This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2343. How to say that two people don't mix well in English. 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. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app. For iOS and Android, start your seven-day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward slash app. Do you have any friends who simply don't get along? What can you say when two people don't mix well? Listen in today. Hey there, Michelle. What's shaking?
nothing lindsay what is your favorite type of oil to use for cooking oh my gosh it's olive oil i really like olive oil but sometimes i know you're not supposed to use it to cook with everything yeah but i want to use it most of the time yeah what about you yeah i know there's a whole science with the boiling points and everything and i don't do you know about that not really but i know you're not supposed to make it too hot yeah but i still do that and then it's just
Well, I also cook with avocado oil now. But I've been trying to avoid... vegetable oil and yeah different things so yeah me too me too sometimes i like avocado oil but it doesn't have too much taste to it does that make sense like for me in my mind it doesn't um but it's a good other option like if you're cooking eggs or something it can work
That's what I cook my eggs in every morning. Yes, exactly. So today we are going to talk about an expression and dealing with oil and how you can use it in your conversation. So Lindsay.
oil and water can they mix not really um when i think of oil and water i think of them kind of separating separating out in a bottle if you try to mix them um yeah yeah no that that probably wouldn't work so why why are you asking me that question michelle are we getting into science today a little science experiment maybe we should pull out our test tubes um yeah so so
Something that is commonly said is that people are like oil and water. And this expression means what you would think it means. It means that they can't mix. Either they're just polar opposites, which is another good vocabulary word, or they just don't get along.
yeah so to me i would use it more about people not getting along what do you think lindsay yeah do you have anyone like this in your life two people that you care about that you try to bring together michelle and they just don't get along it just doesn't work
I know some people who are like oil and water. What about you? Yeah, I think I do too. I've never really tried to bring them together necessarily or successfully, but there are, I mean, people, the world is full of different, interesting people, right? And I'm not sure that everyone is. meant to necessarily fit together perfectly, right?
Right, right, right. Exactly. So, guys, we also want to remind you before we get into it a little bit more to get the All Ears English app. Right, Lindsay? I love this app. oh it's fantastic guys if you want a way to listen to the podcast but then to get transcripts right in front of you and be able to tap on keywords see meanings save the words view role play reviews of every week i mean there's so much in
there guys. Michelle, how can you go and get the app right now? Go to allearsenglish.com slash app. That's A-P-P. yeah it would be a great way to start off the year by becoming a premium member and you can do a seven day free trial so you can try out these features that i'm talking about and see for yourself that you can't get them anywhere else all right so allersenglish.com app
good right all right so yeah sometimes this can make me think of siblings right so either siblings are completely different or they don't get along a lot of times you hear about people not getting along with their siblings what do you think i was just having brother uh having having dinner with my brother on monday night he was in town and uh he was we were talking about how we really haven't been that close over the years but his wife is super close now with her brothers and sisters
was kind of interesting but i think usually brothers and sisters and sisters siblings tend to be quite different i mean it's weird how that happens but it's true so it wouldn't be true necessarily that you'd be super close with your sibling Right, right. It's not a given. Yeah, it's not a given.
i mean even with dogs like does keeper get along with other dogs or are they like oil and water no he's great with other dogs there's one dog that he doesn't seem to like and it's very weird we'll walk past this apartment and this dog is on an overhang patio kind of thing. And the dog will go nuts and Kiefer will go nuts and they'll bark at each other. That's the only dog I've ever seen him have issues with.
every other dog he loves yeah that's interesting you know what else i think of uh maybe divorced parents so yes my partner's parents are divorced and one thanksgiving we had we had a big old thanksgiving um my partner's dad hosted and my partner's mom came with her new husband with her husband and you know they're just yeah yeah the divorcees are just kind of oil and water they just
Yeah. I mean, there's a reason there was a divorce, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. No, that can be awkward, I guess. Yeah, for sure. It's kind of funny, but that's okay. That's okay. What else, Michelle? Okay, so, um... I think that this could be actually a really good connection expression because it can explain your background, your personality, right? Yeah. Or what else could it do, Lindsay? I mean, it could be good for connection for sure.
you said to explain where you come from what kind of person you are and who you don't do and don't get along with You could be warning someone about someone else's relationship. Like let's go to a party and maybe the couple it's hosting are having a hard time getting along or something. Right. And they're like water or they're two random friends that are coming that you just know. are going to be oil and water.
Right, right. So but yeah, or yeah, somebody just went through a breakup, a divorce, and you know, they're both going to be at the same party. So you might say, Oh, they're really like oil and water right now. So maybe you try and keep her over there. The other one will be over here. So yeah, these are important. things conversations to have that friends need to support their friends and make sure that things go over smoothly at the party yeah yes yes
Or it could be good for just telling a story, you know, you know, sharing that somebody didn't get along. So you could just say, oh, and I was with I was with this crowd and it turned out that these two people were like oil and water. And so we did blah, blah, blah. Right. Yeah, those are. good examples. What else? Do we have any specific examples? Yeah, let's do a couple.
