This is the Business English Podcast, episode 547.
Don't let homophones upend your vocabulary.
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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Hey Aubrey, what's shakin'?
I'm, I'm, that's funny.
I've never shared what to say with what's shaking.
I'm like, I'm good.
I mean, not much.
Nothing's going on.
So really that would mean like, what's going on?
What's happening?
Kind of.
It's my signature question, but you can answer it.
It's funny that after all the times you've asked, I still get thrown off sometimes.
Not much.
What about you?
Not much.
Not much is going on.
Not much, but I'm excited to be here.
I have a question for you though.
All right, let's hear it.
So, when it comes to just everyday conversation for you, or even at work, do words that sound the same but have different meanings ever trip you up?
Do they ever give you problems?
Yeah, this does happen, right?
If I'm like reading along, but really it's either on a podcast, because it's about what the words sound like.
And often.
What we're talking about today is often when it's like two words in a sentence, But depending on the sounds around it, it can sound like a different two words.
Yeah, it's so funny.
I remember.
I do have this thought frequently when I hear something and I think how do we know if it's this or that?
Even as a native speaker, this happens.
Absolutely.
Yeah, this happened recently on an episode of All Ears English.
We taught up and for it to to up and do something.
And Michelle pointed out.
You know, be careful not to confuse this with the verb upend, which sounds very similar but has a totally different meaning.
Yeah.
I mean, if you saw it written it'd be really obvious.
But we usually don't see written what we're speaking right.
We're not writing these things down.
So they sound very similar up and upend, right?
Very similar.
And especially in spoken conversation, where we're running words together and There's a lot of features of connected speech.
This happens a lot where even native speakers might not be sure exactly what was said.
It's so true.
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Yes.
Awesome.
So these are homophones that we're talking about today.
Words or phrases that sound the same but have different meanings and usually different spellings as well.
Totally.
Homophones.
It's one of those terms you maybe learned in school, but didn't remember it or something.
But it's very simple, right?
It's words again that sound the same but have totally different meanings and are totally different words.
They might be two words combined exactly the problem is what we're hearing right?
Exactly because in especially in conversations normal everyday speech, when we're speaking quickly, sounds run together, it becomes more difficult what we're saying and there are more homophones that are created.
So let's go through the first example that we pulled up from the episode with Michelle, to make sure we all get this example.
What is it?
So what are the two words again?
Yeah, so we have the verb upend and then upand, two separate words.
So upend means to turn upside down, literally.
We also use this figuratively to mean ruin.
And that's always followed by a noun.
We upend something.
What about up and?
So up and essentially means.
So it's part of a phrase, right?
We up and do something out of the blue, right?
With no real planning.
And it's followed by a verb.
I up and jumped out of bed.
I up and signed up to take a course. yeah and our listeners should check out that episode to make sure they fully understand yes stay to the end we'll share details for that episode so that you can go listen to it on allers english if you missed it and when you take these words in isolation it seems like this should be simple and straightforward right because the spelling is totally different upend is u-p-e-n-d it's one word and up and is two words and u-p new word a-n-d But the truth is, like Aubrey said earlier, once you get this in a sentence and you are combining sounds, we talk about this in our pronunciation course, we combine these sounds, you may not be able to tell the difference.
Exactly.
There's linking.
When one word ends with a consonant like up and the next word starts with a vowel, we link them together append.
So listen to how similar these two sentences sound.
They want to append the system.
They want to upend change the system.
So in both cases, it just sounds like upend.
And we have to add the verb for upend.
That's the only way you would really know which one it is.
Yeah.
So that helps us a little bit.
We do get to have a verb in there.
You can't just upend something, right?
You have to upend do something, right?
Exactly.
So if it's up and two words, it's always going to be followed by a verb.
And that's kind of your hint there, right?
Up and leave the room, right?
I need to up and leave the room.
I need to...
I don't know.
Whereas upend the room, like my children might upend a room.
When they were little, they would like toss everything.
They'd pull all the clothes out of drawers.
