American English Lesson: The Word Shit

Oh shit, we’re rolling?

In American English, just like any  language, we have our cuss words,  

our swear words, our curse words, our bad  words, and some of us love using them.  

But the meanings of the different ways they are  used can sometimes be difficult to understand. For  

example, being shitfaced has a totally different  meaning than being a shit head. But why? There’s  

not much difference between a face and a head.  So in today’s video, which from now on will be  

un-bleeped, you will be hearing cuss words, we’re  going to go over the meaning of some of these  

different phrases Americans use with the word  "shit". Also the pronunciation of "shit" and "sheet".

This first one cracks me up because it’s meaning  is so simple and wholesome. It means to chat.  

Casual conversation, just talking  about this and that with a friend.  

The phrase is ‘shoot the shit’.

“I ran into Jason at the store. Yeah, we  just shot the shit for a while. Caught up.”  

We shot the shit, we chatted.  Here’s another example:

We kind of just shoot the shit - chat  about nothing in particular. Casual.

Now, let’s talk about "no shit" and "know  shit". These two words are pronounced the same,  

but they’re two different words with different  meanings. “No shit” means everybody knows that,  

that’s obvious, you’re stupid for pointing it out.  Like, sometimes on my Youtube channel people will  

comment, "Rachel, you have gray hair." No shit,  of course I can also see that have gray hair.

Now, know shit, K-N-O-W, is  usually used in the negative. 

"You don’t know shit." And that means you don’t  get it. You’re lacking knowledge. For example,  

let’s say someone is accusing me of treating  my employees poorly. I could say, you don’t  

know shit about how I run my business. You know  nothing about it, so don’t comment on it.

But you could say, I know some shit.  I have some knowledge about that.  

Let’s say my treadmill is broken.  My husband fixes it, and I’m like,  

“What? You know how to fix treadmills?”  And he says, “Yeah. I know some shit.”

Now let’s talk about pronunciation for a second.  A lot of my students don’t have a clear IH  

and EE. These two vowels sound similar in  their speech, sometimes exactly the same.  

So ‘shit’ and ‘sheet’ sound the same. IH is  similar to EE, there’s just a little more  

space between the roof of the mouth and the  tongue. I’ll alternate. Ee, ih, ee, ih, ee, ih,  

sheet, shit, sheet, shit.

Shit can be used to mean stuff or things. I have  a lot of shit to do today. That means I’m busy.  

I have some meetings, I have to get an oil  change for my car. Or, I’m going on a trip, I  

leave tomorrow, and I still have a lot of shit to  pack. A lot of stuff, a lot of things to pack. Or,  

let’s say your roommate was using your laptop when  you weren’t around. You might say, please don’t  

touch my shit without asking. We definitely don’t  mean your poop. We mean stuff, things. It can be  

used to refer to anything you’re talking about.  In the example they’re talking about songs, music.

He makes shit sound good

So shit: stuff, things. But it can also mean  problems. Mandy broke up with Dave because she  

didn’t want to deal with his shit anymore.  He needs to get his shit together. To get  

your shit together means to do life well.  Have a steady job. Have a place to live.

So even some adults, maybe I would even say  many adults, don’t have their shit together.

It would be nice if everyone  had their shit together.

If you don’t have your shit together,  then your life might be a shitshow or  

a shitstorm. I’m going to take this opportunity  to point out one more thing about pronunciation.  

If the sound after the ending T of shit is a  consonant, then we make that a stop T. Shit-show,  

shit-show. That little break in sound is the  T. We don’t ttttt actually make a T sound,  

but the stop is important. Shitshow, shitshow,  shitshow. Or shitstorm. What do these things mean?  

Let’s say you booked a hotel for the weekend,  you showed up, they overbooked and didn’t have  

the room you reserved. They offered you something  else but the air conditioner was broken and it’s  

really hot out. Also, you needed to get dinner  from room service but there was a 90-minute wait.  

You’re telling a friend about this experience,  all these things that went wrong, and you say,  

it was a total shit show. You know what  can be a total shit show? High school.

Shitshow and shitstorm have the same  meaning. Many things going wrong.

Sometimes life is a shitshow because someone  shit the bed. Like your reservation at the  

hotel that got messed up. Let’s say the  person booking you didn’t hit ‘save’.  

That person shit the bed. You shit the bed when  you don’t do something you were supposed to do,  

or you mess something up. Let’s say you’re giving  a presentation with a coworker and he was totally  

unprepared with his part of the presentation.  He really shit the bed. Because of him the  

presentation was a shit show. Also, another  coworker gave this client the wrong quote, so the  

whole situation was a complete shit storm.