um my brother and i are like oil and water we only talk once or twice a year and i've talked about that i'm very close with my brother so i want to say that's true but oh no yeah for sure or i thought i would love having two dogs but they get along like
Oil and water. It's not so fun. Oh, that sounds hard. Sounds difficult to keep them separated. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Or she doesn't get along with her roommate. They're like oil and water. So try not to bring it up. Did you get along with your freshman year? roommate in college michelle i know we've touched on you know college uh-huh but did you get along with your freshman year roommate
I did. I did. We got along. I had a little bit of a hard first semester. I was very homesick, I think I've talked about. But then second semester, I felt a lot better, a lot more like myself. So we got along. We don't.
we're facebook friends we don't really we don't keep in touch but um i have like mostly i have positive associations with her what about you yeah we got along we did we weren't really friends we didn't hang out but you know i had my own friends and she had her own friends but we definitely got along there wasn't much drama thank goodness College dorms are very small. Yes, they are. They are. All right.
all right michelle before we get into some more examples and potentially a role play later on i do want to call out a couple of our reviewers you know michelle we've been getting a lot of amazing five-star reviews for all ears english what do you think about that guys love it yes thank you so a special shout out to anonymous on december 5th ivana charlie on december 4th and daniel zaza on december 4th in apple podcasts as well as silly goose 1909
on December 2nd. And Silly Goose said, wish I could give it 10 stars. oh amazing yeah amazing silly goose i love the name it's fantastic so if you love the show everyone let us know what you think guys go on over and leave a review leave a rating and we will be happy to announce your name on the show
Right, Michelle? Yes, absolutely. Love it. So thank you guys so much. Yeah. So Lindsay, what are, let's talk about some similar sounding expressions that are pretty close in meaning. What are some? All right. So the phrase night and day. so this is used more to say that something is an opposite right so we could come back to this michelle and i think we should
Just this one phrase another day. But for example, I feel so much better today after the medicine. It's like night and day. So here, what are we saying? What is like night and day? How I felt yesterday versus how I felt. the day before, before I took the medicine. Totally. Yeah. And we could talk about, this is different. This is a little different, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Lindsay is living in Denver versus Boston, like night and day.
yeah i think it actually kind of is um there's a lot of sunshine here compared to boston in my experience and people are a little friendlier i think you know people are a little lighter and more likely to smile at you on the street so it does kind of feel like night and day it's a very different lifestyle for sure
interesting yeah yeah exactly so all right here this is another one that is i would say more similar to uh to oil and water so this is fire and ice oh do you hear this one i've only seen this as like a name of a restaurant i think that's funny yeah um yeah so this is from ai i'm just gonna so it's it ai said that it refers to two opposing forces um represents passionate extremes i'm quoting a little bit like intense love and bitter hatred yes
And it's interesting. It says that it comes from Robert Frost's poem of the title for Fire and Ice. So, yeah, interesting to see a little bit of where it comes from. Yeah, for sure. So fire and ice. This one, I don't hear quite as much. You know, I hear the night and day thing. I hear, you know, oil and water, but fire and ice, I guess it kind of conveys there's going to be drama.
right there's gonna be drama there's gonna be sparks and not in a good way right right right right so the kids are like fire and ice i don't know how it got this bad for sure yeah uh michelle what else here yeah i mean what do you think like do you think you could use any of these in a professional context would you say the more casual what do you think
yeah i mean i think that definitely this could work in both ways i would be careful when you're talking about people in general we've talked about this before in business your career be careful anytime you're talking about someone's personality and how it might clash with someone else his personality that's another bonus there by the way michelle clash yes i'm just gonna i'm gonna put that word so guys remember to get that app yeah because that's going to be one of the bonus words for today
yeah for sure so i think you could use it at work just be careful when you're having these conversations you know who's around um i would say just talk about other things not so much people's personalities you know that's what i would do right yeah yeah good um so let's do a role play and see how we could use it okay michelle so here we are friends we're talking about our childhood
all right okay so did you get along with your siblings when you were young oh no way we were like fire and ice but actually from then until now it's like night and day we're super close oh that's good what about you My siblings are kind of like oil and water. I wish we got along better, but we're just too different. That's too bad. Yeah. Interesting. Oh, that would be kind of a cool survey for our listeners for today to see if our listeners are close to their siblings or not.
yes that will be our spotify poll today so make sure you participate in our poll by going over to spotify and voting in the poll good stuff so i asked you did you get along with your siblings when you were young and you said no way no i said we were like fire and ice but then i said but actually from then until now is like night and day so that's a little bit different so basically that's saying it's totally different yeah now we're super close yeah i really like the expression night and day
because it just shows real contrast. Something has changed, right? And I would encourage our listeners to try that one out today. Yeah. All right, Michelle. So is there another episode that our listeners could check out? Yes, guys, check out episode 2332 was, do you say I don't know too much? That was a fun one. I remember we did.
yeah i love that one guys go on over and while you're at it and make sure you hit follow on the all ears english podcast now michelle what is our final idea today final thought for the day well this i mean it's kind of unfortunate topic to talk about somebody who's like oil and water, but...
It's important. And we gave you the reasons why. And we gave you two other ways to express this idea of opposites. They're not necessarily exactly matches. And I want to do a whole follow up at night on night and day because I think that's. a really, really useful one. But give these a try and we hope you're not like oil and water with anyone today.
I know for sure. And I'm excited to come back to that night and day. So hit follow on the podcast and Michelle, I will see you another day. All right. All right. Bye. Take care. 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.