This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 219, Advice, Advise, and Guide.
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Hey, Michelle, how's it going today? How are you feeling?
Good, Lindsay. I am feeling good. Excited to be recording.
Me too. Yeah. Lindsay, do you like to get advice from people in the business world?
I like it a lot, actually. I mean, I've learned over the years that I have to be careful.
I have to think about where's that advice coming from?
Yeah. Like think about that person's circumstances.
Are they giving me advice that's kind of biased or something?
But I do. I need advice all the time. so yeah i mean yeah i think well i think that well that's good that you say that because i think that if you if if you think you don't need advice that's bad yeah yeah that means you think like oh everything is perfect and you and you don't have nothing to learn from anybody and that's that's a dangerous place to be i think or even worse you're afraid to ask for it like you're ah You're so proud that you know something's wrong, but you just keep going.
And it's really important to be able to reach out for help, right?
In every aspect of our lives, the business world, our personal lives.
So yes, we're all about getting advice. Definitely.
Well, today we are going to answer a listener question that uses three very useful words that are really helpful in business and with this topic of advice.
That might be one of the words. Yeah. Yeah, I love it.
But before that, guys, if you haven't already listened, go on over to the Business English Podcast episode 193.
This was Get the Biggest Bang for Your Buck with this episode.
Mmm. Love that one, guys. Go over and check that out.
And then make sure, by the way, that you hit follow right here on Business English.
So that way it'll come right up in your queue.
You can make it a part of your daily life.
That is how we get better, you know? So can I read the question from Masoud?
Please. Okay. Yes, please do. Okay. Masood asked, as a listener to your podcast, I found it very useful and it helps a lot to help me improve my understanding and speaking English.
If you can help explain the difference between using these words, advice, advise, and guide, I will be thankful.
Masood. Ah, lovely question. And thank you for your question, Masood.
Great, very specific question. Very useful.
I snatched this up for business English because I thought it would be really helpful for this business topic.
So we're going to go through it with a business angle today.
But of course, this can be used in not business as well.
Yeah, of course. Guys, if you want to add daily life English to your listening queue, of course, add All Ears English podcast. right?
That's our other podcast, our amazing show.
Go and hit follow on that one too. So you get the business angle over here and over there, you get a much broader lens on all aspects of English.
All right? Definitely. All right. So let's get into it.
So let's go with advice first. So Lindsay, what is advice?
Okay. This is a noun. We have to remember this is a noun, Michelle.
That is the super important piece. It's uncountable.
That's also the other important piece. A lot of times, you know, I've heard students say like, oh, some advices, right?
Oh, yes. It's uncountable. So this is a common mistake.
So now you know. And I think I know why it's a common mistake.
You know, for example, in Spanish, consejos is advice and that is counted, I guess, in Spanish, right?
Hmm. and so that's how we can get confused so guys avoid that translation directly translating from your native language yeah yes yeah so i mean advice is basically asking what to do i mean it's you i'm thinking about the word counsel right like yeah um so for example i'm going to ask bernie's advice on design he's so good at making those decisions Michelle, do you have any go-to people that you go to?
Maybe this is a question you already had prepared, but do you have anyone that you go to for advice in general?
Let's get to it. No, no, no, no. I wrote that same question for you.
You wanted to ask me that. I did. No, but I can answer it too.
I would say my parents a lot and Dan. I mean, just like the people that are like, Very much the closest to me.
There have been, you know, there are always going to be specific times where I might seek out more specific type of help.
Or, I mean, I guess a lot of times this is not with business, but as a mom, you know, my friends will always be talking about, oh, like this is happening with the sleeping or this is happening with the eating or this is happening with...
Oh yeah. Whatever. And so a lot of times I might, you know, you have different people for different types of advice, you know?
Ooh, I love that idea. So important. Yeah.
Yeah. Me too. What about you? Yeah. Yeah.
For personal life advice, I think my partner for sure, my parents, but less and less my parents because they're getting older, uh, and they just have different things going on.
Right. Yeah. Um, For business advice, I think peers, I have certain peers that are in a similar place, so I'll set up calls with them on a regular basis.
And it's kind of nice just to feel someone else is in the same place and dealing with the same challenges, right?
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, so it can be different for different scenarios.
So, but guys, that's advice. So let's just change one letter.
