Transcript of my podcast episode (5)

For starters, thank you so much for all your positive feedback about my ENGSPRESSO series. Many of you are snowed under with work and other responsibilities, which means you’re generally very busy, and you’ve told me that you like to listen to these short episodes, e.g. in your car on the way to work or when you travel by train. That’s music to my ears! That means I’m really happy to hear that. Of course, when we have so little time, but we’re still quite ambitious, we usually try to multitask. To be honest with you, I’m not a big fan of multitasking, but it this case, it does make sense. So you can listen to this podcast while you’re driving or doing some household chores. Thanks to that, you’re more productive, and I also hope that you have a nice time with me here.

As you know, I publish one ENGSPRESSO episode a week, so in that way you can practise your English quite regularly. So let’s get down to work, shall we?

The first expression I would like you to learn today is ON PURPOSE. If you do something on purpose, you do it intentionally, not by accident.

For instance: I know she didn’t break my cup on purpose, but I’m just gutted! Now, repeat after me.
The translation is: Wiem, że nie stłukła mojej filiżanki naumyślnie, ale jestem po prostu bardzo rozczarowana!

By the way, “gutted” means “very disappointed” in British slang.

Another example: We invited him to your party on purpose – we really wanted you to meet him!
Zaprosiliśmy go na twoje przyjęcie celowo – naprawdę chcieliśmy, żebyś go poznała!

Now it’s time for the second expression. The expression is TO STAND A CHANCE and it simply means to have a chance of success.

For instance: If you train more, you will stand a chance of running a marathon.
Jeśli będziesz więcej trenować, będziesz mieć szansę przebiec maraton.

Another example: The brand doesn’t stand a chance – the competition in the market is too strong.
Ta marka nie ma szans konkurencja na rynku jest zbyt silna.

And here is your ENGSPRESSO to go!

Our context for the phrases is:

He said, on purpose, that you didn’t stand a chance in the contest because he didn’t want you to take part in it.
Specjalnie powiedział, że nie masz szans w tym konkursie, bo nie chciał, żebyś wzięła w nim udział.

All right! If you’re hungry for more English expressions like that, you can learn and practise something every day with my new flashcard course online that is called KURS DO KAWY dla zabieganych B1-B2. It contains over 180 useful phrases with pronunciation and pictures, and it’s still growing! The course also helps you revise what you’ve learned, so it takes care of your vocabulary revisions.

That’s it for today. You can obviously find the transcript of this episode on my website or at the link in the description of the episode.

Thank you for listening and talk to you soon!