hey there Aubry what's shaken hi I'm great how are you doing Lindsay awesome what's new in your world
hmm well something happened this morning that hit kind of close to home my sister was telling
me I'm not gonna go to details but she sort of just told me a difficult story that had also
happened to me so we kind of bonded I'm like oh that's rough yeah it's very appropriate because
we're talking about this idiom for something to hit close to home yes oh this is so native and
natural I think this sometimes I'll just think oh that hits close to home or I'll say this so
I want you guys to be able to use it as well and understand when people use it yeah we really want
you guys especially when you feel something that's a moment of potential connection whatever you say
in response to how you feel is a real moment of connection with the other person so we want you
to have the tools for this so that's why you listen to aller's English but first we have to
highlight an important member of our team Aubry who is that person yes Lou hello Louie shout out
we are so excited to have you on the team we're grateful for all of you do all that you do yes
thank you for being a member of our team Louie for such a long time so many years Louie helps us with
answering student emails uh getting getting this episode live he does so many things on our team so
thank you to Louie love it all right Aubry let's get into a student question today's episode is it
based on a student's question yes yes a student sent us a really interesting question about this
idiom for something to hit close to home so this is Anderson Mourinho from Sao Paulo Brazil a city
that I've always wanted to go to have you been to Sao Paulo I haven't been to Brazil yet it's
so crazy I can't believe I haven't been I can't believe I haven't been to Brazil one day yeah
one day we will get there let's meet there let's meet Thursday we should have actually we could
probably have like a lovely allers English happy hour in Sao Paulo a lot of our listeners are based
in Brazil and Sao Paulo actually we could do that we could absolutely do that invite all of you guys
yes stay tuned be sure you follow so that you know when we do that in the future I'm going to
make it happen I love to push until it happens the question is a really good one you want to read it
Lindsay sure here we go hello Lindsay Michelle hello everyone from all ears English how's
everything going I hope all of you guys are pretty well I love you guys I love what you guys do so
much and I really appreciate everything you've done for all of us Learners thank you so much I
got a question for you with three exclamations I love this this listener Anderson has a lot of
energy I can tell recently I saw in a video the expression hit closest to home for someone can
you explain this sentence to me the whole phrase is what traits in your character MJ hit closest
to home for Zendaya thanks in advance Anderson Mourinho from Sao Paulo Brazil thank you for
your question Anderson and I love so much that you said Zendaya because I have to share this exchange
with you I read this question and immediately asked my daughter was it in the Spider-Man movie
that Zendaya's character was named MJ and she said uh Mom it's Zendaya I made the same mistake then
and I bet our listeners thought the same thing they're like Lindsay it's Zendaya so I'm actually
really happy that you made the same mistake I did but now we know and I even saw Spiderman is that
the one with the the cute young guy Tom something what's his name oh he's so cute yes Zendaya I love
verses on Euphoria she's so talented she's on a milli what's the musical with Hugh Jackman oh um
greatest showman the greatest show I love that one after that you know yeah she's so talented okay
yes so great question I love that Anderson shared where he heard this idiom you know clearly he was
watching like an interview where someone asked Zendaya this question and yes oh what does that
mean for something it's also a really interesting question I love sitting in on interviews when I
can hear you're asking the actor actress how what do you what are your thoughts on this character
you know how do you relate to this character because I always wonder what it's like to be an
actor and actress like I wonder if you can really lose yourself because you do kind of become that
person the method right they do on purpose but what is that like living in Hollywood you lose
yourself and then I I don't know it's just such a home and be yourself again it's yeah interesting I
don't know that's why I think California is such a fascinating place there are all these people being
someone else and then if you have a partner and you tell them something maybe they don't believe
you because you're such a good actor like how do you know if they're really crying or really
telling them right like that would be really tricky yeah and then after so many hit movies
how do you know who you are I think you probably have to have I think to be a great actor like a
Brad Pitt at Tom Cruise whoever you probably have to have you know a really good sense of who you
really are like to be healthy in your life and also just I feel like they're really smart people
