Peace of mind

Peace of mind

Today’s expression is “peace of mind.” This is a way of describing a feeling. When you have “peace of mind,” you feel safe and secure; you’re not worried .

A curious thing about this phrase is that we often say that someone has “greater” peace of mind or “some” piece of mind or “a little” peace of mind. Did you notice? We often say a person has peace of mind in degrees .

In fact, I said “some” peace of mind in today’s main lesson. Used car buyers are in a tough position , as we learned: it’s stressful , high-risk proposition to buy a secondhand vehicle . Some car dealerships, though, can offer some peace of mind with by performing thorough inspections and offering longer warranties . These car dealerships—try as they might!—can’t completely eliminate all worry around buying a used car. They can’t make you feel 100% safe and secure about the purchase. But they can make you feel a little better than you would otherwise feel. They can give you some peace of mind.

What other companies offer you peace of mind? Here’s an example of a product designed entirely to give you peace of mind: home security systems . Households don’t use home security systems every day. Sure, they may set them every day. But the security system’s function —to alert you to an intruder —isn’t something you use every day. Still, the home security systems offer value every day. The value they offer is greater peace of mind for the home owner; a greater sense of safety and security. Notice I said, “greater peace of mind.” A home security system is not a foolproof guarantee that nothing bad will happen to your home. But it does give you greater peace of mind than just a lock .

Refund periods often give me peace of mind. I buy shoes so infrequently that I never know what size I wear. I look on the pair of shoes I’m wearing and order that size. But every shoemaker is a little different, and even shoes from the same brand can feel differently. I got a pair of 11’s in the mail and they were too big. Luckily , I could return them without paying for return shipping. Zappos, an online shoe store, offers customers like me peace of mind. If the shoes don’t fit, we can return them for a full refund—and we don’t have to pay for return shipping.

If you’ve got a slight fever , you might start to get worried. Do you have COVID? What can give you some peace of mind in that case? Perhaps a coronavirus test would give you some peace of mind. If the test comes back negative , then that’s good: you just have a normal fever. If it comes back positive, you know that you’ll have to self-quarantine and monitor your symptoms . But either way, it gives you peace of mind. Like I said earlier, information is power. You can act in your own best interest once you know what it is. But if you don’t know, all you’ll do is worry. The test—whatever the results—can give you some peace of mind.

JR’s song of the week

Today’s song of the week is “Heart of Glass” by Miley Cyrus.

I didn’t know Miley Cyrus performed this song; I listened to the original, by Blondie. But whichever version you choose , it’s a fun, upbeat song. And guess what? There’s a line that says, “Love is so confusing, there’s no peace of mind.”

This is a first! JR picks the song in advance and then I write the lesson. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that the expression we explained appears as a lyric in the song. “Heart of Glass”, performed by Miley Cyrus is the song of the week, as chosen by JR, with the Blondie version for those of you over 30 like me.

See you next time!

New Plain English Plus+ members can also enjoy peace of mind. When you sign up for our membership program—which is excellent, by the way—you can request a refund within 30 days and I’ll give you all your money back, no problem whatsoever. You can enjoy all the benefits for 30 whole days—the fast version, the massive library of instructional videos, the grammar quizzes, pronunciation exercises, translations, courses, listening quizzes, live calls, all that. If after 30 days, that’s not what you wanted, I’ll refund your money. No hoops to jump through, no questions, no tricks. I’m not crossing my fingers behind my back. I only offer one product for sale online and I want my members to have peace of mind when they click that “join” button.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not giving refunds every day. There aren’t a whole lot of requests for refunds because our members love the program. But every few months, one person will say, hey, this isn’t what I was looking for and I’ll send the money right back, the same day. That’s the peace of mind we offer with Plain English Plus+.

So if you have some doubts, don’t worry: I’m here to offer you peace of mind. Sign up at PlainEnglish.com/Plus and I’ll guarantee you’ll like it. If it’s not for you, I’ll refund your money within the first 30 days. Peace of mind.

And that’s it for today, thanks for indulging me that little commercial. Next week, we’ll talk about the startup companies that are trying to make used-car buying easier. That’ll be a lot of fun. One of them offers cars out of a vending machine . To learn all about that, come join us right back here one week from today, next Thursday.