This is an all-years English podcast episode 21 86.
Call someone out versus call out to someone.
Welcome to the all-years English podcast.
Downloaded more than 200 million times.
Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection.
With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan,
the New York Radio Girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
And to get your transcript delivered by email every week, go to allyearsenglish.com forward
slash subscribe.
In today's episode, we answer a listener question about the difference between call someone
out and call out to someone.
The two sound the same, but they are very different.
Listen in today to make sure you use them correctly in English.
All-yearsenglish is sponsored by Indeed.
If you're in charge of hiring at your company, you know that the key to making a great hire
is having one easy place to go to find great candidates.
That's why we love Indeed.
Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every single day, Indeed's
matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences.
So the more you use Indeed, the better it gets.
And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more
visibility at Indeed.com slash AEE.
Just go to Indeed.com slash AEE right now and support our show by saying you heard about
Indeed on all ears English.
INDEED.com slash AEE.
Terms of conditions apply.
Need to hire you need Indeed.
Hey Michelle, what's shaking?
Hey Lindsay, not too much.
How are you feeling fantastic?
What's going on in New York these days?
Oh, well, it's been getting more beautiful the weather, but then it's been raining like
crazy the past couple of days.
So that's no fun.
But it's okay.
It's all part of the fun.
Lindsay, have you had to call anyone out recently for some sort of negative behavior or
situation to call anyone out?
There is someone I need to call out in my family.
I haven't done it yet.
I am afraid to.
I need to do it.
I need to do it.
So yeah, that can be tough.
That can be tough.
Well, that's like whatever it is.
Thank you.
What about you, Michelle?
Anya?
You're lacking conversations.
Oh, oh, that is.
Yeah.
Actually, there is one conversation I'm not even going to say about who it is that I
have.
I constantly need to call someone out.
And yeah, but every time I get nervous and I don't do it.
It's so hard with family, isn't it?
It's so hard.
Yeah.
Well, this isn't family.
Okay.
Friends.
Yes.
But it's okay.
It's okay.
I just, yeah.
So I need to get that courage.
I have done it once before.
But anyway, not the point.
So you guys remember to hit follower ever you listened to the All Year's English podcast
that you never miss anything from us.
And one of the fun things that we've been doing on this show has been our Spotify key
polls.
We just did one yesterday.
That was super fun.
I know.
Listen to that as well.
But the episode 2154, that was from Monday, February 26.
So a little while ago, we did a fun poll.
This episode was called Never Arrived, Empty Handed American Party etiquette.
Lindsey, do you want to share the poll and the results?
Yeah.
This is super interesting.
So our audience, we asked you again, would you rather do X or Y?
Right?
So would you rather be a guest at a party or host a party?
So the results are 83% of you would rather be a guest at a party.
That's interesting.
And 17% would rather host a party.
That's really interesting.
I think I'd rather host a party in a way.
Really?
Yeah.
I'm not sure what I said in that episode, but my mind changes all the time.
I just think it's kind of fun to have people in your space.
Sometimes I feel more confident when I'm hosting rather than attending a party.
It's your space.
You're not in someone else's home.
I don't know.
Maybe that's a weird opinion.
No, it's not.
No, it's not a weird opinion.
17% of listeners agree with me.
I think it's easier to be the guest.
I like to be the guest, but I do like being home so that I don't have to go home at the
end.
Right.
And you're already home.
It's called.
It's called.
The only problem is you do end up spending.
Sometimes more than summer will host people out in our patio.
Do end up spending like most of the day cleaning and preparing for the party.
You know, right?
Well, the other day we had some friends over to play with the kids.
And we cleaned so much because it was a disaster.
We cleaned so much.
It was, it was, we were imagining like, you know, the song, The Chicken Dance in the background.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because we only, these were last minute plans.
So we started cleaning and they came over and then of course it's kids, right?
So everything becomes a mess anyway.
But I was thinking I'm still glad that they came rather than we went there because it
was raining really, really hard.
Oh, that's the advantage.
Yeah.
That was the advantage that we didn't have to deal with the weather and we were just in
our own space.
So love that.
Love that.
All right.
So thank you for participating the poll, everyone.
Go ahead and check out today's poll.
There is a poll for every episode on Spotify.
So go and make your voice heard.
All right.
Okay.
We're too bad.
Well, today we have a great listener question about the phrasal verb to call out.
Okay.
Hello.
Lindsay, could you read the question for us?
Oh my gosh.
Yes.
This is from Junting.
And Junting says, I've been watching all of yours English for two years.
So Jun must be a YouTube watcher.
Love that.
I love that.
Everyone don't forget that you can catch all of yours English on YouTube.
Every episode is now on YouTube.
So check it out over on YouTube.
I love all of the awesome episodes you've made.
If possible, could you please make an episode to get deep into the phrase phrasal verb call
out?
Not a lot about this phrasal verb.
