This is the Business English Podcast, episode 493.
Reserve, preserve, conserve.
What's the difference?
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That's allearsenglish.com slash Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good, Michelle.
How are you today?
I'm doing well, thanks.
Lindsay, did you do anything to preserve your wedding dress?
Not a whole lot.
It sort of got dirty by the end of the night and I sort of just threw it in a bag and just I didn't do much with it.
No.
What about you?
Do you still have it?
I still have it, but I probably would be okay getting rid of it at this point or donating it maybe.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I didn't do anything.
It's just kind of in a zip up bag.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But people really preserve the dresses and flowers.
They pass it on to their daughters or something.
Right.
But their daughters don't really want it.
Don't want that wedding dress.
It's a totally different era.
No, yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
So today we're going to answer a really fantastic listener question about this word preserve and similar words.
So and these are all really good for business, for everyday life.
So I'm excited to get to this one.
Lindsay, would you like to read the question for us?
Yes.
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So here's the question.
This comes from Susanna Wu 7001.
Hello there.
I have listened to your podcast for two years.
I really like the cheerful voices.
Well, thank you.
Glad to hear that.
I enjoy listening to your podcast during my work breaks.
The podcasts are short and fun, and I learn something each time.
Thank you for the great work.
That's so great, Michelle.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
We really appreciate it.
I have a question regarding the three words, the three W words.
I think it's just words.
Words.
Reserve, conserve, and preserve.
I checked them in the dictionary many times, but I still mix up the meanings.
Can you help me with that?
Thanks.
Great question, too.
Yeah, this is a really good one because all of these words are similar, right?
They deal with keeping something in some way.
So we're going to go...
Get down into it.
Yeah.
I'm excited.
There's a lot of angles we could take in this episode.
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All right.
Perfect.
So let's get into it.
Roll up your sleeves, Lindsay.
Yeah.
Reserve.
Let's start with reserve.
All right.
Okay, so are we talking about this as a verb or a noun or an adjective or what?
To reserve, right.
We're going to talk about this as a verb, but we might end up talking about it in other forms as well.
So, yeah, reserve, it means to hold on to.
I mean, okay, reserve, you're talking about reserve as a noun, I know, like never mind.
Well, I just think of it like sometimes when you like I really love port wine from Portugal.
And sometimes you have like, you have like the reserve version of the wine, like the best kind of wine that I never buy.
But I always wish I could buy it.
You know, the reserve.
It's like the deepest, most profound wine.
That's what I was thinking of.
But yeah, there's a lot we could do here.
So as a verb, to hold on to something, to keep something for some reason.
Right, Michelle?
Yeah, or for a person that will you be used at some point in the future.
So probably the most common example is a reservation at a restaurant.
Yeah, like a reservation now, that's a noun um, so.
But you could say something like could you, can you reserve a table for six for our meeting at the restaurant down the street?
Yeah, but I find that these days it's so weird.
Restaurants don't take recommendations.
They don't take reservations, but they take like call-aheads.
And then I think, what is the difference?
I don't understand.
It's very weird.
I know.
It is really.
It does get confusing.
I think it is becoming more common that places don't take reservations, but it depends.
I think more casual places do still.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Or I recommend reserving an hour for payroll.
So it's good to plan for that.
So this means setting aside, to set aside.
Some time is to reserve as a verb, right?
Yes, absolutely.
Or if you're a sponsor, they reserve a parking spot for you right at the front with your name on it, right?
So they set it aside, they hold on to it.
Yeah.
So to reserve, to set aside is really good.
And maybe that's where the noun version, the reserve comes from, like the best wine.
It's been set aside for so long.
Maybe.
I'm not exactly sure, but I have a feeling that's what it is.
It's been aged for so long in like whiskey barrels or something.
So I don't know.
There's so much to learn in the world.
I'm very unrefined when it comes to alcohol.
That's okay.
No idea.
No idea what's going on.
Stop.
There's also, but there are the reserves, right?
