This is the All-Ears English Podcast.
Two idioms you may be saying incorrectly.
Welcome to the All-Ears English Podcast,
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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 Isles Wiz,
and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
Coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
Did you know that native speakers mix up their idioms sometimes?
Not falling into these traps can get you into the advanced level.
Listen in today to find out what the idioms are
and how to get a special deal on our brand new B2 Fluency Course.
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Hello, Aubrey. How's it going today?
I'm great. How are you Lindsay?
Fantastic. I am super excited to talk about idioms in today's episodes.
Have you ever realized that you were saying an expression or an idiom incorrectly?
Yeah, this has happened to me a couple times.
In fact, the other day, my partner meant to say bits and pieces
and said bits and pizzas and pizzas like the pizza you eat.
And we laughed so hard because I mean, it happens.
Sometimes you just accidentally say it incorrectly or sometimes you've been hearing it incorrectly.
So you say it incorrectly.
Oh my gosh, there's definitely a number of these that I have always said incorrectly.
And then when I'm like 25, I realized that all of a sudden,
I've been saying this wrong my entire life.
Yes, I'm excited that we're going to get into this.
One of the ones we're teaching today, I've said wrong my entire life.
Yeah, someone pointed it out and I was like, what?
What is an egg corn, by the way?
That word egg corn. What the heck does that mean?
It's a weird word, right?
These are called egg corns, which means you're saying the wrong word
as a result of mishearing something.
And this happens.
Native English speakers will incorrectly say an idiom because they heard it wrong.
And often like if you see it written, then you're like, oh, I get it.
But when you hear it, it sounds like different words.
So you make a mistake.
Interesting.
This can happen with songs too.
Right.
Absolutely.
Mr. Lyrics.
Yeah, it happens with kids too a lot of times with Mr.
Lyrics, but adults as well.
And then when you're all of a sudden singing along to a song with a friend and they sing it
differently, you think, oh, who's right?
Who's wrong here?
We got a Google.
That's pretty funny.
So why are idioms important when it comes to the B2 level, Aubrey?
What does it matter?
Yeah, when we're at that B1 level, it's really easy to make these mistakes with idioms.
It's hard to feel confident using them because they do have to be used word for word
or the meaning is lost.
It doesn't make sense.
So it's really important that we get to B2 where we're more comfortable with these very
native natural phrases.
Yeah.
So B2 is that place where we can get stuck.
It's that upper intermediate place, Aubrey.
You probably experienced it in French.
Absolutely.
Yes.
I know that I've experienced it in Spanish to some extent where I'm just using the same
words, the safe words, the easy words.
And I'm not pushing myself.
I'll never get to advance if I don't push through that B2 level.
Right.
And that's keeping us from having those interesting and deep conversations in a second
language.
We want you to have those conversations in English, but if you get stagnant there at that
intermediate level, that's difficult to do.
Yes, stagnant is the key word, right?
stagnant or there's really a plateau at the upper intermediate level that I think a lot
of our listeners might be stuck in that place.
And when we get to that place, to get past it, we actually need a plan.
Right, Aubrey?
It's not exact.
At that point, you have to do more than just jumping around the internet and consuming
entertaining content.
Exactly.
Right.
The same old thing you've been doing is not pushing you there.
You need a plan.
You need really good courses and lessons.
There's going to be more that's required to push you to those advanced levels.
Yep.
And that's why we launch.
We are launching our brand new B2 English fluency course.
And this week we have a special deal because it is shiny and new is the first time we've
ever launched it, Aubrey.
How are you feeling, by the way, about this course launch?
I'm so excited about this course because we were really able to interview some very interesting
people.
It's full of conversations with some of the most interesting people we know and none of
it's scripted.
So it's native natural conversations, which will really push you past that level where
you're just stagnant with those kind of scripted conversations.
You got it.
Yes.
Interesting conversations, interesting people eventually creates confidence and connection.
That's what we're all about, guys, at the end of the episode, a little later in a few
minutes, after we go through these idioms, we're going to talk about the special deal that's
available this week only.
All right.
So hang on, guys, but first let's talk about a couple of egg corns, right?
Yep.
Exactly.
What's the first one that you have made a mistake with, Aubrey?
