hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's
number 1 English Fluency Guide and in
this video I'm going to share some slang
names for popular American brands
I'm always telling students that you
have to learn like a native speaker if
you want to speak like one and part of
this means learning the actual
vocabulary that native speakers use
typically you'll have the thing that
you'll see in a textbook which native
speakers do understand but then you have
two real English the actual native
conversational spoken language that
native speakers are using in everyday
conversation and so this is what I teach
in these lessons and in things like the
fluency course and master English
conversation a few videos ago I was
actually teaching the phrase the cold
shoulder and a student happened to find
this in a catalog and she sent it to me
i'll put it up on the screen right now
but it just goes to show you this is
what fluency actually feels like when
you notice something you learn something
the thing that native speakers are
actually using and then you see it in
the real world whether you hear it in
maybe a movie or a conversation or you
see a written somewhere but that feeling
you get when you realize wow I really
understood something or i use the native
expression native speakers were
noticeably impressed and surprised by
that
that's the thing that gives you lots of
motivation so in this video i want to
give you even more motivation by cluing
you in and this is a phrasal verb that
just means to give you some great ideas
or to help you understand something so
to clue you in to the cold language that
native speakers actually use we're going
to start easy with some vehicle brand
names
the first one is harley davidson
harley-davidson listen carefully to the
blending of this harley-davidson
harley-davidson harley-davidson this is
a motorcycle company but now it's become
much more of a brand where people
recognize the ideas of maybe freedom and
being able to travel around and you're
kind of a rebel these kinds of ideas but
the name instead of things maybe
harley-davidson people would just make
it shorter and just call it Harley next
we've got two cars the first one is
chevrolet chevrolet chevrolet in that
chevre let Chevrolet's it was that for
inch sound chevrolet at the end
chevrolet and it becomes shortened to
Chevy Chevy now this was actually
something that the company itself didn't
want people calling it they were
thinking well chevrolet is supposed to
maybe have a more impressive sounding
name or maybe looking like luxurious
kind of sounding name so they didn't
like people calling it's Chevy but the
problem with that is that when they
tried to remove or stop people from
using the name Chevy consumers got
really upset about this and this is
because the brand is actually controlled
in the mind of the consumer and so maybe
the company wants to call it Chevrolet
or have it be called chevrolet but the
people that are using it and they talk
about it say I Drive a Chevy I Drive a
Chevy I Drive a Chevy next we've got
Corvette Corvette and you might be able
to guess how we would shorten this one
but it becomes vet vet that you can see
I Drive of that why i really want to buy
a vet so Corvette becomes that next IBM
IBM now this is an acronym for
International Business Machines that the
company is also known as big blue and
maybe it could be for a couple of
reasons maybe for the the attire that
people have so if everyone wears a blue
blue blazer or you know they typically
have blue suits for people that are
working there or if it's just because of
the logo itself because it's blue and
the company is really really big so
people call it big blue but this is when
you're talking about it you can talk
about like i'm investing in big blue or
I have a computer from big blue so if
you use this you're talking about IBM
but you're using it in a way that you
sound much more native and
conversational big blue next coca-cola
coca-cola coca-cola is shortened to coke
and actually when this is in maybe
different parts of the United States you
would talk about a soft drink in general
so a carbonated beverage with the little
bubbles in it but in many places in the
United States a carbonated beverages
known as a pop a soda or a soda pop or
even other names but those are the most
common ones but in some places any kind
of carbonated beverage might be called a
code
so someone might go into a restaurant
and say can I have a coke but they don't
actually mean a coca-cola they mean some
other kind of drink so they're asking
maybe all what kind would you like
so that's how powerful the brand of
coca-cola has become but people use the
term coke when they're talking about it
in just everyday situations yet can i
get a coke can i get a coke if you go to
a bar someone might order or you might
order a jack and coke and this is also
that same abbreviated a jack daniels
whiskey and coca-cola so a jack and coke
and just means instead of ordering a
whiskey with with some coconut or some
coke with a little bit of whiskey for
most people you would order specifically
this brand name of a Jack and Coke jack
daniels whiskey with coca-cola next
American Express American Express listen
carefully to how this blend we've got
that last sound of the end from American
in the e from express American Express
