15 Fishy Expressions in English

428,402 views ・ 2014-10-11

English with Ronnie


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Once in a lifetime opportunity, and I must say, my very first idioms lesson. You people
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have asked me and requested, "Ronnie, please do idioms. Ronnie, please do idioms." And
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Ronnie goes, "Ronnie doesn't like idioms because I don't really use idioms." I don't think
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they're very useful. But then today, an idiom popped in my head, and it had to do with seafood.
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Now, I don't remember what the idiom was because it was the morning and I was walking to school
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innocently. But I started to think about seafood and fish. I got a little sick because I hate
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seafood. I don't really like fish either, but I thought, "Wow. You know what? I'm going
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to teach you because you want to learn about idioms." So here you go. Ronnie's very first
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-- hopefully not the last -- lesson about idioms. These ones are with seafood and fish.
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The first one. You can say, "He or she is a shrimp." Now, do you know what a "shrimp"
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is? I will draw you a picture I'm not very good at drawing pictures, but I'm going to
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try. So a "shrimp" is a little sea creature that has a lot of legs and a tail. Yeah. It
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looks like that. So the meaning of "he's a shrimp" or "she's a shrimp" means the person
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is very short -- not necessarily thin, but quite short. So you can say the person "is
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a shrimp". You probably want to eat that person now, don't you? I don't. So "he's a shrimp"
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means a very short person.
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We have another expression that I really like. I don't understand why we use it, but we do.
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"The world is your oyster." "Oyster" is another type of seafood. It's a shellfish. Now, the
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problem with me and drawing shellfish is they're all going to look the same. But an oyster
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is quite a large shellfish. The outside of the oyster is black, and inside, it can be
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either an orangey-pink color, or it can be white. And the thing that's very special about
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an oyster is they make precious pearls. So maybe you have a pearl necklace. The pearl
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was made in an oyster. So the expression "the world is your oyster" means you can do anything
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you want to do. Isn't that cool? "The world is your oyster." Whatever you want to do,
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you can do it. There are no limits. If you want to do something, go and do it, and get
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a pearl necklace.
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Another expression is "a fine kettle of fish". This I don't think is too difficult to understand,
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but "fine" means "very good", and a "kettle of fish" is a big pot full of fish. A long
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time ago, we were very dependent on nature for our food. So having a big kettle or a
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big pot of fish was a really, really good thing because that means that you would have
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a lot of food to live on. Now, we have processed food and we can make genetic food, so we don't
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rely on nature as much as we used to. So "a fine kettle of fish" means you're going to
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eat for a while. But we mean this to be a really, really good situation. So it's a good
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situation.
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The next one, "pool shark". "Pool shark", funnily enough -- "pool" -- maybe you're thinking
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of a swimming pool. No, no, no. "Pool" is a game. Another word for it is "eight-ball".
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Okay? A different kind of pool game is billiards. So eight-ball and pool are the same, and billiards
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is different. But a "pool shark" is someone -- usually a man -- who is very, very good
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at the game of eight-ball or the game of pool. Just in case you don't know, "eight-ball"
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is a game -- you have 16 balls here. And the object is to use a cue and to hit the balls
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into the pockets. So if you are a "pool shark", it means you are very good at this game.
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This is not a good thing, "fish outta water". Now, "outta" is how we would normally say
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"out of". But in native speaking, we don't say "out of"; we say "outta". "Fish outta
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water." So if you think about this -- if you're a fish, where do you live? The ocean or a
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fish tank if you're not a lucky fish. If you're a "fish out of water", what's going to happen?
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First of all, you're going to feel very uncomfortable, probably a little dry, and then guess what?
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You're going to die. So people use the expression to say, "I feel like" or "I felt like a fish
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out of water." It basically means that you feel very uncomfortable. It doesn't mean you're
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going to die. It just means you feel very uncomfortable. Good.
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The next one. This has been shortened over the years. We used to say, "Something smells
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fishy". Ew. Fish stinks. But we've shortened it to, "Something's fishy." If something's
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fishy, it means something's a little strange or a little weird, but we don't know exactly
