One of my friends is a musician and he is performing at his first concert tomorrow! This morning I saw him for a coffee and said: Looking at me with confusion and fear he repeated: Break a leg ? Why on earth would I want that You may be as confused as he was, so let's explore this slang phrase... To clarify I am not wishing him bad luck! The opposite actually. This idiom " to break a leg " has in fact positive connotations, strange as it seems. So where does this strange idiom come from and when...
Dec 07, 2022•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast After a long day at work my partner always asks how I am feeling. I usually reply with one of the two: hungry-ish or tired-ish. So what does this 'ish’' mean? Do I need to eat or go to bed? Ish spelt I-S-H is an informal suffix used to say about or approximately. This informal suffix can be added to many words including numbers or times of the day. For example: How old is she? Umm 40ish... or What time will you be at home?’ Around 2ish... You can also use ish with gradable adjectives. A gradable...
May 09, 2022•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our slang word of the week is mug spelt M-U-G. This is a tricky word due to its vast range of meanings within both slang and formal English. Now our first and formal meaning of mug is a noun meaning a vessel for hot drinks. - Every morning I drink a big mug of earl grey tea- It can also be used as the quantity that can be held in a mug, for example: - Oh no I just knocked over a mugful of tea! However mug has many more meanings. It has origins in working-class communities in Britain, where sever...
May 02, 2022•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Have you ever suffered from FOMO or JOMO? If you've no idea what I'm talking about, then it could be argued that you're in fact already a victim of them without knowing! So FOMO, F-O-M-O what is it? This relatively new acronym stands for the expression fear of missing out, used to describe that feeling of anxiety which many people experience when they discover that other people have had fun together, spent time together or done just about anything which they were not a part of. We've all experie...
Nov 14, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast So you have planned three holidays, booked time off work and are totally ready to lay on a beach sipping pina coladas under the sun. This I am sure were many of your summer plans, unfortunately they have been put on hold due to the recent pandemic. How do you feel now? Angry? Disappointed? Salty? Yes Salty! Let me explain myself, in formal english Salty S-A-L-T-Y is an adjective meaning tasting or containing salt, Of course, you may have assumed that it was in relation to food. For example: - "d...
Jun 08, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast My friend Kelly used to work at an Italian Pizzeria in Canterbury. She worked with many Italian chefs and would compliment them on the daily pasta specials looking ‘sick’. Their response was usually one of embarrassment or anger, thinking she had insulted their cooking. A basic cardinal sin in Italy. This led to an awkward work environment to say the least, until so explained ‘sick’ was not an insult at all but in fact a compliment! Sick S-I-C-K in formal English means to not be in good health. ...
Jun 01, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we will be exploring idiomatic phrases that I would say are rare gems of slang. Before we start, I want to give you some context. You and your friend have decided to go for a day at the beach, you have been planning this trip for a long time, you have organised everything and finally the morning comes. Just as you are about to set off your friend, who should be driving informs you that his driving license expired one month ago! Now what would we say about this friend, that he is stupid? du...
May 25, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Things don’t seem easy these days, whether you're setting up an online bank account, learning how to work i-teach platform to teach your students, or finding the right ingredients in the supermarket to make your boyfriend's favorite cake. I hope things feel easier soon, and to prepare you for when they are I have a few phrases to teach you today. Imagine it is summer 2019 and you want to go to the beach, well hop in your car, drive for twenty 20 minutes and Bob’s your uncle you are there! No no ...
Apr 29, 2020•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast As I have been trapped inside for a while now, I have been "face timing" many of my close friends who are far away, as I am sure you have all been doing. While speaking to my closest friend Ella I commented: - "woah! Your face looks absolutely beat!" You may think this comment is strange as in formal beat BEAT the word beat has negative and strong connotations. In formal English beat has many meanings as a verb. Firstly beat can mean to defeat someone in a game or other competitive situation. Us...
Apr 09, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Before we get started I wanted to say a few words about the current global situation. In desperate times we feel panicked and scared for many reasons. I want to thank everyone who is helping us during this crisis, especially doctors and nurses tirelessly working against this pandemic. All we can do is wait, be kind to each other and most importantly stay inside. It's safe to say we are all shook. Shook S-H-O-O-K is a slang term that can be used as an adjective meaning shocked, surprised, or star...
