This is an All-Ears English Podcast, episode 2234.
Look at you, phrases to compliment in English.
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In today's episode, get four ways to acknowledge someone with a special tone and new vocabulary that allows you to tease and build the connection.
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Hello, Aubrey, how's it going today?
What have you got going on today?
Well, yesterday was my birthday, which was that part.
My birthday. Thank you.
And today we're going out with friends tonight to a Korean barbecue, where they bring you all the food and you cook it yourself on the table.
I can't wait. Ooh, look at you.
Ooh, Aubrey, look at you.
Miss Busy. Yeah. I was like, well, you did there.
This is what we're talking about today.
We do this a lot, where we'll say, look at you, Miss birthday, girl.
Look at you, Miss Super Busy.
That is so fun and so playful, right?
And it really builds the connection and the closeness right away.
I like it. Absolutely. Korean, this came out very recently on an amazing episode, You and Michelle, recorded 207.
And you said, you were talking about hydrangeas.
And Michelle said, look at you, Miss Flower.
And she just said to compliment you and say how impressed she was that you knew about these flowers, right?
And I immediately was like, oh, we got to talk about that on Allers English.
Yes, she also may have been a little surprised, right?
Because maybe it seems out of character, which I know nothing about flowers.
The follow-up is that our hydrangea is dyed exactly when we planted them, because we didn't know they needed shade and humid weather, which is the opposite of what they get in the summer in Denver.
And so wrong, wrong move, do not know anything about flowers.
I need gardening advice.
I'm not Miss Flower. Don't look at me.
Yeah, right. Didn't work out in the end, not very, but yeah, surprise.
And she was teasing me a little bit, right?
Which is super fun. I know it's fun to have something playful like that, where you can tease and be a little bit silly.
You know, we want you guys to be able to do that with friends.
So be sure to check out that episode.
It was called Make Your English Bloom with this Flower Evil Cabulary.
And be sure to hit follow, so you're not missing any of our great episodes.
Guys, and go check out that other episode.
Like you said, Aubrey, right?
It's 22-07. Don't have the title, but it going.
Oh, yeah, you just read it.
It's Make Your English Bloom with this Flower Evil Cabulary.
Yep, that's it. Good, perfect.
So go and check it out. So I guess today we're going to learn exactly how to do this.
Right, Aubrey? And you're going to learn this from a very insider English way, this is natural English we use with our friends.
The people we like really, right?
Wouldn't you say that? Yes.
And this is just one of four chunks that we're teaching you today that are so native and natural and really build the connection like you said, Lindsay.
These are with friends.
These are with people we know well, or colleagues, co-workers we know well.
Sure. They're very fun ways to complement to point out something that's impressive or that we like about someone.
Yeah, it's really not for someone that you feel a large distance between you and them, or someone that is like above you at work, or it's not formal.
Okay, it's casual, it's fun.
Exactly. And if you use these with someone you don't know well or that's the situation, they might come across as sarcastic or insincere.
Good point. So you really do want to reserve these for people you know very well.
Good point. I love it. So let's go into the first one, Aubrey, that we used at the top of the show.
What is it? Yeah, so this we say, look at you.
And then for men we would usually say mister, for women either miss or misses, but I would say miss.
I would not love it if you were like, look at you misses busy.
It sort of emphasizes that I'm older, that I'm not a miss anymore.
I'm just a hard to say that.
Mrs. Busy, no, no. Not adding more syllables totally.
No, I like miss. It goes with more words, right?
Look at you miss punctual, right?
You might say to someone's always on time, maybe your coworker that you know well, look at you mister always on time.
Right. I also want to think, I think it's important to say that we can say this without the second part of mister or miss or anything.
Right, we could say, hey, look at you.
Wow. Right, if they've pressed you.
Like, you know, if you're not a little bit or their work is impressive, you could just look at you.
Right, or even with the flower situation, you know, Michelle could have said, yeah, look at you gardening these days.
Like, right? Or just look at you just to say she's impressed that you know about this flower.
Yeah, or something like, oh, look at you.
Gardening these days, are we?
Right, that could be another episode.
Are we? That could be kind of fun, I'll brief you.
That is when we do that. We're asked like gardening, are we?
And you're like, no, we're not, I am, but we just say that, are we?
Exactly. Another episode, another day.
So, love. Okay, so important to know we can split them.
What else do we need to know about this particular chunk?