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why. We're not sure, but something may be weird. So "something's fishy" means something
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is weird or strange. Something's not right.
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"Fresh off the boat" -- this sounds nice. It sounds like some really fresh seafood.
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Well guess what? It isn't seafood at all. "Fresh off the boat" or "FOTB" -- apparently
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is a term that is used -- is actually referring to people who have immigrated to, let's say,
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Canada, or immigrated to a different city -- sorry, a different country. They've traveled
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by ship or by boat, and they don't really understand the language or the cultures or
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the customs of their new country. So a lot of people would say, "Oh, she's fresh off
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the boat." It means she doesn't understand the culture of what's around her. So "fresh
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off the boat." I think it's kind of a negative term, but apparently, it's used a lot. But
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it just means that you're a new immigrant and you don't really know that much about
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the culture. But you'll learn.
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Funnily enough, we have another kind of shellfish, and this is a clam. Now, this is my picture
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of a clam, and I'm sorry. I can't draw a clam or an oyster. But a clam is usually smaller
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than an oyster, and it's used a lot in a soup called "clam chowder". It's very common in
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the east coast of America and in Canada. "Clams" is an old word to mean "money". So if you've
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watched probably 1970 or 1980 gangster movies, they would say, like, "How many clams for
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that bottle of whiskey?" In a very old sense, it means "money".
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The next one, "clammy", is an adjective. "Clammy" is kind of a strange word, but it means that
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you feel cold and wet or damp. So you could say, "I feel clammy." It's kind of like you're
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in the ocean, and then you get out of the ocean, and you forgot your towel. So it has
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a bad connotation of not a good feeling. You feel kind of wet and kind of cold. So "clammy"
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means a wet and a cold feeling, not a good feeling.
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The next phrase, "clammed up". As an example, "He clammed up during his speech." What do
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you think that means? He turned into a clam? Uh-uh. If someone "clams up", it means their
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mouth becomes a clam, I guess. It means that he stopped talking. Maybe he couldn't talk.
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Maybe he forgot what he was going to say. So the idiom "clammed up" means that somebody
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stopped talking. I don't understand this either. But it's an idiom. This is why idioms are
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so strange and Ronnie doesn't teach them.
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"Happy as a clam." It means that these clams are really, really happy. So I guess we should
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do one of these. And it means that you feel happy like a happy clam. Crazy English.
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What would a lesson be with Ronnie without some dirty sex in it? Oh, yeah. Don't worry.
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We are not free of the seafood and the fish innuendos without a little bit of slang sex.
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Now, maybe you've had sex with someone, and he or she didn't really do something. Maybe
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they just kind of lied there -- or just laid there, and they didn't participate in the
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sexual encounter. You can say, "She or he was like a dead fish." Now, this doesn't mean
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the smell, I hope. But a "dead fish" would maybe move around a little bit and then not
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move. So you can imagine how exciting this person would be if you were going to have
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sex with someone. So you can -- it's usually used for women. I don't know why. But "she
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was like a dead fish". This means she did not participate in the action. Okay? Dead
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fish -- bad meaning. Boring. So if someone calls you a "dead fish", it's not good -- very
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boring.
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One of my favorites, "trouser trout". "Trouser" is a very old and very British word for "pants".
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A "trouser trout" or a "flounder" -- a flounder and a trout are a kind of fish. I will draw
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a picture of a fish. Yay. But surprise, surprise. A "trouser trout" or a "flounder" actually
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is not a fish at all. It is a man's penis. "Trouser trout" or "flounder".
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And not to forget the ladies, the lady bits. We have something called a "fish taco". That's
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disgusting, isn't it? Fish. Gross. I hate fish. So a "fish taco", if you can imagine,
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is actually the vagina of the lady. The lady's vagina. So representing the male sexual organs,
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we have the "trouser trouts" or the "flounder". And for all the ladies out there, your "fish
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taco" is a slang word for your vagina.
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Are you hungry? Would you like some seafood? The next time you go to a restaurant and they
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have flounder on the menu, I dare you to order it. Bye-bye. This is all for idioms with Ronnie.
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