This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2260.
What have you been meaning to do lately?
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A big part of connection is talking about your intentions, whether it's as simple as changing a daily habit or as big as booking a trip.
Listen in today to find out how to use the right grammar to share your intentions.
How can you organize your points, communicate time boundaries, or show that you're ahead of schedule at work all in English?
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Hey, Michelle, how's it going today?
A little crazy, Lindsay, how about you?
Oh my gosh, your topsy-turvy summer.
Just carries on, right?
Yes, yes, but it makes for fun conversation, for sure.
For sure. So what are we getting into today on the podcast?
Oh, well, this is kind of a funny thing that I timely, Lindsay.
I've been meaning to ask you, do you have any vacations planned?
Oh my gosh, I actually just booked a trip to Slovenia.
I'm so excited. I've never been there.
I want to go hiking. So yes, that is my plan, Michelle.
Yeah. That is very exciting.
How did you decide on Slovenia?
Well, I heard that the hiking is great there, and they have a hut to hut system where you can book a package, where you could go hut to hut, hike 12, 15 miles a day.
It's the Julian Alps, I guess, which I didn't know nothing about, but I'm going to learn.
And just outdoors, good wine, good food.
I don't know. Great. Yeah.
Sounds great. We'll have a great time.
Yes, yes. But today we are going to answer a listener question.
And before we get into that, we have been doing these Spotify polls, and we had a poll from a few weeks ago that was episode 2228.
It was Nana, Mimi, or Grandma, the evolution of grandparent names.
Remember that one? That was fun.
Yeah, that was really fun.
A lot of variety and creativity in terms of the names people choose.
So we did ask you guys that special poll, right?
And what was the poll question, Michelle?
So the poll question was, would you rather have more of a traditional or creative grandparent name?
So we had our listeners thought what their answers are.
And so Lindsay, what were the results?
All right. So traditional was 60%, right?
And creative was 40%, which kind of makes sense, right?
Most people kind of fall into the traditional grandma, grandpa, or the equivalent in our native languages, right?
40% of you guys are getting creative.
I love that. I love that.
Yeah, I love that too. So that's fun.
So thanks for answering that.
And yeah, Lindsay, now we have a listener question from Matti.
I'm sorry about my pronunciation.
Mattiose? Mattiose? Probably something like that.
Logowski. Yes. And I just want to highlight where today's lesson came in at the top of the conversation, Michelle.
You said, I've been meeting to ask you.
Do you have any vacations planned?
First of all, what's the feeling behind that just before we get into the question?
That I was thinking about it before.
Yes, I love that. But you just hadn't gotten a chance to do it yet, right?
Exactly. Yep. And if our listeners are really listening in, they're going to hear different uses of grammar today.
So this is going to be a little bit of a grammatical episode and a vocabulary episode at the same time.
Should I go ahead and read Mattiose's question?
Please. All right. Mattiose says, one case popped up.
I've heard I've been meaning to tell you.
Based on that, we could create a sentence like, I was meaning to tell you that yesterday.
What is your take on this?
All right. OK. Yeah, this is a great question.
This is a super common thing to say.
I've been meaning to tell you.
This is a really, really good question about a particular expression, but also some grammar to go in here.
So Lindsay, if you say you've been meaning to X, not just necessarily tell you, but I've been meaning to call you, I've been meaning to do something, we touched on this a little already.
But what does that mean?
It means that you've been wanting to do something, but maybe you just haven't had the time.
It hasn't occurred to you in the moment to do it, but it's something that you've been intending to do.
That's another great word for that.
Intending, right? Intention.
Yeah, it's about intention.
Right, exactly. So but it hasn't been done yet.
So Mateo's asked about I have been meaning to tell you.
Lindsay, so when would you use that?
I've been meaning to tell you.
Yeah, I think if you've had something in your head, maybe there's some information, maybe there's a story.
Right? When we first got on the mic today, you told me a story that maybe you had been meaning to tell me until you did tell me just a few minutes ago.
Yeah. That you saw something, one of our listeners online, and it was kind of funny.
And yes, that is so good.
I love that. So something you have been intending, maybe you forgot to the last time we met, right?
Yes. All right. So Michelle, where to from here?
Right. So I could say something like Lindsay, I've been meaning to tell you.
I have a friend who moved to Denver.
Maybe you could introduce her to some of the best places in the area.
Nice. I like that. I like that.
So before you just hadn't told me for some reason.
And finally, you brought it up.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
I've been meaning to tell you.
Yeah. Right. And I could just say I've been meaning to tell you and just say it.
I could also say I've been meaning to tell you that.
So I could say, oh, I've been meaning to tell you.
Pause. I have a friend who moved to Denver.
Or I could say, I've been meaning to tell you that I have a friend who moved to Denver.
Right? You could add that.
You could add that in. Which does one or the other feel more natural to you?
