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Telling Secrets to Parents

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 273: Telling Secrets to Parents.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 273. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

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This episode is called “Telling Secrets to Parents,” and it’s a conversation between a brother and a sister, and has some good vocabulary that we would use in a family. Let’s get started.

[start of story]

Therese: I can’t believe you told Mom and Dad about me driving the car last Saturday when I wasn’t supposed to. I thought we had a deal. You wouldn’t tell on me and I’d take you and Kathy to the movies this weekend. You’re such a tattletale.

Stephen: I swear it wasn’t me! Why would I tell? We do have a deal and I’ve held up my end.

Therese: Forget it. The deal is off. There’ll be no movie this weekend.

Stephen: Hey, I told you it wasn’t me who spilled the beans. Are you sure it wasn’t Jeffrey?

Therese: Don’t try to put the blame on somebody else. I know it was you.

Stephen: How?

Therese: You’re a terrible liar.

Stephen: Well, if I did tell on you, I didn’t mean to do it. Come on, please! I really want to see that movie this weekend. What can I do?

Therese: Hmmm…that’s a good question. How about doing my chores for two weeks?

Stephen: Two weeks?! No way. How about one week?

Therese: You’ve got a deal. I’ll take you if you do all of my chores for a week. But I’m warning you. You’re on notice. If you tell on me one more time, you’ll be dead to me.

Stephen: Yeah, yeah. I heard you.

[end of story]

The dialogue begins with Therese saying to her brother Stephen, “I can’t believe you told Mom and Dad about me driving the car last Saturday when I wasn’t supposed to.” So, Therese is angry; she’s upset; she’s mad. That’s why she says: “I can’t believe you did this,” that’s an expression we would use if you were angry. Therese is angry with Stephen because she thinks that Stephen told her parents, or their parents, that Therese had driven the family car when she wasn’t supposed to. “To be supposed to do something” is to be expected to do something.

Therese then says to Stephen, “I thought we had a deal” (deal), meaning I thought we had an agreement. A “deal” is an agreement, when two people agree to do something. The deal between Therese and Stephen was that Stephen wouldn’t tell on Therese, and she would take Stephen and their sister Kathy to the movies this weekend. “To tell on someone” means to tell another person that you are doing something wrong; to tell another person that someone is doing something bad or doing something wrong. This is something that a brother and a sister might do: “Mom, Julie didn’t wash the dishes!” That’s how we would say it just with that – that tone – that intonation. A little child would be telling on her sister, saying that she didn’t do what she was supposed to do; she did something wrong.

Another word we have for someone who does that is a “tattletale.” A “tattletale” (tattletale) is a word we usually use for a child who tells their parents or another adult – their teacher – that another child is doing something wrong. Tattletale has a somewhat negative connotation – a negative meaning. It’s not a nice thing to be called a tattletale. Someone may say to you, “Don’t be a tattletale” – don’t tell someone else that another person is doing something wrong, worry about yourself.

Stephen says that “I swear it wasn’t me!” “To swear” (swear) here means to promise to say something that is true; to promise that what you are saying is true. “To swear” has some other meanings in English as well; take a look at the Learning Guide for those.

Stephen swears that he was not the person who told the parents about Therese driving when she wasn’t supposed to. He asks, “Why would I tell? We do have a deal and I’ve held up my end.” The expression “to hold up your end” means you did what you agreed to do; you did what you said you were going to do. We also have an expression: “I held up my end of the bargain.” Here, “bargain” means agreement; my end of the deal.

So, Stephen is saying that he did what he was supposed to do, so Therese has to do what she agreed to do. Therese, however, says, “Forget it,” meaning no, I’m not going to do it. “The deal is off.” When we say something “is off,” in this case, we mean it’s canceled; it’s over; it’s finished; it is ended; it’s off. “Off” has a couple of different meanings, and you can take a look at the Learning Guide for some more of those.

Therese says, “There will be no movie this weekend,” meaning they will not be going to see a movie this weekend. Stephen says, “Hey, I told you it wasn’t me who spilled the beans.” The expression “to spill the beans” (beans) means to accidentally tell someone a secret; to accidentally say something that you shouldn’t have said because the other person didn’t want anyone else to know. So, to somebody a secret, but by accident, that’s to spill the beans.

