This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 118.
Meant to versus supposed to in Business English.
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Hey Lindsay, how are you? Hey Aubrey, how's everything going for you?
I'm great. I have a question for you. Okay.
Is there anything you meant to do yesterday that you didn't get to?
Oh my gosh, there's so much. I can imagine.
Yeah, I just came back from my trip on Wednesday.
So yesterday was the crazy catch-up day where you feel like you're floating on a boat in your mind because you haven't slept for 24 hours and you're dehydrated and you're working.
Yeah, there were many things. I mentioned a bunch of emails that I couldn't get to.
So many things, Aubrey. What about you? Right.
Yeah, same. I always have like a to-do list.
And then at the end of the day, I check it and anything I didn't get, it's prioritized, of course, like at the top is what has to be done today.
And then anything at the bottom I didn't get to, I just switched to the to-do list for the next day.
There's always something I meant to get to and didn't accomplish for sure.
It's just a fact of life that we have to accept.
We can't, we'll never get everything done.
Yeah. Okay. But so now I have an interesting question.
This is related to our question for today.
Would you answer differently if I asked it this way?
Is there anything you were supposed to do yesterday that you didn't get to?
Is there anything I was supposed to do yesterday?
Interesting. I don't know. What about you?
It has a slightly different meaning. It's subtle.
Guys, this is kind of a small. Our listener asked about this, the difference between meant to and supposed to.
And we're going to dive into what is the difference.
Meant to is more about you were planning to do it.
Yeah. And supposed to is more like you were expected to do it.
Yeah, you were told to do it. It's more like someone expected it of it.
Someone told you to maybe so, but it is pretty slight.
Often we use it pretty interchangeably, but it is a different meaning.
So this is going to be great. Let's get into this.
Yeah, let's get into it. First, I do want to call out some of our amazing listeners who reviewed all the Business English podcast, Business English, because we love to see your reviews.
I want to call out Jimeno Paz from Mexico.
This person said the podcast is really helpful.
I love that. Call out to Cristobal25 from the Dominican Republic.
Call out to Danielle Afkari from Spain and Pedram Farouk Payam from Iran.
Thank you guys for your all five-star reviews, by the way, Aubrey.
Love that. Awesome. Yes. Last time I checked, I do look at the reviews because they just make my day.
And I checked and there were some great questions in the reviews.
So I love that. Yes. Ask your questions in the reviews and they might end up in an episode.
Awesome. Yes. Ask your questions, guys. Good stuff.
All right. Then did this come from a student question today?
Yeah, so this was a student who emailed me directly.
I know we've shared my All Ears English email a couple times, send me questions.
And so this is Sunghee Hyun from South Korea, who's living in Australia at the moment.
Do you want to read the question? Yes, here we go. so song he says i have a question about the difference between the expression be used be supposed to and meant to one day i heard using meant to when i expected him to use the expression be supposed to these two expressions are considered similar to me could you please talk about them so that i can use them fluently i greatly appreciate your podcast all the time thank you best regards Song Hee Hyun.
Love it. And I love this. And we use these two expressions in business English all the time to talk about what we meant to get done that day, what we were supposed to do.
Right. This I use the most, I feel like with coworkers and, you know, even that conversation when I asked you, your mind went to work, like to your to do list for work, what you meant to get done, what was supposed to be done.
We use this a lot. Yes. Yes. And do we talk about at all the way in this episode?
Let's let's see if we I might have a curveball to throw in here based on Australian English.
Oh, I don't know that much about Australian English.
So I'd love it if you could share. Let's go through what we have from the American English perspective and then I'll throw in a curveball.
OK, perfect. I love it. So first of all, at least in American English, these are sometimes interchangeable, right?
When meant to be and supposed to be, we wouldn't maybe use either.
For example, we were meant to be together, meaning maybe like a couple who, you know, are in love.
And it's like we were meant to be. We were always supposed to find each other.
And there I am using supposed to. We were supposed to be together.
They mean the same thing. Or they were meant to be friends versus they were supposed to be friends.
Okay. Yeah, right. So these are really interchangeable, but it's that sort of very specific meaning of like something that was meant to be, was supposed to be.
Whereas sometimes they're not interchangeable, at least in American English, right?
Meant to means more was planning to, like she meant to call him but forgot.
And what you were saying, oh, I meant to get all these things done yesterday and didn't get to any of it.
