This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2524.
How crazy adds color to your English.
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Humans want to connect with those who see the world in bright colors.
Today, learn how to use this word crazy to do six different things, including how to intensify what you're saying.
Listen in today.
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Hey, Aubrey, how's it going?
I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you today?
How many movies do you think have the word crazy in the title?
That's a great question.
I would think like 100 of them.
I don't know, a lot.
A lot more.
So this, I had to use AI and like search and try to find out.
And they were like making an estimate.
AI was making an estimate using all of these different movie databases like IMDb.
And they were... including foreign language films.
Okay, cool.
So there were 1,500 was the estimate.
Oh my gosh.
So I guess it makes sense when you think of all of the foreign language films.
I don't know what, it would just be for english, but there are a lot.
There are a lot of movies.
Can you think of one?
Yeah, i mean, there's crazy rich asians.
That came out a few years ago.
That's a good one.
There's crazy stupid love, which i don't think i've seen.
That one oh, that was with ryan gosling and steve carell.
Oh yeah, yeah.
No, I know that one.
Yeah, where he mentors him.
And he's dating his daughter and he doesn't realize.
Yes, that's a good movie.
And then Crazy Heart.
I love that.
You ever see that with Jeff Bridges where he's sort of a washed up, country singer.
He's like an alcoholic.
And his famous song from when he was younger is called Crazy Heart.
It's actually a really heartwarming film.
I highly recommend it.
It's a few years old now.
All right.
So crazy clearly is an important word culturally in English.
Definitely.
Yes.
And we got a great question about it.
I could read it if you'd like.
This was on YouTube.
Remember, YouTube's a great place to leave us your questions.
This was from Wistfully Windy.
I love that.
That's a really good name.
And they said, oh, and it's Krishna said, Hi, guys, I'm Krishna.
Thank you for this great episode.
Could you make an episode on the different uses of the word crazy, including positive and negative meanings?
Thank you so much for your lovely podcast.
It means the world to me.
Thank you for leaving this great question.
We love beautiful reviews like that and great questions.
So in today's episode, we're going to share six.
Six different ways we use crazy.
Isn't that crazy, Aubrey, that we have so many ways?
And these are all as an adjective because we also have a lot of... expressions, right?
And nouns even.
So today, these are all the different ways we use it as an adjective.
So definitely hit follow.
We'll do a part two with some of the interesting expressions and idioms with the word crazy.
I love when we do episode series.
It just makes me want the next part, part of the series.
You know right, I'm excited about it.
Yeah, I'll close the loop in my mind.
So, good guys, hit the follow button and, while you're doing that, check out our reviews.
Right, go ahead and leave us a review.
I want to say a special thank you to QCC, who left us a five-star review from China on October 27th.
Guys, go and tell us what you think of the show.
We'll announce your name out loud on the show.
And most importantly, it helps us keep going.
It helps us continue and be excited to create new episodes every week for you.
Yes, we appreciate those reviews.
Lindsay, often welcome. copy and paste and send them to us.
And it always makes my day to get those.
It makes our day.
We do this for our listeners.
So we want to make sure you guys are getting our episodes, loving our episodes.
And you can also ask your question right there inside your review.
Right, Aubrey?
That's an option.
Yes, absolutely.
Right.
Wherever you leave a review, leave your questions there as well.
All right.
Can't wait to read those reviews.
So let's get into it, Aubrey.
There are six of them.
What's the first one?
Yeah.
So number one, I mean, is the most literal meaning.
Right.
Or historically, the word crazy has meant like not mentally sound, mentally ill, suffering from you know.
So this is tricky.
This of all of the meanings we're going to talk about today.
This is actually interesting.
Now used the least often.
We're much more careful to use the word crazy.
We really would instead say, you know, maybe mentally ill or suffering from mental illness now, instead of using the word crazy, wouldn't you think, Lindsay?
I totally agree.
I think we're a lot more careful now.
We have more technical terms for it someone suffering from mental illness.
And I know that Michelle and I did an episode on exactly this topic.
Can you use the word crazy to refer to people?
I can't find it now.
So for our longtime listeners, maybe you remember that episode.
