This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2122.
Make sure your English vocabulary adds up.
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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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Do you ever get the gut feeling that something is not quite right?
Today, learn how to listen to your gut and get four new ways to say that something is wrong in English.
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Expires at midnight on Friday. allersenglish.com slash b-l-a-c-k-f-r-i-d-a-y Hey there, Aubrey.
How's it going today?
I'm great.
How are you, Lindsay?
I'm feeling good.
I'm feeling good.
The sun is shining.
I have a question for you today.
All right.
All right.
So Aubrey, has anything happened to you recently that seemed a little fishy?
Oh, yes.
We woke up to these really loud sounds outside and someone was cutting down this big, beautiful tree right near our backyard in the park and And we were so confused because it was healthy right.
Had maybe had like one dead branch, but like beautiful tree.
So we contacted the HOA and they said it's because the roots are pushing up a wall or like a step near there.
So they had to get rid of it.
But yeah, when we first woke up and saw someone cutting down this beautiful home, we were like something fishy is going on.
What is happening?
Who are these people?
Something fishy is going on.
It's so sad to cut down a tree, by the way.
I know.
I would almost rather they just let the wall get ruined or the step.
Leave the tree.
It's okay if it messes up that sidewalk and that wall.
I mean, obviously the tree has been there much longer than the wall, right?
Definitely.
So that sounds a little fishy without knowing any information about it, right?
So this is a great thing that we're going to get into today.
What are we talking about in this episode?
Yeah, we've recently talked about the phrasal verb check out.
And as we were discussing it, one of the meanings is for something to not make sense, right?
That doesn't quite check out.
And this phrase we just used at the top of the episode for something to be a little fishy.
It's very similar, right.
Something doesn't quite make sense.
Something doesn't check out.
And we realized there are so many ways to say this in English.
Some are really idiomatic and fun.
So we wanted to share these with you.
Yeah, I'm excited that we.
I love when we discover new topic ideas in the middle of another recording.
It's exciting for us.
It's exciting for our listeners.
And it's a good reason to follow the show, guys, so you don't miss these awesome ideas.
So should our listeners do a little backup research, go back into the other episodes we've done?
Where should they go?
Yeah, you guys don't miss any of our great episodes.
Lindsay just recently interviewed Steve Kaufman.
He's a polyglot.
He's so interesting.
That was a great episode.
It was 2091, Trust Your Brain for Better Language Learning with Steve Kaufman.
So much great info.
So scroll up and listen to that one if you missed it.
Yes, I love that.
Yeah, he speaks so much.
I can't remember exactly how many, but 20.
20 language, 20.
Is that what it is?
It was fluent in six or seven.
I know, I listened to it again. to prep like the quiz for this episode and, you know, get keywords.
And so I loved being able to hear all his tips a few times.
And yes, fluent in so many languages.
Good stuff.
Good stuff.
Anywhere else our listeners should go?
What else should they check out?
Well, definitely don't miss 2107.
That's the one we were mentioning where we talked about the phrasal verb check out.
And so that leads right into our first one here, right?
This idea that something doesn't check out is very similar to a few different phrases in English.
Yeah.
So today we're going to show you guys at least, is it basically three of them today, right, Aubrey?
Yeah.
Four with something's fishy, but we're going to go into three more.
Four including fishy.
So what would be the first one for our listeners, guys?
It's time to grab your pen and paper and write these down.
If you have the app, you can see the transcripts and you'll be able to save these as keywords or key phrases.
Right, Aubrey.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Right.
Allersenglish.com slash app.
Don't miss out on that.
Okay.
First one is doesn't add up.
We say that something doesn't add up when same thing, something doesn't check out.
It doesn't make sense.
There's no reasonable explanation.
Right.
Yes.
For example, what she told me doesn't add up.
I feel like I'm not getting the whole story.
And I think we have this intuition as human beings when something is kind of missing.
But sometimes what we do is we override that feeling.
At least I do.
And I just use logic and I say, I'm sure it's fine.
Right.
I know we use this a lot when we feel like someone's not giving us the whole story.
Maybe they're not being totally honest.
Something doesn't add up here.
Right.
Totally.
What's another example?
Another one is the cop said his story doesn't add up.
You'll see this a lot on TV shows, crime dramas, where they're like, something doesn't add up.
It means they're leaving something out.
They're not being totally honest.
The best example that I can think of right now is I just watched for the second time this series Inventing Anna.
I might have mentioned it before, but have you seen it?
Yes.
And that is a really good example.
It's so good.
But I, cause I think throughout the entire series, she never quite cracked the code to Anna.
Who is Anna?
Why does she act the way she does?
Yes.
And right.
I can imagine a lot of people in her life were feeling this way.
Like something doesn't add up here.
But then, like you said, they ignore that gut feeling and they're like I'm sure it's fine.
