Podcast: Marry into money

Podcast Inglês Online

How’s it going? Hoje, no podcast, eu falo sobre dois idioms com a palavra money – os dois super comuns do inglês de todo dia. Não perca…

Transcrição

How’s it going? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

Ok, so we have two idioms today that are pretty relatable… Meaning, everyone has heard them, at least in Portuguese. Both of them use the word money, which is pretty much one of the first words people learn in English. The first idiom is marry into money, which we use when we’re talking about someone – let’s say it’s John… So, John married someone who’s wealthy or whose family is wealthy.

So, in the future it may happen that one of John’s acquaintances will be talking about him and they will refer to the fact that John married someone who belongs to a wealthy family. And this is what John’s acquaintance might say: You know, John Smith? He just lost his job, poor thing. That’s alright, though. His wife comes from a very wealthy family. Yes, it’s true, didn’t you know? Oh yes, John Smith married into money.

Of course, this kind of thing is never said in a super flattering way – but people will say it. John married into money, your cousin married into money and so on. You know Meghan Markle? You can say “Meghan Markle married into royalty.” There you go… Same structure.

Let’s move along and focus on our second idiom of today: made of money. I’m sure you get the meaning… Everyone’s been there. At least once in your life you must have asked someone – usually a parent – to buy you something, and that person said “It’s too expensive. I’m not made of money!”

And, there are actually quite a few sayings in English that are very similar to what we say in Brazil, both in format and meaning. Like “money isn’t everything”, for example, and “money can’t buy happiness”. Here’s one that we wouldn’t literally say in Portuguese: on the money. When someone’s on the money, that means they are exactly right about something.

Example: you and your friend Gary decided to watch a soccer game and made a bet. You bet team A would win 2-nil, and Gary bet the other team was going to win, 3-nil. You thought “This is the easiest money I’ve ever won. There’s no way the other team is winning. They’re on a losing streak – lost the last three games to mediocre opponents.”

Well, as it turns out, the other team scored three times and team A didn’t score at all. Gary was on the money. He won the bet. How he did it, you do not know. But he was on the money.

Have you ever met anyone who’s good at guessing who the murderer is on murder stories? I’ve never been able to – I’ve read quite a few murder stories in the past and I usually tried to guess who it was before the final chapter, but I was rarely on the money. Are you someone who’s always on the money with your guesses? Let me know and see you soon!

Key expressions

• marry into money
• made of money
• on the money

Vocabulary

on a losing streak = com vários episódios seguidos de “perder” algo

acquaintances = conhecidos