BE 403: Don’t Let These English Idioms Slip Your Mind
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 403. Don't let these English idioms slip your mind.

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Hey, Aubrey, what's going on with you? Oh, not too much. I have a question. Do things often slip your mind? Oh, of course. They absolutely do. There's so much. I have monday.com. I have notes. I have my own personal notes. I have to put things by my bedside to remember what I have to do in the morning. Yes. Same. If I don't set an alarm, put it in several reminders, forget it. It's not going to remember. Yeah.

It's incredible. Yeah. Or sometimes when I'm, you know, in the mountains on the weekend, I'll think of something and I'll email myself a reminder to take care of that. It's crazy. Yes. Because I know I won't remember if I'm like, oh, I'll remember. No, I won't. I have to send myself an email or write it down. Yeah.

So I think our listeners are going to really identify with this, but are we getting into a three-part series here, Aubrey? What's going on? Yes. And you can listen to these out of order. So stay to the end here and we'll share the other two to make sure you don't miss them because there are so many interesting phrases, idioms, phrasal verbs that we use in English with the word mind. So we have three separate episodes.

Listen here. And then at the end of the episode, we'll share the other two. Oh, can't wait. Looking forward to this, but we do have some exciting poll results to reveal. Um,

And they're very interesting. And I bet they're very cultural too. My first thought is culture when I see these results. Cultural differences, right, around the world. Yeah, the question was, which do you prefer at work? And the options were being praised or being challenged. This came from episode 385, four ways to crush compliments at work. If you're not filling out these polls, you can find them on Spotify. We love reading the results. This one was interesting.

This is really interesting because I wonder, you know, how many people would say praised if they were totally being honest and if they knew that maybe their boss or their co-workers wouldn't see it, right? How many of us would say that? Yeah, the results here were 63% said being praised and 37% said being challenged. And I have an idea. I have a

thought that this is one of those where everyone would definitely want to choose both. Absolutely. But we don't give you an, a both option. You have to choose which one you would want more. And, you know, being praised might be winning by a slight margin, but I would be in this camp, Lindsay, like I want what I do to be acknowledged and ex,

appreciated and praised even more so I think than I want to be challenged. I think you are not in that camp. So it's interesting. You know, people could work well together when this works differently for and even within the same culture.

Yeah, this is really, this ties into strengths finders, right? Finding our strengths, understanding what we do well, what we need and what we bring to our team. We've done those assessments on our team and I hope you all have done them too at work to understand who you are as a professional and as a person. I think sometimes who we are as a person obviously carries into who we are as a

professional. I know for me, go ahead, go ahead, Aubrey, I was gonna say for all of you out here who answered being praised, that was the majority by far, I hope you feel comfortable communicating that to friends to leadership so that they know how valuable this is to you, because they might not they might not realize that that's important to you. Yeah, I think we can miss that sometimes when we're always creating products, you know, setting goals,

Yeah, especially if we don't need it. Like if I didn't need it, I might not think to give it to others. It's also like the love languages. We usually try to show love in the way that we receive love. That's not usually how people receive love. So we need to figure out how others need to receive love. Very interesting. Okay, so let's get into today's topic, though. Coming back to the mind. Oh my gosh, there's so much here.

that we could talk about, but we do have how many expressions for our listeners today? Yeah, let's see. Four, four really good expressions. So let's dive into the first one, which we talked about at the top of the episode, slip your mind. This means to forget.

right if we don't make a note things will slip our minds we're not going to remember i might say i missed the happy hour event it totally slipped my mind means i forgot about it and i didn't go it's a great way to say i forgot about it when you don't want to say i forgot about it right it is a little softer softer more subtle right more subtle that must have slipped my mind right oh i forgot the appointment that must have slipped my mind okay and it sort of removes the weight on

us not prioritizing what we forgot about for like, "Oh, that's in my mind." It's like, "I didn't mean to. I swear I thought it was important. I just lost it in my mind." Yes, this kind of thing can happen for sure. We're all human, right? Exactly. Yes. What would be the next one, Aubrey? All right. Next one is come to mind, which is to recall something, to have something occur to you. So for example, you might ask someone, "What comes to mind when you think of a good presentation?"

