Describing Trends in English | Idioms and Slang

When was the last time you heard someone describe something as the bee's

knees or when you heard someone brushed off a topic as passe?

You're probably looking at me right now thinking, uh, Annemarie,

what are you talking about? And you would be right to wonder.

When my students talk about the latest podcast or the coolest

Netflix series happening right now,

I typically hear the words it's so popular and that phrase

certainly works. But when we're talking about trends,

there's a whole world of fun idiomatic language and slang we

can use.

Plus just like fashion or culture or the latest Netflix series,

language also goes through trends.

A phrase that was popular in the past to describe something that was

particularly cool or a trend that was popular may be outdated now.

For example, to use the expression, the bee's knees,

no one really uses that anymore.

If you don't already know I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident, English.

Everything I do here is designed to help you get the confidence you want for

your life and work in English. In this lesson today,

we're going to have a lot of fun with language we use for describing trends.

What's cool right now and what isn't cool anymore.

By the end of this lesson today,

you'll be able to confidently express what's trending right now.

And what's out of date using the same expressions English speakers

use in conversations on podcasts and on TV shows as well.

For today's lesson, I've divided up the phrases into four different categories,

hot like fire, cool like water, a trend, like a trend.

And eye-roll worthy.

[Inaudible].

First on our list is hot like fire.

English speakers seem to love expressions that are rooted in nature.

And quite often,

popularity is associated with the characteristics of fire. For example,

imagine you're at a restaurant and you hear a popular song come on.

You might say to your friend, oh, I love this song. It's so hot right now.

When we describe something as being so hot right now we're expressing that it's

particularly trendy or it's something that everyone loves right now.

Here's another example. Learning to bake bread at home is so hot right now.

In other words, everyone's doing it. In sticking with this idea of fire,

currently English speakers may also describe someone or

something as fire, using it as an adjective rather than a noun.

Now,

this is very much in the slang category of language and is best

used in casual situations.

I also have to admit that as individuals get older,

they're less likely to use slang that is common among teenagers and young

adults. In full disclosure, this is not a word that I use.

And I actually asked my 15 year old niece about it,

but you might hear it. So I want you to know why you're hearing it,

why people use it. And if you're comfortable with it, you could use it as well.

So, as I said,

you might hear individuals describe someone or something as

fire. For example,

your outfit is fire or the new Mac book pro is fire.

This is an alternative way to say that something is so hot right now,

or it's really cool. And while we're on the topic of fire,

let's go over one more great expression to know,

to spread like wildfire.

When a trend experiences, rapid growth and popularity.

We say that it's spreading like wildfire. For example,

imagine one of your coworkers is talking about an app that everyone's using

right now. And in the conversation your coworker might say,

I can't believe how popular this app is. It's spreading like wildfire.

And with that,

let's move on to our second set of expressions under the category of cool like

water. Sometimes we catch trends right,

as they start. And when talking about it,

we may want to express that a particular new trend is creating a lot of buzz or

excitement, which means that everyone's talking about it.

But it's just at the beginning phase when something is generating a

lot of excitement and growing rapidly,

we can say that it's making waves. Here's an example.

Think back to a book series that you love and you were waiting, waiting,

waiting for the author to release the next book in the series.

You knew that it was coming out and there were already some reviews about it.

In a conversation,

you might say the author hasn't even released the book

yet, but it's already making waves.

We can also use this expression of making waves when we're talking

about the ongoing ripple effects of a trend.

A ripple effect is the ongoing result of an action. For example,

if a company like Facebook makes a new policy,

it's going to have additional consequences or results for other industries and

companies as well.

There are ripple effects in a conversation on that topic. Again,

you might hear the word making waves. Let me give you an example.

The updates to Google's privacy policy is making waves across

Silicon valley.

We have one more water themed expression we can use when a trend makes

a particularly large impact.

We can say that it's made a splash.

When something makes a splash,

not only does mean that it had a large impact,

but it also has the feeling that that impact was unexpected.

For example,

the newest and youngest player is making a splash in this year's

NBA tournaments.

Typically we don't expect the youngest newest player of a professional

basketball team to have the biggest impact.

So making a splash is a great expression to use here.

It expresses that this individual is trending.

Everyone's talking about this individual and the impact they've

had was significant and unexpected.

And now category number three, a trend like a trend. Of course,

when we want to say that something is popular,

we can be explicit and simple by simply saying that it's

trending right now or that it's on trend. For example,

Olivia Rodrigo's song is trending worldwide,

or it's on trend right now to paint your home in earthy colors.

I'm curious if there's something where you live that is particularly on trend at

the moment. It might be someone's comments on Twitter.

It might be how you style your home or something happening in the workplace.

I want you to take a moment and think about what is on trend or what's

trending where you live right now.

Try using it in a sentence and share it with me in an example, below.

And now let's finish with our final category. Eye-roll worthy.

This last set of expressions is perfect when something is no

longer on trend,

it has become outdated when something is no longer cool.

We might say that it specifically belongs to a bygone era and we

start that with: That's so... That's so 2020.

That's so early two thousands. That's so 1980s.

For example,

I remember when I was a kid in the 1980s and faded wash

jeans were so popular. Everyone had them.

And now when I see them, I think, oh my gosh,

I would never wear those it's so 1980s,.similarly,

if we've moved on from a trend, everybody knows it's popular.

Everybody knows that people have been talking about it and maybe you're

starting to feel a bit tired of it.

You could say that's so old news that's.

So yesterday or even that's ancient news,

everybody already knows about it. That's ancient news. Here's an example.

The 2016 election is yesterday's news.

We've got to move on and talk about the current events. And finally,

if we really want to express our exasperations and the fact

that we are completely tired of talking about something,

that was a,

then we can say I'm so over that or I'm so over it,

I'm so done with that, for example,

I'm so over reading about feuds among the Royal family,

or I'm so done with hearing about zoom fatigue on every

podcast right now, and with that,

you have a plethora of ways to talk about what's trending and what's

not in English.

And all of these are wonderful alternatives to saying that's so popular right

now to finish. I want to challenge you with a couple of questions.

I've already asked you to share with me an example,

sentence of something that is trending, where you live right now.

And now I've got two more questions for you. Number one,

what are you so over right now? Or what are you so done with right now?

What are you tired of talking about? And number two,

is there something that is making a splash where you live right now?

Maybe it's something happening at work, something on Twitter or in the news.

Again, I want you to tell me about it in an example, sentence,

using the expression to make a splash or making a splash

as always, if you found this lesson helpful to you, I would love to know.

And you can tell me in one very simple way,

give this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube and subscribe to the Speak

Confident English channel.

So you never miss one of my Confident English lessons.

Thank you so much for joining me. And I look forward to seeing you next time.