Speaker 1: You know, English is funny. Sometimes We've got a ton
of verbs that go with the infinitive, you know, the
two verb like want to do, like to do, plan
to do, and most of them just talk about an action, right,
I want to go, I like to cook, I plan
to travel. That's easy, no special meaning. But there are
some verb followed by to do combinations that do have
a special meaning, a nuance, a deeper idea behind them.
And that's what we're going to look at today.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: Alright, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael here
from Happy English and I help people speak in English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode nine to forty seven.
Verb and to do patterns with special meanings. Hey, thanks
for tuning in. Today we're gonna look at five verb
and infinitive patterns in English that carry a special meaning,
not just the action, but something extra. These patterns come
up all the time in natural English. So let's get
started with this one. Need to do this one's very
similar to have to do. It shows necessity, like I
need to finish this report by five o'clock. Yeah, you're
not saying you want to do it. You're saying it's important,
it's required. Maybe your boss is waiting. Okay, same idea here.
Do you need to be at the airport early? That
sounds stronger than do you want to be at the
airport early? So need to do means yeah, this thing
is necessary, it's not just a choice. Here's one more.
I need to call my mom later today, not because
I want to, well, I do, but because she expects
me to check in. And honestly, when your mom says
you haven't called in a while, you need to do
something about that. Now. Here's one of my favorite expressions
in English, get to do. When you get to do something,
you have the opportunity to do something, or it's a
special privilege. Like we got to leave work early today.
That's not a complaint, that's good news. We got to
leave early means the boss gave us permission. Or you
can say something like when I was in LA I
got to meet the actor who played Spider Man. Nice.
You didn't plan it, but it was a cool opportunity.
So when you get to do something, it means you're lucky.
It was a special chance. And I remember when I
was a kid, I never got to stay up late
on school nights. But now if there's a good movie on,
I get to stay up as late as I want.
That's the best part of being an adult. You get
to do things your own way. The next one is
manage to do. When you manage to do something, you
succeed in doing it, especially when it was difficult or
you struggle to do it. Like I managed to connect
my printer to the Wi Fi for wireless printing. That
true story, and believe me, it was a struggle, but
somehow I did it. Here's another one. Kim managed to
fit her report before the deadline. There's this feeling like, Wow,
she pulled it off. She made it happen. Here's one more.
Yesterday I had so many errands. I thought there was
no way I'd get everything done. But somehow I managed
to pick up my dry cleaning, go grocery shopping, and
still be home before dinner. I'm not saying I'm a superhero,
but you know I managed to pull it off. And
here's another common phrase, tend to do. When you tend
to do something, you usually do it, or it happens
in a regular or predictable way. We use tend to
do when we talk about habits or things that usually happen.
Like Josh tends to talk too much in meetings. That
means he does it a lot. It's not always, but
it happened often enough. Or people tend to drink more
coffee in the winter. That doesn't mean everyone does it,
just means it's a common pattern. Like my dog Backs
tends to bark every time the doorbell rings. It's like
clockwork ding dong well for woolf So yeah, tend to
do is perfect for those things that just seem to
happen again and again. Now let's wrap up with two
expressions that tend to be confusing for a lot of
English learners. Fail to do and forget to do. These
are different. When you fail to do something, it means
you tried but you didn't succeed, Like Yuchin failed to
get that old laptop to work. He tried his best,
but it didn't work. Something went wrong. And Jack failed
to get a date with Jenny. He asked her a
number of times to go out with him, but she's
just not interested. On the other hand, when you forget
to do something, it means you didn't even try because
you didn't remember. Like I forgot to lock the door
when I walk the dog. Oops. I was supposed to
do that, but it slipped my mind. Or I forgot
to pick up milk on my way home last night,
so guess what, no corn flakes for me this morning.
So again, when you failed to do something, you tried
to do it, but you were unsuccessful. When you forget
to do something, you just don't remember to do that.
I think we need to recap when you need to
do something it's required or important, like I need to
think about the next podcast English lesson. When you get
to do something, you're lucky. It's a chance or opportunity.
I get to help you learn English. When you manage
to do something, you succeeded even though it was hard.
I managed to record this lesson without max barking. And
when you tend to do something, this happens a lot.
It's your usual pattern. I tend to enjoy teaching English.
And then there's fail to do and forget to do something.
Fail to do is about trying but not succeeding, and
forget to do is about not remembering. These phrases are
really natural in everyday English, and they show more than
just action. They show feeling, tone, and attitude. So if
you want to sound more like a native speaker, try
using them. And keep in mind the best way to
remember English like this and any other word or phrase
in English, is to take that word or phrase, write
it in a sentence that's true for you or true
in your world, and then memorize your sentences. That's how
you build fluency. Hey, thanks for listening, and remember, learning
another language is not easy, but it's not impossible, and
I'm here to help you on your journey.
Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please
visit Myhappy English dot com show your support for Happy
English by leaving us a review. Get English, Get Happy,
Happy English