This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1903.

You’ll survive how to use make it to talk about life.

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Hello, Michelle. How’s it going today? How are you?

Hey, Lindsey. I’m good. I’m good.

I’m happy to be here on video with you. It’s been a little while.

I know guys today’s episode is on video on YouTube and I’m so excited because

Michelle, you and I,

we have not actually recorded on video in quite a few months, right?

That’s right. That’s right. So I am,

I am happy to be recording with you again.

Well, what are we getting into?

It looks like we’re getting into a little bit of a sad subject today on All

Ears English. Michelle, what are we getting into?

Yeah, well, um, it’s, it’s sad, but it’s,

and it’s a, it’s a good way to learn, to practice something in English.

So, uh, we have a listener question today, um,

about, uh, when you say to make it, right.

So we’ve talked about this before, so we’ll get into that a little bit, but,

um, so we can still have fun with this episode, guys.

Yeah. Do you want to read the question for us?

Yeah. I’m going to go ahead and read the questions.

And today we’re touching on the topic of, you know, of death, right.

But we know that death is part of life.

And so our listener had a question of the, about this,

and I’m going to go ahead and read it, Michelle. Here we go.

This is from David from Beijing.

I simply love your podcast is both informative and interesting because all of

your words and phrases are so native and natural in context.

Your vocabulary is a great bonus to my everyday conversation skills.

Thank you, David. That’s fantastic. Guys.

Michelle, what should we ask our listeners to do if they have not left a review yet

for the podcast, by the way?

Well, you’re going to leave us a review, guys, and that’s a great place to ask a

question, right? Um, so we do look at those.

We do choose listener questions. We love getting listener questions.

And so, yes, leave it, leave a review, leave a question, whatever.

I love it. All right. And so here’s David’s question.

He says, I have a question. I hear the phrase to make it a lot.

And I know one meaning is to reach one’s goal, but I saw this sentence in my

English paper. My father was 44.

He knew he couldn’t make it to 45.

In this sentence, to make it means to live.

Can you explain the usage of this phrase fully? Thanks a million.

What a good native expression.

Thanks a million, Michelle.

Yes, that’s true.

That is a good one.

We should do something about like more creative ways to say thank you if we haven’t

done it already.

Well, I don’t think we’ve taught that phrase yet.

No, I love it.

That would be a good one to teach.

It would, for sure.

All right. Well, thank you so much.

So, OK, so we have done other episodes with make it.

It’s true. There are many, many ways to use make it and many different meanings.

So, for example, we did episode 1762

was how to avoid sounding boring when you RSVP to an event.

So make it is used in there.

So listen into that one.

And then we also did that.

Well, this isn’t necessarily about make it, but there was episode

1806, right, Lindsay?

And you were talking with a producer.

My friend Alan Seals, who is a Broadway producer and the owner of Broadway

Podcast Network. So he was talking about how to make it in New York City.

And how to make it on Broadway.

So, guys, go check out those other episodes to see different ways to use

make it. But today we’re getting into something deeper, right, Michelle?

More profound.

Yes, more profound.

So this is a very important meaning.

So, guys, we have to learn the happy things and also a little bit of sad

things, too, because, you know, in those situations, that’s also,

you know, connection, you know, connection is so important.

Right. So we have to learn.

We have to learn everything.

That’s a good point, Michelle.

Yes, exactly.

Yeah. So where do we start?

OK, so the sentence from our listener was, my father was 44.

He knew he couldn’t make it to 45.

OK, so, yes.

So our listener said that this means live to in this context.

So, right. It means basically to live to or to survive.

Right. So, I mean, this is different than other ways of using to make

something. And like I said, there are tons of them.

And we can do even more other days.

Right. Like we’ve talked about, you know, to make it on Broadway.

Right. To make it to talk about, like, if you can go somewhere.

So I let’s give a few more examples here.

Lindsay, when I read the first one.

All right, guys. So talking about your dog getting older.

Oh, my gosh, this makes me die just thinking about this, by the way.

All right. So my dog is turning 15 years old this year.

I’m hoping the old gal will make it another few years.

That’s a bonus there, gal, old gal.

That’s like something that you can only say really about animals.

Yeah. Right. Right. Right. You wouldn’t want to say that about a person.

Oh, the old gal like this, like a dog or like a horse or, you know.

No, no, no. Don’t do that.

Exactly. Exactly.

So this one is my great grandmother is in the hospital.

Honestly, I’m not sure she’s going to make it.

Right. Right. OK.

And so that’s common. Like if someone is, you know, people are trying to help someone,

they’re giving them medication, trying to stabilize their vitals.

This is a situation where you would use that.

Right. Right. Michelle. Yes.

Right. Right. Right. Exactly.

Exactly. So, guys, this is a little bit gloomy, but guess what?

You can also put it in a positive way.

So, Lindsay, you want to read a more positive one?

Yes. My cousin dealt with a lot of health problems, but because of his positive

attitude, he made it to 90.

Nice. Nice.

Michelle, in your in your world, in your family, I mean, I could say in my family,

people live a long time.

Like my grandmother lived to ninety nine or like one hundred one or something.

Do you do you think that like you’ll live a long time, Michelle?

Like do you think like do people in your family tend to like go past a hundred

typically or like what are the patterns or the trends that you see?

Well, you had you had cut out for a second.

So you said people may get to one hundred one in your family, is that what you said?

Well, my grandmother lived to like ninety one ninety nine.

Sorry. Oh, wow.

And it’s kind of crazy when someone gets close to one hundred.

I kind of don’t know if I want to live that long, you know?

Yeah. Well, I had a great aunt who lived to like one hundred and three.

OK, so it’s in your family.

Yeah. But then there are other people who were did not make it quite so long.

So I don’t I have to knock on lots of wood.

