Well, hello again and welcome to the Learn Every Day English Podcast, your road to English proficiency.
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 am a native English speaker born and raised in the United States and a retired engineer living
in a small Texas town about an hour north of Houston. I'm also a language learner studying
Spanish so I know what it is like to learn a new and different language. So now let's jump right
in to today's episode. Well, yee-haw! Howdy y'all and greetings from Texas! Well, that's the Texas
accent if you didn't get it and that just means hello everybody and welcome from Texas. Glad to
have you with me again today and this is going to be episode eight of the Learn Every Day English
Podcast and we're going to be talking about a topic called blends. And I'll be getting more
into that and what that means and hope you'll find that interesting. But before we get started,
again, I want to remind you that you can follow me at my webpage. Just go to www.learneverydayenglish.com.
That's www.learneverydayenglish.com, all one word. And at the webpage you can find links to
and listen to all of the podcasts directly from the webpage. There's also a button or link you
can click that says podcast resources or podcast resources page and there you can find an outline
of the show or a transcript of the show or the episode that you can either look at or download
and follow along with me and I hope that will hopefully make it a lot easier for you. And
finally at the webpage you can access a link that will take you to the Learn Every Day English
YouTube channel where you can watch many interesting and engaging videos to practice
your listening comprehension and also improve your English skills. Or you can just go to YouTube and
just in the search bar just type Learn Every Day English and you can find those videos that way as
well. So now without further ado, let's jump right into today's episode. Well in today's episode
we're going to talk about blends. And you might be asking, hey what is a blend? And this has to do
with blending of words in English. So a blend is a word that is formed by combining two different
words to create a new word. That's by the simple definition as I can give you. And through blending
the sounds and meanings of two existing words a blend creates a new expression that is a linguistic
blend of the two individual terms. And a lot of times the blend has two meanings that are packed
into one word or contained within that one word. So probably the best way to understand what I'm
about is just to go ahead and give you some examples. So I'm going to give you examples of
two words that you may know or probably know. And those two words have been combined in English to
form a new word which has a different meaning. So the first two words I'm going to tell you about
are the words Bombay which is a very large and famous city in India. And Hollywood which is an
area in Los Angeles city where people go to make a career in the movie industry. So in the US we've
combined the words Bombay and Hollywood to create a new word called Bollywood. And Bollywood just
means the Indian movie industry or the movie industry over in the country of India is called
Bollywood. And I'll use this blended word or this new word in a sentence. I have a cousin who is a
very famous actor in Bollywood. So this is going to be the format or the style that I'm going to
give you these words. So I'm going to say the two separate words, the two common words. And I'm
going to tell you the blended word and then use the blended word in a sentence. So the next two
words are breath and analyzer. So the breath and analyzer. And we combine these two words and we
get the word breathalyzer. Breathalyzer. And a breathalyzer is a device or instrument that is
used to determine or to find out if somebody is drunk. And drunk just means somebody who has had
too much to drink. And we say they are impaired or they are they cannot or are not functioning
normally. That's drunk. So a sentence I can I can use is the police stopped him
and gave him a breathalyzer test to see if he had been drinking and driving.
So again as I've said before in some other episodes don't try to either remember write
these down. Just go to the learn everyday English page. Go to the podcast resources
link or podcast resources page and you will find a copy of these this episode of program notes
with all of these examples and words on them and just print print it out or follow along
with the episode. The next two words are brother and romance. And we combine these two words into
a new word called a bromance. A bromance and a bromance is just a close relationship between
two men. And this really has nothing to do with like anything romantic or sexual. It's just a
close relationship or bond between two men. So an example sentence is after their families went on
vacation together last year. John and Dave developed a bromance. A bromance. The next two
words are the words breakfast and lunch. You know and everybody hopefully knows what breakfast and
lunch are. But we have combined these two words and created the word brunch. Brunch and a brunch
is a meal that is eaten after breakfast but before lunch. So that's what a brunch is. So I can say in
a sentence we are going to brunch around 10 a.m. Do you want to join us? We are going to brunch
around 10 a.m. Do you want to join us? The next two words are car and hijack. Car and hijack.
And to hijack means like to take over usually a vehicle by force. So we have combined car and
hijack and created the word carjack. Carjack and that means to take somebody's car by force usually
like using a type of weapon like a gun. So I can say as an example sentence while he was stopped
at the traffic light someone tried to carjack him. While he was stopped at the traffic light someone
tried to carjack him. And you probably might have heard the word hijack when it comes to maybe
airplanes. The next two words are chill and relax. Chill and relax. So the word chill can have two
different types of meanings. To chill can mean to make something cooler or colder but it can also
mean to just relax and take it easy. And then of course relax just means to rest or take it easy.
But we have combined the two words chill and relax and have created a new word or a blend called
chillax. Chillax. And chillax just means to calm down and rest and take it easy.
So for an example I can say I spent most of the weekend chillaxing. I spent most of the weekend
chillaxing or basically just relaxing taking it easy and not doing very much. The next two words
are chocolate and alcoholic. Chocolate you know is a type of food product that's very delicious.
Alcoholic is somebody who we say in English has a drinking problem. They drink too much alcohol.
We have combined chocolate and alcoholic and created the word chocoholic. And a chocoholic
is someone who eats an excessive amount of chocolate or somebody who eats more chocolate
than they should be eating. So for an example I can say every time I see Tom he is eating chocolate
he must be a chocoholic. Every time I see Tom he is eating chocolate he must be a chocoholic.
