Filter out
Today’s expression is to “filter out.” When you filter something out, you separate the things you don’t want so that you are left with the things you do want. When we use “filter out” we’re talking about the stuff we want to exclude. This is a phrasal verb, filter out, and the object of the phrasal verb is the thing you want to exclude.
Do you remember what I want to filter out? Or rather, what I want the audio software in Zoom and Microsoft Teams to filter out? I want it to filter out the sound of people typing on a keyboard or clicking on a mouse . That is just so annoying to try to speak on a call and all you hear is people’s fingers clicking and clacking on a keyboard. I think the software should filter that sound out. The software should be able to identify the sound of a keyboard or a mouse and the software should automatically silence that noise. The software should filter that noise out: it should exclude that noise from the sound that comes out of your speakers.
JR processes the audio from this program and he filters out sounds at low volumes. It’s called a noise gate. If there are any low-volume sounds in the recording while I’m not talking, those sounds get filtered out. You don’t hear them. We exclude those so that what’s left is what’s important—the sound of my own voice is obviously the most important thing here!
We need to filter out the distractions and focus on what’s important. That’s a very common thing to say. We need to filter out the distractions and focus on what’s important. In so many cases, you need to analyze a situation, and there’s important information available and there’s unimportant information available. You can’t make a decision if your thinking is clouded by all the unimportant things. So you need to filter out the distractions and concentrate on what’s important. Exclude the things that don’t matter, and you’re left with the things that do matter.
Have you ever had to hire someone? You might notice that you get lots of applications from people who are not even remotely qualified for the job. Sometimes they just send a resume blindly and don’t even customize the cover letter. Your first step is to filter those people out. You need to filter out the people who are not qualified and then you can concentrate on making your choice from among the people who are qualified. You filter out the bad candidates so that you’re left with only the good ones.
This is funny. I worked at a mail-order company as a teenager. It was a warehouse in the back and an office in the front. I worked in both parts. When I was working in the office, my job was to open the mail for mail-in contests. Back then, before the internet, companies would run contests by mail. It was a way to build excitement around the brand. So one time, a company ran a contest that said, if you mail in a joke that’s under 50 words, we’ll pick the best jokes and send the winners a prize. Just for sending in a joke, we’ll send you back a coupon or a discount or something.
So my job—I was sixteen—my job was to open the mail and filter out the jokes that didn’t comply with the contest rules. There were really only two rules: the jokes had to be 50 words or fewer and they couldn’t be lewd. Lewd is like, inappropriate. Jokes about, say, bodily functions or jokes of a sexual nature. It was my job to filter those out. It was a big responsibility! I had to read every joke, count the words, and determine if the joke was lewd or not—I got paid for this!
Now the funny thing is, I was only sixteen, so at that point in my life, let’s just say I didn’t have an appreciation for the full range of ways a joke could be lewd. There were lots of lewd jokes I just didn’t understand. So as hard as I tried to filter out all the inappropriate jokes, a few bad ones still slipped by.
JR’s song of the week
Now it’s time for JR’s song of the week. It’s called “Hugging You” by Tom Rosenthal, featuring Billie Marten, and listen to the acoustic version—that’s the one JR has selected for today. This is a duet. The two, Tom Rosenthal and Billie Marten, alternate and sing together. The video is interesting…it shows pairs of people who all start hugging. They’re not always romantic partners—some clearly are, but others are clearly just friends. And it almost looks like people are purposely standing six feet apart, social distancing, before embracing. But the video came out in 2018.
“Hugging You” by Tom Rosenthal, featuring Billie Marten, the acoustic version: that’s JR’s song this week. And check out the video on YouTube .
See you next time!
What a job, I can’t believe I got paid to read jokes in a contest. I wasn’t the judge; that was far above my pay grade. Now it’s bringing back memories. I would open these jokes in the afternoon after school, and it was weeks on end these jokes would come pouring in from around the country. And people would send multiple entries, so I started to recognize their handwriting.
And one guy must have misinterpreted the rules. The rules said the jokes had to be 50 words or fewer, but all his jokes were exactly, precisely 50 words. That meant I had to count every single word. If a joke came in and it was twelve words, I didn’t have to count every word—it was obvious. Likewise if someone wrote a book—I could just filter that out easily. But if it was ever close, I had to count every single word. And this guy always was 50 words exactly.
All right, I think we’ve got a new topic for an upcoming Live call with Plain English Plus+ members. A couple times a month, we get together to have a live video call in English and we talk about either a recent lesson topic or something else going on. But I think we need a call talking about our first jobs as teenagers. I think that would be fun, so if you’re a Plain English Plus+ member, watch your email and the calendar on your dashboard for the call about this topic.
And if you’re not yet a Plus+ member, then consider joining us. We have fun on the live calls. You can practice all your new expressions right on the site and I’ll give you personal feedback. And we have lots of exercises and additional lessons, too, lots of ways to build those skills in English and get your practice in every week. If that sounds like it’s for you, then check us out at PlainEnglish.com/Plus .
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
