8 Common Slang Phrases in English

is death reversible that's kind of cool  

hi jinx from invid and welcome future native  language speakers mr e is wearing a wig and  

he's got the sign eight slang phrases let's go  to the board and take a look what's going on  

so he's wearing a wig and he wants me to  read this story to you but before i start  

i'm going to explain what this is about what we're  going to do today is we're going to learn eight  

slang phrases you'll probably hear on the news on  romantic comedies or on police shows um primarily  

i want you to be able to become aware of what  these are so you can understand them from their  

context and the meaning of them and if you're a  new uh a new language learner a new native speaker  

or trying to be um you may not want to use these  but they'll be very useful to you to understand  

what's being said because these are common  phrases that north american speakers use all right  

so we're going to go to the board look at these  eight phrases why is this good well this is going  

to make your television viewing a lot better when  you watch romantic comedies or the news it'll also  

help you on the streets when you hear people just  say these things casually you'll go okay i know  

what they're talking about and as you get better  in english you might want to start using some of  

these cool all right let's get started let's  not hold you back from your learning lesson so  

story e you want me to read this okay and  you're going to explain why you're wearing  

a wig it seems he's doing it to show the  crazy woman i don't know let's just read it  

so one day when mr e was walking down the street  a beautiful woman came up to him out of the blue  

and made a positive oh that's interesting  out of the blue made it past okay seems  

we're supposed to pay attention to these things  in the blue okay mr e thought she was tripping  

because she said he was the best looking worm  she had ever seen okay so mr e thought she was  

up to something because she was a nervous wreck  it turns out she was a crook she demanded mr  

e's wallet saying hand it over mr e thought he  was a goner so he handed it over and ran away  

the end well the story seems like  he's a bit of a coward a chicken but  

let's go to the board and take a look at what he's  trying to get to us so the wig is because of the  

woman right e okay got it that's not your real  hair you're not going to be going to become mrs  

or anything like that the first one we have is out  of the blue okay that's it and that is a phrase  

an idiom and what it means is think of the sky  blue sky if something fell from a blue sky onto  

your head ow that would be out of the blue and  it means from nowhere unexpectedly you could  

say it happened unexpectedly so something out of  the blue is something that happens unexpectedly  

the guy gave me a million dollars out of the blue  i didn't expect this it was unexpectedly next  

made a puss at him so she came out unexpectedly  first one and made a pause at him well if you play  

football and i mean the american kind you know  what i'm saying where you throw the ball like  

this it's called a purse so you pass the ball by  throwing it you threw a pass to someone and if you  

play the european sport of football then it will  be a kick and you kick the ball you pass it to  

your opponent or pass it to a player who scores  the ball it means to throw something at someone  

but that's not what it means here if someone makes  a pass at you it means they are flirty with you  

they're like hey how are you run around  flirting and if they make a heavy puss  

they could be strongly flirting at you okay okay  so made it possible mr e thought she was trippin  

now this is strange because we have an  apostrophe and i don't know why we have it  

actually i do when you have an apostrophe it means  something's missing now usually there's an english  

word and it's called tripping and it has a g on  it okay and that g indicates like about to fall  

over because something this is different because  it is slang so when you see that it's a different  

message tripping in this case means not in your  right mind or mentally ill it also can mean

not cigarettes okay if you're a little older  you know what i mean some people can be tripping  

because they're using narcotics and it's not  alcohol so she's tripping she is mentally ill so  

he thought she was mentally ill that's a kind of a  serious thing right especially because she said he  

was good looking or something and flirting now why  was she doing this he said because she he was the  

best looking worm she had ever seen he has issues  self self-confidence issues he's a good looking  

guy look at him but clearly he didn't think he  was the best looking worm that she had ever seen  

he thought she was up to something now when  somebody is up to something we think they're  

doing something suspicious or something that's  not good or right so if i think you're up to  

something i think you're doing something that's  not good i'm suspicious i'm questioning you okay  

so because she thought he was the best looking  worm he thought she must be up to something  

next she was also a nervous wreck okay well  that helps just because someone gives you a  

compliment doesn't mean you're crazy but if  you're also nervous and you're saying you're  

