This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2485.
Are you practically fluent in English?
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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.
Have you ever heard native speakers use the word practically in English?
Have you wondered what it means and what other words are interchangeable with it as well?
Find out all of this and more today.
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Hey, Michelle, how you feeling?
I'm good, Lindsay, how are you?
I'm good, but honestly, Michelle, I can't believe it.
The summer is practically over.
Do you think it's gone by fast or is it just me?
Yeah, I think it's gone by really fast.
Really, really fast.
I feel like especially I feel like I just went to my son had an end of year kindergarten party.
Oh, yeah.
Like that just happened.
And now we're already thinking about back to school shopping.
So that's crazy.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But So it's gone by fast for you too?
Oh, really?
It has.
Absolutely.
But I wonder if our listeners heard what word we use there, what you use or what I used, I guess.
What is that word that we snuck in there?
We snuck it in.
It's practically.
Yes.
Practically.
So, yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
This is a really useful word.
Yes.
Lindsay, what do you think about this one?
Super useful.
It's good because any word that allows us to add nuance, right?
Mm-hmm. is good for a B2C1 level listener here, which is many of our listeners are in that boat.
And so we add nuance, we add precision to our language, right?
Exactly.
Yeah.
So this is, yeah, really, really helpful.
So this is a different way of saying almost or nearly or just about, right?
And there's another way that this word is used, but we're going to focus on this definition for today.
Maybe we'll do a follow-up another time.
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All right.
So Lindsay, in the beginning of the episode you were talking about summer and you said Summer is practically over.
So what did you mean by that?
Yeah, well, I meant it's basically over.
I mean, it's almost over, almost over.
It's not totally over, but we're almost there.
Again, it's that nuance, right?
Yep, that's right.
Yeah, so to me, this sounds professional, but not formal, right?
It actually kind of sounds cool, in my opinion.
Oh, interesting.
I like it.
OK, good to know.
I mean, you could have said summer is just about over.
Summer is almost over.
It would have been the same thing.
Do you think there is?
Is there any difference to you, Lindsay?
Or would you say there's really not synonymous?
Yeah, I really think it's synonymous between almost just about nearly and practically.
These are all the same.
OK.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So I would agree with you.
Just about, to me, sounds a little bit more folksy.
I agree.
Just about over.
You're like on a porch, a front porch, and you're in a rocking chair and the sun is setting.
Summer is just about over.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, really, that is how it sounds to me.
I don't know why.
So, yeah, just to give you guys an image of an idea of how that might sound.
So, but let's give you some examples of practically.
Okay.
The first one is I'm practically falling asleep.
I'm going to take a shower and head to bed.
Oh, I find that happening a lot.
You know you're like yesterday.
I was flying back from the East Coast and I was watching A Star is Born.
Right.
You know that movie?
Lady Gaga.
Yeah, I do.
And then I realized it's an intense movie.
Some parts of it are, I find it found kind of boring this time.
Like the scenes are a little slow.
Oh, you've seen it more than once.
Oh yeah.
It's a repeat movie.
But anyways, I was practically falling asleep.
So I just stopped the movie and I said, okay, let's just see if I could fall asleep, you know?
Did you?
Yes, I did.
I know.
It's crazy.
Do you sleep on planes?
You don't really sleep on planes, right, Michelle?
No, not not.
I mean, a little bit.
But yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So yeah.
So here's another one.
They've been dating for years.
They're practically married.
Mm hmm.
Yep.
And I know in a lot of countries, I'm not really I don't know much about this.
Actually, I would love to hear from one of our listeners and learn more culturally.
Maybe we can do an episode on it.
But I think in Europe, I think I've heard that marriage is less and less common and it's more domestic partnerships.
So people being together for a long time but not necessarily having a wedding and getting married, right?
Yeah, very interesting.
Yeah, that would be an interesting episode.
Yeah, so saying they're practically married, so it's interesting.
It's not necessarily saying they're almost married oh, they might not be getting married, but this is more that definition of like basically they, it's like they might as well be.
Oh, it's just not written down illegally, right Yeah?
And the key point to mention there.
I think what you were getting at Michelle, is almost can be a time marker too, right?
You're saying, you know, like it's June, they're getting married in July, they're almost married.
But you wouldn't use practically in that scenario as a time marker.
Okay.
It's more like a, I don't know what would be, what's like just.
Yes or no.
I think basically.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So interesting how it can be slightly different there.
Or what's another example, Lindsay?
Okay.
The sale is so good.
They're practically giving away their clothes for free.
Yeah.
Okay.
So again, this isn't almost.
Right.
So you've got to really pay attention to context clues here and see how it fits in.
So exactly this, I would say, is more the definition of basically.
Yeah, that's really interesting.
That's something to be careful of.
Almost doesn't always work interchangeably.
Basically works better.
Yeah.
Yep.
Sometimes.
Yep.
But this one is different.
This one almost could fit.
So here it's practically October and I haven't even thought about my costume.
Oh gosh.
Not to complicate things for our listeners, but we can't go from practically to almost in terms of time marker, but we can go from almost to Yeah, okay.
So maybe this is negating what I said earlier, because here, it's a time marker, right?
It's almost October.
It's practically October, right?
Right.
So I guess practically is a little bit more universal if we think about it, because almost is really just that time marker right.
Now we're revising what we said.
So almost is that time marker, and basically is kind of like... might as well.
Right.
Yeah.
You know, but practically kind of encompasses both of them.
And you just have to listen to the context.
Wow.
Michelle, why is this useful in your opinion?
