On today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'm teaching you 20 political, crime and scandal words that Americans love to use.
Words and expressions like a slap on the wrist, skeletons in the closet to sweep something under the rug and to rat someone out.
Let's go.
Hey there, welcome to the Real Life English with Gabby podcast.
I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City.
My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.
Are you ready to improve your English skills?
Let's jump right in.
Welcome to part two of the crime series.
In episode number two we talked about crime vocabulary, but in this episode we're gonna get a little bit more specific.
In this episode, I'm talking about political crime and scandals.
In almost every country on earth, there have been political scandals and political crime that you need to know how to talk about.
As preparation for this episode, I watched a few popular American TV shows that are all about political scandals.
And honestly, that's how I prep for a lot of these episodes.
I think about all the possible words that we should use.
And sometimes I do a little research by looking at TV shows or movies that I know are about the topic.
So here are the 20 phrasal verbs, slang words and idioms that I'm teaching you in this episode con artist skeletons in the closet, a cover-up, or to cover up dirty laundry.
Take the fall hush money to drag someone's name through the mud out to get someone.
Or go after someone to look the other way.
To sweep something under the rug.
To pay someone off, to get caught with your pants down, to get dirt on someone.
A whistleblower to rat out, tip off in hot water, get away with murder.
A slap on the wrist and to throw the book at someone.
Before we get started, I just want to remind you that for every single person podcast episode, I create a study guide that has the transcript, listening activity, vocabulary activities and anything else you need to learn these words and to learn how to use them naturally and confidently.
The link to get that study guide is in the show description.
Today's story is about a scandalous politician and his impact on a city, that whose name you will probably recognize from movies and comic books.
Little side note here, I'm a big nerd.
I love anything that's fantasy or sci-fi from Harry Potter to superheroes.
And so you'll notice, in a lot of my stories I kind of add little things like names and locations for comic books that I love and superheroes that I love.
Let's get into today's story.
Former businessman Salvatore Moroni was running for mayor of Gotham City.
Moroni was a known crook, a con artist who stole money, threatened innocent people and killed whoever got in his way.
Many believed that he was the boss of organized crime in Gotham.
There were many rumors about all the skeletons in his closet that he worked hard to cover up.
Through the years, many reporters and law enforcement agents tried to publicize his dirty laundry, but someone else always took the fall for him.
He was good at giving hush money to the.
It was well known that he was out to get anyone who tried to drag his name through the mud.
He would always go after them and threaten their families.
Because of how dangerous he was, people often looked the other way when he committed his crimes.
He was able to sweep his crimes under the rug by paying people off.
Two weeks ago, though, all of that had changed.
One evening, Maroney got caught with his pants down during a secret meeting.
At this meeting, he had kidnapped and killed a police officer who had gotten some dirt on him.
A whistleblower from within his organization decided to rat him out and tip off the police about the murder that was going to take place.
The next day, all the media outlets in Gotham exposed his crimes and Maroney knew that he was in hot water.
In the end, Maroney did indeed pay for his crimes.
The legal authorities decided to throw the book at him, and he was going to jail for 20 years.
Thank goodness the Gotham City legal system didn't let him get away with murder and other crimes.
Instead of giving him a slap on the wrist and letting him get away with murder as they had in the past, they proved to other criminals in Gotham that their crimes would no longer be accepted all right.
So let's now get into the definitions of these words.
So firstly, I describe Maroney as being a crook and a con artist.
Both of these words describe someone who's a criminal and breaks the law often.
A con artist.
Specifically though, describes someone who cons or tricks people, usually in order to steal from them.
Next we have okay.
It says there were many rumors about all the skeletons in his closet that he worked hard to cover up.
So I actually really love the idiom skeletons in your closet.
I think it's really cool.
Skeletons in your closet represent secrets always, or crimes or things in your life that you want to keep hidden.
Sometimes it means like actual murder, like you killed someone, you have their bones or their skeleton hidden in your closet.
That that's what the extreme definition of this could mean.
To cover up is a phrasal verb and it means to hide a mistake or a crime.
So Maroney is trying to hide his past crimes or his skeletons.
Next, the story talks about Maroney's dirty laundry.
Dirty laundry is similar to skeletons in the closet.