the best looking worm i've ever seen i would  think something's not white quite right here so  

a nervous wreck is when somebody's very anxious  a little nervous too much nervous wreck okay

it turned out or it turns out she was a  crook well a crook when we say crooked  

something's crooked it's not straight and not  straight means criminal so she was a criminal

so this complimenting woman was really a criminal  she demanded mr e's wallet saying hand it over  

now this is my hand and just just pretend this is  a table when you hand something over it means to  

give give it to someone else on the other side  so if i say hand over the the water give it to  

me but in this case she was a crook and she  demanded see she didn't ask to hand it over  

to take out his wallet and give it to her i don't  think i got a wallet i'm kind of poor let me see

wallet so hand it over that means give it to her  but she demanded so it's not polite if someone  

says do you hand it over it's not usually asking  you in a polite way okay so don't use it and think  

it's okay like hand over the cookies hand over the  milk it's usually asking someone an aggressive way  

to give it to you and finally he thought he was a  goner well that makes sense if someone's a nervous  

wreck they're a little bit too nervous and anxious  you find out they're a criminal and then they say  

give me your wallet you probably think they have  a gun and if they have a gun you probably think  

they're going to kill you if somebody says i  thought i was a goner it means they thought they  

were going to die or something bad was going  to happen so if somebody has a heart attack

oh i thought i was a goner i actually thought i  was going to go away to heaven being a goner okay  

and then he said he ran away because he's such a  brave guy yeah my hero and he's at the end so we  

don't even know we know he gave away his wallet  and he ran away but at least now we understand  

this story that we started with with many actually  we have eight um idioms that you may not have  

known or phrases and now we have an opportunity  to go back and see how well you've learned them  

because i've explained them to you and when  we come back from the board i'm going to erase  

all of our phrases and i want you to try and tell  me what should be in here in place what will be  

the regular english and then this way you'll have  one the visual of slang and two how it turns into  

normal language and how you can probably use it  in your own life cool are you ready huh let's come  

back to the board and we're back and as i said  oh i've got the wrong marker i want to use black  

we did the slang terms and i want to make  quick mention of something slang is cool  

and it's good for you to understand because a lot  of times what what is slang is shortened language  

people use it because it communicates an  idea faster than saying the whole sentence  

and it's kind of cool better than  being so professional all the time  

but please keep in mind when we say things like  tripping right i gave you the example tripping  

can be on drugs you wouldn't say if somebody was  actually really mentally ill they're tripping or  

there's another one i'm going to show you later  on and when i say polite company is something  

if someone's mentally ill you say they are  mentally ill they're depressed or something else  

people may say this though and this is why i'm  teaching this to you if you're in a bar situation  

or they might say it on a television program and  just because they're saying it doesn't mean you  

should i'm going to say emulate but which means  copy it so keep that in mind it's for you to know  

so when you're watching tv programs or people  are speaking to you know what they're saying  

but context is very important if someone's  saying it to her in the bar it doesn't  

mean you should say hey her her brother's  tripping in a mental hospital or he's not  

well the other one i'll teach you shortly but it's  when they say it to you you can go i understand  

i'm not going to repeat that but i understand cool  all right so my public safety uh announcement is  

done my psa let's go to the board see how well  you learned what i've taught you earlier on

let's start over here mr e okay so one day mr  e was walking down the street a beautiful woman  

came up to him and what was out of the blue  so what is out of the blue mean that's the key

unexpectedly he didn't know what was  going to happen it wasn't planned  

so it was unexpectedly so another word for out  of the blue is unexpected and what happened

i'm sorry i'm writing the answer  she made a pause at him she made  

it possible what's another word for  making a pause at someone or another

phrase uh

it was flirtatious but i'm saying very flirty she  was very flirty with him that means she was like  

oh my gosh oh you're so amazing you're so great  so when someone flirts with you which is the verb  

right it means they say you're very  attractive and they're very very  

i don't know what's the word they  want to show their interest in you

mr e thought she was what

now this is what i was explaining at the beginning  of the lesson or this segment of the lesson

