This is an All Ears English podcast, Episode 2384.
Don't be hit or miss with your English.
Welcome to the All Ears 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.
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five. Sometimes, in English, we need a way to convey that the quality of something is inconsistent.
Today, get native and natural ways to say this in the English language.
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Hello, Michelle, how are you?
Lindsay, how are you?
I'm feeling great today.
What are we getting into in our episode today?
Okay. So I have a question.
Is there any restaurant you love that's good and reliable?
Pretty much almost a hundred percent of the time.
Oh. Man. There used to be this little, uh, lobster roll shack that I used to like to go to in my parents' town of Situat right on the ocean that was pretty, pretty much good a hundred percent of the time, but it was an exception.
Most places, you know, are more like hit or miss right yeah yeah well back near where I used to live there was this Indian place called karma cafe and to me that was good a hundred percent of the time I'm gonna say it was so reliable and the service everybody there's so friendly we were the regulars there so I would not say that place was hit or miss.
I would say it was just hit, just hit all the time.
I love it. What was your favorite?
What was your favorite dish there?
What do you typically order?
What do you go for?
Indian food. Ooh, I love the Paneer Makhani.
Okay. I would say that's my favorite.
Um, I like, I like any, I like all Indians.
So good. What about you?
What do you have when you have, I like Curry, any kind of Curry?
I love it. Um, I made Curry the other night.
Ooh, how did it turn out?
Michelle? Actually, not bad.
I was shocked. I mean, listen, Azara is not authentic or at a good restaurant or anything like that, but for me I was pretty, I was proud.
That's pretty awesome.
Now, Michelle, you mentioned in our little natural conversation there, hit or miss, right?
We mentioned that, and you said it's always hit.
Are we talking about taking a baseball bat to the restaurant or what's going on here?
No, no, no, no, exactly.
So this is this expression, actually we don't ever say something is, Well, actually that's not true.
We would say it's a hit Oh, we do say it's a hit right sure, but we don't say something is hit Well, uh, it's a little bit different but so I was just really making a joke but the expression is hit or miss and this is the opposite of You know, something is always great.
Well, no, it's not the opposite.
It's kind of in the middle right the opposite would be it's always terrible but Right, so if something is hit or miss it's basically it's inconsistent in terms of the results And, you know, we kinda don't know what we're gonna get.
Is it gonna be great?
Is it gonna be not so good?
So what do you think about this Lindsay?
Do you use this? Well, when I think about this, you know how we have these weird memories from childhood, just kind of like scenes that we remember?
I remember there was a store in my town and that was the name of the store.
It was like a retail shop, like dresses.
And I'm thinking why would you name?
And now, I didn't realize it then, but now when I think about it, Why would you name your shop hit or miss?
That's funny, that's really funny.
It was a thing of the nineties.
You know, it was the nineties.
The nineties, yeah exactly.
So, but yeah I would say that this expression comes up pretty frequently.
So this is gonna be super useful to our listeners.
Absolutely, and Michelle, do you say this a lot yourself?
Is this one of your go -to's?
I would say so. I think that it comes up pretty naturally.
How about for you? I would say so.
yeah, I don't, I don't use it a ton, but I think I, I mean, I know it, I've heard it around, it's an important one for our listeners to know for sure.
Yeah, I would say so.
So guys, before we get into it a little bit more, we want to give you some, uh, results from a poll we did on Spotify.
Um, it was episode 23, 56, which was learned some new English while you're at it.
I remember that one, Lindsay and, um, yeah.
Yeah. So guys, if you haven't heard this one, um, this is really good.
It's about while you're at it.
So the question was for the pole was, do you piecemeal tasks?
Right? So basically do you do things just in smaller chunks or do you prefer to get everything done at once?
So Lindsay, would you like to read the results for us?
Yes. This is very interesting because we were talking in the episode about our own styles, Michelle, right?
Yeah. And it now remind me what your style is before I announce the results.
It's funny because I forget.
I want to say piecemeal.
Yeah, I think you said piecemeal.
We were talking about cleaning, talking about, so.
Right, right, right.
And I'm actually kind of surprised that most of the audience is on my side.
So 68 % of the audience wants to do things all at once.
Like let's say you're going to clean your house and just let it down in a three -hour sprint and not do it again for two weeks or a week.
And then 31 % want a piece meal, kinda you had said in that episode, you wanna just pick things up, every evening, a little bit at a time, but to me that makes it feel like you're just cleaning every night.
All the time, yeah.
Yeah, but then it gets so overwhelming if you leave everything.
Even for me when I leave the laundry for a few days, I was being so good about the laundry and I was putting everything away on the day of.
But I was doing laundry every single day.
