Episode 0358

Hello everyone and welcome to English Pod. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and Marco, today we're talking about a very important part of daily life.

That's right. Today we're going to take a look at a lesson about technology and something that has become so popular and part of our everyday lives that it's necessary for us to acknowledge it in English.

That's right. So we're talking about cellular phones but not just cellular phones. Something you can do and that many people often do on their cellular phones.

That's right. So before we get into that, let's listen to the dialogue, try to understand what it's all about and we'll be back in a bit.

What? I sent you three or four messages.

Well, because I didn't have any credit on my phone. I used it all up this month.

I thought you had an unlimited SMS plan.

I do, but if I don't have any credit in my phone, it won't let me call or send messages.

No wonder you didn't get my texts.

All right, we're back. So now let's take a look at language takeaway.

Language Takeaway

First up on language takeaway, we have the verb, that is the focus of today's dialogue, to text.

That's right. So this is a verb in this case. To text. Text me.

Why didn't you text me?

Why didn't you text me?

Now, remember that text means other things in other situations.

Right. Here it's a verb. It's a very new word as a verb, um, from the last maybe 15 years or so with cell phones.

So that that's actually what it means is to send a text message um, via cell phone, so you send a message.

That's right. So you you actually write the message, right? It's not a call. When I call you, I talk to you.

When you text someone, you actually write a message. It's very short and then you send it and the other person can read it.

Right. So instead of saying, why didn't you send me a text message last night?

We just say, why didn't you text me?

All right, now, another word, um, that we often hear about texts is the noun messages or message. So I sent you three or four messages.

That's right. So when we're talking about texting someone, what we're doing is sending a message.

A text message.

A text message. That's right, because we can send a a voice message.

That's right. So voice is me talking. Hi Marco, it's Catherine. How are you doing?

But a text message is actually words. I write them out. I don't say them.

That's right. So but then we could actually use the verb form as well. So we can say to text or we can say to message. Why didn't you message me last night?

That's right. So this is more slang to message someone because text is very common and everyone uses it. But normally young people say, hey, why didn't you message me? Or aren't you ever going to message me?

Right, right, right. Or stop messaging in class.

That's right. These are verbs uh, to text and to message.

Now, if we see uh down towards the middle of the dialogue, um, we see that the person hates sending SMS messages. So,

uh, it's kind of uh, you know, explaining already what's been said because you have SMS messages and this abbreviation stands for

Short Message Service. Short S, Message M, Service S. So short message service.

But most people around the world say SMS.

Right. So they say, oh, send me an SMS or send me an SMS message, which again, like like we see in the dialogue, it's kind of contradictory because we're already saying short message service message.

Yeah, but most people don't know what SMS means, uh, so they just say, hey, send me an SMS message or send me a text message or I didn't get your SMS.

That's right.

Now lastly, we didn't get uh the SMS because we didn't have any credit on the phone.

All right, now credit is uh an important word here. It's a noun. It's a thing. We have credit or we don't have credit.

And it's important to remember that credit stands for money.

All right? So maybe I I buy $10 of credit for my my cell phone, and that means I can send many, many messages. But when I have zero credit, I can't send any messages.

That's right. So this is important because usually in many places you have to have this amount of money in your phone in order to be able to talk and send messages.

So this money that you have is called credit. So you can say, I don't have any credit on my phone.

That's right. And it's it's basically a way of having money without having real money. You actually buy credit from your cell phone provider like uh AT&T or if you have uh China Telecom, that's that's who you buy credit from.

That's right. Very good. Let's listen to the dialogue again and we'll be back with fluency builder.

What? I sent you three or four messages.

Well, because I didn't have any credit on my phone. I used it all up this month.

I thought you had an unlimited SMS plan.

I do, but if I don't have any credit in my phone, it won't let me call or send messages.

No wonder you didn't get my texts.

All right, we've prepared three phrases for you. Let's start with those now in fluency builder.

Fluency Builder

So, we're still talking about credit here. Now, when you have credit, you can use it. But if you use all of it, we say you use it all up.

Right, we used it up, to use something up.

So here, what does the up do? Because we can use something, like I'm using my toothbrush.

But to use up is different.

Right, it means that you finished it. You it no longer exists.

So it's it's completed.

Right. I had credit. I used it up. That means it is gone.

Right, exactly. So for example, maybe paint, you're painting a room and you just you used up all the white paint, right? So you used all the paint. You have no more paint.

It's gone. So it's all used up. It's a very important phrase to remember. It's used up.

That's right. Now going back to SMS and messages, um the question came up and said, I thought you had an unlimited SMS plan.

All right, so an unlimited SMS plan, we know what SMS means. But first of all, let's talk about a plan.

Because when we talk about cell phones, it's important to remember that some people buy credit. That's how they get service. But some people buy plans. What is this is very popular, by the way, in America, this is how most phones are. What is a plan?

So basically, it's just like any other service, like maybe internet. You you you pay a monthly fee and you get a certain amount of this service. So maybe you pay $50 and you get 100 minutes to use on your cell phone and unlimited amount of of SMS.

