This is an All Ears English podcast episode 23 99 watch your English vocabulary.
Take off 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 host Aubrey Carter, the IELTS Whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English Adventurer.
Coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
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Do you ever try using a phrasal verb to push your language limits but find out that it was misinterpreted?
Today, we answer a question from a listener about the phrasal verb take off and share three distinct ways to use it.
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Hello, Aubrey. How's it going today?
I'm great, Lindsay, how are you?
Good. Excited to be here.
Aubrey, when's the last time and you flew in an airplane?
Hmm, last year, I suppose.
I kind of hate, especially like takeoff and landing.
I get kinda nervous.
I don't have this idea that like the landing gear is not gonna come out.
What about you? Do you get nervous when a plane takes off?
I have like a split second of, oh my gosh, what if this doesn't go well, but I really don't, yeah.
Just a second of panic.
Usually, I've already got my series he's on my iPad rolling and tuned out to the world completely.
So I'm like, if I bother to think about what's going on, but no, I don't get nervous when a plane gets off.
Well, you guys will notice we're using this phrasal verb takeoff, which you've surely heard about this meaning, but there are several meanings for takeoff and we got a really great question about a misunderstanding that can happen.
So we want to clear this up so that Everyone is aware of this.
And share some of the more common meanings of this that you wanna make sure you're using.
Yes, and we love when we get questions from our listeners.
This one is from Mateos.
Thank you so much Mateos for writing in to us.
Guys, you can send your question to support at allerseenglish .com, right Aubry?
Absolutely, yeah, and you wanna read us the question Lindsay?
All right, he says, hey, AEE team, I could use some help on how to ask politely and casually How long a person is gonna stick around for example?
I was traveling in Australia I'm Brazilian and I'm meeting up with some friends and this guy introduced me to his girlfriend She's American and I asked her when will you take off?
She raged out of the room saying right now and I ran after her saying I meant What is your flight back to America cuz I'm flying to America next week, too It was awkward, but I had time to fix it up I didn't know humans could take off too.
Could you give me natural phrases on this topic?
Thanks, Mateus, love it.
It's such a good question and I can totally see this happening because it's not super common but this does exist. And if you said like can you take off, it's rude and means like can you leave right now please because I don't like you or something interesting.
I can understand why this girl interpreted it that way especially depending on the tone if it accidentally sounded like he was saying like when will you take off, it can happen.
So it's vital that you guys are aware of this meaning.
Yeah and I would also say for Mateus, don't feel too bad, maybe she was having a bad day, maybe she was just not in a good space.
Sometimes when we hear something, we can interpret it in a more negative way.
So it's not all you Mateus, don't worry.
Right, good point, and I love what Mateus did here, Like when you see there's been a miscommunication, don't just let it go, don't just let her leave and be like, oh, well guess there wasn't, right?
He like chased her down and was like, wait, clearly something was lost in translation here, and they talked it out and everything was fine after.
So that's impressive.
That is impressive, that means that Mateo's values connection, which is our value too.
So that is the key right there, you can always rescue the connection if you make some kind of mistake.
Absolutely, yes, we wanna make sure you guys don't miss all of our great episodes with this value of connection not perfection.
So be sure to hit follow right here on the podcast. All right.
So, we're going to talk about, is it three distinct meanings of takeoff today, Aubrey?
Yes. We're going to share three meanings of takeoff, and then we're going to ask answer Mateus' question asking for natural phrases to say this instead, right?
Instead of when will you take off, what could he have said?
Yes, I love it. Alright, so what's the first meaning?
So these are three different buckets, you know, totally different, and we're going to keep them separate in our mind.
So we're going to talk about the first one right now.
What is it? Yeah, and the first one is what we talked about in the top of the episode when we're talking about an airplane taking off, right?
It means, like, to become airborne.
And we use this for both planes and, like, birds.
Like anything that could take flight, we say it could take off.
The plane will take off at 8 p .m. What time is takeoff?
And it's interesting how it's both a phrasal verb and a noun, right?
The plane will take off at 8.
What time is takeoff?
That would be written as one word and would be a noun.
Tricky. I love that.
Very interesting. Yeah, normally on your airplane ticket, it says departs, right?
The plane, you know, it's a more fancy terminology for the same meaning, you know, this flight departs at 1301, for example.
right? Exactly, this always happens with phrasal verbs that there's a usually a different verb, maybe a little more formal, but then we have all these phrasal verbs for the same meaning.
Exactly. I don't know if I would really say to a friend or a family.
What time does your plane depart?
No, no, right. No, no, no. When do you take off?
What time does your plane leave, maybe would be another thing we might say, right?
Right, but you will hear this at the airport, right?
Departures. You'll see the signs for that and the pilot or you know that when they're up leveling their language they might say, the plane departs at 8 p .m. Or I always thought it was kind of weird if you join a tour or something, they'll say in the itinerary, we depart the hotel at 8 – it just feels really formal.
That's always a case of like written English.
