hey aubrey how's it going today how you feeling i am great you guys can probably
see from the background if you're watching on youtube that it looks a little different i'm
at my parents place in idaho so it's a little more rustic you can see the wood door behind me
it's sort of a log cabin that i'm staying in yeah oh fun you're in the countryside that is amazing
oh it's so good to escape to the countryside sometimes isn't it i know yes the like the
pace of life slows down a little bit yeah and we can just kind of relax and enjoy sitting on the
porch in the shade and nice weather they have some new kittens for my kids to play with and they're
loving that so yeah it's really nice to get into a more rural area and start enjoying the summer
yeah and with the internet you know nowadays we can get away with working from anywhere right we
can work from anywhere pretty much in the world we can get away with it what do you think about
that operation i totally agree right i can still continue recording with you work from here it's
so nice that i'm not stuck in an office and that i have that flexibility that freedom and good job
lindsay sneaking in that phrasal verb to get away with did you like that guys by the way i have to
remind our listeners today's episode as you said of course they know is on youtube because we just
mentioned your space so guys go over on youtube and check us out so you can see where we're at
and learn from us in a visual way in addition to the podcast yeah today we're talking about get
away this is good it's a phrasal verb right aubry yes well in more specific get away with because
get away is a whole other verb of like going maybe going on a vacation right i'm going to get away
from hawaii oh get away with these three words has a very specific meaning and the more i looked
into this it actually has four different meanings some of which are very related but yeah different
things so i'm excited to dive into this yeah it's so funny how with phrasal verbs just one
preposition change totally changes the meaning of the word guys that is the definition of a phrase
a phrasal verb right aubrey um so we're going to take some time and dive in but we have a listener
question don't we yes yes exactly right so subin wrote in and first of all thanked us
for answering his first request question related to whitney houston in episode 1071
that's really fun i love it when a listener like loves a particular episode and writes about it so
check out that episode if you missed it and thank you sue but i'm glad you liked that episode so
fun yeah and he says even though i live far away i felt like we're in the same place while i listened
to that episode what a good feeling you know i think a lot of our listeners have that feeling
like we're sitting together in a cafe right and we're all kind of just drinking coffee together
and studying that conversation that connection so it's so good so let's get into the question from
our listener yes he said i have another question for you noah gallagher one of my favorite singers
said in an interview i'm not a great singer i'm not a great guitarist i certainly can't dance but
because my songs resonate with people i can get away with it what does the phrase get away with
mean i looked it up on english dictionaries but the explanation wasn't clear to me i think this
phrase is hard to understand for foreigners i hope you'll give some examples thanks in advance subin
this is a great question and you're right i googled this phrasal verb as well and the reason
it's so confusing is there are several different meanings there are four different meanings so
really good question okay we're going to get into it in just a second guys but first i want to throw
out some names thank a few people for reviewing our podcast i want to thank zainab muhammad bagri
thank you guys for reviewing all airs english we love your reviews and guys if you haven't reviewed
us yet make sure you go and hit follow and review the show right aubry we want to read those reviews
yes we love reading those reviews that's that's why we do it right we want to make sure that we
know this is helpful for you so every time we read a review a question when people let us know this
is helping me that's that's validation for us we appreciate it you got it exactly all right
let's get into it then aubry so okay where are we gonna start today for our listeners
yeah so this particular meaning in the question where this singer was saying i'm not good at the
guitar not good at singing but i get away with it because my music resonates with people yeah
this is the first meaning one of four that we'll talk about it means to manage to be successful
like to manage or to be successful with less of something than is expected right so he's able to
manage or get by with being a successful musician with less skill on the guitar or singing than
is maybe expected because his lyrics resonate with people people like it so he's saying i'm
not that talented but i get away with it because you know i'm a great guy my lyrics resonate with
people yeah yeah aubry is there anything you know when we think about it i actually think that we
all get away with something right especially when it comes to conversation our conversation styles
what would you say for you is like the thing that you kind of get away with maybe you're not like
perfect at but you just you get away with it what would you say get away with jokes that
sometimes not every person would make because um i i think because of my sense of humor and
sometimes i'll poke fun at my own background um especially having come from a certain um religious
sect that's you know it's easy to poke fun at it and not everyone could because
sometimes you kind of can't poke fun at things unless it applies to yourself as well right
right i get away with jokes that maybe the average person wouldn't feel comfortable making
interesting interesting yeah i think on my end sometimes like i'm a little awkward socially
awkward and i get away with it just by smiling like i just smile a lot get away with it because
you're cute yeah so i smile my looks i think i get away with things sometimes from my looks
we say this a lot we'll say like he gets away with so much because he's good looking right
