I Could Use a Drink

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Xavier Garcia, and also I’m Flavio Schwartz.

Oh, two guys.

Two people on the line.

And you’re calling from where?

At La Jolla.

All right, here we go.

Well, what’s on your mind, gentlemen?

We’ve been talking about the way that I speak.

So Flavio is from Italy, and, you know, I’m from Texas.

And he’s noticed that I tend to use the word use often.

Hello.

Hello.

Yeah, and he actually came with a list of various things that I’ve said.

And I was wondering, like, if, you know, this is a dialect thing or if, you know, this is just me using lazy English.

Are you saying use?

Use, like, use guys or use, like, use something?

He would use, for instance, he could use a glass of wine.

So food, for instance, like ice cream, a glass of wine, coffee.

But also he could use a shower.

He could use a ride.

He could use a nap.

He could use basically everything.

Oh, okay.

I was wondering whether this was just like being lazy and use the word use for everything.

And, yeah, or this is like proper English.

Since I’m not learning English yet, I wanted to know this.

Flavio, Javi uses it exactly like many other English speakers do.

The word use has a lot of meanings, but one of them is to put into service or to employ.

So, technically, he’s correct.

I could use a glass of wine means he could put a glass of wine into service to relax himself.

Right?

I could use a nap.

He’s going to employ a nap to restore his energy.

It seems kind of informal, though, doesn’t it?

I could really use a nap.

But there’s no way for us to know whether or not you are overusing it, Javi.

I mean, is this something that comes out every other line?

Yeah.

Or are you saying I could utilize a glass of wine?

That would be wrong.

Unless you use the glass of wine to clean something, if you’re appropriating it for another use.

Maybe I do utilize use a little too much.

Try to diversify my lexicon a little bit.

So it might not be lazy, but it might just be a faddish word for you personally, right?

A faddish kind of syntax.

Yeah, I have it.

I have it.

You might be the happiest callers we’ve ever had, though.

Well, gentlemen, thank you so much for your call.

If you’ve got any other disputes, give us a ring sometime.

We’ll sort it out, all right?

Okay, that’s what I’m good, yeah.

Okay, take care. Bye-bye.

All right.

La Jolla sounds like a fun place.

Yeah, let’s go.

I’m going to use a trip to La Jolla.

Well, we like selling all sorts of disputes.

877-929-9673.

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