The Vocab Man - Fluent Vocabulary

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This is a bonus episode of my other podcast called My Fluent Podcast


Link to the original full video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvPysMmxoVU&list=PLTF3BphrUaC2J2qtAkU4p_5c00bCUHljB&index=14

https://www.youtube.com/c/TeacherZdenek
teaching method: Dogme (improvised conversation, emerging language, error correction)




Highly recommended to watch Teacher Zdenek's live English lessons and learn English


Music: Scooter, Faster Harder Scooter
https://youtu.be/j0LD2GnxmKU

What is your favorite expression? For more info see the link below!
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Transcript not ready yet
GEOPATS LANGUAGE PODCAST:
https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3056840

https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/phrases/barking-up-the-wrong-tree/

What is your favorite expression? For more info see the link below!
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Transcript:

Hello, Daniel and hello vocab man listeners. This is Stephanie from the Geopats Language Podcast coming to you with another guest episode. And this time we're going to be talking about "cut me some slack"

cut me some slack Taylor. Cut me some slack.

I used to be a cop.

First I want to tell you where I am. I'm not in the park today as in my previous episodes, I am in an outdoor cafe in the in the capital of Albania, which is Toronto, where I'm living right now. I am an American ex-pat, who is currently living in Albania by currently for how long, who knows, but that's not the point of today. Today. The phrase is "cut me some slack".

Oh, this one really hurt my head. Trying to figure out why it was so hard to come up with something to say about this. And I finally figured out this is sort of a dated phrase. You know, there are phrases that are popular for just a short period of time. That's pretty much what this one is. The period of time that it was popular, seems to be in a lot of movies and TV shows for that time period.

So I think this is a really clever one for Daniel for ask me to do. And I think it's one that I hope I can clear up for you. So let's get to it.

Cut me some slack. So again, I feel like it's a dated expression. I haven't looked it up, but I have a feeling that Daniel might look it up and let you know what time period this was popular in my gut says it was probably the eighties or early nineties.

1980s, early 1990s. Uh, more recently, I think we use things like give me a break or come on or something like that, but cut me some slack was definitely very, very popular and very used during probably the 1980s. Now some examples, it's usually in response to something. So I'm going to try to do two voices here to give you an example.

So I can't believe he said that to his boss. Uh, cut him some slack. He just had a baby and hasn't slept in weeks. I'm not so sure that came across as two different voices, but let me try again. I can't believe he said that to his boss. Come on, cut him some slack. He just had a baby and hasn't slept in weeks.

So basically slack is to loosen a tight restraint. So in this case, the tight restraint is your judgment on someone. So most likely it's your being most likely it's judging someone for some really not so great behavior. And the person in response is trying to say, Hey, be kind to them. They're having a hard time.

Basically. So it's cut them some slack. So, you know, when you're holding a rope with another person or a few other people, and it's very tense and you're both pulling, pulling, pulling, sort of like a tug of war, a cut type of game situation. And if someone lets go too soon, you fall to the ground because there's no tension.

That's not this. This is more of, if someone lets go of the rope a little bit, then you have a little bit more room to move back and forth. So the tension in this rope scenario is the judgment that someone is making on someone else. So if you cut them some slack, cut them some slack, you're giving them a little more flexibility on your judgment of their bad behavior.

Whereas if you didn't cut them any slack, which is something that would be said also, um, then your, your, your judgment is very strong there by the tension in the rope would be very, very strong. So you'd be pulling really hard on that. Um, yeah, so, so cut them some slack. Started as a boating phrase, if I understand it correctly.

And, um, with the slack, the rope from the slap being something that was used, I'm not a huge birding person. So I can't explain that too much, but I'm sure Daniel will fill in the blanks there for you. Again, it is a dated phrase, so it's not necessarily something that you would say nowadays. But it's definitely something that you would want to know so that when you come across it in, like I said, movies and TV shows, or if you were to talk to an older person who might use it, you would know what they said.

So generally speaking, you would probably hear it, not use it. I hope this clarified somewhat the phrase. Cut me some slack. Thank you so much, Stephanie, for clarifying to us the meaning of cut me some slack. So. Actually, this is a really good example to show that it is not always easy to find practical phrases, which we can use in our daily basis because here on the Vocab Man, we try to learn phrases.

