Keep Your English Up to Date – Angličtina Youradio Talk

Profesor David Crystal: Hole-in-the-wall is one of those phrases where you get a lot of words hyphenated, if you write it down: hole-in-the-wall, being used as a single word, as a noun. “I’m going to the hole-in-the-wall” you might say or “I’m getting some money out of the hole-in-the-wall”. Well you can see what it means, it means an automatic cash dispenser – one of those installed in the outside wall of a bank or some other money-giving organisation. It’s British colloquial; it’s not used as far as I know in the States, or in Australia, or anywhere, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it spread a little bit – always written with hyphens. Very unusual to see phrases of this kind and sentences being used in this way, as single words. But if you listen out for them, you’ll find them – especially being used as adjectives. hole-in-the-wall - "díra ve zdi"- bankomat hyphenated word - slovo pospojované pomlčkami to write down - zapsat automatic cash dispenser - bankomat (cash point, ATM) installed - zabudovaný, instalovaný to spread - rozšířit to listen out for - zaměřit se na

Have you heard people for instance say "he’s a very get-up-and-go-person"? Now there’s the sentence 'get up and go'. To say a "get-up-and-go-person" means somebody who’s got lots of oomph inside them, lots of enthusiasm. Or if I give you a "come-hither-look" – a "come-hither-look": come here – come hither. Another phrase being used as an adjective. You can try them out as a sort of game. "Who do you think you are?" is a common enough expression – so you can make it an adjective and say "he gave me a who-do-you-think-you-are sort of look". Make it even longer if you want: "he gave me a who-do-you-think-you-are-and-why-are-you-looking-at-me sort of look" – but there is a limit to the length you can make an adjective. Don’t go on for too long, you’ll run out of breath! for instance - například get-up-and-go-person - činorodý; nadšenec oomph - energie, elán come-hither-look - svádivý pohled common - běžný you’ll run out of breath - dojde ti dech

Euro. No named part of the world has introduced more new words into English than Europe. It’s all happened of course in the last 10 or 20 years, and it’s this 'euro' prefix that’s caused all the attention to be focussed on the area of Europe. The euro of course is the most obvious thing: the actual unit of money which became so popular in Europe a few years ago, and now everybody talks about it. But, it’s not just that. It’s the prefix 'euro' being used as a blend word along with all sorts of other things. Early on for instance, people talked about euro currency and euro money, and then the euro fighter came along with the Defence Establishment’s development. And now, everything has a 'euro' possibility – so one of the commonest ways of creating new words in English these days is take a perfectly ordinary word and just shove ‘euro’ in front of it. So, you can have euro butter for regulations to do with butter and euro eggs and euro chickens and euro fireworks and euro…..anything you like really. prefix - předpona the new unit of currency - jednotka nové měny "named part of the world" - místní název euro fighter - (euro)stíhačka euro butter - po "evropsku" vyrobené máslo fireworks - raketa, ohňostroj regulations - nařízení, směrnice to shove - strčit, vrazit

Toy boy. There’s a class of very unusual words in English, they’re called "reduplications" or "reduplicated forms": "bow wow, says the dog". Well, you can hear the reduplication – the two words are almost the same, it’s just the first part that changes. "Helter skelter"… Words like this are reduplicated forms, and new ones are really rather unusual, but toy boy has come along in the last 10 or 15 years. It’s British slang, from the 1980s. It refers to an attractive young man being kept as a lover by another person, by an older person, that’s crucial: the older person is keeping the younger man as that person’s toy boy. It’s the rhyme that made it popular. "Toy girl" seems rather boring by comparison. toyboy - pohledný mladý muž, kterého si vydržuje starší osoba willy-nilly - ať chce nebo nechce helter skelter - (tobogán), něco chaotického, jedna akce za druhou, hlava nehlava to come along - objevit se rhyme - rým crucial - důležitý

Saddo. There are quite a few familiarity markers in English – words which take on an ending to make the word sound much more familiar, or everyday, or down to earth. Ammunition becomes 'ammo'; a weird person becomes 'weirdo' aggravation becomes 'aggro'. They like it in Australia a lot – "good afternoon", they don’t say that so often, but 'arvo', 'arvo’'is the abbreviation for afternoon in Australia. And in the 1990s you had this rather interesting word 'saddo' – that’s the adjective sad with this ‘o’ ending, spelt with two d’s: s-a-d-d-o. I t came in as a kind of a rude word really, a mocking word for somebody seen as socially inadequate, or somehow rather unfashionable, or contemptible in some way. You might hear somebody say, "oh, he’s a real saddo" or "she’s a real saddo" – it can be for male or for female. It’s from the word sad of course, from oh, way back in the 1930s, where 'sad' here doesn’t mean miserable, it means pathetic, and that was a use of sad that came in at that time. It’s a sense in other words that’s been developing for quite a long time. In actual fact, you can take that sense of sad and trace it all the way back to Shakespeare, although he never said "saddo". down to earth - zemitý ammunition – ammo - munice weird person – weirdo - divný člověk aggravation – aggro - hněv saddo - politováníhodný ubožák to mock - zesměšňovat, dělat si legraci sad - smutný, ubohý rude word - nadávka, sprosté slovo contemptible - odporný miserable - smutný pathetic - ubohý, žalostný, patetický