Well, I really like. I've been meaning to tell you I have a friend who moved to Denver.
I like that because instead of that, you have a place for intonation and enthusiasm.
So the first one feels more natural to me.
What about you, Michelle?
I think so, too, actually.
I've been meaning to tell you.
But you do have to give a tiny little separation in a way.
It doesn't have to be anything huge, but some sort of separation from what you're telling meaning to tell you and what you're telling.
I totally agree with that.
It's taking the place of that.
Right? Exactly. So here, we would use the present perfect continuous.
So I have been meaning ing to tell you.
This is something that started in the past.
And until this moment, we've been intending on doing that.
So let's do a few more examples.
What's on Lindsay? You could say I've been meaning to buy a new computer, but I haven't found the time yet.
And that is true for me. My keys are falling off of my keyboard.
Michelle, it's not good.
I would also. You know, it's funny because I thought that this computer was done, but then I deleted a whole bunch of files.
And it seems to be brought back to life.
So I don't I don't know, though.
I will see how long she can stay kicking.
Well, the thing is these projects, these are projects because I like to research.
I'm not just going to walk into Best Buy and buy one.
I'm going to go multiple times.
I'm going to research. I'm going to Google.
I'm going to watch YouTube videos.
So it's like you're opening up a chapter in your life of researching the next computer.
Right. And you have to be ready for that.
This is why these things can get kicked down the road for six months or a year, right?
At least in my world. Yeah.
Again. Yeah. I'm the same way.
So or I could say I've been meaning to call her.
I wonder how she's doing.
So again, from the past, I have been meaning to do something up until this point, but I haven't yet.
Good. Perfect. Or I've been meaning to tell you there's a huge sale this weekend and Macy's nice.
OK. Yeah, I love this this episode today because we really this is a really good opportunity to work on grammar, but in a very natural setting in a very real conversation by using this language structure.
I've been meaning to do something.
Yeah. Yes, definitely.
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OK, Michelle, where do we go from here today?
OK, so now let's go over this other grammar piece.
So our listener asked if you can say I was meaning to tell you that yesterday.
What do you think about that, Lindsay?
Well, it's just not the most efficient way to say it because what I would say now that yesterday is over and today is today, I would say, oh, I meant to tell you that yesterday.
Right. Right. It's just a little bit.
I think when we use that past continuous, it has to carry real meaning.
And in this case, it really doesn't matter because the better thing to say now is I meant to tell you.
Right. Right. Right. Right.
Exactly. I meant to tell you because we're focusing on that one instance.
Yes. Yeah. The word yesterday really sticks out in my mind as why that would be really just a past simple.
Yeah. I think any time, Michelle, we can just use the simple past.
We totally ditch the past continuous or the past perfect or the present perfect for the simple past because it's just easier.
Right. Yeah. Exactly. So you can just say, I meant to tell you that.
If you say, I was meaning to tell you that, it doesn't really work.
I meant to tell you that.
So there are other options, but that's the one that I would directly relate from I have been meaning to.
If I want to just talk about that one instance in the past yesterday, I meant to tell you this, but I didn't.
Yeah. And I think this is going to be really good news for our listeners, what we just said.
You know, when using the more complex tenses doesn't add extra meaning, it's not material.
You can just go to the simple one.
Right. We love that. Yeah.
That's really helpful.
I think sometimes it's natural to think things are more complicated than they really are.
So that's a good thing to remember, guys, in general, when you're speaking.
So, I mean, you could also say, I had been meaning to tell you that.
Right. So let's say I told you something that I didn't tell you in a while.
But the example would be what you shared a little story with me before we got on.
But maybe that story happened before our last recording session, but you forgot.
Right. And then finally today, you told me, but it's still in the past, the time you told me.
Right. So, by the time you told me, you already had been meaning to tell me for a while, but you had been forgetting.
And then you told me. And now we're in the present.
So it's like two steps past.
I know. This is why we just don't use the past perfect that much.
Yeah. It's really, I wouldn't worry about this, because I don't know that that's as common for this type of situation.
But let's do a couple with that past simple, which I feel like can be pretty common.
So what's one with I meant to tell you?
Oh, I meant to tell you about the cancellation, but I forgot.
I'm so sorry. That's one.
I think I've missed the first one, but you could tell us the other example, Michelle.
Yes. So the other one is, oh, I meant to tell you, Tracy can join us on Friday.
Nice. It's really just one thing.
It's one particular issue.
It's not, it seems to me, I've been meaning to tell you it's something that's been circling around in your head for not just a second.
Yeah, I would agree with that.
It's been lingering kind of lurking in your mind.
So the main tenses that we use here is the simple past and the present perfect, right?
Or the present perfect progressive.
I've been meaning to tell you or I meant to tell you.
All right. Just those two.
Right. Exactly. I would focus on those for starters.
