This is the Business English Podcast, episode 142.
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Hey, Aubrey, how's it going? I'm great, Lindsay.
I have a question for you. All right, I'm ready.
When is the last time you were out of something? oh my gosh i run out of peanut butter all the time because i eat so much of it that's funny it's so interesting to we got the really great question about this phrase guys to be out of something and you can be out of so many things right peanut butter you could be out of time out of patience And we actually use this expression in so many ways.
So we're going to get into this today. This is one of those where I didn't realize how much we use this expression until I started looking into it.
Oh, for sure. That's why we love our listeners when they ask amazing questions.
So today's question comes from Maxine from Taiwan.
Guys, send your questions to Aubrey at allearsenglish.com.
We want to hear those questions. Should I read it?
Yeah, let's go. Okay. Hi, I'm Maxine from Taiwan.
I'm confused about out of something. It seems that it has many different meanings.
I'd be really grateful if you could explain it for me.
By the way, your show is the best. Well, thank you, Maxine.
Thank you. Awesome. And thanks for sending this amazing question.
This is going to be really great. I found four, there's actually more than four, but I picked the four most common uses of saying out of a noun, out of something, right?
Because we use this phrase so much in English.
I love it. I'm excited to see what we're going to teach our listeners here today.
But, you know, we do have other shows in our network here from All Ears English, right, Aubrey?
We have an IELTS podcast here over there.
Yes, Jessica and I co-host the IELTS Energy podcast.
So if you're not following as soon as you finish this episode or maybe pause it and go right now and search IELTS Energy, because we have so much great vocabulary idioms that we teach over there, whether you're studying for IELTS or not, it's a great podcast to listen to if you're learning English.
Yes. And of course, our really, really big show is the All Ears English podcast.
Also a fantastic show, guys. So might as well go ahead and add that to your queue as well.
Hit search and add All Ears English. And, you know, some of these might appear.
We've said, Aubrey, some phrases might appear over there or over here.
We'll keep you guys updated. Some of these, this phrase also has a few idioms, right?
Yeah. Out of thin air, out of the blue. So we'll do a podcast, maybe here on Business English, maybe on All Ears English.
So make sure you're following all three of our shows so you don't miss it.
Yeah, we do do a lot of idioms on All Ears English.
So let's get into number one, the first way that we use out of something.
That was what I used at the top, right? Yeah.
Exactly. You said you're out of peanut butter.
We might say we're out of coffee. It just means to not have a particular thing.
Yeah, that's never good. That's never good.
So for example, so you said we're out of coffee or the company is out of funds.
Also not good if you're working for a startup.
It's never a good thing to be out of something, right?
Yeah, it's hard. I'm sure some of our listeners work in the startup world and you know your company goes for A round, B round, C round financing and you don't know if they'll necessarily have the funding to continue.
That's the definition of a startup, searching for a business model.
So that could definitely be used for a lot of our listeners at work.
Absolutely. The future might be a little more uncertain and you might run out of things.
Maybe it's just you're out of coffee. Not such a big deal, but to be out of funding, that's a bigger problem.
That is a big deal, Aubrey. What do you mean?
Big deal. Huge deal. We can't function without our coffee.
I would be super annoyed if I woke up one morning and was looking to start work and I had no coffee.
I'd be annoyed. Really annoyed. I'd have to go walk to the coffee shop.
But one thing I want to point out here, we also will use a really native structure here.
Instead of just saying we're out of something, we'll say we've run out of something.
We've run out of coffee. We've run out of ideas.
The company has run out of funds. It means the exact same thing.
We just add run. It's very native and natural.
Yes. Yes, I love it. Okay, so that's pretty clear, right?
Just to not have any more of a thing. Okay, money, food, coffee, whatever it is, there's a second way, right?
What is it? And it is to no longer want to be included in something.
And we'll usually collocate this with the verb want, to want out of something.
Cool. I like this one. Very native, kind of slangy almost, right?
So for example, they want out of the contract, but it's too late.
So this means they want to be released from the contract.
They'd like to break it, but often you don't have that choice.
Ooh, stressful. Got to read our contracts well when we sign, right?
Right. Or we told them in the meeting that we want out of the deal.
We want out of the deal. Again, I like it because it's so slangy and native, but it's like business slang kind of.
Exactly, right? Instead of the more formal, like we would like to cancel the deal, right?
