Read the NEWS in English 🌍 Advanced Vocabulary and Grammar from CNN

In this lesson, you're going to learn  English with the news. So we're going  

to read a news article together and you're  going to learn a lot of advanced grammar,  

vocabulary and even pronunciation naturally by  

writing this article with me. Welcome back  to JForrest English training. Of course,  

I'm Jennifer and this is your place to become a  competent English speaker. Now let's get started.  

Hello, and welcome to our article. As you can  imagine, we're talking about Twitter today. So  

let me read the headline for you. Elon Musk is  said to have ordered job cuts across Twitter.  

Now let's clarify job cuts because this  is very important for the article. job  

cuts. This means job reductions when you  cut jobs, you reduce the number of jobs.  

So hear the word cut is being used as a verb to  cuts but we're not talking about scissors with  

paper in this context of job cuts, cut means  reduction cuts so we use this specifically  

with jobs, job cuts. We can also use this with  finances. You hear this a lot with the government.  

They might talk about budget cuts, which means  reductions, they're reducing the amount of  

money available budget cuts. You can hear that in  government but you can also hear it in the private  

sector. They might have budget cuts, so you don't  get a bonus that year. So job has reduction.  

And as an example sentence, you might say my  company cut jobs this year. You can include a  

number you can say my company cut 500 jobs this  year, for example, or the company might say  

we need to cut jobs by 10%. Or you can have a  specific number by 500 by 100 individual jobs.  

So those are some example sentences you'll  likely see. Let's move on Elon Musk,  

who if you didn't know is the owner of Twitter. He  recently purchased Twitter. I think it says in the  

article will soon find out Elon Musk plan to begin  laying off workers at Twitter as soon as Saturday  

for people with knowledge of the matter said  with some managers being asked to draw up lists  

of employees to cut okay, we already know what  this is employees to cut. So we know that those  

employees their job is going to be eliminated  because they need to reduce the number of jobs.  

Now to draw up with you might be thinking of  the verb draw, draw a picture but notice this  

isn't just the verb draw what is this because we  have drawn up draw up so if we have a verb and a  

preposition ON IN, then we know it's a phrasal  verb and phrasal verbs have different meanings  

from the regular verb. So to draw up in this  contents to draw up lists, we can draw a list  

it simply is another way of saying prepare,  prepare. Well we use this phrasal verb to draw  

up in the context of legal or business contracts,  documents, proposal proposals. So for example,  

if you are offered a draw a job with a company,  they're going to have a contract between you and  

the company and that is a legal contract or a  business contract. Now they're going to draw  

up the contract which simply means prepare.  And if you are starting a new project and you  

have this proposal, you can draw up the proposal  which just means prepare. So we use this phrasal  

verb in this specific context and remember, it  simply means prepare. So as an example sentence  

in an example sentence, we can say HR is the  HR department, HR is drying up the contract  

as we speak. So they're in the process of  drying up the contract. So you might ask,  

Hey, do you know when the contract will be ready?  And they're like, Oh, they're just drawing it up,  

which means they're just preparing it now. Let's  see anything else from here? Oh, yes, I wanted to  

talk about layoffs. Because if we're talking  about job cuts, well, then job cuts layoffs,  

they go hand in hand. Because if you have job  cuts, it means you need to reduce the number of  

employees. Now you can do that you can accomplish  that objective. By laying off workers. Okay.  

So when you lay someone off, you end their  employment, you permanently end their employment,  

but it's very different from being fired. When  you're fired. You also end your employment,  

but it's because of your performance. You  were not performing very well. You were not  

meeting the objectives. You were basically a  bad employee. But when you're laid off, it's  

because of operational reasons they make might  not be able to afford you anymore, or they're  

no longer selling the product that you were in  charge so your position does not exist anymore.  

So to lay someone off, this is to  permanently and one's employment because  

of operational reasons. So again, like I said,  they might not be able to afford you or simply  

the direction of the company has changed. So as  an example sentence, you can say I got laid off,  

or you can say I was I was laid off, so you can  use to be laid off. This is the passive form  

of the verb to lay someone off.  So the active form is to lay  

someone off, but you as the employee are receiving  the action, your company is doing the action. So  

my company laid me off. This is the past  symbol of the verb lay, this is the active  

and the passive is I was laid off by my company  passive, so you're receiving the action,  

which is why it's very common to use  this in the passive form. I was laid off.  

Now my original example I said get laid off, I got  laid off. We can use the forget just to talk about  

that transition I got sick is that transition  from not sick to sick so I got laid off is the  

transition from not laid off to laid off but to  start get is a more advanced bird and English so  

to start, you can simply use the verb to be let's  move on Mr. Musk, who completed a $44 billion deal  

to buy Twitter on Thursday has ordered the cuts  across the company with some teams to be trimmed  

more than others said three of the people who  declined to be identified for fear of retaliation.  

