this is an all ears English podcast episode 2115 check on your English vocabulary progress
today 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 host Aubrey Carter the is Wiz and Lindsay McMahon
the English Adventurer coming to you from Arizona and Colorado USA to get realtime
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slapp in this second episode of a three-part series we talk about check on how is it
different from check out or even check in find out two common scenarios to use check on
today hey Aubrey how's it going today I'm great Lindsay how are you oh my gosh I'm feeling good
today I am so excited I have a question for you today all right let's hear it so what do
you have to check on at least once every every day you have kids you have a family you have a
home I mean what do you have to check on at least once a day I have definit I've started
checking on my kids grades once a day because lots of things have gone digital so now I can
just check like the website to find out their grades in all their classes I don't have to
contact teachers I don't even have to ask my kids I can just check on that online which is really
helpful I can see missing assignments right but that's I feel like I'm checking on things all day
long right if I'm dinner I have to check on the food make sure it's burning right I feel like I'm
I'm yeah I'm constantly checking on something and when you have these things to check on do
you have a checklist or is it all in your head just things you need to cover come back to in
your mind all that Mom stuff is yeah just in my head right for for work that's different I have
to have checklist I have to yeah but for with when it comes to like making dinner that would
be tricky like make a checklist check on dinner make sure it's not burning I just have to keep
it in my mind right that would be funny right yeah um I love it so clearly you are checking
on things all day every day there's a lot of work to be done right in our lives these days yeah nice
absolutely we had a student recently ask us about three phrasal verbs with check check out check in
and check on and we already talked about check out right in episode 21107 if you guys missed
it it was called check out these phrasal verbs because there are so many meanings of checkout
needed its own episode yes so excited so check out 21 oh check out 2107 it is these are these
are super common guys you know if you don't listen to any of their episodes this year you
want to get these three key episodes right and check out the app too while you're at it right
aubre I mean I think the thing the listeners love the most our listeners is the transcripts
right the fact that they can see transcripts of every episode of all ear's English what do you
think yes it's so helpful to be able to listen to the um episode while you see the transcript
so get the app guys at allers english.com it's available IOS and Android now so yeah it's the
best way to listen to the podcast I love it so why don't we jump right into it Aubrey so our
listeners are not left in suspense so talking about checkout today where do we start check
on exactly right so yeah check on and there are two meanings of this phrasal verb but they're
pretty similar okay and the first one is to monitor the the condition of something so we
often hear this of like doctors monitoring right the doctor checked on his patient that
means they're just monitoring their condition okay yeah or for example if you're baking a
cake which we were baking a cake here yesterday for my sister-in-law in the house right so uh
it actually went okay surprisingly um nothing blew up nothing caught fire it was okay we'll
take it we'll take that yeah and so we could say oh I need to check on the cake I'm baking
right so you're just like yeah monitoring how is it going it's not like we're going to change
anything it's very different from checkout these aren't that similar even though they both have
the word check it's really different you're just like monitoring how something is going yeah it's
like I'm monitoring my kids grades I need to check on the grades exactly I feel like uh when I think
about the difference between check on and check out I think that the thing that I'm checking on
is kind of in progress like it's being updated like the thing is baking the cake is baking your
kids grades are constantly updating so you need to check on would you agree with that abely yes right
it's all about checking for updates checking for Progress when we check on something yeah
interesting interesting what else Aubrey where to now so the Second Use is very similar it's
like to look at something or someone in order to make sure that they are safe or correct so it's
very similar to monitoring progress but it is a little little bit of a different meaning like for
example I might say I need to check on my kids if I'm at the park and I've been chatting with
a friend and I realize I haven't seen my kids in a few minutes and this is a little different
I'm not monitoring the progress of anything I'm checking on the safety of something yeah but it's
still quite different from checkout in in a very subtle native nuanced way but we're going to show
our listeners today so you said I need to check on my kids or the police are checking on the man they
saw loitering so what would that mean what would they be doing yeah right so they've seen someone
that might be breaking the law something they're concerned about they're checking on the safety or
to see if something is correct if it's on the up and up if we see it like nothing no crimes
are happening right or just checking on something yeah or another example sometimes when we travel
we have our friends or family members check on our house right we've been gone for like a
week we want someone to stop by and check on the house just go in make sure everything's locked
you know that kind of thing do you ever do that oh yeah definitely I when we went to Mexico with um
friends we got back a day early and so they asked us to check on their dogs check on their house
and the dogs were actually barking so loud and so we texted them and realized it's just because all
the lights were off so it was like they're not used to usually lights were left on for them so
turned on some lights no problem and yeah that's it's like the best thing so to have neighbors that
you feel comfortable asking them to check on your house or your dog it's so it really makes it feel
like a small world you know what I mean when you have neighbors and they you can rely on them and
you can help each other out it's nice it's nice yeah so it's interesting to think about these
two very related but a little bit different uses of check on right either checking on the progress
checking on updates or checking on for safety but check on and check in I I think the student who
wrote in and asked about these three phrasal verbs and said they are confusing yeah the the I think
the most confusing thing would be between check on and check in they are very similar oo let's
talk about that then let's add that in here where do we go yeah yeah so I I was as I planning these
episodes I started thinking about checkin and this is like about contacting someone by making a phone
call or a short Vis visit to make sure there are no problems or to tell them there are no