You might hear the army reserves.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
So, so that's like, um, you know, people who were in the army, um, and they might come back.
Right.
Right.
They're available.
They're in a sense, they are in the, like in the background and available to be, um, deployed maybe.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Um, and then there's the wildlife reserves.
Um, yeah.
So um different, different reserves, but that also.
But that also kind of fills, uh fits with set aside because, it's right, a space that has been set aside for the wildlife right to be preserved, preserved oh boy, here we go preserve the wildlife at the reserve okay, all right.
Well, but first we're going to talk about conserve.
Though let's get to conserve first okay, so here we are conserve.
So i think of conserving energy.
That's the first thing i think of.
Yeah um, You want to save something?
You don't want to waste something.
So you're going to be mindful of how you use it so it doesn't get damaged or harmed in some way.
Yeah.
So for example, we try to conserve energy in my house.
So we turn off all the lights when we aren't using them.
And we only use the AC on really hot days.
Yeah.
When I was a kid, my mom would always... I would always say, I'm so cold in the house.
And she'd say, put on another sweater.
She didn't want to turn the heat up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well... that energy.
That's expensive stuff.
Especially with a big house, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can imagine.
Yep.
Or talking about materials.
So these binders were really expensive.
So please try to conserve them for really important projects.
So you could have said reserve.
Right.
But it's a little bit of a different meaning though, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's more...
It's not set aside.
It's not wasting them.
It's like protect or save them.
Yeah, it's not like reserve them, like literally don't use them.
It's try to not waste them.
So very similar, but not the same.
Right, right, right, right.
Or what's another one?
Then another one would be tax season is coming up quickly.
So I encourage everyone to conserve their energy and be kind to themselves before it begins.
I mean, yeah, you say this too.
I mean, even in my Orange Theory class, you know, they lay out the plan for the treadmill workout and they'll tell you what you should be doing.
Should you be conserving energy?
Should you be going all out now?
How long are your pushes going to be?
So you know how extreme you should be if you need to conserve energy, right?
Right.
And yeah, that's like yeah, when I've done in Peloton also.
You know, sometimes they'll say you know you have to, because sometimes I think people just want to say no, I'm go go, go.
And they'll say, conserve your energy now.
There's a reason for the slow song or the slight cool down because you're going to need that energy.
Yes.
Regulation.
Right.
And some people are crazy.
They just go for it all the time.
I don't even know how they do that, but not a good idea.
I don't.
I don't either.
Yeah.
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Okay, let's get to preserve now.
So we were just talking about jam, which is we use the word preserves for jam, right?
And we also use the word preservatives, which hopefully you don't find the two together, but you could, I guess.
Preservatives.
So yeah, I mean, so well, that's interesting.
So preservatives, so that root preserve, so to keep something safe so it doesn't deteriorate, deteriorate or get ruined over a period of time.
So yeah preservative, like in bread.
You know, I just I just was watching some video on Instagram.
It was like somebody said with a Starbucks, they had a Starbucks cake, cake pop in their cabinet for like a month and they took it out and it still look perfectly fine.
Same bad sign.
Bad sign.
That's why I stopped drinking almond milk actually because, oh yeah, buy almond milk and you see that the expiration date is like next June.
Something is not right.
But I hear Michelle you've, you've become a jam maker.
Is that right?
Yes, I mean, I don't do it all the time, but I but I do, I try, I try and buy.
If I'm buying jam, I try not to buy it like With no added sugar, just kind of the basic, the fruits and the, you know, or maybe there's honey in it or something.
But I have made jam and I do enjoy making jam.
I just don't have time to make jam, but I like it.
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
So preserve, clearly this comes into play in a lot of aspects of life, right?
But as a verb it is still in the same theme of keeping something safe so it doesn't deteriorate or get ruined over a period of time.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
So, for example, this display is absolutely beautiful and we should use it for all future conferences.
How do we make sure we preserve it?