It was probably...
Five years ago.
It was a while ago.
Yeah.
Maybe find it on the blog or in the app.
If you do a little bit of searching, chat GPT is a good resource for that as well.
If you ask like, You know, has Allers English done an episode about this?
And you can maybe find it that way.
So more details there in an older episode.
We're going to focus on these other meanings that we do use really often, where we'll say crazy and we no longer mean that like literally mentally ill.
We mean something else.
So for example, we might mean like wild, strange, or out of control.
And this is used to refer to someone's behavior or a situation.
Yeah, exactly.
So someone is behaving in an unusual and unpredictable, energetic kind of wild way.
Right.
For example, the crowd went crazy when the band came on stage.
So this would mean yelling really loud, jumping around.
We'd say they went crazy.
Yeah.
Or traffic is crazy downtown right now.
And one way that I hear people refer to this is referring to themselves when they were young.
Like everyone sort of has their crazy years and maybe in their 20s or maybe you take more risks than you would when you're older.
Right, Aubrey?
Yeah.
Yeah, I'll be like, I was crazy in my youth.
What was I thinking?
I up and moved to Japan without even considering.
Yeah, hitchhiking or just crazy things that you would not do now.
That you did then.
So you might hear people referring to their past in like a very, I guess, a wistful way, right?
Yeah, maybe, right?
To sort of say they were unpredictable, they were spontaneous, and they might use crazy to describe that.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And then the next one is where crazy means extremely good, impressive, or surprising.
Okay, this is interesting.
This is sort of slang.
It's getting more and more common.
It's very positive. might mean like impressive, unbelievable, extreme.
So for example, that concert was crazy good.
And you just mean it was extremely good.
It was amazing.
Yeah, this one might be new for our listeners.
So I'm excited about this.
You got the job after one interview.
That's crazy.
Meaning that's great.
That's amazing.
And this is interesting because, depending on your intonation there, you could mean that's unexpected or surprising and you wouldn't want to intend that right.
But if your intonation is very positive, be like that's crazy yeah, and they would know you mean like that's awesome yeah, you're right, you could be delivering two totally different meanings, depending on how you deliver it.
And to make sure there's no confusion there, you can always use crazy before another positive adjective like awesome.
You can say like, that's crazy awesome.
Yeah.
This is crazy delicious.
And then you're just emphasizing it.
It becomes a lot more slangy when we do that, doesn't it?
Yes, absolutely.
Or the view from the top of the mountain was crazy beautiful, right?
And we have to say that with some intonation too.
That would be strange if you say that with a monotone.
That was crazy beautiful.
What?
It was crazy beautiful, right, is what we're looking for there.
Exactly.
And so it just means very, extremely, right?
It's a great way to emphasize, but a more interesting way to emphasize.
Yes.
What's number four?
Four is negative again, means excessive or unreasonable.
So sort of like beyond normal limits of what would be expected.
For example, they're charging crazy prices for coffee in that hotel. like ridiculous.
Very similar to ridiculous, super high, unreasonable.
Or she works crazy hours, 12 hour days, six days a week.
Or it's crazy to buy a new car when you just got one last year.
It's unreasonable.
Michelle told us in a different episode recently sometime this month about a $12 iced coffee.
Yes.
I remember that.
And she's like, nevermind.
And walked away.
I would totally do that too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No.
And then we did another episode that's coming out soon about how, what to say when that happens, when you change your mind, when the price is too high actually,
So good.
Yeah.
All right.
What's the fifth way, Aubrey?
Okay.
So this means unrealistic or foolish or risky.
So sort of like irrational.
Not sensible.
Yeah.
So this is kind of playing off the theme of like mentally unwell in a sense.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
Something that someone would do who is not rational.
Right.
So that's a crazy idea, but it might just work.
Or you'd be crazy to quit your job without another one lined up.
So, of course, here this doesn't mean mentally ill.
It means, like, unreasonable.
They just think it's illogical.
And the last one is an intensifier.
And we touched on this earlier.
We're going to show you more examples of how it's a slang that can intensify words.
What you're trying to say, intensify an adjective.