Apr 01, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast This weekend I have been lazy, I have gone shopping, tidied my flat and spent some time with my chum... Louisa what are you talking about now? What are your chums? Chums C-H-U-M-S, is a tricky slang word, we can use it as a noun, a verb or an adjective. So let’s see how now! As a noun Chum simply means a close friend. The origin of “chum” in this sense is strictly used in speech. The phrase Chum first appeared in the late 17th century and was derived from “chamber fellow” meaning roommate. It wa...
Mar 13, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast While telling my Italian friends about my good friend Ollie from Glasgow I said "he is a good bloke". Bloke? what nationality is that? No it is not a nationality! So what is my friend Ollie? Bloke B-L-O-K-E is an extremely common term denoting a man. It is a noun used in reference to an ordinary man, with a similar meaning to "average joe" in America. Bloke is a slang term for a common man found used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The earliest known usag...
Mar 10, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast You are listening to our fourth and final episode specialising on slang and money! Ok on to our next slang term for money… a pony. I can hear you asking me- Louisa why are we now talking about a baby horse? Spelt the same P-O-N-Y pony actually means 25 pounds. The word has been traced back from the late 18th century in London and has a vast range of suggestions for its etymology. By some it has been suggested that in the 18th century £25 was the typical price paid for a small horse, although his...
Mar 04, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast You are listening to our third episode specialising on slang and money! Today we are starting by looking at the most common and widely used slang terms. I was in a bar recently with my Italian friend, i bought some drinks and she asked me how much i owed her. I replied ‘only a fiver’ my friend looked at me with such confused on her face and replied ‘five what?!’. This is when I released we have never spoken about one of slang terms I use most frequently. A fiver F-I-V-E-R simply means a five pou...
Mar 02, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast In our most recent episodes we are discussing slang words for money! Something key when travelling to a different country or even speaking a new language! Today we will be examining slang words for the British Pound Coin. The most common slang word used for a pound is a quid, a word I use frequently to the confusion of my Italian friends. A quid is equal to 100 pence, and it is generally believed to come from the Latin phrase “quid pro quo,” which translates into "something for something," or an...
Feb 12, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we will be talking about money, something universal….however us brits have found many words and phrases to use when talking about it. While the origins of these slang terms are many and various, certainly a lot of English money slang is rooted in various London communities, many sectors such as with street traders and gangs developed their own specific slang, which has produce some strange interpretations commonly used today.....so we are going to explore them now! Our first word for money...
Feb 10, 2020•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we will be exploring more social media slang, in particular how do we identify the sea of people on social media, from trolls to baes...what are they and what do they mean?! Now is your chance to find out so lets get started... So in formal English a Troll T-R-O-L-L is a character from fairytales, usually an ugly creature depicted as either a giant or a dwarf. However online it means something much different or perhaps even worse. In Internet slang, a troll is a person who who deliberately...
Jan 29, 2020•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we will be exploring more social media slang! The internet is super important when learning a new language as social media is something that allows you to connect with people from all over the world. So let’s have a look now at how to navigate the rabbit hole that is social media abbreviations. As most online slang words are acronyms, they will be our focus for today. To start with we have AMA meaning ‘ask me anything’. The AMA was first made popular on the sharing forum and community, Red...
Jan 20, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last episode we mastered internet slang and abbreviations but this episode we will become experts on slang specifically for social media. Even if you’ve mastered English vocabulary offline, you might find yourself scrolling through Social Media and getting pretty confused. Why do people keep asking me to DM them? Why is everyone hashtagging TBT? Let’s find out why now! Ok so our first is the easiest and for an English learner the most useful D-M, meaning direct message or a private message with ...
Jan 15, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we will be exploring essential internet abbreviations. The more time you spend learning English, the more time you’ll spend reading and writing English on the internet. I know as a language learner this can be exciting but also very frustrating! You may be familiar with L-O-L (laugh out loud) or O-M-G (oh my god). But there are many more us brits use that are slightly less obvious. So to start, we will discuss an abbreviation used to decline or refuse offers. I use many of these frequently...
