Your English Five a Day #38.5

E330: 🎙️ Welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast! I'm Anna, and you're tuning in to Week 38, Day 5 of Your English Five a Day. This series is dedicated to expanding your active vocabulary, honing your listening skills, and enhancing your overall enjoyment of the English language.

🌟 We start today's episode off with the noun "irony". Next up, we see the idiom "flutter your eyelashes" and the adjective "willing". After that, we explore another idiom "have something up your sleeve", and finally, we finish off by delving into the noun "ripple".

🕺 Join me as we dissect these words and idioms with practical examples, pronunciation practice, and a captivating story to tie it all together. In today's story segment, Andy and his friends Brianna and Charlie struggle to get into an exclusive nightclub. Despite Charlie's flirtatious efforts, they have to wait and then pay high prices for a disappointing experience. Should they stay or cut their losses and head to another place?

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Transcript

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Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 38, Day 5 of Your English Five a Day. You know the drill, this is the series that is focused on expanding your active vocabulary as well as improving your listening skills and your overall enjoyment of English. So let's get started with today's list. And the first thing we're covering is the noun irony, irony. We spell this I R O N Y, irony, irony, irony. So, irony is a contrast between what you expect, or what is intended, and what actually happens. So, the word irony or ironic always makes me think of the song Ironic by Alanis Morissette because it's the way I remember what this word means. I think that song gave me a full understanding of irony. Here's an example sentence,"The irony of the situation was that the fire chief's house burned down while he was at a fire safety conference." So that's really ironic. You wouldn't expect that to happen. It's a contrast between what you expect and what actually occurs. It's like a plumber having lots of leaky pipes in his house. You wouldn't expect that to be the case. You would expect a plumber to have excellent plumbing in his house. Or irony could be someone getting a huge performance bonus at work because the bosses believe they've done a great job this year. They've helped the company to grow and make larger profits. And so they give this person a huge bonus, but actually that person has made such a fundamental error that in the next few months, the company is going to go bust because of the error that this person has made. So that's irony that they get that huge bonus. Okay, moving on to an idiom now, and this is to flutter your eyelashes. To flutter your eyelashes. Flutter, F L U T T E R, flutter. Your eyelashes, E Y E L A S H E S. Eyelashes. Eyelashes. Eyelashes. So to flutter your eyelashes, physically, it's a movement that we do where we make our eyelashes move up and down really quickly by opening and closing our eyes very quickly. To flutter your eyelashes. Now, if somebody flutters their eyelashes, like if a woman flutters her eyelashes at a man, then she's behaving in a way that shows that she's sexually attracted to him, especially in order to persuade him to do something. So it's not always about sexual attraction, but it is definitely to do with persuasion. So if I'm asking someone to do something and I know perhaps that I'm asking a lot and maybe it's not very fair for me to ask, but I'm asking in a very nice way and I'm saying,"Pretty please." And then at the same time I would flutter my eyelashes. And it's just a way of saying,"I know that I'm asking a lot, but I really want you to help me out, please." I guess it's like being a little bit playful or flirtatious in the way that you ask for something, hoping to persuade them to do what you want. Here's an example sentence,"Clarissa always flutters her eyelashes flirtatiously when Adam walks past. She's desperate to catch his attention." Here's another example,"No, darling, I'm not giving you any of my chocolates. You've had yours. I don't care how much you flutter your eyelashes. It's mine." Okay, next on the list, we have the adjective, willing, willing. We spell this W I L L I N G, willing, willing. To be willing. If someone is described as willing, then they are inclined or disposed to do something, so they are happy to do it, I guess, without any objection. So, if you're doing something because you want to do it, then you're doing it willingly. As opposed to if someone is making you do it or forcing you to do it. If someone's bribing you, then that's not doing it willingly. Okay. So my son, my eldest son, willingly helps me to make meals. He actually asks if he can help. And I say,"Of course, you can help." And he also willingly helps to clear the table after dinner. He enjoys helping to clear up. In some households, the children are not so willing. My youngest son is not so willing. I have to ask him several times to do something to help the family. Here's an example sentence,"Are you willing to give evidence in court, Eva? It would really help cement the case against the accused." And if Eva gives evidence, then she would be a willing witness. Next on the list, we have the idiom to have something up your sleeve. To have something up your sleeve. Sleeve. S L E E V E, Sleeve. To have something up your sleeve, this means that you have some secret plans or ideas that people don't know about yet. Often when people are in negotiations, then they might have something that they're willing to introduce to the negotiations or something they're