Today on the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, we're starting part one of our exciting crime series.
In today's episode, I'm teaching you 20 phrasal verbs, slang words and expressions that are all about crime and punishment.
Words like behind bars, a perp, to shake down, a rap sheet, cut a deal, and more.
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.
Okay, so let's get into today's episode.
I've got to say I'm really excited about all the topics that I've chosen for the podcast, but the crime series is one of the topics that I am most excited about.
Crime stories and real crime cases are extremely popular in the USA.
If you look at Netflix and all the streaming platforms, you'll see that we have a ton of true crime, serial killer, political scandal.
We have a very crime-centric culture.
And even in real life, you turn on the news, you're going to hear lots of stuff about crime.
So that's why this is a two-part series.
So we're going to be talking about crime for the next two episodes, and I'm so excited.
For today's episode, I'm teaching 25 crime words that you need to know.
This episode's going to teach you... so many new words.
And I've got to say, it was so difficult to cut this down to just 25 words.
And that's why this is a two part series.
And honestly, we'll probably talk more about crime in the future.
So let me tell you the 25 phrasal verbs, slang words, expressions that I'm going to teach you in this episode.
So first we have cops, po-po and 5-0.
A drug dealer pick to hold up, break in a perp, shake down, make off with an ex-con.
A rap sheet to break the law behind bars.
Juvie locked up.
Due time to be soft on crime.
To cut a deal, to turn in to have a price on your head in cold blood, a cold case, a John Doe, a copycat and a life sentence sentence.
And we've also got a bonus expression, to get busted or to bust someone.
So those are the 25 words.
Now let's get to the story.
This story is packed.
So let's get started.
It was just another day for the cops in downtown Gotham, which was an area filled with drug dealers and pickpockets.
There was always a crime to be stopped in Gotham, like stores being held up or residential break-ins.
They got a call that a perp called Johnson was shaking down a local business owner, demanding protection money.
When they arrived on the scene, they busted him trying to make off with a bag full of cash.
They arrested him and took him to the police station.
The police knew Johnson well.
He was an ex-con with a rap sheet a mile long and a reputation for breaking the law.
He had been behind bars twice before, and he even did juvie as a teenager.
He had actually spent most of his life locked up.
The only reason he wasn't doing time at the moment was because the new mayor was a bit soft on crime.
Johnson had cut a deal with police in exchange for turning in a notorious crime boss that he worked for.
Now, because of what he did, there was a price on his head.
After bringing him in, the detectives interrogated him, hoping he could give up information on a recent murder in the area.
You see, the city of Gotham had an unsolved murder case from 2010.
Years ago, two people had been killed in cold blood on the side of the highway.
No suspect had ever been found, and they were now cold cases waiting to be solved.
Last week, police found a John Doe murdered on the side of the highway.
Could it be the same killer from 20 years ago?
Or was it just a copycat?
The police were hoping to find out if Johnson knew anything about these murders, and if so, they would offer him a deal to avoid a life sentence.
Unfortunately, he knew nothing of the murders.
For now, the mysterious Gotham murders would remain unsolved.
If you recognize the name Gotham, then yes, it is Batman's infamous city.
I'm a big nerd so you're going to notice in this podcast a lot of the names are names that I pull from superhero movies or any kind of nerdy sci-fi or fantasy movies.
And also, a lot of the character names are named after my previous students.
Little fun fact about me.
Just a reminder that if you haven't gotten the study guide for this episode, you're definitely going to want to go grab it.
The study guide really helps you with the ability to remember these words and use them confidently in your speaking.
All right, so let's take a look here at these words.
First off, we've got the word cops.
Cops, popo, and five-o are just three names that we use to talk about police officers.
Even though all these words are technically slang, cops and five-o are pretty accepted in society.
Everybody calls them that, and it's not offensive.
Po-po is very much a slang word and it's not as common, but cops 5-0 po-po they are all equally used to represent police officers.
I'm sure that for most of you, you know what these words are.
But just in case, a drug dealer is someone who deals drugs, someone who sells drugs to people on the street illegally, and a pickpocket is someone who will steal money directly from your pockets or your bags.
All right, next, they talk about the types of crime that often get committed in Gotham.
Stores being held up or residential break-ins.
To hold someone up or a hold up is to take someone's money by force.
A break-in is when a thief breaks into, that's the phrasal verb, or enters your house illegally.
So you can say someone broke into the house or you can say there was a break-in used as a noun.
Next, we see that this guy named Johnson is a perp.
A perp is a name for a criminal and the longer word is a perpetrator.
Perpetrator is a much more high-level word, and it means it's someone who does an illegal act.
So that's what a perp is.
Now, this perp named Johnson was shaking down a local business owner.
To shake someone down is when you use some kind of threat in order to get something from someone.
