hi my name is Emma and today we are
going to talk about expressions with the
word help you'll notice I don't know if
you know what the word help means but
you'll notice some flames to help you
understand the meaning of help so first
what we're going to do is we're going to
talk about the phrase what the hell and
then once we finish that we're going to
look at some common idioms and phrases
that contain the word hell so let's get
started before we begin with what the
hell I just want to talk about
pronunciation and also what the word
help means so hell is a noun it's a
place in certain religions if you're
very very bad you go to hell for people
who are very good they go to heaven hell
is supposed to be a very hot place with
a lot of flames with fire a lot of evil
people are supposed to go to hell so
that's just a bit of a background on the
word hell now here is a word that people
might confuse with the word hell
hill-hill does anyone know what this
means
well it's a contraction you see this '
it means he will so these two words have
completely different meanings so don't
mix them up in terms of pronunciation
you don't want to mix these two words up
so remember hell runs with Bell and
he'll is pronounced the same way as like
a hill hill okay good so let's look at
the first expression I have had a lot of
ESL students ask me about this
expression what the hell what the hell
and you'll notice an exclamation mark so
what does this expression mean I'm sure
if you watch American movies TV shows
friends sitcoms you are going to see
this a lot you're going to hear it a lot
well what the hell is what's known as an
interjection so we use this to show we
are surprised we're angry we're
frustrated but you but usually with the
surprised in anger so for example maybe
I'm walking down the street
and all of a sudden in the sky I see
something fly past me maybe it looks
like an alien spaceship I'm going to be
shocked I'm going to be surprised so
right away I'm going to say something
like what the hell it's surprising what
the hell so we use this a lot with
surprise so now let's look at using hell
as what's known as an intensifier so in
this case it's used as an interjection
other interjections are whoa or these
are introductions now we are going to
look at hell as what's known as an
intensifier because hell is intense so
what do I mean by this well look at the
following sentence well it's a question
what happened what happened now say if I
want to add emotion to this sentence I
want people to know that I feel
something when I'm saying this maybe
it's surprise maybe it's shock anger
frustration usually those four emotions
we use hell with instead of just saying
ah what happened I can say what the hell
happened what the hell happened last
night I don't know if any of you guys
have seen the movie The Hangover but in
that movie three men wake up hungover
with no memory of the night before and
so they have this type of moment what
the hell happened last night
they don't remember they're shocked by
what they see around them another
example is a I had a friend in high
school who had a big big party
her parents were away for the weekend or
so she thought
so she invited a whole bunch of people
to her house and it was a Saturday night
her parents were supposed to come home
Sunday they came home Saturday so when
her father walked in to their house he
said what the hell is going on here he
wasn't happy so again we use this for
anger surprise frustration now let's
look at another question who is that who
is that well what if I add the word
the hell who the hell is that it really
changes the meaning of this question
before the question was more polite when
I add who the hell is that it's a bit
rude so you don't want to use this with
your boss it is rude but I'm showing
either I'm angry or surprised so what
might I use is well maybe I see my best
friend's husband at a bar with another
woman well if I'm shocked
I might ask him who the hell is that
when when did you get married maybe I
find out my friend just got married oh
when did you get married well what if
I'm really really surprised or I'm angry
because she didn't invite me to the
wedding
I might say when the hell did you get
married again it's not the nicest thing
to say you say it with your friends a
lot actually but it can be taken rudely
depending on your tone of voice where
are my keys every morning I wake up and
before work I cannot find my keys I
search the whole house for my keys I can
never find them well maybe one morning
I'm very very stressed out I'm late for
work
I need to get there by a certain time I
might instead of just saying oh where
are my keys I might say where the hell
are my keys how do I fix this maybe I
broke something
if I add the he'll shows maybe I'm
frustrated I don't know how to fix this
how the hell do I fix this so again we
have all of the question who what when
where why oh we don't have why up here
you can also use it for why why the hell
did you do this you can use it with any
of these question words and what it does
again is it shows you're either
surprised shocked frustrated or angry
now two other things we can intensify
our common words like no yes and yeah
now if somebody asked me a question say
for instance if they ask me do i think
george w bush did a great job as
president of the united states now for
some of you they'll say yeah yeah i
think he did a good job for others maybe
you don't really care you sad no i don't
think he did that good of a job well if
you're very opinionated like me you
might say hell no hell no which is a
very strong way of saying no similar to
that if you feel very strongly about
something and you want to say yes you
can say hell yeah or hell yes
do you want cake with that with dinner
hell yeah
do you want to go to the movies tonight
hell yeah do you want to do your
homework
hell no so you can use these to
intensify yes and no answers all right
so we've covered some question words
we've seen what the hell as an
interjection we've looked at adding the
hell as an intensifier well there's
another common meaning to what the hell
so it can also mean I don't know if you
can see this I don't care which is
pretty opposite to what we were just
talking about we were just saying when
we add the hell it really makes a
sentence strong it makes a question very
strong it shows you're angry or
surprised well depending on our tone of
voice it can also mean I don't care so
say for instance somebody who wants to
borrow my car if I don't really care I
might say ah what the hell go ahead
here's my keys another example is if
somebody you know I have a test on on
