This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2651.
Find out how to use find in three different ways.
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Hey, Michelle, how's it going today?
Pretty well, Lindsay.
Lindsay, how did you find your current house?
How did I find my current house?
Good question.
I think we found it on Redfin.
Because, you know, even though we had a realtor, I feel like nowadays the people looking for the house tend to find the house and they send it to their realtor.
Yes, I totally agree.
Yes uh well yeah um, that has happened to me for sure before where i'm sending things to the real yes funny well, it's all it's.
It kind of makes sense, as you sort of know better what, what you want.
But then i'm kind of like well geez, that's part of the realtor's job.
What are we paying for?
Yeah yeah um, So it's interesting.
But today we're going to talk about the verb to find and how it can be used in many different ways.
So we spoke about this briefly on another episode and we got the idea to expand on it because it's really useful and common.
And Lindsay, you've had this conversation with listeners before.
Yes.
Many times I've met with listeners.
We have our meet and greets, our meet and greet contests.
We have opportunities to meet our listeners one-on-one.
Over at Open Conversation Club, I get to meet with one or two listeners in the hot seat.
And I often will ask our listeners or students, how did you find the podcast?
And they will say, great, I love it.
But Michelle, what is the problem there?
Well, you're actually trying to ask them how did they locate it, right?
Did somebody send it to them?
Did they find it by doing a search right, asking about how they liked it exactly.
And it's actually really tricky, if you think about it, because if I had said how do you find the podcast, then that would their answer would be correct right yeah, how do you find this?
How do you find that?
Although it's a little less common, I think, in American English, but I said, how did you find it?
So that points to how did you locate it?
Well, I will also say though, like it depends on the context.
Like if you said to them, how did you find it?
And you are talking about like, a specific episode or something.
But then that might mean, how did you like it?
Yeah, so this is actually more tricky.
Or if I recommended a restaurant to you.
You went on Saturday night.
How did you find that restaurant?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That actually could mean two different things, but because I know that you, I recommended it to you.
That's how you found it.
That's how you located it.
Right now I'm asking you about your opinion on that restaurant.
Oh man, this is tough.
Yeah, so we're just opening a can of worms here, Michelle.
So now we got to dive into the can of worms.
We certainly are.
Before we do, we want to remind you guys to hit follow wherever you're listening to the All Ears English podcast.
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Exactly.
All right.
So let's break this down for our listeners.
If you guys just got really confused, don't panic.
It's okay.
We're here for you.
Let's break it down into the buckets.
We've got three different buckets.
We've got, what's the first bucket, Michelle?
The first bucket is to locate or get.
So for example, I found this book on the floor of the bathroom.
Okay.
Yes.
So I found it, right?
Jason found a job.
I'm so excited.
Or, I couldn't find you, were you in the store?
Okay.
Then the second bucket is the think experience opinion bucket, right?
This is about your opinion on something, right?
Yeah.
This is what our listeners thought I was asking, right?
Yeah.
So she found the concert to be extremely boring.
Or I find her super funny.
She's my favorite comedian.
It's your opinion.
It's what you think about them.
You're evaluating them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then the third one is a realization.
Okay.
So I find that I work best when there's a little bit of background noise.
Mm-hmm, or after a few months I found I didn't really want to live in the city anymore.
Yeah, that could be kind of like a sub, a sub meaning of the think experience opinion, but it's a like it happened in a moment right right right, you're having an actual realization a moment.
Um yeah so, but let's talk a little bit about the grammar here.
So okay, if you follow, find with an a right um, Oh sorry.
No, no, no, no, no.
If you follow find with an object and an adjective, it's generally an opinion.
So for example, I find my coworkers friendly.
Yes, that's an opinion.
That is not locating them.
If you follow find with a that clause, it becomes something you've realized.
I find that I sleep best in the pitch black dark.
Oh, I've been dealing with this lately.
I've been dealing with a lot of light pollution because we just moved back into our apartment in the city.
And there's a huge streetlight like right below our bedroom window.
And it's making me crazy.
You have to wear an eye mask.
Yeah, I tried that last night, but they're so annoying on your face.
I love them.
Really?
Okay.
You have to give me a recommendation for a brand.
I can send you the one I have.
I like it.
Okay.
Realization, right?
I mean, you might not always say that.
I mean, you still might say, I find I sleep best, right?
But if you add to that, then it's definitely something you've realized.
Yes.
Okay.
And then what's the last one?
If you follow find with a person or a place or an object, it's generally about location.
So I found my keys in my bag.
Yeah, and be careful, because it's not.
We're not saying.
It's really about tense of the verb, so much right.
Because you could also, I mean, it's not so much about the tense, it's about what comes after.
So the content.
And guys, these are just general rules, but it doesn't, you know, doesn't always work out that way.
So you really, to me, you have to really think about the context, but we'll talk more in a minute.
Tricky.
All right, Rochelle, it's time to talk more.
Let's do it.
So here we go.
