Oxymorons - AIRC579

In today's podcast, you'll learn all about oxymorons. An oxymoron puts two words that don't normally go together side by side. For example... pretty ugly or bittersweet. And these oxymorons create a new idea that's often quite clever, maybe ironic or emotionally powerful. So today we've got lots of examples of oxymorons that are used frequently in English and you'll learn how to use them. Welcome to Aprender Inglés with Reza and Craig.

Hello and welcome to the podcast, especially if you're a new listener and if you've come back to listen again, thank you very much. My name's Craig. And my name's Reza. And with nearly 60 years of teaching English between us, Reza and I are going to help you improve your English and take it to the next level. How are you doing, Reza? I'm not bad.

I was away on a little trip for a weekend in Ireland recently before I came back to Spain, though I must say it is very hot here. I really noticed a difference compared to Ireland. Are you hot? Very hot. We're in the middle of a heat wave at the moment, not only in Spain, but also, I think, France and even England.

are experiencing exceptionally high temperatures. How was Belfast? How's the family? Ah, nice and cool. I think the maximum temperature was 23 degrees, although at the same time it was... 34 in London, as you say. That's right, yeah. But 23, that's nice. That's a nice temperature. Yeah, sleeping under a blanket. Lovely. First this week, we have a message from a friend of the show, Kahneman, from Malaga.

Two or three episodes ago, Reza asked Carmen how she records her podcast in English. He asked her if she reads a prepared script for her podcast or does she speak spontaneously off the cuff? hi guys I hope you're doing well thank you so much for promoting my podcast when I heard that you mentioned my name And Malaga in English, I froze for a while. Answering Reza's question, yes, I do write every single word and I read the script.

The podcast is aimed at foreigners who want to listen to something about Malaga in English. So I feel I cannot allow myself to make mistakes. If they notice that my pronunciation isn't correct or if I hesitate while speaking, they might stop following me. The thing is that I'm not a professional or a native speaker, so I want to avoid losing track or beating around the bush. I try to sound as fluent as I can and entertain the audience and be easy to understand.

At least that's my goal right now. Let's see if I change my mind in the long run. But at the moment, I must confess I'm not brave enough to improvise on the podcast. And you know what? I usually record a podcast. At midnight. Yeah, at midnight. Once I know my kids are deeply asleep. So if I didn't get straight to the point, I probably never finished an episode. And Reza, please feel free to contact me if you ever visit Malaga. I'd love to give you some recommendations. Bye-bye, guys.

Thank you very, very much for your message explaining what you do, Carmen. Any comments, Reza? Aha, so the mystery is revealed. You read every word. That's fine. That's good. I understand that. As I think we said before, Craig and I read some words. We prepare a script which is kind of a guideline.

But we don't read every single word that we've written and we change some things and we make up things and we ask each other things out of the blue. Out of the blue means without warning. So we kind of do a bit of a mixture. But I think...

Craig, we probably stuck to a script more in our early days, didn't we? We didn't deviate so much, would you say? Absolutely, because I think when you first start a podcast, maybe you're a little bit nervous. You want to give the... best information possible maybe you don't trust yourself to be spontaneous on the microphone but the secret is the editing so there's lots of things that I comment to Reza while we're recording that I remove and I cut out so you don't hear

in the finished version so it takes time but i do think that mixture may be later common when you're more used to podcasting you could try not being so strict with what you're saying and maybe be a bit more spontaneous and now carmen that you've got your podcast and everything I really have to get down to Malaga now, a place I've never been to, and I've always wanted to go. In fact, I really love a dish which I think is very typical of Malaga, but I've never eaten it in Malaga. Espetos.

I'm a huge fan of sardines. I love fresh sardines. And I know that espetos, which are kind of like sardines stuck in a little stick and then smoked over a fire, is a speciality of Malaga. So... Carmen, if you can wait a little bit longer, I hope to get down to Malaga and have some espetos with you, if that's okay.

In fact, I heard a rumor that Carmen may be coming to Valencia soon, so I don't know if we'll be available, but if we are free and you get in touch, we'd love to meet you for a coffee, Carmen. One small thing about... Your message. Pronunciation. You said they might stop following me. You also said feel free to contact me.

