Learn English: 20 Expressions about Secrets

Hi, everybody.

Welcome to www.engvid.com.

I'm Adam.

Before we start, I want you to come in closer.

I want to let you in on a little secret, okay?

English is pretty difficult.

They know?

How do they know?

Who spilled the beans?

Okay?

So, a couple of new expressions there for you, maybe.

I'm just playing with you.

Today, I'm going to talk to you about secrets, okay?

Secrets are very important.

Everybody has secrets.

Everybody wants to share a secret with somebody, so there are certain expressions for sharing

secrets and for keeping secrets and for telling somebody you're prepared to keep a secret.

And then, there are expressions when that secret has been, you know, shared with other

people.

So, first, we're going to talk about keeping secrets, and then I'm going to talk to you

about revealing secrets, the expressions that we use in English for all these things.

So, let's start with telling somebody you want them to keep the information secret,

okay?

So, if you're going to let someone in on something, to "let in on" means to share some piece of

information that is not generally known.

Other people don't know about it, so I'm going to let you in on this little circle of information

that only a few people know, or maybe only I know, and now only you will know.

So, I'm going to share a secret with you.

Now, if somebody ever tells you, okay, "between you and me" or "between us", that means they

want you to keep this information secret; they don't want you to tell other people.

It's between us; it doesn't go anywhere else, okay?

And very more direct, whatever this information or this story or this piece of thing we found

doesn't leave this room.

So, this conversation doesn't leave this room.

It means it's only the people in the room can hear it and can know about it; nobody

else can.

Okay?

So, whatever it is you're doing doesn't leave this room.

Now, you can change the word "room".

Doesn't leave this office, doesn't leave this hotel, doesn't leave wherever you are.

If something doesn't leave, it means it's not to be shared, okay?

Now, this is a very good expression and it's very specific, but it's become quite common

and used in other situations.

Las Vegas, when people talk about Vegas, they're talking about Las Vegas in the US, you know,

the place in all the movies with all the casinos and the gambling.

People go to Vegas and they do crazy things.

A lot of people, especially guys, like to go there for, like, a bachelor party.

Before they get married, they have a big party, all the guys go together and they have some

fun, etc.

Las Vegas is also known as "Sin City", okay?

Sin.

A sin is something bad, like, against the Bible, against religion, right?

So, Sin City.

So, a lot of people do a lot of bad things in Vegas, but everybody understands that what

happens in Las Vegas, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

You don't take it home with you.

You don't tell anybody else.

Only the group you're with knows what happened.

But this expression has become so popular that people just automatically switch Vegas

to wherever it is they are.

What happens in Toronto stays in Toronto.

What happens in this place stays in this place.

What happens camping stays camping.

Any situation you're in, just use this expression and take out the Vegas, put in the new situation,

means don't share this information.

Now, for your ears only, for your eyes only.

If somebody tells you that this is for your ears only, it means they're sharing a secret

with you, you're not supposed to tell anybody else.

If they're showing you something, like a document, for example, it's for your eyes only.

It means you can see it, don't tell anybody else what you saw.

Don't let anybody else see it, especially, okay?

Now, if you say "mum's the word", now we're talking about keeping a secret.

Somebody wants to tell you a secret, but they want to make sure that you can keep it, that

you're not going to share it.

So, how do you tell them that you're prepared to keep the secret?

For example, I say, "Oh, I want to tell you something, but it's between us, between you

and me."

"Oh, mum's the word."

"Mum's the word" means I will keep it quiet, I will not say "mum", I will not say anything

to anybody.

Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention before, if somebody wants to tell you a secret, they

want you to make sure you understand it's a secret, they may say, "Keep it hush-hush",

keep it quiet, don't tell anybody.

And then you will say, "Oh, mum's the word", or you will say, "My lips are sealed.

My lips are closed, they're shut, they're tight, I won't tell anybody."

I'm going to get back to this one in a second.

If you tell somebody that the information is in the vault, now if you think about a

vault, a vault is a very protected room, for example, in a bank.

All the money is kept in a room, there's like a metal, a big metal or steel door, lots of

alarms, it's very safe, nothing will come out, nothing will come in.

Okay?

So, if you can keep something in the vault means you can keep it a secret and nobody

will be able to get it out of you.

Now, "off the record" can go both ways.

Can I speak to you off the record or somebody says something and I say, "Yeah, don't worry,

this is off the record."

It can go both ways, to keep a secret or to tell somebody you will keep a secret.

This is especially used by journalists.