Yeah, this is really how we use it the most in American English, right?
I meant to do this, I meant to do that. In American culture, we always have a to-do list and we live and die by our to-do lists.
Right, absolutely. I guess our team does for sure, especially.
We're very task-oriented, right? For sure.
But yeah, a lot of people, right? When you're working, when you're talking in business English, you have to have that to-do list.
You have to be clear about your priorities and what needs to be done first.
And I think that's a very shared experience for sure.
Yeah, 100%. So have we done another episode that's somewhat related to this one on All Ears English?
Yes, you guys for sure want to check out All Ears English episode 1179.
It was called, Have You Been Meaning to Use More Natural English?
And we taught the phrase, I've been meaning to.
So very similar, right? Meant to, meaning to, but it is different.
So don't miss that episode for all the details about how to use that.
I love that. And it's a different skill, but it's somewhat related, right?
So that could be super useful for our listeners.
Let's talk about the second example here right away.
So was supposed to, what is that all about?
Yeah, it's a little more like you said, someone told me to do this, right?
I was expected to do this. I was supposed to do it.
So for example, we were supposed to arrive at four, but got there late.
Maybe your business meeting started at four.
You were supposed to arrive at four, but you were late.
Or what am I supposed to do? What is expected of me?
What am I supposed to do? Yeah, I don't know what my expectations are.
I have a feeling this might be where Australian English comes in.
Some people will say meant to hear, but it sounds formal.
It's more rare in American English, but might be more common in other in English in other countries where they would say like we were meant to arrive at four and didn't make it.
Yes, that's what I meant to do. Yeah, I do hear that.
Yeah, I've heard Australians say that more.
I haven't really heard Americans say that.
We're a little more informal in our speech.
It does sound very formal to me. I feel like I've heard it on TV, maybe shows that have someone from England or New Zealand or Australia say, Yes.
For sure. Would say it that way. And it does have the same meaning as I was supposed to.
If they say, we were meant to arrive at four and got there late, it means the same thing.
This was expected of us. This was supposed to happen.
Yeah. But we really wouldn't use that as much in American English.
I remember when I lived in Japan... two of my closer friends and my coworkers at my school were both Aussies.
And they said this, and I think it was the first time I ever heard that being used that way.
And I just thought, wow, that's interesting.
Something very different from what I would expect, right?
Because you did give the example, let's go back to the top of the episode, where we were meant to be together, but that's a different...
No, that's different. Yeah. So the place they're interchangeable when it's like we were meant to be together, we were supposed to be together is a different meaning.
It's a very specific meaning. It's not something that's expected of you.
It's not something that you were planning to do.
No one told you to do it. It's almost an idiomatic meaning of we were destined to be together.
Right. So that's not that's an important point.
Yeah. Yeah. That's so important. Like the universe is. collided and we were always going to be together.
It was written in the stars. Right. And some people, it's interesting.
Some people believe that, that you're meant to be with the person you're meant to be with.
And there's one person that's meant for you.
And a lot of people don't believe that. They're like, I could have been happy with lots of different people.
What do you think, Lindsay? I'm a little bit in between when it comes to that argument.
I can see both sides, but I also don't want to think that love can be that just casual or that, uh, I don't think you can find love around every corner because the dating world's vicious out there and it's just, it's rare to find a connection.
So I think, I don't think there's only one person we can be with, but I think it's extremely rare to find the right person.
You might meet the right person a few times in your life, two or three times.
I agree with you. We're very much on the same page.
I feel like some of these dating shows like Love is Blind or Married at First Sight or something, it seems so unrealistic to me that you could put a few people and be like, okay, you got four options.
Find one that you're meant to be with. Find one that you're destined to be together.
There's a reason those don't work very often.
Yeah. But then at the same time, right? So from the cultural piece, right?
We talk about arranged marriages. I don't know if that's technically the term that's used right around the world or love marriages or marriage when families come together and make a decision.
And sometimes that does turn into the right person, the person you are actually in love with because you've lived with them.
So Well, and I find this so differently.
Yeah, there's a big part there. And this does happen with the show Married at First Sight, where they're taking so much information about you and another person, your personality, what you want in your partner.
And then they're trying and then they're sifting through the thousands of people you would maybe meet in real life to sort of narrow down.
