This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2276.
Breathe a sigh of relief with this vocabulary.
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 host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS Wiz and Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, 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 7 day free trial at allearsenglish .com forward slash app.
Is your English a living breathing thing?
Today get 4 new idioms using the words breathe and breath, and learn how to talk about new and refreshing things with joy in English.
Do you like to travel?
So do we. Exciting announcement here for all travelers.
This fall you can find the All Ears English podcast in the In -flight Entertainment on Lufthansa Airlines.
Prepare yourself for business or travel English while you're on board.
Check out All Ears English on your next Lufthansa flight.
Hey Aubrey, question for ya.
Oh yeah, let's hear it.
Hey, so does your day often go according to plan?
No, not often. My day is a living breathing thing.
It is constantly changing.
Kids plan to change.
Something comes up that I have to just reschedule everything.
What about you? I would imagine on your end with four kids.
I mean, things going on, soccer games, everything.
Wow. I would say probably less variable than your day is my guess.
Throwing a monkey wrench and everything.
Right, right, right.
But there is obviously some variety and things changing a lot.
You know, I was going to go to the gym.
I decided not to go to the gym.
I do this instead. Things change for sure.
Yeah, you guys might have noticed I said my day is a living breathing thing.
This is interesting personification.
I'm almost describing it like it's a monster, something that actually is alive and breathing.
And this is inspired.
Michelle said this recently in an episode and I was like, that's awesome.
I want to do a whole episode about idioms with breathe and breathing.
I love when we kind of put a character to an idea, to words.
We love that, you know, kind of personification in a way.
Right. Exactly. Right.
So stay tuned. We're going to share at the end of the episode when Michelle talked about that to make sure you don't miss that and hit follow so that you're not missing any of our amazing episodes.
Oh my gosh. We published some very cool episodes, especially this past summer and moving into the fall.
We've got some really good stuff coming up for you guys.
So hit the follow button so that all there's English automatically appears in your cue.
All right. Good. So today we have what Aubrey for our listeners.
Yeah. Some awesome idioms that we use in English about breathe, breathing.
A lot of these use personification like that.
This first one that we used in a recent episode to call something a living breathing thing.
This is fun. You can describe anything this way that is very dynamic, that is constantly changing.
For example, writing a book, right?
The book I'm writing is a living breathing thing.
Or someone's relationship, right?
Our relationship is a living breathing thing.
It's constantly changing.
Yeah. So you're really emphasizing that it's not static, right?
That's kind of the opposite.
That's why I love Google docs, Google drive and Google docs, because my big issue with Microsoft word or PowerPoint is it sits the most recent version sits on someone's computer.
Who's computer who has the most recent version?
You don't know. That's such a good example, right?
Google docs are living breathing things because they're just constantly changing and updating.
Yeah. That makes me more crazy than updating an old version.
And then what do you do?
And so thank goodness for Google drive, Google docs, because we do 90 % of our work in drive.
Wouldn't you say, Aubrey?
Yes, it's made it a lot easier for companies to go online more.
You don't have to all be in the same room sharing updated docs with each other.
It's made a huge difference.
But this brings up an interesting point that this chunk is only used to describe things that actually aren't really alive and breathing.
You would never say about a person like, yes, that is a living breathing thing.
No, that's so weird.
What? We just use this to describe something that isn't alive to mean that it changes often.
That's a good point.
That's a good point.
And just to come back to that thread, I think companies that need that, the live documents use SharePoint if they have more budget, like the corporate environment.
So they do have that option of a living breathing document through SharePoint to share things.
But yes, that is a very important point that you're not talking about people because we know they're living and breathing or animals.
We know. They're living and breathing.
Idiomatic to give that personify, to give this human quality to something that is not actually alive.
You got it, Aubrey.
Good stuff. What would be the second one then?
Moving into more breathing idioms.
Yeah, exactly. All of these have breathe or breathing.
And this is a really fun one to say that you're breathing down someone's neck or someone else is breathing down your neck.
This means either very physically close or like you're monitoring closely, usually in an irritating way.
Ah, yes. I think this would you say that this one comes up more commonly with the physical in -person meaning rather than the more abstract use of that?
I do think both. For sure, if you're right there close to someone, they might say stop breathing down my neck.
But if someone is micromanaging you, even if you're not in the same physical space, they still might say like, you know, I don't mean to breathe down your neck.
I just need to make sure that you stay on task.
This is very important.
It does make sense when you say that.
People would get it if you are using it in that more abstract way, right?
Yeah. And it's more just like an interesting way to say, I don't mean to micromanage you, instead we sort of make it a little more lighthearted by saying, I don't mean to breathe down your neck.
