Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 132. The noun phrase today is
quid pro quo. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here.
Quid pro quo derives directly from Latin. So it comes directly from Latin. It could
be translated as what for what ,this for that , or something for something. Actually
I think this for that makes the most sense and it's the easiest to remember.
So somebody offers this for that. So that's kind of the idea. A quid pro quo.
So quid I think literally could mean like what. A pro is the , the word
that means for or in exchange for. Quo also means like what or but the best
translation is probably this for that. All right. Let's continue. We do have a
second meaning here. In law a quid pro quo can be used as a term that implies
sexual discrimination. Yeah. It's used a lot in those cases in which one person clearly
offers one thing in exchange for something else or at least one of them
is either offering or accepting probably sex or sexual favors in in exchange for
something of high value probably. Maybe a job or some benefits or promotion or
something like that. All right. Let's continue. Now quid pro quos
could be considered quite normal in business, law, and political negotiations.
Actually they are. They happen all the time
There is often give-and-take arrangements. So like in business you
know, if you say well if you do this for me. I'll do that for you. Or yeah. I mean
this is a real normal part of business. So it's not by itself you know, anything
that's bad or illegal. Now it could be though too. So let's continue here. It is
only considered shady. Shady means dishonest or not quite moral shady, if someone
offered or requested something that was illegal or immoral in exchange for
something else. So a lot of times it is used that way. Well that must have just
been a quid pro quo. He's only... he's doing this only because
that one... that other person is offering that. All right. So let's give some
examples here. Here's the first example. The police offered the suspect a quid
pro quo if he rats on ... Rats on, tells on. If he rats on some bigger fish. Some
other. Some other more important people. They will give him a more lenient
sentence. So maybe he may still get punished but you know, instead of getting
you know 15 years maybe only gets five years or three years or something like
that. Or if it's a really super big fish maybe they'll even give him immunity and
give them police protection. Either way this is a quid pro quo. Obviously this is
not illegal. The police are offering it. So sometimes
this is done. This is done in negotiations. Sometimes they got to let the smaller
fish go. So they can get the bigger fish of the more important person. All right.
Let's look at number two here. Yeah. If country A agrees to buy more
crops from country B. Country B will lower duties. Yeah. So this is just normal
negotiations. You know political negotiations or business negotiations.
Yeah. If you do this for me, I'll do that for you. And you know that happens every
day. That's normal stuff. All right. Now number
three, there. This one is not normal. And this one both you know, works on the the
second law one . On the sexual discrimination one. Harvey Weinstein got in trouble
because he offered quid pro quos to actresses numerous times for big movie
roles. He would give them a big break in key movies. A key role that could
really make their career take off. Yes. if they repaid him with sexual favors. Okay. Even
though, sometimes I think even kind of forced this way on some women. But first
he might have offered them a normal you know a quid pro quo. You do this and
I don't know we've heard many cases of course where you know women accused him
of sexual harassment but we don't know maybe some women accepted the quid pro
quo too. Again but this of course is one that would is definitely immoral and
probably in many cases especially if he forced himself on on some of his victims
you know, that would be illegal as well. So this is what we hear. So this is a
quid pro quo. We hear it a lot in the news today. I hope you got a better feel and a
better understanding of it. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.