This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 2349.
Should you use the article or the number in English?
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Hello, Michelle. How's it going today?
Good, Lindsay. Lindsay, I have a question for you.
Because, you know, you gather friends tell me if this is true for you Michelle you gather your friends at different times in your life some in high school some in childhood some in college grad school living in a city and so they you're a different person at different times right right well do you have do
you have like one bigger group of friends from one period in your life or would you say it's like yeah do you have one larger circle no not really I have friends individual friends collected from different eras of my life who i who i keep in touch with it's just it's rare to have that i think throughout
your into your adult life to maintain a group of i wish i did but it's more like individuals or two or three people from each era same well that's how it is for me too i mean i have my two best friends from when i was little but besides that it's not really like one larger group it's so sprinkled all
around but i think that's kind of neat and also they live in all different places Dan has I mean he has friends from other times too but he he has this really big group of friends they're all amazing from his hometown so he has that but it's interesting because I don't I don't really have that I have just
more of what you have yeah I think it's more typical what we have but I love the question you asked me here because it so encapsulates what I what I said right a mixed bag you said are they a mixed bag well that's what we're going to get into today right Michelle?
Yeah, absolutely. So this is a really useful expression.
And I was at one party and I had two separate friends use this in one day.
On the same day? Oh my gosh.
Just a partner in Italy and I often get an email from him and he'll say, can you please send me one invoice for payment?
And I, every month it's the same, it's the same mistake.
And every month I say, we need to fix that I'll say to them oh you just helped me plan an episode of All Ears English thank you so much be sure to listen right I love it so basically what we're saying here guys is you are getting real English 100 % real English fresh out of Michelle's social life I love
it so good yeah so okay again the expression is it's a mixed bag or it could be that's a mixed bag or right in different ways.
But Lindsay, so what do you think?
Does this come up in your conversations?
Definitely. I love this expression.
So it's a mixed bag, meaning we're going to go into the meeting now, but yeah, a lot of different things are thrown into that bag, right?
Everything is not the same, right?
It's not homogenous.
Yeah. What do you think of it's a mixed bag of?
What do you think in your mind?
Well, it just depends on what you're asking about, right?
Because you me about my friends.
Yeah. But like, but like, is there an image you get in your mind of it's a mixed bag or something like that?
That's funny. Maybe a grab bag.
Do you know the idea of the grab bag when we were kids?
Sometimes you go to a party and like someone's mom would go around with a bag full of candy or toys and you get to pick from the grab bag.
That's kind of what I think of just a mix of things.
Yeah. I think of a mixed bag of nuts.
Okay. Mixed nuts. Yes.
My friends are a bag of mixed nuts.
Yeah. Sometimes I just get an image in my head that goes along with an idiom?
I don't know. Very healthy.
Very healthy. I love it.
It's a very interesting thing.
Okay. So yeah, it means not everything is the same, right?
There's not just one way.
It means number one, and so does A and A.
So let's talk about which we would choose.
How do we know? So what about A or A?
Yeah. Well, I think generally when you're talking about or choosing A or A, first of all, it's way more common, right?
So 95 % of the time you're going to say a or an and that's kind of the problem i'm seeing i'm seeing people just swapping in one and do you like your new job and it's a mixed bag some days are great but some are just okay yeah and i think that's probably true about every job right i mean it can't always
be amazing right there are some things we do at our jobs that we don't love for sure yeah right so So exactly.
Some good, some bad in this context.
Lindsay, maybe you can read this one.
Maybe you identify with this.
All right. I'm the dog lady on the show.
I love it. You're the dog lady.
Some of the dogs we met were really sweet, but some were definitely a bit too rowdy for us.
It was a mixed bag.
Yeah. And when you go to adopt a dog in a shelter, I think a lot of our listeners have done this.
You have a lot of different options, right?
