this is an all ears English podcast episode 1912. is it ironic how to comment on irony in
English [Music] welcome to the all ears English podcast downloaded more than 200 million times
are you feeling stuck with your English we'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing
on connection not Perfection with your American hosts Lindsay McMahon the English Adventurer and
Michelle Kaplan the New York radio girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City USA and to get
your transcripts delivered by email every week go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe
what exactly is irony how can you identify these situations and comment on them to
build the connection with native speakers get everything you need to know in this episode
[Music] hey Lindsay how are you hey Michelle I am doing great how are you what's going on today
I need new silverware because I don't know what happened I don't know if things are going missing
but I feel like I have like 10 000 spoons when all I need is a knife ah that sounds like someone
someone's line Whose Line Is that I think it's Elena's more set man I love that song I love it I
love that song something about it it's just fun to sing along to right yeah those guys we're talking
about the song Ironic this is a song from I don't know 1990 something and like that was a great
song and had a great remember the music video oh yes yes I remember it it's like in the car
and she's like all different people and like yeah guys Alanis Morissette ironic that's like a huge
huge song so um actually I've heard I I should have mentioned this to you earlier so one year
for Halloween no but my friend and I we were just trying to think of like a really easy Halloween
costume and um we both dressed in all black and I just like I I forget if I was the spoons
she was a night or if I was in the night but I think um so like we like taped a stash of just
like uh like a ton of plastic spoons to me and then my friend or it may have been reverse had
just like one plastic knife so we were just like walking around with spoons and a knife
on Art right for Halloween and so I was like oh what are we oh we're there Ironic song I love it
I love it and it's true it is ironic you have all these things all these spoons but when you need a
knife you need a knife spoons don't really fit the bill right they don't really do what you needed to
do uh to cut something so that's that's somewhat ironic right yes exactly exactly so uh yeah we're
gonna talk about uh some stuff that's ironic today but before we do guys remember to hit follow on
the all ears English podcast because you never want to miss an episode oh yes do not miss all
ears English guys four days a week so Michelle we have a question to inspire today's episode from
one of our awesome listeners from Mauritania can I go ahead and read the question go for it here we
go hello guys my name is amdi Baka from Mauritania it's an Arabian country you probably have heard
this name for the first time because it's not comical okay I'm not sure exactly what you meant
by that but that's okay we'll keep going here I have a question I always hear this word a lot life
is ironic or oh my God that's ironic I don't know what it means can you explain in a native way I'm
elated and stoked to see its meaning nice nice oh I love it I think his listeners picking up
on some of our vocabulary from our different podcasts I love that fantastic I love it too
um well thank you for that question that is a good question and this is going to be a fun
one so yeah guys we've done a couple episodes where we've mentioned something being ironic
or the word irony so one is uh 1796 is it's a sign astrology stop signs and signatures and
what's the other one Lindsay 18 sorry 880 880 is six ways to be funny in English so guys go
check that out if you're on the website you could get that on the website or you could
get that in the iOS or Android app just type in those numbers absolutely guys so the dictionary
says to identify something that's ironic it's something that's happening in the opposite way
to what is expected and typically causing Rye Amusement because of this so it's kind of like
so before the episode guys Lindsay and I were talking about you know the word ironic and it's
one of those things where it's hard to think of an example of it but it's it's one of those
things that when it happens it's like kind of it's almost kind of a cool feeling it's like oh
it's ironic or I do feel like yeah yeah it's it's weird it's more than just something that's strange
or coincidental it's more than coincidental I think yeah um yeah it's ironic it's in again
like you said it's easier to identify when it actually happens we know when we're in that sweet
spot of irony right right right right it just happens and it's kind of amusing when it happens
um so yeah it's basically like something's kind of strange and some sort of coincidental way yes
so I mean I like here I tried to come up with a couple examples so like one is and you tell
me well first of all let's talk about it the Ironic song haven't you heard people
to kind of analyze it and they're like it's not actually ironic it's just bad luck yeah
kind of I know sometimes I wonder about the rain on the wedding day thing right that's not ironic
that's just yeah that just kind of stinks yeah unless like it had been mentioned somehow in some
other way before then there was more to the story I think that's just kind of not quite irony yeah
right exactly exactly so that is kind of interesting so let's try and find some
examples and talk about if it's ironic so okay I have it's ironic because that Billy became
a doctor because he has always been afraid of blood yeah I think that's closer to irony than
rain on your wedding day right because some people say that rain on your wedding day is
good luck yeah right right exactly right that's true yeah um or what's another one
it was ironic that the fitness coaches ran into each other at a donut Festival
yeah that's just funny I love that I would go to a donut Festival oh my gosh oh that sounds like
fun there was a bloody mary Festival in town last weekend and I missed it I was so annoyed I don't
like Bloody Marys that's what I know it's one of those things where I well now that I'm talking
about that do you ever have something where you think that you don't like it but you're always
like well maybe I would like it if I tried it again and do you like that's one of those where
I'll like try it again I'm like wait maybe I will like I want to give it a chance and then I'm like
nah yeah I mean don't get me wrong I take the donut Festival over a bloody mary Festival any
day but you should try it again you should try it again I'll try it again I will I will
um so yeah it's ironic because what I mean okay so Lindsay why is that ironic uh so typically Fitness
coaches you wouldn't be likely to find them at a donut Festival right because usually they're
talking about the importance of nutrition and health and probably not eating sugar but they were
both there so that's just kind of funny all right right unexpected unexpected it's unexpected it's
like a little twist it's just kind of like it's just kind of like oh that's funny like that kind
of a feeling so guys so you know we have ironic is the adjective and then we have Irony is the noun
so there are like lots of different types of Irony and a lot of like when we talk about irony I feel
like we're also talking about like things like in plays in books you know where you're looking for
