This is an all ears English podcast can't stand Mayo plus the best deli in New York City.
Welcome to the all ears English podcast downloaded more than 200 million times.
Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection not perfection with your American hosts Lindsey Mcmahon the English adventurer and Michelle Kaplan the New York Radio girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City USA and to get your transcripts delivered by email every week go to all ears English comm forward -slash subscribe Today we get a listener question about the phrase I can't stand.
Can you say this as a question or as a positive statement?
Find out today. Plus, learn the best place to go to get sandwiches in downtown Manhattan.
Hello there, Michelle.
How's it going? Good.
Good. How are you? Oh my gosh, I am excited to be here on a weekend episode.
It's amazing to be able to provide content for our listeners on the weekend.
Michelle. Isn't that incredible?
Definitely is. It definitely is.
But I have a question for you.
Okay, ready? What is something that you can't stand?
Oh, I can't stand the sound of nails on a chalkboard. Right?
I hate that sound. It's just a lot of people have a visceral reaction to that.
What about you? What's something that you can't stand?
I can't stand a few things.
Well, I can't stand when people aren't kind, when people are rude.
But on the more pet peeve scale, I can't stand the loud chewing.
And I can't stand when people crack their knuckles.
Oh, and living in New York, you really get like a...
When I lived in New York, I just felt like I lived really among the people in a sense like I don't ride the train as much here or the bus or anything.
I don't really leave my house in Denver, New York, I was always out in the city, I was always out in the city around people and so you must kind of feel that way sometimes being out in the city is like things happening sounds of knuckles cracking, is that true?
I feel that way just on my couch because it's all dead.
Oh, my God, I'm always like dog, I'd like I like hit his head.
I'm like, right, right.
But yes, I know there of course thing is in the city that I can't stand like, right?
Just how crowded things could get the weather So but but it's all good So we're gonna talk about this more in a second, but we have something important to say, right Lindsay.
Oh my gosh We want to make sure you guys know that very very soon Google podcasts is going away.
So Google podcast is one of the ways that Some of you guys are currently listening to this show in the Google podcast app, but that is going away very very soon Yeah, I know, but All Home English, of course, is not going away.
That's right. So, we want you to find another way to listen to this podcast. Michelle, what are our choices here?
We have a few choices, many, many choices, right?
Yeah, pick your favorite.
We have Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or you can even watch on YouTube, we put our podcast up on YouTube.
Yeah, if you decide that you want to see us on camera and learn that way, you can go over and hit subscribe on the All Home English channel on YouTube.
And then the cool thing about podcasting is that there are so many other podcast players that you could find and listen to Alright, so guys go and find a new place to consume Allers English because we are going strong with five episodes a week now Michelle So today we have a listener question about the expression can't stand it, right?
So the listener asked two questions, but we're gonna focus on this one today Okay.
Um, we also want to direct you to episode 2171 which is take your English up a notch with this episode.
So that was a quote.
Yeah, go check out that episode guys.
And Michelle, shall I read the listener question?
Yes. Okay. This is the question from Mai from Japan.
Oh, I'm excited. So Mai says, I've been listening to your podcast for three years and it is always very useful for my English studies.
Recently I started a volunteer job as an English teacher for kids.
So especially these recent episodes 2140 and 2146 were so productive for me when I teach my students about those questions in the future.
I appreciate your great work Michelle it is so cool to know that Mai is using all her English and then turning around and teaching kids.
I love that. I love that too.
Yes, that's great. Wow!
What a basic thing to teach kids.
It's awesome. Alright, here we go.
So, Mai has some questions.
She says, there's a phrase, I can't stand it.
It means I can't endure it, right?
Is it okay to use it in an affirmative and an interrogative sentence like I can't stand the noise instead of, I can endure the noise?
To be honest, I've never heard of it in those sentences.
Ooh, Michelle, that's an interesting question.
Yeah, absolutely. This is great.
the cool thing is I planned this episode yesterday and after that all I can hear as people say can't stand it this is extremely common extremely common right Lindsay oh you're right Michelle you're right it is everywhere and that's why I'm so glad that Mai picked it up and but there are you know there are certain phrases that can only be said in certain ways it's true and that's really what Mai is asking about so again let's just talk about what it means again.
So when you say I can't stand X, what does it mean, Michelle?
