This is an All-Ears English Podcast episode 2217.
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Today, our listener Sarah asks us what it means when someone says,
you got me? Today, we explore four ways to get in English.
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Hello, Michelle.
Happy Wednesday morning.
Today's a Wednesday as we record how you feeling today.
I'm feeling good.
I'm feeling a little bit tired today.
So I'm honestly, I'm excited to really get pumped up.
I always know, okay, I feel like recording with you is it's like having an extra cup of
coffee, right?
Because we're, it's kind of fake until you make it.
We have to be energetic.
Right, right.
And then it is a natural burst of energy.
And natural comes.
I agree with that, Michelle.
You know, you come, you know, it's the morning.
You've been dealing with your kids all morning.
I've been dealing with my dog, taking my dog's walk and everything.
And then we get on the mic and then we sync up and we are here with our listeners for
our extra cup of coffee.
I love it.
Yes.
So good.
So Michelle, today we're talking about practical jokes.
I mean, did anyone ever play one on you ever play a practical joke on you?
I am sure.
I'm having a hard time thinking of them, but I do.
I remember in college, there was a lot of practical jokes going on.
Oh, I remember going on now.
Okay, so my, this is so ridiculous.
One spring break, we road tripped to Disney World.
And we basically, we were stopping in Atlanta on the way to stay with my friends' parents,
says, you know, the way to split up the trip.
Yeah.
So, I was, my friend Richard is absolutely hysterical.
I'm still friends with him to this day.
And we were in one car and then we had another set of friends and another car.
And they were following us and we, they didn't have the address.
And so it was his parents' house.
And we just, we took them first to a, like a complete mansion.
And we pretended that it was his house.
And I remember we, we pulled up to the house and it was, we were like, oh, yeah, here
we are.
This is his house.
And it wasn't.
And so that was, I guess you had to be there.
But it was funny, but they didn't find it so funny because it had been a really long drive.
And then we just took them to joke around with them.
So they, we didn't get the reaction.
No, no, no, no, no way.
Yeah, remember in high school, I think what you said, toilet paper, each other's cars
when we first started driving my friends and I, things like that, like little practical
jokes, April, full day things.
But Michelle, we've all been, you know, we've all been the victim of a practical joke,
hopefully a, you know, positive one that caused some laughter.
But what are we talking, how is this connected to today's episode?
Would you say?
Yes.
Because today we are going to be talking about a versatile expression that you can use in
many ways, but one of the ways is in that type of a situation.
If someone plays a practical joke on you and you fell for it.
So you could say, you got me, right?
You got me, right?
And I love me.
You got me, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I feel like someone could easily play a practical joke on me these days because I'm not expecting
it.
You know, I don't have my guard up and it would be easy to do that for sure.
Are you, are you gullible?
Are you gullible?
Oh, yeah.
I've always been gullible.
What does gullible mean?
That's a great bonus.
Guilever bull is a great bonus word.
So it just means you believe things easily.
People can just play a joke on you.
They can make up a story and you say, really?
I was especially gullible when I was a teenager for sure, but these days also still pretty
gullible.
Okay.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Wow.
Let's get into it.
So before we do that, we want to remind our listeners.
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Absolutely.
I'm going to go ahead and read the listener question, Michelle.
This is from Sarah V.
And Sarah says, hi, all.
Thank you so much for this great podcast.
I love listening to AEE every morning, Eastern time.
I love that.
I love that, Michelle.
I have a question for you.
What does you got me or they got me mean?
I don't get the many different meanings.
This one's not clear to me.
Oh, sorry.
I know this has many different meanings, but this one is not clear to me.
I would appreciate your help looking forward to it.
Thank you, Sarah V.
Yeah.
Sarah has a sense that there are many different meanings for this phrase.
You got me or they got me.
Right?
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
And there are many different meanings.
So we're going to cover some of them today.
Before we get into it, though, we want to direct you to episode 22, 03.
That was, you know what?
Let's learn how to introduce a surprise in English.
So that was a good one to listen to.
Yeah, that one goes nicely with today's episode.
Similar usage, similar scenarios, right?
Exactly.
Yes.
Exactly.
So they're different meanings.
So the first one, let's start with this one.
The first one I think of is if someone fooled you, just the practical joke idea.
So someone fooled you, got something past you.
They made a joke.
So you might say, you got me.
