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English LingQ Podcast 1.0, One hundred and nineteen: Growl, groan, mutter

One hundred and nineteen: Growl, groan, mutter

Steve: Well Mark, this is going to be our first podcast since Jill left.

Mark: That's right.

I think the last few weeks we had been away and we had recorded a few ahead of time that went up, but this is indeed. It's the first time that we've done one together in awhile.

Steve: I know.

Mark: Since we sort of switched off with Jill for a long time.

Steve: We're going to miss Jill. First of all, of course, it's a very happy occasion. She had a baby girl, Clara; whatever she was, 5 ½ pounds.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: Both mom and daughter are doing well, but we're going to miss her because she was great to have here to talk about different subjects.

Mark: And I'm sure many of you will as well, but you'll have to settle for us.

Steve: Or we may introduce some other guest speakers. No, I think it's good to have both the male and female voices.

Mark: Oh absolutely.

Steve: And so, unfortunately, you'll have to make do with the Mutt and Jeff combination here of Mark and Steve. Mark, you mentioned to me that one of our learners had asked about certain words?

Mark: Yeah, on our Forum Annapaula from Brazil was asking us to talk about the difference between or at least the words “groan”, “growl” and “mutter.” I guess the differences and similarities and when to use one and not the other and so forth.

Steve: You know it's interesting, it's not only in English, but I'm finding this in Russian as well that words that imply you know “grumble”, “growl”, “grouch”, “mutter”, they all have “r's” in them, so I think “aarr”, “uurr” is kind of a sound that's associated with being not too happy or grouchy or growly or whatever. However, be that as it may…

Mark: Although, mutter isn't necessarily related to being unhappy. I guess it is; in a way it is.

Steve: No, but if you looked up the entomology the origin of that word it might have something to do with that. So, when do you growl? Who growls?

Mark: Well, I know Gordie my dog growls at shadows mostly at night.

Steve: Would you say that we associate the word growl with animals?

Mark: For the most part. I would say it probably comes from animals and then is sort of transferred to humans.

Steve: Right, particularly dogs. I mean cats don't growl.

Mark: No.

Steve: But dogs growl.

Mark: Right.

Steve: That is an onomatopoeic word. In other words, it sounds like the meaning.

Mark: Right.

Steve: What was the next one?

Mark: Obviously, though, if we talk about a person growling at someone that just means they're talking unkindly or snapping or snarling or growling.

Steve: There's another “r” word.

Mark: Right.

Steve: And, typically, we think of someone who has a bit of a nasty personality as growling.

Mark: Right.

Steve: And we wouldn't say, necessarily, I mean we couldn't imagine Jill growling.

Mark: No.

Steve: No, but you or I might growl.

Mark: Well, when it warrants it.

Steve: When it's warranted. What was the other word?

Mark: So that was growl. There was groan, I believe.

Steve: Okay, now groan can be either an animal or a human being.

Mark: Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily associate it with an animal. I mean, yeah, it could be.

Steve: Right.

Mark: It's more a sound you make, it's an unhappy sound or when you're in pain.

Steve: Pain is the word.

Mark: Yeah, right.

Steve: If I think of a word to associate with groan it's groaning with pain.

Mark: Or you can groan with disappointment.

Steve: Yes, yes, so that it's almost sort of figurative pain.

Mark: Right.

Steve: “Oh no” groaned so and so.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: Alright, growl, groan.

Mark: Growl, groan and mutter.

Steve: Mutter; mutter is a little different. When I think of mutter, again, we often think of sort of handy phrases for words. When I think of mutter the first phrase that comes to mind is “He muttered under his breathe. That foolish Mark, why did he do that?” It's sort of speaking not very clearly and, typically, you're grumbling and griping…

Mark: …about something or someone.

Steve: There again, we have some similar sounding words.

Mark: Right.

Steve: To grumble is to mutter and to complain and to gripe.

Mark: Right.

