This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2517.
Did you spend a fortune?
How to talk about your expensive purchases.
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Cocktails, avocado toast and coffee.
What do all of these have in common?
Depending on where you go, they can cost a small fortune.
Today, we learn how to use this phrase and related ones to connect in conversations about cost.
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Hi, Lindsay, how are you?
Hey, Michelle, I'm glad to be here on the mic with you today.
I'm doing good.
How's everything with you?
Everything is good.
Everything is good.
Lindsay, I have a question.
Yeah.
What is something you think costs a fortune but shouldn't?
Oh, my gosh.
You know what?
Yesterday I was at the dentist's office and getting a cavity filled.
And my dentist and his assistant were talking about how expensive cocktails are.
I'm not drinking these days, but cocktails have gotten really expensive, Michelle.
He was saying that he noticed the cocktails are like $20 each now.
That's a fortune.
That's kind of a fortune, that it that does that cost a fortune, right?
A small fortune right.
Um yeah, i was gonna say not cocktails, but yeah, i would say just in general, restaurant prices yeah, are going up and up and sometimes you feel it's worth it and sometimes you get your food.
You know what is the sneaky one?
An avocado toast?
Oh, that's a sneaky one because it's so expensive.
It's so expensive and sometimes they're really good and sometimes you get just some sort of avocado spread and you're like no.
You're like, this is worth about $2.50.
That is a good margin they're making on that avocado toast.
Avocado toast, man.
Yeah, that can cost a fortune.
Coffee costs a fortune.
Oh my gosh.
Yes, that is another one.
So today we are going to answer a listener question about this expression to cost a fortune.
This is from a listener who wrote us a five star review on the Android app.
So thank you so much.
Lindsay, would you like to read it for us?
I would love to, Michelle.
This is from Fereshteh.
So Fereshteh says...
Hello guys, you have no idea how much I've learned since I started listening to your podcast.
I've been watching Seinfeld again and again and it feels like I'm watching it for the first time and I just laugh and laugh and remember Michelle is also a big fan of this show.
Yes.
Yeah, I was watching it the other day and there was an expression, cost a fortune.
I could not fully understand what it meant.
Can you talk about it on the podcast and give directions on when we can use it in conversations?
Big thanks.
I love that expression.
Big thanks.
Big thanks.
I love it too.
Fereshta, thank you so much.
Thank you for the beautiful review.
Thank you for the wonderful question.
Guys, before we get into this a little more, we want to remind you that we have a rocking app.
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Yeah.
Perfect.
So thank you again for that question.
You are right.
I love Seinfeld.
Yeah, you do.
Yeah.
I haven't seen it on lately though.
I see Friends on all the time, but Seinfeld is not on TV as much anymore that I've seen i still.
I see i, i don't know, i have youtube tv okay, so it's totally different.
Yeah, i don't know, i just see it's just kind of all there in the library for me um, so but so, and my son watches seinfeld.
He's gonna be seven um, but we try and find the more appropriate episodes for him to watch.
He's so funny um, but it's the best show.
So let's Let's talk about this.
So when someone says something costs a fortune, Lindsay, what does that mean?
Well, it's interesting because it means it's very expensive, but it's interesting that we use it to talk about avocado toast and cocktails all the way up to buying a house, right.
Or a car.
So it doesn't necessarily mean it's like something that costs more than X amount.
It just means something that feels expensive to you.
Relative to what you think it should be.
Yeah, exactly.
So yeah, interesting.
Something that's $5, you can say costs a fortune.
Sure.
It should be 25000 can afford to cost a fortune to it.
Just depends on what it relative to what you think it should cost.
Yeah, so but a fortune if you just say a fortune, that's a large sum of money.
So like someone's fortune, it's like, they're like the money that they have, right?
Sure, yeah.
And then there's a magazine called Fortune Magazine.
I mean, it's used in a lot of different ways.
But yeah, your fortune, sometimes we say, oh, she made her fortune in the pharmaceuticals industry.
Or, you know, we'll hear about people's careers and how they made their money, right?
Yep.
And you might hear someone say something costs a small fortune, which is I think I mentioned that already
So...
Yeah, it's interesting because you can say about the avocado toast it costs a fortune or a small fortune.
What do you think?
That's interesting.
This is really interesting.
Yeah.
What's the difference between saying, oh, it costs a fortune and it costs a small fortune?
So a small fortune.
I would correct me if you don't agree Michelle, but I would say it's probably for the things that are a little smaller, but they don't merit that price.
Like the avocado toast, the cocktail.
Would you say that if you're buying like a five bedroom house?
Do you think?
No, that's a big fortune.
You expect that to be a fortune.
You could still say it costs a fortune, but small fortune, maybe it doesn't quite fit.
Yeah.
I would say small fortune is for those smaller items that are not quite as expensive.
But you want to be kind of emphatic about it.
I think you can just kind of throw it in if you want.
So the avocado toast, again, I wouldn't say it about a house.
