This mini episode teaches you the useful phrase “according to.” What does it mean, and how do we use it?
Episode 208 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you how to use the phrase “according to.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi, Everyone! I am Gulden from Türkiye” (Turkey). “I hope you enjoy Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 208 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let's get on with this mini episode.
The Episode
Today’s topic was suggested by my listener Farah. She wanted to know more about the phrase according to. According to. Do you know this phrase, according to? That’s spelled a-c-c-o-r-d-i-n-g, to: t-o. According to.
What does according to mean, and how do we use it? I think the meaning of according to is very easy to understand, but it’s very hard to explain. According to means something like “based on (something)” or “using (something) as a source of information.”
You can hear according to used in phrases like “According to the weather report,” or “According to my teacher,” or “According to the internet.” And these mean things like “Based on the weather report,” or “When I use the weather report as my source of information,” or “When I use my teacher as a source of information about something,” or “When I read the internet, I learn something about this topic.”
And so, you will hear sentences like these:
“According to the weather report, it will rain tomorrow.” According to the weather report, it will rain tomorrow. In other words, when I refer to the weather report, when I read the weather report and use it as my source of information, I see—or I learn, or I think—that it will rain tomorrow.
Or “According to my teacher, the next exam will be very difficult.” According to my teacher, the next exam will be very difficult. That means when I hear what my teacher has to say, or when I listen to my teacher, I learn that the next exam will be very difficult. Or my teacher says that the next exam will be very difficult. In other words, I’m using my teacher as a source of information about something. In this case, about the next exam.
And the last example I will give is “According to the internet, Russia is the biggest country in the world.” According to the internet, Russia is the biggest country in the world. And this means when I use the internet as my source of information, I see or I learn that Russia is the biggest country in the world.
When Farah asked about this, she wanted to know about one thing in particular. She wanted to know why sentences that start like this sound so strange: “According to me.” And she’s right: sentences like that do sound strange. But why? Why do we never say, “According to me”? We can say, “According to my friend,” “According to my mother,” “According to my teacher.” All of those sound fine. But “According to me” sounds strange.
I thought about this for a while, and I think I understand the answer. I think it’s because when we say that we are relying on ourselves as our source of information, it just sounds strange. I can say, “When I use my friend as my source of information about dogs” (or about some other topic). That sounds fine. But it does sound strange to say, “When I use myself as a source of information, I believe something or I know something.”
If you want to say that kind of thing, you can use one of these expressions: You can say, “I believe that,” or “I think that,” or “In my opinion,” or “Based on my experience.” All of those expressions sound very natural, and they sound just fine.
Well, that is according to—a very useful phrase that I think you should know.
Outro
And we have reached the end of episode 208 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions about the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Gulden recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with another episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye! I’ll see you soon.