AEE 2435: This is an Awesome Episode! Take Our Word for It
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This is the All Ears English Podcast, episode 2435. This is an awesome episode. Take our word for it. 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,

Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven-day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward slash app.

What can you say if you and a friend don't have similar interests, experience, or knowledge? Today, learn three phrases to connect about differences in English.

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Start by taking our free fluency score quiz to find out your level and then get an action plan to get fluent. Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. One more time, go to allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e. ♪

Hello, Michelle. How are you? Hey, Aubrey. I'm good. How are you? Excellent. Lindsay's out of town this week. So Michelle and I are recording together and it's so fun. I love recording with you. Yes, we are having a good time. We definitely miss Lindsay. She'll be back soon, guys. Don't you worry. But it is fun to record with Aubrey. Absolutely. But Aubrey, I have a question for you. Do you have a favorite word?

I do. My favorite word is sesquipedalian. Oh, what? Here's why it's such a fun word. I know it's such a big word and it's funny because it means unnecessarily using big words.

to impress people. Oh, that's hilarious. What an ironic word. I know. That's what I love about it. And so if people are using big words that either I don't know or the average person won't know, then I call them sesquipedalian and they never know what it means. And it's so funny. That's amazing. I love that. That's great.

um so that is not my favorite word but maybe it will be now but my i always say that my favorite word is the word perturbed because it's just such a ridiculous sounding word perturbed right that means bothered right i'm perturbed and people don't use it yeah it is perturbed it sounds because it sounds kind of like what it means right it has some of that onomatopoeia it's sort of like you sort of sound bothered when you say perturbed yes well that's awesome so um

But today, Aubrey, we're going to be talking about an important and really useful expression with the word "word." And this is "I'll take your word for it." Yeah. So what does that mean? And do you use it, Aubrey? I do. I love this expression. It means "I'll believe you," but sort of like, "I don't know for sure. I'm not sure if I believe you, but I'm going to trust that you're right."

- Right, exactly. You're just gonna kind of go for it and believe that person. It can be used also in a little bit of a sarcastic way.

Aubrey, when might you use this, do you think? I might use it sarcastically, right? If maybe even I know someone's wrong, but it's not worth arguing, be like, oh, I'll take your word for it. Oh, I like that. Maybe you've let them know, like you have disagreed, you've even shared some evidence and they're still digging in. Be like, well, I just have to take your word for it, right? You're sort of being funny at that point. It's another way of saying like, okay, agree to disagree.

Yeah, right, right, right. Very good. I don't even think I had specifically had that example in there, but you're so right. I love how you use that. But yeah, you could also use it when someone is trying to convince someone else of something. And yeah, you don't necessarily believe them, but you just also kind of want to be done with it, right?

Or maybe you won't experience something, but you trust what someone else says. So like you aren't going to have this experience. You haven't had it yet. So you just kind of trust what the person says. Maybe you have a friend who's able to go to space. Like they're rich. They go on one of these SpaceX flights.

And they're telling you how amazing it is. And you're like, well, I'll just have to take your word for it. I'm never going. I'll never know what that is like. Right. Yeah, exactly. Or someone is an expert at someone and you don't understand it. You're just kind of missing that piece. So you're just trusting the person or Aubrey has that other context of just kind of

Okay, sure. Right? I've said this to my friend who is an aerospace engineer. So he's a rocket scientist. And I'll ask him, you know, about his job and he'll share something that I don't understand at all. I might be like, all right, I'll take your word for it. Right? I have no experience, no education about that. But I believe him. He knows what he's talking about. Right, right. Exactly. So let's do a little role play here about pizza. Hmm.

All right. Trust me, I know you hate deep dish pizza, but this is amazing.

I'll take your word for it. Right? So that's a great example. You don't want to try it. You have no interest. And I'm like trying to convince you, you're still not going to try it. So you're saying like, no, I trust you that it's delicious. Sure. Sure. Whatever you, you enjoy what you enjoy. Right. And I'm not going to, right. Or here's another one. Japan is such an amazing place to visit. I'll take your word for it. I am not going because I really hate long flights. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah, that's a great example, right? I'm just telling like, I believe you. I trust you that it's great. But for some reason, I'm not going to go. So I'll say, I'll just take your word for it. Or sometimes I'll say, I'll just have to take your word for it. Yeah.

