We’ve had a few questions about how to say “thank you” and I thought I’d post a message here. I’ve split up (divided) the ways to say “thank you” and the appropriate (suitable; acceptable) responses under two categories: “more formal” and “less formal.” However, the situation and your inflection (change in your voice) will help determine how formal it is.

~ Lucy

More Formal:
Thank you very much/Thanks very much
Thank you so much
Many thanks
Thank you

Responses (More Formal):
You’re welcome
It’s my pleasure
It was the least I could do
That’s really not necessary
. . .

Less Formal:
Thanks
Thanks a lot
Much appreciated
Thanks a million

Responses (Less Formal):
No problem
No sweat
Don’t mention it
Forget it
Anytime
It’s nothing

“I’ll be visiting you this next Friday.” Will that be the Friday of this week, or the Friday of next week?

We’ve had several questions along these lines (on a similar topic), so here is an example that I hope will make things a little clearer.

If today is Monday, January 1, and someone says to you:

• Meet me Friday = January 5
• Meet me this Friday = January 5
• Meet me this coming Friday = January 5
• Meet me next Friday = January 12
• Meet me this next Friday = Probably January 5, but this is ambiguous (not clear; vague). You can respond by asking, “Do you mean this week or next week?”
• Meet me the Friday after next = January 12 (see * below)
• Meet me a week from Friday = January 12
• Meet me two weeks from Friday = January 19

I hope this makes things a little clearer.

~ Lucy
….

* The Friday after next refers to January 12, not January 19. The problem is this: “Next” is ambiguous. It can mean 1) coming or approaching, or 2) the one after the coming one. Which meaning it is depends on the context or situation. In this phrase, it means coming or approaching. That is why it refers to January 12 and not January 19. This is how most people would understand it.

However, there is a small possibility that there could be confusion, so if you want to be certain, you can ask, “What’s the date?”

I got an interesting question recently from a listener, Mauricio, about how the different English proficiency tests compare to one another. Mauricio took the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), and wants to know what his approximate score would be on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), another popular test of English skills. All these tests can be very confusing, since there is also a test for university students, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), which is the most popular of them all.

Unfortunately, these tests are different and cannot always be directly compared. In fact, the publisher of the TOEFL and the TOEIC says that you just can’t compare those two tests because they are so different. However, one Canadian language school published this comparison on their website:

Source: Vancouver English Centre

These comparisons are not official or taken from the companies that make these tests. They are what at least one school uses, so they may be helpful to you.

~Jeff

P.S Did you know that ESLPod.com has several lessons to prepare you for taking tests such as the TOEFL? You can find them on ESLPod.com’s Guide to the TOEFL Test page. This series also available to download for free on iTunes. We are not currently updating this podcast, but the older lessons will still be useful to you if you are studying for the exam.

In last week’s post, I talked about how to address a formal and informal letter or email. But what do you do when you don’t know the person’s name to whom you’re sending your letter or message? Or, you don’t know what gender (male or female) that person is?

For a formal or business letter, you can use “Dear Sir or Madam:” “Sir” is a very polite term for a man and “madam” is a very polite term for a woman. This is useful no matter which gender the person reading your letter may be. Perhaps 50 years ago it was acceptable to only use “Dear Sir:” if you didn’t know the gender of the person you’re writing. However, it is not acceptable today. The woman reading your letter, especially if you’re applying for a job, scholarship, or anything else, may not have a favorable (good; positive) opinion of you right off the bat (immediately; right away). She may think you’re sexist (think women are less important than men) or presumptuous (don’t know what is appropriate or socially acceptable), and that’s probably not the impression or impact you’re trying to make.

Some people use the greeting “To whom it may concern:” when they don’t know the name or gender of the recipient (person receiving something). This greeting is useful when, for example, writing a letter to the telephone company because there is a mistake in your bill. However, it is not considered the most respectful or courteous for formal business correspondence (letters and notes). Instead, use “Dear Sir or Madam:” or the job title of the person you are writing:

• Dear Recruiter: (the person accepting applications for a job or position)
• Dear Claims Adjuster: (the person who takes care of your insurance matters)

If your note or email is very informal and you don’t know who will be reading it, it’s acceptable to just use:

• Hi,
• Hello,
• Greetings,
• Good morning/afternoon/evening,

I hope these two posts have answered some of the questions you may have had about salutations.

~ Lucy

The salutation in a letter or email is the greeting at the very beginning.

For formal or business letters and emails, you can use these types of salutations:

• Dear Dr. McQuillan:
• Dear Drs. McQuillan and Tse:
• Dear President McQuillan and Ambassador Tse:

Tips (advice):
1. Notice that we use a colon ” : ” after the name or names when it is a formal business letter. If this is a less formal and more social letter or message, we use a comma ” , ” after the name instead: For example, “Dear Dr. McQuillan,” or “Dear Ms. Rodriguez,”
2. Use the title Ms. for a woman, unless she tells you that she prefers Miss or Mrs.
3. Never spell out the titles Mr., Ms., Mrs., and Dr.
4. Do spell out these titles and similar ones: Professor, Dean, Senator, Governor, Captain, Judge
5. If you are writing to a company or department rather than any specific individual, use the company or department name:

• Dear Northwest Airlines:
• Dear Googlepleasebuyour Company:
• Dear Customer Service:

If your message is informal or if you already know the person you are writing fairly well, you can use these salutations, with or without a comma before the name:

• Dear Jeff,
• Hi Jeff, (or Hi, Jeff,)
• Hello Lucy, (or Hello, Lucy,)
• Jeff,
• Good morning Lucy, (or Good morning, Lucy,)

Next week, I’ll talk about which salutations to use if you don’t know the name of the person you’re writing, and/or don’t know the gender (male or female; man or woman) of the person who will read your letter or note.