Right, Aubrey?
Yeah.
So this is different.
It's slightly different.
So sometimes it means like extremely good.
And then often we're just using it to mean very.
And here it could be either.
It could be very bad or very good.
It's just used to intensify.
So this is kind of showing how it could be anything.
You could say it's crazy hot today.
And this does not mean there's nothing positive there.
I'm saying it's extremely hot.
Yeah.
Probably not a good thing.
That's not a good thing.
Or she runs crazy fast.
Right.
Extremely, extremely.
Yeah.
Or he's crazy talented.
Those last two are more positive.
Just saying like extremely talented.
And again, just a reminder, that is slang.
So if you're in a business scenario, maybe we're not using that to describe, right?
It depends on who's around you in very informal.
Yes.
Similar to super, right?
He's super talented.
He's crazy talented.
These are extremely informal.
Exactly.
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Okay, Aubrey, it's quiz time.
Sorry, not quiz time.
Oh my gosh, where's my head today?
It is role play time.
What are we doing here in this role play?
Okay, so we are talking about a festival that got a little out of control that I was at.
I'm going to tell you about it in this roleplay, Lindsay.
Okay, I'm ready.
I'm ready.
You won't believe what happened at the festival last night.
It was absolutely crazy.
Oh yeah?
What happened?
It was so packed, and suddenly I look up, and this crazy guy is climbing a speaker tower.
Yikes!
Was he hurt?
Not that I saw.
I hope not, but I wouldn't be surprised.
I'm glad.
I'm kind of glad I didn't go.
I was going to, but tickets were crazy expensive.
Nice.
We got a few of them here.
I first was just describing this festival as absolutely crazy.
So that's that second meaning, wild, strange, out of control.
Yeah, really good.
And then you used number five, the foolish meaning, right?
So I look up and this crazy guy is climbing a speaker tower.
Right.
Exactly.
Where we'll say it to mean irrational, foolish.
We'll describe people and sometimes situations too as like illogical this way.
Exactly.
And then finally, I said I was glad I didn't go.
I was going to go, but the tickets were crazy expensive.
And here I'm using crazy as an intensifier to modify expensive.
Very expensive.
Exactly.
Very expensive.
And this is a more interesting way, like what a great way to connect if you're going to exaggerate.
You don't want to always say very, really extremely.
These slang words.
If you're speaking with friends in an informal conversation, this is a great way to connect.
To use them, this more trendy slang to exaggerate.
It's true.
And even potentially on IELTS Speaking Part One, right, Aubrey?
Absolutely.
Yeah, we often recommend this to say super, crazy, way, these more informal slang words to say very.
Yep, we know speaking part one is okay for more casual stuff.
So guys, go over and check out the IELTS Energy podcast.
If you have IELTS in your future, we are over there for you.
So Aubrey, where's another episode our listeners could get more All Ears English?
Yes, there was a really good one recently.
If you missed it, scroll up and check it out.
2522.
What to say when you lose your train of thought.
This was really an awesome episode, with all of the different things you can say when just suddenly you don't remember what you were saying.
It was such a good episode.
I love that topic for an episode.
So guys do not miss that one.
And what is our final takeaway today?
What does this mean for connection, Aubrey?
Yeah, this is a great way to connect, to exaggerate a story or to share, right?
If something really crazy or unexpected happened and to use this fun informal vocabulary for it.
Yeah.
So when it comes to human connection, people connect with People that feel things, right?
You as a person want to connect with someone else that's seeing the world in vivid colors.
And this is a way to show that you're seeing the world in vivid colors.
You actually put some energy into what you're saying.
If you're experiencing something that seems extreme, use the intensifier.
So throw this in.
And don't forget what Lindsay said.
With this kind of vocabulary it's really important to avoid a monotone, or you're kind of losing that chance to connect because, like you were saying, the color comes out in both your vocabulary and your intonation.
You're saying this in an interesting way.
You don't want to be...
You don't want to use a monotone.
You got it.
All right.
Good stuff, Aubrey.
We'll see you in the next episode.
Have a good day.
Awesome.
Thanks, Lindsay.
All right.
Bye.
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