You don't like something or it makes you uncomfortable.
It's unlikeable to you in some way.
It's just like that sound.
So I can't stand something.
But this is much different than just saying like oh, I'm not a big fan of something.
I don't like this. This is really emphatic.
this is very emotional sounding right Lindsay yeah it's really it's in a strong statement when it's wrong you should save it for the things that you feel pretty passionate about when you want to really make a statement if you just feel kind of neutral about some so let's do some examples Lindsay what's the first one this is true for me my mom can't stand snakes she's so afraid of them for an interesting place to be if you can't did snakes.
My mom I can't she can't even look at a picture of a snake.
Okay, that bad. She has a real phobia.
Boy, okay. What else?
What else? I can't stand this cold weather anymore.
Yeah, I was having this conversation with my partner last week.
We were saying, could we just bypass winter and move somewhere that it doesn't happen?
Like California. We said maybe we could even though we're winter sports people.
Maybe we could just give it up, you know?
I could give it up.
I could give it up for sure.
That would be great.
Well, that's what my parents do.
They spend part of the year in Florida.
Right, and what's the term for that?
We could do another episode.
Snowbird. That's a great term that our listeners, especially if you're living in the US on the East Coast, you should know the term snowbird. We'll do another episode about seasonal movements, things like that.
Love it. Yes, and what's another example.
All right. He couldn't stand the way his girlfriend spoke to waiters and waitresses.
Mm -hmm. Yeah, I feel like that's a red flag.
If you're dating someone and you hear that they're rude to waiters and waitresses.
It's something about that, that you could kind of tell a lot about a person.
Well, especially because on a first date or two, you should be on your best behavior.
So that is their best behavior.
What's their worst behavior?
Right, right, right.
Exactly. So those are a few examples.
you could also say I can't take it right, let's see.
Oh, I can't take it when blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, basically means the same thing.
Yeah, totally. I love it.
And what else, Michelle?
Let's use it in a very slightly different way.
I wanted to highlight this because sometimes it's used more so about being unable to survive something like kind of like the endure examples or you can't get over something.
So, for example, we can't stand to lose this account.
So, that's a little bit different.
So, this is interesting because this is talking about something that could happen in the future.
True. Yes. We won't be able to come back from this.
We can't stand to have this happen.
Exactly. We have no margin for error here.
This has to work out.
If it doesn't, it might kill the company.
for example, right?
So I can't stand to get another F on an exam.
It means maybe you're saying this on the day of the exam.
Right? Right. Right.
And maybe you've had some not so great grades already.
So you're saying I can't stand, you know, then I won't I might not actually pass the class.
Exactly. So that's that's kind of slightly different in terms of what you're saying.
So our listeners should take note guys take note of that there's two slightly different ways to say can't stand?
Yeah? Yep. Okay, Michelle, we're gonna answer our listeners question directly here, right?
Yep. So do we say we can stand something?
And that is what our listener, Mai asked directly, right?
Am I right? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So what's the answer?
I don't think we use it as much. We could, I thought of a way of how it's used.
I mean, I think that the easy answer is not really, right?
But if you want to say it, this is how you would do it.
You might say something like, I can stand the noise, but it would probably be connected to something else.
For example, I can stand the noise, but I can't handle the lights.
That's a good point.
So just keeping it short, the chunk is I can't stand this.
So if you're going to say, I can stand this, you need to give a bit more context and build out your statement.
Okay. Right. Yeah. You wouldn't, you don't normally just say, Oh Lindsey, I can stand this.
It's usually connected to something else.
So it just, it wouldn't be a statement by itself.
Yeah. So, yeah. So it's, that would be very high level and it would work, but we're going to give our listeners that we're going to give you guys a few other options that are actually better than using can stand in the, in the affirmative.
Right. Right. So what's the first one?
All right, here we go.
So, I'm okay with X, all right?
So, I'm okay with the early mornings, but I can't stand the late nights.
I like how we made that contrast. Right.
Right, right, right.
Exactly. Yes. So, this is something you're – I'm okay with something.
Right. That would be pretty common. The next thing you can say is I can take, right?
I can take rain, but I can't stand snow.
Yeah, this is good for our listeners guys when you're talking about what's your ideal client.
It's a client climate.
What's your ideal client?
What's your ideal climate?
Where do you want to live?
