This is the business English podcast episode 239 inject excitement into your English with this verb Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
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Hello, Lindsay. How are you today? I'm feeling good today.
I've been working out hard these days. Yeah, feeling great.
I know we often make goals at the beginning of the year, but they slide off.
They can sometimes. What about you? Have you injected anything into your workouts to challenge yourself? well so where i go for my workouts they've injected some new options and so i've injected that they've added an option they call it tread 50. so before it was just uh different formats of basically sprinting and walking and running for half an hour at a time but now they have a new format where you go and you say i'm going to do tread 50 or weight 50 and you're going to spend the entire time if you choose tread 50 running so you're going to run for almost an hour which for me is a challenge.
That's not a short amount of time to run and you don't stop.
No. That's impressive. I hate running. Every now and then I try to run and if I can get 15 minutes running straight, I'm so proud of myself.
I cannot imagine an hour. It's horrible.
I wish I were a swimmer or something, but there aren't really any pools to go to.
It's hard on your body running, but I do feel a shift in my mind when I've been running for an hour.
It feels good. You know what I mean? Things get all, yeah.
I love that you just used that. It's hard on my body, but I do feel a shift.
We recently talked on All There's English about this very native structure that you just used.
Make sure you're following the All There's English podcast as well.
That was a great episode. I loved it. That was a great one.
Go and check that one out. Very key for connection.
And it's like the intersection of pronunciation and grammar.
Yeah, absolutely. But you guys may have heard Lindsay used, and I asked her, this verb inject.
I asked, have you injected anything into your workouts?
And you used it when you answered. We got a great question about this verb and how we use it in English.
I'm excited to dive into this. We use it a lot at work. oh yeah so i'll read the first part of the question and then maybe we can switch off aubry what do you think okay here we go so this is from hanan from iraq and hanan says i would like to thank you and your team for putting out such a useful english learning podcast i've been following the podcast for more than a year now and i learned something new each day from each episode aubry we love that we love that that's so good to hear right we love creating this content for you and we love getting your reviews your questions and Anytime we hear this, that it's really making a difference for you, that is awesome.
Yeah, guys, make sure you leave us a review.
Wherever you're listening, write your review so that people know what the show is all about.
And if you're lucky, you'll hear your name announced on the show.
All right, Aubrey, would you finish the question?
Absolutely. I have a question about the word inject.
It is usually used in the medical field when a medication should be administered.
However, I'm hearing trainers use it more often during workshops in the Middle East. to mean that they will provide a new exercise or case study to the participants as an activity.
The first time I heard someone use it to mean so, I did not feel it was natural.
My question is whether it is correct linguistically in natural English to use it in such a way, and whether it is commonly used as such in the U.S.
Wishing you and your team all the best. Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Thank you, Hanan, for this amazing question.
I have started hearing this more and more.
I feel like it's sort of trending to use the verb inject this way.
What do you think, Lindsay? Interesting that it's trending.
I didn't know that. But yeah, I mean, words do tend to trend.
They tend to trend, right? It happens sometimes.
And I do think this one is we're going to cover today the two main ways at work that we use this verb.
The first, the one Hanan said that he's hearing trainers use, right?
And then second, the one that has been around longer that we hear all the time and will continue because I do feel like this is newer.
Even, you know, five years ago, I feel like just like Hanan said, this would have felt a little unnatural.
This would have been sort of strange to say, let's inject a break here.
Let's inject an activity here. But it's sort of being adopted.
And I do hear it more often now to where it doesn't sound as strange anymore. yeah and maybe especially in the business world this might be a heavily trending word in the business world so let's go through the first way which is to introduce something as a boost or an interruption what are some examples there aubry Yeah.
So you might hear we are going to inject an activity into the meeting to break things up.
Just like Anand said, maybe a case study, an activity.
You're seeing this as the injection is a way to boost engagement, to break things up, to make something more interesting.
We'll inject a thing, some kind of activity.
Yeah. And the next one, let's inject a break here and come back in five minutes.
Now, that obviously, that second example is on the spot, in the moment, right?
It's kind of decided spontaneously. Is that always the case when we say inject or could we be looking at a plan for a day's workshop?
That's a good question. I feel like when I hear it, it's more on the spot, right?
I think it would be strange if someone were going over an agenda to say, you know, we've planned to do this and this and this and then inject this because it does sort of imply something that you do because it's needed on the spot, wouldn't you say?
I would say, yeah, I mostly agree with you.
It feels spontaneous. There's a spontaneous nature to it.
I think you could get away with it if you were looking at a plan, let's inject a break here because you are kind of planning and manipulating the blocks of time.
I think you could get away with it. It wouldn't be a glaring mistake.