Whenever we want to take weirdness out of a situation, we do create idioms and we create other ways of saying them instead of directly saying, I don't want to micromanage, I guess is the term, isn't it?
Yeah, exactly. Right.
And it is a little more lighthearted to say this to someone who is either micromanaging you or, you know, however it's happening, you feel like you're being overly monitored, overly directed to be like, okay, stop breathing down my neck.
I've got this. Got it.
Perfect. I love it.
These are good ones today, right?
It's all about breathing.
I mean, breath is the key to life.
Right. Well, it makes sense that we have a lot of idioms about breathing.
It does. What would be number three?
Okay. Number three is to breathe new life into something.
This means to rejuvenate something.
Usually that has become sort of dull or stale.
Yes. I love this idea.
Refreshing things, right?
So for example, in your marriage or your love life, you know, you need to do things to breathe a new life, right?
Breathe. For example, we started going on dates every weekend and it has breathed new life into our marriage.
A lot of couples do that, right?
Yes. Absolutely. If you start feeling, especially once you have children, I can speak for myself.
It's really easy to get very busy showing the children attention and helping them with all their things.
And the marriage can sort of be put on the back burner.
You might need to do things to breathe new life into your marriage.
Whatever that is for you.
That makes total sense.
That makes total sense.
So very common expression.
And then what would be another one?
Yeah, you might say, you know, maybe a gym membership, right?
Getting a gym membership, breathe new life into my exercise routine.
So anything that's rejuvenating, maybe you had gotten bored with what you were doing or you weren't exercising at all.
Getting a gym membership could breathe new life into your routine.
Yeah, I feel like the biggest potential pitfall of today's episode, Aubrey, is the spelling of breathe versus breath because I know that even native speakers get confused here.
Yes, that's a good point.
So let's just break this down for a minute.
Before we go to break and make sure our listeners know about breath, like your breath, the thing, the noun versus the verb to breathe.
What's the difference in spelling?
This is really something tricky that English does, right?
The noun is breath with no e at the end.
So you know, it's pronounced a little differently, breath.
And then when an e is added, now it's a verb.
Breathe, to breathe.
Of course, you're taking in oxygen, you're breathing.
And we use it idiomatically like this to breathe new life into something.
Yeah, so we have to find a way to remember that.
Maybe there's a way for our listeners to create some kind of mnemonic device to remember, but it is one of those native speaker mistakes, I think, that people do get confused about.
Yeah, there is a good little rule that whenever there's an e at the end of the word, it makes the vowel say its name.
So for example, if you have like bat and then e is at the end, now it's bait, b -a -t -e, because the a would say its name when there's an e at the end.
And that works here too.
The only tricky thing is you have both vowels, right?
Right. The first vowel says its name.
So when there's an e at the end, you know, it'll be breathe.
And instead of that e sound, e is saying its letter name, e.
Love it. Yeah, whatever you need to do to kind of remember, but make sure we're not mixing those up, guys.
All right. Good. All right.
Moving into number four.
Also very common. To breathe a sigh of relief.
What is this? Yeah, this means to suddenly feel very happy or relieved because something unpleasant usually didn't happen or has ended.
We say, oh, you know, I breathe a sigh of relief or I'm going to breathe a sigh of relief when that is over.
So for example, we have an election coming up very soon, when this episode comes out very soon.
And we're all just a little on edge, I think everyone is.
No one knows what's going to happen.
So we might say, I'll breathe a sigh of relief once the election is over.
Yes. Or she breathed a sigh of relief after the interview was over for sure.
For sure. Anything stressful, anything you've been nervous about once it's over, you'd say this, okay, now I can breathe a sigh of relief.
A hundred percent. A hundred percent.
Yeah. So all right.
Let's get into a role play, Aubrey.
Shall we go into a role play?
You and I are waiting to take an exam for this role play.
Like we're maybe at a testing center at college, maybe taking a teacher certification exam, something that's pretty high stakes.
Yes. Okay. We've all been in those positions, right?
Exactly. I'll start us out.
I'm so nervous. I feel like my anxiety is a living breathing thing.
I will definitely breathe a sigh of relief after this test is over.
My mom has been breathing down my neck every night to study.
I haven't been able to do anything but study.
I'll definitely breathe a new life.
It'll definitely breathe new life into my schedule to be past this.
Yes. Nice. A lot of breathe and breathing in this role play.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure.
For sure. Oh my gosh.
Yes. And I know we can all imagine.
I mean, Aubrey, you and Jessica talk about the IELTS exam.
Yes. This is very common for students on your test day.
Immediately afterward, you breathe a sigh of relief.
Maybe someone's breathing down your neck to spend more time studying.
Yeah. We've all been there.
Yeah. We've all been there, guys.
Go check out the IELTS Energy Podcast to get tips on IELTS if that is in your future.