Which we actually use in the real world out there. Right. So as Stephanie said, this is a rather dated phrase, so I didn't know that. Right. And I think she's right when she says that it was used in the nineties or eighties, because I came across this expression a lot when I was watching detective stories.

Right? So for example, Harry Bosch, which takes place, I think in the nineties or something like that, I'm going to show you an excerpt from the series. This came from season three, episode six of Harry Bosch. I'd like not to hear the name Bosch in my morning briefing anymore. How can we make that happen? You can always fire me. Sure of that.

Sorry. I have no control over what people do or say about me. If you're expecting me to cut you slack for your crime misadventures, you're mistaken, I do not expect anything. Well, I think you do. And I think if you're not careful, I eat you alive. And they even used this expression a second time. In the same episode:

we don't want to lose these guys.

If you and Bosch can find time in your eight hour day to sit and watch them and knock yourselves out. But I can't justify the extra manpower and overtime until you get something more concrete,

same as it ever was ... cut her some slack Harry. So before we wrap this up, guys, let's give me another definition which comes from Marie and Webster. So it is informal. It means. To treat someone in a less harsh or critical way. Thank you for listening guys. Thank you again, Stephanie.

I always appreciate when you are on the Vocab Man here. It's really great. Thank you so much.

Finally cut me some slack.

Again, this is Stephanie from the Geopats Language Podcast , G E O P A T S. You can find us anywhere that you listen to podcasts. Thank you so much for listening to this. And I hope that you can recognize this phrase.

Cut me some slack when you hear it in the future. Do let us know if this has helped you with that phrase. Thanks so much. And thank you, Daniel for this opportunity and keep up the good work. Bye.

----
A special thank goes to Stephanie!

Check Stephanie's podcast out now (Geopats Language Podcast):
https://podtail.com/podcast/geopats-language/

Check out the YouTube version! https://youtu.be/h0EUMOLwTz0


What is your favorite expression? For more info see the link below!
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Transcript:

So on the off chance that you are hoping to visit Scotland, or you just particularly like that accent, this is a fantastic TV show.

Hello guys today, we are going to cover the expression "on the off chance", which basically means in the unlikely event have fun.



So right at the beginning, you could hear the voice of Lucy from English with Lucy and she was recommending a series called Katie Morag , I think.

Hello. My name is Katie Morag I can call and I live in island Tour of Struay . I know it's not the biggest place to live. In fact, it's really quite ?xxx?, but that's just the way I like it. I know everyone and everyone knows me.

Katie Morag YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix6oyVgUDbc


But if you take a closer look, she says, so on the off chance that you're hoping to visit Scotland, or you just particularly like the accent. This is a fantastic TV show, but since on the off chance means in the unlikely event, or even in the very slight remote or unlikely possibility that something may happen or be the case, I think she's a little bit rude, right?

English with Lucie YouTube: https://youtu.be/_L_zlG2X2tE

Because she assumes that it is an unlikely event that you want to visit Scotland, but maybe I'm just too harsh. Because people usually don't want to go to Scotland. I don't know, but in my case, I really would love to go to Scotland one day. So let's listen to it once again.


So on the off chance that you are hoping to visit Scotland, or you just particularly like that accent, this is a fantastic TV show. And as I've said many times before, it's really important to understand, and to listen to a variety of accents, the Scottish accent is considered to be fairly difficult.


If you're in a situation where you want to say no and be firm and yell at the dog, I wouldn't really recommend that. Loud voices can actually get the dogs even angrier and make them want to go at each other more. Think about like a boxer inside a boxing ring. They don't hear people chanting. They're just in the zone.

But on the off chance, if you have like something. Like an air horn that makes a really loud high-pitched noise. It can be loud enough to disperse the fight. Now the most effective way to separate two dogs that are fighting requires two people.

Nice on the off chance that I win a million dollars. I will pay a whole team to work for the Vocab Man here so that I can produce in a more professional way.

