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All Ears English Podcast
AEE 2517: Did You Spend a Fortune? How to Talk About Your Expensive Purchases
00:21:34
Get this key connection skill for common conversations
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- [00:00]
Lindsay McMahon
This is an All Ears English podcast.
- [00:02]
Michelle Kaplan
Episode 2517.
- [00:05]
Lindsay McMahon
Did you spend a fortune?
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Michelle Kaplan
How to talk about your expensive purchases.
- [00:11]
Lindsay McMahon
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection with your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City, usa. To get real time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the Allears English app for iOS and Android. Start your 7 day free trial at allearsenglish.com/forward/app.
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Michelle Kaplan
Cocktails Avocado toast and coffee. What do all of these have in common? Depending on where you go, they can cost a small fortune. Today we learn how to use this phrase and related ones to connect in conversations about cost.
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Think about the last time someone leaned.
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Lindsay McMahon
In and said, sorry, can you say that again?
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Michelle Kaplan
It's frustrating, right?
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Lindsay McMahon
You know the word.
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Michelle Kaplan
You said it, but the sound wasn't clear.
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Lindsay McMahon
That's not a grammar or a vocabulary.
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Michelle Kaplan
Problem, it's a pronunciation problem.
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Lindsay McMahon
And it doesn't mean changing who you are or erasing your accent. It means making your English easy to follow and clear every time. Want to see what's getting in your way? Take our two minute quiz to get your English level at allearsenglish.com fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com F L U N C Y S C O R E.
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Michelle Kaplan
Hi Lindsay, how are you?
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Hey Michelle, I'm glad to be here on the mic with you today.
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Lindsay McMahon
I'm doing good.
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Michelle Kaplan
How's everything with you?
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Everything is good. Everything is good. Lindsay, I have a question. Yeah. What is something you think costs a fortune but shouldn't?
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Oh my gosh. You know what? Yesterday I was at the dentist's office and getting a cavity filled and my dentist and his assistant were talking about how expensive cocktails are. I'm not drinking these days, but cocktails have gotten really expensive. Michelle, he was saying that he noticed the cocktail cocktails are like $20 each. Now that's.
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Oh my gosh.
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That's kind of a fortune that it.
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That does that costs a fortune, right? A small fortune, right? Yeah, I going to say not cocktails but yeah, I would say just in general restaurant prices. Yeah. Are going up and up and sometimes you feel it's worth it and sometimes you get your food. You know. What is the sneaky one? An avocado toast.
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Oh, that's a sneaky One because it's so trendy, right.
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It's so expensive. And sometimes, sometimes they're really good and sometimes you get them out and it's just some sort of avocado spread and.
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You'Re like, no, it's worth about $2.50. That is a good margin. They're taking on that avocado.
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Avocado toast man. Yeah. That can cost a fortune. Coffee costs a fortune. Oh, my gosh.
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Yes.
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That is another one. So today we are going to answer a listener question about this expression to cost a fortune. This is from a listener who wrote us a five star review on the Android app. So thank you so much. Would you like to read it for us?
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I would love to, Michelle. This is from Fareshte. So Fareshte says hello, guys. You have no idea how much I've learned since I started listening to your podcast. I've been watching Seinfeld again and again and it feels like I'm watching it for the first time and I just laugh and laugh and remember, Michelle is also a big fan of this show.
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Yes. Yeah.
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I was watching it the other day and there was an expression, cost a fortune. I could not fully understand what it meant. Can you talk about it on the podcast and give directions on when we.
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Lindsay McMahon
Can use it in conversations?
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Michelle Kaplan
Big thanks. I love that expression. Big thanks.
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Big thanks. I love it too. Fareshta, thank you so much. Thank you for the beautiful review. Thank you for the wonderful question. Guys, before we get into this a little more, we want to remind you that we have a rockin app, right?
- [04:43]
Let's say it's pretty rockin. It's pretty rockin'. There's a lot you get over there that you're not seeing here in the just the podcast players. So if you become a premium member, you do get to see the transcripts and then you get to click on keywords that we've selected that bring you to the B2C1 level. You get to create your power list of vocabulary words. So go over and check it out. Allearsenglish.com app. The other cool thing about listening in the app is you don't hear ads over there as much. Right. So very cool place to listen to. Allers English. Free to listen over there. So again, that's where Fereshte listens and we recommend you check it out. Right?
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Yeah. Perfect. So thank you again for that question. You are right. I love Seinfeld.
