Settle down
The phrasal verb “settle down” has a few meanings, but we’ll talk about just one of them today. And that is to become calm or stable after a period of excitement.
So if you want to use “settle down,” you need to talk about something that is changing quickly, something in a state of excitement, something agitated, things like that. And then that thing later becomes calm and quiet. The part where it becomes calm and quiet, after a period of excitement: that’s settling down.
ChatGPT settles down
ChatGPT made quite a splash when it was first released just under a year ago. It became the fastest technology in history to reach 100 million users. It seemed to be all over the news. We did two episodes about it , followed by a mini-course that hundreds of Plain English listeners took.
People thought ChatGPT would revolutionize the economy, steal their jobs, take over the world. There would be no need to write essays or do research or produce any original content—ChatGPT would just do it all for us. I even had a customer—a Plain English Plus+ member—tell me that my job was in danger of being taken by ChatGPT.
The hype over ChatGPT has started to settle down . Yes, it can produce a lot of text. But that text is not always correct, or even helpful, as many listeners learned in our free course. It was fun to ask ChatGPT to write a song in the style of Shakespeare. But, how often do you really need to do that?
So the initial hype over ChatGPT has started to settle down. It hasn’t gone away—I want to make that clear. But it’s no longer dominating the headlines like it once was. Its user activity is lower now, but stable. People are getting used to how they’ll use ChatGPT, and how they won’t use it. I think we’re finding that ChatGPT won’t revolutionize most things, but it will make improvements to them. It might not steal your job, but it can save you time at your job.
Has inflation settled down?
What’s another thing that seemed agitated or volatile? How about inflation? Inflation was high and central banks around the world raised interest rates to combat inflation. So these economic measures, inflation and interest rates, were in a period of excitement.
Do you remember how fast prices were going up? Seven, eight, nine, almost ten percent—and that was in stable economies like the U.S. and the U.K. Then central banks started raising interest rates; the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in America faster than at any time in recent history.
Eventually, inflation did start to settle down. It hasn’t gone away! But now inflation in many places is down to three or four percent. But inflation is not rising, and it’s not as high as it once was. So we can say that inflation has started to settle down.
Kids can settle down
People can settle down. Let’s start with kids. Kids might be outside, running around with their friends, yelling, screaming, throwing things, as kids do when they’re outside. But when they come inside, they have to settle down. They have to lower the energy level in the house.
Remember, to settle down is to become calm or stable after a period of excitement. So when kids come in off the soccer field, they need to settle down before coming into the house.
Settle down after an argument
But kids are not the only people who may need to settle down. Two adults might get into an argument. Tempers might flare. Voices might be raised. There might be some strong opinions expressed. And the adults might recognize that they need to settle down after having an argument. They need to lower the temperature, be calm again.
Settle down after a long day
Or, your period of excitement might not be an argument, just an exciting day. Have you ever had a really full day—at work, with family, with friends, whatever—just a lot going on that day, high energy, whatever.
It’s hard to walk in the door of your house after a high-energy day and then go straight into bed and go to sleep. It’s a good idea to settle down for a while before trying to sleep.
So let’s say you have a long day at work, you come home, make dinner for the whole family, get kids in bed. And you’re tired—but the excitement of the day has just ended. You need to settle down before going to sleep yourself.
See you next time!
And that’s all for today’s Plain English, for Monday, October 23, 2023.
Remember, get all the updates from Plain English, including chances to take quizzes and learn even more English words, with JR’s e-mails. Get those by visiting PlainEnglish.com/mail .
On Thursday, we’ll be back with a brand-new topic: Just wait until you hear what type of business is embracing “surge pricing.”
That’s on Thursday—see you then.
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
