this is an allers english podcast episode 1840.
this episode speaks to the difficulty of english phrasal verbs
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do you get confused when native speakers use the phrasal verb speak to at work today get super
high-level ways to use this phrasal verb in your presentations or your meetings in the workplace
hey aubry how's everything going today i'm excellent i have a fun question for you ready
yes i'm ready when is the last time that you had to speak to someone about their behavior
oh that's a good question actually last week i was in new hampshire visiting my niece and my
brother and i had to speak to her briefly my my little niece she's eight and a half and i
had to yeah i had to speak with her briefly about her behavior nice this happens really often with
little kids for sure my my kids i'm often often having to speak to them because they will say
things or do things they don't realize are mean or inappropriate or whatever yeah so yeah we have
to speak to them about it yeah you have to call it out you have to call it out right you can't
let them get away with it and it helps them to know what's okay and what's not right often they
don't realize until you say something because it's not always that intuitive yeah for sure for sure
so today what are we talking about yeah so this phrasal verb speak to there are two very different
meanings we had a really good listener question about this and we want to make sure to clarify
clear up so that you guys are clear on how to use this phrasal verb with its two separate meanings
yes guys we know that phrasal verbs are always a challenge and this one especially is really tricky
so i'm excited that we're going into this today before before we get started i want to remind you
guys to hit follow on your podcast player wherever you list you're listening to this today whether
it's on you know apple podcast or spotify or cass box hit follow right there so that you don't miss
how many episodes do we publish a week aubry four or four new episodes every week and there's a
chock full of great information vocab yes yeah you don't want to miss it guys so hit follow
okay so do we use this a lot in business english aubrey yes so the the version we were just talking
about speak to often we use with kids but also in business if someone's behavior is inappropriate a
manager might have to speak to them about it if they're arriving late all the time
or if maybe they're not paying attention in meetings or attending meetings when they should
then someone would need to speak to them so we use it there as well okay just be yeah okay good so we
have a question from a listener should i read that question yes and this is going to be the other use
of speak to so this is going to get interesting let's hear it all right i can't wait here we go
all right i want to thank you both of you ladies for helping us improve our english
it was always a mess before i started listening to your episodes five months ago
since uh since i'm a pharmacy student and i also am learning turkish now i have one question
in one of your episodes you mentioned a phrase speaks to the trends i searched
for it but i couldn't find any satisfying answer thanks in advance your big friend nora
i love it oh thank you norah for writing in yeah thank you it's always fun to hear of course that
the podcast is helping others but i really loved in this comment that nora heard this phrase trying
to find out like okay what exactly does this mean but then this happens to all of us we've
all experienced this frustration of googling searching trying to find something and there's
just not really much about it or maybe it's not clear yeah i'm glad we'll be able to clear this up
i know guys send your questions just like this one to lindsay aldersenglisch.com these are
great questions and they make great episodes and i could see how she might be confused nora about
this right speaks to the trends it sounds like i'm speaking to someone but i'm not
right exactly right this is a hard phrasal verb it's very confusing like you said because
the first meaning is what we talked about in the beginning right to talk to someone in an
effort to correct poor behavior i need to speak to her about her poor performance on the exam maybe
but then we have this second very separate meaning that was in that podcast episode which is a very
interesting meaning you might say this speaks to the trends and this means it gives evidence
of something mmm gives evidence of something okay i think we're going to need a lot of examples for
this definitely right so it often is you know it's answering a question discussing something
particular in an effort to give evidence so for example if you're going to do a presentation
and you're sharing what you will be covering next you might say i will now speak to the potential
negative outcomes and really what you're saying is i'm now going to provide evidence about this
i'm going to back up right with some information about this okay so what you're saying is we're not
actually speaking to anyone in this case right we're we are providing evidence right yes this
is one of the really trickier phrasal verbs because you cannot tell from the actual words
what it really means right so i understand why nora had this question it's a little trickier you
have to understand that it really means you know giving evidence but it's really common and it is