Okay, so notice here we're using cuts again  and what are cuts, reductions reductions,  

in this case, the number of employees, but  I want you to look at this and think what is  

this? Is this a subject an adjective and adverb?  A Verb a Noun? What is this? What part of speech  

is this and how does it differ? Because here  you'll notice above we were looking at the verb,  

we know it's a verb because it's conjugated.  It's used next to a subject and in this case,  

it's the infinitive. But what do we have here? An  article which tells me it's not a verb. This is a  

noun. So this is talking about it as a something  the cuts the job cuts. It's a something so this  

is a noun. And it's very commonly used as the noun  form, the cuts. Notice how it's in plural because  

it's more than one. Technically you could use  it in the singular and say we cut one job. There  

was a job cut a job cut, that's a something there  was one job cut at our company. So this is an owl  

has ordered our verb here is order has  ordered the cuts across the company.  

So here I mentioned that Elon  Musk purchase Twitter. Well,  

he did it for $44 billion, maybe a good  deal. Maybe not. I don't really know.  

All right. Let's move on here. The scale of  the layoffs could not be determined. Twitter  

has around 7500 employees. All right, the  same thing we saw before with TO CUT and  

CUT verb and now we saw to lay off is the  verb commonly used in the passive form to  

be laid off. But here what is this the part I  have highlighted? What part of speech is this?  

Well, it should be easy for you. It's a noun  a noun, the scale of the layoffs. So we're  

just talking about the layoffs. So those are  the positions that are permanently eliminated  

because of operational reasons. And the  scale. The scale is just talking about.  

How big is it is it big is it small, that would  be the scale and they're saying it could not be  

determined, which is a formal way of saying they  don't know they don't know what the scale is. So  

will there be a lot of layoffs, a lot of cuts or  a small number of layoffs a small number of cuts.  

Now notice how I pronounced this I said 7500  employees, the plural is on by us here on my  

now employees, we add that as because there's  more than one or 7500 7500 you could also say  

7500 7500 The choice is yours 7500 or 7500.  Both of them are correct commonly use,  

you can choose which one you'd like to use. Let's  move on. Reports. All layoffs at Twitter has  

world since Mr. Musk agreed to buy the company in  April, the billionaire who also leads the electric  

carmaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX has  told investors that he would take Twitter private,  

reduce its workforce roll back its content  moderation rules and find new revenue streams.  

So here we have reports of layoffs. Is this a  now wherever reports of something it's a now  

another way you can tell it's now is because it's  one word. As a verb, it is two words you have to  

lay is your verb and off is the preposition  to lay someone off. So this is the verb.  

Okay. So again, they're talking because of the  cuts, the job cuts because of the layoffs. It's  

just natural that you're going to reduce the  workforce. The workforce is the total number of  

people in a company or you could talk about the  workforce of a city, a country and industry. So  

Twitter had 7500 or 7500 people so you could say  that its workforce. The layoffs at Twitter would  

take place before November 1 date when employees  were scheduled to receive stock grants. As part  

of their compensation. Such brands typically  represent a significant portion of employees paid  

by laying off workers before that date. Mr. Musk  may avoid paying the grants though he is supposed  

to pay the employees cash in place of their  stock under the terms of their merger agreement.  

So again, we see our layoffs This is being used as  a noun is our subject actually in this sentence.  

The layoffs at Twitter take place is a great free  is a great expression that just needs to happen.  

The layoffs would happen take place. So that's  just a more casual way of saying happened but  

it's very commonly used. By a week. So here by  laying off workers so is this a noun or a verb?  

laying off workers. This is a verb and what  conjugation is this verb in this is our gerund  

verb and we know that because it has the  ing and it's in the gerund verb because,  

do you know why? Because if this word right here  by. By is a preposition. So we have preposition  

plus gerund. That's our sentence structure  preposition plus gerund by laying off workers  

before that date. And that is the end of our  article. So you learned a lot of very useful  

Business English vocabulary, grammar. We talked  a lot about nouns and verbs and changing between  

active and passive. So make sure you try some  of these new expressions in the comment section  

below. And feel free to go through this article  again. And if you have any questions, you can  

just leave it in the comment section. As well.  Oh, amazing job with this lesson. Think of all  

the advanced grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation  that you learn today naturally in a very engaging  

and fun way. Now of course, make sure you practice  need some example sentences with your favorite new  

advanced expression from this lesson. And if you  found this helpful, please hit the like button  

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to my website JForrestEnglish.com and download  your free speaking guide. In this guide, I share  

six tips on how to speak English fluently and  confidently. And until next time, happy studying!