Fill out
Today’s lesson is already extra-long—all those QR code uses, I had no idea! So, we’re going to have a quick expression, and that is “fill out.” It’s a phrasal verb with a few meanings, believe it or not, but the most common meaning is to complete a form.
The most common way to use this is to “fill out a form.” When you fill out a form, you enter information in every box. The modern world is full of forms to fill out. When I went to Europe, I had to fill out an entry form before landing in London for my connecting flight. I had to write my name, the flight number, passport number, and dates I would be in the UK. The process of entering all that information is called “filling out a form.”
You can fill out a survey. You might get a QR code on your receipt at a restaurant. You’ll be taken to a customer satisfaction survey if you scan the code. If you fill out the survey, you’ll get a coupon to save money on your next visit. When you fill out the survey, you answer the questions in the survey.
You can fill out an application. If you apply for a job, you might need to fill out a job application. Most job applications ask about employment history, skills, and educational attainment. Some ask about your transportation needs, what software you’ve used, things like that. When you answer those questions and press submit, you are filling out the application.
I don’t know how it works in other countries, but here in the US, we need to voluntarily tell the government every year how much money we earned the previous year. We have until April 15 to fill out all the necessary forms and mail them in. It’s called “doing your taxes” or “filing your taxes.”
It’s so confusing to fill out all those forms yourself. So, most people either pay a professional to do it for them or use private software. When using the software, you answer questions, and the software fills out the forms for you. That means that the software takes your answers to questions and enters the information into the right places on the official government forms. The forms are too confusing for mere mortals to use, so the software fills out the forms for us.
A few years back, the nominee to lead the Department of the Treasury of the United States of America admitted that it was too confusing for him to fill out the tax forms, and he used TurboTax software to do it. I don’t hold it against him; I agree they’re too confusing. But unfortunately, as Treasury Secretary, he didn’t do anything to make the forms easier to fill out.
JR’s song of the week
Well, JR must have been listening on Monday because the song he picked this week is indeed a Taylor Swift song. It is “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version).” It’s a song about recovering from a breakup and picking up the pieces of her life. It was initially on her fourth studio album called “Red.” But, as you learned on Monday, she re-recorded those early albums, so there’s a new version out there.
It was originally ten minutes long—an eternity for a song—but the first release was only five minutes. So, when she released the album “Red (Taylor’s version),” she included two versions of “All Too Well”—the original five-minute version and the unabridged ten-minute version.
See you next time!
That’s all for today, Thursday, December 23, 2021. If you celebrate Christmas, I wish you a very merry Christmas on Saturday. This is year number two of altered holiday plans for many people. I hope you can enjoy the holiday with family or good friends wherever you are.
I don’t know how December will play out, but in November, it seemed like the consumerist insanity of Black Friday was less intense this year. Some people I’ve talked to have said that since COVID, they’re dialing back some of the shopping and consumerism and focusing more on simple pleasures around the holidays—something I definitely support.
Once more, have a very merry Christmas if you celebrate, and we’ll be back on Monday for a new Plain English lesson. See you then.
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