Dirty laundry is private or embarrassing secrets or personal issues in your life that you really want to keep hidden.
So then what's the difference between dirty laundry and skeletons in the closet?
Skeletons in the closet usually refers to crime.
Like if we say that a politician has skeletons in his closet, like that means maybe they actually killed someone, but they did pretty bad crime.
Dirty laundry could be more like embarrassing things, like you're having problems in your family, your partner cheated on you and you want to, you know, hide the information.
That's dirty laundry.
It can also mean crime, but it's less serious or severe than skeletons in your closet.
The story says that someone also took the fall for Maroney.
When you take the fall for someone, you are accepting the blame or punishment for them.
So Maroney stayed innocent because other people took the blame for the crimes that he committed.
Next, we have the expression hush money.
The word hush in English means to stay or be quiet.
So hush money is when you pay someone so that they stay quiet about events that happened.
So politicians use hush money often in order to silence people.
Next in the story, it says Moroni was out to get anyone who tried to drag his name through the mud.
He would always go after them and threaten their families.
Okay, let's break this down.
So to be out to get someone or to go after someone means to threaten someone or try to kill them or make them suffer.
So if you're out to get someone, you really want them to suffer because of what they did.
It's like to have revenge because of what someone did to you.
To drag someone's name through the mud means that you publicly talk negative about someone and you negatively affect their reputation.
So Maroney tries to kill or hurt anyone who says anything negative about him in public.
Next in the story, I said that people looked the other way when Maroney committed crime.
He also swept his crimes under the rug.
Both of these expressions are different ways to say that he was trying to cover his crimes.
So look, the other way is when you pretend not to see or notice what someone is doing, usually illegal or against the rules.
Sweeping something under the rug is to hide or all the evidence or all the clues of crimes that are being committed.
It's like you're cleaning up your house before guests come over and you just you take all the dirt and you just put it right under the carpet or the rug.
So the way that he does this is by paying people off.
To pay off is a phrasal verb, And it means that you influence someone's behavior by giving them money.
So hush money is when someone stays quiet after being paid.
But paying someone off is more about influencing their actions.
So maybe you cause them to do illegal things or corrupt things.
Next, we have to be caught with your pants down.
This is really similar to being caught in the act, which means that people see or witness you doing something bad, either in person or on camera.
So there's like evidence or proof of what you did.
You can't hide it.
Okay, so the next few words and expressions are all about people who secretly betray a criminal by telling police about their true actions.
To get dirt on someone is to get damaging information on them.
A whistleblower is someone who shares illegal or secret actions of their company or organization.
Usually there's a lot of risk involved in being a whistleblower, because it's a very high profile or popular person or company and you're coming out with the truth.
And so there's a lot of risk to your life, to your career when you're a whistleblower.
To rat someone out means that you share someone's illegal actions with authority because you can gain from it or you can avoid trouble.
So someone blames you for something and you're like no no no here, look at this illegal action of the other person and you rat them out to save yourself.
Okay, and then we have to tip someone off.
To tip someone off is when you provide information or a warning, usually in a secret way.
So this person secretly told police what was gonna happen.
Okay, so digging up dirt is actually finding the information, and then being a whistleblower or ratting someone out or tipping off is what you do with the information.
Because of all these things, Moroni was in hot water.
This means that he's in trouble because of his actions.
So when you're in hot water, you're about to face the consequences of your actions.
The authorities threw the book at Moroni.
This means that they gave him the maximum possible punishment for the crime he committed.
They did not show any mercy.
They did the maximum.
This is the opposite of the next expression, which is to give someone a slap on the wrist.
This is when someone has very light or mild punishment.
So these two are opposites.
And lastly, we have get away with.
Get away with is a three word phrasal verb and it means to escape without punishment.
So get away with murder means to commit murder and then never get caught after the murder.
Wow, okay, we got through that.
You just learned 20 really, really popular expressions, slang and phrasal verbs in English.
And I kind of want you to go watch like Law and Order or Succession or another famous TV show or movie that's about scandal, because you're definitely going to hear these words in those things that you watch.
And next time there's a political scandal, which will probably be very soon.
You can now use the words that you just learned.
Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast.
Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently.
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