So, Stephen is saying that he did not spill the beans. He, of course, tries to blame Jeffrey, but everyone knows that Jeffrey is, perhaps, the most honest person in the world. He would never do that! I should say that I have a brother named Stephen and a sister named Therese, but this story is not related in any way to anything that happened when I was a child!

Back to the story: Therese says, “Don’t try to put the blame on someone else.” “To put the blame (blame) on someone” means to say that someone else did the action; that someone else is at fault; they did the bad thing that happened. That’s to put the blame on someone else: “It wasn’t me, it was him!” Therese says, “I know it was you.” And Stephen says, “How?’ Therese responds, “You’re a terrible liar.” A “liar” (liar) is someone who lies; someone who does not tell the truth.

Stephen says, “Well, if I did tell on you, I didn’t mean to.” Here, the truth comes out. Here we learn that Stephen probably did tell on Therese, that wasn’t Jeffrey, who, as we know, was a perfect child! Stephen says, “I didn’t mean to do it.” “I didn’t mean to do something” means I didn’t have the intention to do something; I didn’t want to do something. “I didn’t want to do it on purpose,” you could also say.

So, Stephen is saying here that it was an accident if he did tell the parents, and then he says, “Come on, please!” The expression “come on” means that you don’t believe what the other person has said. It can also be used to encourage someone to do something for you or with you. You could say, “Come on, let’s go to the movies,” meaning please come to the movies with me; I want you to come with me. So Stephen says, “Come on, please,” meaning please do what I want you to do.

Therese says that she will take Stephen to the movies if he does her chores for two weeks. A “chore” (chore) is something that you do on a regular basis; something you do every week, for example, or every day. Usually it’s something at home – in your house – that involves cleaning or washing; those are typical chores. It could be anything, however, that you do at home that is usually not something pleasant.

Stephen says, “No way,” meaning absolutely not, I won’t do your chores, Therese, for two weeks. He says, “How about one week?” Therese says, “You’ve got a deal,” meaning you have an agreement; okay. “But I’m warning you,” she says, “You’re on notice.” “To warn someone” is to tell them not to do something because if they do, something bad will happen. To tell someone they’re “on notice” means that you are giving them a warning; you are warning them not to do something. That’s the general meeting here of “on notice.” Finally Therese says joking to Stephen, “If you tell on me one more time, you’ll be dead to me.” “To be dead to someone” means that you no longer think of that person as being one of your friends or part of your family. That would only happen under a very serious condition, with a very serious problem. So, Therese is joking here, saying to Stephen, “you’ll be dead to me,” in order to warn him; to say that this is serious. Stephen responds by saying, “Yeah, yeah. I heard you,” meaning I understand what you said; I understood it.

Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.

[start of story]

Therese: I can’t believe you told Mom and Dad about me driving the car last Saturday when I wasn’t supposed to. I thought we had a deal. You wouldn’t tell on me and I’d take you and Kathy to the movies this weekend. You’re such a tattletale.

Stephen: I swear it wasn’t me! Why would I tell? We do have a deal and I’ve held up my end.

Therese: Forget it. The deal is off. There’ll be no movie this weekend.

Stephen: Hey, I told you it wasn’t me who spilled the beans. Are you sure it wasn’t Jeffrey?

Therese: Don’t try to put the blame on somebody else. I know it was you.

Stephen: How?

Therese: You’re a terrible liar.

Stephen: Well, if I did tell on you, I didn’t mean to do it. Come on, please! I really want to see that movie this weekend. What can I do?

Therese: Hmmm…that’s a good question. How about doing my chores for two weeks?

Stephen: Two weeks?! No way. How about one week?

Therese: You’ve got a deal. I’ll take you if you do all of my chores for a week. But I’m warning you. You’re on notice. If you tell on me one more time, you’ll be dead to me.

Stephen: Yeah, yeah. I heard you.

[end of story]

The script for today’s podcast was written by Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. This podcast is copyright 2007.