Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1159.
Describing the fit of clothing.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1159.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Vera and Wang about how we describe the way clothing fits, how it looks and feels on you.
Let's get started.
How do these pants look on me?
Aren't they a little too tight?
They look like they're cutting off circulation in your legs.
They're a little snug, but they show off my curves, don't they?
I suggest going up a size.
Something a little less form-fitting would be a lot more comfortable.
Here, try these pants.
They're looser and offer more room.
But you can move in them without busting a seam.
Spoken like a true slave to fashion.
Vera asks her friend Wang, how do these pants look on me?
Vera wants to know how a pair of pants look on her meaning.
Do they look good, do they make her look fat, and so on.
Wang says, aren't they a little too tight?
If we say a pair of pants or a shirt is tight, T-I-G-H-T, we mean it's a little too small for you.
It fits against your skin so much so that it looks small on you.
Wang says they look like they're cutting off circulation in your legs.
Wang is telling Vera that the pants she has on look like they're cutting off circulation in her legs.
To cut off circulation means not to allow blood to flow or go freely into a certain part of your body.
Wang is saying that these pants are so tight on Vera's legs that the blood isn't able to go there correctly.
He probably doesn't mean that literally, but he's trying to emphasize to Vera that they're too small for her.
Vera doesn't agree exactly.
She says, they're a little snug, but they show off my curves, don't they?
If something is snug, S-N-U-G, it's a little too small.
Perhaps not so small that you can't wear it, but a little tight.
Vera recognizes that the pants are a little small for her, but she says they're just a little snug.
However, she likes them because they show off her curves.
To show something off is a two word phrasal verb meaning to reveal, to let other people see easily.
Your curves.
C-U-R-V-E-S are, in this case, the parts of one's body, especially a woman's body, that seem to go out from the straight line of a body.
So basically, a woman's rear end, her butt, and her breasts.
Those would be her curves.
Vera wants to show off her curves to let other people see them more easily.
Wang says, To go up a size S-I-Z-E means to use or try a piece of clothing that is a little bigger, that is one size bigger.
In the united states, as in most countries, clothing is given a number.
That number is related to how big a piece of clothing is.
This can be very confusing, because different countries use different numbering systems for shoes, for pants, for shirts and so forth.
That's why, if you're going to a different country and you want to buy some clothes, it's usually a good idea to try them on first.
To try a piece of clothing on means to put it on your body and see if you like it.
Wang suggests that Vera go up a size in the pants, meaning she try a pair of pants that is a little bigger.
He says something a little less form-fitting would be a lot more comfortable.
Something that is form-fitting is something that is a little snug, perhaps even a little tight on someone, that fits against his or her skin with very little extra room in between the piece of clothing and the skin.
Vera says.
The phrasal verb to go for something says Here means to try to have or do something to have a particular goal or intention.
If someone says, I'm going for comfort, he means that's what he wants from this piece of clothing.
He wants it to be comfortable.
Vera isn't going for comfort.
She's going for style.
That is, she wants the piece of clothing to look good on her.
Wang says, here, try these pants.
They're looser and offer more room.
For a pair of pants to be looser.
L-O-O-S-E-R means that it is a little bigger and not as tight as something else.
It has more room, that is to say between the actual cloth or fabric of the pair of pants and your skin.
Wang says that these pants he is asking Vera to try on offer more room.
Room here means space.
A piece of clothing that offers more room means you can move around in it more easily.
Vera says these don't show my shape at all.
Vera is concerned that the pair of pants Wang suggests to her won't let people see the shape of her body, and that's what she wants in order to be stylish.
She says they're not in the least flattering.
Something that is flattering.
F-L-A-T-T-E-R-I-N-G is something that makes one appear more beautiful or more attractive.
The verb to flatter means to say something to someone in order for that person to like you to say something complimentary about him or her, to say something nice about him or her.
If you say to a woman...
You look very beautiful today.
You perhaps are trying to flatter her.
You're trying to say something nice to her so that she will think that you are nice or that you like her.
Perhaps
Flattering can be used to describe a piece of clothing that looks good on someone, that makes that person look more attractive or more beautiful.
So you can see the connection between the verb to flatter and the adjective flattering.
Vera says that the pair of pants that Wang gave her are not in the least flattering, or are not flattering in the least.
When we say something is not flattering in the least or not in the least of anything, we mean not at all, not even a little bit.
If someone says, are you hungry?