good actors there's a lot of cognitive dissonance right yeah definitely be in the app you guys
this is where you can really compartmentalize and separate I feel this way and I think this way when
I am being this character and then in my normal life I practice this cognitive dissonance and I
can mentally separate myself from that character interesting oh man I wish I could you know just
spend a day or two as a Hollywood actor like a super high level well not for the fame just to
know what it's like I don't know if yeah I could get there but we'll see all right all right all
right let's get into it in this question right this interviewer is asking Zendaya how she relates
to her character MJ right what do they have in common do they have shared experiences but here's
what's interesting in this idiom for something to hit close to home there it's implied that they're
asking more about negative experiences right I would never say for something positive that hit
really close to home and I had to think about this a lot because it for you know I'm sort of Googling
and in some definitions you'll find online it's not really clear so I had to think about it and
I that's why I talked to my daughter about it I was like how do we use this because sometimes
natives use idioms without really thinking about it there is always this implica education that
there's a negative experience involved yes I would agree I hadn't thought about that either
but yeah that's a good point you know it's usually about something negative or something someone went
through that was hard yep exactly but we actually use this in three different ways so there's three
different sort of nuanced meanings of this one idiom and we're gonna cover them all today oh
we're gonna understand what people mean and use it all right we're really going to go deep into this
idiom today because again guys one idiom today but it is a high leverage idiom it is an idiom
that gets you further because you share your feelings that matters for connection so let's
go get into the first one yeah so the first one is the way they're asking Zendaya about it it's
to affect someone deeply and emotionally because you can personally relate closely to what happened
okay negatively right so here's some examples should you want to share the first one Lindsay
yeah here we go because I recently lost my grandma the movie about the girl losing her grandma really
hit close to home okay right so you have this shared experience it hits close to home because
you are sort of feeling that trauma through this other person's experience right you got it here's
another example she's excited her son is coming home from the military talking to her hit pretty
close to home since my son is also in the Army yeah and we're not going to probably go too much
into grammar here but it's interesting this phrase the where it's being placed in that sentence isn't
it Aubry so talking to her hit pretty close like doing something hit close to home exactly you
can't you I mean if you someone says something you can just say oh that hits close to home
and people know you mean like I have a similar relatable negative experience I'm feeling this
right it's a way to show empathy it's a great way to show empathy someone shared like my sister this
morning shared me shared something and I was able to say oh that hits close to home because I have
this shared experience I can empathize yeah that's huge that's huge I love it so it's so important
to know that so that is number one and now let's get into number two okay I'm Aubry so what would
be the next one the next reason we use it so this is very similar to another idiom for something to
be too close for comfort that something happens dangerously or uncomfortably near or close to
something else that's very idiomatic here's an example A lot of my co-workers were laid off
and I was worried that I would be too that hit too close to home so we use it to mean this is
a it's nuanced but it is different to say I was worried something would happen it came too close
to happening we'll also say oh that hit too close to home yeah and for our listeners who don't have
the app guys by the way if you want to make sure you see all these words written get the app go
to allearsenglish.com app but if you don't have the app I want to make sure they know which two
because there's a few twos flying around here good point right so in this second example could you
spell the two like just let us know the two that you're using yeah so normally it's two hit close
to home close to home is just the preposition t EO yeah and then in the second one when we
say too close for comfort we're saying too much of something and an overabundance of something
the t-o-o right either also or an overabundance right yes the amount that this is happening the
the uncomfort with this is more than we want so we say too close too much or too close for
comfort and the the pronunciation is different too right that hit too close to home so it kind
of gets extended a little bit sometimes that's a little tricky because it when we write it it
is extended there's an extra o right so sometimes we will extend it a little bit like too close to
home but you definitely will hear interchangeable pronunciation for two with to and two with t-o-o
