Learn English Vocabulary Daily #15.2 — British English Podcast

Hello, and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast.

My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 15, Day 2 of Your English Five a

Day, a series that aims to increase your active vocabulary by five pieces every

day of the week from Monday to Friday.

Let's kick off today's list with an idiom and it is green

with envy, green with envy.

We spell this green, the colour G R E E N.

With, W I T H.

Envy, E N V Y.

If you are green with envy, then it means that you wish very much

that you had what someone else has.

So, you are very envious in an extreme way.

Have you ever been green with envy?

I'm sure I have.

Actually, the first thing that comes to mind is my days at drama college and

drama school when I was desperate to get the leading roles or the big roles or

whichever role I had my heart set on.

There's another phrase to have your heart set on something.

And then someone else would get it, someone that I didn't like very much,

probably because they were too boastful.

Then in those cases I was green with envy, but I did try to hide it.

I tried to be a better person.

Here's an example sentence,

"When I heard about Alfred's new job at the Nature Park I was green with envy,

I've always wanted to work with animals."

Next on our list is another idiom and it is, how the other half

live, how the other half live.

I think this is quite clear, but I'll give you the spelling.

How, H O W.

The, T H E.

Other, O T H E R.

Half, H A L F.

Live, L I V E.

How the other half live.

Now this is something people say when they see or hear about the lives of

people who are much richer than them.

Imagining that society is split into two halves, the poor half and the rich half.

Obviously, that's not really true.

There are varying degrees of wealth, but this idiom is referring to half the people

being rich and half the people being poor.

Here's an example sentence,

"I met Clare's new boyfriend the other day, he's got a place up at Bellevue with

a pool — wow, how the other half live, eh?

She's really falling on her feet there!"

Next on our list is an adverb and it is obscenely, obscenely.

Now, if something is done obscenely, it's done in a way that

is offensive, rude, or shocking.

It is obscene.

Let me spell this for you.

It is O B S C E N E L Y, obscenely.

Just remember this has the word 'scene', 'a scene' within it, ob-scene.

Obscenely.

Okay, in a horrible, offensive, shocking way.

Here's an example sentence,

"The woman cursed obscenely when she was cut up at a junction by a lorry driver."

Have you ever sworn obscenely or cursed obscenely or spoken

obscenely for any reason?

I would say, that I never, ever, ever use swear words, but that's not true.

I do sometimes use swear words and I have been known when I've been very

angry on the rare occasion when I've been very angry to speak obscenely.

I wouldn't maybe say obscenely, but to speak with lots of swear words in the

past when I've been very, very cross.

It doesn't happen very often.

Anyway, moving on from my confessions.

Right, let's move on.

We have a noun.

This is eye-opener, an eye-opener.

It's spelled E Y E; hyphen; opener, O P E N E R.

Eye-opener, like something that opens your eyes, an eye-opener.

It's learning a new fact and being surprised by that.

So, if something opens your eyes, you get the shock *gasp* of the reality.

So, if you read a report that tells you that the water that you have been

defending as being clean, safe water is in fact full of bacteria and germs that

you really do not want to be drinking.

So, that report is an eye-opener.

It surprises you and shocks you.

You're learning something that you really didn't know.

It's an eye-opener.

Here's another example,

"Living abroad can be a real eye-opener, it makes you appreciate

little home comforts so much more."

Next on our list is an adjective and it is scathing, scathing.

We spell this S C A T H I N G, scathing, scathing.

If something is described as scathing, then it's criticising someone or

something in a severe and unkind way.

So, here's an example,

"That letter you sent to the head teacher about sports day was scathing.

Did you need to be so blunt about it?"

So, we often hear the word scathing in the news when a report has come out.

It's often a scathing report.

It usually speaks quite harshly about its findings, usually something to do with

an investigation into politicians or the government or the runnings of a company

or the financial affairs of a big company.

Usually these reports are scathing.

Okay, so let's recap what we've covered today.

We had the idiom green with envy, so to be very, very envious, wishing you

had something that someone else has.

Then we had an idiom how the other half live, which is something you say

when you're seeing or hearing about someone who's much richer than you.

Then we had an adverb obscenely, to do something in an

offensive, rude or shocking way.

Then a noun, eye-opener, which is when something surprises you but teaches

you something that you didn't know.

Then we had the adjective, scathing, to criticise someone

in a severe and unkind way.

Let's do this now for pronunciation, so please repeat after me.

Green with envy.

Green with envy.

How the other half live.

How the other half live.

Obscenely.

Obscenely.

Eye-opener.

Eye-opener.

Scathing.

Scathing.

Fantastic.

So, if I see that someone drives past in a convertible sports car and

they're wearing immaculate clothes that obviously cost a fortune, then I might

turn to my children and say: "Oh!"

What?

What phrase am I going to use?

Oh, how the other half live.

How the other half live.

Then if I were to meet a man on the street who is obviously very drunk and upset, and

he's shouting and swearing, and he might be doing it in a very offensive, rude and

shocking way, but what adverb could I use?

Obscenely.

Obscenely.

He was talking and swearing obscenely.

Now, if I think back to that sports car and that person who's immaculately

dressed, who obviously has a lot of money and lives a very nice life, I might

be wishing that I had what they have.

What idiom could I use?

Green with envy.

I might be green with envy.

And if I then sat down with that very rich person and spoke to them

and found out more about their lives and realised that actually, my

goodness, they have a terrible life.

They might have all this money, but they're so miserable and they

have to endure awful relationships with their family members and

their friends; absolutely awful.

A very soulless and passionless existence.

Then that discussion would be something that surprises

me and teaches me new facts.

What could I describe it as?

Eye-opener.

That discussion was an eye-opener.

But then I open the newspaper the next day and I read a strongly criticising

article about that same rich person, about how they're not paying their

taxes — naughty, rich person.

So, I could describe this article, because it's very severe and quite

unkind, I could describe it as...

scathing, it's a scathing article.

Okay, let's bring together all of our words and phrases in a little story.

And in today's news — Kelly Jones, 32, has admitted to breaking into

Lisa Smith's home and causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

Said to be green with envy of her best friend's luxurious lifestyle,

Jones has been sentenced to six months in jail for trashing her house.

She smashed furniture, ripped curtains, poured bleach on clothes,

and spray-painted insults on the walls.

The court heard that Jones and Smith had been friends since

childhood, but their relationship soured when Smith married a wealthy

businessman and moved to a mansion.

Jones, who worked as a waitress and lived in a small apartment, became

obsessed with how the other half live.

She stalked Smith on social media and grew resentful of her lavish vacations,

designer clothes, and expensive cars.

Jones told the police that she wanted to teach Smith a lesson

and make her feel what she felt.

She said she was tired of seeing Smith flaunt her wealth and happiness obscenely.

She said she wanted to ruin her perfect life and make her suffer.

The judge described Jones' actions as "vicious, spiteful, and malicious".

He said that Jones had betrayed her friend's trust and violated her privacy.

He said that Jones had shown no remorse or empathy for her victim, and that Jones

needed an eye-opener and a wake-up call.

He gave her a scathing lecture and a harsh sentence.

Smith said that she was shocked and hurt by Jones' betrayal, and despite

stating that she forgave Jones, she could not forget what she had done.

She said that she had lost a friend and a part of her past.

And that brings us to the end of today's episode.

I do hope you found this useful.

Hopefully it was a little bit of an eye-opener, but not

so much in a surprising way.

Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.