And what does it become, Lindsay? all right advise so the letter changes to what how do we spell this if you guys are in the app you're listening in the ios android app you'll see the spelling because you'll have the transcripts yeah it's but how do we say a-d-v-i-s-e but you'll notice we don't pronounce it advice because that's what the c i don't know yeah exactly in british english i feel like maybe i don't know maybe i'm wrong but i'd have to check that out but anyway but advise is spelled with an s but pronounced like a z so it's kind of confusing it is confusing i have you know it's funny because um my son is starting to get interesting in spelling now and interested in spelling yeah yeah and like he'll try and spell something and and so more and more and more i'm realizing english what in the world is going on with the spelling and the letters and this it sounds like this but it's pronounced like this that's fascinating now that i'm watching him do it i'm like oh i'm sorry man like you got a lot of you got a long way to go here good luck yeah bring those on to our podcast go ahead and bring some of those ideas we'd love to hear about those in another episode what are some words that you're discovering that are not spelled logically that you never thought about because you learned them when you were a kid yeah okay i will i will now i will take i will keep a note in my head of when we come up on one because it happens a lot um so but what is advise yeah so this is just the verb guys so the first one advice was the noun now this is the verb and it's the same meaning it's just that you are so you're advising someone you're telling them about something it's the action of giving advice okay giving instruction or giving advice yes yeah yeah so you might say something like who advised you to make all those changes yeah does this feel formal to you advise like who advised you would you would you are there any other casual options there oh well who told you I mean yeah that's what I would say they're a little bit different a little bit of a difference between who told you to make those changes and who advised you right yeah hold is more demanding like you have to advise yeah yeah advise is more giving you this idea or giving you that advice.
Right. So it's a little bit different. Um, yeah, but yeah.
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Terms and conditions apply. Okay, Michelle, so do you advise anyone in your life on what to do?
I mean, do people go to you for advice? Do you advise anyone?
See, here we're throwing these different words in and out.
Do I advise anyone? Do I give them advice?
I think Dan asks me for advice on certain things with his work.
Yeah, I think that's normal. Yeah, yeah.
I think we've learned along the way that it can be really helpful to have your partner in that you know, with those types of decisions or, um, so yeah, I think I like to give him advice where I, where I have it.
Um, sometimes my mom might ask me for advice.
That's kind of cool. I like that. I like that.
What else, what else do we need to know here?
Okay, well, the word guide. So this is the last one that the listener asked about.
So this is interesting because it can be a noun or a verb, right, Lindsay?
This is different from advice or advise.
This is a new word. So a noun form of guide is basically someone or something that gives information.
So like a guide could be a person who tells you what to do, gives advice, but it could also be a set of instructions, like a paper guide.
A TV guide. It could be a book, right, that you take when you're traveling.
Like the Lonely Planet Guide was a big name when I traveled around the world in my 20s.
I think it probably is. A tour guide. Tour guide.
Yeah. A tour guide. Yeah. There's so much we could do here with guide for sure as a man.
Yeah. yeah right exactly so you could say something like robbie will be your guide for any questions you may have about your first days at the job and that's interesting because in this case you know it's not robbie's profession to be a guide at work but he's been given the role so it's used as a role as well as an actual job like a tour guide or a yeah so really kind of a diverse word right right it definitely is and then as a verb to guide someone it's like to show him to show them the way right so like what's an example of that okay here's an example guys she guided him around the office so that he could meet all his co-workers so it doesn't mean like she like physically moved him around the office she just you know walked and maybe he followed her or something like that Right.
Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Or you could say, I need you to guide me because I don't really understand all of the directions for the assignment.
Yeah. Interesting. And then there's also self-guided, right?
Like a self-guided tour, I guess. Yeah. You know, this idea of do you when you travel, Michelle, do you like to do those like those free tours you can find in a lot of cities or do you like to do more self-guided stuff?
Just take your guidebook, kind of make your way around.
Um, I like a little bit of both. I like a little bit of both.
What I don't like is that where you have to listen.
Oh, yeah. Sure. Follow it around. I either want to do it on my own or I want a real person like I don't want to have one of those things.
What about you? a headset. Well, for the headsets, I feel like there are certain places where you have to, to get the full experience.
Like Alcatraz. Have you ever been to Alcatraz?
I have when I was, but when I was probably like eight.
Yeah. Alcatraz guys is an old now defunct.
I think it's defunct, uh, jail, um, in the San Francisco Bay.
And you can do the guided tour and you could hear the voices of the prisoners.
It's a really cool activity to do for like young ish kids.
You know, you hear the voice. I don't know.
It's, there are things where you kind of need that.
That is a good point. Yes. That's a good point.
