This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 520.
Am I taking English vocabulary for granted?
Welcome to the Business English Podcast from All Ears English.
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This is Real Business English, with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
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That's allearsenglish.com slash f l u e n c y s c o r e. Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
I'm good, Aubrey.
How's everything going for you?
Excellent.
I have a question.
Okay.
Is there anyone in your life that you have a tendency to take for granted?
Oh, take for granted.
Not a good thing, right?
Yeah.
I think I've like historically taken my parents for granted, maybe my dad a little bit.
Um, but yeah, I think we all, everybody out there listening probably is like, yeah, me too.
I should call my dad.
Yeah.
Because people have family drama and then they, they forget about how lucky they are.
Right.
Um, to have their parents and that kind of thing.
So, yeah, this is interesting.
This phrase to take something for granted or someone for granted.
We got a really great question.
Um, about this today, so i'm excited to dive into this.
This came from our youtube channel.
Guys, all ears english has a youtube channel.
Um, this particular podcast, business english is not over there.
Maybe it will be soon um, but if you want to watch all ears english on youtube, you can do that, and you can also hit subscribe.
So aubry, i'll go ahead and read the question.
Yeah yes, this is from ain't phone, thought.
Uh, they say hi, lindsay michelle.
I'm from myanmar.
I've been a fan of your podcast for over a year now and I really enjoy the content you create.
I always make sure to catch every new episode.
Well, that's amazing.
Thank you.
That is awesome.
I have a question I'd love your insight on.
What's the difference between take for granted and overlook?
Ooh, great question.
If there's a subtle difference, could you explain it?
Thanks so much for reading my question and have a great day.
Nice.
Lovely question.
I love these specific questions, especially comparing vocabulary that seems really similar but is used differently.
This makes for a great episode.
Well, this is going to be a really good one.
If you like these kinds of questions, we have answers to these kinds of very nuanced questions that you're really not going to find in a textbook these days.
You're not going to find through AI.
You really need essentially native speakers to explain them.
And we can bring in examples and role plays, bring it to life for you.
So if you love that style, hit the follow button, guys.
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Wherever you find your podcast, just open it and search Allers English, Business English, and you'll see the yellow box.
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Yellow box.
Yep.
Hit follow there.
Yep.
All right.
So every, yeah, I love that this listener sees that they're similar, but they're different, right?
Exactly.
So we'll first dive in to take for granted, which actually has two different meanings.
So the first one is to fail to appreciate something because you're so used to having it.
You assume it will always be there.
It always will be the same.
Just like you were saying for your dad, say, I take him for granted, right?
I just, I fail to appreciate them as much as I should.
Yep, for sure.
And we can do this for people or for things, right?
Things that we have, like our health, right?
So they took their top salesperson for granted until she left the company.
Or we often take good health for granted.
That's the biggest one.
We just assume it's always going to be there until one day it's not.
And you realize I should have appreciated it when I had it.
It's the biggest one right there.
Even when I get like a little cold and then I recover, the first day of being recovered I'm like wow, I'm so lucky to be healthy.
It's so true.
Right?
Or if you with volleyball get minor injuries, like a little sprain or something pretty minor.
And then suddenly I'm like wow, I took for granted that, how easy it was to do everything when I was 100.
It's amazing.
But how do we not do that?
Right?
I don't know.
That's the trick.
And then there's another meaning that might be slightly less common or less obvious and is to assume
To assume.
So for example... the team took it for granted that the budget would be approved.
So this is where you're just assuming something's going to happen.
It's definitely related to that first meeting, maybe because it always is the case.
They've always approved it before.
So we're taking that for granted.
It just means that you're assuming something will happen.
Yeah.
Or we took it for granted that customers would understand how the feature works, but soon realized it was not clear enough.
And this can happen a lot in marketing.
Right.
That's why we need to just be really clear and kind of over explain things in a sense.
Yeah, that does happen.
Right.
And often that'll happen with user interfaces.
I can see like whoever developed this software thought this would be so simple and easy.
And then I'm trying to figure it out.
I'm like, no, this is not user friendly.
It's what they call the curse of knowledge.
Right.
When someone knows so much about something they really can't teach a beginner because they just they're too deep in their own knowledge.
They don't know what others don't know.
Exactly.
Right.
It's the same with like proofreading.
It's really hard to catch your own mistakes.
It's easier to see it in, you know, the writing of others.
Yeah, that's probably true.
Yeah.
Okay.
So then what's, what's this important difference that we need to know about when it comes to overlook?
How is it different?
Yeah, so overlook does have a different meaning.
It actually has four different meanings.
We're going to share the two that are used most in business English.
The first one is to fail to notice something, usually by accident.
So it's more about forgetting or not seeing something important.
Yeah, so for example, we overlooked a mistake in the contract. right?
Or I apologize.
I completely overlooked your email in my inbox.
We often instead will say missed.
I missed it.
I'm sorry.
I missed your email.
Overlook has the same meaning.
Just a little bit more formal, right?
Wouldn't you say?
Or just giving our listeners options.
What would be the second meaning then?
So the second meaning is to intentionally choose not to pay attention to something, usually a small mistake or an issue that you're choosing to overlook.