When we're writing a brochure, when we're writing instructions we're trying to use these more formal verbs instead of the phrasal verb.
Yes, so that's it for becoming airborne or essentially kind of leaving a place, right?
Okay, so what would be the second one, Aubrey?
Yeah, the second one is interesting.
It means to become successful.
So for example, I could say my Spanish has really been taking off since I've started speaking more to people I meet in Mexico.
Since you started playing card games on the street, I love it.
Exactly. Improving, right?
Becoming more successful.
You guys, your English has been taking off since you started listening to All Ears English.
Yes. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, Aubrey playing card games on the street, that was in another episode of All Ears English.
So go backwards by a couple of weeks and you'll find that episode about Aubrey's trip to Mexico a few weeks ago.
It was amazing. It was so fun to really feel like I could like have real conversations and connect in Mexico instead of just like listening and not understanding much of what was said.
It changes everything.
Once you feel that connection, connection is that turning point where because we want that as human beings, we want to be connected.
So it changes use your entire trip.
Right? Absolutely. All right.
This is the one Mateusz asked about, which is leave. And we do use this a couple of different ways.
If you tell someone to take off, it means you want them to leave and is blunt and unkind.
We do this very rarely.
You would maybe do this if you had been fighting, arguing, someone's at your home, you might tell them to take off.
You might see this in movies and podcasts, but be very careful because it is very rude and abrupt.
Or it could also be a way of softening what you're saying.
Like, for this first example, you know, let's say you're hosting a party, Aubrey, and I come to you with my partner and I say, oh, we're gonna take off, it's been a great party.
That's not really rude.
That's just softening the fact that you're saying we're gonna leave. Oh, that is very different, right?
So we have that first way if you're going to tell someone else to take off.
Rude. Yes. say it for ourselves all the time.
This is not rude, right?
I'm gonna take off.
Which time should we take off?
That's what's fascinating.
If we say it about ourselves or if we're just asking, if it's when I'm leaving, there is no rudeness.
There is no bluntness.
Like you said, it's even softened from leave instead of what time are we leaving?
What time should we take off?
Interesting. Right, but I think also, even if I said to someone, hey, what time are you taking off?
I don't think it has to be rude.
I think it could be rude depending on your vibe, what you've said before that, what the conversation was, it's all about the tone.
Yeah. And their relationship.
And yeah, it is, it is interesting and sort of surprising that someone misinterpreted what Mateus was saying because if the tone were friendly and light -hearted, you could say, you know, what time are you taking off and, or when, when are you taking off.
I think the tricky thing is when, because if you say what time, then it's more clearly like what time are you leaving today if you say when are you taking off then I could see the misunderstanding because we don't really say that if you're at a party you won't say when are you taking off we'd say what time.
What time are you taking off?
Yeah and there has to have been some context too maybe you had a conversation earlier and I know let's say I know you're going to the airport maybe you have a trip and you're leaving the party early then coming up and saying oh what time are you taking off for the airport right that's not rude.
Just blatantly, you haven't talked to the person yet, when are you taking off, it's sort of weird. Out of nowhere, yes, then it could be misinterpreted.
It's like they feel like you're telling them they should leave, which that's what is rude.
And it's interesting, we can also, of course, talk about someone else.
You might say he took off early, must've been tired, or do you know why he took off early, right?
Then there's no rudeness there.
Yes, so most of that verb, take off, is not rude at all.
It's just more casual than saying leave. There might be select scenarios where it could be rude, but you know, this is English.
It makes me think about, this might be more common in Canada, there was a comedy many years ago called Strange Brew, did you ever see that, Lindsay?
No I haven't seen that.
It's with Rick Moranis, and another comedian, I can't remember his name, it's so funny but silly, it pokes fun a lot at the Canadian accent, but in a lighthearted way, and the characters keep saying, take off A, take off A, and so they're adding that Canadian sort of A and they say take off to someone to mean like not really that they're telling them to leave but it's more like um you know either I don't like what you said or stop saying that they're like interesting or a lot of different meanings so interesting be a little different in Canada.
Rick Moran is all I remember him from is honey I shrunk the kids.
Right? Wasn't he the one?
And he's in Ghostbusters.
Oh yeah, that's right.
That's so good. Such an actor of the 80s and 90s right?
So good. He's a genius.
What else do we need to know here, Aubrey?
Anything? Yeah. Well, we want to share some better options, right?
As Mateus, he just wanted to know how much longer she would be there, when is she headed back to America, when they're leaving.
So there are some better options here.
You could just say, how long are you staying?
And because the emphasis is more on staying, like how long you'll be staying, this is more, you know, there's no chance of this being seen as an implication that you think they should leave. Yeah, you can take out the phrasal verb entirely and just use a more objective textbook style verb, right?
You can also say, like you said, how long are you planning to stay is another good one, like we said.
Yes, yes. And I think you could also first mention when you are leaving because Mateus had said, you know, I was thinking about when I'm leaving and wondering in context, so this would have been great for Mateus to say like, unfortunately, I'm taking off next week.
