This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2103.
Tried and true tips for English expressions.
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Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American hosts, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
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To create connection.
It helps if you use language chunks that native speakers have used their whole lives.
Today, get four native chunks where you must follow the word order to be correct and to connect.
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Hey there, Aubrey.
How's everything going today?
Excellent.
How are you doing?
I'm doing great.
Aubrey, where were you born and raised?
Where in the world were you born and raised?
I was born in Utah and we lived there a few years.
So But then we moved to Idaho when I was like five.
So this is a little tricky because a lot of people are like born and raised in the same place.
But then for others, like you're born somewhere and then move quickly.
And so it's a tricky question.
So you were born somewhere and then raised somewhere else.
Yeah.
I was born and raised in the same place.
So I was born and raised in Keene, New Hampshire, a little town.
Our claim to fame is that we were the scene where they filmed Jumanji.
So we love that.
Oh, that's awesome.
I love that film.
The new ones or the old ones?
The old one, the original.
Oh, I love that with Robin Williams.
Oh, yeah.
I remember seeing Robin Williams run through our center of town with long hair.
Like you could catch a glimpse of the filming.
You know kids got to be seconds in the.
You know kids my brother's age were called in to be background actors and things.
It was really cool.
Oh, that's very cool.
That's awesome.
This is an interesting chunk to ask someone where they were born and raised.
It's just another way of saying like, where are you from?
You know, but it is more specific.
It's specifically asking like, where were you born and where did you grow up?
Yeah, this is a chunk.
And actually, I think it's more like something that someone says rather than what they ask.
I feel like people say, where did you grow up?
Where were you born?
That's true.
Good point.
And you'd be likely to reply, born and raised in New Hampshire, right?
That's a really good point, because it is tricky if someone asks me that and I'm kind of like well, I was born somewhere and raised somewhere else.
So it's true.
We don't really ask that, but we say it when we answer.
Yeah.
So we have a question from a listener.
We love listener questions.
Guys, send your questions.
Aubrey, where can they send them?
Yes, you can email them straight to me Aubrey, at allersenglishcom, but you can also leave them in a review on Spotify Apple Podcasts wherever you listen to your podcasts, or in a YouTube comment.
These episodes are also on YouTube if you like to watch the video of us.
Hi, I'm waving.
Yeah guys, leave us your question wherever you listen, and we love getting those personal questions.
So I'll go ahead and read the question, Aubrey.
Here we go.
I said to a friend that I heard they were raised and born in New York City.
And they corrected me and said, I must say you were born and raised in New York City.
Is this true?
And why does it matter?
So good.
Really good question, right?
Idioms and expressions.
Chunks like these often have to be used word for word, like born and raised right.
Their friend is correct.
It would sound really strange to us to say raised and born, because we always use this chunk born and raised, born and raised.
So this is kind of about mental models.
You know, on this show we say a lot about.
We talk about chunks, learning chunks using phrases, using idioms.
It's also a way of working with a heuristic, which is a pattern, right?
It's a mental model for making decision, kind of a rule of thumb that can allow us to go out and say yes, if I say born, I'm now going to say born and raised right.
I'm going to start with born, instead of starting with raised and and born or something different from that, so we can start to learn these chunks, these mental models guys, and we can become fluent faster.
Love it?
Yes, exactly.
We are going to share three more today because this is a common pattern.
These models are.
They exist in English
There are quite a few that follow this pattern of blank and blank, and they have to be shared in the correct order.
So we'll share some today with examples.
These are going to be really fun.
And guys, make sure you hit follow right here on the show.
We have four new episodes every week, right, Lindsay?
Oh my gosh.
So good, guys.
You can listen to All Ears English every morning and learn how to connect through English fluency.
So We've talked about the born and raised, and we'll probably come back to that a little bit later, but what would be the first one, the first official one that we're going to show our listeners?
Yeah.
So we've got born and raised then also we have tried and true.
This is something that has been proven to be effective or reliable.
I use this a lot to call something tried and true.
Don't you, Lindsay?
Yeah, I like it.
I like it.
Yeah.
Let's get some examples of what would be tried and true.
For example, this strategy is tried and true, so i'm not going to switch it up right yeah, it means you've seen it work.
Right, you have tried it, it was effective, and so, instead of just saying this strategy works, this is a really fun, interesting way, another way to say that this strategy is tried and true yeah, i like that.
Maybe you have data behind it, right.
Of course, over time, we need to question those assumptions, because things change, you know like, for example, with internet marketing, one strategy could have worked in 2010 and it's not going to be tried and true in 2023 necessarily because the online landscape has changed right, Aubrey?