yeah some things that some of us maybe couldn't get away with somebody who's really charming or
good looking will say they can get away with it they get away with a lot but looks fade so
we have to catch up to ourselves at some point so guys think for a minute this is kind of fun right
you know challenge yourself think for a minute what is it that you get away with whether it's
in conversation and connection or just in life in general what do you get away with
a lot and you know what are some skills you might want to work on so you don't have to get
away with it anyway right so we have a couple good example sentences in case the meaning isn't quite
clear right so for example someone might say i think i can get away with not studying for this
test yeah thinking like i've paid attention in class i'm smart i can get away with not
studying right whereas maybe other students would be expected to study in order to get a good score
yeah that was my college roommate or listen i've talked about my college roommate freshman college
roommate oh wendy she used to just like she wouldn't even crack open the book for biology
101 and she would show up she'd skip class she'd show up she'd get like an a plus on the test i
have no idea how she got away with that how do you get away with this i have no idea because this is
not obvious stuff right talking about the depths of science um here's another sample guys i can't
believe you got away with skipping the training okay this is really good right imagine you've
got co-workers and you're all supposed to attend a training and someone doesn't go but they're fine
like they they figure it out they understand so you're like you got away with that i can't
believe you got away with skipping that training yes i love it so good okay so that's the first
meaning guys to manage with less of something that is expected right something than is expected right
below expectations but you are able to just move forward and achieve what you want to achieve what
would be the second one aubrey yeah and these are all pretty related yeah we just use them
in different contexts they have just enough of a difference in meaning okay yeah second
one is to do something wrong that everyone would see as wrong and not be punished or receive no
consequences but not like serious wrongdoing right so for example i can't believe she gets away with
being late to every meeting yeah like she's doing something wrong something that's not expected but
she gets away with it kind of like we were saying maybe because she's charismatic people like her
yes getting away with doing something wrong yeah so in a way you're right aubry what you
said before these really are all kind of the same meaning in a way but slightly different usages
related right related so we're just teaching you kind of different sub meanings or different usages
guys here and the second one is he gets away with a lot because he's good looking that's the example
that's what we were talking about right right right these are actually that we were kind of
referring to is more this meaning right yeah the first one is more like there's an expectation of
how much effort a person has to put into and some people get away with not putting in that
much effort and then okay so this could be both like is he getting away with doing things that he
shouldn't yes he just you know is he getting away with not putting in as much effort as he should
right so it kind of works for both depending on the context interesting yeah and this is such an
applicable phrase guys to connection applicable to everyday life so you're gonna start using this
right away as soon as you finish this episode i love it you're gonna hear it all the time now like
things like this where because you didn't know it before you didn't notice it you're going to
hear it in tv in the movies friends co-workers we use it all the time yes i love it what's the third
aubrey yeah it's just to receive a very light punishment right for example she was lucky to get
away with just a fine so this is always if we're sharing uh a light punishment something that isn't
that severe would you say they're getting away with this less severe consequence ah yes i love
it i love it and then here's another one he was caught trespassing but got away with a slap on the
wrist um that's a fun idiom right a slap on the wrist means just a very light punishment you know
that might mean community service or a fine right we call it a slap on the wrist when it's a very
light punishment yeah this makes me think a lot of our criminal justice system right now actually as
it's as drugs are treated right because there's a big controversy going on when you think about the
use of drugs you know in parties like exclusive like cocaine and exclusive parties and that kind
of thing usually not punished right wealthy famous movie stars often don't end up in jail whereas
street drugs people on the streets maybe minority populations who are already struggling same drugs
end up in jail right for life potentially so we have a whole thing we're working through in this
country right now around criminal justice yes with states trying to decriminalize some of these less
severe yes in order to level the playing field yes one person shouldn't have this huge rap sheet just
because they aren't absolute you know don't have the economic advantages someone else might have
and they can't hire the lawyer right exactly so they're they're all these things guys pay
attention to it it's actually really interesting and super important and it may be happening in
your country too this debate over criminal justice and you said rap sheet what is that real quick for
a yeah your record right yeah your criminal record you have a couple felonies and a misdemeanor would
say you have a long rap sheet yes and then if you haven't ever been arrested you don't have any kind
of record then you don't have any rap sheet so it's just that record of your criminal activity
super interesting all right let's let's go through the next one real quick for our listeners and then
we're going to get into a role play so um the fourth one guys is to steal something and escape
with it right so this is more physical right aubrey so the thieves got away with three thousand
