This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1912.
Is it ironic?
How to comment on irony in English.
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What exactly is irony?
How can you identify these situations and comment on them to build the connection with native speakers?
Get everything you need to know in this episode.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Hey, Michelle, I am doing great.
How are you?
What's going on today?
I'm good.
I just feel like I need new silverware because I don't know what happened.
I don't know if things are going missing, but I feel like I have like 10000 spoons when all I need is a knife.
That sounds like someone's line.
Whose line is that?
I think it's Man, I love that song.
I love it.
I love that song.
Something about it.
It's just fun to sing along to.
Yeah.
Guys, we're talking about the song Ironic.
This is a song from, I don't know, 1990 something.
And like that was a great song.
It had a great.
Remember the music video?
Oh, yeah.
Yes.
Yes.
I remember it.
She's like in the car and she's like all different people.
And like, yeah, guys, Alanis Morissette, Ironic.
That's like a huge, huge song.
So actually, I should have mentioned this to you earlier.
So one year for Halloween.
You were Alanis Morissette?
My friend.
No, but my friend and I, we were just trying to think of like a really easy Halloween costume.
And we both dressed in all black.
And I just like... I forget if I was the spoons or she was the knife.
Or if I was the knife.
But I think...
So like we like taped a sash of just like a ton of plastic spoons to me.
And then my friend, or it may have been reversed, had just like one plastic knife.
And so we were just like walking around with spoons and a knife on our...
I love it.
I love it.
And it's true.
It is ironic.
You have all these things, all these spoons, but when you need a knife, you need a knife.
Spoons don't really fit the bill, right?
They don't really do what you need it to do to cut something.
So that's, that's somewhat ironic, right?
Yeah.
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
So, yeah, we're going to talk about some stuff that's ironic today.
But before we do guys, remember to hit follow on the All Ears English podcast, because you never want to miss an episode.
Oh, yes.
Do not miss All Ears English, guys, four days a week.
So Michelle, we have a question to inspire today's episode from one of our awesome listeners from Mauritania.
Can I go ahead and read the question?
Go for it.
Here we go.
Hello, guys.
My name is Amdi Baka from Mauritania.
It's an Arabian country.
You probably have heard this name for the first time because it's not comical.
Okay.
I'm not sure exactly what you meant by that, but that's okay.
We'll keep going here.
I have a question.
I always hear this word a lot.
Life is ironic or oh my God, that's ironic.
I don't know what it means.
Can you explain in a native way?
I'm elated and stoked to see its meaning.
Nice.
Nice.
Oh, I love it.
I think this listener is picking up on some of our vocabulary from our different podcasts.
I love that.
Fantastic.
I love it too.
Well, thank you for that question.
That is a good question.
And this is going to be a fun one.
So Yeah guys, we've done a couple episodes where we've mentioned something being ironic, or the word irony.
So one is 1796 is it's a sign astrology stop signs and signatures.
And what's the other one, Lindsay?
880 is six ways to be funny in English.
So guys, go check that out.
If you're on the website, you could get that on the website or you could get that in the iOS or Android app.
Just type in those numbers absolutely, guys.
So the dictionary says to identify something that's ironic.
It's something that's happening in the opposite way to what is expected and typically causing wry amusement because of this.
So it's kind of like So before the episode guys, Lindsay and I were talking about you know the word ironic.
And it's one of those things where it's hard to think of an example of it.
But it's one of those things that when it happens it's like kind of it's almost kind of a cool feeling.
It's like, oh, it's ironic, right?
Do you feel that?
Right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's weird.
It's more than just something that's strange or coincidental.
It's more than coincidental, I think.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's ironic.
It's again, like you said, it's easier to identify when it actually happens.
We know when we're in that sweet spot of irony.
Right, right, right.
It just happens.
It's kind of amusing when it happens.
So yeah, it's basically like something's kind of strange in some sort of coincidental way.
So I mean, like here, I tried to come up with a couple examples.
So like, one is and you tell me, well, first of all, let's talk about it.
The ironic song, haven't you heard people kind of analyze it and they're like it's not actually ironic.
It's just bad luck.
Yeah, kind of.
I know.
Sometimes I wonder about the rain on the wedding day thing.
Right.
That's not ironic.
That's just, that just kind of stinks.