And now I've left it And that pile of days and days of laundry, to me, it's not really worth the summer amount of work, you know?
I don't know for me, I like to see results.
Like, if I vacuum, I want the rug to be dirty so I can see it and be very clean, you know, but maybe because you, I mean, you have two kids, you have a lot more laundry than I do in my house, so maybe that's what it is.
I don't know. Maybe I don't know.
I don't know. All right.
So let's talk about, uh, hit or miss.
That was, so what kinds of things do we use this for?
We, I mean. And this is for, I would say a lot of opinions.
I mean, we were talking about restaurants, so that's a common one.
Or you were hit a retail store names their store that I have no idea.
But yeah, I think this is good when you make a recommendation to someone.
And then you're trying to pull back a little bit and say, ah, it's kind of hit or miss.
You could try it. Right.
Right. Right. Yeah.
I mean, it could be used for really a lot of things.
I mean, it could even be about, like a director's movies, right?
So, oh, this, I like this director, but sometimes I find his material is hit or miss.
That's a good one. Musicians, right?
So if you go to a concert, maybe there's one.
There's a singer you like and you went to one concert, which was great.
And then the other one wasn't so good.
So you say in concert, he's hit or miss.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
So, let's do some examples.
All right, you want to start with the first one?
Sure, here we go. I really think we should go with the Marriott for the trip.
The other places always hit or miss and I just want to know I'm in a good hotel.
Yeah, I understand that feeling a little more as I'm getting older actually.
Yeah. I mean, so, maybe you've stayed in a lot of Marriott's before and you find them to be reliable, whatever you think of Marriott.
I don't know. I just use this for example.
But um, you know and then there's another chain or another smaller Hotel that's hit or miss and you just want to have a good place that you can trust Right exactly a comfortable bed.
And yeah, sometimes we're in this kind of mood, right?
We want to go for the hit what we know is going to be a hit Here's another example.
Her books are kind of hit or miss I've liked a lot of them but there have been some duds too now dud dud That is a good bonus for our listeners today, Michelle.
Yes, I'm going to add it to the list. So yeah, a dud is not so good.
It's like, yeah, a dud is a specific.
Yeah, not so good. It just does the thing just turns out to not be great.
Maybe you had high expectations for it and it just kind of fell flat, fell flat, fell flat.
Yeah. So yeah, there are some authors maybe you like some of their books and then do you ever read like, do you have any specific authors that you read a lot of their books?
Not really. No, I go more from book to book.
It's more about the cover.
It's usually about the cover.
Yeah. Oh, me too. Oh, I definitely judged books by the cover.
Yeah. I know. We shouldn't do that.
Right. Some of them are so beautiful.
They are. They are.
Yeah. Well, it's about the title or maybe there's a recommended book list or maybe it's just on my bookshelf and I needed something to read.
Yeah, yeah, what's the next example Michelle?
All right, the next one is, that restaurant's food is hit or miss, I think we should go somewhere else this time.
Yeah, so yeah, exactly, I mean is hit or miss, here's a good question.
Does it usually follow with we should try it or we shouldn't try it.
Well looking at my examples I would say that it ends up being more of a negative introduction.
So maybe I take back what I said earlier which is that we would say it when we recommend something, I may not do that because...
Right, if I don't miss it, it does have more of a...
It's not so much of a...
Yeah, it's more of kind of this emphasis on the miss part than the hit.
Yeah, kind of. Right, so I'm gonna recommend a restaurant if you're coming to my town, which I know is gonna be great, consistently great.
Right? You don't wanna recommend something and then say, oh it's hit or miss.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Any examples in your life Michelle of something that has been hit or miss?
Anything else you can think of?
Hit or miss? Ooh, I'm trying to think.
Well, maybe next time we'll come back to it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, okay, how about this?
Like some exercise classes I've tried, like this is a little bit different, but maybe the times I've tried yoga, okay?
Yeah. It can be very different, depending on your instructor or what kind of yoga.
So I can say oh the classes have been, not necessarily that I'm talking about one place's yoga class, but sometimes I could say my experience is hit or miss within that.
That makes sense, that makes sense.
And another example I just thought of is ski terrain.
So I ski a lot on the weekends.
Certain mountains can be hit or miss in terms of the terrain.
Certain mountains don't groom as much so they're more prone to being icy when the conditions aren't good overnight.
If it rains or something and then it ices over, you're skiing on a skating rink, right?
So it's pretty hit or miss, conditions are pretty hit or miss.
Maybe try a different mountain.
That's an example of - That's a good example.
That's a good example.
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don't know why And what we mean here is in terms of the quality.
Inconsistency. The quality.
This is about quality.
This one is also a fun one.
It's spotty. Now, I would say most of the time we use this for the Internet.
