Speaker 1: Today I have a podcast for you that's all about
the end. I hope you can stick around until the
tale end because by the time we are at the end,
you'll know the difference between in the end and at
the end. That should put an end to your confusion.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: Alrighty, 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 eighty nine.
The end. English is a language rich in idioms and
figurative expressions. This makes the language both interesting and complicated
at the same time. Today, let's look at some common
conversational phrases that use the word end. We'll start by
looking at at the end and in the end, two
phrases that can be hard to get. So let's get
the ball rolling at the end. We use at the
end when we want to talk about the final part
of something like a book or a movie, or even
the day, like I always feel tired at the end
of the week. At the end of the movie, the
couple got married and lived happily, ever after, Ah, that's
at the end, the final part of something. You're describing
a specific point where something finishes. Now in the end
is a bit different. In the end is used to
talk about the final result of a situation, often after
a long process. When you say in the end, it's
like saying finally or after everything, Like they worked hard
on that project and in the end they achieved their goal.
Last weekend, I couldn't decide whether to clean out the garage,
clean out the closets, or clean out the attic. In
the end, and with the help of two of my buddies,
I got everything done in the end. It's a great
phrase to use when you're telling a story or explaining
a decision. Next, we have I have a dead end.
When you're driving or walking. A dead end is a
road that doesn't go anywhere, and as an idiom, we
use dead end to mean a situation where you can't
make any more progress. Like I've tried everything to get
my computer to work faster, but I just got to
a dead end. I guess I'm just gonna have to
upgrade from Windows ninety eight. Tommy tried everything to get
that new customer to sign the contract but they just
reached a dead end. And let me tell you something,
the boss wasn't happy. And speaking of bosses, we have
the phrase a dead end job. When someone has a
dead end job, it's a job that has no chance
of promotion or improvement. Almost fifteen years ago, so I
quit a dead end job at a language school and
started my company, Happy English. And to be honest with you,
one of the reasons that I quit that job was
because I was at the end of my rope. When
you are at the end of your rope, you feel
frustrated or you don't have any more patience. It's like saying,
I can't handle this anymore. I'm at the end of
my rope. After dealing with my new noisy neighbors for weeks,
I'm at the end of my rope. The next time
they have a wild party at night, I'm going to
call the police. And I'm pretty sure that calling the
police on those guys is going to put an end
to my troubles. Put an end to something means to
stop something completely. Like when I I was twenty five,
I put an end to my cigarette smoking habit. Boy,
am I glad I did that? Then recently in New
York City, they started something called congestion pricing, which is
like a toll for driving your car in the main
part of the city during the day. According to the
news reports, it seems like that put an end to
a lot of traffic. The next one on the list
is end up. We use end up when we talk
about finding yourself in a situation, often without planning it,
Like last night, I couldn't decide what to cook for dinner,
and so I ended up down the block getting some pizza.
What did you end up doing for dinner last night?
You know? I often talk about my coworker Jack, and
he's always coming to work late. Well, yesterday he missed
an important meeting with a client, and the boss told
him that if it happens again, he's going to end
up getting fired. And now we're at the tail end
of this lesson the tail end. An animal has a tail, right,
and the tail is basically at the end of the animal.
So we use the phrase the tail end to refer
to the last part of something like I caught the
tail end of the comedy show on TV last night,
but it was still great. And I remember when we
were kids, my father would take us to the baseball game.
He always wanted to leave the stadium at the tail
end of the game to avoid the traffic. Keep in mind,
the best way to remember vocabulary 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. Hey, did you know 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
podcast 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 eighty 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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