I'll lend her a bunch of money.
It was such a study in, you know, social social persuasion or just wanting to be liked.
The human nature is a real study in human nature.
So guys, go check out the show Inventing Anna.
Was it on Netflix or where was it?
I think it was Netflix.
Yes.
Okay.
Check it out.
Good stuff.
What else?
All right.
Let's go into our next one here.
It is something is awry.
This is spelled a little bit strangely.
A-W-R-Y.
You may have seen this word and not know how to pronounce it.
Yeah, be careful here, it's not two words, right?
It's not awry or it's awry.
Something is awry, one full word, right?
Something doesn't make sense or something is veering away from its expected Exactly.
Right, exactly.
So you might say, something is awry with these directions.
I feel like steps are missing.
Imagine you're like putting together furniture or something and it's not making sense.
You might be like, something is awry.
This just happened to me over the weekend.
We bought a storage thing for the office and...
Parts are missing.
Something went awry because we can't complete the project.
Something is definitely awry.
You're like, okay, it's not me.
Doesn't that drive you crazy?
Right.
Yes.
Absolutely.
Or here's another one.
When I texted and no one responded, I could tell something was awry.
Yes.
And these are interesting because they often have a literal meaning as well.
Like to say something adds up.
Often we'll be talking about actual numbers like they're literally not adding up.
And when we say something's awry, it means out of place.
You might say his hat is awry, and it means a little bit of out of place.
But we also use them idiomatically this way to say something doesn't make sense.
Something is not quite right.
Yes.
And the next one also works for this Do you have a pretty routine schedule, Aubrey?
Like, if you're not in a certain place at a certain time, would you say that something is awry, or are you more unpredictable in terms of your schedule and spontaneous?
I am pretty, I do have a pretty strict routine, right?
There are certain things like, for example, I go to volleyball every Tuesday morning whenever I can.
So if I weren't there one week, everyone there would be like, something's awry.
Something's awry.
Something's wrong.
Yeah.
Or something is amiss, right?
But we're going to go into that one as our last one in just a second.
Okay, Aubrey, so we mentioned it just before the break, but what is the next one?
Yes.
Something is amiss.
Very similar to these other two.
Something doesn't make sense.
It's not quite right.
It's out of place.
We use this one a lot.
I use this one more often than something is awry.
What about you, Lindsay?
Something is amiss.
I would say yes.
I use that more.
I actually use something doesn't add up.
I use that one a lot too.
That one's the least formal of these three.
It's more informal than these other two.
Yeah, I would say as a bonus, I also say something's not quite right.
I'm sure we've mentioned that so far, right?
I would say that one too.
But here we go.
Something is amiss.
I can't figure out what the problem is, but something is definitely amiss.
Aubrey, is this two words, amiss, or is it one?
It almost sounds like it is, right?
Because we have this little pause when we say awry and amiss.
There is like space we leave there, but they're both one word.
Right.
It's kind of that schwa sound, right?
The uh sound.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, or the inspection is today and they'll let us know if something is amiss.
So someone might flag a problem, like with your car, for example.
Stressful if you have to get your registration done and then you get inspected and something is amiss.
Yes, and this is where we use it the most often, because it almost wouldn't make sense to say they'll let you know if there are any problems.
It sort of sounds too serious and this is more general.
It's like if anything isn't quite right, whatever that might be, they'll let you know.
If something's amiss.
Yeah, I love it.
I love how these expressions can be used in so many different contexts, right?
Interactions with someone.
Maybe you're dealing with like a criminal and you can't quite figure it out, but something's not quite right.
Or car inspection or assembling furniture.
So many situations, Aubrey.
Right.
They might come up a lot at work as well.
We definitely use all of these in business English.
I agree.
These are very versatile.
You're going to hear them on TV, in the movies, on podcasts.
You're going to hear them if you're just listening to conversations especially.
I think this is one of those things where, once they're pointed out and you now have sort of examples and you're really clear on what they mean, you're probably going to start hearing all of these everywhere.
Yeah.
There's examples everywhere all the time.
You can hear it in people's tone of voice.
If they're just off, something is off.
Oh my gosh.
There's so many ways to say this, Aubrey.
Oh, that's true.
That's another way we say it.
Something's off.
Something's just a little bit off.
Yeah.
Something is off.
Okay.
Let's do a role play to anchor this in a real situation.
So what are we doing here?
Okay.
You are telling me about a surprise party that your friends threw for you in this role play.
I'll start us out.
Okay.
I love that your friend's pulled off a surprise party.
That is hard to do.
Did you see it coming?
Uh, not.
Until I got to the restaurant I had no clue that anything was a miss.
What was your first inkling?
That something was up.
Well, when I showed up and no one else was there, I feel like something was awry.