Monday and I should be studying and
somebody says you want to go to the bar
tonight
yeah what the hell okay I should be
studying but I don't really care so what
the hell all right I hope none of you do
that by the way all right so next we are
going to look at some common idioms and
phrases expressions with the word hell
in them all right so here are six
expressions some of them are more common
than others but you will hear all of
these that have to do with the word hell
now the first one I really like to give
someone hell when you give someone hell
so again here's
the verb to give give someone else it's
all together it means to reproach to
reprimand to yell at someone severely so
for example to really understand this
concept I have a dog if my dog ate some
of my jewelry I would be very very angry
so I might give my dog hell meaning I
might yell at my dog and say why did you
do that you know bad dog
parents I told you earlier that my
friend had a party one weekend when her
parents were out for the weekend and her
dad came home early her dad gave her
hell meaning her dad was very very angry
with her yelled at her screamed at her
really really disciplined her when you
give someone hell it's a bit negative
you're not happy when you give someone
hell it means
you you really put them in their place
so for example bosses if a boss is very
very upset with something you've done
maybe an employee stole something from
their company the boss will give that
person hell so again it means reproach
reprimand to yell at someone to scream
at someone give someone hell ok
expression number 2 now this expression
go to hell is not polite at all it's
very very very rude so try not to use it
but you will hear it a lot especially in
on movies and TV go to hell so I've
drawn a very angry face if you tell
someone to go to hell you're probably
going to be very angry when you say it
and you're pretty much saying I don't
want to deal with you right now
get away leave me alone but it's a very
very very mean and angry way to say it
because again hell is not a nice place
it's a place where bad people go so if
you're saying
to hell to someone it's a very strong
thing to say number three number three
is to hell with it or the hell with it
so you have a choice you can say to hell
with it or you can say the hell with it
now this expression is often used when
you give up on something you decide you
don't want to do something anymore so
for example maybe I've been studying all
day and then I decide I want to go out
and party I might say to hell with
studying so the itch is what you change
so to hell with study I'm going to go
party so you give up on studying to help
with studying you don't care about
studying you're going to go party or to
hell with you can also use a person will
replace it with her to hell with her I
might say that if I give up on someone
I'm kind of tired of them I tried to
call my friend all weekend she didn't
pick up her phone to hell with her
meaning I don't care anymore
I'm giving up I'm not calling her
anymore number four for the hell of it I
really like this expression actually for
the hell of it what does it mean um have
you ever done something for no reason
when somebody asks you why did you do
that you don't really have an answer an
answer is for the hell of it meaning you
did it for either no reason or just for
fun
so for example maybe I'm not working
tomorrow I don't have anything to do and
I decide to drive to Montreal I live in
Toronto Montreal is five hours away so
maybe one day I just think I'm going to
drive to Montreal today somebody might
ask me why did you do that you know what
were you doing in Montreal well I drove
there for the hell of it meaning I
didn't really have a reason maybe I just
did it for fun number five like hell
when we use like hell we're talking
about doing we're describing something
usually it has to do with driving
running studying so it has to do with a
verb it describes the verb so how did
you do it how did you drive
I drove like hell how did you run I ran
like hell
so like Hell describes the verb and it
means you did it either with great speed
so very fast or recklessly meaning you
weren't careful so when would we use
something like like hell for example
well maybe you have a wife she's
pregnant she's about to give birth and
you're very very stressed out you're a
bit in a panic
how would you drive your car to the
hospital do you think you'd drive at 40
40 kilometres an hour no you're probably
going to drive as fast as you can to to
get there on time before she gives birth
you drive like hell maybe some of you
have been late for class before this
this has happened to me before and if
you have a very strict teacher you don't
want to be late so what do you do well
you run
and how do you run you run like hell
meaning you run as fast as you can
you just sprint you you run hard so run
like hell you could use this with
studying how do you study I study like
hell meaning I study with great speed
maybe you didn't study for weeks and
your test is tomorrow how are you going
to study for your test I'm going to
study like hell number six when hell
freezes over
now this is a fun expression because
he'll like I said before it is a very
hot place notice the plants well
freezing is what happens in the winter
it is when ice comes so when hell
freezes over mean means hell is going to
be covered in ice now this is another
way of saying never
because hell will never freeze over so
this is a fun way to say never so let's
think of some examples well maybe I have
a friend and a guy wants to go on a date
with her I asked her will you go on a
date with Bob oh call it Bob will you go
on a date with Bob
maybe if she really doesn't like Bob she
will say I'll go on a date with Bob when
hell freezes over which means she will
never go on a date with Bob will you go
see you know what's a good movie maybe
you hate Lord of the Rings I don't know
why I love Lord of the Rings but maybe
some of you out there thought it was a
very boring movie very long so maybe
somebody will ask you will you see the
Hobbit the new Lord of the Rings movie
coming out you might say I'll see the
Hobbit when hell freezes over meaning
you will never see that movie it's very
strong way to say that okay
so today we have looked at expressions
like what the hell we've looked at
interjections what the hell again hell
no Helga's we've also looked at some
common expressions with hell so I hope
you can visit our website and take our
quiz on these expressions at WWAN vidcom
and I hope that if I asked you are you
going to continue watching our videos
your answer will be hell yes
take care