This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2443, Spy Movie Vocabulary in English.
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Today, get movie vocabulary to watch this kind of film in English and to fully enjoy it.
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hey there michelle how are you today i'm good lindsey how are you good michelle have you ever had anything stolen from you why yes lindsey we've spoken about this before oh yeah oh and i got pickpocketed in amsterdam but also another time i got my phone stolen was really um yeah i was and i still know exactly the restaurant it was called cleopatra cleopatra's needle on the the Upper West Side.
It was the first year I moved to New York with my brother and sister -in -law.
And I went to the bathroom and I set my phone on something and I left the bathroom and then I went back to the bathroom to get it and it was not there.
Oh, no, that's too bad.
Yeah, that's always a liability there.
Such a ding dong about that.
I had a camera stolen once when I was traveling and I also did something stupid.
I just left it on a bed in a hostel and then I went out and I don't know what I was thinking.
And I think I left the room for like an hour or two and then it was gone.
So sometimes we just, we just forget to do the things with common sense, right?
We just leave things sitting around.
I know it's when you're just, you're just not paying attention.
You're just not thinking and you get a little too comfortable, right?
So, but today we are going to answer a great listener question.
This is from Sophia, who we love, who asks some amazing, amazing questions.
Would you like me to read the question?
Yes, please do. All right.
So she says, Hi, I'm Sophia.
And I've been a longtime listener of All Ears English.
I really enjoyed the podcast. It has helped me a lot in improving my English.
Well, Sophia, we love you too.
Absolutely. Yeah, you're awesome.
Really? Um, she says in the five minute quiz episode 2371 of March 11th 2025 I heard and we'll talk about that in a second I heard Aubrey say because often we do use the word hot to mean illegal or stolen right um she says I found this really interesting and I was wondering if you could share more common examples of situations where hot is used with this meaning I'd love to learn how to use it naturally in a conversation.
Thank you so much. I look forward to your response.
Take care, Sophia. Sophia, you are awesome.
Um, what are these five minute quizzes?
Oh, good question, Michelle.
So guys, if you don't know about our five minute quizzes over in Apple podcast, that would be a reason to listen in Apple and to subscribe.
So if you sign up for our Apple plus program, all there's English plus you will get, uh, four or five minute quizzes every week.
So after every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday episode, we drop a quiz, a simple quiz to check your comprehension of vocabulary of meaning and overall comprehension of the entire episode.
It's easy. It's fun.
It's straightforward. And once you subscribe, they just drop right into your feed.
All right. Right. And these are quizzes you listen to.
So that's what's really cool about it is where it's also it's like another little mini episode because we have fun with them.
Sometimes I record them as as well.
And it's always it's always a good time.
They're quick. And you get some little extra tidbits on there.
Exactly. So guys, check that out.
Go over to Apple and sign up for All There's English Plus.
All right, good. So, Michelle, let's get into answering.
Well, before we get into it, I do want to thank you say thank you to one of our reviewers in Apple podcast. This is Joy Boy Five from Ghana, who left us a five -star review.
Very heartfelt and wonderful review.
And huge Huge thank you to that special listener.
Guys, leaving a review for the show is one way to communicate to us what All Earth English means to you, how it's helping you, and it keeps us motivated, right?
Absolutely. Thank you so much. That means a lot to us.
So, yes. All right.
So let's get to Sophia's question.
So, yeah, hot can mean a lot of things.
Of course, we think of hot meaning the weather or good looking or whatever.
whatever, but one of the definitions is about being illegal or suspicious or stolen, right?
Yeah, it's interesting, right?
Because this is, I think, a lesser known way of using the word hot.
I feel like I haven't heard it that much. But it is a way we use the word hot sometimes, right?
Yeah, absolutely. So let's give some examples.
So here we go. The cops pulled him over because because they checked the license plate and it turns out the car was hot.
Yeah, I love that. Yeah, yeah.
Or another one. I don't want to buy a phone from him.
I think it's hot. I'd rather buy one from the store.
Michelle, do you use this this way in your everyday life?
I'll be honest. Not so much. Not so much. What about you?
Not so much. But it's good to know it.
You might hear it in a movie.
Crime show. Yep. Crime shows, right?
Right. So we're just showing you all just the underlying language that exists, but maybe isn't used all the time.
But you want to it gives you context to enjoy movies, to enjoy conversation, news stories, things like that.
Yeah. Or here's another example.
The FBI tapped his phone line and found found out he was dealing with several hot pieces of merchandise.
Oh, interesting. Yeah.
Like like I said, I also don't really use it this way.
But the first thing I think of is car, A hot car, a stolen car.
That is the most common theme for me when it comes to comes to that comes to this word. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to go over a couple of other different things that, you know, you might say.
So there's also like these are kind of like spy crime words.
Right. Right. So tapped.
So when you hear tapped, that means that something is being watched or spied on or under surveillance.
Right, Lindsay. So in that way, sometimes people use hot as well.
Right. So sometimes.
So you might say, like, make sure you don't say anything.
I think your house is hot.
Now, we don't you know, we might say that in terms of like, oh, we think you're being watched.
Right. Wow. This is serious spy movie stuff here, Michelle.
Right. So this isn't the kind of conversation normal everyday people are really having.
This is really more for listeners to enjoy movies.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Government spy movies, things like that.