You know what I mean? That sounded really right.
If you're imagining someone planning a meeting, planning how it's going to go, And you're saying at this point, we'll inject a break or, you know, at this point, maybe we inject an activity.
You're sort of planning how things will go, imagining yourself in the moment, and we're going to inject it here, knowing you could be flexible about where it's needed.
Whereas if you are starting a meeting, telling everyone how it's going to go, that's where it would feel strange to me.
And then at that point, we'll inject, no, they would say like, at that point, we might take a break.
That's a real, Ooh, this is really getting into the nuances of English.
So the key difference here in the, for when inject is okay, it's two situations, either when we're in the moment of planning, the tomorrow's conference and I'm imagining like dragging and dropping blocks of information of a plan, like block one, block two, block three, I'm gonna inject a break here because in that moment I'm deciding to move it, kind of, right?
Exactly, yes, this really makes sense to me because inject does feel sort of spur of the moment, but when you're planning something like that and recognizing like something might need to happen spur of the moment, we're still going to use that language because we're sort of imagining ourselves in that situation. versus when you've already made the plan and you're introducing what's gonna happen for the day.
It doesn't make any sense to say that. We'll inject a coffee break at 10 a.m.
No, doesn't work. Exactly, right? Then it doesn't make sense as something saying, this is what we have planned, this is what's going to happen.
We would use different verbs. Wow, this is very high level today, Aubrey.
Our listeners are gonna be inspired with how much we could learn and how much we could refine our English for connection, I think.
Yes, I love this. So let's dive into the second one.
You will also hear this everywhere. It's more injecting a feeling or a quality.
This we've used for a long time, both in daily conversations and at work.
So it's not like a thing that's being injected to switch things up, to break up monotony maybe.
So for example, she tried to inject patience into her tone of voice.
So when it's like a feeling like patience, then we've used it this way for quite a while to add something.
We'll say inject. So this part is not trendy is what you're saying.
You're saying the first example is more trendy.
OK, OK. Yeah, I would say so. So it just means add.
You're trying to add something, right? Right.
Some more fun way to say add. Yeah. We want to inject some excitement into the fundraiser.
We want to inject some excitement into the fundraiser.
We want to do something to liven it up, get people excited.
Exactly. And this is really how we hear this collocated the most, I think, is either injecting a feeling into someone's voice or injecting a feeling into an activity like that.
That's when I would be most likely to say it.
Yeah. I wonder, I'm always curious about voice coaches.
When people work with voice coaches, if someone comes to a voice coach and they want to inject certain qualities into their voice, Right.
Super interesting. I've never worked with a voice coach, but I liked either.
But I could imagine them using that verb.
Right. You need to inject more. I can't imagine saying this to an IELTS student.
Right. You need to inject more enthusiasm into your intonation instead of just saying ad.
I will get you a higher score for sure. Right, Aubrey?
Yes, exactly. Right. Yeah. Abercrombie's viral denim sale is back and Spotify listeners get an extra 15 percent off with code Spotify AF. abercrombie is known for their denim with 30 to 50 off all jeans find out how denim should feel shop the viral denim sale in the abercrombie app online or in stores valid in stores and online through august 11th 2025 in u.s and canada excludes clearance price reflects discount code valid in u.s and canada through august 11th 2025 exclusions apply see details online okay all right so we're back so let's see what else do we need to know here what do we think Yeah.
So I think we should do a follow-up because this verb inject is used in many ways in English.
And one of them is really interesting where you're talking about something being introduced inappropriately.
Like we might say, he injected himself into the conversation.
And there's a lot of negative connotation here.
And there's also a mistake that we hear students make sometimes, inject versus the verb interject.
So guys, make sure you follow. We're going to do a follow-up about this word inject because it's very versatile, right?
That's going to be a good episode. I feel like I'm going to learn something in that one.
There, that's going to be a great one. I'm excited.
Yeah, I'm excited too. It's going to be interesting.
As I was planning this, I'm seeing all of this about I'm like, I didn't even know.
Do I make this mistake? I'm going to start listening.
Do I say inject when I mean interject? Right.
Interesting. Okay. But for now, let's finish today's episode up with a role play.
Aubrey, we just ran into each other in the break room.
All right. Here we go. How's your day going?
Not bad. Came to grab a cup of coffee to inject some caffeine into the afternoon.
I hear you. It's so easy to get drowsy late in the day.
Hey, I remember you said your daughter's learning to drive.
How's that going? She's been practicing a lot on smaller roads, and now we're at the point where we need to inject some freeway practice.
I'm kind of dreading it. Oh, boy. Good luck with that.
Scary memories of my first freeway. I'm sure we all have that moment in our minds, the first time we had to get on the freeway.
