Show up
Today’s expression is “show up.” I almost missed it. I was looking for a good expression or phrasal verb and I skipped right by “show up” when I was reading through the transcript. But it’s a good one. It’s a really, really good one, and I want you to practice using it right away. There are two ways to use it—when you’re referring to a thing, and when you’re referring to a person.
Here’s how you heard it earlier. Cookie announcements have started showing up on websites all over the internet. The announcements have started showing up. That means, the cookie announcements have started appearing all over the internet.
If you’re referring to a thing, then “show up” means to appear. You usually say this when you’re starting to see something where you were not expecting it, or where there was nothing before. Here are some examples.
There’s an error message showing up on my screen. I’m looking at my screen. Everything’s normal. Now an error message appears when I wasn’t expecting it. An error message showed up. It appeared.
These brown spots started showing up on the leaves of my house plants. I think it means they’re not getting enough water; or maybe it means they’re getting too much water. I can never tell.
Over the last few years, more and more little gray hairs have started showing up on the sides of my head. Just out of nowhere. Unexplained. Probably too much stress from trying to keep my plants alive!
Okay, now let’s talk about “show up” with people. When we’re talking about people, “show up” means to go to a specific place, to present yourself there. We often say “show up to” when we want to specify the place. For example, I usually show up to work around 8:00 in the morning. Work is the place; I specify that I show up to work around 8:00.
My colleague shows up late all the time. That’s frustrating. You might have a friend like that, someone you know who always shows up late. It doesn’t matter where, that person just shows up late to everything.
I have no idea how many people are going to show up to my party. Maybe a lot of people will show up; maybe a lot of people will attend. Maybe just a handful of people will show up. We don’t know.
Hundreds of people showed up to protest in the streets. What does that mean? There was a protest and hundreds of people were there. Hundreds of people showed up.
Quote of the week
It’s a Plain English first! The quote of the week includes the expression. The quote is from the actor Woddy Allen and it’s a famous one in English. You see versions of this quote all over the internet, but the first person to say it was Woody Allen. Here it is: “Showing up is 80 percent of life.” There are other variants. Often you hear that “80 percent of success is just showing up.” But they all mean the same thing. You have to try. You have to show up. Just start. Do something. That’s not a guarantee of success, but it is necessary. So many people don’t show up; they don’t try. They give up.
Think about it. Let’s say you want to be closer to friends and family in 2020. It can sometimes be daunting, intimidating. But if that’s your goal, just dial the number. That’s showing up, in this sense. Pick up the phone and dial the number and press the green button. That’s 80 percent of what you need to keep up a friendship with someone. The other 20 percent is whatever you say to that person when they pick up. But just showing up, just placing the call, that gets you 80 percent of the way there, according to this quote.
This is a good one as we close the year and transition into 2020. Thank you for showing up to Plain English every Monday and Thursday. There are a lot of people in this world who say they want to be better at English, but they’re not the ones listening to podcasts in English. You are—just listening, just doing something is 80 percent. You do have to do the other 20 percent; don’t get me wrong. But just showing up, doing something, that’s 80 percent of the effort, so congratulations on that. Congratulations on finishing 2019 strong with us at Plain English, and we’ll see you right back here in 2020.
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