examples of the irony like in high school I feel like you have to find that yes like when we read
Shakespeare or any any literature you always yeah right all those assignments were always
tricky yeah yeah so there's always some sort of irony different types of it and we could get more
into it another time but it's very it's kind of a lot of literature but yeah okay so when we talk
about it let's break it down to the different parts of speech that our listeners need right
Michelle so and and the adjective form how do we talk about this word right so you would say like
uh wow that's ironic so just ironic and then as a noun it's we know it's right like irony right yeah
yeah exactly love it um okay all right Michelle so then how can we use ironic and irony in sentences
what do you think right so for ironic you might just say like oh wow that's ironic like how or
how ironic you might say something like that if if like Lindsay like let's say Lindsay we are the
fitness coaches and we are at the donut festival and we run into each other I might make a joke and
say like oh Lindsay like look oh it's so funny running into you here how ironic yeah and that
would be a joke like that would be something that would make you laugh that's kind of funny exactly
or here's another example there's definitely some irony there right so in that case we're
using the noun form or you might hear somebody say I can see the irony there right so like if
we're at the festival and I said oh like wow look at us running into each other at this
donut Festival this is like how ironic you might respond and you might say something like oh yeah
I can see the irony there missing out right that's a good way to support the speaker we've done lots
of episodes guys on how to support if someone's telling a story or saying something funny me you
can say I can see the X there I can see the humor there I can see the irony there I can see the the
shock there right these are good skills to have guys really good stuff right right right right or
another way to use it is instead of ironic or irony you could say ironically blank right so
you could start off the sentence you could say ironically I hate wine but wound up on a whole
wine tour in California yeah that's another good example I love it I love it so good yeah do you
do you like wine right yeah you're a Beer Drinker no no my trip to Argentina we are definitely going
to be going to some wineries because it's famous Mendoza is famous for Malbec wine uh that's my
favorite wine yeah that's that's yeah that's pretty much what they have as far as I know in
Mendoza so that's where we're gonna be is mostly at the wineries so you like red wine more or
white one I like both Michelle I like both it just depends on the type of white or red and it depends
on what I'm eating the weather my mood what I feel like nighttime daytime a lot of different
things that you know that I decide based on so yes wow wow very very sophisticated oh well thank
you I'm just like I like red wine okay interesting interesting yeah so do we have a role play to show
our listeners how this might embed itself into a conversation let's do it here we go so Lindsay we
are we actually ran into we're running into each other on vacation in this role play have you ever
run into somebody in big on vacation I don't think so but I've heard of it happening like
I've heard of people from the states running into someone in Italy or something oh wow you
know yeah we uh I remember I think it's happened to me more than once but I specifically remember
when I was a kid we were in San Francisco and one of like the administrators from my uh one
of the schools I went to um we were like in like some garden and all of a sudden we heard like
oh it's the Kaplan then it was hard oh that's so funny it can happen right and I love I love this
first response right that we're gonna share let's let's go through it let's go through the role play
and then we'll make comments on the role play here we go um oh my gosh what are you doing here
wow I can't believe we ran into each other all the way across the country Lindsay I know ironically
I was just talking about you because we stopped at the zoo and I know you love seeing Tigers wow that
is ironic we didn't use irony there guys but we're not gonna use ironic I love how I find it really
interesting like sometimes how people's language reflects what's going on in their head when they
say what are you doing here it's more well it's like I'm sure the other person's thinking what
are you doing here you know what I mean it's like why wouldn't they be there it's funny I don't know
it's just weird that is funny that is funny I see what you mean yeah yeah that's like if you're if
you run into somebody and you're surprised that's something you could say guys you could say what
are you doing here exactly and then you said wow I can't believe we ran into each other all the way
across the country and I said I know ironically I was just talking about you because we stopped at
the zoo and I know you love seeing Tigers so that is pretty ironic right it's not just the fact it's
not really the fact fact that we ran into each other that's the irony right Michelle what's the
actual irony here it's that you were just thinking about hey exactly but like we could go into it
like I feel like some people might say that's not ironic that's just a coincidence but ironic is
kind of but you don't have to like you know debate this yeah this doesn't need like an intellectual
debate right exactly it's just kind of like you know you could you could have said like oh like
that's funny or like funny enough like you know but people just throw this in sometimes I think
and then I said uh wow that is ironic to support you yes I love it I love it yeah I mean the point
of aller's English is connection it's not being intellectual it's not being nitpicking everything
and making sure everything's a hundred percent correct guys we want you to connect with the
person in front of you so when you comment on something that to you feels ironic just go for
it right that adds to the connection that's the point Michelle that's the point of aller's English
absolutely absolutely so wow this was fun this was a really good question I think like I it's always
fun to talk about things that are ironic and kind of debated and discuss it but guys we talked about
you know it can be a little bit tough to grasp sometimes and I don't think that the Atlantis
Morissette doesn't even though I love the song I don't know that things are really ironic in that
song yeah people people like to talk about that too um but uh but when when you find something
that's ironic then you'll know it yeah it's it's the feeling you just think to yourself
oh wow that's weird right it's kind of like weird when something has kind of a combination of funny
and weird and coincidental right that's irony and you know again if you come and you say oh
something's ironic and it's not quite irony don't worry about it okay focus on that connection have
a laugh with the person in front of you and go on with your day it's okay right right right
exactly all right well Lindsay this was fun and yeah well um go find things that are ironic yeah
we got it all right Michelle I'll see you in the next one have a good one bye Lindsay bye
thanks for listening to all ears English would you like to know your English level take our two
minute quiz go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score and if you believe in connection
not Perfection then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything see you next time
[Music]