BE 621: Is This Episode Important to You or for You?

This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 621. Is this episode important to you or for you? Welcome to the Business English Podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business.

For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Aubrey and Michelle, coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA.

Do you ever leave a conversation in English thinking, why didn't I say more? You knew the words, but you couldn't find the right moment to jump in, show your personality or really connect. That's exactly why we created Socializing in English, our brand new course. We can't wait for you to check it out.

You'll learn the unwritten social skills that most English courses never teach. So you can stop feeling awkward or invisible and start feeling like yourself in English. enrollment is open now go to allearsenglish.com slash social this week only you can save up to a hundred dollars off the normal price one more time go to allearsenglish.com slash s-o-c-i-a-l

Hey, Michelle, how are you doing? I am doing well. Aubrey, I have a question for you. What is most important to you right now? Hmm. The most important thing to me is keeping my children busy and entertained.

I've been talking to a lot of people lately about how I'm trying to get them off screen, or at least not nearly as much screen time, which is so much work for me. Like I am having to take them to things or entertain them because especially in Arizona in the summer, they can't just go play outside, unfortunately, right? And then maybe they'll swim, but then they're tired of it. So it's a lot of work to keep kids

you know, entertained and busy so that they're not just on screen, which that's my goal is to not have my kids on screen all the time. Um, yeah, that's the most important for me too. I am keeping kids off screen.

yeah okay although every time you say this i'm thrown off aubrey because i never say off screen i would just say off screens off screens interesting yeah that's yeah so you keep on saying it and and i keep on just wanting to let it go and then i'm like okay i have to say something Yeah, that's really interesting. So I've heard both for sure. We're starting to say, and I'm starting to hear because we say screen time, and then we shorten screen time to screen.

So really what I mean is to keep them off screen time, to minimize their screen time. And then that is getting shortened to just screen. Because you're right, if we would say, you know, if you're using it as accountable noun, then we would say screens. Yeah.

Yeah. Are we just ad-libbing this episode? No, I'm just joking. Ooh, tricky. A little grammar for you guys. Interesting. Both are correct. Yes, both are correct.

It's just funny. It reminds me, my kids say when they talk about searching something online, I would maybe say Google it or search it. They say search up. They're like, I'm going to search up something.

Yeah, I'm going to go search that up. But I'm like, where did that come from? Who says search up? And they're like, everyone, mom, everyone says search up.

I'm like, okay. oh gosh well we just did that episode right about evolving yes yes right the way kids talk yeah so funny um okay so anyway what yes um that is important to me as well um the only thing that is different is that i say screens and you say screen um but yes it is important to me to make sure that my kids have a fun summer and uh and also that they eat somehow healthy food, but it doesn't always work out. Healthy food, less screen time.

Absolutely. Well, we got a really interesting question on YouTube about important two versus important four. I'm excited to dive into this today. This is a real nuance in language, but I know you guys are ready for this.

So let's go ahead and read this question. First of all, this is from ChengYoYo967. I'll read the question for us. They said, I'm a longtime fan and I've listened to a million episodes of your podcast.

I love that hyperbole, that fun exaggeration. I love it too. It feels like a million episodes. Not quite there yet. I said, but today is the first time I watched you on video.

I'm still adapting to it since listening and watching can feel very different. That's so true. If you go and watch a podcast on YouTube, I've had that experience too, where people look nothing like I expected. Yes.

Yes. Yeah, because you just heard their voices on the podcast. It's so true. All right, here's the question. I have some questions about prepositions.

When I try to make a sentence, sometimes I can't distinguish two words as they both sound okay to me, and I don't know which one is correct. Some examples are four or two. For example, it is important to me to be prepared for any emergency, or it is important for me to be prepared for any emergency.

Okay, really great question. I'm excited to dive into this. Yes. Okay. So yeah, in another episode, we'll cover other examples because the listener gave more examples, but we're just going to focus on this one today.

So if you don't want to miss other episodes of our show, make sure that you hit the follow button. Yes, definitely. Wherever you are listening, search the Business English Podcast by Others English. You'll see the bright red square and be sure to hit follow so you never miss an episode.

Yes, exactly. All right. So thank you so much to our listener for this question. This is a great one. And it's really great for more advanced learners because they're not, you know, you guys may not have been commonly taught this, right?

And in a classroom setting, but there is a subtle difference in meaning and usage. So we are going to get to this today. So let's go ahead and get into important two versus important four. So

Aubrey, you want to get us started? Yeah. So it's important to me means you personally care about something, right? It tells what matters to you as a person.

It's about your personal values or feelings and is often a little more emotional than important for me. Hmm. So for example, it's important to me to support my team. So this is saying, you know, I care about my team's feelings and success.

Or finding the right work-life balance is important to me. This says I value that balanced life. Or being on time for meetings is important to our manager, right? So this is saying that the manager values punctuality and time.

Yeah. So this can be at the beginning of a thought, right? It's important to me to build rapport with my coworkers, or it could also come at the end of a thought. You could say clear communication is important to me.

So you can either name the thing that's important before or after. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Um, so let's start, let's go into it's important for me. So this means it will help you do something well.