Or we need to find some ways to preserve the leftovers from the lunch and learn.
I don't want it to go to waste.
Yeah, that's true.
So sometimes, did you have that in the radio station you worked for?
They do like a lunch and learn where they order food and everyone comes together and does like a learning thing.
Um, not so much at that job, but there was another one that I had, where I remember there were lunches and things like that.
And it's always exciting to get a free, to get some free food.
For sure.
Um, okay.
So let's review Michelle.
So again, overall, these are about kind of protecting something.
Um, so reserve is usually saving something for someone, right.
About reservations or holding onto something.
Um, And then what about conserve?
I just want to say we mentioned also setting aside, setting something aside with reserve.
Conserve, being mindful not to waste, not to have something getting harmed, saving energy, saving materials.
And then preserve, Michelle, to preserve.
Yeah.
So this is more about over time, right?
Protecting something from getting ruined.
So you know, like also, I think all of these are really used sometimes to talk about the environment.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
They are really, really good question today for this episode.
Yeah, I know.
It's a very interesting one.
But yeah, you have to listen to them in context.
I'm sure there is some overlap where you could use more than one, but there are some pretty distinct differences.
Let's do a role play to see how this actually comes to life at the workplace.
So Michelle, we just ran a big work event and we're talking about how to plan for next year's event.
Okay.
Okay, here we go.
This was so great.
I love the centerpieces we used.
Is there any way we can preserve them so we can reuse them next year?
Yeah, great idea.
I'll reserve some space in my office so they can stay there and that should be fine.
Great.
Okay, next time we could also conserve more paper by sending things electronically.
Good call.
Okay, nice.
All right, so we used all three here, right?
So um, first thing, you said this was great.
I love the centerpieces.
Is there any way we can preserve them?
Sometimes people will preserve flowers, like if they're given roses, some people will dry them out and hang them, that kind of thing.
I used to do that when i was a teenager.
I don't know why.
I just like to do that.
That's nice yeah, what else, michelle?
Um, then you said yeah, great idea.
I'll reserve some space in my office so they can stay there and that should be fine.
So I'm, you know, I'm kind of asking more about maybe, maybe there's something, some special way we can put them, but you're kind of saying oh, I'll just put them in the corner.
Yeah.
Put them in the corner.
Right.
Um, and then to do anything special.
Right.
And then you said, great.
Next time we could conserve more paper.
So conserve, right.
Save more paper, prevent the usage of more paper.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so pretty clear cut here, I think.
What do you think, Lindsay?
Yeah, it is very nuanced, but I think if our listeners go back, listen again and try to see this in context, you'll start to see the differences.
So don't get discouraged, guys.
If it feels too close these three words feel too close to each other.
Start to notice native speakers using them, okay?
Mm-hmm.
Yep, absolutely.
And guys, check out episode 484 of the Business English podcast.
That was how to ask for help at work in English.
Really useful.
Yeah.
Any other final takeaways about preserve, reserve, conserve?
Guys, go and make your own jam.
Make your own jam experiment.
I mean, there's a lot.
Yeah.
Food making.
Interesting.
I should get into that.
That's really fun.
Well, you'll have to update us next time, Michelle, on how I jam making.
Yes.
Jam tasting sample day or something.
Yes.
Yes.
So, guys, go ahead.
You can even make some of your own sample sentences.
I think that would be good for this.
Try and see like what what is something that you preserve or you have preserved?
What is something that you are preserving? reserving for something else.
Maybe you're reserving the centerpieces for the wedding, right?
Um, yeah.
Or what do you do to conserve?
Yeah.
I could tell you a lot about your value.
So having these words active in a conversation, a social connection conversation, could show people who you are.
Cause what do you conserve?
Do you care about conserving energy or not?
Um, or like physical energy or energy in your home, right?
What are we preserving?
What are we conserving?
Interesting question.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I like that.
All right.
All right, Michelle, you have a good rest of your day.
I'll see you soon.
All right.
Bye.
Bye.
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