Hello, and welcome to the Learn Every Day English podcast, Your Roadway to English Proficiency.
Hey, you've come to the right place to improve your listening comprehension skills and mastery of the English language.
My name is Gary, and I will be your host today.
I'm a native English speaker born and raised in the United States, and I'm a retired engineer living in a small Texas town about one hour north of Houston.
I'm also a language learner like you.
I'm studying Spanish, so I know what it is like to learn a new and different language.
Hey, so now let's jump right in to today's episode.
Hey, howdy, listeners.
How y 'all doing today?
Hey, welcome to episode 17 of the Learn Every Day English podcast.
I'm glad to have you with me.
In this episode, we're going to talk about English idioms or expressions with people's names or that have a name or the name of a person in the expression.
Hey, but before we get started, I want to remind you, you can follow me at my webpage.
Just go to www .learneverydayenglish .com.
There you can find links to the podcasts, but more importantly, you can find a podcast resource page where you can find the program notes and follow along with me today, so you don't have to have a pen and paper or pencil and paper and try to write everything down.
Just go to the webpage, go to the podcast resources page, go to episode 17 and download the program notes and read and follow along with me.
Also, there's a link to the Learn Every Day English YouTube channel where we have a lot of interesting and engaging videos that will help you learn and improve your English and also learn a little bit more about life and culture here in the United States.
Well, I think that's enough for now.
Hey, let's jump right in to today's episode.
Well, like I said earlier, we're going to be going over 11 English idioms or expressions with people's names in them.
So maybe you've heard some of these and maybe you haven't, but they're very common or popular, and some are really, really common and popular in English.
A lot of these are used in regular, common day -to -day speech, informal speech that people use with their friends.
Sometimes they'll be used in more formal settings, possibly at work.
So I hope you find these interesting.
Again, just go to the Learn Every Day English webpage and download the program notes so you can just follow along with me, write something down if you need to take notes.
The first expression is called a peeping tom.
Peeping tom. To peep means like to look into something, like look through a window to try to see what's going on.
Usually sometimes in a manner that is kind of secretive, you're trying to find out what's going on and maybe not let the other person know that you're looking.
But a peeping tom is an expression used to describe a person who takes pleasure from secretly watching other people.
And there's another word or term in English that we use for this type of person, and we call that person a voyeur, which I think has a French term.
But it's a person that takes pleasure from secretly, and that's the important thing, secretly watching other people.
I can use this in a sentence and say, when I was in my bedroom last night, I saw a peeping tom looking into my window.
When I was in my bedroom last night, I saw a peeping tom looking into my window.
So there was a person looking into my window secretly trying to say maybe spy on me and see what I was doing.
Most commonly, this usually refers to men that are trying to look into windows and secretly watch or spy on women.
The second example phrase is, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
That's kind of a long expression I know.
But this is called a proverb, and it means that if a person does not take some time off from work or working too much, they can become boring.
So all work, that means if you just work all the time, no play means you have no leisure time, you have no time to relax, makes Jack, which is a man's name, a dull boy.
Dull also is another word for boring.
So if you work too much and you don't take time to enjoy yourself, you're going to be a boring person, and that's what this phrase means.
So here's an example sentence.
Tom, you really shouldn't work so much, and you need to take some time off and relax, or take a vacation.
You know, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Again, so somebody is talking to Tom and says, hey, Tom, you really shouldn't work so much, and you need to take some time off and relax, or take a vacation.
You know the saying, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Number three is the expression, the real McCoy, or be the real McCoy.
And McCoy is just usually a last name of a person, like John McCoy, but the expression here is to be the real McCoy.
And this means to be the genuine article, or the real article, or the real thing, and not a fake thing.
So for example, I can say, if I see my friend wearing a watch, I can tell him or ask him, I see you are wearing a Rolex watch.
Is that the real McCoy, or a fake, or an imitation?
I see you are wearing a Rolex watch.
Is that the real McCoy, or is that a fake, or is that an imitation?
Because there are fake or imitation Rolex watches that you can buy that are not the real thing.
So we can say, if you buy a fake watch, it is not the real McCoy.
The real McCoy is the actual real Rolex watch.
Number four is the expression, every Tom, Dick, and Harry.
So Tom, Dick, and Harry are men's names.
But this expression just refers to a general term that means everybody, or every ordinary person.
An example sentence is this, it is very difficult and takes much hard work to become fluent in English.
If it were easy, every Tom, Dick, and Harry could do it.
Again, it is very difficult and takes much hard work to become fluent in English.
If it were easy, every Tom, Dick, and Harry could do it.
That means, hey, everybody could do it if it were easy.
Number five is the expression, for Pete's sake.
For Pete's sake, and Pete is a man's name in English.
But this is used as an exclamation to show frustration, or can show irritation, or even show surprise.
For example, I have two sentences.
The first one is this, hey, for Pete's sake, what's taking so long?
