This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 1298.
Finally give the word, wouldn't the attention it deserves?
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Hey, Michelle, I'm doing great.
I'm here.
The sun is out in Denver, so I'm feeling good.
I'm feeling good.
That is good.
That is good.
Oh, my gosh.
So, Lindsay, I went to the store yesterday, and wouldn't you know it, I had left my wallet at home.
No, are you serious?
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh, I've had I've definitely had it happen.
And yeah.
So yesterday the person behind me saw that I only had three things and I actually offered if I wanted to have them pay for my thing.
Oh my gosh, really?
Oh, I didn't know people were that friendly on the East Coast.
I have to tell you the truth.
This wasn't yesterday, but this did happen recently.
I just have to make a confession because i feel like maybe i talked about it on the show before and then somebody's gonna catch me.
This has happened to me at least twice, you know.
But yeah, they were like oh, do you?
You know, you only have three things can i pay for you?
And it i so.
So i felt so bad, but no, i didn't.
I didn't do it because i live close to the grocery store anyway.
But It's amazing how you get to the end and then you're taking out your wallet and you're like uh-oh, and you get this feeling.
Has that ever happened to you?
Actually, it has.
I don't think it's happened to me.
It may have, but I'm sorry that it's happened to you.
That's awful.
But it's so nice that that person offered to pay.
I'm surprised.
I know.
I was really surprised.
I was really touched, actually, that somebody would think to do that.
They said, you know, you only have a few things.
And I mean, I said no, but I mean, you know, it did kind of like restore my faith in humanity.
Yeah.
That's good to know.
That's good to know.
Oh my gosh.
All right.
Well, this is a good topic.
Is this what we're talking about today?
Is this going out of your house without your wallet?
Is that the topic of the day?
No, we are going to talk about an expression that I used.
I said, and wouldn't you know it, I left my wallet at home.
And we're talking about this because we used this in episode 1240.
Because we used it in a role play about Brad Pitt, and we're talking about wood because other listeners have asked about these things.
Right.
So we had an Instagram question about wouldn't you know it?
And that is from Sharzad, who is a PhD student at the University of Florida.
And this person heard 1240 with wouldn't you know it, and they wanted to understand the phrase and get more help with would.
And, you know, I noticed that we've had some other listeners writing in about wood.
So also thanks to Andre Louis for his question about wood.
So we're going to get into wood.
When did you know it?
All these kinds of things today.
Absolutely, Michelle.
And guys, by the way, if you're not on Instagram, go and find us.
A couple of people have mentioned they've had a hard time finding us on Instagram.
But all you have to do is type in All Ears English and look for that yellow that comes up, and you will find us.
We have more than 10,000 followers over there.
Lots of people.
And Michelle, it's amazing the comments, the way people are engaging.
People are writing very long comments and just showing us how much they love All Ears English.
And we love you guys too.
So go over there.
We do.
It's fun.
I love reading the comments and interacting with people on there.
Yeah, it's so new.
It's so different from anything else that we do.
So guys, go over and find us on Instagram and start interacting.
Start commenting on our videos and photos.
Awesome.
So, yeah, I love when I get Instagram questions.
And you know, I feel like this is a listener who's clearly very engaged with All Ears English and with you know his.
I'm guessing it's a guy, but I don't know.
So his or her own learning.
So...
I think that this is great, because not only is this person listening to the podcast, but then they are bringing their questions over to Instagram, which is so perfect.
And it's like all the worlds are colliding in the best way.
It's so good.
It's so great.
I love it.
I love it.
All right.
So let's get into it.
So, Lindsay, what does wouldn't you know it mean?
Good question, Michelle.
I mean, it basically means surprise.
I can't believe that this happened.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Ah, wouldn't you know it.
It's kind of a way of saying that you're gonna say something kind of crazy.
Say that something kind of crazy or interesting happened.
It's introducing an event.
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
And guys, definitely listen to 1240 for more about this concept, right?
So that's 1240.
Keep your audience focused on you.
Spice up your stories.
Absolutely.
You can get that easily over at the app, guys, at allearsenglish.com slash bonuses.
Right now, the app's available for iOS.
Go and type 1240 into the search bar.
Perfect.
Awesome.
So we've done other episodes on wood.
I mean, we did a whole thing on conditionals where you would definitely use wood, right?
But besides that, what else have we done, Lindsay?
Well, we've done episode 869.
Would you attend a fake wedding?
That's where we found an article about fake weddings being a big hit.
I think in Argentina.
Was that right, Michelle?
Do you remember?
I remember, though.
That was a really interesting concept.
I remember that episode.