Right.
We can't make that assumption that just because something was tried and true in the past right, things change.
Everything evolves, for sure.
Here's another example my art teacher taught me a tried and true watercolor technique that I love.
Hmm, And in British English do they say something a little different?
We're not experts on British English, first of all.
No, right?
We don't always share the equivalent in English in other countries, but I saw this when I was kind of looking this up online, that in British English they often say tried and tested.
So in America, you're likely to hear tried and true.
In England, you might hear tried and tested, but it means the same thing.
Tried and true.
I love it.
So very common, guys.
Learn this chunk, put it in your back pocket, and you know, Pull it out when needed.
What would be the second one, Aubrey?
Yeah, the second one is black and blue, which means badly bruised, right?
An example might be, I fell yesterday.
Now my leg is black and blue.
And that just might mean you kind of have a big bruise.
And it might actually be more like yellow and purple.
But this is our expression, this chunk.
We say black and blue.
Right.
But we don't say bruised yellow and purple or green, whatever color that bruise becomes right, or even blue and black, right.
We can't flip them, we can't say true and tried.
We can't say blue and black, like you said.
There's this pattern.
We want to use them in the right order.
I love that.
Do we ever say i have a black and blue?
I don't think we do, do we no no, no.
We don't say that just my my, my knee is black and blue, or my bruise is black and blue right.
Or I'll just say I am black and blue.
Like you could say he was black and blue the day after the car accident.
It just means he had a lot of bruises.
Oh, terrible.
It's kind of a shooting pain through my body just thinking about it, honestly.
I was in a really bad car accident when I was younger.
I rolled my car on the freeway and I was definitely black and blue after.
Luckily, I didn't actually break any bones, but I was really bruised and had a lot of road rash.
That's what we say when you're just like cut up.
Like if the glass in a car breaks and cuts you a lot, or just from yeah, it's like you know, lots of superficial cuts on your skin is road rash.
I had a lot of that and I was black and blue, but luckily no broken bones.
I can't believe you went through that yesterday on our drive from Boston to Pittsburgh.
It was insane.
The trucks are weaving, cutting you off.
I saw one car just cut off a truck and go right for the exit immediately.
I, I've never seen anything like it.
And I was thinking to myself, if this truck weaves in front of me right now, I'm dead.
I'm going 90 miles an hour.
I mean, there's just no way.
It's so scary.
Oh, my God.
That's so scary.
I feel like I see that the most often where someone's like about to miss an exit.
So then they just cut off and cut people off to make the exit.
I've had a talk with my daughter, who's a pretty new driver, was like always always, just go to the next exit and backtrack.
It's okay to drive a mile or two out of the way.
Don't ever cut off cars.
Yes, cross a lane illegally, you know because?
No, and they'll cross the solid lines to exit anyway.
I'm like what are you thinking?
No, that's so insane.
That's insane.
Well, especially now because we have we have Google Maps, which will immediately recalculate something for you very easily.
Maybe back in the day, right?
When we just had maps and if we miss it, we miss it.
And then we got to figure out how to go back.
But now, even then, just miss it, figure it out.
Don't cut people off.
Oh, it's so dangerous.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, so bad.
So anyways, I'm glad you came out of that and survived there, Aubrey.
That's good.
Black and blue, but I healed.
We heal from just being black and blue.
Bruises heal.
Bruises heal.
I love it.
All right, Aubrey, we have a third for our listeners.
What is it?
I like this one.
Yes, this one is Far and Away, which reminds me of there was an old Tom Cruise Nicole Kidman film where they like emigrate from Ireland to the United States.
You ever see that film Far and Away?
I did.
I loved it.
But I know about it.
Yeah.
Yes.
Oh, it's older now, but you should watch it.
It's really good.
I recommend it for sure.
It's kind of older.
So it's one of those I'm like, I wonder if it holds up.
I'd have to watch it now and be like, who knows?
In some of these old movies or stuff, I'm like, oh, never mind.
I wouldn't recommend it now.
Yeah, for sure.
And I almost wonder if that title is like a play on words, you know, far and away.
Maybe they're tying in distance along with something is being emphasized, right?
Because what does it mean far and away?
Just for our listeners.
Exactly right.
This means like by a lot, right?
It's used to emphasize how different two things are right.
So you'll also hear by far and away.
These are very interchangeable.
You hear both.
Both are accurate and yeah, i agree, it is a play on words for that film, because they've come from ireland to the us, so like they're going far and away and also maybe like their love story is by far, in a way, the most beautiful love story.