You could have some golden retrievers pit bulls all sorts of different breeds so it's always a mixed bag what's out there what's available right exactly or here's another one our home search is a mixed bag but every time we find something we like it gets snatched up what a frustrating feeling so when you
say our home search is a mixed bag what exactly are you saying michelle it means you're finding some houses you like but also a lot of houses you don't like yeah and so yeah you're expressing this frustration.
It's like, maybe you find a lot of houses, but the ones you actually like don't don't come through.
Or even the ones you don't like end up getting sold, right?
Sometimes guests, they come down and they say, Oh, I need a coffee.
They would not say I need one coffee.
No, it's because they're saying it.
They're rubbing the sleep out of their eyes.
You know, stretching their arms.
Oh, I need a coffee.
You would never say I need one coffee that casually that broadly.
Right, right. So that's more general.
And the second one sounds like if you say I need one coffee.
It sounds almost like you're giving a list of things that you need.
Maybe you're, maybe you are at the.
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All right, Michelle, we are back.
So do we have any other examples here?
Yes. So here's one more is their food is mostly good, but it can be kind of a mixed bag depending on the chef that day.
Yeah, email per topic and have the subject line be that topic.
So we can, because we use our emails kind of as an index, right to find everything later.
And so that, that would be where the conversation of one email versus multiple emails would come in.
But if you're just saying, Hey, send me an email next week, when you get back to work, you're not going to say, send me one email next week.
Right, exactly. So or one more example here before we take a break is I made a new friend versus I made one new friend.
Uh -huh. Very different.
What's the difference there, Michelle?
So first one is more general.
The second one sounds almost like people.
They don't fit the same mold.
They don't look the same at all.
I mean, for me, that became very obvious at my wedding.
It was just my wedding party.
Very random friends that are all very different, but so dear to me.
Right. Yes. Yes. Yes, exactly.
All right. So let's talk about some other, a couple other ways to say this.
Um, what's that first one, Lindsay?
All right. So you could say it varies.
And again, this feels pretty high level to me.
So it varies. So some of my coworkers are friendly.
Well, some don't want to talk to me at all.
It really varies. Hmm.
Yeah. Yeah. So you could say it varies.
It really varies. So usually when you say it varies, i would say it's it's a it's like a side point right you're kind of saying something and then you're saying it varies right right you're saying it's just different it just depends on the day depends on the person that you're talking to yes exactly
and then also in a similar vein to our main expression today you could also say it's a mix her house is beautiful but it's a mix she does need to get a lot worked on.
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Well, I like it. I mean, it varies.
I like certain aspects.
I like the coffee shops, but there aren't many good restaurants here.
Oh, okay. So it's a mix.
yes that kind of sounds like my neighborhood currently there's no really there's not really that much good food in my neighborhood itself oh interesting what about you are you better on coffee shops restaurants which one is stronger in your my area i would say i actually would say right now the restaurants
i i'm kind of opposite to you we we could use a few more there's a lot of starbucks around here there's some there's some smaller uh shops as well but not like that we could use more.
Yeah. I mean, Starbucks has its place for sure.
But there's nothing better than the local community coffee shop where you walk in and you feel like people are there gathering groups talking to each other.
It's amazing. Exactly.
And guys, just as a bonus, you could also say you could say you have mixed feelings or mixed emotions on something.
That's that could be a whole episode in itself.
first one main one today, which is is the number important because it can sound a little bit awkward, a little bit strange if you're using one when you don't need to 100 percent, 100 percent.
And this is it. So should we go through a role play, Michelle, and show our listeners how it's done?
Let's do it. All right.
So here we are friends in a coffee shop.
Lovely. All right, here we go.
So do you want me to grab you something?
Sure. I'll have a latte.
Okay. Do you want one sugar or two?
I'll just have one sugar.
Okay. Oh, there's a line.
Oh, I only see one person.
Oh, no. Look over there.
There's a long line.
Oh, ouch. Ouch. I think we've done an episode before, Michelle, about ouch, haven't we?
