10 English Idioms About Revenge & Getting Back at Someone | English Vocabulary Lesson

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Okay, I ask you to follow me here or here, for example,

but when you follow someone in real life, that's not fun.

The extreme version is called

to stalk someone.

Pronunciation, you don't pronounce the L.

Stalk, it's like walk.

You don't pronounce that L.

In a sentence, she is stalking him.

She follows him, she wants to know

everything about his life.

She is obsessed.

Where's he going?

What is he doing?

What's he eating?

Who's he eating that with?

But weirdly, we use this word in also a joking way.

You know when you're in Instagram?

Oh my god, are you looking at his Instagram again?

No.

Stop stalking him, it's weird.

What?

I'm just liking some of his beach photos

'cause he's not wearing a shirt.

So yeah, we can use this in a more casual jokey way.

Like you're always looking at someone's Instagram,

or you're always checking what someone's doing.

And we also use the word to creep.

Hah, Becky just liked like 20 of my Instagram.

Oh, they're all shirtless, okay.

Yeah, Becky's creeping on me.

If you use this verb, you need the preposition on.

She is creeping on him.

To creep on someone,

that has a more playful casual feeling than stalk.

Again, just be careful, be clear, which context you mean.

Is it that obsession thing that no one wants

or is it something more playful like this?

Don't worry, I'll send her a message.

Hi, Becky, were you creeping on my Instagram?

Because I kinda liked it.

You see, it all depends on the context.

Okay, these next three, they all have similar meanings.

So, for example, someone does something bad to you.

Usually, if you are like me,

you want something bad to happen to that person in return.

Of course, we're talking about revenge!

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For example, if you are in a relationship

and the other person kisses someone else,

the phrasal verb is to cheat on.

So if this person cheats on you, you can get revenge.

And we will change the word revenge with a phrasal verb.

The phrasal verb is to get back at someone.

Again, that replaces revenge, to get revenge.

So, for example, he got back at his ex by, the reason,

what he did, putting hair removal cream in her shampoo.

Genius!

That's not what happened here, by the way.

I just, I heard it as it came out of my mouth.

It's not related.

Okay now, this phrasal verb, if you get back at someone,

this means that you take revenge.

Yourself, you do something in return

to the person who did something bad.

Let me know how you have got back at someone

in the comments.

Either you or someone else, I wanna hear your stories.

How have you been creative in your revenge?

But, these next two expressions,

they describe life getting revenge for you.

(snaps) Think karma.

Just to note, there is one variation of get back at someone.

For example, if you want to tell someone,

"I will get revenge on you,"

you could say, "I'll get back at you."

You could, but more commonly we would say this,

"I'm gonna get you back."

"I'm gonna get you back."

In other words, "I'm gonna get revenge on you."

Yes, you are right, this same sentence could also mean

"I'm gonna get back together as a couple with you."

But, look at the context, look at her face.

She's shouting, she's angry.

Of course, she doesn't mean

we're gonna get our relationship back.

She's angry, she wants revenge.

But her friend Maria, she doesn't want any trouble here.

Maria tells her, "Don't worry,

"you don't have to do anything.

"Because, I believe in karma,

"and life will get revenge on him."

"So you don't do anything, just wait."

"Forever back, don't worry, he'll get his."

This is a fixed expression.

Obviously, you can change the pronouns.

"She'll get hers, they'll get theirs," whatever you want.

The other expression is this.

"What goes around comes around."

Which one is more common?

Neither of them, they're both fine.

Okay, so how do we talk about your feelings

towards the other person when your relationship goes bad,

maybe you stop being friends,

maybe you stop being together as a couple,

how do you discuss your feelings towards that person?

Hm, you know when you feel like

(grunts) about someone,

just hearing their name makes you feel like (groans).

So maybe they did something personally to you

that made you angry, maybe they're just an idiot in general,

either way, they make you do this face.

The adjective to describe the way you feel

at someone is this.

Salty.

