AEE 2054: Avoid Running into English Traps and Glass Doors

This is an All-Ears English Podcast episode 2054. Avoid running into English traps and glass doors. Welcome to the All-Ears English Podcast. Downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York Radio Girl. Coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. And to get your transcript delivered by email every week, go to allyearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe. Are you someone who runs into things a lot? Do you bump into walls or doors at home? Today, find out the difference between bump into and run into, and how to use it to talk about physical events, and meeting someone when you don't expect it. Hey, Michelle, what's shaking? Hey, Lindsay, not too much. How's it going with you? Going pretty well. What's new around the block? What's going on? Well, I mean, I was just thinking, you know, one of the things I love about my neighborhood is that I always run into friends. Like, actually, just yesterday, I ran into my friend Liz, and I hadn't seen her in a little while, because I've been away, and my kids were sick, and so I just ran into her on the corner, and I just love that. Lindsay, does that happen to you in your neighborhood a lot? Do you just run into people? Not really, but when I walk my dog, like, my dog has his friends, right? So, like, I know the dog moms and the dog dads, and so we kind of like, we're acquaintances, and we chat, and that kind of thing. So, in that sense, yes, but not actual, like, friends friends. Like, although the other day, I did run in a couple of our friends who live down the street. They popped in just to say hi. I wasn't home, but I was just coming home, so I saw them on the corner. So, yeah, I guess that can happen. Oh, so were they already leaving when you saw them on the corner? Yeah, they have a new baby, so they had to get her home for, like, it was like six. It was bedtime, you know? But they had just stopped by to see if I was home or if we were home, so. Oh, that's nice. That's nice. I know, it's some of a bygone era, right? You know, and something that people don't do as much anymore is just stop by and just, like, say hi, right? Right. No, that is true. It's, yeah, it's kind of not done that frequently. So, but that is, it is fun always for me when I run into friends. I love that, and it does happen a lot. So, here we go. So, but today we have a great listener question about running into people and things like that. But we'll get into it in a second. Guys, what do we, Lindsey, what do we want to remind our listeners? Well, we just want to let you guys know that there's another way to consume all ears English, and that is inside our iOS or Android app. If you consume the show in there, you get all of the episodes just as you do here. But you get to tap on key vocabulary words. You get to see transcripts. If you're a premium member, create your power list of words to study. Yeah. So, you do get to go a couple levels deeper with the show, right, Michelle? Absolutely. I know. I love that with their own power list. Because I know for me, I would be just writing things down on little slips of paper and losing them. And here it's all all together. So, I love that picture. Yeah, exactly. That's why hundreds of users are already over there as premium users inside the app. They found a way to go deeper with all ears English. So, if you guys want to check out what that's all about, there's a seven day free trial for it. Go over to allersenglish.com slash app. And you can always listen to the podcast over there for free as well. So, that's fantastic. Yes. Wonderful. All right. So, we have a listener question from Felicity today. Lindsay, would you like to read it? Listen, yeah, I love that name. Fantastic. Here we go. Highland the Michelle. Your podcast is stunning. Not only the fact that you publish constantly makes it special, but the way you convey all the information about English and American culture is literally unique. Michelle, that is such a nice piece of. Is it the nice? I love that. Thank you. I love it. And here's the question. By the way, I came across two different phrasal verbs. Run into somebody and bump into someone. And I tried to figure out how they're different from each other, but with no specific result. Could you please elaborate on that? Thank you for always being there in answering our questions, Felicity. Oh, that's a lovely message. Love the letter. We love your letters, guys. Send us letters. Yes. Thank you, Felicity. That is so, so nice. So we appreciate that. And it's also a great question. Is it a great question? Yeah, it is. It is. So, guys, we want to direct you over also to all ears English episode 170 was, it's been a minute. How to connect when you run into someone? It's been a minute. I love that expression. Check out that episode. Go over there. So let's get into this particular question from Felicity today. So let's just break it right down here, Michelle. Let's start with run into. What is it? So, okay. Run into is to unexpectedly meet someone or maybe have some trouble. Well, there's a few different definitions. So you can, but the, so the idea is that you like, probably don't expect it, right? So you didn't expect to meet someone. You didn't expect to have some trouble. Or you physically might run into something. And that's probably painful. But let's get to some examples. Well, I was just going to say it's kind of what you were saying in the last episode in 2048 that we recorded about stubbing your toe. Yeah, I'm always running into the bed. So, but there I don't mean that I'm unexpectedly meeting it. Although, I guess I kind of do it. So, yeah, exactly. But all right. So let's, let's give some examples here. So to unexpectedly meet someone, an