Yes.
So this is chomping at the bit, which means you're impatient.
We'll say, oh, I'm really chomping at the bit to go on this vacation.
That means you can't wait for it to happen.
Have you heard this?
Have you said this chomping at the bit?
Yeah.
I have before.
I think of a horse, right?
Because a horse wears a bit and you imagine a horse in the gate before the horse race
or something, right?
Exactly.
But it's actually a mistake.
It should be champing at the bit.
Are you serious?
I didn't know that.
That's what's mean, either.
I know I said it incorrectly for a long time.
And then some time, we saw someone was like, it's actually champing.
It's like, what?
I had to give up.
Whoa.
Okay.
I'm fine today.
Chomping exists in English.
We kind of talk about people chomping their food like biting.
So it makes sense that we make this mistake.
The word, the verb for a horse fighting their bit or is actually champing.
So a horse is champing at its bit if it doesn't want that piece in its mouth.
And we just either hear it incorrectly or don't realize that champing is a separate word.
And so we often, you're going to hear, guys, chomping at the bit.
Oh, for sure.
That is fascinating.
You're breaking my brain.
You're blowing my mind today, Aubrey.
This is a mistake that's gone viral in a more than native speaker community.
I mean, we all say chomping at the bit.
I absolutely.
Absolutely.
So the good news is you can say chomping at the bit.
Most people aren't going to know that's what you're going to hear.
You can say it.
Don't stress about it.
There could be someone that says to you, like they said to me, I think it's actually
champing at the bit.
It might be more, it might be used correctly outside of the US more, but within the US,
you're going to hear chomping at the bit.
It's a very common error.
And that brings up an interesting conversation, which is one we would have at the upper and
intermediate level.
At what point do you choose to actually say it incorrectly?
Because it's what everyone is saying.
I would argue for this one, I might say it incorrect, continue to say it incorrectly.
Because it's what everyone recognizes and says it almost would be, you'd be more likely
to be corrected if you say, like, you know, be patient, you're champing at the bit.
There's a good chance.
I'm going to be like, I think it's chomping at the bit.
That is.
And then it might actually break the connection if you're like, let's Google.
I'm right.
I think that is the litmus test right there.
You always think what is going to maintain the connection?
If I go with the correct version or the incorrect version, what is going to be better?
Maybe that would open an interesting conversation and debate, which could be connection in that
moment or it could be the opposite.
Or you just want to say it wrong because that's what everyone is saying and that's not
the point of that conversation.
Exactly.
So it depends on who you're talking to, what type of conversations you have.
So, but either way, this is interesting to know.
You won't learn this any text book.
I love it.
All right.
And this is the kind of thing that we clear up at this level, at the B2 level to advance
into the higher level and to advanced English.
So this next one, I love, I identify with this completely.
What is it, Aubrey?
It's a corn.
For all intensive purposes, intensive being one word, have you ever said this or heard
this, Lindsay?
I think I might have actually thought until today, well, actually, well, now I'm not sure
which one it is.
So intense in purposes, intense in purposes.
That's the correct one.
Okay.
For all intents and purposes, which if you think about the words, this makes more sense,
right?
For every intent, for every purpose.
Yes.
It doesn't make sense to have the word intensive.
No.
For all intensive purposes, but this is an egg corn because people hear it incorrectly.
Right.
They don't see it written.
We say it quickly.
We run our words together and it sounds like for all intensive purposes, they sound the
same.
It completely sounds the same.
All intents and purposes.
Let's give some sample sentences for this one, Aubrey.
How about this?
I dropped my phone in the pool.
So for all intents and purposes, it's useless.
Exactly.
So the meaning means essentially, right?
Everything has the same outcome or result as something else.
So you might say, for all intents and purposes, this contract does what we need it to do.
But of course, I'm emphasizing the words.
So you can tell the difference on the podcast.
We're actually going to say for all intents and purposes, this contract does and it sounds
the same as the egg corn as the mistake.
I could see in one of our fluency parties or our conversation clubs getting into a conversation
like this with our students live.
Absolutely.
Over, what do you do?
Do you move to which one would be connection, which the wrong one or the correct one?
What do we do in these moments?