Yeah, I love this. This is what the way I use it the most is if someone tells a joke, I'll say like, look at you, Mr.
Funny guy, or look at you, Miss Funny guy, or if, especially if it's like a cheesy dad joke, we say it's very playful to be like, look at you with the dad jokes.
Look at you, Mr. dad jokes or something like that.
Exactly, yes. Okay, so this is really teasing someone.
Okay, absolutely. Good, but in a nice way, in a way that people aren't gonna laugh at the person you're just highlighting.
I'm surprised that you're doing this, and I'm highlighting it.
It's a little out of control.
It's terrible. It's not mean, it's not critical.
It's, yeah, you can totally do this to be a little silly or to let them know you really are impressed.
Love it. What would be the second one, Aubrey?
Let's move on. Yeah, okay, this next one is to say like, check out, and then it could be like, check out this guy, check out this girl, or check out Lindsay, if they're impressed.
Like, maybe you made a great cheesecake.
It would be like, check out Lindsay, Ms.
Cheesecake Maker, right?
Or if it's like a guy friend, check out this guy, Mr.
Cheesecake Specialist.
This guy, I like that. There's a real intonation that we're using here.
What is it, Aubrey? Yeah, it's you're definitely slowing down a little bit, right?
Check out, and then the pause, this guy, or check out Lindsay.
So we pause before we say the name or the pronoun.
Yes, or check out Janet, Mrs.
Cheesecake Queen. So in this case, you're calling out the person's name.
You may not be in direct conversation with that person, but they may be in the room.
That's true. And you know that, right?
Or they might not even be, right?
Let's say your friend made the cheesecake for the party, but couldn't come.
You could still taste the cheesecake, and be like, oh man.
Oh, that's interesting though, because the checkout does imply that they're there and you can see them, right?
So it's like, wow, check out Janet with the cheesecake.
Kind of, but I think it could also be more figurative.
Yeah, how will this, you know, look at this new development.
She's making great cheesecake now.
It's kind of, right? Kind of exciting, kind of out of character.
A little bit. And you can even say it about the thing, right?
Check out this cheesecake.
This is amazing, right?
We're just saying we're impressed with it.
I like that too, actually.
That's a good way to do it.
Good. Okay. Okay, I'll break onto number three.
What do we do next? What's another way to kind of tease people?
Yes. So this, we say the either Mr.
or Miss, and then blank of the year.
So like if someone throws a great party, you might say like, wow, Miss host of the year.
Like, whoo, party of the year, right?
And all you're saying is you're impressed by it.
Yeah, one question here.
Here's a question. Would this ever be used, gonna sarcastically in a mean way, not really, right?
These are really just purely well-intentioned ways.
I'm imagining, like, let's say someone gets in a car accident.
Oh my gosh. It would never be like, wow, driver of the year.
No, no, no, poor son. No mean.
They might only use these positively.
The only way I would think of as a self-deprecating context, right?
If I plan this huge party, and then it's just a total, just, it's so many things go wrong.
It's party host of the year over here.
Of the year. Yeah, it's something like that.
What about my driving? If I'm admitting I was in an accident and be like, yeah, driver of the year.
Yeah, you're right. We might say this about ourselves.
Like, when you walk in the room and everyone knows what happened, are you okay?
And it's just something minor.
Yeah, but every year over here, right?
It's just a fun way to put fun at ourselves.
Right, but we wouldn't use this in a way of being mean or sarcastic, okay?
So that's not what we're talking about today.
Yeah, exactly. Though, segue into this next one, because we do use this one this way.
So it's either Mr. or Miss, and then like, can't something.
So for example, if you tell a joke and someone doesn't think it's funny, you might say like, Hey, Mr.
can't take a joke. Right.
Something like this we do.
And it is, it's not really mean.
It's sort of calling out an awkward situation to sort of diffuse it a little bit.
Yes, exactly. Okay, Mr.
No Sense of Humor. Right.
Especially when someone isn't going a little, like maybe they're being teased a little bit, but in a positive way, in a kind, relatively kind way, and they can't take it.
They take everything seriously, let's say.
Right. Yeah. The other way I feel like this used is if someone is being impatient, you might say like, Okay, Miss can't wait five minutes, right?
Or yeah, I see me saying this to one of my kids.
I feel like we've heard this, we say this, it's playful.
Right. Yeah, that's how I could imagine it as well, for sure.
Or the next one. All right, we can leave Mr.
and Pasha. I love that one too.
