Party Animal or Party Pooper? 46 Words and Phrases for Celebrations

What's up everyone I'm Andrea, your real life  English fluency coach and in today's lesson we'll

be learning vocabulary and expressions related  to celebrations and parties and we are learning

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so this lesson will be broken down in three  parts first different types of celebrations

second common collocations and mistakes  and lastly fun expressions for parties

so to start off with we are going to look at  some different words for celebration and also

the different types of celebrations that you can  have so usually people call a celebration a party

so this is probably the one that you will hear the  most and we are going to look at this a little bit

more in depth later on you might also use the word  bash so lots of people will say we are having a

bash or this is another way of describing a type  of celebration you could also have the word do so

some people might say oh we're having a do for our  anniversary party for example so this one is also

quite common amongst natives so if you do hear it  don't be too confused by it another word used for

celebrations that's also quite interesting is the  word shindu so some people might say oh I went to

this shindig at the weekend it was really fun it  was really cool and you might be like what are you

talking about what on earth is a shindig but it  does actually just mean a party or a celebration

you might also call a celebration a get-together  because often when this happens lots of people

get together lots of people come together for a  celebration also you might sometimes be invited to

a farewell party so it can be called this way but  it might also be called a send-off so some people

have a celebration to have a big old send-off so  maybe someone is moving to a new country maybe

someone in your workplace has a new job so you  would have a party to send them off in a great way

sometimes you might also want to have or be  invited to a housewarming so this is typical

when someone moves into a new home once they  are settled they will then have a housewarming

so they will invite their closest friends or  family to warm up their house to have a little

party to celebrate their new place also if you  want to raise money for charity or have some

sort of fundraiser this is another celebration or  party so you might throw a fundraiser you might

organize a fundraiser and you could attend one as  well you could just simply call it a gathering so

usually when there's a celebration lots of people  gather together a little bit like come together

they gather together they come for this one  celebration this one particular party and if

you're lucky enough you might even get invited to  a ball so a ball is a very formal occasion where

you would wear a ball gown and men would probably  wear a tuxedo or a very nice suit and it will be

probably in a very grand location very beautiful  place and it will be a very formal kind of party

and finally the last word we're going to have a  look at here is reunion so you can have a reunion

party maybe it's with your college or university  friends maybe you have a high school reunion

or maybe just a reunion of friends that haven't  seen each other for a really long time and you

could also have a family reunion sometimes what  happens now in the world that we live in people

move around all over the world so then there  must be a time where people can come together

and have a family reunion have a big old party  to celebrate and enjoy spending time together

so now we're just going to briefly look at some  verbs that we would use here as well because this

is an area that learners sometimes find difficult  and often make mistakes with so the most common

one here is to celebrate okay so when you have  a celebration or a party you are celebrating

a particular event or milestone something very  special and important in your life or a friend

or family member's life so usually when we have  a party so that's another verb we can use here

we would say I'm having a party we tend to  say I'm throwing a party so this is very

common as well to use we would say I'm throwing  a party or would you help me throw a party this

is a very common verb to use here one mistake  that learners tend to make is to use the word

make a party so this is very common I guess  because people tend to translate the word in their

head from their native language but in english we  do not say we are going to make a party we would

say we are going to have a party or we are going  to throw a party and you might even say that you

are going to host a party so these are the verbs  that we tend to use with celebrations and parties

so next we're going to look at some phrases that  we tend to use with celebrations and these can

be quite funny they are quite interesting and  they are ones that natives use so one that we

could start with is have the time of your life  so if you attend a party that is really amazing

you could have the time of your life meaning that  you are having a great time you are having the

best time there is no better time than you have  had than at this party we often tend to say also

that we are going to let our hair down so if you  go to a party you're going to let your hair down

it means that you're going to completely relax  and enjoy yourself you're not going to think about

anything else you're not going to think about your  work you're not going to think about what happened

that day you're going to completely let your hair  down let loose and enjoy the event you might also

hear native say that they are going to have a  night out on the town so this is a phrase that we

use a lot in britain and I'm sure they use it in  america as well but we would say if we are going

out with friends we are having a night out on the  town we are going to even paint the town red as

well is quite an interesting phrase that natives  use meaning that they are going to have an amazing

time they are not going to have a caring the world  and they are going to go out and enjoy themselves

when you're at a party you might also hear someone  say I'm having a ball you might even say to them

oh are you enjoying yourself and they might say  to you I'm having a ball and by that they mean

that they are really enjoying themselves they  are having a whale of a time which is another

phrase that natives tend to use as well and all  of these mean that people are having a good time

at a party they are really enjoying themselves  today we are learning all about celebration

expressions because over on our other youtube  channel learn english with tv we are celebrating

3 million subscribers so I highly recommend that  you head on over there to join the celebration