And I get questions like this a lot in open conversation club because our students are
at this higher level.
They're hearing these mistakes.
They're not sure which to use.
Really helps to have a native speaker teacher and also other language learners to bounce
these ideas.
I have these really interesting conversations about which should we use?
I love it.
I love it.
I'm a little bit more because I am so excited about the launch of our brand, Shinee
knew B2 fluency course on break.
So let's talk a little bit about our method, the connection method, which is baked into
this course and every course.
How is it different from all of the other courses out there?
What's the key differentiator here?
Well, we start with real English, how native speakers really speak.
Most programs, a lot of courses, manufacture the English, just like textbooks, right?
Reptid conversations with the vocabulary they want to teach and it's pretty unnatural.
But with real native conversations, you're learning real English.
Yeah, because if we inherently tell the person we're interviewing, okay, we're going to interview
you, but please use these three words.
It's not going to be real.
It's going to be manufactured.
So we do the opposite, Aubrey, you interviewed a couple of very interesting people for this
course.
Who did you interview in this course?
Yes, I interviewed my friend Orla from Ireland.
So she has this amazing Irish accent, but she's lived in the States for a long time.
She's a very successful leader at Microsoft.
And there were so many interesting conversations that we were able to pull these awesome lessons
from.
You learn so much vocabulary and also strategies that you couldn't learn from a scripted conversation.
Yeah.
So that is the key difference, right?
Of the connection method at all, there's English.
As we start with the real English, it's unscripted, it's spontaneous.
It is not manufactured.
How long does it take for a student to actually complete this course?
What is the time commitment?
What are we talking about here to get through the B2 course?
Yeah, we recommend 20 minutes a day, three to five days for week, and that would take
you about 90 days, right?
Yeah.
This will help you build that habit.
You have a clear study plan where your time is organized and you are improving every single
week.
Yeah, exactly.
And it's because you don't have to complete a course like this in 90 days, right?
You have lifetime access for our courses now.
So you could, you could complete it in two years.
But the key is we do something every day or at least five days a week, three to five days
a week to build the consistency, the momentum, right?
It's momentum building.
Exactly.
And this is new and exciting if you're not yet in one of our courses, you might not realize
this that we have added tons of speaking practice.
Yes.
And any of our courses you are part of our community, we have a weekly open conversation
clubs that are so fun.
They're over Zoom.
We get to chat with you and get to know you.
You get to meet other members of our community, other speaking partners, as well as monthly
fluency parties, Lindsay and I are both there.
Yes.
So fun.
You guys need to get to this fun speaking practice.
Yeah.
The cool thing about the fluency party is that you're always going to get it to meet at
least two members of our podcasting team.
We have a team of four podcasters here and you'll get to meet two out of four of the team
members, which is incredible in itself.
Yes.
And so fun.
Yeah.
What is the topic?
So this month, you and Jessica are actually hosting it.
And what is the topic this month of our fluency party?
Yes.
We always have a really interesting discussion, sort of diving deep about one topic and we'll
share a little bit of vocabulary to talk about that.
And we're getting into healthcare this month.
So if you have ever wanted to talk about healthcare in your country, what it's like around
the world, find out from other people how it's different because people in open conversation
clubs are from countries all over the world.
Right.
And then we go deep.
It's not just like what's healthcare like?
What should it be like?
What should be changed and why?
I had a really interesting conversation with a student about socialized medicine and it's
going to be interesting to dive into pluses and minuses of something like that.
Oh, that is going to be such a rich conversation topic.
This month and it kind of stems off of the conversation I had in our B2 fluency course,
one of the lessons with my friend Denise who used to work as a doula.
Right?
Yes.
I mean, what's a doula, by the way?
That's someone who assists in childbirth, a lot like a midwife.
And yeah, that's really interesting because we don't usually get an inside peak into that
type of profession.
I know.
So I'm excited for you guys to hear that interview.
Yeah.
So is it actually that safe to have a baby in the US, right?
What are some of the challenges and some of the data is surprising, right?
So guys, that is one of the lessons along with the interview, Aubrey did with Orla in the
B2 fluency course.
So this content is waiting for you.
It is being unveiled this week.
It's ready for you to build fluency with this content.