I did not see that coming.
Yeah, for sure.
So in high school, when someone toilet-papered my car, right?
Or I think maybe they saran wrapped my car.
I don't remember, but I came out ready to drive home from school.
And obviously I couldn't get into my car.
You got me, right?
You could say that in that moment.
Right.
Or if you're on the other end, if you're the one who did the joke, you could say, I got
you.
I got you.
You got me.
I got you.
I love it.
I think the word get has so many usages in English.
Oh, yeah.
I think we've done an episode on the word get.
Maybe a couple episodes.
Yeah, we could always do more because there's a lot with it.
So that's the first one.
So now we're going to move on to another one.
And this one is a little bit different.
This is more who knows, right?
I'm stumped.
I don't really know the answers.
So let's do an example.
Right.
So for example, go ahead, Michelle.
A little roleplay.
A little roleplay.
Why did she leave her job?
Everything seemed so perfect.
You got me.
Okay.
This is interesting because the intonation couldn't be more
different.
Right, Michelle.
Yeah.
Right.
Because in the joke one, it's more, you got me.
And this it kind of, it ends.
It sounds like you're asking a question away.
You got me.
You have this different intonation here.
And we're emphasizing me for some reason.
Right.
You got me.
Right.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Maybe I feel like there's a sense of maybe someone else knows.
Right.
I don't know.
So you got me.
Right.
Right.
And that's interesting because we talked about with the practical joke version.
You could say, I got you, but you wouldn't say that for this.
There's no, I got you.
Right.
This is just about you not understanding or not knowing.
Right.
You got me.
Right.
I love it.
Wow.
Couldn't be more different.
Look at that.
It really matters which words we emphasize to convey what we mean.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
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Okay, Michelle.
Next one.
There's another use for this.
Still.
And what does it mean?
What is it?
Okay.
This one is, do you understand?
Right.
So let's give this a try.
So, okay.
So pull this lever over here.
Where?
The one to the right.
You got me?
Oh, I see.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So this is good.
This one I think is very colloquial, very casual, native and natural these days.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And with this one, you could say, I got you in terms of, do you understand?
Oh, no, sorry.
In terms of, I do understand.
You could say, I got you.
I got you.
Or like I said, gotcha.
Gotcha.
Right.
I gotcha.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Which is fun.
So again, it's very casual.
I probably wouldn't use this as much, you know, in a workplace unless I were very comfortable
with who I'm around.
Right.
It's very, very street language.
You got me?
You got me?
Yeah.
Definitely.
Definitely.
So we're going to do one more here.
And this one is interesting.
This one is about support.
This is basically saying, you have my support.
Oh.
So, yeah.
I'm supporting you.
Let's show what that might look like.
All right.
Here we go.
I'm nervous about the presentation.
You got me.
Well, sorry.
Let me try that again.
Oh, my God.
You, oh, no, wait.
Why can't I think of how I would say this?
Maybe that would be options in this case.
I guess you would just say, like, you got me.
I will help you rehearse and you will be fine.
Yeah.
You're just saying that I'm here to support you.
I'm sure.
Or I might also say, you've got me.
You've got me.
Yeah.
Right.
Maybe that's why I'm not quite awkward.
You've got me, right?
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
I got you.
I got you.
That's another way you could say it.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
I love it.
So, there's many ways we're asking, do you understand?
We're saying, do you have my support?
We're saying we've been, we've been had.
We've been jokes, right?
A lot of things going on here, Michelle.
Where should we go from here?
I mean, which, which feels natural?
Which one do you find yourself using the most?
Hmm.
That's a good question.
So, I, I think I'm just looking through them.
I would say, maybe the practical joke one.
Okay.
Yeah.
I love that.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Or, or, or the, I'm stumped one.
So, you got me.
Yeah.
I feel like that would be good to stump.
I'm stumped.
Which one do you feel you use the most?
I really like that you under, you know, do you understand?
You got me?
You got me.
Right.
I usually say, well, I think it's even more casual to say, you got me.
I would tend to say, got it.
Right.
Got it.
Or did you get it?
Got it.
Did you get it?
Got me is even more slangy.
Right.
Right.
Got me.
Yeah.
True.
True.
Um, so funny.
We're just like, got it.
Did you get it?
Got it.
Got it.
Got it.
Got it.
Got it.
Got it.
Got it.
