Using English at Work：12 Checking Mail,Email,and Voicemail(5)（在线收听）

"Trash" is another word for garbage, or something that you throw away, that you don't want.

So your "trash folder" is where the email program may put trash - things you don't want.

Many email programs have a separate "spam folder," where all the spam messages go.

When I check through my trash folder, I look at all the messages in the folder, just to make sure they're really trash or things I don't want anymore, so I can read any messages that were put there by accident.

We're not supposed to, at my office, get personal emails at work, but sometimes my friends send or forward me messages to my work address.

"To forward (something)" in this case means to send an email that you have received to other people.

Sometimes my friends and relatives forward funny jokes - although usually they're not very funny!

They didn't write the jokes, but they receive them from other people and then forward them to their friends.

When my friends forward messages to my work email address, I have to make sure I respond to or answer them using my personal email address, not my work email address.

When I don't have time to finish a message, or when I get interrupted, I save my message into my draft folder.

A "draft" is an unfinished document, or something that you have begun to write but have not yet finished.

You go through many drafts, usually, when we write things, especially formal reports.

We hope that each time we write a new draft, or revise or change the draft it gets better.

A "draft folder" is where an email program puts messages that you have started writing but aren't ready to send yet, you still haven't finished them.

Later, when you have time, you can go back to your draft folder, finish writing the message that you started earlier, and then send it to someone after you've finished it.

Finally, or lastly, I check my voicemail.

"Voicemail" is a system of recorded voice messages from people who call your phone number when you aren't able to answer the phone.