all right we said oops tripping  and tripping in this case was

mentally ill so i'll go over that once more  if someone's mentally ill in a non-slang way  

say they are mentally ill if they have psychosis  so they have to have a psychiatric treatment  

or see doctors call them mentally ill and i  told you another thing for tripping was for  

drugs if someone's on illegal or illicit  drugs they could be on legal drugs but they  

have too many they could be tripping meaning  they're not in their right mind at this time  

and tripping can also be angry are you tripping  are you crazy crazy and angry in that way okay  

so he thought she was mentally ill because  she came out under the out of the blue  

unexpectedly she was very flirty from nowhere  so he's like okay i think you're mentally ill

okay so she was best because she said she was  the best looking worm she had ever seen so mr e  

thought she was up was what what was  up to something what's nothing okay

for up to something is doing something suspicious  so i'm just going to write this over here  

because i don't have any room suspicious she was  very suspicious so let me clean that up a little  

bit more because i want you to be able to read  what i write she was doing something suspicious

okay and that's something that you don't really  trust okay something's wrong with what's going on  

you're suspicious because she was what a nervous  wreck right and if she was a nervous wreck what  

does that mean now what is very anxious because  some of you people even though it gave you nervous  

wreck for slang very anxious might also make you  very anxious when you're anxious it means you're  

nervous nervous is okay you get nervous probably  when you're trying to speak english to people  

right you're there oh will i remember the words  will i get the order right is the grammar correct  

i get it i get nervous doing videos sometimes  when you're a nervous wreck it's different  

because when you're nervous you can  still function you can do something  

i may be nervous now but i can still teach  this lesson if i'm a nervous wreck i'll be like

and i won't be able to perform or do anything  and if you're a nervous wreck you won't be able  

to do anything so when you're very anxious or too  anxious you can be a nervous wreck cool all right  

now because because she was anxious you know  she was too nervous and she was too nice those  

two things don't go together like why are you so  nervous and being so nice a little bit makes sense  

too much is not good because it turns out she was  a we said crook and i said crook is not straight  

so you have something that's straight when it's  bent it's a crook and i should have explained in  

english if someone's a straight arrow it means  they do the right thing so we say someone's  

straight they do the right thing or they're not  gay or homosexual that's what straight means so  

when something's bent it means it's not what we  expect and not normal all right so in this case  

she was a crook and another word for crook  in this case is what it is a criminal

and we all know what criminals are someone  who breaks the law right next she demanded  

mr e's wallet saying what did we say hand  it over right hand it over once again  

i explain what it means so i'm going  to give you a second to think about it

that's right now i have to  explain something because what  

i am going to write is not exactly the same

they have similar meanings but if somebody says  hand it over usually it's not polite right it's  

usually more of a demanding form if someone  says give it to me or you can give it to me  

it's much more casual right oh you've got a new  watch give it to me let me take a look at it  

you can say hand it over but usually handed over  in this case is a bit stronger right hand it over  

it's not as polite as can i have it or can i look  at it or can you give it to me so i'm saying that  

to you in case you think oh hand it over give  it to me or equal if you say hand it over people  

will think you're being a little bit rude all  right but it is slang and you should know what  

it means because it means they actually want it  and they want you to give it to them probably now

okay he thought he was something so he handed  it over right away now if you remember what  

i said if handed over is strong and it's a  criminal telling you to hand something over  

what do you think is probably  going to happen with your life hmm

yeah you might think you're a he thought he  was a dead man it doesn't mean dead man it  

could be a dead woman anything that you think  if you think you're going to die and you're a  

woman you can say i thought it was a goner  if you're a guy you could say i thought i  

was a goner if your dog is sick and you said i  couldn't get into the hospital i thought he was  

a goner it means i think they're going to lose  their life okay so it's not losing a race or a  

game so don't think if you play a soccer you're  like well i thought we were goners it's like no  

they weren't gonna shoot all of you if you lost  the game but if you feel that you're a goner  

it means you feel that your life will probably be  over in any situation right from a car accident  

heart attack operation you could be a  goner if there's not a good doctor right  

cool so now that we've done this and you've  gone over it that were eight dif those were  