so you have to be careful to think about how is it being me how does what does it mean is it just
a preposition yeah or does it mean also does it mean an overabundance because sometimes we won't
say say it extended right you won't I feel like well so I'm comparing it right so to the first
one as the infinitive to hit close to home that I say differently to I say to right to hit close
to home as opposed to that hits too close to home well here's something right interesting about that
that I learned this actually talking to Jessica I hadn't thought about this before working for
Euler's English but when we when the next word starts with a consonant sound to hit to hit we
Chloe close it a little bit to hit but if the next one starts with a vowel like for example to occur
we have to give it that harder sound because the next word is a sort of a more closed vowel oh it's
her here right so it's going to sound different depending on whether the next word occur that's
that's true and it's not about the letter because imagine if it's the word honest or honor versus
home or horse which start with a consonant sound so it's not about a letter it's about the sound
it's about the sound that would actually be a great episode idea for another day we can go
into that because we have to make sure we know you know when a vowel comes up or a consonant comes
up a sound comes up after how are we supposed to make these to make it clear so that our the
people in front of us really understand what we're saying for sure we'll definitely talk about this
because it helps you know which indefinite article article to you should you say exactly because we
say a horse but an honor right an honor yes honest person but a humble person so it's not about the
letter it's about the sound yes you guys be sure to follow we will for sure do an episode on that
very soon yeah make sure you hit follow guys because you will miss all these awesome episode
ideas if you don't hit follow on all ears English so good okay Aubry what's the third way that we
might see this yeah so it's a statement about that something that you hear a statement that is close
to an uncomfortable truth so I think the best way to show this is to do a mini role play Lindsay and
we're going to imagine we're not ourselves here we are co-workers or maybe you know maybe it's a
relationship and I don't listen to you as well as they should so you're going to share that with me
and and I'll respond okay Stardust well sometimes I feel like you don't listen to what I'm saying
ouch that hits really close to home actually I've noticed that about myself and I need to do better
so you see right we say it to say you're making a statement that's close to an uncomfortable
truth that I already know right if someone says something and I'm like oh I know that's true and
I'm uncomfortable about that I would say wow that hits really close to home yes and this is
a this is a good place where that connection can happen right you know if someone you need to have
something to say just to let them know that you felt that emotionally you felt that but you know
it's a good way to just not put the blame back on them or attack them but you let them know
that what they said resonated with you guys yes you're not saying well that's because you don't
listen to me no right right I agree this is a huge skill this is very important to be able
to say I actually have noticed that about myself I apologize I admit it that hits really close to
home and I'm going to try to do better yeah it's so good yeah so good all right Aubrey what's the
takeaway for our listeners this has been a very use this one phrase look at what we can do with
just one brand new phrase seriously right some idioms like this have multiple meetings meanings
that are very nuanced and subtle and you do want to use this instead of like think what
you could say alternatively like that makes me uncomfortable which is kind of awkward and much
less native you do want to use this idiom to build that connection and just say oh that hits
close to home I love it so guys let people know how you feel right you know there is something
to the fact that there's a lot of people there's a few people I know that don't they're not very
vulnerable like they have great they ask me great questions they they're smart like we get into good
intellectual conversations I mean in my social life or my private life whatever but they don't
share enough for me to feel close to them so this is one tool in your toolbox that you could share
when something hits you in a way they need to know that for sure that puts you makes you a lot
closer to the person right yes I'm the opposite of those friends I'm an overshare and there's on
the podcast and in my life I'm constantly like oh TMI was that too much information
that's the other side of things right so we can talk about that another day we need phrases to
tell me Aubry please don't over share so much you can write that episode for next
time or maybe right yes for me all right good stuff guys hit follow on all there's English
if you love learning with us and Aubry thanks for hanging out today it's been fun of course
as always so fun thanks I'll see you next time Lindsay take care bye [Music] thank you