I lost my spot, but I'm going.
Oh, there we go.
Okay.
So I found my spot.
Ha ha.
Ha ha.
So the interesting part is how it can be a location, but also an opinion.
So like we talked about, how did you find the seats?
So it could mean, were they good?
Or if you say, how did you find the seats?
It might be, how did you locate them?
Did you look at a map?
Did somebody help you?
That's so tricky.
So here you really have to know who's asking you this.
What did they know previously about you and the seats?
And it's context, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Exactly.
Tell us more.
So, well, we're going to play a little game now, Lindsay.
So are we asking for opinion or location?
Okay.
So here we go.
Yeah.
How did you find those earrings?
Oh, they were in my room.
So clearly here we're looking for location, right?
We've lost something.
Yeah.
Or how did you find the test?
It was really hard.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like if I'm saying how did you find the test?
It sounds like we both know about the test.
I don't know why I would be asking how you located the test.
I mean, what, my teacher put it on the table?
Like, I don't know.
Oh, the only scenario I would think if you're looking for a room, a room Saturday morning SAT, and you know hallway, you're like wondering where's my, where's my test center.
Right?
Like for the IELTS exam?
Yeah.
But yeah, so context plus gut feeling a little bit here.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or sometimes we might use the continuous tense.
So we would say, how are you finding something?
Or I'm finding something X. So we'll do some examples in that, just an opinion.
But that wouldn't, would that ever be used for location, do you think?
It really wouldn't.
Yeah, it really wouldn't, because you can't really be in the process of finding something.
You can be in the process of searching for something, if you right, lose your keys, but you would.
You wouldn't really say like, what's the method you're using for finding your keys right right, that's a little weird.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
So it would be more for the opinion piece.
So I mean we would use present continuous if the situation is still going on or you're still discovering how you feel.
So maybe the change is still occurring or maybe it's temporary.
So, for example... how are you finding the class so far?
Yeah.
Like what do you think of the class so far?
Right.
That's opinion.
How is she finding married life?
What are her opinions on married life?
Or I'm finding this position to be different than I expected.
Okay, good.
So context, context, context.
That's all we can say, guys.
Context and knowing what they know about what they're asking you about, right?
Like get in the person's head, right?
Where are they coming from?
And then you'll be sure to know what they're saying.
So let's do a role play here.
We are at the store looking for a cake.
Yay, fun.
I know, fun, right?
Okay, did you find the cake?
No, I just saw them there yesterday.
Well, maybe they sold out.
Maybe.
I'm finding this grocery store isn't what it used to be.
Yeah, they never seem to have enough stuff.
How did you find the other place from last week?
It was huge, but they definitely had more things in stock.
Okay, all right, tricky here.
So did you find the cake is the first thing you asked me.
So is this about location or is this about opinion?
Yeah, it's about location.
Definitely, right?
It wouldn't make sense if it's an opinion question to say, did you find the cake?
Right.
You'd have to say, how did you find the cake?
Right.
What else?
And then I said, maybe they sold out.
And you said, maybe I'm finding this grocery store isn't what it used to be.
So opinion or realizing something isn't what it used to be.
I'm coming to believe, right?
Yes.
And then you said yeah, they seem to never have enough stuff.
How did you find the other place from last week?
And this one is tricky because i read this.
At first i was like oh, we're asking about location like um, how did you find it?
Like like, who told you about it or where you know where it's located?
But then i thought maybe we're asking about opinion based on the answer um, that one actually could technically be either, don't you think it could?
But in this context we're kind of imagining.
I know maybe you know that we already touched on this.
You know that I went to another place, but I didn't tell you my opinion of it.
Yeah right, so this is really like.
It's like depends how much the other person knows about the situation.
Um Yeah, we are talking about opinions on grocery stores in this thread, this immediate piece.
So that's the clue right there.
But that's tricky.
I mean, that shows you how much we really need to pay attention here.
Yeah, definitely.
But yeah, this is tricky, but really good and useful because you're going to hear this all the time.
So don't be afraid of it.
Just give it a try.
Take a couple of the basic ones and start with those, right?
Love it.
So yeah, guys, check out episode 2630.
That was Don't Have the Heart to Do It, What to Say in English.
Lindsay, takeaway for today.
Wow.
Takeaway.
I love when we get into a topic that seems very straightforward, you know, but it's actually a little bit more nuanced because it gets us into connection even more, because what this is asking us to do is really think about who we're speaking to and what they know about you, what they're likely to be saying to you in that moment.
Right?
So pay special attention to this.
The next time you hear the word, the verb find, really think hard.
Are we asking about location?
Are we asking about opinion or realization?
Right?
Good stuff.
I'm glad we talked about this today.
And guys, I hope you have found that you enjoyed this episode.
Which one was that, Michelle?
That's opinion.
Yeah, exactly.
All right.
Good stuff.
All right.
You have a good day, Michelle.
All right.
You too.
Bye.
Okay.
Bye.
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