Got it.
Got it.
Got it.
Got it.
Got it.
Actually, well, what is that?
What is that?
What is that?
You got it.
Okay.
Good.
Right.
Maybe that'll be the title of today's episode.
Yes.
Got it.
Got it.
Good.
Maybe.
Maybe that's a good one.
Um, so should we put it all together?
I think we should.
This is going to really show us how diverse this phrase is.
It's just incredible.
So here, Michelle, we are friends working together to plan a birthday party.
Here we go.
Here we go.
All right.
So I have 300 people on my guest list.
What?
I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
Whoo.
You got me.
Sorry.
Just about 50 people.
Okay.
Good.
Okay.
So I think we should order from Clyde's pizza.
Oh, you mean the one on fifth?
Yeah.
You know that one?
Oh, yeah.
I got you.
Great.
How much other pizzas?
You got me.
I can call and check, though.
Thanks.
Sorry.
I'm just a little worried about how this will all go.
Oh, it'll be great.
And we will have Christina to help out, too.
We got you.
I appreciate that.
All right.
I think we got, we nailed the intonation there.
Michelle and that role play for each of these.
Yeah.
I think I could have done, I do think I could have done a little bit better at the first one.
No.
I think I, I think I need to just, well, let's go through it.
Okay.
Let's go.
So you said 300 people on my guest list, which is a lot.
So.
Yeah.
And I said, oh, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
Right?
Yeah.
So I believe that I said you got me.
I, I maybe I should have said it like you got me.
Well, I actually kind of think that you have choices there.
Right.
Because if you're saying you got me, I suppose I could, that could fly.
You're just saying, well, you fooled me, but you might not have fooled someone else.
Mm hmm.
Right.
But yeah, generally what we've taught earlier is when you're saying you've been had, like you've
been had you've been joke, like you've been the victim of a joke, you got me.
All right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Okay.
And then what was the next one?
All right.
So then we said, oh, the one on fifth going to call the pizza rhea.
And I said the one on fifth and you said, yeah, you know that one?
And I said, yeah, I got you.
Right.
And I'm nodding my head.
I'm saying, yeah, I understand.
I understand what you're saying.
Right.
And then I said, how much are their pizzas?
And you said, you got me.
I can call and check.
So this is the, I'm stumped or I don't know.
Right.
You got me.
I don't know.
Again, maybe someone else knows, but I don't know.
Right.
And then I said, it'll be great.
And we'll have Christina to help out too.
We got you.
Now, we got you.
I really emphasize the got you.
We got you.
We're going to support you.
We're here for you.
Right.
Right.
Don't worry.
That's a, it's a really, that's a really good one to show someone your support.
So many different ways to use this.
And I know we were using all of these different ways in one conversation.
However, I actually don't think it sounded sometimes not normal and to wipe it.
Yeah, it's not that rare.
It's a very, very common and they all have such different meanings.
And so I don't think people, I just don't think that it sounded as repetitive as other times
enrolled plays when we say, okay, we're going to put this all in.
Yeah.
Which is because God has, I think we've only scratched the service here of how many actual meanings
there are of the word get.
Yeah.
So guys, tune in.
Pay attention.
We'll cover other meanings another day.
But today we answered Sarah's question.
So happy to have this question from Sarah guys.
If you have a question, email it to us, right?
Or even better, leave it in your review, leave a review for the podcast.
Write your question because we read every single review, right, Michelle?
Yeah.
We love them.
Thank you.
What's the takeaway today?
What's the takeaway for our episode today?
Well, you have a lot of material to work with.
It don't feel like you have to add all of these at once.
Choose one to start with.
One that makes most sense in your life, maybe you're a little bit of a jokester.
You know someone who plays a lot of jokes.
Think about which one you want to start with, start slow, and give it a try and try and
get to all four of them in the next couple weeks.
Yeah, it's kind of like you're building your own little tagline.
What suits your personality?
Yeah, which you got me.
Yeah.
You know, we got you.
You're more supportive or you want to say you understand someone.
I got you.
I got you.
I don't say it too much.
Obviously, otherwise you become known as the person who says that thing.
I got it.
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
Be careful there for connection, right?
I love it.
Yeah.
Good, Michelle.
Thanks for being on the mic together today, and I'll see you in the next one.
See you next time.
Bye, guys.
All right.
Bye, bye.
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