Yeah. You're talking about when it's just someone lecturing you, right?
Right. Yeah. Like I can't, I can't go through like an art museum and just listen.
I just, I can't, that's not, that's not me, but a lot of people would love that.
So that's, yeah, I get it. Great. I get it. all right basically these are all very similar so you guys you got to remember the word families you know guide as a verb though is very similar to advise right so so or guide as a noun might be similar to the word advisor um like a student advisor so lots of different options here today but let's do a small fill in the blank activity um just to drill down on this give it a little more practice so Lindsay, let's see if you can get it.
Okay. Little quiz. A pop quiz. A pop quiz.
All right. She blank her employees to start looking for new jobs.
Oh, not a good sign, right? So am I going to choose a word here that fills in the blank?
Yeah. I would say she advised. I would take the verb there, right?
Because she did something in action. Yay.
One point for me. Yay. Okay. The next one.
This is all for you. Hey. i need some blank what should i do about the upcoming project This one, I would go for advice because it's a noun, right?
I need something. I need some advice. What should I do about the upcoming project?
Nice. And it's nice to just be straightforward when you, when you're asking someone for advice, just be straightforward.
Like I need help, you know, instead of trying to get it in a sneakier way or I don't know, don't be ashamed to ask for help.
No, no, absolutely not. The last one, open the blank and take a look.
You'll find your answer there. open the guide.
And this could be a guide for anything. We talked about guidebooks, you know, all sorts of, I guess you could say like a cookbook is a kind of a guide, but we don't use it in that way.
Do we? No, no, no. Yeah. But it is guiding you on how to cook.
So yeah, you could say that. Um, do we have time for a role play?
Yeah, we have a couple of minutes. I know that our listeners love role play.
So let's do it for them. Here we go. All right.
So You are my coworker and it is my first day.
All right, here we go. So if you need any advice on tech, Billy's your guy.
Hi, Billy. Perfect. So he advises the team on how to use everything.
Yep. He's the expert. If he isn't there, there's even a written guide he made that you can check out, but he's usually here.
Oh, great. Nice. So Billy is our go to. Yes.
Thank you, Billy. all right so what did we say here so um i said if you need any advice and which one is that the noun of the verb that's the noun yeah so if you need any advice on tech billy's your guy and that's a bonus phrase for today billy's your guy yeah you might hear somebody's your guy somebody's your girl right It'd be fun to do another episode on... Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, Michelle.
What were you saying? Okay. Yeah. Well, I think it'd be fun to do another episode on the expression, I got a guy.
I got a water guy. I got a silver guy. If you sell silver, you have a guy for everything.
It's an expression, right? Yes. Do you know anybody who has a guy for everything?
Most people over the age of 50, I feel like always say that.
I got a guy. You can call my leather guy.
My father-in-law. My water heater guy. Yeah.
Yeah. For sure. It is funny. So then I said, perfect.
So he advises the team on how to use everything.
So which form is that, Lindsay? Yeah, he advises the verb, right?
The action. He is taking the action of advising, right?
And then I said, yep, he's perfect. Sorry, he's the expert.
If he isn't here, there's even a little written guide.
I'm making up words here. I'm like, same words, I'm making up imaginary words.
There's even a written guide he made. You can check.
All right, so there, that's the noun. That's a noun, the guide.
There's a written guide. Yes, exactly. Oh, my gosh.
Well, but this is a great question. I mean, this is very useful for business.
And it's good to know the word forms the grammar here that we went over.
Lindsay, anything you want to say before we wrap up? yeah i think final point guys be careful when you're translating from your native language as always that's a rule for every day on business english and don't be afraid to ask for help just get this vocabulary down and then go and ask because imagine what you could be missing there's so much wisdom out there michelle for business and life don't you think Yeah, yeah, for sure.
We have so much to learn from each other and you'll miss out if you don't ask.
Yeah, I think we start to realize that as we get older and we scramble to try to get the stories of our elders, right?
We scramble our grandparents, even our aging parents.
We ask them at the end of their lives, we ask them to write down everything and we spend more time listening.
But what if we spent that time listening throughout our lives, you know, because they do have that wealth of help and knowledge, right?
Actually, my mom just got me a I was I was just showing this to my friend.
She got me a dish towel that says OMG, my mother was right about everything.
Mom's always right, right? Yeah, that's what we learn as we get older.
I love it. So good. We'll come back to this topic another day, Michelle.
Yeah, you have a good day. I'll talk to you.
All right, you too. Bye, Lindsay. Take care.
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