If you visit Malaga, sometimes we do stress the pronoun me if we want to emphasize it. But usually in speech, the pronouns are not stressed. So I would probably say they might stop following me. not they might stop following me I would also say feel free to contact me if you visit Malaga not contact me so I wouldn't put that extra stress on me

Pronouns, articles, prepositions, modal verbs, auxiliary verbs, all those little grammar words are not usually stressed unless you want to. For example, don't give it to Reza, give it to me. If you want to emphasize the me, then you do it on purpose. It's not her, it's me. So sometimes you do, but in the examples in your message, Carmen, I would not stress that pronoun.

By the way, Carmen also sent me an email after that message. And in her email, she said the results have already been announced at the Language School of Malaga. And you know what? I passed my C1 English exam. Congratulations, Carmen, and I'm not at all surprised. Judging by your speaking, it seems to me as much higher than C1.

So I'm really not surprised to hear that, but congratulations. Well done. Yeah, fantastic news. Well done. It's an awfully good result. Ah, you're getting on to the topic, I see. Oxymorons. Why is that an oxymoron awfully good? Well, an oxymoron is a collocation, that's when two or more words go together, in which the words apparently contradict each other.

So awfully, if something's awful, it's generally a bad thing. But obviously good is good, as is self-explanatory. So bad, good, awfully good.

Doesn't really seem like an obvious choice of words to put together, but it is. It's a very standard collocation to say, oh, that cake was... awfully good for example i had to have a second helping it was awfully good which is different from that cake was awful yeah if the cake was awful if you don't add the bit good that means it's really bad but if you have the collocation the two words together which are standard, often put together, awfully good, it means very good.

And terrible like awful is a negative adjective. But you can also say that someone is terribly kind, which is a positive thing. It means very. Kind. What a lovely present Reza. Thanks very much. That's terribly kind of you. Which means that's very kind or extremely kind of you. Here's another one.

If somebody's missing, that means you can't find them, right? But believe it or not, there is a typical collocation, which is an oxymoron, which is found missing. So, for example, the lost keys were finally found missing from the hotel room and confirmed stolen. They were found missing. But it's a strange thing to say, but we say it, found missing.

It's a bit like saying they were discovered to be missing. They were discovered. Yeah, they were found missing. Pretty ugly tend to be antonyms. It's really the opposite, a pretty person, an ugly person. But someone can be... pretty ugly for example Pete thinks Jill is cute but I think she's pretty ugly myself which means very ugly you can also have something that's pretty good or pretty cheap

Of course, if you don't collocate, if you don't put the words together, you get something entirely different because ugly means not attractive. Pretty means attractive. Right? So if you say she's pretty, she's attractive. If you say she's ugly, she's not attractive. But if she's pretty ugly, that means she's not really attractive at all. Very ugly.

A secret is something that you keep to yourself. You don't let many people know about it, but you can have an open secret. What's an open secret? Well, it means that everyone knows about it. but continue to pretend that it's a secret. So everybody knows, but really you're not supposed to know. For example, it's an open secret that the manager is planning to retire soon.

I was thinking of giving an example with the words Jeffrey Epstein, but I won't. We haven't got time for all those examples for open secret. The next one is liquid gas. So if you've studied chemistry, even in a really basic way, like me, you'll know that the whole point of gas is that it's neither solid nor liquid. And the whole point of liquid is that it's neither gas nor solid.

Unfortunately, though, we do have a collocation, which is liquid gas. And I think it's more... Actually, it's quite a technical thing. They use liquid gas in... hospitals and places like that or for refueling i don't know exactly what it is but i'm presuming because liquid is being used as an adjective i'm presuming that it is something which is more or less liquid

Although, it should really be a gas. I'm guessing that's what it means. Like you, Reza, I only studied very basic chemistry, so I did quickly check online. It's actually gas that has been cooled. So the temperature's reduced and also pressurized, put under pressure, and that's... converts it or turns it into a liquid state. So normally at room temperature it will be a gas.

But because they pressurized it and they've cooled it, it becomes a liquid. So you can have liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen, liquid hydrogen. So I did not know that, but that's what the internet told me. Another one you hear, well, actually you read, particularly in French, it's always in French, even in the United Kingdom, because I think it's a French company which supplies most of the world. You always see air liquide.

