hey lindsay good good how are you good i'm having a good day learning a lot today but it's all good
sometimes we have these days where we just learn a lot yes yes exactly and it seems like really
really overwhelming but then when you look back at it it's like okay well yeah you know i think
that's how our listeners probably feel when they have where they're being thrown into a situation
like at work right business english where you have to use english maybe you're on a conference call
someone calls you out of the blue i know how that feels we all know how that feels right michelle
absolutely we definitely do so lindsay we are starting a uh okay series there are two parts
to it on a fun but very common structure that i realized like i started planning the episode and
i was like we gotta do more than one episode on this because there's a lot here um do you wanna
hear what the structure is please tell me what is the structure okay it's i'm calling okay i'm ready
it's x to x i love it okay it's not x to y it's x it's not x to z or abc it's x to x not x to z
not x to q not x right okay it's something to something the same thing okay so i will
show you what i i mean probably our listeners are watching or listening and saying what is
this silly lady but um no we'll it'll all make sense in a second so it's we're gonna do part
one today so but guys before we get into it we'll leave you on the edge of your seats
uh remember that we do have the ielts energy podcast over with jessica and absolutely i mean
those guys are taking years and years of jessica's examiner experience and wrapping it up into a
podcast for you guys so that is the place to go to learn about ielts and today's episode by the way
is on youtube right our listeners have to know that in case you're over in the podcast world
that's great stay over there but if you do want to see us on video today uh you can go over
to youtube and find this episode so good stuff michelle all right awesome well i'm excited to
get into this so let's give an example so finally yeah let's see what we're talking about today
okay so the first one is wall to wall yeah i like this you know what i have to admit something
i love carpeting i know that seems like i love carpet i love it
i love having cars i know like most people nowadays it's like wood floors right you have
to have a beautiful wood floor but especially in a bedroom upstairs i want to step into a
carpet when i get out of bed in the morning i do not want to put my feet on a wood floor so i'm a
little i feel like it's kind of uncool to admit that but wall-to-wall carpeting is what i want
what but what about other rooms so for for a office like this one i
i don't have that and i want it and my bedroom i want it but yeah i suppose downstairs i don't i
don't want it because it would get really dirty um what about you what are your thoughts on carpeting
yeah i'm i'm of the no carpet sort i guess but
i should have i mean i do i wear socks okay you do i can't wear socks in bed
yes i'm i i i yeah i know a lot of people don't like to do that but i like to especially
i'm actually wearing something if i could lift my foot to that level you would see but um i don't
know so i guess that kind of solves that problem for me with a carpet situation i do know what that
i don't know what you mean i like my feet to be warm when i get out of bed but i don't know um
i i don't have a carpet i mean i'm right next to my yeah and i don't have carpeting would be good
yeah it would suffice what a good word for our listeners very high level guys suffice
that is going to be in the app today for a key word that maybe i'll do a whole yeah i mean we
get episode ideas constantly so so i've made i've admitted what i'm ashamed of i love carpet
and i love wall-to-wall carpeting especially in a bedroom or an office so that is what it
is right michelle wall to wall and what exactly are we saying i mean it's clear
it's like from one wall to the other the whole exactly so here's a sample sentence
there's wall-to-wall carpeting but i want to rip it up and fix the hardwood that's exactly what
most people think right yeah yeah hard work did become very popular but like i know it it used
to not be that way um i wonder if there will be a swing i hope so to swing it back that's for sure
that's good that's good so i mean do you really like do you hear a wall to wall in a lot of
other ways or do you think it's mostly i really can't think of any other way i mean i guess you
might say wall-to-wall hardwood floor but for some reason it's more common with carpeting
because it's saying that literally the whole floor is carpeted it's not just a spot rug
right right right right right exactly exactly so yeah guys when you're talking about carpeting
you can use this wall-to-wall is generally used with carpeting i can't even really think about it
i can't either i can't either so that's a really great phrase this is a fantastic construction
right the x to x guys so write this down today do we have another example michelle
we have a few so what's the next bumper to bumper so this means literally if you imagine
it guys cars touching each other's bumpers right very heavy traffic have you been in this kind of
traffic lately very very oh uh lately uh i'm sure but uh but i'm in it often i mean i uh my
husband he has a long drive to and from work and he gets stuck in traffic all the time and
yeah so he might say something like oh it's bumper to bumper right you don't have to say
instead of saying like oh there's heavy traffic you might say oh it's bumper to bumper so like
oh i wanted to be there at 10 but now there's bumper-to-bumper traffic so
exactly that's a great one i know the traffic's really busy where you are
in the country new jersey new york area um crazy drivers there in jersey too they're known
for their dress they are they have a reputation by the way but they do they do that yeah they do
awesome all right i love it i love it um so what's the name okay paycheck to paycheck
now this is really useful we're talking about socioeconomic issues the state of the economy guys
this means it means that basically you never save any money if you live paycheck to paycheck
you rely on every single cent of your paycheck and then by the time you get the next one
your money's gone you have zero savings zero cushion right michelle yeah and a lot of americans
live paycheck to paycheck more than you might yeah it's incredible um yeah so it's a yeah it's a it's
a real problem just like this idea that we're not saving like and that if there's a problem you may
you know go into poverty you may not be able to lose your house right michelle lose your house
right i mean yeah we don't have like that's a major issue that i think needs to be resolved like
we i think we need to be encouraged more to have emergency funds and that kind of thing
so here's a sample sentence i live paycheck to paycheck so i don't have savings yet
yet is the key word right right right right um so yeah that's a very important one yeah