Let's go. We don't have much time.
For Pete's sake, what's taking so long?
Let's go. We don't have much time.
It's like, wow, hey, what's going on?
What's taking so long?
That's what it means in this sentence.
The second sentence is this, hey, for Pete's sake, Jim, I asked you to do one simple thing, and you messed that up.
For Pete's sake, Jim, I asked you to do one simple thing.
And you messed that up.
It's like, hey, Jim, or what's going on, Jim?
What happened? I asked you to do one simple thing, and you messed that up.
And to mess something up means to make a mistake with something, to not do a good job with something.
Number six is the expression, have the patience of Job, Job.
And this comes from, I guess, an expression that's in the Bible or referring to Job, who was a person in the Bible.
And it's interesting, Job's name is spelled J -O -B, which is the same spelling for the word job.
But as far as a man's name, it's pronounced Job, J -O -B.
So to have the patience of Job just means to have a lot of patience.
For example, John's wife is very difficult and hard to live with.
I don't see how he does it.
He must have the patience of Job.
John's wife is very difficult and hard to live with.
I don't see how he does it.
He must have the patience of Job.
That means John must have the patience of Job, or John must have a very large amount or quantity of patience.
Number seven is the phrase, jack of all trades.
And sometimes we add another couple words after that phrase, and we'll say, jack of all trades, master of none.
So you might hear either expression, jack of all trades, or jack of all trades, master of none.
And this is an expression used for people who are competent or have the ability to do a lot of things, have many skills, but are not especially good at any of them.
They're very knowledgeable.
Maybe they're average and okay at a lot of things, but they are not masters of any one of them.
So for example, if I know a friend, I could tell him, hey, wow, you can fix almost anything.
You are a real jack of all trades.
And a trade is another word for like a profession or a job.
Say if you're a carpenter, we can say carpentry is your trade.
If you're an electrician, an electrician is your trade.
Maybe you're in the business world.
You're a finance person.
We can say finance is your trade.
So trade is just another word for the type of work that you do.
So again, the sentence is, wow, you can fix almost anything.
You are a jack of all trades.
And then the person can respond and say, no, I can do a lot of things, but none extremely well.
I'm a jack of all trades, master of none.
The eighth expression is the term or phrase John Doe or Jane Doe.
And these are just names used for a man, John Doe, or a woman, Jane Doe, whose real name is unknown.
So maybe you're trying to describe a situation.
You don't know the person's name or who the person was.
You can say, well, it was a John Doe, or if it was a female, it was a Jane Doe.
So for example, I can say and use this sentence.
The police found a John Doe under the bridge last night, who appears to have drowned in the river.
The police found a John Doe under the bridge last night, who appears to have drowned in the river.
So they found a person, a man, but he is unidentified.
They don't know who he is, so they just refer to him or call him John Doe.
The 10th example phrase is Jekyll and Hyde.
And this comes from a movie called Jekyll and Hyde.
And this refers to someone who has a Jekyll and Hyde personality, which means they can be very pleasant at one time and very unpleasant on the other side or other time.
So their personality can change from being very nice to not nice.
For example, I can say, Mary can be real nice one day and very mean in the next.
She is a real Jekyll and Hyde.
Mary can be real nice one day and very mean the next.
She is a real Jekyll and Hyde.
Number 10 is the expression John Q.
Public. John Q, just a letter Q, public.
And this is just a reference to the typical average person, like a person in the general public.
You don't want to give a specific name of anybody.
For an example sentence, I can say, Remember, as public servants, we are here to serve John Q.
Public. Remember, as public servants, we are here to serve John Q.
Public. And public servants usually refers to people that work in a form of government.
It could be city government, county government, the federal government.
We call these people public servants because their job is to represent and work for the public.
And they work for John Q.
Public, which is just another way to say the people.
And number 11 is the expression John Hancock.
And John Hancock was an actual person who signed the Declaration of Independence.
But this refers to a person's signature.
So if you need to sign something, we say that's your John Hancock.
And like I said, it refers to one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence of the United States.
Like an example sentence is this, I need for you to sign this contract.
Please put your John Hancock on the bottom line.
I need for you to sign this contract.
Please put your John Hancock on the bottom line.
That means, please put your signature on the bottom line.
Or please sign the bottom line of this contract.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Learn Every Day English podcast.
This is actually going to be part one of a two -part series.
So we're going to have a part two going over other idioms and expressions that have a person's name in them.
So I'd love to hear from you and what you thought of this episode.
If you have any questions for me or any suggestions for specific topics you would like me to discuss on this program, please let me know.
Just go to the Learn Every Day English webpage.
On the home page at the bottom, you'll see a contact form.
Hey, just fill that out.
Send me a message. Drop me a line.
I'll get your email and I'll respond back to you.
Hey, well, that's it for now, listeners.
Hey, be sure to check out our upcoming episodes.
And thanks for listening and goodbye.