And you say I'm not hungry in the least, or I'm not in the least hungry, you mean that you aren't even a little bit hungry.
You are completely without hunger.
If you are asked, are you concerned that your son isn't doing well in school?
You might say oh, I'm not in the least concerned about my son.
Actually, you probably wouldn't say that.
You would be concerned about your son if he isn't doing well in school, or your daughter.
But to be not in the least something means that you don't have that quality, even in a small amount.
Am I worried that the Dodgers are not going to win the world championship of baseball, what we call the World Series which, of course, is not the world championship but the championship of the US?
I would say no, I'm not in the least worried.
I know that they are going to win the World Series this year.
Depending on when you listen to this episode, you may see that I was right or wrong.
Back to our story.
Vera says that the pair of pants are not in the least flattering.
Wang says, but you can move in them without busting a seam.
To bust B-U-S-T means to break something open.
A seam, S-E-A-M, is where two parts of a piece of clothing come together.
A seam is usually sewn S-E-W-N with a machine nowadays, although in the old days it was done by hand.
You would attach two pieces of fabric, two pieces of material together in order to make a piece of clothing.
The line where those two pieces of material come together is called the seam.
To bust a seam would mean basically to wear a piece of clothing that is so small that if you moved in it you would rip it or bust the seam.
There's another expression to be bursting at the seams.
To be bursting at the seams means that you are so excited about something that you can barely contain yourself that you are really excited.
I'm bursting at the seams to tell you some news that I have, some good news.
But here...
Wang is using the expression busting a seam to mean that the clothing is so tight on Vera that she won't be able to move in it without basically ripping the clothing, making the seams come apart.
Vera says you're missing the point, meaning you don't understand why I'm buying these pants.
The expression no matter, M-A-T-T-E-R, what, means regardless of what might happen.
Even if the consequences are bad, I still want to do this.
I want to go to the opera tonight no matter what.
Even if I have to pay...
$1,000, even if I have to walk to the Disney concert hall in downtown Los Angeles.
I want to go no matter what.
When someone says they want to do something, no matter what he or she means, it doesn't matter what the consequences will be, what the bad effects might be.
He or she wants to do this thing.
Wang says, spoken like a true slave to fashion.
The phrase spoken like is used to usually make fun of someone or to characterize someone's personality or attitude.
It's used to say that this person is typical of a certain kind of person.
Let me give you another example.
If I say to you, I need to go to the grocery store.
It's only two blocks away, but I'm going to drive in my car.
I'm not going to walk.
You might say to me, spoken like a true resident of Los Angeles.
An Angeleno, we call ourselves.
Spoken like a true Angeleno.
That means...
That's exactly the way.
Someone from Los Angeles thinks that even if I have to go two blocks, I'm going to use my car rather than walk there.
Now, this isn't exactly true for me.
I would walk to a store two blocks away.
Three blocks?
Eh, I would probably drive.
It's embarrassing, but I will tell you a story.
There's a big shopping center about a mile from my house.
And on one end of the center is a grocery store.
And on the other end of the center is a pharmacy, a drug store.
And the two stores are about maybe a block from each other.
Once, when I was feeling really lazy...
I drove to the grocery store, parked in front of the grocery store, got my food, got into my car, drove to the other end of the parking lot, walked in the pharmacy, bought my drugs and came out.
Instead of walking down to the pharmacy buying my drugs and then walking back to my car parked in front of the grocery store, I drove between the two stores.
Now, that's a terrible thing to do, really.
But that's what people do in Los Angeles.
And I am a terrible person.
I keep telling you that.
You don't believe me.
Now you know it's true.
Anyway, let's finish our story here.
Wang says to Vera...
Spoken like a true slave to fashion.
The expression a slave S-L-A-V-E to fashion F-A-S-H-I-O-N refers to a person who is always concerned that what he or she is wearing is the latest look, the latest clothing, the most current fashion, what everyone else is wearing nowadays.
That would be someone who is a slave to fashion.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
How do these pants look on me?
Aren't they a little too tight?
They look like they're cutting off circulation in your legs.
They're a little snug, but they show off my curves, don't they?
I suggest going up a size.
Something a little less form-fitting would be a lot more comfortable.
I'm not going for comfort.
I'm going for style.
These don't show my shape at all.
They're not in the least flattering.
You're missing the point.
I want to look good in these pants no matter what.
Spoken like a true slave to fashion.
For the most fashionable English, we rely, of course, on our wonderful script writer, Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
