This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2131 Three English Challenge Words and Michelle's Laundry Battles.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast. downloaded more than 200 million times.
Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection.
With your American hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android.
Start your seven-day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward slash app.
Are there things you're struggling with in life?
Whether it be as simple as a pile of laundry or more complex, there is a time and a place to share it all if you have precise figurative language.
Learn how to do it today.
This Black Friday, stop piecing together random TikToks and YouTube videos that don't lead anywhere.
Join our 2026 English Mastery Bundle, a complete 9-12 month curriculum designed for goal-oriented learners like you.
You'll follow a clear, structured path from intermediate to high intermediate and even to advanced fluency, with every course flowing naturally into the next.
No gaps.
No guesswork.
No searching for extra resources.
Plus, you'll get live speaking practice, community, and teacher support.
It's a done-for-you plan.
Everything you need in one place.
All unlocked with a single one-time investment.
This Black Friday only.
Build your English for the long term.
Start today.
Go to allersenglishcom slash blackfriday to save 50 off the normal price.
Expires at midnight on Friday.
Allersenglish.com slash B-L-A-C-K-F-R-I-D-A-Y.
Michelle, how are you feeling today?
Honestly, how are you feeling?
Honestly, how am I feeling?
I feel I've been combating a cold all month.
I mean, battling actually.
Battling.
You've been battling a cold all month.
Me too, actually.
I currently have a cold.
Everyone's getting sick these days.
It's crazy.
Yes.
Yes, absolutely.
It's that time of year.
Yeah.
So one of the words I used to talk about having a cold was battling.
Yes.
Now, am I fighting some sort of battle with a cold?
I don't know.
Yeah, it seems like you are, right?
But you're not literally up there with like shoulder pads or not shoulder pads.
You know knee pads and like you know, any kind of a uniform battling.
You are just struggling.
Let's say you're struggling with that cold, right?
You're fighting it off.
That's another good one.
Fighting it off.
Yeah.
Oh, good.
So that's what we're going to talk about today because we have an excellent listener question.
And before we get into that, guys, we also want to remind you, we have a great episode.
2099 was how to switch topics like a pro for better connections.
So listen to that one.
That's going to be huge for you and your conversation.
Yeah.
We're highly that one in particular because guys, we know that the way to move to the 99 fluency level, this is the way natives speak.
They move between topics all the time.
There are people in my life that are constantly weaving from one topic to the next, back to the other one.
We need to be ready to follow those right, and so that episode will get you started.
Yeah, definitely all right.
Well, so this Uh question is from Aisha.
Um, and it's from the iOS app.
So this listener is a iOS app user.
Guys, if you don't have our app yet, go on over and get it at allearsenglishcom app.
This app is really amazing.
You can get the transcripts right on your phone and follow along as you listen.
And you can also get a personalized power list of vocabulary words.
So go on over and get that.
Really good stuff.
Good stuff.
So I'm going to read Aisha's question and we will dive into it today, Michelle.
Here we go.
You ready?
Okay, this is the best esl podcast out there.
Oh, thank you so much.
That's amazing.
I've been listening to allers english aee from way back and every time i do, i always learn interesting and relevant native expressions.
That is so great, michelle.
We love that.
Yes, aisha says big.
Shout out to lindsay michelle, aubry and jessica.
They're doing a great job for esl learners.
Very nice, All right.
I'd like to ask a question.
Can you make an episode on the figurative use of words like combat, battle, and tackle?
I've seen and heard this usage multiple times and I'd really appreciate it if you could teach it on the podcast.
Thank you, Aisha.
Well, thank you to Aisha for being a longtime listener.
Yeah, definitely.
Thank you so much.
And I love this question.
It's very specific.
Um, and I, I just feel like these are, these make for the best questions.
So, um.
So Aisha mentions wanting the more of a figurative use of combat or a combat, battle and tackle.
And so first we're kind of going to go over more of I mean it, more of the literal sense.
When you hear these words, what you think of.
So, uh, Combat, Lindsay, what is combat?
Yeah, so combat is just – it's basically war, right?
There's more combat these days in certain parts of the world, sadly.
And that's how we use it literally.
We hear it on the news, right?
And the next one, Michelle, is battle, right?
And that's more about like to fight.
But like when we think of a battle, we think of a larger war and then – smaller battles, right?
Like Lindsay, like in the civil war you were, you went to college in the area where there may have been some battles.
Yeah.
I went to college in Fredericksburg Virginia, which was one of the battlegrounds, literally our um our tennis facility.
We.
It was called the.
I think it was called like the battleground or the, don't remember what it was called, but like they took the name that that particular piece of land, like that field, was used in the battle of fredericksburg, which was a major battle in the civil war.