So for example, the manager decided to overlook the minor delay.
Or I'll overlook it this time, but please be more careful.
So you're saying I'm aware of this.
I'm intentionally ignoring it.
I'm intentionally overlooking it for some reason.
Interesting.
Okay.
So there is a difference.
So taking for granted versus overlook.
It's Overlook is not so much about people and like appreciating them.
Right.
I wouldn't say we overlook a person because we don't appreciate them.
Right.
We take it for granted.
We take them for granted.
Overlook is more about these small details that either you miss or you intentionally choose to ignore.
And we'll often say instead, I'll let it go instead of saying I'll overlook.
You know, I'm going to let it go this time, but next time it will be a problem.
That's true.
Yeah, that's true.
Wow.
Yeah.
And if you're a manager, you have to decide, you have to pick your battles, right?
And decide what to overlook and what not to.
That's true, because if every single thing you're nitpicking if like, you're pointing out every little thing, it can be exhausting.
But if you don't point certain things out, then it's going to happen again and again.
So you have to choose what to point out.
Yes, totally.
All right.
Good stuff.
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Okay, role play time.
So let's take ourselves into the workplace.
So here we are, Megan and Sarah.
So we're different people, coworkers discussing a client meeting.
Yes, you want to start us out?
Okay.
Hey, Sarah, do you have a minute to talk about yesterday's client meeting?
I think there were a couple points we might have overlooked.
For example, we failed to address some of the concerns about the new timeline.
You're right.
I completely missed the part where they mentioned needing an extra security review.
In hindsight, I was too focused on the budget discussion.
Same here.
Part of the problem may be that we've been taking the client for granted a bit and and assuming they'll accept whatever schedule we propose
They seemed really flexible at first, but that seems to be changing.
That's true.
Regarding the logo edits I had proposed, I think we can overlook those since we won't have time.
Agreed.
Let's address the major concerns, update the plan and show them that we're not taking their cooperation for granted anymore.
Perfect.
I'll revise the timeline, and we can send an update this afternoon.
Yeah, this is a real risk.
If you run a company and if you're like a nice person and you hire like software development companies or any kind of project stuff, if you're not a squeaky wheel from the start, they might prioritize other people's work.
Absolutely.
I think we've all been in this type of situation where, on either end, maybe we're that person that's really flexible.
And so they're taking us for granted or the other way, right?
Maybe we're assuming someone else will be flexible and we're taking them for granted.
Yeah.
And it's not good because then the project usually comes to a point where you get angry.
Right.
Even though you've been letting things go.
And then you become the squeaky wheel and they're not used to it.
It's like it's tough.
This is tough.
But it would almost be toxic because you have built up resentment, probably.
Right.
And the other person might not even have been aware that that was happening.
Yes.
Oh, my gosh.
All right, so we've got overlooked inserted in here in a few places.
So first I said, I think there were a couple of points that we might have overlooked.
Yeah, meaning we missed them, right?
Something that we should have covered, but we didn't.
Yeah, and then what else, Aubrey?
Yeah.
And then I could have said oh, I overlooked the part where they mentioned, but you wouldn't want to repeat it again?
Yeah.
So here I've said I completely missed them mentioning they needed an extra security review.
Right.
So there are other ways to say this.
You'll want to switch it up to avoid repetition.
And then we're bringing in people.
So we're bringing in taking for granted.
Right.
Because taking for granted is really about people usually.
Exactly.
We wouldn't say we overlooked a person, but we would say we took a person for granted.
So same here.
Part of the problem may be that we've been taking the client for granted, right?
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
They were very flexible at first.
So we assumed they would accept any schedule and we were taking that for granted.
And then I said, you know, oh, I had proposed these logo edits, but we can overlook those.
So this is something that we can let go.
We can let slide.
We don't need to prioritize it.
Yeah.
And I said, agreed.
Agreed.
Let's address the major concerns, update the plan and show them we're not taking their cooperation for granted anymore.
So now we're going to try to correct course, course correct and make it better, make it right.
Exactly.
And we have.
You're taking the client for granted there and then taking their cooperation for granted.
So like we mentioned, it can be about a person or about their action.
Either way, you can take it for granted.
Yeah.
So clearly there is a big difference, but there are also related and similar differences.
So I feel like it's hopefully it's clear for our listeners.
Guys, if you have follow up questions, send them in or you'll comment on YouTube.
Let us know what your follow up questions are.
The more specific, the better, because we can make another episode based on your questions.
OK, absolutely.
Yes.
Send your questions.
And if you missed it, scroll up for BE Business English 516.
What's on the horizon?
How to talk about the future at work.
This episode had some amazing phrases, so make sure you don't miss it.
And I guess the overall theme today is paying attention, right?
Paying attention to the people in your life, your coworkers, your family members.
There's no replacement for people, right?
And then paying attention to details, right?
So we don't miss things.
Yes, that's right, right?
Appreciate the people in your life and also pay attention to details.
You got it.
All right.
Great stuff, Aubrey.
I'll talk to you soon.
Awesome.
Thanks, Lindsay.
Bye.
All right.
Thank you.
Bye.
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