I would also recommend having a personal reference to keyboard shortcuts that you use most often. And on the off chance that keyboard shortcuts are actually interesting to you that you can go even further down the rabbit hole and start learning about the wide world of macros.

So, instead of saying on the off chance, you could also use expressions such like by any chance or in the event that, or in the case that.

Oh, very proud moment of mine. This was my slick hair, dark, dark red lip, big hoops, lots of crop tops. I really can't show this to my daughter then. I won't be able to tell her she can't wear them. Those are the premier of death becomes her. I was a huge fan of Meryl Streep's. This was in the off chance I was going to get to meet her.

I thought she'd like this outfit.

Thank you very much. And thanks for listening guys. This is Daniel from Switzerland. Bye.

So be sure to subscribe . So make sure you subscribe here on YouTube or like my page on Facebook. Hit the subscribe button. Please press the subscribe button.

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If this video helped you learn just a little bit more English

Transcript:



Slag off.





Welcome back, dear English, enthusiasts. This is Daniel. I'm the Vocab Man. And I was wondering, I mean, Don't get me wrong. I strongly believe that I have been learning a lot in the last four years here producing the Vocab Man for you, but let's take a closer look at it. Today is episode 66 and yeah, I have been producing over five hours in total.

So. Let's imagine if I produced double the amount or triple the amount, I mean, five hours in over four years, it's nothing. And let's say if I produced three episodes a week, I'd probably learn even more expressions. And as a result, of course, I would have become even more fluent in English, which is my goal, of course.

And I suppose it's your goal too, so I was just thinking, so now let's get started with an expression, which is a rather weird to me. It's called to slag off.

Because you must never, ever slag off the speaker because everyone, when you hear yourself, everyone always just gives, oh my God, I can't believe I sound like that company developed like that key thing is you focus entirely on you as the listener and you ask yourself just the following three questions.

Number one, how much does the speaker value? What he's saying to how much does the speaker value me as the listener? And then finally. Does the speaker make me care on that?

So to slag of means to criticize strongly, to say very bad things about other people, but it could also be a performance, etc. So it's rather a slang. So be careful when using it.

Some people are sort of saying, well, John Lennon know, he used to really slack off Paul McCartney. Um, and, and Paul says, no, no, no. He, we, we got on very well. It was just the way he was. He would be fast and loose and say crazy. Um, no Gallagher style things or Liam Gallagher style things. And actually he sentence overrated.

Anyway, he couldn't, uh, record an album like pipes of peace. If he tried.

So I repeat to slag someone off means to criticize them in an unpleasant way. So I think it's, it's rather British, right. And informal as, as I said before. So I really, I hope that you don't slack me off producing this episode, please, but if you have any suggestions for future episodes just drop me an email at [email protected].

Thanks.

Now I can tell you positive. I could slack off the professions and the juppies and how lots of them get paid for achieving very little goals . Um, I could question and challenge, but now I actually think, I think good things about people and places. Um, I rang a friend the other day. And I said to him, look, if I pay for your airfares, will you come to Northern New South Wales with me to the rainforest.

I just want to hang out in the peace and quiet. And, um, I can't do it on my own. And he said, yeah, I'll clear it with my wife. And I reckon that's alright

Transcript:

Don't get me wrong. I love it! Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to get you or anything.


In this episode, you will get familiar with the expression "don't get me wrong". And as usual here on the Vocab Man you'll listen to several examples of the expression that we are going to cover so that you can memorize it in a very easy way.

0:32 Example 1

Surely recycling can fix the plastic problem. Don't get me wrong. Recycling is vital for dealing with waste. I'm not saying you should just start checking everything in the bin for landfill, but unfortunately our recycling systems just can't cope with the amount of plastic we currently produce.

Plastics can only be recycled a certain number of times, so we can't keep recycling the same thing forever and making new recycled goods out of the plastic we recycle also uses up a lot of energy and resources. Doesn't plastic packaging, prevent food waste. This might seem like a question with a simple answer, but the links between food waste and plastic packaging are complex.

Don't forget to follow and to read the transcript. Of course.