And so we have larger war, smaller battles.
Yes yes, that's all that matters.
Yeah yes, and then tackle, i think is different.
I think of the.
I, of course, think of football.
I mean yeah, so this is more like to, you know, when players are playing and they knock each other to the ground, that's to tackle them.
Yeah.
Do you watch football?
No.
Do you?
I was thinking, oh my gosh, does she become a football fan?
No.
It's actually funny because my son sometimes when Dan and I are going on a date or something that he can't go to, he gets upset.
So we tell him, it's become a running joke.
Oh, we're going to go watch the news.
We're actually just.
Even if I go to like a back to school night, I always say, oh no, it's going to be really boring.
I'm just going to watch the news.
That's so cute.
That's so funny.
And so he's always like, oh, I don't want to come with you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But then yesterday he was like, well, I like some news.
He goes, I like to watch football and basketball.
He's never watched them in his whole life.
That's hilarious.
But anyway, maybe I'll get him into basketball. but I do not watch football.
That's so good.
Yeah, so let's talk about this way that I think Aisha really wants here, more of a different usage.
So what is the first one, Lindsay?
All right, so if we want to take the word combat, we want to turn that into a verb, right?
And that is how we actually use that figuratively.
We actually change the pronunciation.
It's the first thing we need to know.
We say combat, right? right?
Which is to prevent or to stop something.
So take note guys, the pronunciation, the emphasized syllable does change between the noun and the verb.
So if that's the one thing you take away today, that's important if you're going to use it as a verb, figuratively.
So for example, the school board is taking steps to combat student cheating using AI.
And I think all schools are doing this right now.
They're scrambling to figure out what to do. right?
Yes.
Yeah.
It's a tricky one because, man, this is the future and we don't know what's going to happen.
We don't know what's going to happen.
Yeah, that's right.
Okay.
What else, Michelle?
Okay.
So then we have battle.
So to fight off something or just kind of a fight something difficult.
So if you use it As a noun, you could say something like, well, this is very timely.
It's a battle to get my kids out the door every morning.
Literally this morning, it was a battle.
Yeah, I heard you had a hard time getting on the microphone today for Yes, it was not according to plan, but that's okay.
So a battle, right?
It was not easy.
I mean, it wasn't like a... I don't mean that it was a physical fight.
Of course not, of course not.
No, no. but more of just like a struggle.
Figurative use.
It's a figurative use, right?
And we're glad you're here, Michelle.
We're glad you're here.
Thank you.
Thank you.
But it can also be a verb like I'm battling a cold.
Yeah, for sure.
And that's what I'm doing right now.
I'm battling a cold or I feel like I'm going into battle.
When would we use that again? not literally, but figuratively.
Give me an example of when that would make sense, Michelle.
It's like when you are going into a difficult situation, or maybe it's something that you know.
Maybe you're going to have a debate or something like that.
You know that something isn't going to be easy.
So I could say like, every night.
I just sorry to use all the kid references.
But I feel like I'm going into battle every night to try and get my kids to sleep.
Like I feel like I'm going into battle.
Do you ever hear that chunk?
Interesting.
Yeah, for sure.
I've heard it before.
I'm trying to think of other causes.
So certainly preparing for what your kids are going to throw at you is a good example, right?
Meaning what you're going to encounter with your kids.
I'm thinking about what else it could be.
Maybe if there's a big snowstorm and you have to drive across state lines-
And now you're going to go and put all these things in your car extra windshield wiper fluid gloves, boots everything you might need in case you get stranded.
You might say, I feel like I'm going into battle, but I'm going to get in the car.
I have to drive to the airport in New Mexico, for example, right?
Yes.
Yes.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Or maybe if you are meeting with a coworker about something that is going to really take a while to figure out.
You know, maybe that it's a little bit of a tense topic.
You could say, oh, I have this meeting.
I feel like I'm going into battle.
This is not going to be easy.
I like it.
I love this question from Aisha because it lets us be precise in our language.
This is incredibly precise language, guys.
You know, so So write this down.
And yep, we're going to keep going in just a minute.
Right, Michelle?
Yes.
Okay, here we go.
Let's go into the next one, which I love.
Tackle.
Tackle.
What about that?
Yeah, generally, I mean, there can be more uses of this as well.
But we're trying to keep it to what we hear the most.
So tackle is often to work on something.
So maybe to do something that can be challenging or problematic or something that's just gonna it's not gonna be something that takes one second.
So for example, I would say it a lot like this.
And if you saw my room right now, you would know that this is a true statement.
All these things are inspired by my life, I can say.