I wouldn't say it about a car necessarily, but I would say it about coffee avocado toast, those types of things.
If I just want to add something in, I don't really think it does anything more than that.
I think it's just kind of a fun thing to add in.
It's being more emphatic, maybe trying to be funny, trying to draw attention to the fact that you spent more money than you thought you would or should have.
Okay.
Yeah.
So Lindsay, so you, when you like, are you, is that common for you to say something costs a fortune?
Um, I guess I don't use the wording as much, but obviously it's very common.
I endorse it.
It makes sense.
It's native and natural.
I will say I do complain about prices a lot though.
I am definitely the person that will come out of the coffee shop and be like I can't believe.
I just spent 12 on two coffees.
You know what I mean?
Do you ever cancel?
Do you ever like start ordering something and then walk away?
You find out.
Yeah.
Um, I've done it a few times.
Uh, let's see.
I'm not sure if it's so much at coffee shops, but other places where I would just.
I would just become like kind of enraged when I see the price.
Yes.
And you and you just have to remember that it's not the person who's selling it to you that made that decision, probably.
Uh, but yeah, recent.
I remember last year I was in Florida and um I desperately wanted a coffee and I was at the outlets.
And I really wanted an iced coffee.
And they had like a food truck there.
And I went to order it and they hadn't started making it.
But they were like, oh, it's $12.
For a coffee?
Something like that.
And I...
I was like, just forget it.
Like, no, thank you.
That's okay.
That's more than I wanted to spend.
Yeah, that's a walkaway point.
That's kind of insane.
They must think you're saving all your money on clothing at the outlet.
So you have extra money to spend on the coffee.
Right, right, right.
Yes, exactly.
Or I also remember like taking my son.
We did a day date when he was maybe...
Two or three in New York.
And we went to... We were on the High Line and there were food trucks outside.
And I just wanted a burger and fries.
And it was like $18 or $20 or something from the food car.
And I did end up taking it because sometimes you just...
You just have to do it.
You just have to suck it up, right?
Or when you go to games, you know, you go, we're going to a hockey game next week.
And I know we won't be able to get away.
You go, you spend... Beers regularly cost $20, $25.
I mean, that's just because they have you as a captive audience.
You can't bring beer in, as far as I know.
So that kind of scenario...
Right.
Sometimes you're just trapped.
Right.
At a stadium, at an arena, for sure, you know, it's going to cost a small fortune.
Or at the airport, that's another one.
You don't want to have to buy something in the airport because you know it's going to be ridiculous.
But I always buy stuff at the airport.
Every time I like either eat at the airport or buy food.
Because you're killing a couple of hours, right?
Right.
And so you're going to buy something there.
So you can't avoid it.
Yes yes, exactly.
But it's like oh, and you and you're like they trapped me.
You know they trapped you.
You gotta go out of security again if you want to uh, buy it somewhere else, right?
Oh, a killer is water, bottled water, at a stadium, at a, at an airport, you're done, done.
And this is especially timely, this conversation for everyone listening to this show, because inflation has run rampant, I think all over the world, from what I understand, in the last five years, three to five years.
Right.
So this is a conversation our listeners might really be having with their native speaking friends.
Right.
Yeah, definitely.
So, yeah, I also just wanted to highlight.
So, Lindsay, what is the past tense of cost?
Oh, good question, Michelle.
The past tense.
So we don't change it.
Right.
We don't change it.
So a lot I've heard a lot of native speakers say maybe make a mistake and say costed, but not right.
It's not right.
Yeah.
Right.
So listen to the context.
If you say if you're telling a story and you're saying, oh, it cost a fortune.
Right.
I'm still, you know, talking in the past tense.
But if I I can also say, oh, this costs a fortune.
Right.
You should hear the costs if it's present tense.
Right.
So that's what we need to know.
What else, Michelle?
So in what other ways might we use the word fortune?
Because we're going to talk about some other you know just this instead of because we've done episodes about saying things are expensive.
Yeah, we have.
You're right.
So I wanted to talk about the word fortune a little bit more.
So, Lindsay, what's the first expression?
Yeah.
I love double alliterations, right?
For expression.
So fame and fortune sounds so poetic, right?
Or maybe fortune and fame.
Fortune and fame, fame and fortune.
This is used to talk about getting famous, getting rich, getting rich and famous, right?
All she wanted was fame and fortune, but she was unwilling to work for it.
Right.
Or to make a fortune, right?
Lindsay, you already mentioned this one.
She made her fortune.
Yeah, make made a lot of money, made her a lot of money.
So or you could say something like he made a fortune painting cars.
Yeah, you can say he made a fortune.
Or he made his fortune doing something and usually that indicates like even more money if you made.
If we use the possessive, that's like probably a millionaire or a billionaire, like a really wealthy person.
Like how did he make his fortune?
Uh, it was in this industry or that industry and then he made a fortune painting cars.
Maybe he made A lot of money.
$20,000 or something, right?
