Why do we sometimes say, I find it surprising instead of I’m surprised? You’ll find out in this podcast, and we’ll answer more of your questions and doubts about English.
Voice message from Frederico from Buenos Aires
False friends:
realise – (be aware of) darse cuenta de algo, realizar in Spanish means do or make or carry out – “I’m making a big effort to learn vocabulary.”
terrific – great, fantastic, wonderful – terrorífico translates to terrifying
embarrassed – embarazada – pregnant (embarrassed – avergonzado, I’m embarrassed – Me da vergüenza)
I’m in cold water
When I search it – When I look it up
False Friends – AIRC64
Voice message from Juan from Costa Rica
I’ve been listening (TO) you guys
Doing well in these rough times. It’s really ‘freaky’.
Voice message from Quique from Valencia
Quique is reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.
XI come across withX – I came across this sentence.
We’ve spoken about ‘it’ before: Uses of the pronoun ‘it’ – AIRC49
I find it amazing that …
With verbs such as find and consider, the grammar is ‘it + adjective + that clause’
I find it amazing that some people believe the virus doesn’t exist.
(It’s amazing that…has a similar meaning)
Not: XI find amazing that people …X
or
I find/consider it + to infinitive + adjective
The Japanese consider it to be rude if you pour your own drink.
I find it surprising to see so many people here.
We also use it when a clause is the subject of a verb such as appear, seem, look, occur etc.
This makes the statement softer and less direct:
It seems they’ve started studying English with mansioningles.com.
It occurred to me that we might be able to sell our old TV online.
We can also use it for emphasis before a noun or noun phrase.
It was Reza who helped me.
It was Coco the dog that ate all the cheese.
It was Craig who had the last chocolate biscuit.
Common mistakes
My car XitX is parked outside.
My neighbour XsheX really gets on my nerves.
XIt is bad the newsX – The news is bad.
One subject is enough! (We don’t usually use a personal pronoun to repeat a subject that is in the same clause.). For more information about the ‘it’, go to inglespodcast.com/49
Voice message from Sonia from Barcelona, living in Berlin.
…Sonia from Barcelona, Xthat’sX who’s living in Berlin. (Non-defining relative clauses – the word “Sonia” in the main clause defines itself – are the ones with commas. You can’t use “that” with a non-defining relative clause)
Two messages ‘in a row’.
…and now it’s your turn to practise your English.
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On next week’s episode: Chocolate and Cocoa Beans
The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called ‘See You Later’