willing to bend on, but they're not telling you about it yet. They're going to see what happens. Recently we've had a big football event. We had the Euros and the managers have a plan of action. So they know who their substitutes are going to be throughout the game. They know that if they concede a goal, then they'll bring out their most energetic striker, or they'll bring out a good defender. And so they have these plans, these secret plans up their sleeve that they'll pull out in order to win. So you might say as a commentator,"Oh, I wonder what he's got up his sleeve." I'm interested to see what plans he has. Here's another example,"The cunning politician had something up his sleeve to win the election, but his plans were ultimately foiled and he was removed from the campaign." Okay, last on the list is the noun ripple, ripple. We spell this R I P P L E. Ripple. Ripple. A ripple is a small wave, or a series of small waves, moving across the surface of water, typically caused by a disturbance, such as a stone being thrown in. It's lovely, especially if you're walking in the mountains and you come across a lake. And it's really calm. There's no wind. And so the lake is like a mirror. It's so flat and still. And then you throw a stone in and you cause all these ripples across the water. Beautiful. Here's an example sentence,"The gentle ripples spread out from the centre of the pond, creating a calming effect." Okay, so that's our five for today. We started with the noun irony. Irony, which is the contrast between what you expect or what's intended, and then what actually happens. We had the idiom flutter your eyelashes, which is something a woman may do to a man if she's being flirtatious because she is attracted to him, or most likely, if she's trying to persuade him to do something. Then we have the adjective willing, which is being inclined or disposed to do something or happy to do something. Then we had the idiom, to have something up your sleeve, which means to have a secret plan or ideas. And we finished with the noun ripple, describing a small wave or series of waves that move across the water. Let's do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. Irony. Irony. Flutter your eyelashes. Flutter your eyelashes. Willing. Willing. Have something up your sleeve. Have something up your sleeve. Ripple. Ripple. Fantastic. Okay. If I ask for a volunteer, and someone puts their hand up, and they come up onto the stage, imagining I'm on a big stage. They come up onto the stage with a big smile on their face. They are happy to do the thing that I've asked them to do. What adjective could we use to describe them? They are willing, a willing volunteer, which is just what you want when you're asking for a volunteer on the stage. And if I throw a stone into a still body of water, what will it create? Ripples, lots of ripples. Now, if I have an expectation, like the plumbing in a plumber's house to be excellent. But then I find out that the plumbing in the plumber's house is terrible. And he's got leaky pipes everywhere with buckets and mops all over the place, catching the water. What noun would I use to describe this contrast? Irony. Yes, that is irony. And if I want my partner to do something that I know he probably won't want to do, like take the bins out or do the washing up, because let's face it, who likes doing those jobs? I will do something with my eyes to try and persuade him. What will I do? Flutter my eyelashes. Yes, I'll flutter my eyelashes to try and get what I want. And finally, if I have a secret plan, maybe for my partner's birthday, got a secret plan, what idiom could you use? I have something up my sleeve. Very good. Okay, listen out for these items once again in today's storytime. A long line of partygoers queued up outside the exclusive Groove nightclub. The security guard occasionally lifted a rope to let some in. He had a list of names and was turning many people away. Andy hoped that his friends Brianna and Charlie, had something up their sleeve to get them into the club. As they approached the front of the queue, Brianna told Charlie to flutter her eyelashes at the security guard. Charlie looked him in the eyes and flashed a flirtatious smile."Our names aren't on the list, but perhaps you could do us a favour tonight?" she said, giving him a flirty wink and touching his arm. He shook his head. He wasn't willing to let them in. But he didn't send them away either."We're full. You'll have to wait for some more people to come out." All the friends could see were people waiting. It was only midnight. No one was going out. But after 45 minutes, they got their chance. Once they got in, they had to pay£20 each! The price included a free drink for the women, but not for Andy. The deep boom of the bass sent ripples through their vodka and cokes. The trio went off to dance. But the dance floor was so packed, they could hardly move. And it was hot as hell. Andy bought a drink to cool down and spent£10 on a pint of lukewarm lager. The friends couldn't help but notice the irony. They'd had a hard time getting into this exclusive nightclub. And now they were having a rubbish night. They decided to use what little money they had left to get a taxi back to their local pub for karaoke night. They told the barman about their disastrous time at the exclusive nightclub. He gave them free drinks. As the trio sang and danced till the sun came up, they forgot all about their failed night at Groove. And that brings us to the end of today's episode, and to the end of Week 38. I do hope you enjoyed this week. If you did, please take a moment to leave a like, a rating or review. Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.