It's this more slangy, informal way to use it.
I feel like native speakers would use this nine times out of 10.
For sure. And then number three, guys, the third way is about motivation.
Tell us about this one. Yeah. So for example, you might say when no one was listening, he left the room out of anger.
So his motivation for leaving the room was anger.
So we'll use this. We'll say out of and then whatever that motivation was.
Yeah. And in this case, you know, out of is being used kind of more as like a preposition, right?
Two prepositions kind of coming together.
Right. Exactly. Right. What's another example, Lindsay?
So we met with the client out of a desire to understand their goals.
That means because we wanted to understand their goals.
Exactly. So if you think about it that way, what was our motivation?
We'll often use this phrase that way. We did this out of a desire for something or out of an emotion.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. All right, number four, is there a fourth Aubrey?
Yes, this one's about numbers. I actually used this just a minute ago when I said nine times out of ten, this is what natives will say, we use out of this way.
Like, for example, you know, four times out of five employees usually attend our happy hour events.
And it's almost like giving a percentage, a ratio.
Right. You talk about odds, talk about likelihood of something happening.
So four to five employees usually attend our happy hour events.
That's a great thing. You might say that when you're looking to hire someone, right?
This is how engaged our employee base is with the company. yes right or you know nine times out of ten we are able to land um deals with our clients something like that if you're wanting to share your odds for success your ratio of success yes i love it and then out of thin air there's also other idioms we've said that we're going to cover those another day on another show we don't know which one follow all three of our shows yeah yeah i know out of thin air is a book too by john krakauer about everest climbing everest so I'm sure we'll explore that another day.
Yeah. Good. Awesome. Let's go into a role play here.
So you and I are coworkers planning a corporate team building event here.
All right, here we go. I'm so glad you found a spot for this event.
I was out of ideas. Oh, this place looks great.
It has 4.5 out of 5 stars. Perfect. We don't want anyone leaving out of boredom.
Everyone signed up to attend. Hopefully no one will try to get out of it at the last minute.
Nice. So we used all of the meanings that we've shared today.
That first one was number one. I was out of ideas.
Out of peanut butter. Same idea. Right. Running out of a resource.
Exactly. And then you gave the fourth one next.
Right. So we use this for ratings as well to say like four out of five stars.
We're sharing how much it was and then we're letting you know what the max was at the same time.
Just out of curiosity, Aubrey, do you have a floor when it comes to Google ratings choosing a restaurant?
Do you have a floor like how low you'll go in terms of ratings to try a restaurant?
Yeah, I think I won't go below three unless if I'm traveling and there are just very, very few options, sometimes I'll break that.
But here in my hometown, there are so many really highly reviewed restaurants that I can be more picky. interesting oh we usually we usually put a standard of 4.5 actually but but but the actual standard like the reality ends up being four out of five because it's hard to find it is even in like a well i guess like new york city but even in like a busy town it's hard to find a lot of four out of five or 4.8 stars out of five restaurants right usually they're more like 4.3 4.2 so Absolutely.
And usually when I go, I'm going with kids and it's rare that the average family friendly restaurant is rated like 4.5 out of five stars.
You're not going to have like fine dining food, amazing award, you know, James Beard winner chef at a kid's restaurant, right?
You're just not going to have that. It doesn't work that way.
Every now and then when we treat ourselves and go somewhere nice that yes, then I am looking for the four, four and a half stars.
Love it. So good. All right. What's a takeaway for today?
Yeah, so Maxine is correct. There are so many meanings in English for out of something.
We use them all in business English all the time.
So with today's tips, we have shared the most common ones that you'll hear at work that we want you to be able to use at work.
Yeah, guys, we've shown you four very different ways to use these two, right?
Very different in a variety of constructions.
So choose one of them, maybe choose the easiest one at first, maybe the peanut butter one with the resources and try that.
What are you out of? Go to your fridge and say, what am I out of?
Let's practice this on our own at first and then branch out to the others.
Yeah. So native and natural. I love that.
Thank you, Maxine, for the question. Thanks for listening, guys.
And we'll see you next time. Yeah. And guys, your action item today is go ahead and make sure you're following all three podcasts from All Ears English.
All right. Good stuff. Okay, Aubrey, you have a good day.
I'll talk to you soon. You too. Bye-bye.
Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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