The next two words are crazy and drunk. Drunk again means somebody who has had too much alcohol
to drink. So we combine crazy and drunk and we get the new word crunk. Crunk. So this is a person
who is out of control after consuming or drinking too much alcohol. So for example I can say when
Dave drinks too much he gets crunk. When Dave drinks too much he gets crunk. The next two words
are dumb and confound. Dumb and confound. Dumb can mean somebody who is stupid or if you're dumb
about something that means you're you don't understand something and to confound means to
confuse. But we've combined dumb and confound to get the word dumb found which means to greatly
confuse or can also mean to greatly astonish or amaze. So for example I can say when I heard that
Jim and Mary got a divorce I was dumbfounded. They seemed like the perfect couple. When I heard that
Jim and Mary got a divorce I was dumbfounded or greatly astonished or amazed because they seemed
like the perfect perfect couple. The next two words are electricity and execute. You probably
know what electricity is. Execute means to put somebody to death. But we've combined these two
words and created the word electrocute. Electrocute which means to die by or death by electricity.
For example I can say my uncle was electrocuted while trying to repair a broken light in his house.
My uncle was electrocuted while trying to repair a break a broken light in his house. The next two
words are friend and enemy and we get the word frenemy frenemy and this is someone who is supposed
to be a friend but whose actions are more like that of a enemy or an enemy or a foe which is
another word for enemy. Example I can say I heard John telling lies about you. I thought he was your
friend but it looks like he is a frenemy. I heard John telling lies about you. I thought he was your
friend but it looks like he is a frenemy. The next two words are giant and enormous and these
both of these words mean something that is very large or huge and we combine these two words and
we get the word ginormous ginormous. So I can say wow the Grand Canyon is ginormous.
Wow the Grand Canyon is ginormous and I'll say a lot of these blended words are used a lot in
English and they are very common. The next two words are guess and estimate. Guess and estimate
and we combine these two words to get guesstimate which is a guess or an estimate where you are not
very sure or exactly sure of the answer but you give out an answer that you think is the best
answer that you can come up with at the time. For example I can say I don't exactly know how much my
car weighs. My guesstimate is about 2,000 pounds. I don't exactly know how much my car weighs. My
guesstimate is that it weighs about 2,000 pounds. The next two words are the word sheep
and people. Sheep is its type of animal and people. We combine these two words and we get the word
sheeple sheeple and this is a derogatory or kind of a bad term we use for people who are perceived
or seem to be following orders and they avoid critical thinking. So these are people that may
follow somebody else or a group and they just listen or do whatever they are told to do. They
don't use their mind to come up with decisions of their own. So for example I can say that group
blindly follows whatever their leader tells them to do. They are just sheeple. That group blindly
follows whatever their leader tells them to do. They are just sheeple and to blindly follow means
like you in essence you are just not looking or watching or seeing what is going on. You just do
whatever you are told to do. The next two words are shop and alcoholic and we get the word shopaholic
and this is an individual or a person who is addicted to shopping and buying products.
Addicted to means like you do something and you can't help yourself. So for example I can say
Tracy is always buying things on Amazon. She is a real shopaholic or maybe I can say
Tracy can't help herself from buying things on Amazon. She is a real shopaholic.
The next two words are smoke and fog. Smoke and fog and fog is a type of we say a haze or
atmospheric condition that is produced by say moisture in the air and we get but we combine
smoke and fog to get smog and smog is a form of air pollution that has the qualities of both smog
and fog. An example sentence is there was a lot of smog in the city today because of all the air
pollution. There was a lot of smog in the city today because of all the air pollution. The next
two words are Spanish and English and you might if you're a Spanish speaker you might have heard
this word. We combine these two words to get spanglish which is a hybrid or combined language
that combines English and Spanish together and living in Texas I can tell you that spanglish is
very common and very popular. So an example sentence is in Texas you can hear people speaking
spanglish. In Texas you can hear people speaking spanglish. The next two words are stay and
vacation. Stay means just like to remain at or in a place so we combine stay and vacation and
we get the word staycation which is a vacation that you take in your own town and it's very
common today right now because of the coronavirus that people do not want to travel. People want to
go on a vacation but they just stay in their hometown and do something locally. So an example
sentence is because of the coronavirus we don't feel comfortable going out of town so we are going
to have a staycation. Because of the coronavirus we don't feel comfortable going out of town
so we are going to have a staycation. The last two words I want to mention are the words
work and alcoholic and we combine these two words to get workaholic. And a workaholic is a person
or individual who works excessive hours or who just likes to work too much. He is a workaholic
and I can use that word in a sentence. Bill lives at the office. He is a real workaholic.
Bill lives at the office. He is a real workaholic. So those are some examples of words blends or
blended words in English and again to help your English get better and to improve.
I give you a challenge again. Try to use these blended words and make up sentences of your own.
If you want to you can come up with sentences. Send them to me through the contact form on the
home page of the Learn Every Day English website and I'll take a look at them and let you know what
I think. So that's going to be good practice for you in using these words and like I said before
these blended words are very common and used often in spoken English. Well okay I hope you enjoyed
this episode of the Learn Every Day English podcast. Again I'd love to hear from you and what
you thought about this episode and if you have any questions for me or if you have any suggestions
for specific topics you would like me to discuss on this program or perhaps even on a YouTube video.
So just again go to the Learn Every Day English home page. At the bottom you'll find a contact
form and just fill that out and send me a message and I'll get an email and I'll respond back to
that and read it. Well that's it for now I think. Be sure to check out our upcoming episodes or if
you haven't check out some previous episodes and for now just thanks for listening. Talk to you
and goodbye.