Steve: Which means the same.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: So, I hope that helps Annapaula. You know we're very happy, very happy to respond to any requests we get from people and, particularly, people like Annapaula. There's a small group of very keen people from a variety of language groups -- Japanese, Portuguese, German, French, Spanish -- I mean all of them really. In every language group there are a few core people who are very enthusiastic, they're active on our Forum, they take full advantage of LingQ and so when they ask us a question we're really happy to answer, but I think we're happy to answer anybody's question.

Mark: Yeah, I mean we're not too fussy. If it's a good question and we think our learners would enjoy listening we're very happy to have the input.

Steve: Right.

Mark: So, yeah, please let us know on the EnglishLingQ Forum or on our Forum somewhere; we'll see it.

Steve: One thing, thinking of, you know, events in the world, I mean today, of course, we have a very clear sunny day, it's a little bit windy, a little bit cool, but I think a number of our places in the world have had very late winters. I was recently in San Francisco and I met a fellow there who got into the elevator and he was from Austria. He said Austria was just covered in snow; a deep sort of snowfall. And Eastern Canada has had very cold weather. It seems that there has been sort of a very late winter in many parts of the world. Even here we had snow, which is rather unusual for us to have snow at the end of March.

Mark: Yeah, I mean it's unusual, but it's not that unusual.

Steve: No.

Mark: I was reading somewhere something like 50% of the snowfall in Canada normally comes after March 1st.

Steve: Oh is that right?

Mark: Yeah, so that, in fact, people kind of think the spring is coming. To a larger degree maybe it does here in Vancouver, but I mean we do get…March is very often a cool month with a lot of precipitation and if it's cold enough it snows. But I do think, yeah, both in Eastern Canada and in Europe they had a cold winter. I was talking to somebody recently who I guess was in a ski resort in Austria and they said the amount of snow this year was unbelievable.

Steve: Of course you were skiing with your family up in Big White; I guess you had a good time?

Mark: Oh yeah, there again, the amount of snow was…I mean there was a lot of snow, but last year there was a lot of snow too. We had a cold winter here too last year and I guess in Europe it was quite warm.

Steve: Right.

Mark: At any rate, I guess all of the cold weather in these different parts of the world are bucking the global warming trend, I suppose.

Steve: And, no doubt, very welcome as far as the operators of ski resorts are concerned.

Mark: Yeah, I would think so.

Steve: They need the white stuff.

Mark: That's right.

Steve: You know I was thinking this morning, actually, as I was driving in and I think about how unreliable weather can be. I thought to myself, boy, I wouldn't like to be a farmer. Can you imagine being a farmer? At different times of the year if you get unseasonable rainfall it can totally ruin your crops.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: Here we had an early sort of warming period and so certain plants and flowers started to come out and feel good about themselves. All of a sudden we had this cold spell and then rain and snow and it turns those flowers into mush.

Mark: Is that right.

Steve: Well, that's what Carmen was telling me; I didn't look at it that closely. So to be a farmer you have to have a lot of courage and a deep bank account I think.

Mark: I would think so. I mean I think it's no different than I guess the ski resorts. If you do have a bad year where you don't get snow I mean you've got to make up for it in the good years. I know that I was up snowshoeing on the local hill yesterday and the amount of snow even here in Vancouver up on the mountain…I mean every time I go up there it's another three feet higher than it was the time before. I mean to climb up to the start of the trail from the parking lot is 20 feet up now.

Steve: And it is extraordinary. We are lucky that, you know, it's 5-6 degrees Centigrade -- whatever that is in Fahrenheit – here and warm and sunny and we drive up there and we can ski. I went skiing yesterday too, cross-country skiing and the only inconvenience at the lower levels was that when I was in the shade I could actually glide. Especially if I'm going downhill in the shade and I then I hit a sunny spot, all of a sudden my body goes flying forward and my skis stayed behind somewhere, so you had to really be balanced properly. I mean you just come to a stop in the sunny spots.

Mark: Yeah, when you have that difference between sun and shade, especially on those cross-country skis, because they don't…I don't know, they stick more or they're lighter.

Steve: They're lighter or something.

Mark: Yeah and, actually, we thought we'd get spring skiing conditions up at Big White, but I don't think it was above zero the whole time we were there.