I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, great. So let's break this.
Something there for sure, because in American culture, we tend to want to lead with positivity, optimism, and energy, the good news, right?
How are you? You're not going to sound terrible, right?
But then we might tend to add a little more nuance.
So for our listeners who are interacting with American people in business, for example, listen for that.
Just because they respond with a huge positive punch at first, there might be a little bit of additional details where you get the truth, right?
And I think actually that you just gave me an episode idea i mean because these transitions like using i mean right and and other ways that you can kind of transition to the truth transition to the truth i like i like it i mean because it wouldn't have worked out as quite as well if you just said i
like it it varies no that wouldn't make any sense you needed a little bridge actually it would completely change the meaning if i said that i would say i like the fact you have to say the number right do you want one sugar or two or three, right?
Not a sugar. We don't say, do you want a sugar?
Do you want sugar? We would drop the egg in that case.
Yes, exactly. So, uh, and then I said, I'll just have one sugar and I'm just mirroring what you said, right?
And I mean, yeah, if I just said, I'll just have, oh, wait, just to make it clear, we mean maybe like a packet of sugar.
Yeah. To make it, yes.
Okay. That's important.
Cause sometimes you get the big thing.
Like if you go to a diner, you get the big glass thing that you pour in, right?
In that case, we're not really counting.
You would just say, can I have some sugar or is there sugar?
But when you're getting little packets that you, as my friend, are going to bring over to the table, it's about counting.
Yeah. Love that. Exactly.
And then I just realized I didn't bold one.
So what's the next one, Lindsay?
You said, okay, oh, there's a line, right?
Not one line. There's a line, right?
Oh, there's a line.
And usually pay for things.
And the options were cash, credit card, debit card check or Venmo or Zelle.
Lindsay, you want to read the results?
Yeah, well, the top spot went to credit cards, which is not surprising, 47%.
Second spot went to cash, which is interesting because we know, I mean, for me, I haven't been using cash for a while, but I think around the world, it's still pretty common.
Obviously, it is for our listeners, 31%.
And then debit card, 16 % and Venmo, Zelle, 2 % and check 1%.
Remember the days when you'd go to the grocery store and you would watch your mom write a check for groceries.
I do. Yes. Oh, I remember that.
Yeah, for sure. That's not a thing anymore, Michelle.
Not a thing. So credit card is king here.
Love it. Yes. Guys, that's a that's a play what Lindsay just in half.
And then with if I'm somewhere that maybe has sugar free something, I'll have a sugar free vanilla or something like that.
Nice. Sounds good. But then I like if I'm out, I like to have a little bit of cinnamon on it too.
Oh, fancy. Yeah. But sometimes I don't get the syrup in it.
It depends on my food.
Oh, you're just black coffee.
Well, actually, so I switched over to decaf now.
So I drink decaf at home.
Yeah. Because I am I know it's crazy.
And then when I go out, I sometimes will have like a decaf espresso, or I'll have a regular coffee, but then I'll be wired.
It's not good. And then on the weekends.
I like a good cappuccino, a little cappuccino.
So yay, we all have our drinks of choice, which by the way, is a great conversation starter for our listeners.
Sure. There you go.
Where else should we go to find a great episode, a great recent episode?
Okay. So speaking of numbers, go to episode 2343, how to say that two people don't mix well in English.
All right. And what's our takeaway for today?
I'm a chance to do it.
I love it. better connection.
Absolutely. Yep. All right.
Well, thanks so much for chatting about this with me today.
And we'll talk to you next time, guys.
All right. Take care, Michelle.
Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
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See you next time. Something that scares us a little bit, right?
Yeah. Push ourselves a little bit.
Exactly. Exactly. I love it.
All right, Aubrey. Good stuff, guys.
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And Aubrey, I'll see you next time.
Awesome. See you next time.
Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
Would you like to know your English level?
Take our two minute quiz.
Go to allearsenglish .com forward slash fluency score.
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