And we're like, it's like, what do you associate that with? Right. What do you recall when you think of that? What arises in your mind? Right. What comes to mind? And this is often, as you said, it's used as a response. Right. What do we mean by that? Let's do a mini role play and show how it's used as a response. Start us out. Okay.

Do you notice anything missing in the slides? Nothing comes to mind. We often use it as a response when someone asks us what we notice or what we're recalling and we'll either say this comes to mind or nothing comes to mind. Yeah, because it's kind of, I don't know, a little unresponsive if you just sit there and say, no, nothing. Right.

This is a much more professional way to if you don't immediately have ideas, just to say, you know, nothing comes to mind, but I'll keep thinking about it. Exactly. You want to say more than just no or not really. Right. That's not really supporting your coworker. It's sort of dismissing the question and the importance of the question. If you don't want to give that impression, you need to say more than just no.

Now, I like the next one though. Bear in mind, this one I feel it's a bit higher level. It's a bit more articulate. And I like it better than the fourth, which we haven't gotten to yet, but we'll see. So bear in mind, remember, or keep something in mind. For example, bear in mind that this logo will be replaced soon.

Okay, so you're reminding people to remember. Exactly, right? Just to keep this, you know, in memory, right? Keep it at the forefront of your mind. Or you might say, we need to bear in mind that we only have 20 minutes for this meeting. So this would be a very polite way if someone's running long to let them know we only have 20 minutes. So bear in mind that we need to keep it short. Exactly.

Exactly. And the next one is keep in mind, but I feel like it's a little more common than bear in mind. That's why I like bear in mind. It's more rare. It has the same meaning. I feel like bear in mind is more rare and just a little more polite, maybe a little more, but something, there's that little bit of polish.

Exactly. It's a little more polished, as Michelle and I like to say, a little more buttoned up, right? But also, quick spelling note, there are homonyms for bear in English. This one is spelled B-E-A-R. So if you're writing bear in mind, remember that it's spelled with E-A as the vowel.

It's the same spelling as the big animal, right? Right, exactly. But a different meaning. Yes. Tricky. Obviously, very different meaning. And then again, examples for keep in mind. Keep in mind that the client will be here at noon. And again, I could say bear in mind that the client will be here at noon. Right, Aubrey? Yeah. I feel like keep in mind is almost a little more like blunt or harsh or something. Keep in mind, it's almost like you say that to me and I'm like, okay, I would have remembered. Whereas bear in mind is almost like respecting my...

ability to remember that on my own. I think just because it's said more commonly, like you said. Yeah. Something about it feels a little more tone deaf, a little more just like,

pounding you with information, right? Yeah. It's probably just because we've all had someone say to us, keep in mind, and then have said to us something that we would have remembered on our own. So we have this association with it, but it's kind of annoying. I need a survey. I need a poll for everyone who also has that association with keep in mind. That's fascinating. That's exactly right. What about that last example?

Yeah. Anything we need to keep in mind while you go through the explanation? So this might be something you ask if someone's about to explain something or go through a presentation. You might be, you know, you feel like I need more information so I know what to look for. You could maybe ask this. Anything I should keep in mind while you explain?

and it's a good question because it's very broad right it's not forcing them to give you some kind of answer it's staying open to multiple answers so that you can actually serve them as being a helpful co-worker listening to their presentation yeah so good

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Okay, Aubrey, we are here for a role play. I know that our listeners love our signature role plays. So let's do it. Here we are, co-workers, and we're preparing for a presentation. All right? Yeah, I'll start us out. We need something interesting to grab attention right at the beginning. Anything come to mind?

Yes, I have a couple of ideas. Now, bear in mind that I haven't really fleshed these out. No worries. I thought of something yesterday, but it slipped my mind. I should have written it down. I can't remember anything these days if I don't write it down. At least it's not just me. Okay, so keeping in mind that these are raw ideas, let's hear them.

