In this lesson, you're going to learn English with the news. So we're going
to read a news article together and you're going to learn a lot of advanced grammar,
vocabulary and even pronunciation naturally by
reading this article with me. Welcome back to JForrest English training. Of course,
I'm Jennifer and this is your place to become a fluent, confident English speaker. Now let's get started.
Hello, and welcome to our article. As you can imagine, we're talking about Twitter today. So
let me read the headline for you. Elon Musk is said to have ordered job cuts across Twitter.
Now let's clarify "job cuts" because this is very important for the article. Job
cuts. This means job reductions. When you cut jobs, you reduce the number of jobs.
So here, the word "cut" is being used as a verb: to cut. But we're not talking about scissors with
paper in this context of job cuts. Cut means reduction. Cuts. So we use this specifically
with jobs, job cuts. We can also use this with finances. You hear this a lot with the government.
They might talk about budget cuts, which means reductions. They're reducing the amount of
money available. Budget cuts. You can hear that in government. But you can also hear it in the private
sector. They might have budget cuts, so you don't get a bonus that year. So job cuts, reduction.
And as an example sentence, you might say: my company cut jobs this year. You can include a
number. You can say my company cut 500 jobs this year, for example. Or the company might say:
we need to cut jobs by 10%. Or you can have a specific number, by 500, by 100 individual jobs.
So those are some example sentences you'll likely see. Let's move on. Elon Musk,
who if you didn't know is the owner of Twitter. He recently purchased Twitter. I think it says in the
article. We'll soon find out. Elon Musk planned to begin laying off workers at Twitter as soon as Saturday,
four people with knowledge of the matter said. With some managers being asked to draw up lists
of employees to cut. Okay, we already know what this is. Employees to cut. So we know that those
employees, their job is going to be eliminated. Because they need to reduce the number of jobs.
Now "to draw up lists". You might be thinking of the verb draw. Draw a picture. But notice this
isn't just the verb "draw". What is this? Because we have "draw up". "Draw up". So if we have a verb and a
preposition, ON, IN, then we know it's a phrasal verb. And phrasal verbs have different meanings
from the regular verb. So "to draw up" in this context. To draw up lists. When you draw up lists
it's simply another way of saying prepare, prepare. But we use this phrasal verb "to draw
up" in the context of legal or business contracts, documents, proposal, proposals. So for example,
if you are offered a draw, a job with a company, they're going to have a contract between you and
the company. And that is a legal contract or a business contract. Now they're going to draw
up the contract, which simply means prepare. And if you are starting a new project and you
have this proposal, you can draw up the proposal, which just means prepare. So we use this phrasal
verb in this specific context. And remember, it simply means "prepare". So as an example sentence.
As an example sentence, we can say HR is, the HR department, HR is drawing up the contract
as we speak. So they're in the process of drawing up the contract. So you might ask,
Hey, do you know when the contract will be ready? And they're like, Oh, they're just drawing it up,
which means they're just preparing it now. Let's see anything else from here? Oh, yes, I wanted to
talk about layoffs. Because if we're talking about job cuts, well, then job cuts, layoffs,
they go hand in hand. Because if you have job cuts, it means you need to reduce the number of
employees. Now you can do that, you can accomplish that objective by laying off workers. Okay.
So when you lay someone off, you end their employment, you permanently end their employment.
But it's very different from being fired. When you're fired, you also end your employment,
but it's because of your performance. You were not performing very well. You were not
meeting the objectives. You were basically a bad employee. But when you're laid off, it's
because of operational reasons. They might not be able to afford you anymore, or they're
no longer selling the product that you were in charge of so your position does not exist anymore.
So to lay someone off, this is to permanently end one's employment because
of operational reasons. So again, like I said, they might not be able to afford you or simply
the direction of the company has changed. So as an example sentence, you can say: I got laid off.
Or you can say: I was. I was laid off. So you can use "to be laid off". This is the passive form
of the verb "to lay someone off". So the active form is "to lay
someone off". But you as the employee are receiving the action. Your company is doing the action. So
my company laid me off. This is the past simple of the verb lay. This is the active.
And the passive is "I was laid off by my company". Passive. So you're receiving the action,
which is why it's very common to use this in the passive form. I was laid off.
Now my original example I said, "get laid off". I got laid off. We can use the verb "get" just to talk about
that transition. "I got sick" is the transition from "not sick" to "sick". So "I got laid off" is the
transition from "not laid off" to "laid off". But to start, "get" is a more advanced verb in English, so
to start, you can simply use the verb "to be". Let's move on. Mr. Musk, who completed a $44 billion deal
to buy Twitter on Thursday has ordered the cuts across the company, with some teams to be trimmed
more than others, said three of the people who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation.