I bet your friends are usually on time, so you probably thought something isn't adding up.
Did they make you wait long?
Oh no, just like three minutes.
And then they all popped out and yelled surprise.
Have you ever had someone throw you a surprise party?
That's my favorite.
I did when I was like a teenager.
I did.
That was so fun.
It was super fun.
But I kind of knew, but I didn't want people to know that I knew.
Right.
So that's exactly what happened to me once.
But I'm like, I had some hints.
Right.
I was just I'm like, something's amiss.
Something's not adding up.
But I was just I was pretending because I still wanted to. be surprised.
Pretend to be surprised.
Because it's like you don't want them to feel bad.
That too, right?
Because it's like they're putting in all this work.
I'm going to sell it.
I'm really going to pretend to be surprised.
Sell the surprise.
That's hilarious.
That's hilarious.
So the first thing I said was oh, not.
Until I got to the restaurant, I had no clue that anything was amiss.
And again, guys, that is one word, to be amiss.
Okay, exactly.
I mean, it's the same thing here as I had no clue that anything was out of place.
Anything was out of the ordinary.
Yeah, this is a fun way to say that I didn't had no idea that anything was a miss.
Love that.
What else?
And then you said, once I got there and no one else was there, it felt like something was awry, right?
Your friends are usually on time.
You get to this restaurant, no one's there yet.
Suddenly you're like, okay, something's not quite right here.
Yeah.
And it's kind of cool to show our listeners how this can be used for a positive thing too, right?
It's not just something's bad, something's wrong.
Someone's committing a crime.
This is a surprise.
It just means things are not normal.
Things are outside of the norm right now.
Exactly.
When we talk about something being it's interesting because you say not quite right or something's off.
These all seem like they would have this negative connotation, but not necessarily, right?
Just like you said, it just means out of the ordinary.
Something's just a little different than I would expect.
That's why these phrases are going to be so useful for our listeners for connection here.
So then Aubrey, you said, I bet your friends are usually on time.
So you probably thought something isn't adding up.
I like how you kind of made a thought quote for me there, right?
Yeah.
This is you thinking something isn't adding up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All of these are so great.
And this even feels pretty natural to me to use these all in this same little conversation.
But because there are so many ways to say it.
You wouldn't want to say the same thing over and, over and over.
That would be strange.
So I love that now you have all these different ways to say that.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Aubrey, I love it.
These are such good ones.
They're really high level ones that we've taught today.
And we've also let you know about a few bonuses.
Something's not quite right.
Something's off.
And then we had the phrase inkling, the word inkling.
Love that one.
Yeah, this is a little bonus, right?
I said, what was your first inkling that something was up?
This is such a fun word.
I love this word.
That's a fun word.
It kind of means the same as like a hint, right?
A suspicion.
Okay.
Yeah, that's probably going to be in the app as a keyword, right?
That we're going to be able to tap in our transcriptions.
I love it.
By the way, Aubrey, I just got a new episode idea while we were doing this role play.
We could do an episode about how to change our tone of voice when we're doing a thought quote.
Like your tone of voice had to change there when you said, I bet your friends are usually on time.
So you probably thought something isn't adding up.
You have to do something.
That's true.
Otherwise the grammar just sounds wrong, right?
If you just say so, you probably thought something isn't.
Normally you would say you probably thought something wasn't adding up.
So you're right.
You have to change your intonation to make it clear that you're saying what someone's thinking.
Oh, I love that.
Let's definitely do that episode soon.
Yeah, that's going to be a good episode.
So guys, hit the follow button now to get that episode coming up this spring.
And 2024 is going to be a good year, Aubrey, for All Ears English.
What do we think about the takeaway for today?
What should we come away with for our listeners for corrections?
So many ways in English to say something doesn't make sense.
So this is a great opportunity to avoid vocab repetition.
And this is such a great method for connecting, right?
When you want to talk about something that was a little bit off.
That kind of makes for the best stories.
Yeah.
And I also kind of think that this would be a good conversation starter with a native speaker.
If you ask them, what is a time that you didn't listen to your gut, that you were actually right right right, you thought something was a miss but you didn't follow through on it and, like everyone in that show, inventing anna right, who ended up losing money, right?
Let's hope you don't have a story like anna's friends.
Listen to your gut right, take time, slow down, think through it, maybe share what's going on with someone else to get some context.
These are all really good life tips so that we don't end up on a bad path when something seems like it's a miss but we just plow through right.
It's kind of what humans do.
Exactly.
We don't stop to consider maybe something's off here.
Maybe I should call the police.
Yeah, for sure.
Oh, this is good stuff.
So guys, hit that follow button.
And Aubrey, thanks for bringing in this topic.
It's a good one today.
Love it.
Yeah, for sure.
Take care.
Talk soon.
Bye.
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