common in business english you're right i mean this version is common in business english too
right in addition to the other one that's more straightforward um we do we do it's really in
fashion and style this phrase here's another example guys this next slide speaks to our
vulnerability to the competition exactly so you're saying like okay i'm about to show a slide in my
presentation and it's going to give evidence of how vulnerable we are right and but this is how
we would say that this next slide speaks to our vulnerability okay and the next part is
the next situation where we might use it is interesting right what is it yeah we also
if um a question is asked for something to be covered or for evidence to be shared for example
you might ask the question can you please speak to the effects of pollutants on the environment
so this might be like during a q a when you want to ask a question this is a very native
high level instead of saying can you provide evidence about the effects of pollutants or can
you talk about or can you talk about it yeah yeah i like that so much better it sounds native and
natural it sounds professional too very much yeah or would you be able to speak to the sales numbers
right to the recent sales numbers from q2 exactly i could imagine hearing this question in a meeting
if you know we're being bombarded by lots of different information but we see something missing
this would be perfect to say would you be able to speak to and then share what you need information
about yeah i love it i love it okay is there another situation where this speak to comes out
yeah if you're responding to a question especially this happens a lot in presentations where
someone will ask a question and you have more to cover and you're about to cover something else
so someone asked you and you might say oh thank you i was about to speak to that
and this means like i was about to cover that i was about to provide evidence about that yeah or
i will speak to that in a few minutes when we cover next steps this is great because
it's so important to have that skill when you're giving a presentation and someone interrupts you
or comes at you with a question and you know it's coming later in your presentation guys you need a
you need something to say okay exactly right we covered this in our business course that you
really want to make it clear at the beginning when questions will be you know when you can ask them
when will be the best time but even if you do there may be someone raising their hand who has
a question in the middle and this is a perfect thing to not let yourself get derailed oh for
sure so important okay aubrey so what's next is there still another situation where this comes out
yes for sure right this last one we want to share is when evidence is being given really directly
i saw this recently in the news about a school shooting these unfortunately are extremely common
in the united states you guys have probably seen in the news and um the in the news article said
something like these statistics speak to the need for policy change so the same meaning there right
the statistics that are being shared are evidence of the need for policy change right they provide
support for would be another way to say that right exactly but you will you'll see this on
the news you're going to hear it all we use it a lot it's very common like you said but does sound
very professional which is probably why we do see it in news articles yeah and you know we didn't
we didn't talk about this on on the podcast but there was unfortunately another school shooting
in uvalde texas a few months ago when this this will be coming out in august aubry so
it was a few months back and it just feels so i don't know the situation with gun control in
our country is it's depressing it is depressing and it's really difficult to have a conversation
with people sometimes because there are so many different opinions all across the board when it
comes to gun control i know this comes up in our connected communicator course because you
were able to interview people who have lots of different opinions about this but i still think
it's important to have these conversations because nothing is ever going to get done
if we don't i'm just not quite sure how to start those conversations with someone that i know has
such a different belief than i do it's true it's really difficult i definitely i will only have the
conversation when it's someone that i know will listen and remain calm and reasonable because
otherwise it feels like there's no no nothing good is going to come of it yeah it's so crazy so
we'll we'll revisit this topic again guys we have done different episodes if you're interested in
that on on gun control and guns in the u.s so go to our website and type in guns and you will find
some episodes there so we go into that a bit all right yes and then so again just with providing
evidence imagine at work i could see this coming up in business if you're talking about marketing
strategies and thinking about the the audience for advertisements right or what we want an ad
to say we might say we want the ad to speak to the affordability of the product and again
just means we want the ad to show evidence for gives support to how affordable our product is
right or another way to say this could be to represent right the word represent comes to
mind we want it to represent the affordability of the product okay exactly so you can see that