Okay, so notice here we're using cuts again. And what are cuts, reductions reductions.
In this case, the number of employees. But I want you to look at this and think what is
this? Is this a subject, an adjective, an adverb, a verb, a noun? What is this? What part of speech
is this? And how does it differ? Because here you'll notice above we were looking at the verb.
We know it's a verb because it's conjugated. It's used next to a subject and in this case,
it's the infinitive. But what do we have here? An article, which tells me it's not a verb. This is a
noun. So this is talking about it as a something: the cuts. The job cuts. It's a something. So this
is a noun. And it's very commonly used as the noun form, the cuts. Notice how it's in plural because
it's more than one. Technically you could use it in the singular and say: we cut one job. There
was a job cut. A job cut. That's a something. There was one job cut at our company. So this is a noun.
has ordered, our verb here, is "order". Has ordered the cuts across the company.
So here, I mentioned that Elon Musk purchased Twitter. Well,
he did it for $44 billion, maybe a good deal. Maybe not. I don't really know.
All right. Let's move on here. The scale of the layoffs could not be determined. Twitter
has around 7500 employees. All right, the same thing we saw before with "to cut" and
"cuts". Verb and noun. We saw "to lay off" is the verb, commonly used in the passive form. To
be laid off. But here, what is this. The part I have highlighted? What part of speech is this?
Well, it should be easy for you. It's a noun. A noun. The scale of the layoffs. So we're
just talking about the layoffs. So those are the positions that are permanently eliminated
because of operational reasons. And the scale. The scale is just talking about
how big is it. Is it big? Is it small? That would be the scale. And they're saying it could not be
determined, which is a formal way of saying they don't know. They don't know what the scale is. So
will there be a lot of layoffs, a lot of cuts or a small number of layoffs, a small number of cuts.
Now notice how I pronounced this. I said seven thousand five hundred employees. The plural is on my s. Here on my
noun, employees. We add that s because there's more than one. There are seven thousand five hundred. Seven thousand five hundred. You could also say,
seventy five hundred. Seventy five hundred. The choice is yours.Seven thousand five hundred or seventy five hundred. Both of them are correct, commonly used,
you can choose which one you'd like to use. Let's move on. Reports of layoffs at Twitter has
swirled since Mr. Musk agreed to buy the company in April. The billionaire, who also leads the electric
carmaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX, has told investors that he would take Twitter private,
reduce its workforce, roll back its content moderation rules and find new revenue streams.
So here we have reports of layoffs. Is this a noun? Or a verb? Reports of something. It's a noun.
Another way you can tell it's a noun is because it's one word. As a verb, it is two words. You have "to
lay" is your verb and "off" is the preposition. To lay someone off. So this is the verb.
Okay. So again, they're talking, because of the cuts, the job cuts, because of the layoffs. It's
just natural that you're going to reduce the workforce. The workforce is the total number of
people in a company. Or you could talk about the workforce of a city, a country and industry. So
Twitter had seven thousand five hundred or seventy five hundred people. So you could say that its workforce. The layoffs at Twitter would
take place before a November 1st date when employees were scheduled to receive stock grants as part
of their compensation. Such grants typically represent a significant portion of employees' pay.
By laying off workers before that date, Mr. Musk may avoid paying the grants, though he is supposed
to pay the employees cash in place of their stock under the terms of their merger agreement.
So again, we see our layoffs. This is being used as a noun. It's our subject actually in this sentence.
The layoffs at Twitter. "Take place" is a great phrase, is a great expression that just means to happen.
The layoffs would happen, take place. So that's just a more casual way of saying happen, but
it's very commonly used. By, ok, so here. By laying off workers. So is this a noun or a verb?
Laying off workers. This is a verb. And what conjugation is this verb in? This is our gerund
verb. And we know that because it has the "ing". And it's in the gerund verb because,
do you know why? Because of this word right here, by. "By" is a preposition. So we have preposition
plus gerund. That's our sentence structure. Preposition plus gerund. By laying off workers
before that date. And that is the end of our article. So you learned a lot of very useful
Business English vocabulary, grammar. We talked a lot about nouns and verbs and changing between
active and passive. So make sure you try some of these new expressions in the comment section
below. And feel free to go through this article again. And if you have any questions, you can
just leave it in the comment section as well. Amazing job with this lesson. Think of all
the advanced grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation that you learn today naturally in a very engaging
and fun way. Now of course, make sure you practice. Leave some example sentences with your favorite new
advanced expression from this lesson. And if you found this helpful, please hit the like button,
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