I guess it's time to tackle the pile of laundry next to my bed.
So do I mean I'm gonna jump on it and roll around in it?
I mean maybe i don't know what you're gonna do.
I mean maybe, but uh, but generally, what i would imagine, what i would assume, is that you're gonna start to fold that laundry and put it away.
Yeah exactly, and i'm looking at it right now and it's staring at me and it's saying hi michelle, Waiting for you to jump in there.
Yeah.
But I could also say before I'm going to do that, like, oh, God, I feel like I'm going into battle.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's good.
Use that as well.
This one I like.
I think this is the one to tackle is the one I use figuratively the most.
Yeah, I just think.
I have some tasks on my whiteboard.
I have to tackle some of these things this weekend just to get them off my plate, right?
Very common around household chores.
Your to-do list can really kind of start to bother you if you don't tackle it.
Tackle your to-do list.
Get things done, right?
Yes.
Or maybe that's just us as Americans.
We obsess over our to-do lists.
Yeah.
I mean, would you say that these are synonyms, all of these?
Or...
I mean, I, in some ways, yes, but no, I don't think they're exactly the same.
I think they're, I think they're obviously in the same category, right?
Same ballpark, same idea, but they're not exactly the same.
The closest ones.
I would say battle and tackle.
Um would be closer than you know combat and battle.
Yeah.
But not cinnamon, not cinnamon, um, but not totally different either.
Yeah.
Yeah yeah, i agree um, i think yeah, tackle is really about getting things done um, and so that sounds like that's the one you use most frequently.
Lindsay tackle yeah michelle, probably for me.
Yeah yeah, i think maybe i use battle a lot as well.
I don't know, they're all.
That's a great part about this question, i think, is these are all pretty frequently used um, And then there are even expressions like half the battle, which I think we've even done on this show.
I love that expression.
Actually, I love that expression.
Have we done an episode on that?
Maybe we have.
I think we have.
I'm going to look into it.
And if not, we're going to do it.
So this idea, it's this idea of we talk about endowed progress.
You know if I have to write a term paper for school.
You know, just doing an outline is half the battle because that's getting over the mental hump of the getting started and knowing what I'm going to write.
Right, Michelle?
Exactly.
Exactly.
I'm just doing a quick search to see if I can find it.
But I know it sounds so familiar.
Yeah.
Maybe we'll come back to it.
It's a new year.
We'll come back to it another time.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I found it.
It's episode 1410.
Vocabulary is half the battle for connection in English.
Love it.
But maybe we will revisit it now that it's like almost four years later anyway um okay, great.
So um, should we do a role play?
Yeah, let's jump into a role play, michelle.
So here we are talking about our days, all right.
So maybe it's the end of the day and we're coming together, all right.
So yes hey uh, how's it going, michelle?
Oh, i've just been tackling some work today, so i feel pretty productive.
Oh, that's good.
You same working.
My company is running a fundraiser to combat chronic illnesses, so i'm working on that.
Oh wow, amazing.
Oh man, about to head home, getting on the bus at this time will be a real battle.
Yeah, so definitely, this language is salient, like it's inner vocabulary right, because we have challenges in life, Right?
Yeah.
And so this is great.
I mean, so first here, Michelle, what did you say first in a role?
Break it down.
I said, I've been tackling some work today.
So I've been working on something that's my working on my to do list.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And then I said, same working. right?
My company is running a fundraiser to combat chronic illnesses.
Now this is about maybe raising money to fund science so we can reduce chronic illness, right?
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
And then I said, getting on the bus at this time will be a real battle.
Love it.
Michelle, what's the takeaway for our listeners today?
How should we think about these three expressions?
Well, I think we have to consider the literal and figurative uses.
I love this question because it's interesting.
You think of, in some ways, when we talked about it, they seem like very old-timey words.
Well, unfortunately, not so much.
But, like now, we really use them in a different way to talk about our days, what we need to do, things that we've been trying to prevent.
They're just very dynamic words that can help you in your connections and your life, talking about day-to-day things.
Very useful.
Lindsay, anything else you want to add?
Yeah, guys.
Life is not all about sharing the positive all the time.
That wouldn't be very human.
And so there are things in life that we're all battling and tackling.
Whether it's that pile of laundry on michelle's bed right now, or whether it's something big like maybe there's illness in your family right.
There are times and places to talk about each of these things with the right people at the right time for connection.
So don't be afraid to share things using this precise vocab right definitely, all right.
Well, this is good, And we will talk to you guys on the next episode.
Thanks, Lindsay.
All right.
Talk soon, Michelle.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
Would you like to know your English level?
Take our two-minute quiz.
Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score.
And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything.
See you next time.