All right, so basically my cell phone provider, AT&T or Telecom, they will say, for this price, you get this much time, this many messages each month.

Right. And you have to keep paying it. Normally it's one year or two years that you have to commit. You can't say, nah, I don't want this anymore.

Right, right, exactly.

Uh, but the important thing here is that the person bought an unlimited SMS plan.

Mhm. So this key word there, unlimited means it has no limit. It means you can use it as much as you want.

Unlimited, no limit, that means there's um you can do it as much as you want.

You can have unlimited calls, you can have unlimited SMS, you can have unlimited data, for example.

Right, exactly.

Very good. And we ended with saying, well, no wonder you didn't get my text, well because he didn't have credit. No wonder you didn't get it.

No wonder is a great and very important phrase and it's something we say when we finally understand why something happened.

Right, we realize what happened.

So, Marco, gosh, why didn't you respond to my calls?

Well, I didn't have any credit.

No wonder. That means, oh, now I understand. No wonder.

Exactly, exactly.

So it's a great phrase to start off your sentence by explaining or letting the other person know that you finally understand why this happened or you understand what what the situation was.

All right, so let's take a listen to the dialogue one last time.

What? I sent you three or four messages.

Well, because I didn't have any credit on my phone. I used it all up this month.

I thought you had an unlimited SMS plan.

I do, but if I don't have any credit in my phone, it won't let me call or send messages.

No wonder you didn't get my texts.

All right, we're back. So uh talking about uh messages and everything, do you, do you send a lot of messages? Because I know some people send like 100 messages a day. Well, that usually teenagers.

Yeah, I don't send 100 messages a day. I mostly use messages. I don't call people very often. Um, I find that messages are easier and cheaper, actually. Um, but I can't imagine sending a thousand messages a day or 100 messages a day. Your your thumbs would get so tired.

Well, I I remember, well this is back in the day when uh when you had the little uh Nokia phones and you didn't have the touchscreens and all this stuff. I did have uh some friends who were very, very uh agile with with, you know, sending these messages and some did send, I don't know, 100, 200 messages a day because it was it was that new way of communicating with people.

Yeah, it's very exciting. And I will also mention, and this is something that my parents complain about. Uh, there's something in America, and I'm sure in England as well, called text talk or text speak. And so because messages are short, people have started to change the way they spell or write words.

Right, right, right.

Yeah. And um people who are older, I think my parents' age, and I do too to some extent, really don't like it because it's so different.

Right. It's especially very popular with the younger generation because it translates now to all sorts of uh messaging. So not you know, before as you say it was because of the limitations, the amount of characters you could send in a message.

But now it's just become something that people have gotten in the habit of doing. So, uh for example, instead of writing skate, you know, like skateboard, they would write S K and then the number eight. So skate.

Skate, skate. It's so strange. Um, and I know it actually happens in other languages as well. Yeah, a lot. Italian, they do it a lot.

Italian, uh, they do it a lot and in Spanish I'm sure as well. But uh

We call it text speak because it's very very short and and kind of abbreviated.

But it's a problem from my understanding is because this uh these younger generations they they use it so much that they really kind of start forgetting the proper grammar and proper spelling. So even you will find I saw a report the other day essays or or or reports handed in with these terrible writing uh spelling mistakes.

That's awful. Well, I hope, hope, hope that people are learning grammar and spelling, especially non-native learners of English. So

Um, if you're doing homework for your English class, don't use these, but it might be interesting to look them up. So

Um, let us know though. Do you text message people? Do you send these text messages? Do you have SMS service in your country?

Uh, let us know our website is English Pod.com.

All right, we'll see you guys there.

Bye.

Bye.

The English part audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Act of sending a text message via a mobile phone.

Text.

Abbreviation for short message service.

SMS.

Amount of money that you have available to make calls.

Credit.

To completely finish or extinguish something.

Use it up.

Without limits or restrictions.

Unlimited.

Not surprisingly.

No wonder.

Let's try that faster.

To completely finish or extinguish something.

Use it up.

Not surprisingly.

No wonder.

Without limits or restrictions.

Unlimited.

Abbreviation for short message service.

SMS.

Amount of money that you have available to make calls.

Credit.

Act of sending a text message via a mobile phone.

Text.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Text.

Can you text me your brother's email address?

Text.

I can't text on this phone, my fingers are too big.

Text.

Put your phone away. You are always texting.

Credit.

I need to buy more credit for my phone.

Credit.

Can I use your phone? I don't have any credit in mine.

Credit.

Make sure you always have credit on your phone, otherwise you can't make or receive any calls.

Use it up.

Did you use up all the glue?

Use it up.

We had to use up all the white paint, so we need to buy more.

Use it up.

I used up all the detergent when I was doing laundry.

Unlimited.

The hotel offers unlimited wireless internet.

Unlimited.

The buffet includes unlimited food and drinks.

Unlimited.

This ticket is valid for unlimited entry to the cinema for one year.

No wonder.

No wonder the lamp doesn't work, it's not plugged in.

No wonder.

No wonder you ran out of money, you spent it all on clothes.

No wonder.

It's no wonder the dog barks every night, there is a cat that comes out and teases him.