Steve: You know you're quite right, when I think back of downhill skiing the skis are heavier and you go through the slush and it's not a problem.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: But in those light cross-country skis they just stick.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: It's like skiing downhill and then all of a sudden your skis hit glue.

Mark: You didn't manage to wipeout too many times?

Steve: I didn't wipeout, no, no. No, no, I was okay there, but it's wonderful just to be able to go out for a couple of hours and get that exposure to the nice, cool, still winter environment. And then in certain places you have this view of the ocean, you know, and the sun glistening on the waves and you're up there in this white winter wonderland. We've very lucky.

Mark: We are. I mean you hear it said, but I mean where else can you go where you could have played golf in the morning and gone skiing in the afternoon all within 20 minutes.

Steve: But you know every place has its advantages and its attractions and its charm and, of course, we were in San Francisco…you weren't, but Carmen and I were in San Francisco over the weekend; that's a spectacular city. We could, perhaps, do another podcast just on San Francisco.

Mark: Sure.

Steve: It's spectacular; cities are interesting to visit. I could do another one on Riga, which I visited last year, which is also fascinating, you know. Of course we've lived in places like Hong Kong and Tokyo and Paris and there's so much to explore in the world, whether it be cities where you have a lot of people where they have created this, you know, cultural and, you know, structural thing or whether it be nature.

Mark: Right.

Steve: There's just so much to see.

Mark: Yeah, for sure.

Steve: So maybe we'll talk about travel the next time.

Mark: Sounds good.

Steve: Alright. I hope that there are a lot of good words and expressions here for our listeners and we look forward to hearing from you. If you have any particular questions about English, don't hesitate to let us know.

Mark: Or if you'd like us to talk about your city or you have input on your city; maybe we've been there too.

Steve: Right, yeah, absolutely. Okay then, bye Mark.

Mark: Bye-bye.


One hundred and nineteen: Growl, groan, mutter Ciento diecinueve: Gruñir, gemir, murmurar Cent dix-neuf : Grogner, grogner, marmonner 100と19うなる、うめく、つぶやく Sto dziewiętnaście: Warczeć, jęczeć, mruczeć Cento e dezanove: Rosnar, gemer, murmurar Сто девятнадцать: Рычать, стонать, бормотать Yüz on dokuz: Hırla, inle, mırıldan

Steve: Well Mark, this is going to be our first podcast since Jill left. Steve: Bueno Mark, este va a ser nuestro primer podcast desde que Jill se fue.

Mark: That’s right.

I think the last few weeks we had been away and we had recorded a few ahead of time that went up, but this is indeed. Creo que las últimas semanas habíamos estado fuera y habíamos grabado unas cuantas antes de tiempo que subieron, pero esto sí. Я думаю, что последние несколько недель мы были в отъезде, и мы записали несколько заранее, которые были выложены, но это действительно так. It’s the first time that we’ve done one together in awhile.

Steve: I know.

Mark: Since we sort of switched off with Jill for a long time. Mark: Desde que nos desconectamos de Jill durante mucho tiempo.

Steve: We’re going to miss Jill. Vamos a echar de menos a Jill. First of all, of course, it’s a very happy occasion. She had a baby girl, Clara; whatever she was, 5 ½ pounds.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: Both mom and daughter are doing well, but we’re going to miss her because she was great to have here to talk about different subjects.

Mark: And I’m sure many of you will as well, but you’ll have to settle for us. Mark: Y estoy seguro de que muchos de vosotros también, pero tendréis que conformaros con nosotros. Марк: И я уверен, что многие из вас тоже, но вам придется довольствоваться нами.

Steve: Or we may introduce some other guest speakers. No, I think it’s good to have both the male and female voices.

Mark: Oh absolutely.

Steve: And so, unfortunately, you’ll have to make do with the Mutt and Jeff combination here of Mark and Steve. Mark, you mentioned to me that one of our learners had asked about certain words?

Mark: Yeah, on our Forum Annapaula from Brazil was asking us to talk about the difference between or at least the words “groan”, “growl” and “mutter.” I guess the differences and similarities and when to use one and not the other and so forth.