Yeah, we also did episode 1015.
What would make your day?
How to use the phrase to describe what brings you happiness.
Guys, those are really good episodes that you have to go back and check out.
Definitely.
All right.
So let's talk about wood.
So there are so many uses of this word.
So, you know, here are a couple.
So one is hypothetical situations, which is kind of like the episodes that we mentioned already.
So like they would order 10 cars if they had the money.
Right.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
Okay.
Hypothetic.
Yeah.
And we've done a whole series too on the conditional, right, Michelle?
Right, right, right.
We really got into that.
So definitely type conditional into the search bar on this site and you will find those episodes popping up.
Yeah, exactly.
And so what would be another situation?
Well, it's funny that we're talking about this, because I was literally just with a student and I was going over this with her.
So ordering at a restaurant.
So we have like, for example, I'd like the chicken sandwich, please.
So instead of saying I would like...
You could say I'd, right, Lindsay?
Yeah, I'd like, exactly.
I wouldn't take the time to say I would like.
It would take too long.
Right, right, right.
Yeah, and what's another time we might use it?
Well, to talk about the past, right?
Using would for something that did happen and using wouldn't for something that didn't happen.
Right.
So talking about habits in the past, like when I was a kid, I would pretend I was a teacher.
Did you do that, Michelle?
I did.
You know what?
I was obsessed with the, remember the overhead projector?
Yeah.
Would you like pretend to pull it down and make your pets like sit in the room and watch you and be the students in the class?
They were dolls and I had a pink notebook and I did grade them.
And.
But I remember I was obsessed with not pulling down the overhead, but I was obsessed with the pens.
On the transparency thing oh remember, like how those pens, how it would look even now just thinking about it, i remember those yeah, yeah.
So i would actually buy transparencies and get pens and it wasn't an overhead but i would write on them.
That's so funny.
That's so funny.
Oh my gosh.
Right right, right.
Or another example here is he was so angry he wouldn't even talk to me.
So something that would not happen in the past, you can use it.
Okay, I love that.
I love that.
So we're kind of getting a nice overview today for our listeners of all the ways that we use would right, Michelle?
Yeah, I mean, it's super dynamic.
So guys, in general, would is used like this.
Would plus base verb, right?
Like, I would like the steak, right?
I mean, are there any other things you can think of, Lindsay, that we haven't gone over?
I'm sure there are more uses of it, but I wanted to go over some of the main ones today.
Yeah.
I'm not sure if this fits into.
Yeah, it does fit in.
But I was thinking giving advice.
I guess it fits into the hypothetical situation.
Right.
But saying something like oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you, or if I were you, I would take a vacation around March because the weather gets bad in New York.
Right.
That kind of thing.
Giving advice.
But it is hypothetical, I suppose.
Right, right, right.
Yeah.
I mean, so but basically it's used in this kind of form.
And, you know, you who knows how else one might hear it.
But we're going over some of the basics today.
But guys, you know, in all news English, we also really love learning in chunks or expressions.
Right.
So before we get into it, I'm going to.
Sorry, before we go, which is not yet.
We're not going yet.
We're not going yet.
So we are going to do some phrases and chunks with wouldn't actually.
OK.
Yeah.
Wouldn't you know it.
So I'm going to keep with the wouldn't theme because I think that this word often gets neglected.
People ask a lot about would, but not always about wouldn't.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
And I also think that these ones as I'm glancing at them quickly, a little preview that we're going to show you guys are actually more common than wouldn't you know it.
I think so, too.
Yeah.
I don't know if wouldn't you know it is all that common these days.
It kind of sounds something like something a grandfather might say.
Wouldn't you know it?
Wouldn't you know it?
Yeah.
I don't know that I say that.
But so let's get into these, Lindsay.
So what is the first one?
Okay.
So this one definitely, I say, I wouldn't put it past him or her or someone, right?
I wouldn't put it past.
You believe someone would do something because maybe they've done things like that before.
That's the idea, right?
You expect that something would be within their character to do.
Okay.
Right.
So like if I said to you, Lindsay, did she really skip class?
Well, I wouldn't put it past her.
You know she hates school.
It means you think that she's capable of doing that.
Usually it's a bad thing.
Right, right, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Another one is wouldn't be surprised, right?
I feel like I say this a lot.
Yeah, very similar to the last one.
You know, so this can be more general, I guess, right, Michelle?
So, for example, is it going to snow tomorrow?
I wouldn't be surprised.
The weather has been so unpredictable that nothing will shock me now.
Oh man, you want to see unpredictable weather, you should come out to Denver.
It's crazy.
It's insane, right?
