In this mini episode, you will learn the useful expression “It figures.”
Episode 489 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the useful expression “It figures.” 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
“Hello, folks! This is Sean, from XianYang, China. And you are listening to Everybody ESL. Enjoy.”
Welcome to episode 489 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 and useful phrase. The phrase is “It figures.” It figures.
That’s spelled I-t, f-i-g-u-r-e-s. It figures.
What does “It figures” mean, and how do we use it?
When we say, “It figures,” we are saying that something was not surprising. We are saying that something was not surprising. We expected this thing to happen. Or we could have expected it. Or we should have expected it. We are also saying that this thing that happened is logical. It’s reasonable. It makes sense. When we say, “It figures,” we are saying this is not surprising. After all, it makes sense. It is logical.
Let me give you two examples of situations where you might hear the sentence “It figures.”
Let’s say there is an important meeting at work, and the boss is late. The meeting was supposed to start at 9:30, but the boss is late and does not arrive until 10:00. If we imagine that this boss is often late, then we could say, “The meeting was supposed to start at 9:30, but the boss was late. It figures.”
“It figures,” meaning “This was not surprising. This was a reasonable thing to expect. It makes sense. The boss is often late, so it makes sense that he was late for this meeting. It was not a surprising thing when he was late.”
Here’s another example:
Imagine that somebody believes that he has very bad luck. He thinks that bad things always happen to him. He could say something like this:
“I was planning on having a picnic in the park today, but now it’s raining. It figures.” I was planning to have a picnic in the park, but it’s raining, so I can’t. It figures. In other words, “The rain ruining my picnic is not surprising. I think bad things always happen to me.
So, this was not unexpected. It seems reasonable or logical. Bad things always happen. Here’s something bad that happened. Oh, it figures.”
One thing I should say before I continue is that sometimes you will see this expression as “That figures.” That figures. It means the same thing as “It figures.”
You might be wondering, Why does this expression mean what it means? Why do we say “figures”?
As a verb, figure can mean “to calculate or to decide or to conclude something.” In this expression, it has the meaning of “adding things together and calculating an answer or a conclusion. Putting different things together and seeing what the expected result is.”
And that’s how we get this other expression that means something similar. We sometimes say “It adds up.” Instead of saying, “It figures,” sometimes people say, “It adds up.” A-d-d-s, u-p. It adds up.
In other words, when we consider these different things, we get a result that makes sense. We get a result that we could have expected, the same way we can add numbers together to get a result.
Both of these expressions, “It figures” and “It adds up,” have to do with adding things together and seeing the result. Or seeing that the result is not surprising.
That is “It figures,” an interesting and common expression that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 489 of Everybody ESL. If you have any 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 Sean 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!