Knicks breath and express American
Express becomes MX MX when we're talking
about paying for something and people
are at a store hey do you take American
Express you can say that or even say do
you take amex amex amex it's similar to
federal express with shortened his
actual name to fedex fedex and the same
way we have that blending for American
Express we have federal express as well
say decks fedex fedex next we've got
Charles Shaw wine this is a very popular
very cheap wine and it's come to be
known as two buck chuck two buck chuck
so let's break this down a bit now a
book is another term for a dollar so if
something costs two bucks it cost two
dollars maybe you have the same thing in
your native language where you have more
than one term for money so we can talk
about money
greenbacks frog skins and cheddar bread
all kinds of different things that
actually just mean money but buck is a
very common one and you'll hear this
used allotting commercials and everyday
conversations
so two-buck Chuck Charles becomes Chuck
as just like a everyday conversational
thing so the same way that maybe bill is
a shortened form of William so William
Clinton William Jefferson Clinton the
president our the ex-president is known
as Bill Clinton so the same thing
Charles becomes Chuck this is one thing
that you learn about people as you meet
more native speakers or even just
listening to people's names to sound a
bit more professional you would say
Charles but maybe in a conversation away
or more friendly way you would say Chuck
so charles shaw line becomes two buck
chuck now getting into our last few we
have instead of blackberry crack berry
you may have heard this before
crackberry so crack is a drug that's
highly addictive and people talk about
the blackberry which isn't so popular in
in use now some companies do use it but
a blackberry is an old device with you
know you got the actual keypad on it and
people are typing their information in
there but just because it was so popular
and so addictive people were always
using it they called it a crack berry
instead of a blackberry a crackberry
crackberry next McDonald's McDonald's
McDonald's this is always a fun one I
get to share with people here in Japan
because the pronunciation in japanese is
a macro not at all
macanudo not at all actually don't want
to give a japanese lesson here but you
can understand how Japanese speaker
would hear mcdonalds and understand
macro not at all
Makka DiNozzo so it's a kind of a long a
long thing and people typically shorten
things as well in Japanese but anyway
the thing that people will often use in
canton regular conversations is mickey
d's Mickey be Mickey so people say oh
you want to go to mickey's or I'm going
to mickey's do you want anything
mickey d's mickey d's it's just more
casual and conversational and it's a
little bit easier to say than mcdonald
mcdonald mickey d's Mickey's make keys
and finally we've got target target
target is a large store that sells lots
of different things but it's like
Walmart but at the same time it's a
little bit slightly slightly higher
cause
holiday or they're trying to just as a
general rule for the company take more
expensive things are more luxurious
things and produce them in a way that
they can sell them to lots of people so
can kind of get like maybe slightly
better quality things then you could at
walmart but a company like target
because of this slightly kind of better
way of having may be nicer product
people jokingly referred to it as tarjay
tarjay so they're joking about that
they're not the kind of actually using
the term i'm going to tarjay today but
you can use it in a joking way you say
on going to tarjay and you sound like
very very I don't know maybe like
wealthy and like you're going to spend a
lot of money but it's a joking thing
because you're using it at a store that
well its target is just like a large
store for mass retail but you notice how
the pronunciation changes target is a
regular english word but then just like
we covered earlier in this video we add
chevrolet and that has the same ET at
the end of its chevrolet so we take kind
of a French sounding thing to make it
sound a little bit nicer but just as
again as a joke
so we're going to tarjay tar JTA rget
but it sounds more like a French
pronunciation to give it a little bit
slightly more affluent sound to it i
bought this new couch at tarjay i bought
this new this new dish at tarjay well I
hope you have enjoyed this video do like
it and do you some of these in your
writing and conversations and you will
sound like more of a native speaker as
well as impressed native speakers when
they say oh I didn't know you know
tarjay or crackberry or any of these
other things and if you'd like to learn
even more conversational vocabulary plus
more importantly understand how to
remember these things so that you don't
just learn it and it goes in one ear and
out the other
I want you to remember all the great
vocabulary that I'm helping you learn so
click on the link in this video to take
our free english fluency quiz you can
start that right now and it will tell
you everything you need to know
specifically for your situation that
will help you become a confident fluent
speaker much much faster i look forward
to seeing you in English anyone calm and
i'll see you in the next video bye bye