This is an all ears English podcast episode 23 83 English vocabulary should be the least of your worries 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 Aubrey Carter, the IELTS Whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English Adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
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Sometimes we need a way to put a positive spin on things.
This is super common in American culture.
What about your culture?
Today, get four ways to use variations of the phrase at least in English.
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Go to all ears english .com slash fluency score answer eight questions and get your results immediately go now to all ears english .com slash fluency score Hello Aubrey, what's going on today?
Oh, man Well, I wanted to record an interview for one of our courses and I did not get that done because there was a lot of background noise.
My neighbors are trimming trees, but we're getting recording done at least. All right.
Good. And you can always reschedule that interesting roleplay interview, interview role play.
Interviews are important.
Aren't they Aubrey?
Absolutely right. This is so vital for work getting the job you want.
And we want to make sure you are prepared.
And we have a very exciting announcement about an amazing course that will be Very soon.
Yes, we are excited to announce that very soon We're going to be going live with our brand new professional English level 1 course This is going to be a fantastic way to build your business English Foundation, right?
Especially with a heavy focus on meetings and Presentations.
This is what we need as well as socializing and small talk So guys we do have an exclusive list to get on that list so that you will be one of the first To hear about the course when it does go live in a couple of weeks.
So go over to all airs English calm Professional and sign up.
All right Yes, and then you will get to hear the interview that I was supposed to record this morning, but we'll do later This is going to be an amazing course.
I can't wait for you guys to check it out.
I'm super excited It's gonna be groundbreaking so guys sign up at the list at othersenglish .com slash professional, but in your answer You also said something interesting at the very end Aubrey.
What did you say? Right at least I said at least, you know I said we're getting Recording done at least and I could have put it before that and said at least we're getting recording done This is an interesting chunk that we use so much. I'm excited to dive into this today.
Oh my gosh Yeah, it's tacked on and they end in the beginning maybe in the middle.
I don't know We're going to explore it today, right?
Stated the end because this is inspired by a recent episode where Lindsey said this Yeah, so we will share at the end that episodes you can go check it out if you missed it The cool thing about Ollars English is because we have you know We we have the transcripts available in the app and available at all our English comm slash subscribe You go through the transcripts every week and you're able to identify native and natural phrases we use kind of in passing on the show.
Exactly, these are human created transcripts which is rare anymore with AI doing so many of them.
We have human created transcripts.
We want them to be as accurate as possible for you.
I go through those and I'm pulling keywords the most important vocabulary for you to add to your Powerlist in the app.
And then I also notice a lot of interesting chunks and language features that we're able to highlight on later episodes.
Yeah, that's actually really cool.
So we're able to examine what we say on the show and then create new episodes for you based on what we say naturally.
Okay. So good stuff.
Guys hit the follow button.
If you love the show, let's start with at least just at least alone.
Aubrey, tell us about this.
Yeah. So it's an adverb phrase.
It means the minimum that is true or possible.
We use it at the end, the beginning, the middle.
Let's share a few examples here.
Okay. I know you wanted her to call, but she texted at My tone of voice is a little different too, isn't it?
True. The intonation is important.
We're giving Rick a conciliate…what's the word?
We are acknowledging that at least she did the very minimum.
She may not have done what you expected but she did this at least. Yeah, exactly.
And so, your tone goes up in a positive way, right?
It feels lighter. What else?
We're glass half full people here.
We're trying to look at the positive when we say at least. Yeah, exactly.
What about Mediterranean cruise?
I might say I won't be able to do the Mediterranean cruise I wanted but at least we're going on a trip to the mountains yeah cruise has fallen through we're replacing it with maybe a trip that's not quite as exciting but I'm trying to look at the bright side be positive at least we're doing this trip yeah and that's that makes me think of culture I mean I would be fascinated to know from our listeners if you have a function in your language like at least where you end a lot of statements on the bright side.
I don't want I don't know if we can assume it's global this way of speaking necessarily, Aubrey.
I think the American culture or young culture right uh compared to a lot of ancient cultures and I think we have more of a vibe towards like presenting a positive uh message sometimes.
Absolutely, and this comes up a lot in our culture in movies and TV.
There's a film, Pollyanna, where she's like always positive, always looking at the bright side.
This came up in one of our interviews.