Steve: You know it’s interesting, it’s not only in English, but I’m finding this in Russian as well that words that imply you know “grumble”, “growl”, “grouch”, “mutter”, they all have “r’s” in them, so I think “aarr”, “uurr” is kind of a sound that’s associated with being not too happy or grouchy or growly or whatever. However, be that as it may… Sin embargo, sea como fuere...

Mark: Although, mutter isn’t necessarily related to being unhappy. I guess it is; in a way it is.

Steve: No, but if you looked up the entomology the origin of that word it might have something to do with that. Steve: Nee, maar als je in de entomologie de oorsprong van dat woord hebt opgezocht, zou het daar iets mee te maken kunnen hebben. So, when do you growl? Entonces, ¿cuándo gruñes? Who growls?

Mark: Well, I know Gordie my dog growls at shadows mostly at night. Mark: Bueno, sé que Gordie, mi perro, gruñe a las sombras sobre todo por la noche.

Steve: Would you say that we associate the word growl with animals?

Mark: For the most part. I would say it probably comes from animals and then is sort of transferred to humans.

Steve: Right, particularly dogs. I mean cats don’t growl.

Mark: No.

Steve: But dogs growl.

Mark: Right.

Steve: That is an onomatopoeic word. Steve: Dat is een klanknabootsend woord. In other words, it sounds like the meaning.

Mark: Right.

Steve: What was the next one?

Mark: Obviously, though, if we talk about a person growling at someone that just means they’re talking unkindly or snapping or snarling or growling. Mark: Obviamente, sin embargo, si hablamos de una persona que gruñe a otra, eso sólo significa que está hablando de forma poco amable o que está gruñendo o gruñendo. Mark: Het is duidelijk dat als we het hebben over iemand die tegen iemand gromt, dat alleen maar betekent dat hij onvriendelijk praat of snauwt of gromt of gromt.

Steve: There’s another “r” word.

Mark: Right.

Steve: And, typically, we think of someone who has a bit of a nasty personality as growling.

Mark: Right.

Steve: And we wouldn’t say, necessarily, I mean we couldn’t imagine Jill growling.

Mark: No.

Steve: No, but you or I might growl.

Mark: Well, when it warrants it. Mark: Bueno, cuando lo justifique. Марк: Ну, когда это необходимо.

Steve: When it’s warranted. Cuando está justificado. What was the other word?

Mark: So that was growl. There was groan, I believe. Hubo un gemido, creo.

Steve: Okay, now groan can be either an animal or a human being.

Mark: Yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily associate it with an animal. I mean, yeah, it could be.

Steve: Right.

Mark: It’s more a sound you make, it’s an unhappy sound or when you’re in pain.

Steve: Pain is the word.

Mark: Yeah, right.

Steve: If I think of a word to associate with groan it’s groaning with pain.

Mark: Or you can groan with disappointment. Mark: O puedes gemir de decepción.

Steve: Yes, yes, so that it’s almost sort of figurative pain. Steve: Sí, sí, por lo que es casi una especie de dolor figurativo.

Mark: Right.

Steve: “Oh no” groaned so and so.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: Alright, growl, groan.

Mark: Growl, groan and mutter.

Steve: Mutter; mutter is a little different. When I think of mutter, again, we often think of sort of handy phrases for words. Cuando pienso en murmurar, de nuevo, a menudo pensamos en una especie de frases útiles para las palabras. When I think of mutter the first phrase that comes to mind is “He muttered under his breathe. Cuando pienso en murmurar, la primera frase que me viene a la mente es "Murmuró en voz baja". Als ik aan mompelen denk, is de eerste zin die in me opkomt: "Hij mompelde onder zijn adem. That foolish Mark, why did he do that?” It’s sort of speaking not very clearly and, typically, you’re grumbling and griping… Ese tonto de Mark, ¿por qué hizo eso?". Es como hablar no muy claro y, típicamente, estás refunfuñando y quejándote... Die dwaze Mark, waarom deed hij dat?” Het is een soort van spreken niet erg duidelijk en, typisch, ben je aan het mopperen en klagen...