dollars worth of equipment okay exactly right and the tricky thing is here you have to state
what they stole and got away with because if you just say the thieves got away with it
this is one of these other meetings where you're just saying like they were able to do something
wrong and not have a punishment but when we say got away with and then name what they got
this is different where we're stating what they escaped with what they were able to steal and keep
yes i love it so good so good maybe we'll skip the bonus idiom for today aubry and our listeners will
hit follow and join us on another episode in the future to get to that one because we don't want to
run out of time today um is there another episode our listeners should check out that's related
to this jessica and i talked about this get away with and then shared some related idioms on ielts
energy episode 1186 it was called getting off scot-free and other ielts crime idioms so if you
want to know what that means to get off scot-free and check out those other idioms definitely listen
to episode 1186 of the ielts energy podcast i love that guys go on over and check that out okay aubry
so should we get into a little role play yes let's do it in this role play lindsay and i are
discussing a crime that we saw on the news okay here we go go ahead aubrey i usually get away
with just skimming the news but there was a local story that caught my eye oh yeah what happened i
guess a guy got away with robbing a bank oh they haven't caught him how much did he get away with
i it didn't say but probably just whatever the tellers had in their drawers oh that's so crazy
i thought people couldn't really get away with robbing banks anymore i'm sure they'll catch him
he'll be lucky if he gets away with no jail time i love it it makes me think of the movie have you
seen uh the town the town i think so oh you have to see it it's so good it's about charlestown in
massachusetts near boston really interesting ben affleck it's about bank robbers in charlestown um
good stuff definitely check it out let me think about free guy it's a new ryan reynolds funny
movie and i like rob the bank over and over and over i won't spoil anything but that's a fun one
too i love it okay real quick let's go through how we use these so so first i said i usually get away
with just skimming the news so that's that first one right where normally people have to put in
more effort to really know about current events in the world but i'm saying i can get away with
just skimming it yeah i get by that way you get by that way oh get by we'll do that one another
day guys another day um and then you said i guess a guy got away with robbing a bank and here we're
saying the thing that they're doing that they did guys right which is number two okay exactly
right they did something wrong but received no consequences yet at least they weren't you know
they hadn't been caught yet so he got away with it i love it and then what did i say he said how much
did he get away with which she's asking how much money were they able to steal right right right
so exactly so i'm asking for the exact amount of money here right aubry the exact amount okay
and then i said that's so crazy i thought people couldn't get away with robbing banks anymore
that's back to that second example that second usage exactly right she's saying i didn't think
they could do something illegal like this and get away with it do it with no consequence without
being caught i love it and what about the last one yeah and then i said well he'll be lucky if he
gets away with no jail time i'm saying they're for sure going to catch him this dna you rob a bank
you're going to get caught right this day and age i mean this be lucky if he gets away with
no prison time i love it guys make sure you write down these four different uses of get away with
and you know this is it now go out into the world and you are going to hear this phrase start using
it aubry what should our listeners do to make sure they don't miss a single episode of this
show yes you guys hit follow here at all there's english podcast four new episodes every week
we love having you join us so definitely hit follow so you never miss an episode
i love it what's the takeaway for today i mean what should we leave our listeners thinking and
feeling and and you know just thinking about when they come away today yes you guys are so much more
prepared now for the average conversation with the native because we talk about this a lot what
people are able to get away with either because of their you know charisma or whatever reason or this
other more serious thing where people get away with crimes that they shouldn't so you're more
ready now that you have a better understanding of this phrasal verb to dive in participate in
those conversations to make connections yeah this is a great conversation starter and a key
to good connection and good conversation guys is self-reflection right so start by thinking
what do you get away with like we talked about earlier you know and how do you want to fill in
those gaps as we said and then think about your society who is getting away with what in your
society on the criminal level and what could this you know how could you start conversations with
with people in your community about this really interesting such a good idea yeah think about
people in your own life are there people that you're letting get away with behavior that you
shouldn't should you be calling them out right if you think about maybe sexism in the workplace
if someone's getting away with saying things that are inappropriate or making someone uncomfortable
maybe you should be doing something about it yeah i mean that's a good that's an example that's
honestly is everywhere right and sure i mean there's also examples of politicians corruption
white-collar crime and i think in this country we have like a real visceral value of fairness uh and
so i think that's why certain things that we see in the news really trigger us sometimes really
interesting so think about what's going on in your world guys and use this phrasal verb so good all
right aubry we got to get off the mic i'll talk to you soon awesome thanks see you later bye bye