, that’s fine. And then add the rest how you feel necessary. But, I mean, I just think that this is a great phrase to connect with someone and tell them that they’ve made you happy or something that makes you happy. I think we all need a little bit more of that nowadays, right? This dynamic phrase to talk about being happy, and I feel like this is a very optimistic thing to say.

Lindsay: Yeah (yes), exactly. So, Michelle, let’s finish it with a question. What would make your day right now that if you could have anything today, what would make your day today for the rest of the day?

Michelle: Ohh my gosh. What would make my day for the rest of the day? You know what, I think it would be, if I could… If I could transport, you know, without having to go on public transportation today. I think that would make my day, but that’s getting into a lot of science and a lot of technology. And if I could just, you know, get somewhere with, just by thinking about it. So, that’s a very unlikely, but other than that, I think it would make my day just to, you know, relax, enjoy some relaxing time. That’s all. What about you?

Lindsay: Love that, love that. Probably it would really make my day if my roommate came home and made dinner for me. That would be amazing.

Michelle: Ohh yeah (yes). That’s for sure. And actually, I do have some dishes sitting in the sink. It would make my day if somebody would do them for me, but… But alas, I’m probably going to go do them right after we record.

Lindsay: Awesome, Michelle. Well, thanks for talking about this phrase. It actually makes me happy, this phrase, because it makes me think about the quality of life and what are the important things that make us happy.

Michelle: Definitely.

Lindsay: You know?

Michelle: Okay, good. And yeah (yes), guys, remember, if you want to hear another way that it’s used, go ahead and listen to that other episode, talking about who might say this phrase and not just using the phrase, but go ahead and listen to that for another example.

Lindsay: Alright. Very cool, Michelle. Well, you have a great day then.

Michelle: You too. Bye, Lindsay. Bye, guys.

Lindsay: Take care. Bye.

Michelle: Bye.

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