You could know about something like that yeah, and i also.
I say sometimes i say by far the most beautiful love story and i totally take out the in a way.
Yeah, this is totally one of those that we shorten right.
Like just saying the grass is greener instead of the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, right.
We just shorten it and say by far.
Just kind of highlight outliers, things that are so much better or further ahead than something else.
For example, that is far and away the best restaurant I've been to, right?
In my entire life, right?
Or in New York City, the subway is by far and away the best way to get around.
Oh okay, and you're right, we would often for both of these you could just say by far.
Right, that is by far the best restaurant i've been to means the same thing, but you can't say away and far.
You can't flip them right.
If you're gonna say far and away, they have to be in that order.
Yeah, i know, i don't say by far and away, i say by far or far and away.
I don't do the buy in front of that, but you do.
Interesting yeah, i hear both.
I say both okay, and i always, whenever i i prepare these episodes, I'll always do a quick Google search too, because it's interesting to see what people say in forums and the examples that are out there.
And I feel like equally, I saw both by far and away and far and away.
And in all of the like dictionaries, when it shares the expression, it had both every time.
Oh, like it.
Good to know.
Good to know.
All right.
Well then let's show our listeners all of these in a role play.
Can we do that?
Yeah.
You and I are chatting over lunch in this role play.
I'll start us.
Okay.
I dropped something on my foot yesterday and now it's black and blue.
Oh no, sorry to hear it.
It's okay.
I'm far and away the clumsiest person I know.
Did you ice it?
That's definitely a tried and true way to reduce swelling.
Yes, that helped a lot.
Yes, but sometimes when you get a pain or you drop something or stub your toe, you don't want to hear that.
Ice it. elevated.
Did you rice it?
This is kind of a funny conversation.
If I really had hurt my photos black and blue and you're like, did you ice it?
I'd be like, thanks, Lindsay.
Thanks for the tip.
My foot hurts.
Right.
Sometimes it's just annoying.
You just want to be able to have your foot hurt for a while.
Right.
I can see where you're like, I don't think this is how I would react.
I think I would just be like, I'm so sorry.
That's the worst.
I wouldn't give advice or ask if you iced your foot.
I was just trying to find a way to squeeze in trade.
And true as well right right right, right.
So let's go back and see what we used here.
You used black and blue.
So you said i dropped something on my foot yesterday and now it's black and blue.
Yeah, it means it's got bruises.
You can see the, you know the bruises on my foot.
I probably am like wearing sandals and i'm self-conscious about it.
So i'm like fyi, this is why my foot is black and blue.
Yeah, oh my gosh.
And then you i said oh no, sorry to hear it.
I guess that's my empathy, you know, before I went into the solution for you.
Before you ask if I iced it, at least you did share some empathy, Lindsay.
A little bit.
And then I said, I'm far and away the clumsiest person I know.
And so Lindsay, it sounds like you would be more likely to say I'm by far the clumsiest person I know.
Yeah.
And that sounds very natural to me too.
I hear all of these.
Yeah.
So there's different kind of ways you can combine this, but it's really important.
The key takeaway is you can't say away and far.
I'm away and far.
You can't flip the order on any of these.
Learn them as a chunk.
Yes.
Learn them as a chunk.
I love it.
And then I said, did you ice it?
That's definitely a tried and true way to reduce swelling.
Love it.
All right.
Yeah.
You can't say true and tried, right?
Tried and true, which means it's been proven to work.
Proven to work.
What's the takeaway for our listeners today?
I love these very clean, simple chunks that we can just kind of memorize guys and drop them into conversations.
Yeah, when it comes to learning idioms and expressions, this is one of the most common mistakes made by language learners is to not use the word for word.
To change a word out or switch them up and suddenly the meaning is lost entirely because they have to be used as a chunk.
So yeah, you're right.
These add interest to your conversation to use this idiomatic language, these interesting chunks.
So yeah, definitely use them.
Yeah, use them.
And when you're speaking with a native speaker, it's going to be a cool experience for them to hear you use them.
They're going to know exactly what you're saying.
They might smile a little bit because it will make them feel more at home, right?
You'll feel that connection.
And that's what we're always after here at All Ears English.
So guys hit that follow button on All Ears English if you love our value, our style of connection, not perfection.
Good stuff, Aubrey.
Yeah, awesome.
Thanks, Lindsay.
This was really fun.
You have a good day.
I'll talk to you very soon.
You too.
Bye bye.
Bye.
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