Get used to that. If you want to make things more complicated and you want to add in a past perfect, we can please write to me and we can do more examples of that in a future episode.
But to me, these are the most common ways we would use this.
Love it. Well, let's start into a role play because we want to bring everything back to real English right here on this podcast.
So here you and I are friends.
All right. All right. Here we go.
Hi, Lindsay. I can't believe I ran into you.
Same here. I've actually been meaning to call you.
Really? Yeah. I wanted to know how you like your new haircut place.
Oh, that. Yeah. That's great.
Oh, I meant to write a review for them.
Oh, you could probably still do it.
Okay. Yeah, I should. And I really want to point out here and you have this star to talk about today, Michelle, I put something in between I've been meaning, right?
I've been been. What did I put in there?
Right. So you put in actually.
Yes. So what does that do?
Oh, that actually is fascinating what it does.
Yeah. I know we've probably gone into this in other episodes and we probably will in the future do more episodes about this.
But yeah. Yeah. It doesn't.
I don't know, Michelle.
I'm going to I'm going to throw this over to you.
It doesn't change. You could you could it just add something.
You could take it out. I could you could have just said, oh, I've been meaning to call you.
Yeah. Actually in this situation to me sounds in a way that you're highlighting that it's a coincidence.
A coincidence. Totally.
100%. I would agree with you there.
Actually, like, wow, I can't believe we ran out because I've actually been meaning to call you.
Yeah. And so often actually is inserted there to show that you're surprised.
There's a bit of a coincidence.
It's surprising. I was thinking of calling you and then I've seen you here now.
It's like kind of interesting, kind of amazing.
Oh, wow. Right. But also sometimes people will use actually when there is no coincidence, it just becomes kind of a filler word for some people sometimes.
Yeah. Which is another episode for another.
It's a very, very common word.
Actually. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Right. So I do know that we have done episodes on actually in the past, but I think we could use a refresher.
I think that would be really cool.
A updated one. Yeah. That's yeah.
Let's I'll plan on that.
So let's do that. And then the second one was I said, Oh, I meant to write a review for them.
So interesting here. I could have said I've been meaning to write a review for them.
That would have been fine to me.
It sounds here. I said, Oh, I meant to write a review for them, but I forgot.
Right. Yes. Almost like I think the opportunity has passed in a weird way because you said, Oh, you can probably still do it.
Right. If I said, Oh, I've been meaning to write a review for them.
It's I probably wouldn't.
Say you can still do it because you know, because it's going up until this point.
Right. The present progressive is up until now.
So you know that now you could still write that review.
So that's a really, really subtle difference there.
Yes. Yes. Absolutely. But yeah.
So really there you could use either and it would be fine.
Right. Right. Love that.
Overall, I mean, as far as the takeaways for today, this is just so useful.
It's a good introduction to what you're going to say.
It's a good signal that you're about to introduce something that has been in your head.
Lindsay, what else do you think about this?
I mean, it's a really good way to talk about your intentions, the things that you have been wanting to do that you want to do, the direction you want your life to go in.
Right. Like for example, I had, before I made a change to my evening routine, I had been meaning to do this for a long time, but I started leaving my phone in my office when I go to bed.
So no more phone. Yeah. No more phone by the bedside, Michelle.
No more New York times at 11 p.m.
Oh. I can't do it. It's especially now because we're in this crazy moment politically.
I just can't do it. It's just.
I was going to say, I'm surprised you're able to do that now.
I feel. Yes. Yes. I would feel more so.
Yeah. No. So I went to Amazon.
I bought an old clock like from the 1980s where you can actually maneuver the hands.
Nothing digital about it.
No blue light whatsoever.
Put it right by my bedside.
I've been sleeping better.
It's just so much more peaceful.
Wow. But I had been meaning to do that for like a year.
Right. And finally it occurred to me, I better do this.
Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, I should take a tip from you because I'm tired.
Yeah. No, totally. So this is about intentions, right?
We can articulate and this builds connection because it shows people what we want in our lives.
I've been meaning to do that.
I had. And I just showed you the example of the past perfect, which is a little less common, but just to bring out the meaning, the context.
Right. Right. Exactly.
Yes. Okay. Well, guys, we hope whatever, maybe this episode is going to spark your memory of something that you've been meaning to do.
So go ahead and after this episode, go ahead and do what you've been meaning to do.
I love that idea. That is the call to action for today.
Do what you've been meaning to do.
Don't you have tomorrow?
Do it now. Love it. Do it now.
So good. And guys, by the way, if you have been meaning to hit follow on this podcast and you haven't done it, it's an easy, easy thing to do.
Just hit that follow button so you can catch all of our episodes five days a week.
Good stuff. Love it. All right.
Okay. Well, this was fun.
Lindsay, thanks for chatting today and thanks to our listener for that question.
All right. Talk soon, Michelle.
Take care. All right. Bye.
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