When they are interviewing someone and that person wants to tell the journalist something,

but he or she doesn't want that journalist to write about that information in the newspaper

or on TV, they will say it's off the record.

It means it's not being recorded, it's between you and me, don't share it with other people.

Just have the information, do whatever you want to do with it.

Okay?

So, here I want to share a secret with you, here I'm telling you, go ahead, I will keep

it, no problem.

But of course, secrets somehow tend to get out and we're going to find out the language

to talk about how the secret got out and became public.

Okay?

So, now it's time to look at the other side of the equation, when somebody lets the information

slip.

Okay?

That's one of the expressions we're going to look at.

A very common idiom that we use to talk about revealing a secret is to let the cat out of

the bag.

It's a little bit of a strange idiom, it has nothing to do with secrets, but a cat is very

feisty, it wants to run around and make noise and make trouble.

In the bag, it's contained.

When you let it out, it goes all over the place and does crazy things, just like a secret

can do.

Okay?

Another expression is "spill the beans".

I'm not exactly sure where this one came from, but it's also an idiom.

To spill the beans means to share a secret with other people, or to share information

that's not public.

Okay?

Now, to rat someone out.

This is usually used for, like, criminals, when one criminal tells the police what another

criminal did, but it doesn't have to be.

In school, if a child does...

If a student does something behind the teacher's back, and then the teacher turns around and

said, "Who did that?"

Then another student might say, "Oh, it was Billy."

So Billy ratted out...

Oh, sorry.

Paul ratted out Billy.

Now, the problem is that we would call Paul, the person who gave the secret, a rat, or

we would call him a snitch, but I'll talk about snitch again in a second.

So, to rat someone out means to reveal the identity of the person who's trying to keep

something secret.

Okay?

Now, to give something away.

To give something away has many meanings, but in terms of secrets, if you give something

away, you're giving enough of a hint that somebody can guess the rest of the secret.

And "let something slip" is very similar.

If you let a little piece of information just slip off your tongue, the person who hears

it might be able to guess more information, and the secret is no longer a secret.

Right?

Now, again, let's go talk about journalists or talk about the media.

If something leaks means that something is supposed to be private or supposed to be secret,

but somehow it came out of the protected bubble, it leaked out, got to the media, and then

became public knowledge.

Right?

That's a more common and more modern way of revealing a secret.

Give it to the media, let the media spread it out.

If somebody cracks - so, for example, I have a secret, and this person knows I have a secret,

and they keep pushing me, and pushing me, and pushing me, and pushing me, and finally

I crack.

I split in two, and the secret comes out, and that person knows the secret as well.

Now, there is something called an "open secret".

This is especially used in business.

When a company is trying to keep a secret, they're going to take over another company,

but everybody in the industry understands that this makes sense, and this is probably

what they want, and it's going to happen.

So, it's a secret, but everybody knows about it, so it's an open secret.

It's not really a secret, but the company is still pretending it's a secret, although

everybody already knows about it.

Now, we have two expressions for people who share secrets.

One is a "whistleblower", and the other is a "snitch".

Technically, these days, both are considered negative terms.

A "snitch" is somebody who tells on another person, who shares somebody's identity, or

shares a secret about somebody else.

So, like I said, like a rat.

"Snitch", but can also be a little bit more adult, okay?

Rat, more criminal world; snitch, more kids and adults, actually.

A "whistleblower" is a very special, particular case.

If I work in a company and I know that this company is doing illegal things, and I go

and I tell the media, or I tell the police, or I tell the government, etc., technically,

I'm doing something good, because I'm telling the authorities that the company is doing

something illegal.

But most people think of whistleblowers as snitches, or rats, and they get a lot of attacks

in the media and everywhere else.

Technically, they're doing something good, but people don't like people who give information,

who share secrets.

So, a very famous whistleblower is Edward Snowden; I think everybody knows about him,

what he did with the NSA in the US.

Again, technically, he's doing it to protect the people, but people didn't look at him

very well after that, okay?

So, if you have any secrets you'd like to share with us, if you'd like to spill the

beans, please do so in the www.engvid.com comment section; I'd love to hear your secrets.

I'm sure there are very good secrets out there.

But again, if you're doing it properly, then that secret is locked in the vault, it's never

coming out, and that's the way it should be, okay?

If you have any questions, you can also ask me those in the comment section.

There's a quiz that you can test your knowledge of these expressions and words.

If you like the video, please give me a thumbs-up and subscribe to my YouTube channel, and come

back for more expressions, grammar, all kinds of other things to help you learn English.

See you again soon.

Bye-bye.