Morph into

Morph into

“Morph into”—this is a weird one. Morph—m-o-r-p-h—means to slowly change. So if one thing morphs into something else, it slowly, gradually, changes into something else, something much different.

What is a film festival? A film festival is a gathering of people—fans of the cinema, industry insiders, actors, studios, whatever—and films are shown, maybe awards are handed out, lectures are given. There’s industry networking. And there are parties. Here’s one thing you don’t find at film festivals: announcements of new laundry detergents.

But this year, Proctor and Gamble announced a new version of Tide laundry detergent at the South by Southwest film festival.

Actually, South by Southwest is not a film festival anymore. It started as a film festival, but it has since morphed into a cultural festival that includes the arts, technology, environmental causes, and now, apparently, new household products.

South by Southwest morphed into a cultural festival. So it started as film festival. And then gradually it expanded into adjacent topics—music. And then since all these artistic people were there anyway, it kind of became an art festival too.

And then since it was so popular, and all these rich people were there, and all those rich people got so rich making money in technology, it became a technology festival. And then since it was already a film, music, art, culture, and technology festival, it’s now just a total free-for-all , where you can learn about new laundry detergent, and, presumably, lots of other unrelated things.

I have no idea; I have never been and haven’t ever been interested in this festival. But the point is, the organizers didn’t wake up one day and announce, “We’re changing South by Southwest from only a film festival to this wide-ranging cultural festival.” The change happened gradually, organically, over a period of time.

When we use “morph into,” we’re talking about what something is, the essence of something. It’s not like, my hair morphed into having a little gray sprinkled in. That’s a minor change. We use “morph into” when something’s full nature changes.

Not long ago, America’s Republican Party stood for free trade, low taxes, low national borrowing, a friendly environment for big business, strong international alliances, and a muscular foreign policy that defended America’s interest abroad.

Over about the last ten years, though, the party has morphed into something much different. Now the Republicans don’t care much for free trade; they’re skeptical of, or even hostile to, big business; they’re isolationist; and they don’t care about keeping the budget under control.

This was a big change. It was a change in what the party is. It didn’t happen overnight. It was gradual. But it was a big change in what the party is. The principles of this political party today are quite different, in many cases completely the opposite of the principles the party espoused just ten, twelve years ago.

There’s an area on the west side of Manhattan called the “Meatpacking District.” Now don’t worry: there are no slaughterhouses there today. But in the late 1800s and early 1900s, this is where the regional meat, dairy, and poultry markets were. Then refrigeration improved, supermarkets got popular, and this activity moved out of Manhattan.

In those times of change, the Meatpacking District morphed into an area of drug dealing, prostitution, and shady clubs controlled by the mafia. This was a gradual change. Areas like this change slowly—but once it was an industrial district, literally meat packing, and then many years later, after a gradual transformation, it was a dangerous part of town.

And then, another change came to the area. They shut down the drug markets, cleared out the mafia, and cleaned up the streets. The Meatpacking District morphed into a popular area with high-end apartments, innovative architecture, boutiques, museums, and sought-after restaurants. If you’ve been to the original segment of the High Line park, the southernmost part, then you’ve been to the Meatpacking District.

See you next time!

We have morphed. We here at Plain English have morphed. Oh yes we have.

We have morphed from a weekly podcast into, really, a full learning platform. At the very beginning, the web site was just the transcripts and the translations. The in-text translations, that we still offer. We started with Spanish only, I think, JR did them himself, and then over the years we added the other eight languages.

And what else did we add? We added a step-by-step video lesson, which then became a full workshop—we have hundreds of those now. We added something called “Learn the Lingo,” which started only by email, then we put it on the website, and now we improved it and it’s called the “Casual Dictionary.”

During COVID, right during the lockdowns, we added live calls. What else? Discussion area—this was recent, where you can practice writing examples of what you learn and get feedback from me.

We added exercises—quizzes, pronunciation, listening, grammar, vocabulary exercises, all them of them interactive—you get feedback right away when you do the activities. Expert Answers—this was the newest thing we added. You ask me a question on video, you get video reply from me.

And all this started from just a podcast—oh, and it’s twice a week now. At the very, very beginning it was just once a week.

So we have morphed—gradually, this didn’t happen overnight, I didn’t snap my fingers one day and have this full platform—but we have morphed from just a weekly podcast with a transcript to a full online learning platform.

And we have recently improved the whole experience at PlainEnglish.com, so if you haven’t been on there in a while, check it out. PlainEnglish.com, log in, if you’re a member; if not, sign up. A lot of the content is free. Explore, see what you think. Enjoy it. It’s for you, it’s all to help you improve.

All right, that’s it for today. We will be back on Monday with a new story and a new expression. See you then.