Speaker 1: Now this is weird. I remembered to do it, but
the next day I didn't remember doing it. Maybe I'm
just getting old, or I'm just distracted. I mean, like recently,
it seems like it's easy to forget what I have
to do. I'll explain what I mean in a moment,
but now let's stop to listen to the intro music.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode seven fifty eight.
Remember to do this one thing. That's today's English lesson topic.
Do you have a request for a topic here? Send
me a message at Myhappy English dot com and let
me know so. Like you know how some verbs completely
change their meaning when you add ing or two. For example,
you can stop to drink coffee or stop drinking coffee.
It's like one minute you're talking about taking a break,
and the next you're talking about quitting something entirely.
Speaker 2: Stop.
Speaker 1: Try remember and forget. These four verbs have been annoying
some of my students this week, and I realized after
a lesson this morning that this can be pretty tricky
for a lot of English learners. So let's jump right
in with stop and try two words we use all
the time but can get us into trouble. You can
stop to buy a cup of coffee, or you can
stop buying a cup of coffee. What the thing is
when you stop to do something that stop followed by
the infinitive the two verb stopped to do. It means
that you took a break in order to do that thing.
I stopped to buy coffee means that I was doing
something and then I hit the pause button on that
in order to buy a cup of coffee. Like I
was walking to my office and I noticed the coffee shop,
and I stopped to buy coffee. I took a break
from walking in order to buy coffee, And I could
say that I stopped walking in order to buy coffee.
Stop walking. When you use stop followed by an ing,
it means to finish an activity. I stopped working last
night around eight o'clock. Stop working means to finish working.
Stop followed by an I also means to quit doing
something forever, like quitting a bad habit. I don't know
if I've ever mentioned this before, but I used to
smoke when I was younger, and I stopped smoking when
I was like twenty five years old. Boy, was that
a good decision. I stopped to buy coffee. I'm not
giving up coffee forever, just taking a quick break in
order to get some coffee. But if I stop buying coffee,
that gives us the idea that I'm putting an end
to that habit. And you all know how expensive a
cup of coffee is compared to making it at home.
I'm glad I stopped buying coffee and started making it myself. Okay,
let's move on to try. Since I moved to this town,
I've been trying to find a good pizza place. When
you say that you are trying to do something, it
suggests you're putting an effort towards something. I'm really trying
to improve my Japanese reading and writing skills. You do
know I'm also a language learner, don't you. But when
you try doing something, it's like more of an experiment
to see what happens. I haven't heard from Jack in
a couple of days. I tried calling him, but he
didn't answer and then I tried sending him a message,
but I didn't get a reply. I think I'm going
to try going to his house and knocking on the door. Wow,
there's a lot of experimenting going on just to see
what's up with Jack. Okay, now you'd better make sure
you're sitting down, because we're about to dive into a
pair of verbs that are even trickier than stop and try.
I'm talking about remember and forget. Here's the story. I
forgot to call my grandmother on her birthday and she
was pretty upset. Has that ever happened to you? Have
you ever forgotten to do something? When you have an obligation,
in other words, something that you have to do, you
should remember to do it. It's kind of like before
you leave the house in the morning, you need to
remember to turn off the gas, right, But have you
ever been in a situation where you left the house
and then five minutes later you thought, uh, oh, did
I forget to turn off the gas and then you
go all the way back home only to find that
you remember to turn off the guests Remember too, and forget.
To talk about your responsibility, your obligations, remember ing is
about your memories like if I say I remember visiting Rome,
that means I have that experience stored away in my
memory bank. Or what about my friend Jack. Jack said
he doesn't remember drinking too much, but he was very
drunk at the party. Classic Jack. Seems like he forgot
drinking all those shots of tequila. You can forget doing
a lot of things when alcohol is involved, that's for sure.
So remember ing and forget ing are all about your memories.
Have you ever been watching a movie and like, after
a half hour or so, you remember watching that movie before.
When you picked out that movie to watch, you probably
forgot watching it sometime before and you didn't remember watching
it until about halfway into the movie. Has that ever
happened to you? So again, remember doing and forget doing
are all about your memories. I'll never forget visiting Japan
for the first time. That was really an amazing trip.
When you think about using stop, try remember and forget.
Try applying the patterns we looked at today to your
own life and own experiences. Have you stopped doing some
bad habit? Have you taken a break and stopped to
do something or maybe with your effort, have you tried
doing something just don't forget to write your own sentences
with this vocabulary. That will help you remember these patterns
so you can use them in your English conversations and
speaking of your English conversations. Did you know that you
can get the chance to practice this kind of English
with me directly. Yeah. You can get more practice using
your English when you join my podcast Learner's Study Group.
There you can make new friends, join us for live
group lessons every week where we practice these podcasts lessons together.
Plus you get access to the PDF, transcript and audio
download for every Happy English podcast in the past and
in the future. And on top of that, each episode
has exercises where you can practice this English point with
speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more, just
visit Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast lesson seven
fifty eight. Remember, learning another language is not easy, but
it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you on
your journey.
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Happy English.