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okay so now we are going to take a bit of a deeper  look and focus more on parties and in particular

words or expressions short phrases that have the  word party in them and are related to parties or

celebrations so the first one that we're going  to look at is party animal do you know what a

party animal is maybe you are one yourself so  a party animal is usually an outgoing person

someone that really enjoys going to parties  however maybe you might be the opposite maybe

you're a bit of a party pooper have you heard  this term before it's really quite a funny one

but what it means is someone that's a party pooper  is someone that maybe is a bit negative in a

party or a social event and they might ruin the  fun a little bit to take that phrase even further

some people might be a wet blanket so usually this  phrase is used to describe someone who is maybe a

bit gloomy who kind of spoils the fun for everyone  by being a bit negative so maybe if you're out

with your friends and someone is being negative  about the situation or not enjoying themselves

and trying to spoil the fun for everyone you  might say to them stop being a wet blanket

and a bit similar to a party animal someone  that is the life and soul of the party

really is that someone that enjoys parties enjoys  socializing and really gets around and is quite

funny and just someone that you remember at a  party that is the life and soul of the party

some other words and phrases related to parties  some people might even gate crash a party

have you heard this term before so you might know  the film the wedding crashes with vince vaughn and

owen wilson and what they tend to do is crash  weddings and in the uk we use this term a gate

crasher I think they do in america as well but  if you particularly gate crash weddings then you

might be called a wedding crusher but you could  gate crush any party and what that means is that

you're not actually invited to that party so it's  kind of like imagining someone crushing the gates

they wouldn't literally do it but they  find a way to somehow sneak into the party

and enjoy themselves as well so if a party is  in full swing it means that it's really getting

going lots of people are there now everyone is  dancing and enjoying themselves so it's probably

been going on for a little while already and  now it's really getting going the party is in

full swing everyone's enjoying themselves there's  lots of people there now if you break up the party

or the party breaks up it's another way of  describing that it has ended maybe it ended

naturally maybe people started to slowly go home  or maybe there was an incident there and maybe the

authorities have come in to break up the party and  it has suddenly ended it's important to also know

that you can have a fancy dress party so in the uk  this is what we would call it a fancy dress party

but in america they would say it's a costume party  so this is where you dress up usually people have

these kinds of parties for halloween especially  so you would choose a particular character to

attend as so you would dress up as that person  or as that character to attend a fancy dress or a

costume party some other parties as well in the uk  we would have a hen party and a stag party or sad

do we would say so that's an area where you can  use the word do and what this is is usually before

a couple get married they have a party they have a  night out with their friends so maybe a night out

on the town and hens are the female so it's the  female party you'd have a hen party if you're the

woman and the men would go on a stag party and in  america they would call this a bachelor party and

a bachelorette party another word or another way  to describe a party that's also interesting and

good to note here is more of an american one so  they tend to use the word shower so when you think

of the word shower you probably think when you  go and have a wash maybe you've been at the gym

or maybe you like to have your shower in the  morning or sometimes we talk about this when

we refer to a rain shower if it's raining quite  lightly and it sort of comes and goes very quickly

we might use this word however in america  they tend to say bridal shower and baby shower

so these kinds of parties are typical before a  wedding so although you might have a hen party

or a bachelorette party they tend to also throw  a bridal shower and also before someone has a

baby so when a woman is pregnant they will throw  a baby shower for that person as well which is

a party where people will come along and you know  usually have some sort of finger foods and drinks

and you would bring that person some gifts you  would give them some presents so this is another

interesting word for party as well and finally  some other things that people might say at a party

is first of all they might say I'm a bit late  to the party and while this can be literal you

might actually be late to a party this is an  expression that's used outside of parties and

celebrations as well so if you're with friends and  you're finding out some information a little bit

later than everyone else you might say oh I'm late  to the party it seems that I'm late to the party

because you weren't aware of this information  and you're kind of like the last one finding

out this information and finally we have the  expression party as if there's no tomorrow

so this literally means imagine that the world  didn't exist tomorrow or we weren't on this planet

tonight you are going to party as if there's no  tomorrow so thinking of all the expressions that

we've previously looked at in this lesson those  would apply here where you are going to paint the

town red where you're going to let your hair down  and when you're really going to enjoy yourself

so in this lesson we've really looked at some  expressions that natives use some real life

expressions and if you haven't already  checked it out I highly recommend this

lesson that ethan did on school english versus  real life english so if you haven't already

watched that you can click up here or down in  the description box below to check that out next

so I hope you enjoyed today's lesson and if you  did make sure you give us a thumbs up so that we

know that you want more content like this and  you can start using some of these expressions

if you are arranging a party or if you are  watching tv and movies you can now understand

these types of expressions for celebrations  and parties a lot better and I will see you

guys in the next lesson so take care neither  will actually speak like my friend street stan

yeah man I'd say like gotta wanna gonna have  to so maybe you already know about those ones

so let's look at a couple more examples that  might be a bit more surprising for you turn

to page 20. turn to page 20. he's traveling to  new york he's traveling to new york I need to go