Like not necessarily like a billionaire, right?
I think there's a distinction there.
Yeah, good point, Lindsay.
Yeah, I like that.
Or there's also, you could say to spend a fortune, right?
So you could say something like I don't think we should cheap out, but I don't want to spend a fortune either, to spend a lot of money.
I like that expression too, as a bonus, cheap out.
I don't know that I've heard that before, but I like it.
It makes sense.
Yeah.
To say that we're being cheap and we're not going to pay for it.
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All right, Michelle, we're back.
So what else do we need to know here?
Yeah, we're going to do one more expression to tell someone's fortune.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So in this way, it's more about someone's future, right?
So you think of a fortune teller, right?
Or somebody's reading tarot cards or whatever it is.
Yeah.
Lindsay, have you ever had your fortune told?
I don't think I have.
No.
It kind of freaks me out a little bit all of that stuff, because I don't want to know a lot of things.
I want to live my life and not think.
I know what's going to happen, whether it's correct or incorrect.
Do you believe in it, though?
Yeah.
I've heard stories of friends who have visited some kind of psychic or fortune teller, and they have actually proven that that particular person was right.
Um, but I don't, but I think there's also a lot of scams out there too, you know?
So it just depends on who you go to probably.
Yeah.
Um, about 10 years ago I was actually just watching, uh like going through old videos, and I was watching a video where I spoke about getting my fortune done in Atlantic city, of all places.
Atlantic city.
Atlantic city.
Nice.
Atlantic city.
I, I, I, I don't know.
I find myself in Atlantic city fairly.
That's fun.
What is Atlantic city about for our listeners?
They can have a little context.
So Atlantic city is in New Jersey.
It's.
It's a beach town where it's it's kind of like the loss, like like it's supposed to.
It's supposed to be a Las Vegas, but it's not.
And it used to be like much a great, like much better than it is now.
And then it kind of fell apart.
And I would say they're always trying to bring it back, but it's.
The hotels are nice, but the area there is really.
I mean they do have a nice boardwalk.
I will say that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it's just missing something.
I think it probably had its heyday in the roaring 20s, I feel like.
Because I remember seeing people talk about Atlantic City in movies that were placed more in the 20s um, like before the depression era.
You know where, like there was just a lot of money flying around and people went there to gamble.
Right, it was probably a gambling hub.
Um, yeah for sure yeah, so the vegas of the east coast, but no, but kind of a has-been place.
Yeah yeah, but i still somehow am there.
Like we just went uh, for our anniversary yourself there.
Yeah oh, what am i doing here?
No, i went for a.
We were in that area and just for fun, we found a cheap hotel with the kids and it was really fun.
Um, but anyway, I was watching a video from when I got my fortune told in Atlantic city and apparently I was told that I would have a boy and a girl one day.
And I did.
Wow.
Yeah.
Maybe that was one of the legitimate fortune tellers.
So there you go.
Maybe, or maybe it's just kind of a, maybe it's a guess.
Yeah.
Um, All right, let's do a role play, Lindsay.
Of course, we're not gonna say fortune over and over and over, but we're using a couple here.
Okay, let's do it.
Yes, so we are talking about or going over which is another way to say talking about really good one for another day what we bought over the weekend.
Okay, here we go.
So I got these shoes, but they cost a fortune.
I'm considering returning them.
Oh, keep them if you like them.
I spent a fortune on a sweater this weekend, but it's so perfect for the cold weather.
Nice.
All right.
So typical conversation.
We talked about spending a lot of money, right?
So I said, I got these shoes, but they cost a fortune.
And notice the past tense there, right?
I'm talking in the past tense, but I'm not using the ED form.
There's no ED for that.
So cost, right?
Yep.
Absolutely.
And then I said, oh, keep them if you like them.
I spent a fortune on a sweater this weekend when it's perfect for the cold weather.
Nice.
There's a lot that came out of this episode today, Michelle.
A lot of tips for our listeners, really good context here.
You guys have another set of vocabulary to talk about inflation if you do want to have that conversation with native speaking friends.
Michelle, what's another episode our listeners could go to?
All right, guys, check out episode 2493.
That was listen to this episode already.
That's a good one.
And for a takeaway that's.
I mean, I do think I know we've done other episodes about talking about high costs, but I think this is a good skill to brush up on, because we talk about cost.
This is a huge part of our lives, right?
Money is a huge deal for a human being.
So this is going to come up and there are kind of tasteful ways to talk about it and not.
But commenting on prices going up is not a bad thing.
Like that's very common.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, exactly.
Very common.
All of these, um, give them a try and we hope you find affordable items.
Yes.
Nice.
Not a $12 coffee.
Do not buy a $12.
Don't do that.
Actually, we could do a whole episode about what do you say if you want to walk away?
That's a great idea.
What do you say if it's just too expensive?
Oh, that will be the next piece of this series.
All right, Michelle, you have a good day.
I'll talk to you soon.
You too.
Bye.
Bye.
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