Showbiz. This is probably one of the most popular abbreviations of a word that took place in the 20th century in the United States. It's an abbreviation - showbiz - of show business. And, to begin with, it was written as two separate words: show /space/ biz; still is, to some extent, but increasingly these days, you see it written as a single word, showbiz, and pronounced like that. It’s actually been around since the 1940s, very wide use indeed as a noun. "That’s show biz!" they used to say in all kinds of circumstances, where something was happening that was unexpected, or something was going off the rails, or somebody lost their job, or some special circumstance came up: "that’s show biz!". And it was used as an adjective too. "We’re going to have a show biz treatment tonight" or "…a show biz tribute"…or something of that kind. It hasn’t actually developed very many other uses as yet (these shortened forms often don’t, you know), but it’s actually something that I think is going to come in the near future. I heard for instance an adjective form "going show-bizzy" – that’s b-I-z-z-y, not b-u-s-y – meaning 'typical of show biz', in the last 5-10 years. showbiz - přeneseně: když se děje něco nečekaného, mimořádného nebo nepřístojného separate words - slova psaná zvlášť to some extent - do určité míry to go off the rails - zbláznit se

Gobsmacked. English loves compound words: washing machine and all that sort of thing. But when you get a compound word, the two parts of the compound are usually stylistically very homogeneous, in other words, they are the same style: formal first part – formal second part, and so on. You don’t usually get a compound word where the first part is a slang thing and the second part is a rather ordinary or formal thing – they don’t usually mix – but gobsmacked is a perfect exception to that rule. To be gobsmacked – it means to be astounded, flabbergasted, speechless with amazement. And what you’ve got is the perfectly ordinary word ‘smacked’ (to smack) and the Northern word ‘gob’. Gob is the Northern word for mouth. I used to live in Liverpool for many years and you’d say to people "ah, shut yer gob", you know, and it simply means, mouth. So, to be gobsmacked is to be struck dumb as if by a smack in the face. Now, it’s got a more general use these days than just in the North. I’ve heard it used throughout the South of England – I’ve heard it used abroad; it’s now very widely used to be gobsmacked. Now, why? Because it became a very fashionable expression by people on television, not everybody on television, I’m thinking especially of people like sports personalities having a terrible day, something horrible happens: footballers in particular are always saying that they’re gobsmacked at something happening. gobsmacked - překvapený (jako by mu někdo dal facku) compound words - složená slova homogeneous - stejnorodý, homogenní formal - spisovný rule - pravidlo astounded - vykulený flabbergasted - vyjevený speechless - zaskočený (až ztratil řeč) gob - pusa, huba to smack - plácnout "shut yer gob"- shut your gob - zklapni, zavři hubu fashionable - módní

Wannabe. A very unusual feature of SOME languages, and of English in particular, is that you can phrases that can be used as words: a phrase used as a word! ‘Wannabe’ is a good case in point. It’s of course a colloquial version of "want to be" – wannabe: w - a- double n- a – b – e - sometimes there are two e’s at the end. If I say "he’s a wannabe", what I mean is he’s an admirer or a fan; somebody who wants to emulate a celebrity by copying that celebrity’s dress or behaviour or something like this. It actually started back in the United States sometime in the 1980s. I think it first became very popular when people wanted to be like Madonna the pop star. Certainly that’s when I first heard it very very regularly and a ‘wannabe’ person is someone who wants to be as famous, or just get some reflected glory from the person, in this case Madonna, that they were admiring. It reflects the colloquial pronunciation. Notice, it’s not a very polite expression. You can talk about other people as being wannabes, but you wouldn’t say that you yourself were a wannabe, and if you say about somebody "he’s a wannabe", you’re really being a bit sceptical about that person’s state of mind I think, to some extent. But it’s a very popular term – you’ll hear everybody use it these days. wannabe – want/to/be - fanoušek, obdivovatel (který chce být jako jeho idol) a colloquial version - hovorová varianta to emulate - napodobovat get some reflected glory - ohřát se v odlesku její slávy sceptical about his state of mind - pochybujete, jestli má všech pět pohromadě

Phwoar! Interjections are words which express emotions and some are very old: words like 'cooer', 'gosh' or 'phew'. You don't get new interjections very often, but one did arrive in the 1980s. It was a sort of expression of enthusiastic desire - usually by a man about a woman. Easy to say 'phooaw!' like that - less easy to write. How do you spell such a thing. All interjections have this kind of problem. Well, I've seen it spelled f-o-o-o-a-r for instance ...all sorts of things beginning with f. But the one that is most widely used these days is p-h-w-o-a-r: 'phwoar!' like that. Well it's becoming very frequent, in all kinds of television programmes I've heard it used recently. Interestingly, although it was originally a male noise, it's now being used by women. Women are using it back to the men. 'Phwoar' these days could be a man looking at a woman in an enthusiastic way, or a woman looking at a man in an enthusiastic way. Nobody's ever said it to me; I just can't be an object of enthusiastic desire I suppose? interjections - citoslovce expression of enthusiastic desire - projev plamenné touhy male noise - "mužský zvuk"