Have you seen that in hospitals? I guess it would be liquid air. So it's not just any old gas. It's designed for patients to breathe. So you often see in hospitals air liquid, which I suppose would be liquid air. Let's take a quick break here because I know you listen to this podcast. to take your English to the next level but what about your speaking is your fluency improving are you happy with your speaking skills

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If you are thinking of painting your house, it's a good idea to know more or less how much it's going to cost. So you ask the builder or the painter to give you an estimate. how much it's going to be. Now, you can have an estimate that changes and gets very much more expensive or not so often. Maybe it's less than they say, but usually it's more. But if it's...

pretty much exactly what they tell you, then that's an accurate estimate. So that's another... collocation that's an oxymoron because estimates are estimating the cost or estimating something but it could be accurate so the estimation is very good I wonder, does anybody these days take seriously the estimates given for huge government projects? I mean, come on, everybody. It's pretty much an unwritten rule that whatever they said.

approximately at 60%, but maybe double it. It's pretty much an unwritten rule. They're never an accurate estimate. So this company says, we will build the high-speed train line for $10 million. Does the government think...

okay, so it's going to cost us 20 million. Do they just immediately presume it? It's never an accurate estimate. And there was a train link plan to... connect London to was it Manchester with a high-speed train and they spent 120 million pounds without actually starting to build it so it was over budget already incredible so

It's summertime, and this is a time of year when people often have a barbecue, a picnic, that type of thing, and you'll want to drink. But carrying glass around is probably not a good idea. It's going to get broken. So I tell you what. Why not use plastic glasses? Hang on a second. Glasses are made of glass. They can't be plastic. They are normally, but if you buy special, let's call them glasses, but...

I should really call them special containers, which look like a glass, but they're not made of glass, they're made of plastic. Then, perhaps it's a bit silly, but we call them plastic glasses. i know it's a common collocation but i would probably say plastic cups wouldn't you yes

And in fact, that's what they usually are. But plastic glasses do... There is such a thing as a plastic wine glass. So it's shaped to look like a wine glass. And a plastic beer glass. But it's plastic. There is such a thing. But yes, I would normally say plastic cups myself. But plastic glasses...

They do exist. Yeah, if I had to choose, I definitely drink out of a real glass. That would be my only choice, which is our next oxymoron, because choice... kind of think there's more than one thing to choose from if you say there's a choice there's beer there's wine what would you prefer so you have a choice but you might have an only choice which is one for example this is our only choice

So we'd better make the most of it. There's only one possibility. There's no other. I hope you never have to go through a crash landing when you're flying. That's our next oxymoron. That means to avoid a terrible tragedy.

when the pilot crashes the plane on purpose. Well, it's kind of a mixture of trying to land it, but... there's some problem with the plane so they can't really land it properly so then they know there's going to be a crash but it's like a controlled crash they call that a crash landing You probably know the word crowd, C-R-O-W-D. By the way, you can see all of these oxymorons, all of these collocations on the website. Go to inglespodcast.com slash 579 and you'll see a list of these words.

with the examples so crowd is a collection of people you probably know that word you go to the market and you say oh there was a crowd of people there it was crowded but you can have a small crowd You can say there was a small crowd of people. How many people do you need to have a crowd? You can have a group of people. You can have a bunch of people. Would you say more than five or ten is a crowd?

It depends on the context, I think. Yeah. So a small crowd, not many people, but probably more than 10. Now, I'm sure you all know what a crisis is when a big, terrible event happens. So we said it was big and terrible. Well, then you might be surprised then that we have an oxymoron, which is a minor crisis. And minor means not so important, not big. For example... Forgetting the buns for the burgers created a minor crisis at the barbecue.

So it isn't really a crisis. It's not a new world war. But it is a big problem if you are planning to have a barbecue. So you could call that a minor crisis. Spilling coffee on your shirt. You've just put on a new shirt after. A clean shirt after a shower and you spill coffee. Oh, that's a minor crisis. Or what really happened to me at a wedding, somehow, because I'm stupid, getting blood on a white shirt just as a wedding started. That's not.

a good look. I don't know how I managed that. It wasn't my wedding. Who did you have a fight with? Was it your blood? I think I had a fight with a pimple on my face or something. I remember on the way to a job interview, I stopped for breakfast and I had obviously nice clothes on and I had a cup of coffee and a toast with some olive oil. And you know those small plastic olive oil things?