example would be what? Okay. I ran into my old teacher at the mall. So you, you know, you're just doing your shopping, maybe for school back to school or something. And all of a sudden, there's your old teacher. It's a surprise. Okay. Yeah, that's good. And then about having some trouble, could be I ran into some problems when I was trying to upload the files. So that's not a physical running into a problem physically, but you encountered some problems, right? And then what's a physical interaction? I ran into the sliding glass door when I wasn't looking. I'm sure we all have our stories. I'm sure we'll have our stories. Ouch. Yeah, exactly. Done a few things like this. I can't think of one specific time, but I know like there's been times when I've just been walking down the street, paying no attention. And you walk into like a sign or a telephone. Yeah, exactly. And then you've got to look around. Did anyone see that? That's right. Okay, Michelle. So that's run into. I feel like this is going to be challenging today, because I think they're pretty similar in a lot of ways. So we've got to break down the differences for our listeners. Right. Tell us about that. Right. So well, I think that this is almost the same. Just like what you said, Lindsay, however, there are times when it doesn't work, right? Like I wouldn't, I would say I ran into some problems, but I wouldn't say I bumped into some problems, right? So I think, I think the second part where you're having some trouble, I don't really think that you would say bumped into. No, no, right? So that one I would just kind of ex that out. I mean, maybe it's possible. Sometimes it would make sense. But basically, I wouldn't say like, oh, I bumped into an issue with my computer. I would say I ran into, you know, it just sounds better. So it sounds like we're saying that bumped into is only physical. Is that right? Or is running to be physical or logistically? Yeah, I think that that's a good, right? Yeah, that's a good take away from it. Yeah, because the other two definitions I would use. So like the one about the teacher, I bumped into my old teacher at the mall. So the interesting thing in here is it sounds like you may have actually like bumped into the teacher, but it really depends on the context. So we're going to talk about that more, a more in just a second. But yeah, you could say I bumped into my old teacher at the mall to me and I unexpectedly met this teacher, right? Or what about the sliding glass door, Lindsay? Okay, so it would work here too. So I bumped into the sliding glass door when I wasn't looking. So, but how does run into the sliding glass door versus bumped into sound different? How does it feel a little bit different? I think, and if guys, if you're watching on YouTube, it's like, I'm not going to run into a door, but like a cartoon or something, right? Yeah, but like a run it, it's like, you're like actually like, it's with more, like bump seems like, oops, like I like, like a little more dainty, a little more dainty. Okay, I bumped into it, right? Yeah, so, but yeah, I think that, I think basically to run into is more about, I think that run into is used more about meeting and bumped into seems a little bit more physical. Like, sorry, I bumped into you. However, it's, they're kind of entertained, changeable. What do you think? I think they're pretty interchangeable. I would say usually bumped into 10s mortars of physical and ran is a little more broad. Ran into could be like, you encounter or it could be physical at the same time. Yeah. Right, right, right. Like, and ran into like the door, that's more sounds like you're like, plowing through the door. It kind of, it kind of might be more slight. But yeah, I think run into implies there's more steam behind you. There's more momentum. There's more momentum with which you're throwing your body weight into this thing, whereas bump through. You don't have much, oh, you just want to turn around. Like, we use bumped into someone at a concert, for example, you're constantly bumping into people or a line in an airport hotel. I was thinking airport too. I was thinking of some reason airport, right? Or, you know, and this is interesting, culturally speaking, oh my gosh. Yes, I remember, was it, I think when we were coming back from, we were in Argentina, we realized that, you know, norms around body space are much different and body contact in public. So there was a lot of people kind of bumping us to get to their bags on the belt. And I was like, oh, hell like, and I knew it was cultural. I knew it was different, but I did get frustrated going back to frustration right from a few episodes ago. There are those moments when we travel abroad that we realize the world has different values and norms around physically sort of getting close and moving to make your own space. I think in American culture, it's not okay to what would you say, Michelle? Yes, I would say, and if you're going to start bumping people, like, you know, people got upset. It's not good, but we were in Argentina in this case. So I was like, okay, yeah, you just kind of have to realize and not like, yeah, I think the physical cultural differences can be some of the more difficult ones to, you know, to adjust to it because they're like, wait, what? Like, I don't know what's happening with these people, right? It's like, you think about it now. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but when it happens to, you're like, right, it's very stark. You're like, oh, my gosh, that person just bumped me to get to their bag. I can't even believe it, you know, it's really interesting. So bumping to is used more in that context. Concerts, airport lines, getting your bag from an airline belt, right? Yeah, right, right, right. Yeah, right, exactly. So I think to run into is more about this spontaneous meeting, where bumped into might be a little more physical, but both can be used for meeting someone. So you can say, I ran into my friend at the store or I bumped into my friend at the store. It's right, they're both, they're both okay. But it would, I mean, it would like, like Lindsay, you said, run into is physically with more force, more momentum. And I was thinking, bump into is more of like a bounce right, like, or shoulder shoulder thing. Right, like, right. Like I ran into that tree when I wasn't looking or I bumped into that tree a little bit. Like, right, like, but which one do you think would hurt more? Ran into no question. For some reason, I can't stop thinking, when I think about run into, I can't stop getting the image of speed one out of my head. I don't know why I speed. Like, who was the, um, who was the guy, the actor in it? Not Nicholas Cage, was it Nicholas Cage? He's like always running the bus. He like took the bus, right? I never saw it, but there was a speed. I know it was huge. So that's Sandra Bullock, right? Sandra Bullock and canneries, I think. Canneries. Ah, I feel like they're always running, like, they took a bus and they went crazy all over the city. That's running the bus into something or running into things, running after things, not bumping. He's not a gentle bump. Right, right, right. So should I see speed? Probably because of the classic icon or you probably should. It is, you know, it's a 90s movie. But yeah, I think you gotta go back and see the icon. All right, I'll do it. I'll do it. So, but yeah, I mean, and then like we said, um, you know, you can, if you talk about like issues coming up, I ran into a few technical issues, but the presentation went well overall. So yeah, yeah, I think that, you know, we went over some of the basic differences here. Actually, we do a roleplay for our listeners. Let's do it. All right, so we are at the gym. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, I didn't know you go to this gym too. Yeah, so funny running into you. Yeah, how are you? Just okay. I ran into the wall at my house and broke my wrist. Ouch. It's amazing. You still made it to the gym. Thanks. Yeah, I'm on the mend. I love to do a glass door the other day, but it was too bad. Glad you're okay. Yeah, I feel like I always run into these situations too. Climbsy at times. Same. The situation is hilarious, because it's so unlikely. Like, first of all, you walked into a wall, unlikely, but could happen at your house, and then you went to the gym Michelle, right? Less likely, too. Right. Oh, I'm teasing you here a little bit. Lindsay, that's mean. That was mean. No, that's okay. Yeah, if it, that's true. We really had to get into character for this. Yeah, we did. We did. Wow. That's good though. So, okay, you're funny. So, okay, I said, so funny, running into you. Now, I didn't actually smack into you, right? Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah, in this case, we're not really talking about that physical encounter with all that momentum behind it. Right. We're talking about we saw each other. Right. Right. Right. And then you, yeah, and then what? All right. And then I said, I'm just okay. I ran into the wall in my house and broke my wrist. That must have been a bad one. Yeah. That must have been a bad one. And then you said, I, you were relating to me. I, the two of us, I don't know what's wrong. I bumped into a glass door the other day, but it wasn't too bad. So, see, like you said, I bumped into it. It wasn't too bad, like, you know, maybe, you know, just like a bounce. You bounce off of it. Right. So, that's contrasting your run in with the, with the wall. Right. With my wrist. Yeah. It's like slightly less, right? Yeah. It's a lighter. Encounter. Yeah. Yeah. And then, yeah. And then what did you say? And then, yeah, I said, yeah, I feel like I always run into these situations. That's interesting, right? It's kind of a pun there a little bit. True. That's true, huh? Yeah, you wrote a pun without even, sometimes we use puns that have even realizing it. Run, because we're using, hopefully our listeners get why that's a pun after the episode, right? Physically encountering walls in the house or glass doors and encountering these situations. I love that. Maybe that'll have to be part of our title. I'll have to see what we can come up with. Ooh. All right. Awesome. Well, so yeah, guys, you can see, I mean, the takeaway for today is these are, they can be very similar, but there are some key differences. I would think bump, when I, when I, if I wanted to remember it, I would think bump bounce, right? Like I kind of bounced into some, right, the two bees, right? Run into is with more force and more about encountering problems, but they can both mostly be used for the, just like meeting someone unexpectedly. Yeah. But I think run into is used a little bit more frequently for that, just throwing that out there. Yeah, I love it. I think that's, those are the key differences right there. I hope it's clear, guys, if it's not, go back, get the app, get the iOS app, go to allersengler, or Android, go to allersenglish.com slash app. And listen to this episode again, maybe with the transcripts, with the powerless, add these words to your powerless, really get this because it does matter, right? These are the nuances that get us to that high, high level of connection and fluency, right, Michelle? That's right, Lindsay. So, guys, we hope you don't run into any last doors today. Everyone stay safe. And we will see you in the next episode. All right, take care, Michelle. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to allersenglish. 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