You said that. So let's move on to the role play, Aubrey.
Shall we for our listeners?
Yes, and I hadn't said that with that.
I'm imagining you're at a party.
Okay, so it's like, oh, Miss can't wait five minutes, or like if you're at a party, this happens to me and my partner wants to leave.
Okay, I might say something like that.
Okay, we can go, Mr. Impatient.
Right. And we use the Mr.
or Miss, and then we'll add an adjective.
Again, just to emphasize, you need to be close to the person.
So this could be your partner, your kids, someone you really can tease and kind of put them in their place a little bit.
You're being impatient, and I'm gonna say it in a way that's kind of teasing, but I wanna get a message across at the same time.
That's it. It's very familiar.
So unless you have that very close relationship where you can tease and be familiar with someone, then you don't wanna use these.
I love it. This is gonna be great for any of our listeners who might be in a cross-cultural relationship, right?
A bi of two languages, that sort of thing.
Guys, we can use this absolutely at home.
I love it. Yes, for sure.
Okay, let's do a role play.
You and I are at a fourth of July barbecue.
Those are coming up. I can't wait.
Love it. Here we go. Hey, look at you, Mrs.
On Time. I know, right? Usually late for once I made it somewhere on time.
I'm impressed. And check out this guy, nice American flag bandana.
Oh, you know my husband, Mr.
Always looking for a reason to dress up.
Love it. Thanks for coming, both of you.
We wouldn't miss it. We all know that you are Miss Party Planner of the Year.
So it's buddy, I had misses there.
Did it feel weird to say Mrs.
On Time? I was surprised that you put misses in there.
I think I just wasn't thinking about it when I did the role play.
And then I started hearing them out loud.
And I'm like, oh, I prefer miss for sure.
Which is funny, because people will call me ma'am or Mrs.
Carter and find it's not a big deal.
But with this chunk, I feel like we usually use miss for any women, no matter how old they are.
Right, because a teasing, creating a rapport, I don't know, there's something about that that misses is a little more serious.
It's more formal. It's great.
It removes some of that familiarity.
Exactly. Exactly. And then I said, I'm impressed.
And check out this guy, nice American flag bandana.
And now I'm talking to him.
Exactly. You're talking to him.
So I'm standing next to my partner.
And you're like, check out this guy with the American flag bandana.
It's your kind of teasing babies, wearing something a little crazy.
I'm like, oh, you know him.
Mr. Always looking for a reason to dress up.
And we do this sometimes we have the Mr.
or the Miss. And then a big long, like title phrase, that's describing the action or the characteristic.
I love it. I could see this kind of scenario playing out at a Halloween party as well.
Right? Exactly. Yeah. Mr.
Always wearing the best costume.
Yep. Yep. All right. And then you said, we wouldn't miss it.
We all know your miss miss's party planner of the year.
Or miss. That's right. I had written misses, but I said miss when I read it.
Because I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no, we have the misses too much.
So many misses. Yeah, no, this is great.
So clearly we're close.
There's a close group of friends getting together, casual, fourth of July barbecue.
There's nothing formal about this.
I think fourth of July might be the least formal holiday that exists.
Exactly, right? A fourth of July barbecue, very casual.
You can't make that formal.
Good luck trying to make that occasion formal.
Do it. You want to wear like a sun dress or something?
No problem. But generally, they're very casual.
And fourth of July's my fifth of your holiday without a doubt.
OK. And it's always with close friends.
So this is a perfect kind of situation where these phrases, these chunks are perfect.
You guys use them. I'm excited.
I love you're complimenting someone just as a takeaway.
It does help to lighten it up.
Right. If you're too formal and stiff, when you're giving just like a little minor compliment, it can be a little awkward.
These phrases remove all of that formality.
I love it. So anytime you want to further build a relationship or when you already have this close relationship, use these language mechanisms, guys, to build that connection even more.
OK? Absolutely. Yes. So fun.
Thanks for joining me, Lindsay.
These are so fun. Great stuff, guys.
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And take us into your Saturday.
Take us into your weekend, whatever you do, whether it's going to the beach, the gym.
I mean, what do you like to do on Saturday's Aubrey?
Yeah, I play pickleball.
And sometimes I play O-T-L softball.
I like sports. Wow. I like sports, sports, sports on the weekend.
All right. So take us to your group sports, too, as well, guys.
All right. Good stuff, Aubrey.
I'll talk to you very soon.
Have a good one. Thank you.
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