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Yeah, you do.
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Yeah.
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I haven't seen it on lately though. I see friends on all the time. But Seinfeld is not on TV as much anymore that I've seen.
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Lindsay McMahon
I still.
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Michelle Kaplan
I see. I. I don't know. I have YouTube TV.
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Okay. So it's totally different.
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Yeah, I don't know, I just. See, it's just kind of all there in the library for me. So. But. So. And my son watches Seinfeld. He's gonna be seven, but we try and find the more appropriate episodes for him to watch. He's so funny. But it's the best show. So let's. Let's talk about this. So when. When someone says something costs a fortune, Lindsay, what does that mean?
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Well, it's interesting because it means it's very expensive, but it's interesting that we use it to talk about avocado toast and cocktails all the way up to buying a house. Right.
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Or a car.
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So. So it doesn't necessarily mean it's like something that costs more than X amount. It just means something that feels expensive.
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To you relative what to what it. What you. What it should be. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So, yeah, interesting. Something. You hit something that's $5, you can say costs a fortune. Sure. And it should be 25. A hundred thousand dollars can afford to cost a fortune too. It just depends on what it. Relative to what you think it should cost. So. Yeah. So. But a fortune, if you just say a fortune, that's a large sum of money. So like someone's fortune, it's like they're like the money that they have, right?
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Sure, yeah. And then there's a magazine called Fortune magazine. I mean, it's used in a lot of different ways, but yeah, your fortune. We sometimes we say, oh, she made her fortune in the, you know, pharmaceuticals industry. Or, you know, we'll hear about people's.
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Lindsay McMahon
Careers and how they made their money.
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Michelle Kaplan
Right? Yep. And you might hear someone say something cost a small fortune, which is. I think I mentioned that already. So. Yeah, it's interesting because you can say about the avocado toast, it costs a fortune or a small fortune.
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What do you think that's interesting? This is really interesting. Yeah. What's the difference between saying, oh, it costs a fortune and it costs a small fortune, So a small fortune. I would correct me if you don't agree, Michelle, but I would say it's probably for the things that are a little smaller, but they, they don't merit that price. Like the avocado toast, the cocktail. Would you say that if you're buying like a five bedroom house, do you think? Right. You expect that to be a fortune? You could still say it costs a fortune, but small fortune, maybe it doesn't quite fit.
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Yeah. I would say small fortune is for those smaller items that are not quite as expensive, but you want to be kind of emphatic about it. I think you could just kind of throw it in if you want. So the avocado toast, again, I wouldn't say it about a house. I wouldn't say about it about a car necessarily.
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Right.
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But I would say it about coffee. Avocado toast. Yeah. Those types of things. If I just want to add something in, I don't really think it does anything more than that. I think it's just kind of a fun thing to add.
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It's being more emphatic, maybe trying to be funny. Trying to draw attention to the fact that you spent more money than you thought you would or should have. Okay.
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Lindsay McMahon
Yeah.
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Michelle Kaplan
So, Lindsay, so you, when you like, are. Is that common for you to say something cost a fortune?
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I guess I don't use the wording as much, but obviously it's very common. I endorse it. It makes sense. It's native and natural. I, I will say I do complain about prices a lot though. I am definitely the person that will come out of the coffee shop and be like, I can't believe I just spent $12 on two coffees. You know what I mean?
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Do you ever cancel? Do you ever like start ordering something and then walk away? You find out.
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Yeah, it. I've done it a few times. Yeah. Let's see. I'm not sure if it so much at coffee shops, but other places where I would just, I would just become like, kind of enraged when I see the price.
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Yes. And. And you, and you just have to remember that it's not the person.
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Yeah.
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Who's selling it to you that made that decision. Probably. But yeah. Recent. I remember last year I was in Florida and I, I desperately wanted a coffee and I was at the outlets and I, I really wanted tonight iced coffee. And they had like a food truck there and I went to order it and they hadn't started making it, but they were like, oh, it was $12 for a coffee. Something like that. And I, I was like, just forget it. Like, like, no, thank you. That's. That's okay. That's one that I wanted to spend. Yeah.
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That's a walk away point. That's. They must. Saving all your money on clothing at the outlet so you have extra money to spend on the coffee.
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Right, Right. Yes, exactly. Or I also remember like taking my son, we did a day Date when he was maybe two or three in New York. And we went to, we were on the High Line and there were food trucks outside and I just wanted a burger and fries and it was like 18 or $20 or something at. From the food car. And I, I did end up taking it because somet just, you just have to do it. You just have to suck it up. Right.