So if you shit the bed, you should probably  

apologize. Because you made the shit hit the  fan. That’s the breaking point of a situation.  

When the shit hits the fan is when things  get out of control. The night was going  

okay until her ex walked into the party with a new  girlfriend. Then the shit really hit the fan.

To have someone’s back means to help someone, to  stand by someone in a difficult situation or if  

they are threatened. So, when the shit hits the  fan, will you have my back?

But maybe you shit the bed because you don’t  give a shit. That means you don’t care.  

This project failed because  you don’t give a shit about it.

“Oooo, your dad’s not going to like this.”

“I don’t give a shit what my  dad thinks. I just don’t care.”

Now, give a shit vs. take a shit.

I give a shit, this means I care. I take a shit,  this means, well this one does actually mean I’m  

pooping. I take a shit. But take shit is different  than take a shit. Taking shit is if you allow  

people to treat you badly. I take shit at  work all day long, no one respects me.

If someone is full of shit, that means  

they’re lying. They don’t know what they’re  talking about. What they’re saying is  

inaccurate. “He said he didn’t cheat on me, but  I know he’s full of shit”. I know he’s lying.

Know when someone else is full of shit. Know  when they don’t know what they’re talking about.

We also say “That’s a crock of shit” That means,  I think that’s a lie and I don’t believe you.  

A crock is a pot or a jar. We actually don’t use this word in everyday English, and yet we use it  

in this phrase. We don’t say, that’s a jar of  shit or that's a pot of shit, we say, "That’s a crock of  

shit." Sometimes we shorten it and we just say,  “That’s a crock.” Bullshit is another thing  

that we can use to say we don’t believe  what someone is saying. “You left the house  

without doing the dishes.” “Oh, I forgot.” “That’s  bullshit, you just didn’t feel like doing them.”

This one can also be shortened to just “bull”.

Now, a crock of shit. I said a crock is a pot.  And this reminds me of an idiom ‘shit or get off  

the pot’ This refers to. It's a little gross, but  it refers to being on the toilet waiting to take  

a shit and what it means idiomatically  is make up your mind and do something.  

Some action, that you’ve been talking about or  working towards for a while. Let’s say your friend  

has been complaining about his job for years, and  saying he’s going to quit. You get tired of hearing this. At some point you

say,  "Shit or get off the pot." Either quit and move on,  or stay at your job and quit complaining about it.

If you think someone is lying, or you don’t  like them, then you might talk shit about them.  

To talk shit about someone just means to say mean things about them. You can even talk shit about yourself.

But that’s not very good for self-esteem.

You might have low self-esteem if you think

If you think something is  shit, you think it’s no good.  

The battery life on my cell phone  is shit. It only lasts an hour.

Now, what happens when you lose your shit? Does  that mean you’ve lost your stuff, your things?  

No. it means you went crazy, you were so  upset. Maybe you yelled, lost your temper.  

When my son keeps coming out of the room at  bedtime, when he’s supposed to be falling asleep,  

sometimes, I lose my shit. So it can mean  really angry, but also, just really excited.  

“When I found out my son got  into college, I lost my shit!”

He lost his shit because he was so excited.

To lose your shit in anger, this is  similar to a shitfit, to erupt in anger.  

“My mom is going to have a shit fit when she finds out I failed Math. I’m going to be in deep shit.”

To be in deep shit means to be  

really in trouble. John got in some deep shit.  He stole from work and they found out.

You know there are still so many phrases  with ‘shit’. There’s a shit ton. A shit  

load of phrases. These both mean a lot. But I’m  going to wrap up with one more, this is an idiom.

Things have not gone well and you’re in a bad  situation. You’re up shit creek. The full idiom  

is up shit creek without a paddle, but it’s often  shortened to up shit creek. A creek is a little  

stream, and a paddle is what you might use in a  boat to move along. If you don’t have a paddle,  

well, it’s kind of hard to see how  you’re going to get out of bad situation.

We overstaffed the event and now we’re up shit  creek. We’re probably going to lose money.

Thank you for giving a shit. For  watching this video. You know what?  

You’re the shit. If you’re “the shit” that means  you’re great. And I really think you’re the shit.  

You know what else is the shit? This  comedic routine by a guy named Ismo,  

who is not a native speaker of English, as he goes  over some of the things, he worked out about how  

Americans use the word "shit". It’s priceless, so  funny, you can find it on YouTube, check it out.

Keep your learning going now with this video.  I make lessons on the English language every  

week and I’d love to have you learning with me.  Don’t forget to subscribe with notifications.  

That’s it and thanks so much  for using Rachel’s English.