it doesn't even have to be a human that's speaking to something right and advertisement can speak to
affordability or something like that right love it love it it's so cool that this one phrase can do
so much it's quite versatile i love it all right let's do a role play for a listener so here we are
co-workers we're attending a meeting and you are giving a presentation ooh good luck yes right okay
this slide speaks to the impact of our staffing shortages uh yes it's clear that many stores have
had to decrease operating hours yes exactly i'll speak to that now every location has had to close
on weekends it looks like that has led to significant loss of revenue could you
speak to those numbers yes we have seen net earnings plummet by 25 we have a team working
on solutions but i don't think they've come up with anything yet i'll need to speak to them
okay i like how we we snuck in the the first meaning right and more obvious meaning of
this of this phrase here right speak to them right just directly talking to them yes and
just to make a note on that when we say speak to with this phrasal verb as opposed to talk to
it usually has a negative connotation like we said of correcting behavior right so i would never say
like oh i'm going to go speak to my friend about a movie we're attending we really want to use it
that way we just say you know talk to have a conversation when you speak to this way it
means correcting behavior i need to speak to them meaning i need to tell them they need to change
something yeah i would say for me i use it for correcting behavior yes but anything more serious
so you know oh um can we talk later i need to speak to you about something
right so that wouldn't necessarily i think a lot of times it would be correcting behavior i
agree with you on that but sometimes it's just a heavy topic like maybe someone passed away
that's a good point right i need to speak to you it's it's not going to be anything super
light-hearted it won't for sure be correction of behavior but definitely going to be something
that you might not want to hear or just something difficult something heavy yeah and i think we've
done other episodes guys on speak versus talk so come back to allersenglish.com type that in the
search bar and check it out all right let's go to these other uses in the role play i started
by saying this slide speaks to the impact of our staffing shortages so you're about to see a slide
that's going to show some evidence that's going to support or represent this impact yeah i love
that and then you said yes exactly i'll speak to that now so i i said it looks like many stores
have had to decrease their hours and you said yes that's right i'll speak to that now meaning
i will address that exactly i'm going to show some kind of evidence support i'm going to address that
yeah good what's next and then you said could you speak to those numbers which is such a
professional impressive so good question it's such a great way to say that right like okay
i've noticed this we've we see that we we have some loss of revenue could you speak to
that meaning can you give us more detail can you provide support or evidence for that yeah this is
so good guys this is business english 101 right here so good if you're able to use this at work
you're going to look super high level and you'll be able to connect in those business conversations
you know if right now you're feeling like your colleagues are leaving you
out of those conversations what you need to do is add in a few key vocabulary terms
obviously work on your listening but add in a few key vocab terms that elevate you to that
level yes the elevation is really what it's all about here i think that's a great takeaway for
you guys that you're at that level where you can use this very professional very impressive phrasal
verb right often we think about phrasal verbs as being more informal this is one that isn't as much
it feels and sounds very professional it's very appropriate in the business workplace and will
impress your colleagues yeah i mean i would say as a first step guys you'll listen for it listen for
it for your colleagues because they're going to say it right they're definitely saying if you're
working around native english speakers nowadays it's very trendy again i think this week we're
teaching a lot of trent the last few months we've taught a lot of trendy stuff right things that are
really in fashion right now it's true it makes sense because often they're answering questions
that come in because you guys are hearing it out in the world and not understanding and asking
us what is what's going on here it's so good so guys listen for it and then once you feel
confident you totally understand the context go for it don't hold back right that's how we learn
to connect is by using new words yes exactly and don't shy away from using phrasal verbs they are
tricky they often have multiple meanings like this one two totally different meanings for the
same phrasal verbs so crazy so difficult but you guys are at the level where you can be trying them
using them and really taking your english to the next level yeah you guys can do it
all right aubry this has been great i'll see you in the next one next time awesome thank you bye
thanks for listening to all ears english would you like to know your english level take our two
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