Nice. Sounds very, very common, like a very common role play that you'd have with a coworker, right? Exactly. Let's go through this. So I first, we're talking about needing an interesting idea to grab attention at the beginning of a presentation. And I say, anything come to mind? That's just another way of saying, do you have any ideas? Do you have any immediate thoughts?

Yep. And what word are we missing there? If we were to write this grammatically perfectly correctly, what would we say?

Exactly. You may not carry it into the presentation itself, right? Though you might. I mean, you might. Depends on who you're presenting to. But here we're just chatting as co-workers, preparing the presentation. Right. Or if you were to write it down, written English is always more formal. You might add those subjects and verbs back in. So it's very conversational.

Mm-hmm. Totally. All right. Then I said, yeah, I have a couple of ideas. Now, bear in mind that I haven't really fleshed these out. So there's the bear in mind that I love that one. And then we have a bonus here. I haven't really fleshed these out. Yeah. And this is to add more details or information to something to make it more complete and detailed. So I kind of love this bonus. I use this a lot. I hear this a lot, right? It'll say, okay, we need to flesh it out, meaning we need to add more detail.

Yeah. Maybe, for example, if you have an outline and you just have the broad headings of the outline, you need to add the bullet points, right? Flesh out the details. Yeah. And then when you take the bullet points and you need to really make the idea complete, like, okay, let's flesh out these ideas and really get into the nitty gritty. Totally. All right, Aubrey, what's next? And then I said, oh, I thought of something yesterday, but it slipped my mind. I should have written it down. So that just means I've forgotten it.

Yes, exactly. And then I said, and then we kind of were sort of sharing our frustrations with forgetting things, right? I said, you said, at least it's not just me. Okay, so keeping in mind that these are raw ideas, let's hear them, right? Nice. Keeping in mind.

And here we're using it as a gerund, as a noun phrase. So we say keep in mind, like you need to keep this in mind. And we'll also use it this way to say keeping in mind that these are raw ideas. We have this noun phrase. That's what we're doing. The thing we are doing is keeping in mind these ideas.

Yes, I love it. I mean, the mind comes up in a lot of ways in our language, Aubrey. Do we have a poll, a special poll for today that we want to ask our listeners? Yes, we definitely want to share a question here to ask. Do you remember what it was, Lindsay? Yeah. I don't see it here anymore. It slipped my mind.

So here is our great question and you to participate in this poll, you need to be over in Spotify. So go check out our show on Spotify and go to this episode and vote for this. Here is the question. When you make decisions just in life, not even just in business, when you make decisions, do you lead with your heart or do you lead with your mind?

I love that. I'm so excited to hear all of your answers. And I know we promised the previous episodes go over to All Ears English for part one and part two. Episode 2390 was make up your mind about these English expressions. That was really fun. And then a separate one, 2392 English vocabulary that will help you speak your mind.

So many phrases and idioms that use mind that are so interesting. We want you to be able to add these and use them at work and in everyday conversations.

I love it. Any other final takeaway for our listeners here? I mean, these are just useful everyday business vocabulary, but it also translates into everyday vocabulary. Absolutely. A lot of what you'll learn here on the Business English Podcast, you can use at work, but you can also use in conversations in everyday English because we speak in a lot of ways at work the same way we do in every conversation. So...

Use it both ways. And I can't wait for the results of that poll. I'm super interested to see how does our audience make decisions, right? Very interesting. Good stuff. I'm curious for your answer quickly, Lindsay, before we say now. What do you think, heart or mind?

I feel like I shouldn't bias the results, but I'll just say. You're worried people will answer the same as you. Yeah, yeah, kind of, a little bit. Okay, wait, pause. When we share your results, everyone, we will also have Lindsay and I answer this. And then we won't bias the results, but we'll share what your percentage and also we'll answer. Okay, I can't wait. So hit follow so you don't miss it. All right, good stuff. All right, Aubrey, we'll see you on the next episode. You take care. Yes, you too. See you then. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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