Yeah. And Aubrey, I want to let our listeners know if you're listening on Spotify, we are going to do a Spotify key poll at the end of this episode. So Aubrey, guys, we have a lot of fun with these polls. We're going to share the results in a future episode. But stay tuned to the end to hear what the poll will be. But Aubrey, I mean, do you how do you feel about long flights?

I actually don't mind a long flight as long as I don't have my children with me. I actually, not long ago, I had to go to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and I had the option of a direct flight that was quite pricey or a flight that went like north,

Eight hours out of the way. It like went to Montana and then to Mexico City and then to Puerto Vallarta. And it ended up taking like a full day of travel, but for like an eighth of the price. And it was just me by myself, no children. So I was like, I'll take it. I don't even mind. I'll have my AirPods. I could get some work done. I'll read a book.

But if I had my kids with me, that would be a different story. It's difficult on flights with kids. Yeah, I flew with my kids. And just the, I don't know, this was the hardest one I've ever done. I've flown with them alone before, but in the beginning of the year, I was with them and man, it was tough. So I get it. I actually, yeah, I don't mind being on the plane for a while. I like just kind of

there's nothing you can do to you just kind of have to be on the plane and so yeah I think especially as a mom sounds pretty nice right now that we can watch films like there's in-flight media usually where we're watching newer movies or we can listen to podcasts read a book I remember

The first flight I took that was, you know, to Europe when I was an exchange student at age 16, there were no movies. There were no iPods. Right. I just read a book the whole time. That was the only option. And that was a little bit harder. Right. Now the time flies when you can like watch movies and listen to podcasts. Yeah.

- Yeah, exactly. So, all right, but Aubrey, so another thing, and I noticed you saying this at the beginning and I wanted to highlight it. Sometimes we say, I'll take your word for it. Sometimes we actually say,

I'll have to take your word for it. I'll have to take your word for it. I don't know much about music, but this seems okay to me, right? Yeah. I feel like I say it that way more often. I'm not sure why. I don't know what the difference is. They're very interchangeable, you guys. They mean the same thing. I don't know why. Why do you think we add that extra word? Do you feel like it changes the meaning at all? I'll have to take your word for it. I'll have to take your word. I'll take your word for

don't know that it does i think it just kind of flows maybe a little bit more naturally um but i don't almost a little more playful maybe to be like oh yeah right right it's a little less rigid um so but does it ever mean that you actually don't believe someone i mean that kind of goes back to what we were talking about in the beginning yeah i think so i think sometimes i will use it if

I haven't researched something, so I don't know for sure. I can't say one way or another. And so I'm like, I'll just have to take your word for it. I'm saying like, maybe you're right, but I'm not going to believe it based on what you're saying. I would have to do some research before I really decided. Exactly. Exactly. All right.

Okay, Aubrey, so is there a time that you can think of where you might use this in your life? Because I'm thinking about how our kids use, like I'm thinking of our kids and the lingo that they might use as teenagers, right? I'm sure you experienced this, right? You might not understand it. Maybe they try and explain it to you and say, oh, I'll have to take your word for it. I'm not going to use this, right? I've used this that way because often they'll be describing like a TikTok video.

Yeah. And they'll say, here, watch it. And I don't want to watch it. Right. They've already described like, I don't want to watch that video. Right. Or maybe it's long. Sometimes they're like long, you know? And so I'll say, you know what? I'll just take your word for it. I believe you that it's funny or it's interesting. I don't have time to watch it. I don't want to watch it. I'll take your word. Yeah, that's it.

That's good. I like that. Yeah, good point. I mean, sometimes it's just if we don't, yeah, like you said, you don't plan on experiencing something. So you're just, okay, whatever. Maybe like skydiving, or Michelle, I'm just going to be Lindsay. Like if someone were telling me they had gone skydiving and I have to try it, I have no interest in skydiving. So I would probably say, I'll just take your word for it. That's awesome. No, thank you. Would you go skydiving, Michelle? I would not.

I feel I actually still had to just look in the plans because I feel like I just wrote something about skydiving for an episode, but no, it's not in this one. So that's great for this because that's one of the things if someone were trying to convince me to do it and be like, I'll just take your word for it. I could believe it's exciting. I believe it's interesting, but it's just too scary for me. I couldn't do it for me. Yeah. Yeah. You could also say like, oh, not for me, not for me.

But let's share a couple similar things you could say and talk about if it sounds like you actually trust the person or if it's more sarcastic. So the first one is, I believe you. Oh, yeah. Okay. I use this as well. Let's do a little role play here. All right. Here we go. The editing in this movie is incredible. I believe you. I just don't know anything about editing. Okay.