What is your ideal city?
If you're thinking of moving, well, I can't stand the snow but I can take the rain, right?
Right. Great phrase to have. Right.
I can take X. I think that one is also a little bit better if it's connected to a second part of the statement.
Yeah, I think yeah, and what's the last one?
So X doesn't bother me, right?
So for example, hard work doesn't bother me, but I can't stand tests.
I kind of feel that way, too.
Me too, I always hated I had like test anxiety.
Yeah, who doesn't? Well, one question here that Mai had too, can we say this in the interrogative?
Like can we ask the question?
Can you stand So can you stand the snow in the winter, Michelle, in New York?
Can you stand the snow in the winter?
I mean, you could, but it's not that common. Yeah, like you can say it guys.
You can get away with it.
It works. It's just there are better things to say, right?
Yeah. And we could do another episode probably to go into that direction because it's too vocabulary for today.
We want to make sure you guys remember what you learn, right?
But maybe we'll do a follow up to this episode.
I think that would be good.
To talk about the interrogative question that Mai had but first we have a role play Michelle.
Do it. So here we are friends and we are waiting in line to get a sandwich. Here we go.
Okay. Oh man. I can't stand this line.
I'm okay with this line.
I just hope the sandwich is worth it.
Well it's supposed to be the best. I just hope there's not too much mayo.
I can't take it when there's too much mayo.
I can take mayo but I can't take cheese is makes me think of is cats deli still open in New York.
Yeah, the most famous New York shop sandwich shop.
Okay, is that on the Lower East Side?
I believe so. Okay where which movie is it?
I don't know. I didn't know that there was a movie film there.
Oh, cats Delhi. Yeah, it's where the Billy crystal Meg Ryan.
Oh, you got mail No, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, I can't think it right now.
No, no. Okay. All right.
Well guys, Cas Delhi is one of the most famous sandwich bar restaurant sandwich shops in all Delhi.
Yeah, Delhi's Delhi's yeah, definitely go there and try a sandwich. What is their fame?
Do they have a famous?
Do you know Michelle?
I'm asking you? I don't know.
I don't know that much about it.
But yes, I know it's all right, go check it out guys.
All right, Michelle.
What did we say here in this episode?
So we you're waiting in line and you said I can't stand this line.
Yeah. And you said I'm okay with the line.
Now this would be a good place for intonation because I made a strong statement.
I said, I just can't stand this line.
And you contrasted what I said by saying I'm okay with the line.
I just hope the sandwich is worth it.
Interesting. So yeah, we're putting the emphasis on line and sandwich. Exactly.
So guys, this is connection right here because Because with my intonation, I'm acknowledging I heard you Michelle, what you can't stand and I'm saying I'm contrasting my statement with yours.
Okay? Really good. Yes.
Yes. And then I said, I can't take it when there's, oh no you said, I can't take it when there's too much mayo.
Lindsay, do you like mayonnaise?
I actually like mayo.
I don't know. I mean sometimes there's too much mayo, but in sandwiches I like a good amount of mayo and mustard. You know, get it in there because I don't like a dry sandwich. that s always a bummer, I think.
I like mustard but not mayo.
Okay. Everyone has strong feelings about mustard mayo, for sure.
It s true, it s true.
Yeah. And then you said I can take mayo but I can t take cheese.
So now we re really and obviously guys, you probably wouldn t hear us repeat these phrases again, right?
Yeah, yeah. As we always say on the show but just to show you an example to show what you like and what you don t like, what you hate.
Yes, exactly. All right.
This is great. This is a great question, Lindsey.
What's the takeaway for today?
Yeah, so there's a lot we can do here, but focus on connection.
Focus on – obviously it's great to express what you don't like, what you hate with I can't stand.
For my – for now, I would stick to the chunk I can't stand X.
Use that. Experiment with that, and then you might hear natives using it differently in the interrogative or in the question format.
But stick with the, what you know is correct for now until you hear other ways of using it, I would say.
Yes, exactly. And we could do a follow -up in the future.
And, but this was just so much fun.
I loved this episode.
Yeah, we got to talk about Cats Deli, the best sandwich shop in New York and all this good stuff.
So, all right, Michelle.
I will see you very soon on the next episode.
You have a good Saturday.
Thank you. You too.
Bye. See you next time.