It's part of one of our courses.
It's a big part of our culture.
Yeah. So that's, maybe we can formulate a survey question at the end of the episode for this to learn more from our listeners about their cultures.
So look out for that.
All right. Here's the next one.
At least you called your mom on her birthday.
I totally forgot. Yeah.
So here we're seeing it at the beginning, right?
At least you called your mom on her birthday.
I totally forgot to call mine.
Yeah, so the important thing is it can show up at the end.
It can show up at the beginning.
We're presenting a positive side of something.
Exactly. Such a native chunk and we use least or at least in so many ways in English we're going to share a few of these other chunks.
So, for example, in the least or the least bit, these both mean not even a little bit.
Yeah, I love that. So, first example here, I'm not upset about in...
sorry, I'm not upset about that in the least. Yeah, so you're emphasizing here, right?
You could say, I am not upset about that at all, or I am not upset even a little bit, but we use this chunk.
I'm not upset about that in the least. Love that.
Interesting. What else Sabra, what's another one?
And then this, the least bit, has the same meaning.
So we might say, he apologized but didn't seem the least bit sincere.
And again, to emphasize, he didn't even seem a little bit sincere.
Yeah, really interesting, and then we move on to another way this comes out is at the very least. I feel like I use this a lot.
Do you use this? Yeah.
It means the minimum that is expected.
So for example, at the very least, you could have called to let me know you'd be late.
You're letting someone know you didn't even do the bare minimum.
Didn't do the bare minimum.
It didn't meet expectations in any way, right?
So for example, I thought he'd text back at the very least. Right, very good.
I feel like this does come up a lot in dating.
It's like that we have certain expectations.
Maybe you would love a date, a phone call.
I was like, I thought at least he'd text back.
Right? Or, I thought it's back at the very least. Or if you've had a horrible date and it's like a personal hygiene issue, I thought he'd brush his hair at the very least. Right.
Or change his shirt at the very least. I thought he'd wear shoes at the very least. You could tell some horror stories.
I'm sure we all have them, so that's fun.
That's a way to connect for our listeners, telling dating horror stories.
Absolutely. And this is such a great way to exaggerate a little or really emphasize they didn't and meet the barest minimum of expectations.
Now, one question Aubrey, for this very least, I find myself putting emphasis on very.
At the very least, I thought he'd brush his hair.
Is that what you do too?
Yes, same. At the very least, you could have called to let me know you'd be late.
Exactly, we hit very a little bit harder.
You do not wanna use these in a monotone because you are creating emphasis, so it would be very strange to have a flat tone you want to, and slow down enough that you can emphasize that word more.
Love it. All right, and there is a fourth.
What is it? Yeah, this is the least of one's worries So this chunk means something that seems unimportant compared to greater concerns Okay.
So for example, I should be worried about my health, but it's the least of my worries Yeah I've said this recently as I'm dealing with so much with kids and all these things and then I'll realize at the end of the Day that I have not drunk any water.
Oh, no, I should be concerned about my hydration, but it's the least of my worries Because I have so many other things to think about.
Wow. It's so challenging to be a mom, right?
Or sleep, I would imagine.
Sleep is one of those things.
That too, right? Yeah.
That's the least of my worries.
It should be a huge concern.
It's debilitating to be, you know, tired all the time but so many other things to worry about.
Alright. Next one. We have another example here.
Aubrey, what's that one?
Yeah. We're just glad you're okay.
Fixing the car is the least of our worries.
So we said this to our daughter when she wrecked her car and it was a terrible accident But luckily she was okay and this was we're like We're just happy that you are not injured fixing the car is the least of our worries even though it was totaled and was actually A huge pain that compared to the other concern that she could have been injured worse Oh time to use this phrase.
No, that's perfect.
I love that so good.
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Okay, Aubrey, let's hop into a roleplay because we know that our listeners love seeing these phrases come to life.
Absolutely. I am sharing with you, Lindsay, about someone that ghosted me.
If this were recent, you know, must be not me.
I'm either myself in this role play or I'm talking about 30 years ago.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's okay.
That works. So here we go.
All right. I'll start us.
He could have called to let me know he's not interested at least. So rude.
He doesn't seem the least bit concerned about your feelings.
Exactly. At the very least he could have sent a text.
I'm sorry, such a bummer.