So this is about benefit or success or results or outcomes. And it's more practical than it is emotional, like the other one, like important to me. So for example, it's important for me to prepare before meetings, um, So this is saying that this preparation helps me perform well.

Exactly. And this is really interesting because if you switch out the preposition there in the same sentence and say, it's important to me to prepare before meetings, now it's an emotion of value. Like I find this important because I want to be a dependable person. I want to be someone we can rely on.

So it's actually a total different meaning with just a change of a preposition. Really interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Or another example, it's important for me to gather all the data before making a decision.

So this says that knowing all the data is going to lead to a better result. This is going to guarantee or improve my chance of success. Yeah. Or it's important for our team to meet deadlines.

And this is saying this helps the team stay on track and succeed. Yeah. If you were going to say it's important to our team, there's a little bit more emotion to it. So that would be the difference.

And would you say, like, if you stopped a native speaker on the street and you asked them the difference, Do you have to think about it? They would really have to think about it. That's what's so interesting.

When I read this question first, I'm like, okay, let me think. Let me think through a few examples. Why am I using it? Yeah, this is not a lot of things like this about English.

Native speakers haven't thought it through. They just know which one sounds right. They just know which one they're used to hearing and using. They don't know why.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And this is interesting. The structure is a little different here, right? You're going to say it's important for, name the person and then say the thing that's important.

So it'll come at the beginning of a sentence. For example, it's important for her to learn through trial and error, but it doesn't come at the end of the sentence. This would sort of be awkward. Right.

It would sound awkward. Exactly. Right. You speak English, but do you still feel one step behind in social situations? Maybe you miss the joke, struggle to enter a conversation, or wonder whether you're sharing too much or not enough.

The problem may not be your English. It may be the unwritten social rules that no one ever taught you. Our new course, Socializing in English, teaches you how to read the moment and know what to do next. It comes with speaking opportunities up to two to three times per week to practice your English live.

Join us now at allearsenglish.com slash social. Save up to $100 before this offer ends later this week. Go to allearsenglish.com slash S-O-C-I-A-L. All right, let's compare the example our listener had, right?

So they shared, it is important to me to be prepared for any emergency. This means I care about being prepared. It's a value I have, right? And what about the second example with four?

Yeah. So if you say it's important for me to be prepared for any emergency, this is saying that being prepared helps me handle the situation better. Right.

So, you know, it's really just the change of one word, right? One tiny word difference between these sentences, but it really does convey different values. Exactly. So it's not grammatically wrong to use one or the other.

Native speakers aren't going to be like, no, that was the wrong preposition. They're just going to interpret your meaning differently. Without even realizing what you intend to say changes depending on the preposition.

Yeah. So let's just do a couple more and then we'll do a role play. So it's important to me to build strong relationships at work. So I value connection.

That's what that's saying. But if you say it's important for me to build strong relationships at work means this will help me succeed professionally. Or it's important to me to get feedback after presentations. So this is saying I personally value feedback.

Or it's important for me to get feedback after presentations means this could help my performance, right? I might not like it. Maybe I don't value it, but I recognize that's a necessary evil.

Right. All right. Let's do a role play and put these both to work here. So you and I work at the same company. I'm a manager. You're a new employee and you're about to start training for the new job.

I'll start us out. All right. Okay. We're really happy to have you join the team. Thanks. I'm happy to be here. And I wanted you to know it's important to me that you feel comfortable asking questions.

If you don't understand something, please do not hesitate to ask one of us. Oh, I really appreciate that. And I'm also very open to feedback. I think it's important for me to improve in the role.

Definitely. I couldn't agree more. And yes, we will be offering feedback throughout the whole training process. All right. Sounds good. I'm looking forward to getting started.

Nice. So first, I said, it's important to me that you feel comfortable, right? And that is because I'm sharing a value I have, right? A priority, something that I would feel some kind of emotional about, some kind of emotion about, yeah.

Right. And then I said, I think it's important for me to improve in the role. Like this is more logical. This is more, it just, it's going to help my performance.

Exactly. Right. There's no emotion there. It's all about your success, your performance. So yeah, it's interesting. And if you did say, I think it's important to me to improve in the role.

It's interesting because depending on the context and it will be just not the meaning you intend. And often because one is emotional and one isn't, it might sound strange to someone, right? If we're using emotion when something should be disconnected, logical about success, you can see why there would be a disconnect there.

So this really is important for connection to make sure that you're using the right one so that you convey the meaning you intend. Yeah. Very good point, Aubrey. All right.

Well, guys, if you haven't already, check out episode 617 of the Business English Podcast. That was Stick With Us for Business English Success. Yes, some fun phrasal verbs in that episode. So scroll up if you missed it.

And Michelle, I will see you next time. It's important to me that we record again soon. And it's important for the show. Exactly. Awesome. Thanks. We'll see you guys next time.

All right. Bye guys. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional. Want more from All Ears English?

Don't miss our biggest and best podcast with 8 million monthly downloads. Just search for the All Ears English podcast and hit follow to get four new episodes per week on fluency, American culture, grammar, and so much more. Or tap the link in the show notes. Remember, we believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English.

Follow the All Ears English podcast now.