Don't get me wrong. It's a very practical and useful expression. I think it's only used in speech. So you probably won't find it in written form and you might use it to avoid a misunderstanding. What I want to say is. Maybe you believe that the things you are going to say is a bit delicate or could be easily misunderstood by someone else.

So then you just begin with "don't get me wrong"

But it also works the other way around because according to the Wiktionary "don't get me wrong" is used to clarify that something previously said did not have a meaning that could be misinterpreted.

2:09 example 2

Now don't get me wrong. I do think it's important to know what's going on in the world, but I just don't think following the day to day developments of the news cycle is the way to do that.

So instead, I'm going to get one newspaper delivered to my house every week. And that is how I am going to stay informed.

2:29 Outro with Daniel Goodson

Don't get me wrong. What the man said just before. I mean, he made a good point, right? But on the other hand, one cool idea is to keep informed on a daily basis, maybe on the internet, but in English or in your target language, then it's a win-win situation. You keep informed. And at the same time you will learn a new language.

Thank you for listening. Daniel Goodson

www.myfluentpodcast.com

YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/FPxQ2H_ZEy0

Transcript:

Dither - dither - dither

The world doesn't have that much time to dither!

Hello. I am the Vocab Man. After producing over 63 episodes consisting of five hours of audio materials in total, after more than 21,000 downloads. Thank you for that guys. The time has come to make a decision. Yeah, well actually, I've been dithering about what to do next. The thing is that my free plan on spreaker .

Spreaker is the Vocab Man's podcast hoster. So the free plan on spreaker, which consists of exactly five hours of content has come to an end. Yeah. Unfortunately, but there is no time to dither because spreaker offers a reduced price, which is available only for a few days. In other words, the VOCA man is going to exist in the future. for free.

If prince Charming walked up to you with a handful of diamonds, would you dither? Would you say, oh, I don't know. Let me think about it. Of course. He wouldn't.

To dither means to act nervously or indecisively. And according to the free dictionary, it also means to make a fuss or to be agitated. And dither as a noun means a highly nervous, excited, or agitated state.

So be committed to a national referendum. So the British people can again have their say and to hold it in the first half of the next parliament. This is one of the key choices that the election labor have spent 10 years making up their minds about whether they want a referendum on Europe. And after 10 years of dither, uncertainty, confusion, and contradiction, they've ended up making the wrong choice. And are still seeking to deny the democratic will of the people of this country.

So now let's take a look at the etymologist side. So according to the website etymonline.com the word actually came 1640s, and it means to quake, tremble and is a phonetic variant of middle English didderen from the late 14th century, which is of uncertain origin.

Imagine a giant asteroid on a direct collision course with earth. That is the equivalent of what we face now yet we dither taking no action to divert the asteroid, even though the longer we wait, the more difficult and expensive it becomes.

This was the Vocab Man . Thank you for listening, dear listeners. And thank you all people who contributed to the Vocab Man, and also thank you to all the guys who are actually reading the transcript of the episodes because it's a hell of a lot of, uh, work to do so. I'm I'm really happy if there are even some people who are using it and reading it.

And of course, remember there is a YouTube version of this podcast, which enables you to learn even better English and faster! Bye.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/DLlUsVPj53A

Transcript:


Gotcha.

Hi, Daniel and hello Vocab Man listeners. This is Stephanie from the Geopats Language podcast here with another commonly used phrase "gotcha" (I got you).


This is a tricky one. There's a lot of different informal situations where you can use this, but there's also a lot of ways you can misuse it or you can use it incorrectly.

First of all, it is important to know that this is an informal phrase, this is not something that you will hear, for example, from the BBC news

It's all of the virus. China has warned against politicizing and the attempt to find out how the virus first emerged. Mr. Biden's order highlights just how little we really do know about where the virus came from.

or any formal setting and probably not in a business English setting.

Also, it's usually in response to someone asking you a question and here's the trick. It's usually after something went wrong, when there was a question and answer and the answer was wrong, then there's a question again.

And the answer would be gotcha.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. That sounds confusing. Let me give you an example.

Okay. For example, if somebody says, so we're meeting at the train station at 7:00 PM. And you say, no, actually it's 8:00 PM.

