What does TO FIGURE OUT mean?

To ‘figure it out’ means to “solve or discover the cause of a problem.”
In British English, I would say ‘work it out” Example: “Don’t worry about lunch tomorrow when your family comes to visit. We’ll figure it out/work it out. We can get a Chinese takeaway.”

“Why are we paying so much money for the electricity bill? I can’t figure it out!” (to figure out = resolver, solucionar)

British and American English pronunciation differences

Vitamin – VIT-a-min (UK); VITE-a-min (US)
Aluminium – al-loo-MIN-ee-um (UK); al-LOO-min-um (US)
Privacy – PRIV-a-see (UK); PRIAV-a-see (US)
schedule – SHED-ual (UK); SKED-ual (US)
Garage – GARE-idge (UK); ga-RAHJ (US)
Advertisement – ad-VERT-iz-ment (UK); AD-ver-tize-ment (US) Brits often shorten this to ADVERT
(Change in stress sometimes: GARE-idge (UK); ga-RAHJ (US), ad-VERT-iz-ment (UK); AD-ver-tize-ment (US), BA-llet (US); baLLET (US), AD-ult (UK); ad-ULT (US)
Herb – HERB (UK); ERB (US)
Oregano – o-re-GA-no (UK); o-RE-ga-no (US)
Water – WAH-ta (UK); WODDER (US) – ‘T’ in the middle of the word sounds like a ‘D’ in American English: better, writing, bottom
The ‘R’ sound at the end of words is stronger in American English: water, mother, teacher, bar, were, chair etc

Sometimes, the letter ‘A’ is pronounced differently: class, after, example, laugh, can’t

*Dispones de más PODCAST en inglés publicados en los cuadernos anteriores
a los que puedes acceder directamente así como al índice de su contenido.

 


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