Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 555, Lying and Telling the Truth.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 555.
© transcript Emily Beynon, and download learning guides for all of our current episodes that will help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is a dialogue between Elizabeth and Leo.
It's going to use a lot of vocabulary related to expressions of lying or how we talk about telling the truth.
Honestly, Let's get started.
You're full of it.
I'm telling you the God's honest truth.
Why would I eat the last piece of cake when I know that you had your heart set on it?
That's the question, isn't it?
Why would you go behind my back and eat it and then try to put one over on me?
Would I be able to look you in the eye if I were lying?
Look at me.
I'm the picture of Honest Abe.
Do you expect me to believe that?
There's not a dishonest bone in my body.
I may tell a white lie here and there but I would never try to tell you a bald-faced lie like this.
Oh, really?
Do you swear?
I swear that I didn't eat the last piece of cake.
There's something fishy about the way you said that.
You didn't eat the last piece of cake, but you know who did.
Spill it, Abe.
Elizabeth begins by saying, You're full of it.
To say someone is full of it means that they are lying, that they are not telling the truth.
It's an informal expression and a very strong expression.
You don't want to say this to anyone that you work for or work with.
It's a very strong expression.
It actually comes from a vulgar expression, which we won't talk about.
But if you put an SH in front of the last word, you'll know what I mean.
Leo says, I'm telling you the God's honest truth.
The expression, the God's honest truth, means it is absolutely, completely true.
You say this, or you could say this, when someone thinks that you're lying and you're trying to convince them that you are telling the truth.
Leo says why would I eat the last piece of cake?
And So Elizabeth is mad because she thinks Leo ate the last piece of cake, probably in the refrigerator.
Elizabeth had her heart set on it.
To have your heart set on something means that you want it very much.
You are planning on getting it.
We'll often use this expression when we don't get what we were planning on getting.
For example, you go to your favorite Japanese restaurant and you want to get a certain kind of sushi.
But when you get there, they don't have that sushi today.
And you're disappointed.
You say, I had my heart set on the spicy tuna roll or whatever it is.
So Leo asks Elizabeth why he would eat the last piece of cake when he knew that Elizabeth had her heart set on it.
Elizabeth says, that's the question, isn't it?
Meaning, yes, why did you do that?
Why would you go behind my back and eat it and then try to put one over on me?
To go behind someone's back means to do something without telling the other person, often something that will affect the other person or that the other person probably did not want you to do.
So if your wife tells you that she does not want you to buy a new car, but one day when she is gone, you go and you buy a new car, you have gone behind her back.
And you are in big trouble, buddy, let me tell you, if you did that.
To put one over on someone is a rather complicated sounding expression.
It means to trick another person into thinking something that isn't true.
Basically, it's to lie to the other person to get them to think something that is false.
That is not true.
To put one over on someone.
The students really put one over on their teacher, making her think that today was a holiday and there should be no school.
Elizabeth is accusing, she's saying to Leo that he's lying.
Leo says, would I be able to look you in the eye if I were lying?
The expression to look someone in the eye means that you can look at someone and honestly tell them the truth.
The idea is that you can't look someone in the eye, look directly at them and still tell a lie.
That's not true, but many people, When they tell a lie, don't look directly at the other person, because they will indicate by the way they are looking at them that they are not telling the truth, that they are lying.
That's the idea.
I'm not sure if that's true.
Leo says, look at me.
I'm the picture of honest Abe.
The picture of something means I am just like, I am identical with.
Honest Abe refers to Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States in the middle of the 19th century.
Abe Lincoln had the reputation for being very honest.
I'm not sure if that was true or not, but honest.
In the U.S., there is this expression, honest Abe.
Honest Abe is somebody who is very honest, who never lies.
So Elizabeth is being told by Leo that he would never lie to her.
Elizabeth says, do you expect me to believe that?
Leo says, This phrase, there's not a dishonest bone in my body, means that I am not able to lie.
It is not even possible for me to lie.
Leo continues I may tell a white lie here and there, but I would never try to tell you a bald-faced lie like this.
A white lie means it's a small, unimportant matter.
It was a lie about something, but not something very important. not something serious.
Leo says, Meaning sometimes, occasionally.
But I would never try to tell you a bald-faced lie.
A bald-faced lie is a lie where you are almost not even trying to hide the fact that you are lying.
It's a bold lie, often a lie about something that you know is completely wrong.
That would be a bald-faced lie.
Bald, B-A-L-D, usually means someone without hair.
Bald-faced would be someone who has no hair on their face, meaning they don't have a beard or a mustache.
The idea is that people with beards and mustaches might be dishonest.
They're trying to hide something.
I've always thought this was true, actually.
Never trust a man in a beard.
Elizabeth says Here to swear S-W-E-A-R means to promise that you are telling the truth, to say very strongly that you are not lying.
Swear has some other meanings in English, very different from this meaning.
You can find those in our learning guide for this episode.
Leo says, I swear that I didn't eat the last piece of cake.
Elizabeth says, there's something fishy about the way you said that.
When you say something is fishy F-I-S-H-Y, you mean there's something strange, something dishonest, something wrong.
There's something fishy going on here, meaning there's something wrong here.
Elizabeth says there's something fishy about the way that Leo said he didn't eat the last piece of cake, meaning somehow again he's lying.
Leo says, I don't know what you mean.
Elizabeth says, you didn't eat the last piece of cake, but you know who did, who did eat it.
Leo says, I'm pleading the fifth.
This expression means I'm not going to tell you.
I refuse to tell you that information because it could harm me.
This actually refers in the US to the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which says that no one can be compelled, meaning you can't make someone say that they committed a crime, especially in a courtroom.
So to plead the fifth means that you have the right, if you will, to protect yourself by not saying that you did something wrong.
Elizabeth says to Leo, Spill it, Abe.
Abe, of course, referring back to honest Abe.
To spill...
In this case means to say something that should be a secret.
To tell someone a secret.
Spill has other meanings also.
Once again, take a look at the learning guide for those.
Finally, Leo says not on your life.
Not on your life is a phrase used to mean that something is not going to happen.
Even if you kill me, I'm not going to tell you.
It can also mean absolutely not.
If someone asks me, Jeff, are you going to buy a cat today?
And I say, not on your life.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
You're full of it.
I'm telling you the God's honest truth.
Why would I eat the last piece of cake when I know that you had your heart set on it?
That's the question, isn't it?
Why would you go behind my back and eat it and then try to put one over on me?
Would I be able to look you in the eye if I were lying?
Look at me.
I'm the picture of Honest Abe.
Do you expect me to believe that?
There's not a dishonest bone in my body.
I may tell a white lie here and there, but I would never try to tell you a bald-faced lie like this.
Oh, really?
Do you swear?
I swear that I didn't eat the last piece of cake.
There's something fishy about the way you said that.
I don't know what you mean.
You didn't eat the last piece of cake, but you know who did.
I'm pleading the fifth.
Spill it, Abe.
Not on your life.
The script for this episode was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
I swear.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