Knock on wood, knock on wood.

Yeah. OK, what’s the next sample sentence?

All right. So she had a terrible accident, but she’s going to make it.

She’s coming home from the hospital soon.

Yes, I love that.

Or let’s say I don’t even see that example in the notes.

Let’s see where you’re going to say.

Oh, no, no, no. You’re done.

We’re done. We got it.

We got it. Yeah.

So why is this kind of a strange topic, Michelle?

Oh, because this is like a happy podcast.

And, you know, and it also makes me feel like it was very hard for me

to actually make some of the example sentences

because I like wanted to remove myself.

You know, like I wanted to like I wanted to put it on like a dog,

like or I think it’s like or great great grandmother, you know, stuff like that,

because I’m like I’m like a little bit superstitious, I guess.

We’re talking about that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah. I mean, this is, you know, as I was just telling you,

I just said someone very close to me passed away just two days ago.

And so this topic is very pertinent, very top of mind.

But this this is part of life. Right.

And I’ve been doing a lot of crying, a lot of just dealing with going through it.

But many of our listeners have experienced something similar.

You know, sometimes we lose someone close to us.

And if we can connect with other people that are still around

to talk about how we’re feeling and to talk about that person that’s gone.

Right. We can we can get through it.

We can connect. We can be OK. Right, Michelle.

Right. Right. Absolutely. Yeah.

OK, so what should we do, Michelle?

Should we go into a couple of other ideas around this topic?

What do you think? Sure.

So, well, you know, we already kind of talked about these two,

but we’re we’re going to talk about them and give more examples.

So, again, you could say survive or live to. Right.

So I feel like the word survive.

I feel like it’s more formal sounding.

Yes. And I also feel like it’s used more

some more for something specific than like than live to. Right.

So like I feel like he will survive this.

So that might not be for life and death.

That could also like sometimes I think people use survive just like to

yeah, talk about like overcoming something, not necessarily like not

just just the idea of not dying like the song I will survive. Right.

Oh, yeah. That’s a great one.

That’s a fantastic one.

Or, you know, like a parent saying to their kid, oh, you’ll survive.

Just, you know, take this bagged lunch.

Stop complaining that you’re the only one that takes bagged lunch.

That was me. I don’t know if that was you, but that was no, I took bagged lunch.

Yeah, you’ll survive. Right.

You’ll survive. Yeah. This is in a lighter sense, guys.

In this case, we’re not talking about someone losing their life.

We’re talking about kind of making fun of someone a little bit.

Yeah. You’ll survive. Yeah. Right. Exactly.

Whereas live to I think is more just general, like about life and death.

And if like, for example, you could say if you want to live to 100 exercise.

Yeah. I mean, now there’s I’m always reading the research on that.

Right. Longevity. What is the key to longevity?

And I feel like they’re finding more and more that socializing is

maybe even more important than extra.

It’s all important.

But what is the most important having strong social ties?

I feel like I’m seeing that thread coming up in the research now, Michelle,

which is really interesting.

Don’t they say also, like if you have a pet, isn’t that?

Oh, yeah. I spend. Yeah, that’s got to be good.

I have to be if I go over and pet my dog immediately, I relax.

It’s like, oh, it’s the best. It’s the best. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it’s true.

All right. Do we have a role play for our listeners?

Yes. All right. So here we go.

So we have a friend whose dog survived an illness.

Oh, OK. Oh, she’s going to make it.

I know. What a relief.

I’m hoping she lives to 20.

Same here. She’s so cute.

Oh, man, I’m so hungry.

Lunch isn’t for another two hours. Do you need a snack?

No, it’s OK. I’ll survive.

So in that case, I will just go through that last one.

I said right there first, I’ll survive.

I’m kind of kind of making fun of myself a little bit, right?

Yeah. Right. Yes, exactly.

It’s like, yeah, you’re not talking. I don’t know.

It’s just it’s it’s basically like, oh, don’t worry about me. I’m fine.

I’ll survive. I’ll be OK. Yeah, I’ll survive.

And then what else? What did you say?

Well, at first you said she’s going to make it right.

So that means the dog was going to live.

Yes. And then you said, I know what a relief.

I’m hoping she lives to.

Right. That’s your phrase, guys.

Lives to 20. OK, good. Good.

Yeah. Right. And like what lives to like that’s when you can use the age after.

Right. Or if you said like, make it to 20, that would also be OK.

Now, I wonder I bet our listeners are wondering, could we say she lives

until age 20 or age 100 or whatever?

I think we could. Right, Michelle?

Yeah. But I think we would say it lives till. Right.

Like how we I think recently we talked about like saying till until

I feel like I wouldn’t say like, oh, hopefully she’ll live until.

I don’t know. I feel like I would just say till. I don’t know.

Yeah. We shorten things.

We don’t like to say full words. Yeah.

Who has time for that? Right.

No. All right.

What’s the takeaway for our listeners today?

All right. So, guys, this was a great question from our listener,

even though it kind of took things in a gloomy direction.

But it’s important. Right.

That is, you know, all topics, even sad ones are times to connect.

We want to teach you all the vocabulary.

We’re not going to just shy away from topics that are hard to talk about

because there’s that’s part of life.

Yeah. And I would say that for our listeners, too, guys,

if you have a good question that is a little bit deeper,

maybe it’s you know, maybe it’s not the most optimistic topic,

but we can approach that topic if it’s about human connection.

That’s what we talk about on this show.

Right. Human connection in language and culture.

So good. Send it to us.

Send your question to Lindsay at all ears.

English dot com. All right.

All right, Lindsay.

Well, we’re talking about this with me today.

And yeah, guys, thanks. Thanks.

All right. Of course. Talk to you very soon, Michelle.

Have a good one. Thanks, bye.

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