This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2432.
Don't get washed out by phrasal verbs.
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What can you do when a single phrasal verb has four or more meanings?
Hang out with us and we'll figure it out together.
Today, get the four meanings for the word wash out in English.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
I'm doing good, Aubrey.
How are you? Excellent.
How's my light? I'm not washed out, am I?
Not too bad. Not too bad today.
I can turn it up and then it might be.
Oh, yep. There. Okay.
That's washed out. I know if we go back through our YouTube channel, which we can encourage our listeners to do this and hit the subscribe button while they're over there i know i've been very washed out in a lot of videos over the over the years i can never get lighting right aubrey i can't get it right it's so hard we're trying to get a good contrast so it looks good for you guys but sometimes that happens our light's either too bright or not bright enough it's really a challenge yeah we're doing our best um aubry what are we getting into today yeah we did a recent episode with phrasal verbs
with wash right wash away wash over over.
We promised this follow up because wash out has four different meanings.
So stay to the end.
We'll share the episode for that other one if you missed it.
You can definitely listen to these out of order.
Today, we're diving into wash out.
Yeah, and I love when we go into one single word in an episode, but the many things it can mean.
Okay. Especially with phrasal verbs, this happens a lot.
We use it so many different ways.
We're going to bring out the nuance in English for our high level listeners here.
You know, really great at the B2C1 level if you're ready to start expressing nuances.
This is the place to be.
Aubrey, where is the place to be to deepen your vocabulary, though?
Yes, if you guys don't have the app, you need the All Ears English app.
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APP, we have it for both iOS and Android.
It's the best way to listen to the podcast. And it's also currently the best way to search for episodes because every single episode of All Ears English is in the app, right?
So it's the place to go if you're wondering how to search for a specific episode.
Yes, for keywords or numbers, you can find episodes in our archives.
That is very difficult to do in your podcast player.
You're like scrolling back and back and back and back.
We have a lot of episodes here.
That's true. So go check out the app at allersenglish .com slash app.
Okay, so getting into wash out, Aubrey.
Oh my gosh, there are four meanings we're going to go through today.
Yes, and the first one is what we were talking about at the top of the episode.
For something to become indistinct or less clear, often because the light is washing out the image.
And it's interesting.
This has become more important as people care about selfies and influencers.
But everybody is wanting their photos to look good for social media.
Yes, of course. So the kind of light you have matters.
Are you backlit? What's going on?
So, for example, this lighting is washing us out, right?
Yeah. I mean, like you almost can't see us because the light is making our faces too bright, right?
Or the fluorescent lights in our office wash everyone out, right?
If we're going to take a photo, let's go outside.
The sunlight, the daylight would be better.
Yeah. You know, natural light.
That's why I loved filming the Connected Communicator course because you could spend all day inside trying to get perfect lighting.
But then if you just go outside, especially around golden hour in the morning or the evening, the light is unbelievable.
So taking these natural shots and natural video outdoors is the best. Exactly.
Right. My dad, he's an oil painter and he often will photograph his paintings outside in the natural light because it's expensive to get studio light and just natural daylight is usually as good or better.
Exactly. And I just want to add one little little asterisk here.
Sometimes we say something like, you're a ghost. We might say something like that.
Am I a ghost right now?
Right. That kind of thing.
That is a light like really washing us out.
So you can't even see someone's eyes anymore.
Yeah. Yeah. That's just another way of saying the same thing.
So we add that to our vocabulary.
Aubrey, what's another thing that wash out means?
means. All right. So it also means to remove by washing.
So for example, if you spill something on your clothing, you might ask someone, were you able to wash that stain out of your shirt?
Right? You can wash something out of something else.
Aubrey, are you someone that spills food often on your clothing?
I guess people tend to do this a lot.
I used to do this a lot when I was pregnant, I think because I had my pregnant belly.
And so instead of like the ground?
Not so bad anymore.
That's so funny. I love that.
All right. Good stuff.
Um, or another sample sentence is, can you wash out this bottle before putting it into the recycling please?
So it's a nice thing to do to get the food out of there.
Yeah. I don't know about you, but in Phoenix you have to, or they just reject it.
You can't recycle glass or plastic unless it's totally washed out.
No, we don't like, well, I think you're supposed to hear, but I watched the trash guy come by and and they use a little robot arm.
They don't even get out of the truck.
They just stop. And then the robot comes down, grabs the garbage can or the recycling bin, and just throws it into the back of the truck.
Yeah. So I'm curious if it's the same in Colorado when they've sort of let us know more about the policies because they stopped recycling glass.
And they said, because people aren't washing it out.
And they said, you have to rinse plastic, you have to rinse glass.
So same thing, the arm just takes the recycling.
And I don't see them reject it, but when they get it to the recycling center, they're rejecting anything that's not washed out.
So, you should find out.
It might be necessary to be washing that stuff out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure.
We got to get on that.
Good to know. Good reminder.
Good to know. Aubrey, what's number three?
Another way we use washout.
So, number three is to damage with water, right?
So, for example, the flood washed out two bridges, right?
So, we'll say if if something is damaged, this might be a coastline, a bridge, a road, we'll say it was washed out if a part of it was damaged and washed away.
Or during the storm, a road, again, a road was washed out by heavy rain.
Yeah. So, water can be very damaging.
Water is very powerful, right?
Absolutely. Exactly, right?
Floods, heavy rains.
This happens a lot in California.
California mudslides, coastlines, houses will get washed away when the land under them is washed out.
Yeah, we had some really bad flooding last year in North Carolina, right?
Tennessee area always seems to get a lot of flooding.
So, yeah, we got to watch out for that.
We have flash floods here in Arizona.
If there's heavy rains out of nowhere, there are these washes and it'll just be like this thundering river will come out of nowhere.