Yeah unless like, it had been mentioned somehow in some other way before that and there was more to the story.
I think that's just kind of not quite irony.
Yeah.
Right.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So that is kind of interesting.
So let's try and find some examples and talk about if it's ironic.
So it's ironic that Billy became a doctor because he has always been afraid of blood.
Yeah.
I think that's closer to irony than rain on your wedding day.
Right.
Because some people say that rain on your wedding day is good luck.
Right.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
That's true.
Yeah.
Or what's another one?
It was ironic that the fitness coaches ran into each other at a donut festival.
Yeah, that's just funny.
I love that.
I would go to a donut festival.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, that sounds like fun.
There was a Bloody Mary festival in town last weekend and I missed it.
I was so annoyed.
I don't like Bloody Marys.
What?
I know.
It's one of those things where I, well.
Michelle.
Now that I'm talking about it, do you ever have something where you think that you don't like it, but you're always like well, maybe I would like it if I tried it again?
And do you like that's one of those where I'll like try it again.
And then I'm like, wait, maybe I will.
Like, I want to give it a chance.
And then I'm like, nah.
Yeah.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
I take the donut festival over a Bloody Mary festival any day.
But you should try it again.
You should try it again.
I'll try it again.
I will.
I will.
So, yeah, it's ironic because I mean, OK, so, Lindsay, why is that ironic?
So typically fitness coaches, you wouldn't be likely to find them at a donut festival, right?
Because usually they're talking about the importance of nutrition and health and probably not eating sugar, but they were both there.
So that's just kind of funny.
Right.
Unexpected.
Unexpected.
It's unexpected.
It's like a little twist.
It's just kind of like, oh, that's funny.
Like that kind of a feeling.
So guys, so, you know, we have ironic is the adjective and then we have irony is the noun.
So there are like lots of different types of irony and a lot of like.
When we talk about irony, I feel like we're also talking about like things like in plays, in books.
You know where you're looking for examples of the irony.
Like in high school, I feel like you had to find that.
Yes.
Like when we read Shakespeare or any any literature, you always.
Yeah.
Right.
All those assignments were always tricky.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So there's always some sort of irony, different types of it.
And we could get more into it another time.
But it's kind of a lot of literature.
But yeah.
Okay.
So when we talk about it, let's break it down to the different parts of speech that our listeners need.
Right, Michelle?
So in the adjective form, how do we talk about this word?
Right.
So you would say like, wow, that's ironic.
So just ironic.
And then as a noun, it's we know it's.
Right.
Like irony.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Love it.
OK.
All right, Michelle.
So then how can we use ironic and irony in sentences?
What do you think?
Right.
So for ironic, you might just say like, Oh, wow, that's ironic.
Like, or how ironic you might say something like that.
If, like Lindsay like, let's say Lindsay we are the fitness coaches and we're at the donut festival, we run into each other.
I might make a joke and say like, oh, Lindsay, like, look, oh, it's so funny running into you here.
How ironic.
Yeah, I love that.
And that would be a joke.
Like that would be something that would make you laugh.
That's kind of funny.
Exactly.
Or here's another example.
There's definitely some irony there.
Right.
So in that case, we're using the noun form.
Mm hmm.
Or you might hear somebody say, I can see the irony there.
Mm hmm.
Right.
So like if we're at the festival and I said, oh like wow, look at us running into each other at this donut festival.
Like how ironic you might respond and you might say something like oh yeah, I can see the irony there, Michelle.
Right.
That's a good way to support the speaker.
We've done lots of episodes guys, on how to support if someone's telling a story or saying something funny.
You can say I can see the X there.
I can see the humor there.
I can see the irony there.
I can see the shock there.
Right.
These are good skills to have guys.
Really good stuff.
Right right, right right, or another way to use it is, instead of ironic or irony, you could say ironically, blank right, so you could start off the sentence.
You could say ironically i hate wine but wound up on a whole wine tour in california.
Yeah, that's another good example, i love it.
I love it so good, Yeah.
You like wine, right?
Yeah, sure.
I know you're more of a beer drinker.
No, no.
My trip to Argentina, we were definitely going to be going to some wineries because it's famous.
Mendoza is famous for Malbec wine.
So is Chile.
That's my favorite wine.
Yeah.