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Or when you go to games, you know, you go, we're going to a hockey game next week and I know.
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We won't be able to get away.
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You, you go, you spend beers regularly cost 20, $25. I mean that's just because they have you as a captive audience. You can't bring beer in as far as I know. So that kind of scenario, right.
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Sometimes you're just trapped, right? At, at a stadium, at an arena, for sure, you know that it's going to cost a small fortune. Or at the airport, that's another one. You don't want to have to buy something in the airport because you know it's going to be ridiculous.
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But I always buy stuff at the airport every time I like either eat at the airport or buy food. And just. You always. Because you're, you're killing a couple of hours, right? Right. So you're always, you're gonna buy something there so you can't avoid it.
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Yes, yes, exactly. But it's like, and you're, and you're like, they trapped me.
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You know, they trapped you. You gotta go again if you want to buy it somewhere else, right?
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Oh, a killer is water, bottled water at a stadium, at a, at an airport. You're done.
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Done. And this is especially timely, this conversation for everyone listening to the show because inflation has run rampant, I think all over the world, from what I understand, in the last five years, three to five years, right. So this is a conversation our listeners might really be having with their native speaking friends.
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Right? Yeah, definitely. So, yeah, I also just wanted to highlight. So Lindsay, what is the past tense of cost?
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Oh, good question, Michelle. The past tense. So we don't change it, right? We don't change it. So a lot, I've heard a lot of native speakers say maybe make a mistake and say costed, but not right. It's not right. Yeah.
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Right. So if you're, listen to the context, if you say, if you're telling a story and you're saying, oh, it cost a fortune, right. I'm still, you know, talking in the past tense. But if I, I can also say, oh, this costs a fortune, right.
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You should hear the costs, if it's present tense. Right. So that's what we need to know. What else, Michelle?
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So in. In what other ways might we use the word fortune? Because we're going to talk about some other, you know, just this instead of. Because we've done episodes about saying things are expensive.
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Lindsay McMahon
Yeah, we have, we have.
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Michelle Kaplan
You're right.
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So I wanted to talk about the word fortune a little bit more. So, Lindsay, what's the first expression?
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Yeah, I love double alliterations. Right. For expressions. So fame and fortune. Sounds so poetic. Right?
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Or maybe fortune and fame.
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Fortune and fame. Fame and fortune. This is used to talk about getting famous. Getting rich. Getting rich and famous. Right. All she wanted was fame and fortune, but she was unwilling to work for it. Right.
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Or to make a fortune. Right. Lindsay, you already mentioned this one. She made her fortune.
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Whatever.
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Made a lot of money. Made her a lot of money. So. Or you could say something like, he made a fortune painting cars.
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Yeah, you can say he made a fortune or he made his fortune doing something. And usually that indicates like, even more money if you made. If we use the possessive, that's like probably a millionaire or a billionaire. Like a known. That's a really wealthy person. Like, how did he make his fortune? It was in this industry or that industry. And then he made a fortune painting cars. Maybe he made a lot of money, $20,000 or something. Right. Like, not necessarily like a billionaire. Right. I think there's a distinction there.
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Yeah, good point, Lindsay. Yeah, I like that. Or there's also to. You could say to spend a fortune. Right. So you could say something like, I don't think we should cheap out, but I don't want to spend a fortune either. To spend a lot of money.
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I like that expression too. As a bonus, cheap out. I don't know that I've heard that before, but I like it. Makes sense.
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Yeah. To say that we're being cheap and we're not gonna pay for it.
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Yep, yep, yep.
- [14:36]
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- [16:14]
Michelle Kaplan
Michelle, we're back. So what else do we need to know here?
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Yeah, we're gonna do one more expression to tell someone's fortune. Oh, yeah. So in this way, it's more about someone's future. Right. So you think of a fortune teller. Right. Or somebody's reading tarot cards or whatever it is. Lindsay, have you ever had your fortune told?
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I don't think I have, no. It kind of freaks me out a little bit, all of that stuff, because.
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Lindsay McMahon
I don't want to know a lot.
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Michelle Kaplan
Of things, you know, I want to live my life and. And. And not think I know what's going to happen, whether it's correct or incorrect, you know?
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Do you believe in it, though?
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I. Yeah, I. I've heard stories of friends who have visited some kind of psychic or fortune teller, and they have actually proven that it. That for the. That particular person was. Was right.