And a lot of people have died actually being caught in a flash flood.
They'll be hiking in a wash and not realize it and then out of nowhere just get washed away by this flood water.
That's terrifying. Very terrifying.
Yeah. Wow, the West is kind of crazy.
It is. It's dangerous out here.
It's dangerous out here.
All right. And the fourth way we can use this is to fail to meet a requirement, being eliminated from a process.
process so for example he wanted to join the marines but washed out after a few weeks of boot camp so this one i'm not as used to oh no yeah so this is interesting you will hear it a lot on tv shows movies when someone has joined the army the marines you know some military especially the coast guard if they aren't able to complete the training they'll say they washed out and And they'll use it as a noun to and call someone a washout.
It's very negative and cruel, really, because for whatever reason, someone was not able to complete the training.
I'm sure there are a lot of different reasons that could happen.
There are certainly nicer ways to say this is a more negative, critical way to say.
Yeah. You could say he chose not to continue or something like that.
What would be a second internships?
Right. It's not just about military.
You might say I was an intern intern for two months before I washed out.
it was really long hours and I couldn't hack it just means you didn't complete the program yeah I mean a lot of industries are really tough like the legal industry maybe you worked as a paralegal and you realize it just wasn't for you or maybe you worked on the floor of Wall Street the stock market very intense jobs yeah you could say this just if someone doesn't if someone starts like a university degree and you know it wouldn't be the same if they like switch to a different degree if they stop entirely and don't finish you you could say, or they could say about themselves, I washed out.
Right. But just keep in mind that this isn't a polite thing to say about someone.
It could cause offense to say about someone else or to someone that they washed out.
Because if you think about it, it's a type of failure, which of course is not a kind thing to highlight.
Absolutely. Good to know.
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Okay, Aubrey, let's do one of our signature role plays.
I know that our listeners love it.
So here, Aubrey, we are friends meeting for coffee.
Sounds good. I would get a nice coffee today, for sure.
It's pretty hot out.
Same. It is. It's warm here as well.
Summer's coming. Yes, yes.
All right. We should take a photo.
We'll have to do it outside, though.
The light in here is washing us out.
How's your family? Were they affected by the flooding in California?
Yes, there was a mudslide behind my aunt's house and it washed out part of their road.
Oh, no. I'm sorry to hear that.
Yeah, they've really been having a tough year.
Their son, my cousin, joined the Air Force but then washed out after a few months.
It happens. I think the training programs are just so tough.
For sure. Oh no, I spilled coffee on my shirt.
Hopefully, it'll wash out.
Nice. Wow, you managed to get all of these in here.
Very creative. Creative.
I love it. Great. So first, you said Aubrey, we should take a photo, but we have to go outside because the light inside is washing us out.
Yeah. So maybe we went to try and and take a selfie and it's just like too bright on our faces you know so we're like let's go out get some daylight for a better photo yep and then what I'll break and then I said I was talking about this mudslide in California that washed out my aunt's road I'm trying not to say aunt but normally I would say do you say aunt or aunt you can say remember we said on the show that you could say either one I know you can't say either I kind of go back and forth you know I think it is a regional thing i've asked so i grew up saying aunt my niece says aunt or auntie
to me and they all they're they're on the east coast and my friends on the east coast will say aunt it's a little more i don't know the east coast is kind of like traditional or something but then i have the parent trap with hayley mills hayley mills did you ever see that and yeah they're these twins but they're split and one goes to california one's on the east coast and there's a she's like talking to her about saying aunt instead of aunt and she's like you shan't say aunt to any debutants or something.
She's like trying to help her remember to say aunt.
Oh, that's hilarious.
I love that. I love that.
I'll have to check out that clip.
Good stuff. Yes, for sure.
All right. What else did we have here?
I think then I said, my cousin had joined the Air Force and washed out.
So this would mean he didn't complete his training.
You will hear people say this this way.
And I do hear it on TV, right?
It's pretty common, at least here in the West. But even saying that, I kind of felt mean.
I'm like, oh, my poor cousin.
That's not a very kind thing to say.
Because it kind of has a connotation that he couldn't handle it.
Right. Like, all the work just ripped through, and he just couldn't handle it in a sense, right?
Exactly. So it would be more kind to just say, he decided to do something, like say what he went to do instead, or you know, he didn't finish the program, he opted for something else and kind of spin it more positively.
Yeah, you can always spin things for sure.
And And then finally, you said, for sure, oh, no, I spilled my coffee on my shirt.
Hopefully, it'll wash out.
So now you're looking down at your shirt and you're kind of maybe trying to wash it out with a napkin or something.
Yeah, maybe the water on the table.
Right, right, right, right.
Dip your napkin in the water.
Try to wash it out.
Right? Hopefully, it'll wash out.
Exactly. So many meanings for wash out.
And what's really crazy is there are so many phrasal verbs with the verb wash.
We covered five of them in episode 2415.
So if you missed that, scroll up, check it out.
It was five phrasal verbs to wash away English stress.
All right, good. And what's our final takeaway for our listeners when it comes to connection?
Yeah, phrasal verbs can help you be more precise in English if you are wanting specific meanings and phrasal verbs are often idiomatic as well.
So the more you're learning these phrasal verbs, the more you can convey the exact meaning you want.
Yes, and use this as an example, a template.
template, think about what other phrasal verbs you might know that might have many different meanings.
If there's one that keeps coming up in your mind, send us an email.
Support at all ears English dot com will cover that phrasal verb and will show you all the different meanings for it.
Absolutely. We would love to.
All right. Excellent.
There we go. Aubrey, see you very soon.
Have a good day. That's awesome.
See you next time. Bye.
Thanks for for listening to All Ears English.
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