That you open, you pull it and it opens. Well, I pulled it too quickly and all the olive oil went straight down my shirt. Oh, that was a minor crisis. olive oil very good for you but not good for your clothes not good for your clothes at all stay away from olive oil and blood you can have a collocation that is a definite maybe

Or a definite possibility. Both oxymorons. For example, when I asked Reza if he wanted to come out with us for a beer on Friday, he said, well, count me in. Include me. Count me in as a definite maybe. Which means he's almost certainly going to come, but not definitely. A definite maybe. Now, Craig, they're coming to take your photo. Just act naturally when they take your photo. Don't pose too much.

So I'm asking Craig to act naturally. But I've warned him to be taking his photo. So obviously, he's not really going to be in a natural pose, is he? He's going to make it look like... He's trying to be natural, but he will be acting naturally. Yeah, pretending to be natural. Clearly misunderstood is the next oxymoron which means it's obviously misunderstood. If something is not clear you can say yeah that's clearly misunderstood.

The next one is grow smaller. To grow, by definition, is to get bigger, not smaller. An example could be my poor old granny with her osteoporosis. is growing smaller year by year. In the case of my granny, that was true, actually. She did grow smaller. Older people shrink, don't they? They get smaller with age. They grow smaller.

You can have a tragic comedy. A tragedy obviously is very negative, a disaster, and a comedy is very funny, very positive. But you can have a tragic comedy. The film was... a tragic comedy. It made us laugh and at the same time it made us cry. Now, if something is common, it affects a lot of people, perhaps even the majority. If something is abnormal, it doesn't affect many people. So, here comes our next oxymoron. A common abnormality.

For example, deafness in Dalmatian dogs is a common abnormality. Did you know that? I did not know when I read that. I thought, well, that's an interesting fact. Is that true?

About 30% of Dalmatian dogs are deaf. That's a lot, isn't it? That is a lot. It's a common abnormality. It's a common abnormality. You can have an original copy. The word copy, if you have a contract and you... photocopy it you have a copy of the original contract so it's duplicated right but you can have the original copy which is the first one so for example we found the original copies of the manuscript in the archive so the very very first edition or copy of it

Now, I'm sure you know the word news, listeners. It's a noun, the news. The news is good, the news is bad, but obviously it's connected to the adjective new. If something's new, it's not old. Well, there is an oxymoron to confuse you, which is old news. For example, hey, have you heard about John's affair with his secretary? John's affair with his secretary? Oh yes, I found out weeks ago. Reza, that's old news.

That was a deafening silence. If there's silence and nobody speaks and it's a very tense situation, you can say there was a deafening silence. Silence. For example, imagine a window is broken in a classroom in a school and the teacher asks the students, who broke the window? Well... There was a deafening silence in the room. The silence was so intense and so obvious that it was deafening. It became almost loud. It was so quiet. Related to that, about sounds which really aren't sounds.

We also have a silent scream. So a scream is when you shout very loudly, but a silent scream is when there's no noise at all. For example, Pat let out a silent scream. When he opened the tricky exam paper. So imagine Pat's in the examination room. He can't scream, but internally in his brain he's screaming. That's when you let out a silent scream. I really like zombies and zombie movies and zombie TV series, and one of the first films with zombies was The Dawn of the Living Dead.

So there's another oxymoron, living dead. That doesn't make sense, does it? Or you're living or you're dead or you're alive or not. But you can describe someone as being like the living dead. For example, when I saw Reza after he'd drunk a bottle of whiskey, the next day his hangover was so bad that he looked like one of the living dead.

Craig, I've got another oxymoron, I think, with the word dead, but I think it's a regional thing. I doubt that in the south of England you grew up using it, but I think they do in Liverpool. in england and they definitely do in northern ireland in some areas it's dead good yeah using dead as an extreme adjective dead easy yeah so you you think zombie films are dead good

Yeah. They're really good. If something's dead good, it's really good. So people do use that in the south of England? Yes, we do as an intensifier, as an adjective to make something stronger, like very or extremely. Dead funny. That film was dead funny. Okay, I was wondering if it was a regional thing, because I think people definitely use it more in the north, although that doesn't mean you don't use it in the south. What's virtual reality? Well...

In virtual reality games, you feel like you're really inside another world, but of course you aren't. It's through a computer. It's entirely digital. So it isn't reality, but it's so realistic that you could almost think. That is reality. It's virtually real. So that's virtual reality. You can be alone together, which, if you think about it, doesn't make a lot of sense, because if you're alone, there's nobody with you.