Mark: …about something or someone.

Steve: There again, we have some similar sounding words. Steve: De nuevo, tenemos algunas palabras que suenan parecido.

Mark: Right.

Steve: To grumble is to mutter and to complain and to gripe. Steve: Refunfuñar es murmurar, quejarse y refunfuñar. Steve: Mopperen is mompelen en klagen en klagen.

Mark: Right.

Steve: Which means the same.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: So, I hope that helps Annapaula. You know we’re very happy, very happy to respond to any requests we get from people and, particularly, people like Annapaula. There’s a small group of very keen people from a variety of language groups -- Japanese, Portuguese, German, French, Spanish -- I mean all of them really. In every language group there are a few core people who are very enthusiastic, they’re active on our Forum, they take full advantage of LingQ and so when they ask us a question we’re really happy to answer, but I think we’re happy to answer anybody’s question.

Mark: Yeah, I mean we’re not too fussy. Mark: Sí, quiero decir que no somos demasiado quisquillosos. If it’s a good question and we think our learners would enjoy listening we’re very happy to have the input.

Steve: Right.

Mark: So, yeah, please let us know on the EnglishLingQ Forum or on our Forum somewhere; we’ll see it.

Steve: One thing, thinking of, you know, events in the world, I mean today, of course, we have a very clear sunny day, it’s a little bit windy, a little bit cool, but I think a number of our places in the world have had very late winters. Steve: Una cosa, pensando en, ya sabes, los acontecimientos en el mundo, quiero decir hoy, por supuesto, tenemos un día soleado muy claro, es un poco ventoso, un poco fresco, pero creo que un número de nuestros lugares en el mundo han tenido inviernos muy tardíos. I was recently in San Francisco and I met a fellow there who got into the elevator and he was from Austria. He said Austria was just covered in snow; a deep sort of snowfall. And Eastern Canada has had very cold weather. It seems that there has been sort of a very late winter in many parts of the world. Even here we had snow, which is rather unusual for us to have snow at the end of March.

Mark: Yeah, I mean it’s unusual, but it’s not that unusual.

Steve: No.

Mark: I was reading somewhere something like 50% of the snowfall in Canada normally comes after March 1st. Mark: He leído en alguna parte que el 50% de las nevadas en Canadá se producen después del 1 de marzo.

Steve: Oh is that right?

Mark: Yeah, so that, in fact, people kind of think the spring is coming. To a larger degree maybe it does here in Vancouver, but I mean we do get…March is very often a cool month with a lot of precipitation and if it’s cold enough it snows. Puede que aquí en Vancouver sí, pero marzo suele ser un mes frío con muchas precipitaciones y, si hace suficiente frío, nieva. But I do think, yeah, both in Eastern Canada and in Europe they had a cold winter. I was talking to somebody recently who I guess was in a ski resort in Austria and they said the amount of snow this year was unbelievable.

Steve: Of course you were skiing with your family up in Big White; I guess you had a good time?

Mark: Oh yeah, there again, the amount of snow was…I mean there was a lot of snow, but last year there was a lot of snow too. We had a cold winter here too last year and I guess in Europe it was quite warm.

Steve: Right.

Mark: At any rate, I guess all of the cold weather in these different parts of the world are bucking the global warming trend, I suppose. Mark: En cualquier caso, supongo que todo el frío que hace en estas diferentes partes del mundo está contrarrestando la tendencia al calentamiento global. Mark: Hoe dan ook, ik denk dat al het koude weer in deze verschillende delen van de wereld tegen de opwarming van de aarde ingaat, denk ik.

Steve: And, no doubt, very welcome as far as the operators of ski resorts are concerned.

Mark: Yeah, I would think so.

Steve: They need the white stuff. Стив: Им нужен белый материал.

Mark: That’s right.