So we get like 80 degrees one day and then snowing and 30 the next.
I never saw swings like that on the East Coast.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, literally.
And it's 80 degrees, but it feels like 90 because the sun is so strong.
And then within 12 hours, it starts to smell like cow poop, because apparently there's this thing in Denver, you know it's going to snow and it smells like cow poop.
Because what?
Yeah, because the winds start to move from the north.
I don't know.
Someone explained it to me.
I don't totally understand it, but then all of a sudden it swings 40, 50 degrees difference.
It's amazing.
Wow.
That is really crazy.
I did not know that.
Anyways, side point, side point.
Yeah, no, I like it.
That's interesting.
Lindsay, what's another one?
All right.
Someone wouldn't hurt a fly.
This is nice, right?
Yeah.
What does it mean?
It means that someone's very kind, right?
They wouldn't hurt anyone.
They wouldn't even hurt a fly.
Right, right, right.
So, for example, I could say, I think Paul said some pretty rude things about his boss today.
And I might say, are you kidding?
No way.
He's so nice.
He wouldn't hurt a fly.
Okay.
Yeah.
So guys, it's not always about like physically hurting someone can also be like emotionally hurting someone.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
And then the last one is I wouldn't count on it, especially also super, super natural, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, yeah, this one is like don't hope for or expect something.
Yes.
So, like, for example, if I say, do you think the noise will stop soon?
I wouldn't count on it.
These people party until 3 a.m. at least.
Awful neighbors, right?
Awful neighbors.
Yeah, yeah, that's not good.
That's not good.
Yeah.
Nice.
So yeah Lindsay, you know, today we've kind of taken a look at would and wouldn't.
We've gone over wouldn't, you know it?
Um, you know, we've talked a little bit about the grammar and typical situations um, so we did a little bit of grammar today and then we also went into these expressions, these chunks.
So should we do a role play?
Yeah, let's do it, michelle.
Here we go.
So what's going on here in this role play?
Well Lindsay, you got your phone stolen in class.
Oh my gosh.
And we are trying to guess who did it.
Okay, here we go.
All right.
So I came back and wouldn't you know it, my phone was gone.
Oh no, who do you think took it?
I wouldn't put it past Emily.
She likes playing jokes.
Maybe she'll give it back tomorrow.
I wouldn't count on it.
I don't think someone takes a phone for more than five minutes if they're just joking.
You think it's really gone?
I wouldn't be surprised, but you never know.
Ask around and go to Lost and Found.
You're right.
Besides, Emily's a practical joker, but you wouldn't hurt a fly.
Okay.
Poor Emily.
I know.
I know.
That would be awful to have your phone stolen, by the way.
Oh, God, my worst fear.
It's happened to me.
You know, I think I've talked about it.
It did happen to you.
Yeah.
I think you told, oh, in Amsterdam, right?
Yes.
Very good.
Very good.
In the quiz of Michelle's life, you just got 100%.
Well, I'm sure some of our listeners did too.
You know, we have some listeners who've been listening for three, four, five years.
It's amazing.
It's amazing.
So they probably know that too.
But anyways.
All right.
So what did we say here, Michelle?
The first one, what was it?
You said, so I came back and wouldn't you know it, my phone was gone.
Yes, I like that.
I like that.
And then I said, I wouldn't put it past Emily, meaning I think she's capable of stealing the phone.
Right, right, right.
And then you said maybe she'll give it back tomorrow.
And I said, I wouldn't count on it means like don't expect that.
Right.
I don't think you should expect that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
And then I said I wouldn't be surprised.
Okay, good.
And then you said Emily's a practical joker, but she wouldn't hurt a fly.
Yeah, meaning she doesn't harm people or things.
She's very peaceful and kind.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Oh, my gosh.
These are fun.
I think these are very common.
Guys, you know, go out and use them today.
Lindsay, what's the takeaway for today?
Yeah, I mean guys, this word would is super dynamic and don't automatically go in your mind to a place of drudgery of conditionals, if you hear, would right.
Right.
Don't start to don't hear wood and then start to freak out and kind of calculate.
Should I use the first conditional, the third conditional?
No.
Learn these as chunks that you can use, because I got to tell you, these are so natural and native.
We use them all the time.
So you want to get to that place, too.
Right.
Definitely.
Yeah.
This is a good one, guys.
Definitely get the transcripts for today and, you know, make sure that you, you know, try and use one a day.
See how it goes.
Yeah.
I love that.
I love that.
All right.
Well, Michelle, it's been fun recording with you today.
All right.
You too, Lindsay.
Have a good one.
Bye, guys.
All right.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye.
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