To spell out

To spell out

Today we have a phrasal verb, and that is to spell something out. We all know what spelling is, so for example, I can spell out the word “pig,” P-I-G. But that’s not what I mean by “to spell something out.”

To spell something out is to explain it very clearly and explicitly. Do you remember how you heard it earlier? I was talking about how the African Swine Virus was spreading from animal to animal in a pig farm. As I was preparing this episode, I read all about how this disease spreads in a pig farm. I made the executive decision, as the person in charge of the content of this podcast, not to spell out the different ways this disease spreads. I decided not to explain it clearly and explicitly. You can thank me later. I know we’re all here to learn new words in English, but I personally am not here to teach you some of these words, so I elected not to spell it all out for you. In fact, I had to look a couple of words up in the dictionary, and let me tell you—it’s gross. So, if you’re really interested in learning this stuff, you can find it all online—believe me—but I decided not to spell it all out for you.

This is also a term you might use at work. Some people are comfortable with a little uncertainty at work; they don’t need explicit step-by-step instructions. Others are the opposite: they want everything to be spelled out. If you’re going to give a person like that a project, you’ll want to be prepared to spell everything out: to make sure that you explicitly say everything you want that person to do.

Do you remember the episode we did about the parents who allegedly cheated to get their kids admitted to prestigious universities? Federal prosecutors spelled out the illegal things that they say parents did in order to get their kids admitted. The indictment spells the charges out: it explains them, it details them, clearly and explicitly.

One more example. You may have seen the news that British Prime Minister Theresa May has resigned. When they originally held the Brexit vote, nobody spelled out exactly what it would mean to leave the EU. As a result, people voted for a concept, but not a plan. Had they spelled out the exact tradeoffs, the outcome of the vote might have been different. Instead, they sent their government to negotiate a deal with Brussels. But when Theresa May spelled out the details of her plan to the British Parliament, the plan was rejected three times in a row.

JR’s song of the week

Time for our song of the week. I know a lot of people like to learn English through songs; I don’t personally put too much stock in learning via songs. Maybe learning a couple of words, but song lyrics aren’t exactly how people speak, right? But listening to songs in English and understanding the words is a lot of fun, so that’s why we suggest one for you each week.

Today’s song of the week was nominated by Fabio, no location given. We could guess, but I wouldn’t want to guess wrong. Fabio suggests “Mysterious Ways” by the Irish band U2. That song was included in the album “Achtung Baby,” released in 1991. The song is speaking to a young man who seems entranced by women and love. “She moves in mysterious ways,” is the main line in that song, and in fact the working name of the album, before it became “Achtung Baby” was “Fear of Women.” I think they made the right choice there to ditch the working title, but it gives you a hint about what they were thinking.

“Mysterious Ways” by U2, nominated by Fabio in an undisclosed location. If you would like to nominate your favorite English song for inclusion in a future episode, please e-mail your selection to [email protected].

That’s all for today’s episode. Remember we send out additional study resources by e-mail, totally free. If you’d like to get those, just visit PlainEnglish.com/mail and enter your details. We send one more vocabulary word plus links to English articles about the main topic—and those come out twice a week. We have JR to thank for those emails, what with his new promotion. PlainEnglish.com/mail . We’ll be back on Monday: if you like architecture, then Monday’s episode will be one for you. See you then.