So that's why matchmaking works at Arrange Marriage.
It works so often because it's They're doing the work for you, removing all of the chest, separating the weight from the tears, removing everything you would never have worked with, right?
Right. And then the love kind of comes after once you get to know each other, which is totally valid.
It makes sense, right? I think in American culture, we have this fairytale idea based on all the Disney movies we saw as kids, right?
That, oh, there's going to be this amazing chemistry right away.
And if it's not there within the first three seconds, I'm going home, right?
Yep, absolutely. There's going to be no second date, right?
I'm not going to respond to that DM if there's not chemistry right away.
And it can build. Absolutely. Again, with Married at First Sight, really quick, one of the first couples, I love that show, actually, one of the first couples, they like got married and she, there was no chemistry.
She he kind of gave her the ick. She did not like him.
But then once they stayed together and tried to make it work, she fell in love with him.
And now they have children. And it's like the most adorable story.
Wow. It can happen. It can work out if you give someone a chance that there isn't initially perfect chemistry with. so interesting.
Yeah, I love it. I love it. So guys, the point here is that a little bit of a sidetrack, but we do use that we were meant to be together a lot in American culture.
We'll probably revisit that term and maybe just love in general on All Ears English.
What do you think, Aubrey? We'll come back to that.
Maybe we'll save it for next February for Valentine's Day.
But hit follow on the All Ears English podcast.
Go and look for it now. If you're not a follower of that show, you should be.
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OK, Aubrey, what's next? Do we have a role play?
Yes. So we're going to do a role play to show you how this would work in a regular conversation at work.
In this role play, Lindsay and I are co-workers chatting right after a meeting.
OK. Oh, I meant to bring up projections and forgot.
We could cover that in next week's meetings.
Yeah, but we were supposed to work on it later this week.
Maybe just send an email and give us the highlights.
Good idea. I meant to send an email yesterday with some info and I didn't.
So I can send it all today. Nice. Can't get it all done.
Right. We have high expectations. So it's hard.
It happens a lot, right? A meeting ends and you're like, oh, I forgot this one thing that I really needed to share.
I'll send an email. Yeah, it's true. It's true.
Okay. So I said, oh, I meant to bring up projection.
So I had the intention of doing something.
I would be another way to say that. Yep, exactly.
Right. And it's sort of like an expectation you have of yourself.
Right. But we just think of it as something you were planning to do.
You had the intention to do it. Yep. And then you said, yeah, but we were supposed to work on it later this week.
And that is like someone has given you that directive.
There's an expectation of you to work on it this week later.
Yes. Okay. Interesting. It can't wait. It can't wait for next week's meetings.
Right, right, right, right. And then you said, I said, good idea.
I meant to send an email. And again, I meant to, I was intending to send an email yesterday with some info and I didn't so I can send it all today.
So basically I'm going to take that other info and the new info, put it all in one email.
Is that right, Aubrey? Yes, exactly. And listen to how this sounds and feels so native and natural to me.
And you guys listening, your first instinct might be to say instead, you know, I wanted to work on it.
I was planning to do this. I, you know, something like that.
This really is more natural. This meant to, supposed to, natives will use these all the time, all the time.
Yeah, let's go for the natural options here, guys.
Go for it. I love it. I love it. And again, a big thank you to our listeners who reviewed us.
What's the takeaway here? Any other takeaway to come away with today?
Overall takeaway? Native, natural vocabulary.
Of course, it's not an error if you use, you know, the less native option.
Absolutely. You can go with that too. This gives you more options to switch it up, to keep variety in what you're saying.
And just to be even more native and natural because that is what builds those connections, both with friends, family, and at work in business English.
So practice using these so you are ready to sound like a native, right?
Yeah, and also just don't forget that things can vary regionally based on country.
You know, our listener here, the reason that we thought about Australia, she's writing in from Australia.
She's living in Australia. I think, you know... she's going to hear slightly different usages of meant to, right?
Then we will know or that we'll commonly use here in the States.
So good to know that. That's probably mostly why that came up for her as she's hearing this other meaning of like, oh, we were meant to arrive at four, but got there late.
She's hearing that in Australia and it's confusing her.
So I'm glad. I hope you're out there listening.
And I think this would really clear it up.
All right. Good stuff. Aubrey, thanks for coming on the show.
I'll talk to you soon. Awesome. See you later.
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