They were upending the room, right?
Or maybe like a rock band at a hotel room or something.
Yes, right.
When they could smash all their instruments on stage, upending everything.
Exactly.
Another one is an aim and a name, right?
So this is funny.
Yes.
And they do the same with the linking.
These sound the same.
You just have to know from context, which is being said.
So first example, a name she shared was to become fluent in English.
So, you know, from context that that's an aim, A-I-M.
The question is like, where do the words end?
Where does one word end and one word begin?
With connected speech, it's hard to say.
Yeah.
And then the next one, she wrote a name on the form.
But when you would say this, it would run together and you just say she wrote a name on the form.
She wrote a name on the form.
This is definitely one of those that there's a chance you would think someone's writing a goal and name on a form.
And if they're like, you know, write a name on this form.
Okay, wait, you want me to write my name or you want me to write a name?
That could happen.
It's true, you don't have a crutch like we do for the first one here right, because we said we need a verb for up, up and but here.
But most of the time it comes back to context, right?
If you're filling out a form i did probably 75 of the time it's your name.
Every form says right at the top aims and goals name, date of birth, address.
But notice, we do have these phrases for clarifying, right?
Don't be afraid to do this.
If you'd be like, do you mean my name or an aim?
And then we're enunciating more clearly to differentiate, right?
Then instead of saying an aim and running it together, we'd say an aim, right?
Yeah, yeah.
And I think aim is just a more rare version of way of saying goal, right?
But it could come up, right?
Someone might tend to use that instead of goal.
Sure.
When I was a teacher, we had to write the aim on the board.
It was like aim and then the objective for the day, the aim and the objective.
So I could definitely see if I'm like, okay, write a name on the form.
The kids would be like, do you mean today's aim or my name?
Ah, sure.
There's like a culture, like a classroom culture where you use both words.
What was the difference between the aim and the objective?
I'm trying to remember.
It was like the aim was more the overall, the aim for maybe the whole curriculum or the whole like the week of study.
And the objective would be sort of what you do that day to reach it.
Got it.
OK, interesting.
Yeah.
So it's it's culture.
It's the culture of who you're talking to, who's around, what you said before.
There's a lot here, a lot of context clues we can get.
What's the next one?
So the next one is miss you if it's followed by an S sound or a Z sound really and then misuse.
So, for example, we'll miss you so much while you're out of office or?
I didn't mean to misuse my power.
Yeah, sure.
That could get confusing if we're not listening carefully 100%.
And sometimes we can't tell from context, though, Aubrey, right?
Yeah.
And so really, unless you're writing it, it often won't matter.
Like you wouldn't need to clarify.
You can just kind of like listen to the rest of the conversation and sort of figure out which was meant.
If you are transcribing, if you're having to write what people say, that's when you would need to know, because they would be spelled differently.
And this is kind of why we learn chunks right yeah, i mean, you know.
The next one is a good example of that.
So number four a nice cold versus an ice cold something right, so what?
What are the chunks that we tend to learn?
Right, an ice cold soda, right.
But listen to this.
This is funny.
Listen to these two examples.
I love a nice cold ice cream on a sunny day.
Or I love a nice cold ice cream on a sunny day.
Yeah.
The good news is it doesn't matter which they're saying in that sentence.
But if you had to write it, even I would be like, I don't know what you're saying.
Did you say a nice cold or an ice cold?
And when you just said that, they sound the same.
They just say a nice cold or an ice, ice cold.
We'd have to like really separate them.
Oh my god, english is so much trouble, right?
That's why we're here.
And then gray day versus great day right, sometimes it's the end of the word, because in english, with the pronunciation again, you learn about this in our pronunciation course we don't stop and say great day right, exactly that t is assimilated and it just sounds like great day.
So these sound the same.
Today was a really great day or today was a really great day.
They sound very similar.
That little T you can barely hear.
I mean, they're not exactly the same, but they're super similar, right?
So we really need to think about context, hone our ears, our skills of listening, and just know that native speakers really screw this up too.