It seems that it has many different usages such as call something out, call somebody out,
call out on something.
I really have no idea how to use this phrasal verb correctly.
Thank you for the explanation in advance.
Looking forward to your new episode and kind regards from China, Junting.
Wonderful question.
Thank you, Jun.
Thank you, Jun.
Yeah.
This is a good specific one.
So let's do it.
Let's get into it.
So call out.
Call somebody out.
There's a few ways this is used, but we're going to focus on two main ones today.
Great.
So the first one to call out.
This is a little bit different to say to shout for something.
Okay.
Yes.
Okay.
So for example, she called out to him, but he didn't hear her.
That's really important in the order, right?
She called out to him.
Exactly.
I called out to him, right?
Right.
Because if you said she called him out, different.
That would have made the second thing.
Okay.
So the second meaning is to tell someone something that they did was wrong.
Maybe with some demand for them to say why something happened.
You want to get an explanation.
So for example, I have to call you out for what you said earlier.
Mm.
And then everyone's thinking, oh, here it comes.
Right?
Here's something negative.
Here's something.
Yeah.
Interesting.
How these seem so similar, but they're so different.
Right.
Right.
Do you think you use one more frequently than the other?
When you hear, if I just said talk about call out, which one are you thinking?
I would think the second one.
Yeah.
Call someone out for something.
Yeah.
Right.
For sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think it is more common to use it in that way.
When I hear it, that's the first thing I think.
But I did want to highlight this other way.
Yeah.
And then we can talk more about that.
But I think they're both for the most part pretty common, but I think about someone
behaving in a negative way that you need to get them to stop.
No, yeah.
I think there's a time and a place for call out to someone.
Maybe you would read that in a book, like a mystery novel calling out to someone and the
person wasn't anywhere to be found.
Right.
Different context, for sure.
So it's not that it's not common.
It's just specific to certain situations.
And I feel like in our lives these days to call someone out is more relevant.
You know, we see people getting called out in the media all the time, right?
For comments, they make that kind of thing.
That's also applicable to this phrasal verb.
Absolutely.
So well, this is one, this example shows one other context where you might hear call out
in the first way.
Okay.
I'm going to call out all the names of people who haven't submitted their registration.
Yes.
Yeah.
Or you might think in school, the teacher calls out the names of the kids who need to retake
a test or something, right?
Dramatic.
Right.
Right.
Right.
So that is a way that you might hear it with that context.
Lindsay, what's another example?
All right.
So he thought he got away with cheating, but his teacher called him out after class.
So that would be the second meaning, right?
Michelle, that would be the second meaning.
Is that?
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yep.
She told him she did something wrong.
Maybe he thought he got away with it.
But no, she called him out.
Yes.
Is this formal, informal, Michelle business life?
What do we think?
I think it's anything.
I think this is very versatile.
Yeah.
I think it's just a regular phrasal verb and it can go any direction.
What do you think?
Yeah.
I agree.
I think nowadays, as we say on business English all the time, we bring human language into
business.
Yeah.
So 100%.
I could see this being used in the business world.
Call someone out.
Definitely.
Yeah.
Perfect.
So let's talk about some other ways that we would use the first use because we were
saying it might not feel as common.
Yeah.
Right?
So here we go.
So another thing you could say is shout out or shout.
Yes.
I shouted her name, but she didn't hear me.
Yes.
Shout out to someone.
Right?
Yeah.
To yell at someone.
There's a little bit different.
I guess, I guess could you say yell out to someone?
Yeah.
You could yell out to you because I saw that you were about to cross the street and cars
were coming.
Sure.
You could say that.
Mm-hmm.
And what about another one?
Another one is announce.
So this is the one in the example of the class.
Maybe we're calling out some names.
Right.
So you could also say, I'm going to announce the names of the people who have been completed
their registration.
Yeah.
And note here is we do not say announce out to someone in that same way.
Just announce the name.
The point.
Something announce someone.
Right?
And out to the winners.
That sort of thing.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Picture this.
You go to your friends party.
There are some Americans there.
They start talking to you and you end up having the best conversation.
You talk for over an hour.
On the way home, you can't stop smiling.
You've already made plans to go for a bike ride with them next week.
Guess what, listener?
This could be you.
Hit follow right now on the All-Ears English podcast so you never miss an episode.
Hit follow now and prepare for real connection.
Okay, Michelle.
What's next?
So now we're going to go over to the second part where we talked about it.
You're calling someone out for doing something.
So this one, it was a little bit harder for me to find a synonym because I think this
one is so useful.
But these could work.
So the first one is to name someone for something.
Yeah, interesting.
Mm-hmm.
But I just don't, yeah.
To name, well, you could say name the blame or.
Right, right, right.
Naming names.
Right, right, right, right, exactly.
Or to have someone answer to you.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, so I'm thinking, yeah, to have someone answer to you or to blame someone.
But yeah, there's not a lot, that's the thing about phrasal verbs.
