Episode 456 (shape up to be)

Hi everyone, this is Red from Fujian, China

and you're listening to Everybody ESL

Welcome to episode 456 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

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Ok, let's get on with this mini episode.

In this episode I am going to teach you an interesting phrase. The phrase is shape up to be.

Shape up to be. That's s-h-a-p-e-u-p-t-o-b-e. Shape up to be. What does it mean when we use the phrase shape up to be?

Shape up to be means to develop into something or to progress into something.

It means to become something or to become a certain way. Let me give you an example of a situation

where you might hear the phrase shape up to be. Imagine that you have plans to take a long walk.

But in the morning you see that the weather is terrible. It is very windy and cold and it has started

to rain. So you decide not to walk in the morning. You decide to wait because maybe the weather will

change and the weather will become good weather for walking. Later in the day you realize that the weather

has changed. The sun has come out. The rain has stopped and it is no longer windy.

Now this looks like good weather for walking. And you might say it is shaping up to be a nice afternoon.

It is shaping up to be a nice afternoon. In other words it is becoming a nice afternoon.

Or the day is developing in a certain way so that now it is a nice afternoon.

Or things are progressing toward the day being a nice afternoon. It is shaping up to be a nice

afternoon. I think when we use this phrase we often use it in the present continuous form.

Shaping up to be. I think you will hear it in that form much more often than you will hear it

with other verb tenses. No matter what the tense is it means the same thing. It means develop

or progress or become a certain thing or a certain kind of thing. Let me give you one more example

of a situation where someone might say shape up to be or shaping up to be.

Imagine that somebody is a basketball fan. This person loves basketball and has a favorite

team and he cares about his favorite team very much. He follows all of the news stories about the

team. Imagine at the beginning of the basketball season when the season has just begun his favorite

team is not very good. They're not doing very well. But then the team starts changing.

Maybe they get some new players or maybe they get a new coach or they change something else.

And now the team is playing very well. The team is doing much better. This person could say

something like this is shaping up to be a good season. This is shaping up to be a good season

or this is shaping up to be a good team. This is shaping up to be a good team. In other words

this is becoming a good team or developing into a good team or progressing into a good team.

Moving toward being a good team. This is how we use the phrase shape up to be.

That is shape up to be an interesting and useful phrase that I think you should know.

This is the end of episode 456 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 red recorded the introduction you heard at the

beginning of this episode. Send an email to everybody ESL at 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!