So Aubrey, I think our listeners need to know about the deal at this point.
Yes.
Yes, we need to join now because we are offering special early bird access.
So not only do you save up to $100 and you will also get a special bonus five cool phrases
in English, which is an amazing course that Jessica created.
I love it.
Yeah.
But also when you join before June 1st, you get another course, how to be polite in English.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So we're offering the early bird bonus to our amazing podcast listeners because we know
you guys are, you're ready for this.
This is exactly for you at this level.
So when you join before the early bird date of June 1st, you get the how to be polite
in English.
But after June 1st, that extra bonus does go away.
Now Aubrey, where should our listeners go to get it?
Yes.
Go to allersenglish.com slash B2, the letter B and the number two.
And you got to go now, guys, for that special early bird discount.
Yeah.
Don't miss it.
I'm going to run through the roleplay.
I think we have a few minutes.
Let's do a quick roleplay.
Let's do a quick roleplay.
And I are at a wedding in this roleplay.
I'll start us out.
All right.
So we're coming back to the egg corns, right, that we talked about at the beginning of
the episode.
So let's see how these are used.
I'm not going to conversation.
Yes.
I know the mother of the bride has been champion at the bit for this day to come.
I'm not surprised.
So much planning goes into a wedding.
So when it's all said and done, I'm sure everyone is a bit relieved.
Yeah.
Her dad told me he was really hands off with preparations.
So for all intents and purposes, this is her mom's show.
I feel like that's often how weddings can go.
Right.
Yeah, absolutely.
And there's a little bonus in here.
Another egg corn.
Often people will say, or write, all set and done.
Oh, that should be all said and done.
So this is an extra fun one.
Interesting.
So that one I'm pretty clear on.
I feel like I don't make that mistake, but fascinating that we do, you know, these
mistakes can go viral.
And sometimes again, it's not a problem, right?
And that's what we explore at this high intermediate level.
So so first you said, I know the mother of the bride has been champion at the bit for
this day to come.
She's been what she's been impatient, like so excited, ready, waiting.
And I like what you said, Lindsay, I probably would be more likely to say, chomping at the
bit if I were in the US because otherwise, the next thing you said might have been like,
what wait, what do you mean champion at the bit?
I thought it's chomping at the bit.
Am I wrong?
I know.
You know, it's so funny.
And then I said, I'm not surprised.
So much planning goes into a wedding.
So when it's all said and done, everyone is relieved.
So when we say all said and done, it means when everything's the, yeah, right?
When we consider all the details, it's all over or or or whatever you want to frame it.
And then you used our fun one, intense and purposes.
What did you say, Aubrey?
Yeah.
For all intents and purposes, this is her mom's show.
It means like essentially like he, the dad didn't do much. So, you know, the mom was able
to pick all of the details.
Yeah.
Wow.
Okay.
So this is it.
I mean, what's our takeaway for today's episode, Aubrey?
A couple of opportunities here for a listener.
Absolutely.
Right?
Using idioms, idiomatic language really pushes you from intermediate to advanced, but it
can make you stagnant if you're stressed about using them.
And correctly, if you're not getting the speaking practice you need to practice using
these in conversations.
So we want you to feel confident using them.
It makes language so much more fun.
Yeah.
And overall, we don't want you to get stuck at this intermediate level.
We want to move you through upper intermediate and eventually into advanced and the way to
do that is not to jump around the internet and find entertaining resources.
That is not for learning.
That is not for outcomes.
The way to get an outcome that you want is a study plan.
And we have it for you.
Aubrey, we haven't launched a course in quite a while.
Well, last time we launched a course was our business English course a few years ago.
So it's been a little while.
So this is exciting for us.
We can't wait to share it with you.
We put a lot of work into it.
So guys go to allersenglish.com slash B2 to check it out.
Yeah, be the first one ever to get into B2.
That is my challenge.
I think it's going to be a podcast listener and be the one guys to be the very first student
in B2.
It is open now.
So go to allersenglish.com slash B2 that is the letter B and the number two.
We'll see you there.
Awesome.
See you there.
We'll see you at Open Conversation Club.
Yeah, and it's a party.
I'm so excited.
Huh?
All right.
See you there.
Take care.
You too.
Bye.
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