In this mini episode, you will learn the interesting phrase “to brace yourself.”
Episode 400 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the interesting phrase “to brace yourself.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi! This is Farah Namira from Indonesia, and you are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 400 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 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
In this episode, I am going to teach you an interesting expression. The expression is “brace yourself.” Brace yourself. That’s spelled b-r-a-c-e, y-o-u-r-s-e-l-f. Brace yourself.
Actually, the important part in this expression is brace. So you could also talk about somebody bracing himself or herself. Or people bracing themselves.
What does it mean to brace yourself, or what does it mean for someone to brace herself?
As a verb, brace means “to give support to something” or “to make something strong” or maybe “to keep something strong.” If you brace a wall, you are building some kind of support for the wall so that the wall can remain strong, so that the wall can have support.
If you brace yourself, it means to make yourself strong. And really, the way we use it is a little bit different from that. We use it to mean make yourself ready. Prepare yourself mentally for something difficult that is going to happen.
If I say I have to brace myself for... something, that means something is going to happen, something is coming, and I have to make myself strong and ready. I have to prepare myself for this thing that is going to happen, this difficult thing that is coming.
Let’s say that I took a very difficult and very important exam, and I am waiting for the results of the exam. I might say something like this: “The results will be available tomorrow, and now I have to brace myself for the results.” Or maybe I could say, “I have to brace myself for bad news.” That sounds like I’m saying, “I think I will get some bad news about this exam. I think I will learn that I did not get a good score. And now I have to brace myself. I have to prepare my mind. I have to make myself and my mind strong. I need to prepare myself and prepare my mind for what might be bad news. I might need strength in order to handle this bad news. And now I need to prepare, make my mind ready and strong for what might happen.”
And so, when we use brace myself, or brace yourself, or brace himself, herself, ourselves, themselves, we use it to mean “make yourself—make your mind—ready, make yourself ready to handle bad news or handle something difficult that is coming soon.”
That is “brace yourself,” an interesting, common, and useful expression that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 400 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Farah recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!