that you would probably hear you know you might hear people talk about it on the news for sure
something like that but yeah very important to know about the economy and that's okay yeah okay
what's the next one here this is interesting okay so this one i think is a little bit outdated just
with where we are in language is like man-to-man or woman woman um uh do you hear this like oh
let's talk man-to-man let's talk i do why would you say it's outdated this is interesting i agree
it's somewhat outdated yeah well i guess because we have so much changing with gender and you know
i think that the language is kind of following that so you know to to box it in and also just
like because what it means is like what i think when people say like oh man to man it's almost
like this like tough guy you know like let's talk man to man yeah and i think that that idea is
also you know has changed and so i feel like these expressions are slightly outdated i totally agree
it makes me think of two things the first scenario makes me think of an old boys club right the old
boys club idea of like all the guys sharing their secrets helping each other get ahead in life
so it becomes really hard for women to get ahead because man-to-man like women aren't
allowed here in this conversation let's talk man-to-man about this possible promotion you
could get let's get you this promotion right or it makes me think of a father to a son right if he
needs to teach his kid a lesson or something hey let's talk come on over kid let's talk man to man
right that one to me is not quite nefarious right because it's just father-son time but i agree with
you that these are becoming a little outdated as gender is changing in some ways right for people
right gender identity is changing and society is moving with people's different identities
which i love that so i see what you mean it can be a little exclusive this idea of man to man
right because right when you when you say like oh like if i were to say to you lindsay like
let's talk let's talk a woman yeah like it's just yeah that i i think i like how you put it
like it's like exclusive feeling or like that i don't know um i don't i it's just when i wrote
it i realized it's interesting i don't know i i could see this one kind of going away yeah at
some point yeah i mean language goes away right language gets old and we retire certain aspects
so this is what we love to talk about on this show is how relevant are certain phrases right
yeah yeah it's interesting how many of uh these expressions today like we have we're
able to have deeper conversations it's true it's true you know absolutely yeah i love it
okay um but yeah so you might use this for a fight or just a talk but yeah you could hear somebody
saying let's talk this out yeah totally totally um so good stuff so guys you can choose if you
want to use that or not but just know it may feel a little exclusionary for some people or maybe
just think of another way to use it hey can i talk to you right something very straightforward right
can we chat can we talk there'd be other things to say yeah right right right right all right so okay
uh should we let's do it michelle in this case we are in the car and we are friends
so here we go oh man michelle this traffic is bumper to bumper yeah uh we'll be late so
lindsay are you going to keep that wall-to-wall carpeting well probably for a while it's not like
i'm living paycheck to paycheck but i want to save up a little more before i make any big changes
yeah oh man paul and my dad did get in a big fight yesterday they said let's settle this manta
man and i was so embarrassed oh no i'm sorry why was i embarrassed i don't get the context
well i mean i'm thinking that paul might be your friend or i don't know and and maybe they're
starting to fight and they started to like talk like that and it was yeah it could be it could
also be i guess someone trying to start a fight maybe like let's go out around back and to get
you know work through this man-to-man i guess you could see that yeah back of the bar or something
right right let's take this take this outside that's the phrase
um okay i'll meet you by the flag call yeah oh not good not good do not do that
um so here i said oh man this traffic is bumper to bumper and again guys we talked about that
one that's where all the cars are literally it's we also say this is it's a parking lot out here
don't we say that sometimes it's a parking lot yes it's a parking lot that's all the cars are
literally just parked they're not moving so that's bumper to bumper traffic yeah right
exactly and then i said are you gonna keep the wall to wall carpeting so so we're like waiting in
traffic right so we're you know having these yeah so we have time to talk something to chat about
right we have time yeah the wall-to-wall carpeting in your new place so literally you know from one
wall to the other and i probably wouldn't but oh well i probably would upstairs like like i said as
i admitted earlier um but i said it's not like i'm living paycheck to paycheck but i want to save up
a little money you know yeah when you move into a new house you do have to decide michelle what
to invest in right right right you might you know some people like do all their projects right away
they want to move in and some people might just do things slowly exactly that's probably a lot
smarter so we do have that emergency fund that's right what else what's the last one um and then
you said we were talking about paul this guy paul and your dad and their fight and they
said let's settle this man to man right so talk man to man and then there's like settle this
or discuss this right you could do a lot of different things but um yeah so i don't think
i've ever really witnessed an actual fight like men or women like physically i've never seen like
you see in the movies all the time right like we just went to see spider-man over the weekend
um it was good it's not my usual type of flick but i i had fun with it it was cool and obviously you
see a lot of fighting i don't really see that very much in real life you know what i mean i
don't know maybe yeah yeah ah i've i've i've seen stuff but um not too not too frequently knock on
wood all right so michelle what's the takeaway today for our listeners what would you say
all right well guys this is a good structure you know i know
we've named it the x2x structure and uh it's useful for a lot of idioms we realize that there's
so many um that have this you know just one thing to one thing the same two things
um and these have led us into deeper conversations and they're very natural so try these out and then
guys we're gonna do the part two on this one soon so we can do some yeah guys check out for part two
in the next couple of weeks we'll be back on to extend this conversation guys this is the
kind of stuff you don't learn in a textbook all right so good stuff definitely not michelle all
right thanks for hanging out today and i'll see you on the next one take care all right bye guys