problems and this I feel like happens a lot more at work like if I about friends and family I'm
going to check on someone right if I'm worried someone's going through something I might check
on them but I wouldn't say I'm going to check in with them that feels very business to me what do
you think Lindy I completely agree there's a tone there check on has a tone of caretaking
and kind of nurturing a little bit right you're checking on the thing you're baking or checking
on your kids whereas check-in does have something a little bit more professional to it I wanted to
check in with you on this right and then we have checkin on something of course right but it might
be strange if like a co-worker or your supervisor came into your office and said hey I wanted to
check on you if you don't have a very like a personal relationship because that it's it's
caretaking whereas if they said hey I just wanted to check in no problem right this is not personal
this is not caretaking this is like business we're checking AG in on your your progress for something
at work isn't it crazy that just that one little change I mean this is what phrasal verbs how they
could be so vicious sometimes the change of one little preposition can really strongly change
the the tone behind what we're trying to say absolutely right so because we use this most
often at work we promised the three parts of this series the last one for checkin we're going to
do over on the business English podcast we're going to cover why it's vital to check in with
co-workers and the best way to do it so be sure to hit follow on that podcast so you don't miss
it yeah guys now is your chance to go over and add business English to your listening queue so just
open that search bar type in business English by allers English you'll see the yellow you'll see
the three shows open the business English show and hit that follow button like Aubrey said love
it absolutely okay Aubrey we are in for a role play now let's do it yeah let's do it so you and
I are at a restaurant in this role playay fun okay hey should we check on our order it's been quite
a while yeah maybe I actually need to check on my kids do you mind asking while I make a quick
phone call sure don't forget to tell your daughter to check on my dog and thank her for pet sitting
for me nice do your kids do any pet sitting at all around the neighborhood yeah sometimes right
just to um they haven't ever walked anyone's dogs for them but they'll they'll just like
check in to see if they need more food or water little simple things like that yeah that's good
fun oh yeah that's good yeah we usually have our dog go to like a camp or something but sometimes
we have our dogs stay with family or friends so it's always better I think they know they're
going to get lots of love yeah for sure so let's go through this Aubrey so first I said hey should
we check on our order super common in a restaurant right absolutely right if the restaurant's busy
and you've been waiting for a long time you'll be like maybe we need to check on it yeah and what
would we do then what does that mean like would we call the waitress over or waiter and just kind of
ask about it is that what we mean there exactly right yeah we're going to maybe try and Signal
our server or if we haven't seen our server in a long time maybe we'll ask someone else like
oh have you seen our server who knows we haven't seen the server we haven't gotten our food so yeah
there there are options here but it means you're going to ask someone about the the progress here
you're going to ask for an update on your food oh yeah I would recommend that if a certain amount
of time has gone by sometimes you can end up in the void where the server has gone off duty and
maybe you didn't get transferred over to a new new server and you're in this yeah right they might
get busy and just neglect to enter your order into the machine and so it's not being made and it's
best to just check on it right you can do it in a very friendly way oh of course yeah it doesn't
mean that you have to cause a problem if you do it politely with a smile you can you can do it 100%
absolutely yes and then I said oh I need to check on my kids do you mind asking like I'm saying can
you can you find the Ser can you check on our food while I check on my kids so you're saying you're
going to make that phone call to check on your your kids maybe find out how they're doing maybe
they're out with friends or something yeah love it maybe there's a babysitter and so I'm checking on
their safety at this point right because I I'm not with them so I want to check and make sure
they're okay so we see how that's kind of more that nurturing sort of taking care of family or
your your personal life I love it uh all right and then I said sure don't forget to tell your
daughter to check on my dog and that's again the car taking thing check on my exactly right you've
clearly like my my daughter has been asked to check on your dog and so yeah the um just that
same use which it's doesn't at all feel it's very friendly like that caretaking it's very personal
that's the tricky thing I think the the main thing to remember here is that when we use check on it's
assuming a a pretty close relationship there's some kind of caretaking you're actually checking
on either someone's mental health or physical safety and um it's very personal yes I love it
and different and very different from checkin but again guys got to go over to business English hit
follow to listen to that checkin when is that episode on checkin coming out by the way is
that already very soon okay okay good be sure to hit follow so you don't miss it and guys just as
a takeaway here you know phrasal verbs can be confusing like you pointed out Lindsay just the
difference between that tiny preposition in or on makes such a difference not only with meaning
but also with implied relationships like how personal our relationship is changes depending
on the preposition I'm using so I'm glad we're able to share these details so that you can be
comfortable using them at work or with friends family yeah totally the key is coming back to
connection there's always a way to connect in any given moment right Aubrey whether we're
at work or at home but it's about choosing that correct phrasal verb for the connection to be in
sync for it to make sense right exactly right so use these right check on check out to connect in
English and I feel like this is such a great way way to connect to ask someone else you know what
they're having to check on that conversation we had at the beginning I love that just to be like
what do you have to check on during the day right leads to such an interesting conversation what
about what someone values what's really important to them what they're having to monitor yeah we can
get a sense about people's daily lives exactly your values what you care about based on what
you're checking checking on every day I love it so good exactly when I all I have to talk about
is my kids and their grades you know what the main part of my day is about yes for sure for
sure so good well I'm glad we brought this up today Aubrey good episode and I will see you
back here very soon all right awesome see you next time right have a good day bye you too
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