This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2306.
Should you use Atta Girl in English?
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One of our listeners heard the phrase Atta Girl on a TV show and wants to know if he can use it in everyday English.
Today, we give you all of the context that you need to use or not use this English phrase.
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Hey there, Michelle, how are you doing today?
I'm good, Lindsay, how are you?
Good, feeling good, you have a question today?
Yes, when is the last time someone told you, oh no, that you told someone good job for something.
Oh my gosh, I tell my dog good job all the time.
I had a feeling you're gonna say something about keeper.
What about you, Michelle, what about you?
Probably one of my kids, yeah, just, who knows what it's, oh, maybe doing homework, maybe a homework problem or something.
My son is very into math now, so he does a lot of math problems, so that's kind of fun to watch.
Wow, yeah, yeah, so today we are going to get into a really interesting question from Gianluca from Italy.
Lindsay, would you like to read the question?
Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and read this right away.
Here we go, hello girls, I'm writing from Italy and I would like to say thank you for your amazing show.
Everybody, I can't wait to clock out, or every day, I can't wait to clock out and listen to your legendary podcast while I'm running on a treadmill.
You are my daily pick me up.
Oh, that is so nice, Michelle, we love that.
Thank you, thank you very much.
Thank you so much. I've been listening to you for ages and you've already answered one of my questions in episode 745, it was such an honor.
Now I have another question for you.
I was watching one of my favorite series for the Nth time, namely Gilmore Girls.
I heard a new expression and would like to be part, to be part of my vocabulary, but I didn't understand exactly how to use it and especially whether it was sarcastic or genuine.
The expression is attagirl.
Thank you so much for your lovely show.
You are great, Gianluca from Italy.
Wow, Michelle, amazing.
Thanks for that beautiful question and the beautiful words.
So really thank you for listening and for sending in your questions and we're happy that we can be a part of your day.
Yeah, and it is actually a really good question, isn't it Michelle?
It is, oh yes, that's good stuff.
So all right, let's get into it.
Lindsay, what do you think?
Do you say or do you hear the attagirls a lot?
I don't really say it in less, maybe select times when I'm being very, very sarcastic, but I do hear it.
I think there's a place and a time for it.
And I can see why Gianluca heard this on Gilmore Girls.
I don't really know Gilmore Girls that well, but I think it'd be more likely to hear it on a funny sitcom than anything, honestly.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know Gilmore Girls either, which I feel like I'm the only, I don't know.
It seems like everybody from our generation loved Gilmore Girls, you ever go that way?
And I don't know, I just never get into it.
Yeah, I never did. You were too busy watching Friends, Michelle.
I was too busy watching Friends and Seinfeld, exactly.
So, but okay, so what is attagirl mean?
And also Gianluca asked if it's sarcastic or genuine, so what do you think, Lindsay?
You mentioned sarcasm already.
Well, let's go back to where, like what it, well I think it derives from that a girl, like that's a girl, like it means good job in a way.
It's basically saying, good job, you did a good job.
And we hear this for attaboy as well.
We hear it sometimes in different kinds of circles.
Exactly, exactly. Right, so yeah, it basically means good job, nice job.
It's encouraging, good job, keep going, keep at it.
So when could you use it?
Yeah, so if someone accomplished something, like they got a good grade on a test, they got a part in a play, they won an athletic competition, maybe they got a promotion, right?
You got the part, attagirl, I knew you could do it.
It's not really in my personality to say this so much.
What about you Michelle?
Would you, I mean maybe to your kids, right?
But like, would you say it to a friend?
It feels a little exaggerated to me.
I don't know that I really use this very frequently.
Now, Gilmore Girls is also not a current show.
So it's possible maybe at that time more people were using it, but I don't, I know this.
It's one that's great to know, but I wouldn't try and force it into your vocabulary.
This is not something to force.
This is something to make sure that you've heard it in different places outside of sitcoms, that you're hearing it in your circles, and then maybe try playing around with it, but it's really, I don't know, it's more of a TV phrase, I think, personally.
I mean, well, it could be when you're, someone is getting the hang of something.
What does that mean to get the hang of something?
Ooh, that's a good one.
Getting used to something, starting to learn something.
Mm hmm, exactly. So if somebody, for example, I could see it being used if someone's child is learning how to ride a bike, and then they start going and all of a sudden they're pedaling on their own and they might say, Atta girl, you got it, right?
I could see it in that way more of a parent to a child.
To me, it's a little bit juvenile sounding, maybe a little bit awkward sounding even, and.
Yeah, I agree, I agree.
I think it's much, much more likely to hear it from a parent to a child, or Atta girl, or that a girl, that a girl, it's kind of like you're saying that's a good girl, or you're doing a good job.
I think that's what it's coming from.
I don't actually even know what it's coming from.
Yeah, I don't even know really either, but.
So let's talk about, so Gianluca asked if it could be used sarcastically.
I mean, you could. You could say something like, Atta girl, you finally caught a fish, right?
You're fishing with your friend, they're terrible at it, and they can't get it, and then they finally got one, they finally did it, you know?
So, in kind of a humorous way, I could actually hear that more likely than in the genuine way, because.
Yeah, between adults.
