welcome real English real harry and
charlie
hello everybody this is charlie from
real English with real teachers today
we've got a very special episode for you
we are joined with the lovely Vanessa
from speak English with Vanessa and
we are going to be confusing her
hopefully with some british expressions
that her American mind might not know
ok so how are you doing Vanessa hello
hello I'm doing great and ready to be
confused and maybe learn something new
excellent excellent and also we've got
the lovely co-host Harry how are you doing
I'm fine I I thought you had forgotten
me then
oh no not quite yet good
hi Vanessa ado you like British English
Vanessa I think in this company I can't
say no I was talking about this
with charlie the other day in your lessons do you
ever find yourself kind of bigging up
american english / British English like
in your is in your lessons like saying
it is better
did you say bigging up
yeah that was something that I noticed
to big something up to exaggerate
how how good something is
it's just I think i would say like lift
up but bigging up i guess it has a
similar idea of big lift
yes so we use big as a verb to big
something up and it's a phrasal verb
which you can separate I big
English up or big up English oh wow i
i guess in my videos I don't
really use this word i don't big
up American English it
feel strange to say that it's like a new
language I don't big up American
English but usually I try to be specific
if i'm not sure like this is an
expression that we definitely use in
America but maybe in the UK but i'm not
sure
so use this only in the US for now okay
okay slightly more professional than
Harry's mindset of this is better
no i do try to i do remain
neutral but
if one of my students is saying oh i love
british English I'm like yeah it's lovely
before this lesson I was...
I'm sorry I was late Vanessa and I just
I just had to go for a slash oh ok when
I think of a slash i think i of like a
killer with the knife
yeah he was doing exactly that he
was busy slashing someone .. no so you
going for a slash is informal for
going for a pee or going to the toilet
and yeah you'd probably say it if you're
maybe in the pub with your friends if
you're with men each I imma I'm going for a
slash is that something that's pretty
informal can girls say that too or is
that usually guys sometimes those things
are gender specific
good question for everyone listening
get that generally from men you wouldn't
see the Queen saying that would you?
they wouldbe quite surprised i
bet so women probably want to stay away
from that phrase but if you hear it you
now know that they are not killing
someone
they're just going to empty their bladder
Harry
and how often do you go to the pub? Do you go
fortnightly or bi-weekly? Are we
living in the 17th century? you still say
that..
'fortnightly'? we do we don't really use it for
pub talk it's more like business
and planning your schedule but yeah we
still use fortnightly and what in the
world does it mean? is it often? is it
like a specific time? so it comes from
the noun 'a fortnight' which actually
means 14 night so it means two weeks
exactly two weeks so if i said if i use
it as an adverb fortnightly and that
would mean once every fortnight I go to
the pub so once every two weeks we go
there
yeah and and I said bi-weekly because
that actually does it mean fortnightly
because I think that's what you guys use
this word is even confusing in the US
sometimes if I said bi-weekly it could
mean twice a week or it could mean every
two weeks like twice a month so i think
even in the US we're a little bit
confused by that
so you kind of have to specify it i
guess if I worked in an office and they
used that same expression all the time
then I would know like in this situation
it always means fortnightly for every
two weeks but in my daily life if
someone said that to me like this is a
biweekly newspaper i would even be
confused like is it twice a week? is it
every two weeks?
English, why!?
sounds like maybe the Americans need
a word like fortnightly
i'm going to start saying it and people
will look at me like i'm in the 17th century
charlie
I don't really know anything about cars
bit embarrassing
don't judge me Vanessa.. but how
do you change the oil in your car
pretty straightforward you just
pull lever in the driver's seat open
the bonnet pull the long wire out ..wipe
it, dip it back in, check that the levels
correct
if not, put some more fluid in, shut
the bonnet. Bob's your uncle. Errr who? Is Bob a
mechanic?
why did you say Bob's your uncle?
well it's funny because bob is actually
my uncle
no way, really? But the idiom means
something slightly different. You say it
when you give instructions or
something or if you're explaining a
process and you want to say that and
it's been done but the job has been done
it's fine and it maybe suggests that
something is quite easy so like you do
this you do this you do this close the
bonnet or the hood, Bob's your uncle, job
done so it implies more than just it's
done but.. "ahh no problem I got this, easy-peasey"
exactly that
do you reckon you could use
an example, Vanessa?
oh how about...
I watched this video and learned some
British English expressions and now i
can use down them, Bob's your uncle, no problem!
I got it!
yeah very good.. yeah it's well used!
know you you could also say 'job's a
gooden' .. what? Job's a
gooden good in g, double o, d, e, n
gooden
oh as in 'it's finished'? Job's a gooden,
it's all finished
Yeah... to be honest I couldn't care less.
Well what if I could care less?
does that mean you do care?
oh I think you have it correct
what a kind of situation or
example like what you want to see
tonight? the star wars film or the
romantic comedy? I couldn't care less
you choose. In that situation I would mean
the exact same thing but I wouldn't use
the negative version so i would say oh I
could care less
i I really don't care just you choose i
don't care but it's actually a mistake
in American English because if you think
about it i could care less means that i
do care i do have an opinion but we mean
it in the opposite way it's kinda
complicated to explain but you guys say
it correctly we say it incorrectly but we
both mean the same thing I don't know
about you but this is all very confusing
because i am pissed as a fart here
you're either angry, drunk or smelly.
you've actually got
pretty much all three
maybe not the angry 'cos pissed might be
quite a happy moment but yeah, Harry?
Pissed means to be drunk to be pissed and
we can also say to get pissed, to get pissed
What would that mean over there in the states?
Oh it would mean you're anger
is rising so that someone's doing
something to make you more and more
angry i'm getting pissed
I hope he stops talking soon! To me a
fart could either mean something smelly
or a kind of rude word for an old man
like yeah there's the
collocation of an old fart which is
really quite probably
in your mind as an association yeah it's
kind of a boring person or someone who's
a bit detestable like you just don't
want to be around
so if you said 'I'm pissed as
a fart' then that means I'm glad
I'm not in the same room as you i guess
I was kinda right! You certainly
were!
yeah. So is it true?
I'll tell you a secret for free
no i'm not! No that would be very
unprofessional
And I think it's just the afternoon
so too early!
hey it's 10pm for me in Germany
oh man well not too early for you!
thank you very much for watching today i
hope you enjoyed learning the British
and American expressions with the lovely
vanessa and of course charlie and please
go over and check out Vanessa's
channel with speak English with
Vanessa it's a fantastic channel and
learn some more American English because
it's lovely
it's a very nice form of the language
thank you for your kind words even though, you know!
.. really .. British English / American English so..
so yeah thank you again Vanessa it was
really really nice
and as Harry said go over to her channel
and check out the other part of this
little mini series. Yes, you can learn
some American expressions that maybe
Charlie and Harry don't know that's all
Maybe! Yeah you got us on some, didn't you?
But thanks so much for having
me and maybe see you later
Take care, Vanessa. Bye for now!
thank you very much bye-bye