I'm better off without him.
I won't miss him in the least. Besides with everything going on at work, dating is the least of my worries.
Yeah, it's always a challenge.
I mean, I don't feel like I have these conversations much anymore, because most of my friends are married with kids at this point.
But, you know, in the day, if you were partnered up and happy, and your friend was getting ghosted and still in the thick of things with the dating world, which is supposed to be really challenging these days, what to say when this happened?
Right? Because you find yourself using cliches and then rolling your eyes at what you're saying.
Exactly, and we recently did an episode with trendy dating vocabulary.
Ghosting, breadcrumbing, if you missed that scroll up, you got to check it out.
It was amazing. Yeah, really challenging to know what to say.
So, let's see what we did say though, vocabulary wise.
So, you started by saying, he could have called to let me know he's not interested at least. Right.
So, this is where I just never heard from someone again, right?
They ghosted me. And I'm saying like, I would have loved a call to say, you know, I'm sorry, we're not the match. That's the bare minimum of my expectation there.
So I say he could have called at least. Yeah.
And then I said, Oh, so rude.
He doesn't seem the least bit concerned about your feelings.
Okay. Yeah. And this isn't just means not even a little bit.
He doesn't seem even a little bit concerned about your feelings.
Mm Hmm. Love that. And then Aubrey, what'd you say?
After that? I said exactly at the very least, he could have sent a text.
So, this phrase I'm saying like, this would have been under minimum expectations but at least he created—at the very least he could have sent a text.
Yes. Just to let me know he's not interested.
Yeah. I said, I'm sorry.
You're such a bummer.
And then you kept going on.
You said I'm better off without him.
I won't miss him in the least, right?
Yeah. Again, this phrase means like not even a little.
I won't miss him even a little bit.
This is probably mean if I care that he ghosted me, it's probably not true.
Yeah. I'm convincing myself that I don't care, it's fine.
We do all kinds of things, right, when this sort of thing happens.
And then you said, besides, with everything going on at work, dating is the least of my worries.
So, you're trying to end in a positive tone.
You might still be really hurt, but these are things we can say to at least end in a...
And sometimes, when we speak in a positive way, the mind follows that, right?
The mind... Absolutely, right.
It keeps us in a positive mindset.
This is definitely something I would say, right?
If something goes badly, then say, like, Well, that's the least of my worries.
I'm going to focus on things that are more important that I should become that I should be more concerned with.
And I think in terms of the dating world, that's exactly right with this kind of like, Oh, you went out once you got ghosted.
It's really it's annoying, but it's not something is that you need to process for too too long.
If it's a long relationship, then probably there's more to work through.
Right. And I love that you're doing the good friend thing to be like he doesn't seem the least bit concerned when really you're probably thinking like I think he probably just didn't want that awkward conversation.
It's easier to just never reach out again because a lot of people find that very awkward to say to someone, or even text, I'm sorry, we're not the match. But that's the kind thing to do.
Yeah. I was just having this conversation with someone recently and it's becoming more and more common for sure.
And we've talked about on the show too, so interesting.
Aubrey, is there another episode we can go to?
Yeah, we want to make sure you don't miss the episode that inspired this.
Lindsay said, That's what our listeners have told us at least in episode 2373, Grammar Answers to a Well -Written Question.
This was about compound adjectives.
When should you hyphenate them?
And we want to make sure you didn't miss that.
So scroll up and check it out.
All right, good stuff.
How should we finish today?
What should we leave our listeners with?
Yeah. A great way to connect is to share the bare minimum that was expected or received.
It's a great way to emphasize disappointment, but like you said, also put a positive spin on things.
Yeah, and I think also reflect on your own culture.
Are there a lot of ways in your language to put a positive spin on what you're saying, or do you feel like that's not as valued in your culture?
Maybe that will be our, like I said, our poll question for today.
And also, if you are not in Spotify, you could always come over to YouTube and tell us in the comments of this episode.
Right, Aubrey? Yeah, this is so interesting because in your culture, it might be that it is seen as almost dishonest to put this positive spin.
It's a very cultural, so we would be interested in that.
Ooh, fascinating. I love it.
All right, Aubrey, we are finished up for today.
I'll see you very soon.
Awesome. See you, next time.
All right. Bye. Bye.
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