Yeah, well, this to me feels a little stronger than almost in some ways.
It also feels a little bit more emphatic.
Right.
Oh, it's practically right.
So instead of saying, oh, the summer is summer's almost over, right?
Saying it's practically over.
Yeah.
There's more you can do with your tone of voice with a three syllable, right?
Three syllables in this word, practically.
There's a lot you can do there compared to other words.
All right.
Yeah.
Love it.
Interesting.
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Okay, so there are two other things we can say beyond what we've mentioned virtually.
Now, this sounds a little more formal, don't you think?
Yes, to me it sounds a little bit more formal.
So, she's virtually an expert on this topic.
Ask her, right?
Yeah, exactly.
That's kind of like the basically example.
Yeah.
I like that one.
I don't find myself using that one very much for some reason.
It, when I think of virtually, I think of like cyberspace and yeah, that's what you're going to say.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would say more so for that as well.
But, um, definitely a good one to be aware of could, could be used more professionally, I think.
Um, or there's also just about, which we mentioned before.
So this is, I'm just about done with the project.
Give me two more minutes and just about I think could also be kind of that basically um definition as well.
So I'm basically done or I'm almost done.
Both of them kind of fit here.
So you really have to pay attention to the context clues and to figure out what people are talking about.
So what would you say, Lindsay, feels the most common for you?
Practically, almost, basically, what do you like?
Yeah, I actually like practically.
That's why I'm glad we're doing this episode today, Michelle.
It's very, it's very suiting, right?
It works.
It works.
Yes yeah, but the main point is again, be sure to switch these up.
So don't just stick to the same one every time.
Right, don't get too comfy and cozy with one of these and use that all the time.
Switch it up.
If you're gonna use, if you i mean almost, is you know, a very, you know neutral, benign one try, practically try, you know, try switching it up that you guys are definitely at the level where you can experiment here.
Um, so should we do a role play?
Yes, we shall.
Michelle, let's do it.
So here we are friends meeting for lunch.
Here we go.
All right.
So how have you been?
I'm good.
I can't believe it's been practically a year since we last had lunch together.
I know it's unbelievable.
So sounds like you're just about ready to move based on what I've seen online.
Yes, we are virtually ready.
I'm so excited to live near the beach.
You're almost there yeah, does this?
You find this happening more and more michelle, that you see someone and you think, oh my gosh, we actually haven't seen each other in a year or two years.
Does this happen to you?
Know about them because you sure you stay in touch with them but, like you, just I don't know.
It's just like all of a sudden a year's gone by and that was the last time you saw them.
I don't know.
It happens to me.
Yeah yeah, no it, oh it.
You know how I am with time.
It happens to me all the time.
I, like you, can't believe oh my gosh, that was a year ago.
No way right, I know, a year just goes like that.
You just snap your fingers.
It's wild.
Yeah gosh yeah definitely um okay, so let's go through it.
So i said you said i can't believe it's been practically a year since we last had lunch together.
So this is the almost right.
So maybe it's give or take two months on either side or something right um, but yeah again, it could also be it's been almost a year, or if it's more than a year, you probably wouldn't say usually it's just short of a year, right and Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
I mean, like, yeah, it's been basically a year.
You could say that as well, but it doesn't sound as much of an emphasis on the time.
I don't know.
It just doesn't seem quite as fitting here.
And then the next piece I said was, so sounds like you are just about ready to move.
And again, that's the one that we said is a little bit more folksy and But, you know, try it out.
You'll be fine.
Right.
It's not like we can't use it if we live in a city or something.
Right.
Exactly.
You can use it.
And you said, yes, we're virtually ready.
I'm so excited to live near the beach.
Lindsay, would you want to live near the beach or live on the beach?
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I actually like the beach.
Long term is probably, you know, if with climate change, who knows what's going to happen.
But yeah, I love waking up to the smell of the ocean.
I love going to sleep to the ocean.
I do like the ocean for sure.
Yeah.
Very good.
I would say so.
What about you, Michelle?
I think like if I had the kind of money to have some sort of beach house one day, that would be nice.
But only for I don't think I would permanently want to be there.
You know, I like my fair enough.
Fair enough.
Like your concrete.
Yes, exactly.
And then you said, and then I said, you're almost there.
You're almost there.
Well, speaking of concrete, over the weekend I was down um.
I was on the East coast with family and we were walking along some of the beaches and there were literally the reason you love your concrete.
It makes sense, right?
There were actually posts of what had been houses in the, in the water.
So these houses had been on stilts and they had been washed away.
Oh my gosh.
In the last five or 10 years.
So all you could see was like a stump, like about this tall, about a foot tall, of what had been part of the foundation of the house, and the ocean had washed it away.
It was so crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So probably better to love concrete, you know?
Yes.
Michelle, is there another episode our listeners could check out?
Yeah, check out episode 2473, which was confused by complicated vocabulary.
That's English for you.
So check that one out as well.
Lindsay, takeaway for today.
Oh, Michelle, it's so good to have a lot of ways to say something.
Right.
And so, even if you're coming out of this episode maybe a little confused about the differences between almost and practically, that is OK, because now you have an awareness of a new word and we can start listening for it and start to use it naturally when we've heard native speakers using it.
OK, so build that awareness that this word exists and listen closely when you hear it.
Love it.
All right, Lindsay.
Well, I guess we're practically out of time.
I think we are practically out of time, Michelle.
We got to get going.
Let's take off for today.
I'll see you next time.
All right.
Bye.
Bye, guys.
Bye.
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