In this case, he was threatening the shop owners and telling them to give him money or something bad would happen to them.
When the police arrived on the scene, they busted him trying to make off with a bag full of cash.
All right to get busted or to bust someone.
This is one of the most popular types of slang that we have when someone gets caught doing something bad.
To bust someone is always when someone's going against the rules. or the law.
Jaden got busted sneaking out of his house.
The criminal got busted trying to rob a store.
Now then we have a phrasal verb, make off with.
Now you notice here this is a three-word phrasal verb.
These are really popular in English as well.
Normally phrasal verbs are two words, but this one is three words.
To make off with something is when you're able to steal something valuable.
So we typically say, like if you're watching a movie about some kind of theft or heist, you might see this phrasal verb make off with.
And make off with basically just means to steal something valuable, to escape with something valuable.
So he made off with money.
He stole money.
All right, the next thing we have is describing Johnson as an ex-con.
Now, the word con here means convict.
Convict is someone who was found guilty and sentenced to serve time in jail.
So an ex-con is someone who used to be in prison, but they have since been released.
So Johnson was someone who has been in prison before, currently not in prison, and he has a rap sheet a mile long.
A rap sheet is basically all of the criminals prior arrests or conflicts with the law.
This is something you're going to hear all the time.
If you watch any type of crime shows, you're going to hear about a rap sheet.
And rap actually here stands for record of arrests and prosecutions.
I'm sure that most Americans don't even know that.
But basically, yeah, a rap sheet is a record that law enforcement has on you.
So you can say a kilometer long.
It just means that they have a very, very long list of prior crimes.
And then we have here that he had a reputation for breaking the law.
So that's the expression that we use when someone does something bad.
We don't really say disobey the law.
We use the word break.
Someone broke the law. or broke the rules.
That's a popular collocation that we use for this.
And we have a lot of words that describe somebody who's in jail.
We have behind bars.
So it says he had been behind bars twice before.
We have the phrasal verb lock up, or in this case, to be locked up.
That also means to be in jail.
And then we have doing time or serving time.
So all three of these expressions mean to serve time in prison.
You'll also remember that we said he even did juvie as a teenager.
Juvie is short for juvenile hall, and this is a prison of sorts for kids that are under 18.
So the way it works in the United States is, if you commit a crime while you are a minor under 18, most of the time you go to juvenile hall.
And once you hit 18, once you get out, your record is sealed.
So no one can see your criminal record from when you were a minor.
Of course, there are exceptions to that rule, but that's basically the way that it works.
All right.
Now we have that the new mayor was soft on crime.
Soft on crime.
I'm sure you kind of can guess what this means, but this means that someone does not believe that crime should have maximum punishment.
So sometimes we have political leaders who are very tough or hard on crime, meaning they set a lot of rules.
There's a lot of punishment for breaking the law.
Someone who's soft on crime.
It's kind of the opposite and they do not believe in strong punishments for most crimes.
Then we have that Johnson cut a deal.
We use the word cut with deal to describe someone that accepts a lessened punishment by the law in exchange for something.
Usually, If you help the police with a bigger crime or a bigger criminal, they will give you a lessened punishment.
And that's what it means to cut a deal.
So here we see that Johnson cut a deal.
You can also say make a deal.
He made a deal with police in exchange for turning in a notorious crime boss.
To turn someone in means to reveal what someone did, to give information or tell the truth about someone else's actions, actions he turned in the crime boss.
He revealed to the police what the crime boss did and in exchange, the police gave him shorter prison time or a lesser punishment.
Now, because of what johnson did, there was a price on his head.
That means that the crime boss that he betrayed sent out a message saying if you kill Johnson, I will give you money.
So when there's a price on your head, that means that there is a prize or a reward for anyone who catches you or kills you.
When we are describing the murders, we say that two people were killed in cold blood.
In cold blood means without emotions.
So the person who killed had no feelings.
They did it in a very cold or terrible way.
Now, because no one was arrested for causing these crimes, they were cold cases.
They never found Who did these crimes?
Last week, police found a John Doe murdered on the side of the highway.
John Doe is the name of a victim who has not been identified.
So if they don't know the name of a dead body, a male victim, they'll name him John Doe.
And a woman will be named Jane Doe.
Could it be the same killer from 20 years ago or was it just a copycat?
A copycat describes someone who just copies someone else.
It's not the original person.
They're just mimicking what a previous person did, usually because they idolized or really respected the criminal that came before them.
And lastly, we have a life sentence.
A life sentence means that someone was sentenced or punished to be in jail for the rest of their life.
So we can say life in prison, but we also say he got a life sentence, meaning he's in prison until he dies.
So there you have it.
You just learned 25 crime words that are going to help you understand American culture so much better.
Don't forget to tune in for the second part of the crime series, which is coming up next in episode three.
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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Thanks so much for tuning in.