Yeah, usually it's because you are annoyed at them

because they did something bad to you,

but yes it could extend to,

well, they're just an idiot in general.

As a sentence,

"Yeah, I know I'm salty with him.

"Don't invite him to your parties anymore.

"He's an idiot."

Okay, when you break up with someone, usually you feel bad,

and it takes time for those bad feelings

to disappear, to fade.

This process has a phrasal verb.

To get over someone.

So this again, it describes the process

of losing your bad feelings after a breakup,

after something bad happened

and you have bad feelings about someone

or about your relationship,

and we can use this in different ways.

For example, someone wants a relationship with you,

but you still have feelings for your ex.

So those feelings, they haven't faded yet.

They haven't disappeared yet.

They are disappearing so you're in that process.

How do we say that?

"I'm sorry I can't be with you

"because I'm still getting over my ex."

You see, we used the continuous form,

I'm getting over my ex.

It means I still have feelings.

Yeah, they're disappearing, but I'm not ready,

but how do we say, "Nah, it's finished.

"I don't have any feelings anymore." (blows raspberry)

When you are finished with those feelings, we say this.

For example, your friend is having a birthday party

and she wants to invite your ex.

"Oh, is it okay if I invite your ex to the party?"

"That's gonna be awkward,"

but no she wants to say, "Eh, it's fine.

"I have no feelings about that good or bad.

"I have no feelings, I'm okay."

"Meh, I'm over it, I don't care."

Again, no feelings good or bad, "I am over it."

Notice we didn't use get here.

If you want to give the specific time,

for example,

"I got over him ages ago."

If you don't know to say ages ago,

it means a long time in the past, a long time ago, ages ago.

"Meh, I got over him ages ago, I'm fine."

But again, if you don't want to say a time,

you just want to say, "Hm, I don't care.

"I'm over it."

A quick note is if you say I got over him,

it does sound better if you put the specific time as well.

I got over him ages ago.

Okay, now talking about exes

and people who you had something spicy with in the past,

but now you don't or maybe you do

or maybe you want something again with them in the future,

but anyway, this person from your past

that you had some kind of romantic thing with

that person is called an old flame.

For example, an ex or someone who you used to date

a long time ago, but now they came back into your life.

They are an old flame.

For example, "I'm seeing an old flame tonight."

Of course, we would understand

that they're probably going to

have something,

something's gonna happen

because they used to have something.

They're meeting tonight, so.

To describe your feelings or relationship with someone

after something ends, for example, you leave a job.

What's your relationship now with your ex boss.

You break up, you don't see a friend anymore.

What's that relationship like?

We describe this as being on good terms

or being on bad terms.

For example,

"We broke up."

"It took ages to get over the relationship."

You already know this vocabulary, ages,

it's a long time to get over the relationship,

to lose your feelings good or bad about that relationship,

but, "We're on good terms."

This just means, "Ah, we're fine with each other.

"We're cool, there's no bad feelings.

"We're on good terms."

But what if you end something in a bad way

and both of you feel pretty salty at each other maybe.

For example, you leave your job in a very bad way.

(growls) "You're a rubbish boss!"

"You're a rubbish worker!"

You can imagine that after this,

they're not going to be friends.

They're going to maybe be salty with each other.

They're going to have bad feelings with each other.

We could say this.

"I left my job on bad terms."

Notice that here he isn't talking about his feelings

so he didn't use the verb to be.

He's describing how he left his job.

"I left my job on bad terms."

Definitely never do this.

I have done something similar.

Yeah, when you quit your job, don't leave on bad terms.

Even if you hate your boss,

you never know if you need a reference from them later.

So I wanna know about you.

Are you on good or bad terms with your ex?

If an old flame contacted you today to meet,

would you go meet them?

Who are you salty at?

Let me know, use your examples in the comments

or in your Instagram stories tag me @papateachme

and I'll repost the best ones.

Again, you can find a worksheet for this

and many other lessons by joining my Patreon

or joining this channel as a member,

and I'll see you in the next class.

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