Steve: You know I was thinking this morning, actually, as I was driving in and I think about how unreliable weather can be. I thought to myself, boy, I wouldn’t like to be a farmer. Can you imagine being a farmer? At different times of the year if you get unseasonable rainfall it can totally ruin your crops. Als u op verschillende tijdstippen van het jaar ongebruikelijke regenval krijgt, kan dit uw gewassen volledig verpesten.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: Here we had an early sort of warming period and so certain plants and flowers started to come out and feel good about themselves. All of a sudden we had this cold spell and then rain and snow and it turns those flowers into mush. Plots hadden we een koude periode en toen regen en sneeuw en het veranderde die bloemen in brij.

Mark: Is that right.

Steve: Well, that’s what Carmen was telling me; I didn’t look at it that closely. So to be a farmer you have to have a lot of courage and a deep bank account I think.

Mark: I would think so. I mean I think it’s no different than I guess the ski resorts. If you do have a bad year where you don’t get snow I mean you’ve got to make up for it in the good years. I know that I was up snowshoeing on the local hill yesterday and the amount of snow even here in Vancouver up on the mountain…I mean every time I go up there it’s another three feet higher than it was the time before. I mean to climb up to the start of the trail from the parking lot is 20 feet up now.

Steve: And it is extraordinary. We are lucky that, you know, it’s 5-6 degrees Centigrade -- whatever that is in Fahrenheit – here and warm and sunny and we drive up there and we can ski. I went skiing yesterday too, cross-country skiing and the only inconvenience at the lower levels was that when I was in the shade I could actually glide. Especially if I’m going downhill in the shade and I then I hit a sunny spot, all of a sudden my body goes flying forward and my skis stayed behind somewhere, so you had to really be balanced properly. I mean you just come to a stop in the sunny spots.

Mark: Yeah, when you have that difference between sun and shade, especially on those cross-country skis, because they don’t…I don’t know, they stick more or they’re lighter.

Steve: They’re lighter or something.

Mark: Yeah and, actually, we thought we’d get spring skiing conditions up at Big White, but I don’t think it was above zero the whole time we were there. Марк: Да, и, вообще-то, мы думали, что на Big White будут весенние условия для катания, но, по-моему, все время, пока мы там были, было не выше нуля.

Steve: You know you’re quite right, when I think back of downhill skiing the skis are heavier and you go through the slush and it’s not a problem.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: But in those light cross-country skis they just stick.

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: It’s like skiing downhill and then all of a sudden your skis hit glue.

Mark: You didn’t manage to wipeout too many times? Mark: Is het je niet te vaak gelukt om te wissen? Марк: Вам не слишком часто удавалось выходить из строя?

Steve: I didn’t wipeout, no, no. No, no, I was okay there, but it’s wonderful just to be able to go out for a couple of hours and get that exposure to the nice, cool, still winter environment. And then in certain places you have this view of the ocean, you know, and the sun glistening on the waves and you’re up there in this white winter wonderland. We’ve very lucky.

Mark: We are. I mean you hear it said, but I mean where else can you go where you could have played golf in the morning and gone skiing in the afternoon all within 20 minutes.

Steve: But you know every place has its advantages and its attractions and its charm and, of course, we were in San Francisco…you weren’t, but Carmen and I were in San Francisco over the weekend; that’s a spectacular city. We could, perhaps, do another podcast just on San Francisco.

Mark: Sure.

Steve: It’s spectacular; cities are interesting to visit. I could do another one on Riga, which I visited last year, which is also fascinating, you know. Of course we’ve lived in places like Hong Kong and Tokyo and Paris and there’s so much to explore in the world, whether it be cities where you have a lot of people where they have created this, you know, cultural and, you know, structural thing or whether it be nature.

Mark: Right.

Steve: There’s just so much to see.

Mark: Yeah, for sure.

Steve: So maybe we’ll talk about travel the next time.

Mark: Sounds good.

Steve: Alright. I hope that there are a lot of good words and expressions here for our listeners and we look forward to hearing from you. If you have any particular questions about English, don’t hesitate to let us know.

Mark: Or if you’d like us to talk about your city or you have input on your city; maybe we’ve been there too.

Steve: Right, yeah, absolutely. Okay then, bye Mark.

Mark: Bye-bye.