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But I don't.
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But I think there's also a lot of scams out there, too, you know, so. Yeah, it just depends on who you go to. Probably.
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Yeah. About 10 years ago, I was actually just watching, like, going through old videos, and I was watching a video where I spoke about getting my fortune done in Atlantic City, of all places.
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Atlantic City. Atlanta City. Nice.
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Atlantic City.
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I don't know.
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I find myself in Atlantic City fairly frequently.
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That's fun. What is Atlantic City about for a listener? So they can have a little context.
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So Atlantic City is in New Jersey. It's. It's a beach town where. Where it's. It's kind of like the Lost. Like. Like it's supposed to. It's supposed to be a Las Vegas, but it's not. And it used to be, like, much a great. Like much better than it is now. And then it kind of fell apart. And I would say they're always trying to bring it back, but it's. When you go. The hotels are nice.
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Yeah.
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But the area there is really. I mean, they do have a nice boardwalk. I will say that.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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I think it just missing something.
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Missing something. I think it probably had its heyday in the Roaring twenties, I feel like, because I remember seeing people talk about Atlantic City and movies and like that were placed more in the 20s, like before the Depression era, you know, where like there was just a lot of money flying around and people went there to gamble. Right. It was probably a gambling hub.
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Yeah, for sure.
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Yeah. So the Vegas of the East Coast. But no, but kind of has been.
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It's. Yeah, yeah. But I still somehow am there. Like, we just went for our anniversary.
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Yourself there.
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Yeah. Oh, what am I doing here? No, I went for a bachelorette party. I went for. Yeah, My, My. It was for my 10 year anniversary. We were in that area and just for fun, we found a cheap hotel with the kids.
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Yeah.
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And it was really fun. But anyway, I was watching a video from when I got my fortune told in Atlantic City, and apparently I was told that I would have a boy and a girl one day.
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And I thought, well, yeah, maybe that was one of the legitimate fortune tellers. So there you go.
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Maybe. Or maybe it's just kind of a.
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You know, maybe it's a guess.
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Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's do a role play. Lindsay. Of course we're not gonna say fortune over and over and over, but we're using a couple here.
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Okay, let's do it. Yes. So we are talking about. Or going over, which is another way to say talking about. Really good one for another day. What we bought over the weekend. Okay, here we go. So I got these shoes, but they cost a fortune. I'm considering returning them.
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Oh, keep them if you like them. I spent a fortune on a sweater this weekend, but it's so perfect for the cold weather.
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Nice. All right, so typical conversation. We talked about spending a lot of money, right? So I said, I got these shoes, but they cost a fortune. And notice the past tense there.
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Lindsay McMahon
Right?
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Michelle Kaplan
I'm talking in the past tense, but I'm not using the ed form. There's no ed for that. So it cost, right?
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Yep, absolutely. And then I said, oh, keep them if you like them. I spent a fortune on a sweater this weekend, but it's perfect for the cold weather.
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Nice. There's a lot that came out of this episode today, Michelle. A lot of. Yeah, A lot of the city tips for our listeners. Really good context here. You guys have another set of vocabulary to talk about inflation if you do want to have that conversation with native speaking friends. Michelle, what's another episode our listeners could go to.
- [20:30]
All right, guys, check out episode 2493. That was. Listened to this episode already.
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That's a good one. And for a takeaway, I mean, I do think. I know we've done other episodes about talking about high costs, but I think this is a good skill to brush up on because we talk about caught. This is a huge part of our lives. Right? Money is a huge deal for human beings. So this is going to come up and there are kind of tasteful ways to talk about it and not. But commenting on prices going up is not a bad thing. Like that's very common. Okay.
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Yeah, yeah, exactly. Very common. All of these, give them a try and we hope you find affordable items.
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Yes. Nice. Not a 12 coffee. Do not buy a 12.
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No, don't do that away. Don't do. Actually, we could do a whole episode about what do you you say if you want to walk away?
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Oh, that's a great idea. What do you say if it's just too expensive? Oh, that will be the next piece.
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Of this series on follow.
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All right, Michelle, you have a good day. I'll talk to you soon.
- [21:33]
You too. Bye bye.
- [21:39]
Lindsay McMahon
Thanks for listening.
- [21:40]
Michelle Kaplan
To all ears. English.
- [21:41]
Lindsay McMahon
Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward/fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.
- [22:06]
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Michelle Kaplan
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Michelle Kaplan
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