The CIA, you know, things that we normal people don't really know.
Yeah. But we love to watch those.
Yeah. Michelle, anything else here?
Yeah. Or here's another example.
He got arrested because he didn't know that his deal was being done when there was an undercover cop and the car was hot.
So same idea here. Yes, I love that.
All right. So Michelle, what are some other ways to say that something is suspicious or illegal?
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Okay. So yeah, this is a good one.
So the thief didn't know he was being watched.
There were cameras everywhere.
Okay. Or tapped, which is what we were talking about before, but we wanted to do an example.
Yeah. So Lindsay, what does it mean to be tapped?
So yeah, we mentioned this before.
So to be wiretapped.
So something, maybe some kind of microphone has been put into your phone or, or I guess sometimes in, in movies, you see this where someone might put a microphone in a hotel room, right?
Um, Michelle, what is your favorite spy movie?
Do you have any favorite like, uh, movies involving this kind of thing?
Ooh, I can't think of, uh, I, I mean, I, I think, I think about, um, Nixon, right?
Like the Watergate, right?
right yes well that's a great story right and that is kind of a spy wiretapping related story um i really like the movie argo which oh that was great yeah really good movie he was a cia i don't know if he was a spire undercover agent or something like that but his job was to go in and get the hostages from the crisis in the late 70s out um fascinating movie that was that was a great movie yeah i forgot about that one yeah so um i mean any of these movies though it's always kind of fun to see these spy movies and to actually there's a um there's a they call it a museum i think but i wouldn't call
it a museum it's uh in new york and i went with dan once it's It's like, I can't remember the name of it, but basically you go and you participate in all these activities where you pretend you're a spy.
Yeah, I think there's one in DC too, actually.
Oh, well, yeah, there's a spy museum in DC.
That's an actual museum.
I think this is, yeah, that's awesome.
It's always fun to think about spies.
And I mean, I'm even thinking about way back to Harriet the Spy.
Remember Harriet the Spy?
Oh yeah, of course, it's so fun.
We're so intrigued.
Normal people that have nothing to do with this are just so intrigued by this whole world.
And so now our listeners are going to have some of the vocabulary to watch these movies and really get into it.
Under investigation, Michelle, is another one.
Yeah, I'd be a little more formal.
You might hear this.
You might actually read this in the news about a scenario where a person of interest is under investigation.
right? Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
Mm hmm. So yeah. So did you read the example?
I didn't hear. Let me go ahead and read the example.
The whole area is under investigation.
So the cops aren't letting anyone in.
Right? Yes. Yeah. So Lindsay, we've talked about like courtroom shows.
What about crime shows?
Do you like those? Sometimes I do.
The one that I watch nowadays is tracker, tracker tracker it's with the guy from this is us I mean oh how is that it's good I mean he's really good looking so that helps um it's a decent show it's not like this tv show is going to win like huge awards or anything like that but it's you know when you're want to just do some mind numbing tv it's good it's good yeah yeah yeah no that's fun that's fun um so yeah um let's do a a role play here you are telling me about a new spy movie that you watched okay here we go michelle it was so good oh really what's it about it's about this guy who's committing
fraud and he has this feeling he's being watched but he has no proof it messes with his head he's also under investigation for leading a ponzi scheme whoa that sounds intense so does he have a ton of hot items victims oh yeah he's stolen too in one scene he doesn't know it but his phone is tapped then the FBI comes in and busts him don't tell me anymore Lindsay maybe I'll see it okay sorry yeah that's the key when you share movies we've talked about this on the show how do you share enough to right to get someone to watch but not to tell the whole point of the movie the whole yeah yeah so what did
we say here Michelle all right so you said uh it's about this guy who's committing fraud he has this feeling.
He is being watched.
Good. And then I said he's also under investigation for leading a Ponzi scheme.
And a Ponzi scheme is similar to what happened with Bernie Madoff.
Right. The pyramid scheme concept.
Yeah. Not good. And then I said, so does he have a ton of hot items?
So, yeah, I don't think that I would have asked it in this way.
Yeah, I agree. Again, it just just doesn't really enter kind of normal people's vocabulary this hot yeah right yeah so we just we snuck that in there to make it work with the episode but maybe for that one guys it's more about keeping your ears open if you do hear it you'll know what it means I agree I agree um and then you said but his phone is tapped so wire tapped so somebody is listening in yes Michelle Michelle, there is another episode our listeners can go to.
Guys, go over to a Saturday episode, a Sassy Saturday.
This isn't what I ordered.
How to ask for the correct order in English.
Michelle, there's a whole art of ordering in English, right?
Exactly. And maybe you want to order your meal and then you want to go watch a spy movie.
And so this is a perfect combo.
Sounds like a dream day for me.
Yeah. Sounds great.
Michelle, what's our takeaway today?
that okay well this is a great question from sofia another great question yeah so again takeaway from today is i wouldn't go around now trying to use hot all the time in that context but it is super good to know and we gave you more information about what it means where you would hear it and also other vocabulary that you can use to talk about these types of shows and movies a lot of fun love it good stuff guys hit the follow button if you love all ears english and and you believe in our mission of connection, not perfection.
We're looking for human connection in everything we learn when it comes to English, okay?
Excellent. All right, Michelle, we'll see you in the next one.
You have a good day.
You too. Bye, Lindsay.
Okay, bye -bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
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