Like, what about you?
Or like, what about you?
How long are you staying?
Right? If you can give that context, then the scroll would understand more and hopefully the misunderstanding would be totally avoided.
Yeah, I think that's the problem here is that there wasn't enough context.
There needs to have been a prior conversation or something else said before using that phrasal verb, but it's very subtle here.
It's very subtle. I don't know.
We understand how this could happen, for sure, right?
But there are some strategies here give more context to use different phrases to try and avoid that happening.
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Your career is really taking off." Oh, thanks.
I'm glad to be done.
I finished the last chapter as our plane took off for Belize.
What a fun way to celebrate.
I've got to take off in a bit, but it was good to see you.
You too. So, we used all of them here.
You can imagine you can see how they could all come up in one conversation and yet they mean such different things.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
And there's nothing rude about this.
There's nothing short, nothing rude, nothing misinterpreted here, right?
Right, exactly, but maybe at the end if you said when are you taking off?
There is a chance I could be like why do you think I've overstayed my welcome?
That's an American culture, that's a big mistake, big social mistake.
We should do – I have got a funny story about that, but we should do another episode, Aubrey, on overstaying your welcome in American culture in parties.
And I can't wait to hear your story.
Did you overstay your welcome some time?
know, we lost our social cues where my partner lost social cues to the pandemic a little bit.
You know, we all got a little rusty in different ways throughout the pandemic.
Totally, totally. That's so funny, Hip Follow Guys so that you can hear Lindsay's story.
That's going to be a good one I think.
That's a good one. So let's go through this.
Yes. So here you said, your career is really taking off, you're an author and I've heard that you have this book published and this is that meaning of like being successful, something really amazing happening, this is a kind thing to say, you know, oh, man, I feel like your career is really taking off.
Yes, it's doing great, right?
It's on the upswing.
Exactly, yes. And then you said, oh, thanks, I'm glad to be done, I finished the last chapter as our plane took off for Belize, and that is the plane departing, the time on your ticket, right?
Yes, exactly. That would be a nice flight after if you're able to finish the book as it takes off, you're like, sweet, done, you don't have to think about it anymore.
I know, I know, I tried to do that once.
I tried to purchase something that had like a window of time that I had to buy it as the plane was taking off and it was the most stressful thing ever because I was gonna pay more if I didn't buy it.
Yeah. I was gonna be in the East Coast for hours.
Right, it's too late at that point.
So I stress it. And now that's probably because now you can get wifi on a plane more often but not that long ago, you couldn't.
No cell service had to power down your phones and that wasn't possible.
I've never had good luck with wifi.
Have you? Maybe it's...
It's not great usually.
It's not great, and that's so frustrating because you start working and you get into it and then oh, it's out.
I don't do well with that kind of scenario.
No, no. Okay, and then you said, what a fun way to celebrate.
And then I said, I've gotta take off in a bit, but it was good to see you.
Super friendly, and here I'm just saying, I have to leave in a bit.
Exactly, and you could say I'm leaving in a bit, but there's a reason that we often say take off.
If it is a little softened, a little more friendly, I often would opt for this.
Oh, I'm taking off in a bit.
I got to take off in a bit.
Yes. So what's our takeaway today?
What's our final message for our listeners, Aubrey?
Yes, you guys have heard this from us before, but phrasal verbs are so tricky.
One like, take off, has so many meanings.
These were just a few of many.
There are a lot of things that take off means in English, but today's meanings are really great to connect, first of all, for you to avoid this possible misunderstanding.
But also, right, all of these, you can see how you can jump start a conversation, especially about something being successful, something taking off for someone.
What a great thing to ask about.
Yes and also, I wanna make sure that Mateus and our listeners don't shy away from higher -level language like phrasal verbs or idioms, just because of a moment like this, right.
This is actually how you get better.
You have to make these mistakes and I would argue a lot of the responsibility was on the other side.
that person took it the wrong way.
Most of the time, people will know what you're saying and support you – I agree – and continue that connection.
Right? And follow Mateus' example, right?
Pay attention to cues.
He saw that this girl had been offended.
There was some kind of misunderstanding, and then he made the effort to clear it up to make sure that everything was figured out.
So everything, like you can do that, right?
There may be these misunderstandings, but like be honest and open about it and work it out.
Well, and it comes back to our philosophy.
It's not in the moment where you make the mistake that matters, it's how the connection ends, how the interchange ends.
Does it end in more connection or less connection?
And Mateusz went after that person and made sure to be clear and I love that.
So it's okay to make mistakes along the way as long as you come away feeling more connected to the person.
Exactly right, his focus was on making sure that connection was strong when they both left there and he successfully did that in spite of some little language difficulty.
What a great example for all of us.
Yeah, very impressive.
Kind of amazing. I love it.
I love it. Alright.
Yeah. So for our listeners hit the follow button.
If you believe in our mission, our vision, our value, which is connection, not perfection.
All right. Good stuff.
Aubrey. You have a good day.
See you next time. All right.
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