All right. Yes. Absolutely.
Let's go back into this now.
So first, so this is fun.
So we talked about something being alive, feeling alive, seeming alive.
I feel, you said I'm so nervous that I feel like my anxiety is a living, breathing thing.
So again, what are you saying here?
Yeah, it's an interesting way to talk about how much something is taking over your mind or your life, right?
If I'm like, my anxiety, I'm sort of personifying it like this monster that's alive and breathing because it's so ever present right now.
Yeah. And it also implies when we say something is a living, breathing thing, it kind of implies that it needs more maintenance in a way.
You need to make it some sense.
It's taking more of your attention.
Yeah, it's true. Exactly, right?
This is such a fun idiom, but it is a little more specific.
It has to be something pretty big, important, that's taking a lot of your attention for you to call it a living, breathing thing.
Nice. And then I said, yes, I will definitely breathe a sigh of relief after this test is over.
I mean, and this was, as a kid, I remember, or even just on Friday afternoon, breathing a sigh of relief, the week is over.
We all, this is a very human experience.
Yeah, this can be for big things like these high -stakes exams or like you said, just Friday, just after anything where you're just like breathing that sigh of relief ready for the weekend.
Yeah, for sure. Or in summer, when school let out for summer, that was always kind of nice, that kind of a bit of that feeling too, right?
Yeah, absolutely. All right.
And then you said, it'll definitely breathe.
Oh no, I first said my mom has been breathing down my neck every night to study.
So imagine I'm still living at home.
Maybe I'm procrastinating studying.
This wouldn't mean that my mom is necessary.
She might be physically there.
Study, study, or she might be texting me all the time.
Have you studied? Have you been studying?
Right, I might even be not living at home and I'm not seeing her physically.
And just because she's texting me reminders a lot, I could still say, oh, she's been breathing down my neck.
And that's almost a more interesting way to use it too, isn't it?
Yeah, rather than physically and literally.
Yeah, totally. Although it is quite an image of your mom standing behind you at the kitchen table, kind of like looking on to your studying, right?
Looking on your paper.
With like a timer. Tapping the table.
Yes, true. And then I said, oh, I haven't been able to do anything but study.
And I would put an emphasis on butt study, right?
To really, really emphasize, I'm studying a lot.
I'll definitely, it'll, sorry, I keep on saying aisle, but it should be, it will.
It will definitely breathe new life into my schedule to be past this.
So I'm saying it's gotta open.
Yeah, so you're thinking of your schedule has become kind of dull and boring.
All there is is studying.
So it's like, once I'm done, that's going to really breathe new life into my schedule.
It's going to leave a space, a wide open space that I can paint on the canvas and fill it in as I want, right?
It's a really refreshing feeling.
So good. I was told recently that I am a chest breather, which is apparently not good.
Too much breathing up here and not enough breathing in the belly.
From your diaphragm.
From your belly. And from the chest.
So like everything happening up here, which constricts, so I'm working on belly breathing these days to get more power.
That's probably true for me too.
Mm -hmm. The reason I know that is because when I go to a conference or went, sometimes if we record a marathon, I lose my voice at the end.
That means I'm using too much of the voice box and not enough of the belly and the center of the core.
If you were an opera singer, you would know how to do that.
Singing from the diaphragm, right?
Yes, 100%. So that is my personal goal for this quarter.
So anyway, Aubrey, where should we go to get a related episode?
Yeah, I want to make sure that you guys know where this came from, we're inspired to have this episode, Michelle, in episode 2263, which was what's your takeaway, be a better speaker by sharing the bottom line.
You could scroll up to see that one.
If you're following, you hopefully saw this, heard this.
Maybe you guys caught that when Michelle was talking about recording episodes.
She said all your English episodes are a living, breathing thing.
They're not scripted.
They change as we go and we figure out the takeaway as we chat.
Such a fun use of language, isn't it?
I think that's a way to connect too, when we feel like we're having fun with English.
Instead of being in that grip of perfectionism, now we're having fun with it.
People want to connect with us right away because there is that joy in our eyes.
Yes, absolutely. And when we're using idioms, it's so much more fun, right?
It makes your language more interesting.
This is a great takeaway that all of these idioms today are quite, like you said, joyful.
We're talking about breathing new life and breathing a sigh of relief and you want to be able to use this idiomatic language.
I love it. So guys, put a few of these into your conversations this week and let us know how it goes.
Send in your questions to support at allersenglish .com if you have a follow -up from today or another specific question.
We love getting your questions.
Absolutely. Awesome, Lindsay.
This is really fun.
I love all of these idioms.
All right. Good stuff, Aubrey.
I'll see you in the next one.
Take care. See you next time.
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.