That's pretty much what they have as far as I know in Mendoza.
So that's where we're going to be is mostly at the wineries.
Yeah.
So you like red wine more or white wine?
I like both, Michelle.
I like both.
It just depends on the type of white or red.
And it depends on what I'm eating, the weather, my mood, what I feel like nighttime daytime, a lot of different things that you know that I decide based on.
So, yes.
Wow.
Very sophisticated.
Oh, well, thank you.
I'm just like, I like red wine.
Okay, interesting.
Interesting.
Yeah.
So do we have a roleplay to show our listeners how this might embed itself into a conversation?
Let's do it.
Here we go.
So Lindsay, we are, we actually ran into, we're running into each other on vacation in this roleplay.
Have you ever run into somebody on vacation?
I don't think so.
But I've heard of it happening.
Like I've heard of people from the States running into someone in Italy or something.
Oh, wow.
You know?
Yeah.
I remember.
I think it's happened to me more than once.
But I specifically remember when i was a kid, we were in san francisco and one of like the administrators from my one of the schools i went to um.
We were like in like some garden and all of a sudden we heard like oh, it's Kaplan.
Then it was her.
Oh, that's so funny, it can happen.
Right, and I love, I love this first response.
Right, that we're gonna share.
Let's let's go through it, let's go through the role play, and then we'll make comments on the role play.
Here we go um, oh my gosh, what are you doing here?
Wow, I can't believe.
We ran into each other all the way across the country Lindsay, I know.
Ironically, I was just talking about you because we stopped at the zoo and I know you love seeing tigers.
Wow, that is ironic.
We didn't use irony there, guys, but we're not going to use ironic.
I love how.
I find it really interesting, like sometimes how people's language reflects what's going on in their head when they say what are you doing here?
It's more.
Well, it's like I'm sure the other person's thinking, what are you doing here?
You know what I mean?
It's like, why wouldn't they be there?
It's funny.
I don't know.
It's just weird.
That is funny.
I see what you mean.
If you run into somebody and you're surprised, that's something you could say, guys.
You could say, what are you doing here?
Exactly.
And then you said, wow, I can't believe we ran into each other all the way across the country.
And I said I know, ironically I was just talking about you because we stopped at the zoo and I know you love seeing tigers.
So that is pretty ironic, right?
It's not just the fact, it's not really the fact that we ran into each other.
That's the irony, right, Michelle?
What's the actual irony here?
It's that you were just thinking about me.
Exactly.
But like we could go into it.
Like, I feel like some people might say that's not ironic.
That's just a coincidence.
But ironic is kind of.
But you don't have to like, you know, debate.
This doesn't need to turn into an intellectual debate.
Right.
Exactly.
It's just kind of like.
You could have said, oh, that's funny or funny enough.
But people just throw this in sometimes, I think.
And then I said, wow, that is ironic to support you.
Yes, I love it.
I love it.
Yeah.
I mean, the point of Alder's English is connection.
It's not being intellectual.
It's not being nitpicking everything and making sure everything's 100% correct.
Guys, we want you to connect with the person in front of you.
So when you comment on something that to you feels ironic, just go for it, right?
That adds to the connection.
That's the point, Michelle.
That's the point of All Ears English absolutely, absolutely so.
Wow, this was fun.
This was a really good question.
I think, like it's always fun to talk about things that are ironic and kind of debated and discuss it.
But, guys we talked about you know, it can be a little bit tough to grasp sometimes and I don't think that the Alanis Morissette does a, Even though I love the song, I don't know that things are really ironic in that song.
People like to talk about that too.
But when you find something that's ironic, then you'll know it.
Yeah, it's the feeling.
You just think to yourself, oh, wow, that's weird, right?
It's kind of like weird when something happens, kind of a combination of funny and weird and coincidental.
Right.
That's irony.
And, you know, again, if you comment, you say, oh, something's ironic and it's not quite irony.
Don't worry about it.
Okay.
Focus on that connection.
Have a laugh with the person in front of you and go on with your day.
It's okay.
Right.
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
All right.
Well, Lindsay, this was fun.
And yeah, we'll go find things that are ironic.
Yeah, we got it.
All right, Michelle, I'll see you in the next one.
Have a good one.
Bye, Lindsay.
Bye.
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