eight different phrases or idioms right and as  i said most of these you're gonna find will be  

in movies romantic comedies or people will say  them on the street right um so i don't expect you  

to use them as per se so in every conversation  but i want you to be aware of them so you can  

understand the things that you hear around  you a little bit better and as you get better  

then you can use them every once in a while  now as always i have a bonus for you so what i  

did was i picked four of the ones that are most  commonly said that you will most commonly hear  

and i gave you more slang but similar so in this  case out of the blue as i said if you can remember  

out of the blue think blue sky something falling  down if you come out of nowhere imagine if you  

are sitting there at the screen watching right  now and i go boom i came out of nowhere because  

for you there was nothing there and suddenly  i was there so these two are very similar he  

came out of nowhere the car i was driving and the  car came out of nowhere i didn't see it it just  

just appeared tripping i was explaining to  you that and i'll just put this one remember  

if someone is seriously mentally ill please  don't use this it's not funny you can use it for  

and people will and it's not that they're bad  people they might say my boss was okay in this  

case not playing with a full deck you could  be mentally ill because when you have cards  

there are 52 cards and if you only have 49 it's  not a full deck it means everything's not there  

that's one thing for talking at a bar or talking  or listening to on television it's another thing  

to go out and publicly casually say it so  be careful with this know what someone means  

i suggest you don't use it in public so another  word for it tripping and this is this isn't drugs  

in this case somebody is mentally ill or you think  they're crazy right and i say boss because most of  

us think our bosses are not playing with a full  deck because they make suggestions and you're  

like that's just kind of crazy you don't literally  think they're crazy but you think that idea might  

be crazy and if they're tripping you think  they've got bad ideas and maybe they're crazy  

make a pause at someone you can also  say hit on someone and i don't mean  

punch all right so it's not a case where someone's  punching you in the face you go oh he hit on me  

that is when you called the police no hitting on  someone is similar to making that pass in sports  

you make contact because when you hit on someone  you make contact with them not touching but you  

come up close to them and or you try to bring  yourselves closer together with comments right  

so you can hit on someone over zoom or facebook  so you don't have to be literally in the same room  

but it would be you make comments that they  know that you are interested in so we can say  

make a pause at somebody or hit on them nervous  wreck this is why i explained this one again when  

you are so nervous you can't do anything because  when you're falling apart and this can lead to  

someone being really mentally ill when they're  falling apart that they can no longer function  

this will happen with divorce death loss of  job and income or loss of place to live so  

they're falling apart it means oh sorry in  any serious relationship so it doesn't have  

to be just marriage it means their whole world  is falling apart and they don't know what to do  

so they end up doing nothing so if your girlfriend  says my world is falling apart because you left me  

she's saying i can't do anything i just want  to stay in bed maybe you need ice cream or it  

could be a guy saying the same thing and i can't  get out of bed anymore they could be depressed  

right so when you hear these things take them  seriously all right so now we've done the lesson  

of course i have to give you homework and what  i want you to do for your homework is this  

story is a shortened version of this story  but this story has all of the explanations  

i want you to do it again but put the slang in  now for each one and there are one two three four  

you can get 250 points for each correct answer you  get fill it in the comments section below whether  

it be on invid or on youtube or wherever you're  watching this and give it a thumbs up if they get  

the answer right so some lucky viewers will get 1  000 points which is pretty cool that means you've  

learned your lesson and don't forget i want  you to go to ingvid and where's that www.ing  

as in english vid as in video.com where there  will be a quiz for 10 more and other lessons  

that i've done on vocabulary grammar conversation  listening and whatnot and before i go i've got a  

quote for you it has to do with slang uh i didn't  catch the person's name who did the quote so in  

future i'll tell you who so you can check it out  for yourself but because this lesson was on slang  

the quote goes like this slang is a poor man's  poetry i want you to think about that because  

what we do is we take language we shorten it to  give an idea just as poems are used to convey  

great big ideas beauty and wonder but in a short  you know short paragraph and it gets so much that  

you can affect our hearts slang is to affect  your mind right and as i said future native  

language speakers that's our job here and that's  your job do your homework and i'll see you soon