Okay, so this one's more genuine, right? You actually don't know about it. So you're just saying, yeah, I believe you, right? I feel like every movie is edited. Well, I wouldn't know if it's this, this is for me, someone will be like, wow, the editing or something will get like an Academy Award for editing. And I'm like, okay, I feel like it's the same as every movie's editing.

I don't know. That's really funny. No, I agree. I agree. But you could use it in a more sarcastic way, right? Oh, yeah, I believe you, right? But here we used it more genuinely. Or what's another one? Yeah, I'll buy it or I'll buy that for sure. And we might say, the attention to detail on this painting is exquisite. I'll buy it. I'm completely dense when it comes to art.

Ooh, this is interesting because depending on the intonation, if you're speaking with someone, they might misunderstand and think you're saying that you're going to buy the painting, right? The painting is amazing. I'll buy it.

- Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. - I believe you that it's beautiful. - That's really funny. That's so true. Yep, you gotta be careful with that, right? - I think I would be more likely to say, "I'll buy that." - I'll buy that. - I'm saying like, "I believe you. I don't really know, but I believe you. I'll buy that." - Yeah, you could say that too, for sure. All right, let's do a role play. So here we are friends and we are at an orchestra concert. - Ooh, fun. Okay, I'll start us out.

Listen to those violins. Beautiful, don't you think? I believe you. I just don't know anything about music. But you can hear it, right? Listen to the emotion they play with. I believe you. Oh, Michelle, you have to learn more about music. It's okay. It's okay. I'll take your word for it. I know they're talented.

Nice. This is a really great example of somewhere where this happens, right? And this is a great connection skill because sometimes someone will be really knowledgeable and interested in something like,

orchestral music. It's a good example. And you might be there and you really don't know much about it. You need these phrases to be able to say like that you, you're expressing that you appreciate their knowledge and expertise. You believe them, you'll take their word for it. Even if you don't really understand, you know, how much talent is actually being showcased. And I actually, I didn't mean to have two, I believes you in there. I probably meant to, uh, I believe you's in there. Um,

I probably meant to say, I'll buy that. I'll buy it. Okay, I'll buy it. I'll buy it. So you said, listen to the, you're clearly very into it. Listen to those violins. Beautiful, don't you think? And I said, I believe you. I just know nothing about music. Yeah, this is interesting. And this will happen where it's tricky when,

And this can hurt connection sometimes when you do have very different interests, very different hobbies, and you're somewhere and you want to, you know, support someone's interests. You want to, you certainly don't want to criticize it here, but you also can't pretend that you're an expert and you know about, right? So I think this is a great way to do that. Be like, I believe you. This is so, I'll take your word for it. Yeah.

Right. And then you said, listen to the emotion they play with. And then I meant to say, oh, I'll buy it. Right. So I could say that. Yeah, that would work. Right. Just saying like, yeah, I get it. I believe you. I don't really know. And then at the end, you said, I'll take your word for it. I know they're talented. Right. You believe like the music sounds good. You believe they're talented. So you'll take you'll take my word for it.

Yes, yes, exactly. Guys, we mentioned that we were going to do a Spotify poll for today. So if you're listening on Spotify, you can fill this out. We were talking about long flights, Aubrey. So the question for today is, how do you feel about long flights? Love them, hate them, or you feel indifferent? And the assumption here is a long flight by yourself. Or maybe it's your partner. Yes, exactly. Because I feel like the answer would be very different for those who have children if you have kids with you. Very true. That's so much harder.

Very true. All right, guys. Also check out episode 2427 a few episodes ago. That was Make Your English Magical. Aubrey, any ideas for takeaway for today? What do we want to leave our listeners with? Yeah, this is a great connection skill, especially if you don't have something in common or don't share common knowledge.

You need expressions for that as well, right? How to say like, I believe you, I trust you, I'll take your word for it, even if you don't know. And it's also a good way to diffuse if there is a controversial conversation, you're really not seeing eye to eye. We've taught before, agree to disagree. This is another good one. I'll take your word for it and then move on to a new conversation. Yeah.

All right, Aubrey, thank you so much for hanging out today. This was really fun. And guys, yeah, give this a try in your conversations. Absolutely. Awesome. We'll see you next time, Michelle. All right. Bye, Aubrey. Bye.

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