~ Lucy

In today’s podcast, 325 - Describing People’s Moods, we talk about being on edge. In the “What Else Does it Mean?” section of the Learning Guide, we also talk about the different meanings of edge, and what competitive edge and cutting edge mean.

Another very common idiom is to be on the edge of (one’s) seat. We use this to mean that we feel very interested in something and that it is very exciting. If I thought that a movie was very good and had a lot of action, I might say that I was on the edge of my seat as I watched the movie from beginning to end. At an exciting basketball game, the fans are on the edge of their seats waiting to see which team will win.

Are any of our listeners on the edge of their seats waiting for each new episode of our podcast? I doubt it!

~ Lucy

One question we get frequently is: Can you please talk about phrasal verbs? A phrasal verb is sometimes called a two-word verbs such as “to put down” or “to get out” or “to kick (someone) out.” English has lots of these phrasal or two-word verbs, and they can be very confusing to people trying to acquire English.

Let me respond to this question a couple of different ways. First, we DO talk about phrasal verbs, almost every episode. For example, in ESL Podcast 322 from last week, we had all of these phrasal verbs: to pick up, to take advantage, and to stick to (something). In English Café 112 last week, we talked about the phrasal verbs to cover up and to carry out. Even more phrasal verbs are typically found in our Learning Guide under the sections What Else Does it Mean? and Cultural Note. We talk about two to three phrasal verbs on nearly every podcast episode and Café.

Second, many people want a “systematic” or structured review of all of the most important phrasal verbs in English. I understand the desire to be thorough and organized in your learning, but unfortunately that’s not the best way to pick up new words, whether they are phrasal verbs or otherwise. Yes, you could try to memorize verbs the way many English teachers and courses try to teach you, one word at a time. But that one-by-one approach has been found by several research studies to be the least efficient use of your time, the worst use of your time. Why is this so?

To understand why trying to memorize vocabulary is not a good idea, you have to understand a little about language acquisition. I don’t have time to cover everything on a blog post, but I tried to provide more details on how you should improve your English a few years ago in a “special” podcast episode called, Secrets to Improving Your English. Those of you who have been listening since the beginning may already have heard this, but if you have not, just RIGHT-click on this link and “Save As…” to your hard drive. It’s about 25 minutes long.

One excellent way to improve your vocabulary (in addition to listening to ESL Podcast, of course!) is through reading – lots and lots of reading. In fact, reading has been shown in studies to be 10 times more effective than traditional vocabulary teaching. Reading is 10 times faster than any other typical approach to increasing your vocabulary, including flash cards, computer programs, and websites with lots of “vocabulary” exercises. The problem is that very few English teachers or students are aware of the scientific research in these areas.

So if you want to know all of the phrasal verbs in English, now you know what to do!

~Jeff

We’ve had a few listeners ask about the acronyms (abbreviations) ESL and EFL, so I thought I would talk about them briefly. Different countries and organizations use these terms differently, but I’ll tell you how they are generally used.

First, what do ESL and EFL stand for?

ESL = English as a Second Language
EFL = English as a Foreign Language

ESL is a general term used to describe anything related to learning English when English is not the learner’s first or native language. In the U.S., this term is used for people who were born in the U.S. but speak another language at home, or for people who move to the U.S. to study or live. For instance, you will find ESL students, ESL classes, ESL teachers, and ESL books.

EFL is generally used to describe anything related to learning English in a place where English is not spoken by the general public or by the people on the street. Many of our listeners outside of the U.S. are EFL students, studying in EFL classes that are taught by EFL teachers.

Even though it’s useful to sometimes make this distinction (difference) between ESL and EFL, many people use the term ESL for all situations, no matter where the language is being learned. That’s how we are using it here at ESL Podcast. The podcast is for English learners everywhere, no matter where you are.

So, here’s a shout out (informal “hello”) to all of our listeners, especially those in outer space.

~ Lucy

In today’s podcast, ESL Podcast 320 - Micromanaging the Staff, we talk about the verb “to butt in.” Butt is what we informally call the part of the body that we sit on, so it’s important to use phrases with butt in it carefully. In the “What Else Does it Mean?” section of today’s Learning Guide, we talk about other meanings of “to butt in,” and also “to butt out” and “to butt heads.” Jeff and I never butt heads while working on the podcast. If you believe that, I have some magic beans I would like to sell you.

Another phrase that uses the word “butt” is: to be the butt of a joke. To be the butt of a joke means that someone else told a joke that makes you look bad or silly, and the joke is on you. Nobody likes being the butt of a joke, especially if they’re just minding their own business (not concerning themselves with other people’s business).

~ Lucy