Oh, right. That's my reality right now.
Or service, like some sort of ...
You know, your phone, your Internet, whatever it is.
Would you use this about anything else?
I think not really, yeah.
I think the coverage, the maybe the phone.
online like this very similar to the Internet right the coverage is spotty the Internet is spotty you can't rely on it right right right right so yeah the Internet here is spotty make sure you have a backup yeah exactly that runs into the next one which I already used this word yeah unreliable so perfect I can't deal with a carpool that's unreliable I need to get to work on time oh my gosh no yeah it's probably why a lot of people drive to work right yes Unreliable.
Interesting. Yeah. I mean, what do you think about.
I mean, are there times you think in your life where you really want to just always know that something is going to be a sure thing, um, or are you sometimes just okay with, Oh, this is hit or miss.
Like, it could like, it could be a hit, so I'm going to give it a try.
Um, well I think it's important to, I guess when I'm thinking of learning, so I'm learning tango now.
Did I tell you Michelle, I'm taking tango classes.
Yes! How's it going?
Well, I'm proud to say I've graduated to tango 2.
So I'm in tango 2 now.
Yes. And also I was at the gym this week and the, the instructor said, you know, the key to success is repetition, just repetition.
So I think if we think about our own actions, it's important to be consistent, to make sure we are reliable with what we're doing.
Go to the class, repeat the steps, do the reps.
That is kind of a huge, like, unsung hero of success is repetition.
consistency. yeah yeah exactly yeah I definitely find that too with things I'm learning I'm actually starting to sing again my my friend and I are have been are practicing to start doing our first open mics oh yeah so but yeah we're like open mics I could say oh I don't know you I know there are some in the area, but open mics can be kinda hit or miss, right?
Sometimes they're really great, there's like a lot of people that's a good vibe, or sometimes that's kinda I don't know, awkward. You have to share with us with the audience when you have your first one and how it goes.
That is so exciting.
Yeah, so I'm really happy about that.
All right let's do a role play, let's do it.
So here I'm asking you for coffee shop suggestions in your town, maybe I came to visit you in your town, I have to get a coffee so let's see, all right.
All right. I saw a place on Google called Preppy Coffee.
Is it any good? Um, kind of hit or miss.
I like the cappuccinos, but the atmosphere isn't always great.
Try and love my coffee down the street.
I don't want to wasting your money on somewhere that's unreliable.
Plus the Internet is always spotty and I know you need to do work.
Oh thanks. Yeah. I don't want to go to a place that's quality is inconsistent.
Yeah. Go to a place that's or who's quality.
Who's quality. Yeah.
or where the quality.
Yeah, where the quality is inconsistent.
I know, that was weird, I don't know.
Where the quality is inconsistent, exactly.
Yeah, I love it, I love it.
And this is a typical conversation you might have. Maybe I came to visit you but I have to work during the day while you're working, I work remote, I'm looking for a coffee shop to park in for a while, right?
Yep. Perfect, all right, so let's go through it, Michelle.
What did I say first, what did you say?
So you said this coffee place, Enigone, and I said um, it's kinda hit or miss, and I just wanted to highlight that because sometimes we yeah, I could say um, it's hit or miss but sometimes we say kind of hit or miss, it's kind of hit or miss right.
So incredibly natural, I we do this a lot when we I think the reason we do that is because we're trying to soften the blow for the coffee shop.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and then you said, use it I don't want to I don't want you wasting your money on somewhere that's unreliable.
Now Michelle that gave a great idea for another episode.
I don't want you doing something.
I don't want you doing this, fantastic, a lot of context in which we use that.
Guys, hit the follow button to get that episode coming up soon.
Alright? Okay, good idea, Lindsey.
Alright, and then I said, plus, the internet is always spotty, so something specifically that we use for some sort of connection, and I know you need to do work.
Exactly, so inconsistent again, right?
Inconsistent quality.
And then I said, thanks.
Yeah, I don't want to go to a place where the quality is inconsistent.
Yes, and that just tops off the conversation.
Right? Exactly. All right, well yeah, this was fun.
And guys, we also want to remind you, don't be hit or miss when you listen to Ollie's English.
You got to hit follow so that you can be there 100 % of the time.
We don't want you to be inconsistent with your English learning.
Yeah, exactly, and for a takeaway, I mean, think about times in your life where consistent quality matters.
Maybe if you have your own business or if you provide a service, even if you work for a company, what would people think about your work?
This is a good inquiry into ourselves.
Is your quality consistent of what you're delivering on a daily basis?
Good to have that inquiry, don't you think, Michelle?
I like that. Exactly, alright guys, well this was fun and Lindsay, have a good day and I'll see you in the next one.
Alright, bye Michelle, have a good one.
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