Absolutely.
And that you could ask, right?
You'd be like, wait, did you say it's a great day or a great day?
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
Really good.
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All right, Aubrey.
To finish off today's episode, we have a role play.
You and I are coworkers walking home after work.
Okay.
All right.
I'll start us out.
Did you hear about the board meeting yesterday?
Sounds like they want to upend the system.
Oh, yeah.
Sounds like they're going to up and make some huge changes.
Yeah, that reminds me of what Sarah was saying yesterday.
She talked about an aim she had growing up.
A name or an aim?
Oh, an aim.
She had a goal to become fluent in five languages.
That is so awesome.
Hey, want to get ice cream?
Yes, I could use a nice cold ice cream cone.
Yeah, this is fun.
Which one did I say?
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
You're getting the same amazing snack.
What matters is what flavor you're going to get of the ice cream.
Exactly.
All right, good.
So where do we start here, Aubrey?
So I first said upend, right?
It sounds like they want to upend the system.
This is this verb that means disrupt, to change something big.
And then I said, yeah, sounds like they're going to up and make some huge changes.
And again, as that comes together, we collapse these words together.
It's very hard to tell the difference.
But here was interesting how the syllable stress was different with append.
That's true.
You're emphasizing the second syllable.
And when you say up and make, you emphasized up more.
And that sounded right.
Right.
So that first syllable is stressed more.
That will also help differentiate.
Yeah.
So there are certain things with the context, the chunks that we already know, the intonation of the word, place on the word.
There are certain things.
This is how we get through this.
Yes.
And then you saw how in a conversation someone could ask to clarify.
I said she talked about a name she had growing up.
That could be an aim or a name.
And so you just ask, wait, a name or an aim?
Showing us how to clarify, right?
And in that case, we're slowing down.
We're being very clear and saying a name or an aim, right?
I'm really asking you clearly, right?
Good.
And then you repeat very clearly.
Exactly.
Oh, an aim.
And then I say something else to sort of clarify.
You know, I restate it as goal.
She had a goal to become fluent in five languages.
Now we're all clear.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Smart, smart to respond to that.
And then I said, that is so awesome.
Hey, want to grab ice cream?
Yeah.
I said, yes, I could use a nice cold ice cream cone.
And here it could be a nice cold or and. ice cold and it wouldn't matter unless you're writing it.
Yeah, there we didn't bother to qualify because we're already going to the ice cream shop, right?
Probably wouldn't even realize that it could possibly be the other thing.
I better get some ice cream because we've been talking about ice cream a lot today.
I think it's time.
We're both going to get an ice cream cone.
Guys, going over to 2544, when you finish up today, did you up and start learning English?
This is the episode that inspired this explanation today.
Yes, and that is such a great chunk to say you up and did something, up and started doing something.
So definitely don't miss that episode over on All Ears English.
If you're not listening to the All Ears English podcast, you're missing a lot of amazing episodes.
Oh my gosh, amazing.
I mean, imagine if you're not listening to All Ears English.
It's a crime, right?
So guys, you want to be subscribed.
You want to be following All Ears English.
We do publish five days a week.
So you could essentially between Business English and All Ears English.
You could actually consume a podcast from us every day of the week, right?
Yes.
And we're actually doing a part two to this, a follow-up with upend and similar phrases for ruining plans, and how do you connect when about plans that were ruined?
So be sure to follow and look for that episode over on All Ears English.
Yeah, and Aubrey, when it comes to connection, I mean, what should we come away with today?
What do you think?
Yeah, this is really interesting.
When there's something like this confusion, first of all, don't hesitate to just ask to clarify if it matters.
But also keep in mind that often you're going to know with a couple more sentences you'll be able to tell from the context, or you'll realize that it doesn't matter.
Yes, i love it so good.
And again remember, native speakers struggle with this a lot, so don't sweat it, right?
Don't sweat it, totally all right, good stuff, aubry.
We'll see you next time.
You have a good rest of your day, awesome.
See you guys next time.
Bye, bye.
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