Jan 13, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last episode we looked at the slang term "hen party" an event for a woman before she gets married. But is there one for men? Yes! And that’s what we will be looking at today. This is a stag party S-T-A-G, a noun, which is a celebration held for a man who is about to get married, attended only by men. In America it is called a bachelor party, as bachelor means a signal man. In Italy it is called "addio al celibato", meaning goodbye to being single. As an adjective stag party means "composed of ma...
Jan 08, 2020•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ok so this week's episodes are inspired by my friend Rosie Higginbottom, who is soon to be married! I was telling my Italian friend about traditional english celebrations, concerning weddings... an important one being a hen party. What is that she replied? A party for chickens?! Oh no! The name is deceiving... so what exactly is a hen party? A hen party H-E-N is a noun simply meaning a party for a woman who is going to get married, to which only her female friends are invited. Do not mistake thi...
Jan 06, 2020•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ok so today we will be focusing on a slang word that has got so much negative and positive attention recently. This word is "woke"... So what does it mean? Is it positive or negative? Let’s explore it and get some answers now! In formal English woke is a verb and the past of wake: "I woke early this morning", simple yeah? Not so much when we are using it within slang! The slang word woke W-O-K-E is an adjective that means to be conscious of racial discrimination in society and other forms of opp...
Dec 11, 2019•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast One of my students recently moved to England. His dream was to meet a lovely english woman and settle down. I wished him luck and warned him to watch of for ghosting! He responded by saying that he was fully aware of the rumors that England was a haunted place. I quickly corrected him, telling him that this was not the type of ghosting I was referring to. So let’s look at this word today! No matter how you use it, ghosting G-H-O-S-T-I-N-G never really means anything good. In formal English ghost...
Dec 09, 2019•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ok so today we will be looking at a word that I use all the time! This word is fancy. If you are an English language learner you most probably have heard this word before however I encounter students daily who do not fully understand how and when to use this word so let's clear it up today! Fancy F-A-N-C-Y is a verb with many meanings used all the time in the UK, especially in the south. You may recognise fancy as an adjective from the Iggy Azelea song I am so fancy meaning to be elaborate or be...
Dec 04, 2019•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast While telling my Italian friend about my travels around Italy we got onto the topic of Rome, a beautiful and lively city. I stayed there for 3 weeks alone over a recent summer while studying classics. However I had to admit that some areas were slightly dodgy and I preferred not to stay alone in them. Dodgy she responded? Louisa I don't understand this at all. So let's look at this word today… In slang Dodgy D-O-D-G-Y is an adjective used for people, places, things you should avoid. In slang we ...
Dec 02, 2019•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast In November I often feel gutted, its cold, the sun has disappeared and as Christmas crawls closer I check my bank account and wonder if my family would each be happy receiving an ironic orange. Not sure how I am feeling? Let's clarify this word gutted now. Gutted spelt G-U-T-T-E-D is British slang word of pure contextual emotion. To be "gutted" about a situation means to be devastated and saddened. It can be used like this: "His girlfriend broke up with him. He’s absolutely gutted." meaning he i...
Nov 27, 2019•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Having a partner of a different nationality has many benefits however I must say, me and my Italian boyfriend often find ourselves slightly lost in translation over small things, mainly due to slang. For example Yesterday I ask my boyfriend if we should link at 5pm, he agreed. By 5pm I was waiting outside his flat, very annoyed and very cold. Once he finally arrived I asked him why he was late. He told me that he was at a bar waiting for me as I had earlier suggested we ‘drink’ at 5pm. Our argum...
Nov 25, 2019•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast I was telling my class about my close friend from England who called me yesterday. She was very upset because her coat got nicked on the subway. When i told them, they responded with little sympathy. One commented "I'm sure she can fix it", however this was not true as the coat was gone. So today we will be clarifying the slang term for "nick". In formal British English, nick is a noun and a verb meaning a small cut and this is what my student was thinking of earlier when advising my friend to g...
Nov 20, 2019•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Have you ever been to a boring party? Stuck with the same music and dry conversation on repeat? Then it’s time to tell your mates to bail! Confusing right? Why am I talking about jail and money at this party, well let me explain... In formal english bail B-A-I-L is a noun meaning the temporary release of an accused person awaiting trial, sometimes on condition of paying a sum of money. However as slang bail means to leave, cancel or back out of something. Historically as a noun, bail means bond ...
Nov 18, 2019•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