As a driver, I was terrified. And here in the Phoenix metropolitan area, the freeways are huge, multiple lanes, very busy.
Where I grew up in a more rural area, the freeway was pretty chill.
It was like, Just two lanes, not a lot of cars.
So I actually think I might take her to Idaho for the summer and let her drive for the first time on the freeway in like a small town.
Yeah, it's a scary moment for sure, but we all have to go through it for sure.
Good stuff. All right, Aubrey, what did we use here?
So I said, you said, how's your day going?
I said, not bad. Came to grab a cup of coffee to inject some caffeine into my afternoon.
So this is emphatic. It's fun. Yes. I love this way of using it.
And this I hear a lot, right? When we need to inject some energy into our day or some caffeine and be like, oh, I got to grab a Coke or a coffee to inject some caffeine or some energy.
Yeah. What is your go-to option when you need to inject energy into your body?
What do you do? Is it coffee in the afternoon?
I'm also a coffee drinker. For a long time growing up, it was Coca-Cola, but I've been trying to Eliminate some of the sugar because I don't like diet soda.
I hate the aftertaste of those artificial sweeteners.
Yeah. It was always straight Coca-Cola and there's so much sugar.
So for better or worse, if I need caffeine now, I'm going for the coffee.
I see. I see. For me, it's just going out and taking a walk, honestly, because I drink coffee throughout the day, but I think I drink so much coffee that it doesn't give me the energy boost anymore.
So it doesn't matter. You have to stand up and walk around.
Yeah. Stand up, walk around, have a conversation, move my body.
That's what I do to inject energy into my bones, into my body.
That's definitely the healthiest option of the three that we mentioned.
Coca-Cola, coffee, go for a walk. One of these three is not like the others.
Yeah, that's true. Okay. And then what did you say, Aubrey?
What'd you say next? So then I said, we're at the point where we need to inject some freeway practice.
So this is just like our listener was talking about where we're talking about some kind of activity that's being inserted, introduced, injected, right?
So she's doing all this driving and now maybe her teacher would say, you need to inject some freeway practice or I'm saying that it just means we need to add it.
Yep. So this goes back to the conversation we had earlier about designing a plan or designing a learning plan.
You're kind of dragging and dropping where you're going to focus in terms of your study on how to drive.
That's why that makes sense there. Yes. And it would make sense while we're driving in the middle if I say, all right, let's inject some freeway practice for the moment.
Let's do it. But it would be strange if as she starts driving, I say, okay, we're going to Start on some residential roads, practice parking, and then we'll inject some freeway practice.
That seems strange, right? It's either spur of the moment or as we're planning, talking about what we might do spur of the moment.
Yeah, I also would say that I think this word is, I wouldn't say it's formal, but I think it works well for the business world because it indicates that you're trying really hard.
I don't have a kid, but I wouldn't imagine saying that to my kid because I don't know if I would try that hard to be like, let's inject, you know what I mean?
That's a good point, right? Yeah. We're going to add.
When you're speaking to a child that's very informal, I'm probably going to say like, and then we'll do some freeway practice, right?
Yeah, we're going to do some freeway, yeah.
If I said inject, she'd probably be like, mom, who are you talking to?
What's happening? Yeah. So that's what I think it's a little elevated.
It shows that you're trying a little harder just to be interesting, let's say.
Let's say that. That's a good point, right?
We would definitely use it the way Hanan has heard it.
We're talking about meetings and presentations and where something needs to be injected to add some excitement.
Let's do a case study. Let's read an article together and do an activity.
We need to inject something so that, you know, to give us that pick me up in the middle of a meeting.
Yeah, that's why this was perfect for the Business English podcast.
Yeah. Any final other final thoughts here before we finish up today, Aubrey?
Yeah, I just think it's interesting. There are so many verbs like inject that are used in multiple ways, lots of different contexts.
But I think this is such a good one to Spark a conversation by asking someone what they're injecting into their routine.
But also, I think this is so great for anyone planning a meeting to be thinking about this ahead of time.
Might we need to inject something to keep it interesting?
And that's the takeaway right there. I think it's really important when you design a meeting, a team meeting, it's not just about getting the information out.
It's about designing it so that people stay engaged.
We have multiple responsibilities. Right.
Absolutely. Right. And if some meetings are four or five hours like meetings that are very lengthy.
Yes. If we can do a case study, we can do some activities to keep engagement and keep moving the needle on what we're trying to get done.
Yeah. More effective. Yeah. I love that.
So good. There's a lot more we could say today, but we're going to get off the mic for now.
Aubrey, I'll see you on the next one. Have a good one.
See you next time. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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