Remember we changed it and you say, oh, okay. So it's 7:00 PM. Gotcha. So it means, yes, I understand. I've literally, I've got it. I've got the information in my head. It will not leave. Yeah. So. Gotcha. And so gotcha is G O T C H A is how it's spelled informally. And if you were to break it out into its different bits, it would be got you.

I got you. We are the same. Yeah.

But it changes, it changes spelling, obviously when it's put all together and it's informal form, G O T C H A

Okay, so it can be used with all pronouns. I can say I gotcha. I can just say gotcha. You could say, okay. He got ya. Like, if you're saying something repeatedly to a waiter and you're being a little bit rude, your friend can leave him over and say, Hey, he got ya. Stop. It's okay. It's understood

Another situation that I have personally been in is in a group, in a formal group meeting, like a college club group or something like that, where somebody is going on and on about something and they're not stopping and you want them to stop and you say, okay, we gotcha. Meaning, we understand it's literally in our heads, please stop talking about it.

So that's another way you can use it. The one way we usually don't use. Gotcha. Is in a question we wouldn't say you gotcha. Cause that makes no sense. Cause again, it's about telling the person that you understand. And even though we can say, do you understand? We usually don't say, I'd say 99% of the time we do not say gotcha.

No, I just, it just doesn't make sense. It's just not how we use it anyway. I hope that makes sense. And again, this is Stephanie from Geopats Language Podcast. You can find us on any podcast app it's GEOPATS , G E O P A T S. Thanks so much, Daniel. And bye everybody.

Hey, Stephanie, thank you so much for all of your explanation. It was really great. And we could have a listen to her at episode 58, where she explained the expression to bitch about. So check it out now and by the way, gotcha. Was covered by the Vocab Man on episode 2. Yes, it was the second episode that was published and I've thought it would be a great idea too, to make a newer episode about.

Gotcha. Because sometimes it is really important to revise the expressions that you want to learn too. Right. So at least that's my opinion. So thanks a lot for listening. I am Daniel . The Vocab Man . See you around. Bye.

https://www.stephfuccio.com/geopatslanguage

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/xpPy7W8KbqA

Transcript:

No sweat.

There is a little chore I have for you, which is the Phoenix palm fronds More have fallen onto the lawn. Oh! Those! Those..., no sweat. I'll deal with them.

No sweat. I'll deal with them. Welcome to the Vocab Man, this is Daniel. And as you may already know on this podcast and YouTube channel, we try to become fluent in English. So that's why we cover different expressions so that they stick for good with us. Today's expression is rather informal. So no sweat is used to convey that something is not difficult or problematic.

So it's similar to when you are saying no problem. It means figuratively helping you was not hard work for me. And it did not cause me to sweat. Right. And sweat is the liquid, which comes, which pores of the skin. Right. So for example, if you're run and then you begin to sweat, right.

Well, that's that's great.

Congratulations. This means I won't be hanging around the Ocean Lodge anymore, and I just came to say, thank you for being nice and giving me a place to stay. You're a good guy. Sure. No sweat!My pleasure! Unless you want to go double or nothing on the roulette table. Don't don't go down that road. You don't want to do that.

Just keep that and get back on your feet. Okay. So actually I came across this expression while watching Goliath. And you could just listen to an excerpt of this great series, which I highly recommend to learn English as well. So if you are into law crime series, this might be right up your alley. So, and the next expression comes from a YouTube video from speak English with Vanessa.

You got this, you got this.

It doesn't mean you received some kind of package. It just means you can do this. You got this, you got this. Or you can say. Don't sweat it, don't sweat it. Sweat is the liquid that comes from your face when you're hot or when you're nervous. And this often happens when you have a big situation. So you need to say, don't sweat it.

You can do it. You got this. We often combine these together. So for today, let's learn the expression. Don't sweat it and no sweat. And that's it for today, guys. And let's relisten to one or two audio bits. There is a little chore I have for you, which is the, um, the Phoenix palm fronds. More fallen onto the lawn.

Oh, those those!, no sweat. I'll deal with them. This means I won't be hanging around the ocean lodge anymore. And I just came to say, thank you for being nice and giving me a place to stay. You're a good guy. My pleasure.


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