There are not a lot of synonyms for phrasal verbs because that's why they're so complicated.
Yeah, they're so specific.
Right, exactly.
You know what, I'm going to take out name.
I'm not sure really what I was thinking there when I wrote it.
I know I had something in my head, but or do you do?
No, I was just going to say it, Michelle, for another episode.
Let's teach the phrase, I'm not naming names.
I love that.
It's so good.
And it's funny.
Oh, I'm not naming names.
That is cool.
Naming names, guys, please hit follow on all our English because you'll love that episode
coming soon this spring.
Good stuff.
Yeah.
I think there, there's not a lot of other things that we could say to call someone out
for something.
Right.
It's really perfect.
It's perfect.
I can't think of a better one.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So that's the one.
That's it.
It's called someone out.
Yeah.
So here we go.
Let's do a role play and show how this is used.
So here we go.
Here we are, camp counselors.
All right.
Here we go.
Okay.
So did you announce the plans for the day?
I did.
I had to call out some of the campers for not paying attention.
They never do.
I always have to shout so they'll listen.
Same.
You know, I saw you the other day.
Why didn't you say hi?
I tried.
I called out your name, but you were on the phone.
Oh, sorry.
It's okay.
Don't worry.
I won't blame you.
Next time, just yell louder.
Okay.
Nice.
So maybe we were in town or something.
We had a day off, right?
And we were both downtown or something.
You saw me.
Okay.
Interesting.
So first I said, okay.
So did you announce the plans for the day?
And so this is more similar to the first call out the plans.
Right.
Right.
Right.
And then I said, I had to call out some of the campers for
not paying attention.
So I basically, I had to scold them.
I had to tell them to stop it.
Yeah.
Exactly.
And so when it comes to separating that and putting the pronoun in the middle, we can do
that because they call them out.
And you could also say call the campers out.
It feels a little more cumbersome, right?
To me to say that.
I would tend to put a pronoun only.
Call him out.
Call her out.
Call them out.
Then call the campers out.
Call my teacher out.
Call my coworker out.
It works, but it's just a little cumbersome, I think.
And then you said, I always have to shout so they will listen.
I always have to shout so they will listen.
And then you said, I tried.
I called out your name.
So that was the first meaning.
But you were on the phone.
And you said, don't worry.
I won't blame you.
So you're joking around.
And then I'm saying, next time, just yell louder.
Yeah.
Let's say, right?
Yeah, perfect.
All right, what's our takeaway for today?
First of all, hit follow because we're going to have a fun episode about that phrase and
maybe a few others naming names.
That is a fun one.
That's a fun one.
Maybe there are others that are similar to that.
Like you repeat a word.
I don't know.
We'll talk about it, Michelle.
But good stuff coming up on all those English and any takeaway for today's episode with
the difference between these two.
Well, again, like we said, Lindsay and I both agreed that to call someone out is more
common in the second definition that we discussed today, that we are telling someone they did
wrong, something wrong, telling them we found out about their behavior, someone's cheating,
you call someone out.
Okay.
But call out in the other way is still used sometimes.
We gave you some other options.
When we tried to give other options for calling someone out for negative behavior, it was
tough.
We once did know that that is definitely the best option.
Yeah, that one is very precise and specific.
So I would say take a wait, start using that one to call someone out.
Think about who is there someone in your life, your family, your friends that you need
to call out, call out for some things.
I'm going to be here.
Think about it, talk about it.
You don't have to do it if you're not ready, but just use it in context, right?
Use this phrasal verb in context, Michelle.
Yes.
And then bring your scores.
Yes.
Please do.
Please do.
All right, Lindsay, this was fun.
Thank you so much to June, our listener for this great question and for listening always
and everyone have a great day.
All right.
Take care, Michelle.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to all ears English.
Would you like to know your English level?
Make our two minute quiz go to all earsenglish.com forward slash fluency score.
And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't
miss anything.
See you next time.
The NBA playoffs are here and you can make those moments even bigger with sleeper picks.
Sleeper picks is a fantasy game, but you can win real money.
Just pick more or less on at least two of your favorite player stats, like Anthony Edwards
points or SGA assists.
If you're right, you win.
Sleeper even has alternate picks now.
Feel better about your player scoring 15 points and 20?
Take that pick instead.
Think your guys about to go off?
Take more than 25 for an even bigger payout.
If you're new to Sleeper, they'll even match your first deposit up to $500.
Just download the Sleeper app and use promo code Contest and your first deposit will be
doubled up to $500.
So what are you waiting for?
Sleeper today and unlock one of the fastest growing fantasy sports apps in the world.
And don't forget to use code Contest for up to $500 match on your first deposit.
That's promo code Contest.
Must be 18 years old.
promo code location and other restrictions apply.
Deposit Match Bonus Issued is non-withdrawable Play Through Funds.
See terms of use for details.
Please play responsibly.
Call 1-800-426-2537 for help.