But if you're together with someone, then there is somebody there. Listen to this sentence. Here we are, darling, finally alone together, now that everyone has left. So there's this feeling of just you and one more person. And it's nice to be alone, but together, alone together. The next one is same difference. For example.

Whether it's Tuesday or Wednesday, it's the same difference. We're still busy. So obviously, if something's different, it can't be the same. But Tuesday's obviously not the same as Wednesday. But what we're saying is we're busy on Tuesday, we're busy on Wednesday, so it really doesn't matter. Same difference. Another example, I might say to Reza Reza, today I'm cooking lunch because my wife isn't here.

And you might say, Reza, but you're using a microwave. And I might say, well, yes, but I'm preparing lunch, same difference. So for me, it doesn't matter. For me, it's the same, obviously not for Reza, but for me, it's same difference. um listeners you'll have noticed that up to now all of our oxymorons have been two words and the vast majority of them are quite often it's a an adjective

with a noun, or it can be two nouns, but there are a few which are more than two words. For example, so bad is good. So obviously if something's really bad, it can't be good. Well, let me give you an example and see if you understand. It might appeal to Craig, who's a fan of his zombie films. The low-budget horror film was ridiculously directed, and the actors were funny. Instead of scary, I couldn't stop laughing. It's so bad, it's good. Yeah. So what do I mean by that?

It means it's entertaining even though it wasn't intended to be entertaining. So you find something in it that you think is good or positive or attractive but that wasn't the intention. Yeah, because it's actually terrible. Yeah. You can laugh a lot. In fact, if something's very, very funny or dead funny, you can laugh so much or laugh so hard that you actually cry.

So that doesn't really make sense because crying is usually when you're upset or when you're very sad. You can laugh so much that eventually you're crying. The joke was so funny. and I laughed so hard that I cried. Craig, have you ever laughed so hard that you cried? I have, but not for a very long time. That's an interesting thought because I think getting older I don't tend to laugh so much as when I was younger.

I used to have silly laughing sessions where I would laugh so much uncontrollably that I would end up crying. But that hasn't happened for years. What about you? The same as you, yeah. It seems to be that you lose your sense of humour a bit as you get older. Quite sad, isn't it? It is a bit. It's been a while. We'll have to fix that. We'll have to try and find something that makes us cry from laughter.

Is there such a thing as an honest politician, Reza? If you ask me, it's an oxymoron. The very fact that you are a politician, although not... Technically, not theoretically, but you might as well say you're dishonest, don't you think? I think when people, when some people start to be involved in politics, I think they start out honestly. I think they are honest at the beginning and maybe you can find honest politicians at quite lower levels in government.

or politics but i think as you go up the ladder so to speak and you become more prominent more important more noticeable i think you have to do deals and you get more cynical about things, and I think you tend to change. Do you agree with that? Yeah, I think you're right, Axie. There are some honest politicians, but not many at the top. Very few. No, I don't think so.

Well, now it's your turn to practice your English. Do you have oxymorons in your language? Or can you think of any more oxymorons in English that you'd like to share with us? We would love to hear from you. Reza, how can people get in touch? Well, we think the best way is with an audio message. There's a link in the show notes. It's speakpipe.com slash inglespodcast. And if you use that, you can leave us a message of up to 90 seconds.

But that's not the only choice, is it? No, it really isn't the only choice. We said it's probably the best choice, but no, there is another choice. You can write us an email. Write to... craig at inglespodcast.com or belfastreza at gmail.com. And if you're a Spanish speaker and you want to improve your English with free and paid resources, why not visit the Mansion Ingles website at mansioningles.com. And for paid products, you can browse the online store at store.

As always, we'd like to say thank you very much to all of our Patreon supporters. If you're interested, you could join the Patreon program. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N. And by joining, which means giving a small donation, you get... instant access to all the audio transcriptions of this podcast and also as an added extra live zoom chats with Craig so that you can practice speaking there's a link in the show notes why not give it a go

And unfortunately, we can't thank you all individually if you're supporting us on Patreon, but we will say hello and thank you to our more recent supporters of the show. And they are Victor Gutierrez and Priscila. benavides hi priscilla hope you're doing okay thank you for joining the patreon program rezo what's next week next week we're talking about soft skills soft skills

Join us next week for that. And until next time, have a wonderful week. Thank you for your company this week. Until next time, it's goodbye from me. And it's goodbye from me. The music in this podcast is by Pits. The track is called See You Later.