Yeah, right, because you're not, yeah, no, it's Atta girl in a real genuine way.
It is more, if you're going to use it, either I would say use it with a child, or use it kind of in a sarcastic, funny, teasing way with an adult.
I completely agree, Michelle.
That's well put. I would not use it seriously with another adult, for sure.
Because first of all, you are saying girl, and it's a woman, an adult, right, that you're talking to in theory?
And then it's just, it's sarcastic, it's a little condescending, not condescending, but it's playful, it's silly, it's silly.
That's why it's perfect for Gilmore Girls, I'm sure it's a silly, funny show, right?
It makes sense. Right, right, right, yeah, I wonder, well, I know it's also about a parent, isn't it about a mom and a daughter, and so.
Okay, okay, that makes sense.
I don't know. Well, I don't know exactly how it was used, of course, we're not exactly sure how it was used in this context, but that's our opinion on it.
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Okay, let's flip over to boys.
What about Attaboy?
I mean, you could say it too, right?
Same idea, I think.
Lindsay, would you say that to Kiefer or Attaboy?
I say good boy, like if he goes to the bathroom.
But when I think about Attaboy around adults, between adults, I think of like old boy networks.
I think of maybe kind of more, sometimes maybe a toxic culture at times around guys saying like, oh, that he slept with his girlfriend or something and his friends would say, Attaboy, Attaboy, like congratulating them on steps in life, different steps in life.
Which isn't always toxic necessarily, but can get that way, right?
Right, right, right, exactly, that's interesting.
Yeah, so just in general, it's not my favorite expression.
I don't use it frequently, but there are ways you could throw it in.
But again, I wouldn't say, you know, as Jan Luca, I wouldn't say you should really be trying to, okay, now I wanna try and use Attabirl, Attaboy.
You could take it or leave it, right?
It's not something to force for sure.
But there's so many more important things to learn that can be planned and prepared and delivered at the right moment.
This one might come up at some point, but you wanna be hearing it a lot, okay?
Should we do a role play, Michelle, and see what it looks like live, even though we don't necessarily use it a ton or recommended it that much?
Right, and just to give you an idea, you could also say something like, that's my girl, right, about to your daughter, right?
I could see, okay, my daughter is gonna be starting potty training.
I could say, oh, that's my girl, if she does a good job, or that's my boy.
But you really have to think about the relationship, but there's always other more neutral ones like you got this or amazing job, right?
And I just wanna build out the other piece, adult to adult scenarios.
For example, so you have some good examples about talking to your kids, but adults to adults, let's say on a college campus, they have rush week, right?
And you're rushing a fraternity, and they basically force pledges to drink a lot of alcohol, or at least they used to.
I think that's coming down a little bit now.
But that might be something like, you do a keg stand or something, and people are like, yeah, attaboy!
Yeah, yeah. Keg stand.
Or on the football team.
Yeah, yeah. It's kind of a bro -y sort of, it could come off as kind of a masculine thing to say.
So it'd be unlikely to see a woman say that to a man maybe unless she's kind of punching a shoulder and also being sarcastic.
Right, right, exactly.
So, our recommendation, probably leave this one.
Yeah, it's a lot of context behind it, isn't there?
Yeah, yeah, there really is.
But let's do a role play to show how it might be used.
So here we are, two friends, and we are on a run.
Okay, okay, here we go.
I can't go any faster.
Lift your knees, Michelle, lift your knees.
Attagirl, you got this.
I'm so tired. Amazing job, Michelle, you did it.
Oh, thanks. Oh no, that's a rough run.
You're struggling there.
Okay. In this case, I strategically used it to encourage you.
But in terms of my personality, there's other things I would have said.
I love to encourage people to keep running, keep going, good job, but I would have said something like, good job, you got this, or keep going.
Just different things.
I probably wouldn't have chosen attagirl.
Right, right, exactly.
So, but you did say you said attago, attago, attagirl, you got this, and then you said, amazing job, Michelle.
So, yeah, probably you're not gonna hear this too much.
Probably you're gonna hear it on TV, or yeah, you could see a movie with a frat or something.
But - Animal house or something.
Is yours in the animal house?
I've actually never seen it, but of course I know of it.
Should I see it? I don't know, I've never seen it either, but I know it's about college life, and frat parties, and dudes in college.
So that's where you might see it.
But yeah, it might be a little dated.
Although it looks like Gilmore Girls just came out in 2000, in the year 2000, although that's already a while back.
I know, yeah, it might be a little dated.
So maybe it's not your first go -to phrase, but it's always good to be looking for little phrases to encourage people, I think.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
So, another episode you guys should check out is episode 2173, that was stay cool with this popular native saying.
All right, and that is the takeaway.
So be selective about what you decide to use.
Make sure you're hearing it around you a lot before you go and deploy one of these phrases that you hear on TV, and come to us with what you hear on TV.
And we'll let you know whether that's appropriate to use, whether it's dated or what it means, what the undertones are to those phrases.
All right. Absolutely.
Well, this was a great question.
Thanks for bringing this to us, and I'm glad we could chat about it today.
All right, Michelle, talk soon.
And guys, hit the follow button now on All Ears English.
All right. All right, bye.
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