English New Informal Expressions Explained

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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i answer them maybe okay

let’s get to your first question for

this week first question this week comes

from

lamier lamy i hope i said that right hi

lamie lamia says hi alicia hope you’re

doing well i’d like to know the

difference between give in and give up

thank you so much sure give in versus

give up let’s start by talking about

give in

so give in means to agree to something

after you’ve been asked many many times

so a good example of this might be a

child asking for something from their

parent so they might say i want this

candy i want this candy will you buy it

for me mom and she says no no no

and the kid says i’ll do my chores or

i’ll do this or i’ll do that she goes no

i don’t believe you and he keeps asking

keeps asking finally she agrees the

mother in the situation agrees we could

say she gave in so in past tense she

gave in to her son’s requests so

eventually she agreed give in is used in

other situations but it always has this

feeling of multiple requests someone has

asked for something many many times and

initially at the beginning we thought no

not a good idea or no i don’t want to do

that but after a long time we finally

say yes so this is what give in refers

to

another situation in which you might

hear this expression is in a work

situation where someone is trying to

pass responsibility on to you your

co-worker might say don’t give in to him

it’s his responsibility so that means

don’t allow yourself to be persuaded by

that person make sure they take care of

their own responsibilities so this is

give in

now let’s talk about give up so to give

up means to quit something yes but give

up sounds like we tried and tried and

tried and we failed maybe many times or

we struggled a lot and eventually over

time we decided to quit this is the

difference between quit and give up

let’s say for example you’re training

for a marathon or another big sporting

event and you’ve been working for a long

time but you get an injury and then you

get another injury and another injury

you might say

i have to give up for now which means i

have to quit for now. so that’s that

feeling of trying something many many

times and eventually you have to give up

you have to quit so that’s the

difference here the key difference is

that you tried for a while and then

decided to quit so i hope this helps you

understand the differences between give

up and give in thanks for the question

okay let’s go to your next question next

question comes from ying galao hi ying

ying says can you say i’ll be at the

office until 7 pm and i’ll be at the

office by 7 pm what is the difference

good question so the key point here is

the difference between until and by

let’s look at i’ll be at the office

until 7 pm first this means starting

from some point before 7 pm and

continuing until the deadline point we

can imagine 7 pm as our deadline point

the speaker will be at the office so at

7 pm something will change we can

imagine the speaker is going to leave

the office at 7 pm

in contrast on the other hand by 7 pm

i’ll be at the office by 7 pm also mark

7 pm as the deadline point however it

sounds like the speaker is not at the

office they’re saying

at some point before but not later than

7 pm i will come to the office so this

is the difference here i’ll be at the

office until 7 pm marks the point at

which the speaker will leave i’ll be at

the office by 7 pm marks the deadline

point for when the speaker is going to

come to the office so key difference

here very important to understand the

differences check out the video on the

english class 101 youtube channel that

covers the differences between until and

by to learn more about this point i hope

that that helps you thanks very much for

the question okay let’s move on to your

next question next question is from avi

art hi avi avi says hello alicia my

question is what does okay boomer mean

okay

great question okay boomer is something

you see on the internet a lot and you

might hear it in everyday life too okay

of course means yes or i understand or

right

but the key here is boomer so boomer

refers to a person of a certain

generation in the united states so a

person who is a boomer is a person who

was born during the baby boom of the

united states this means during a period

in like about the 1950s and maybe

depending on who you ask a little bit

later when lots and lots of babies were

being born we refer to this period as

the baby boom or as a baby boom so a

person who is now older was born in that

time period and is now older is referred

to by some people as a boomer so that’s

the generation that they come from the

baby boom generation

some people consider boomers people from

this generation to have very different

opinions or to have very contradicting

opinions to young people from today so

one way that some people like to kind of

dismiss

other people’s opinions from the boomer

generation is with this expression okay

boomer it has that kind of very

condescending feel like you’re looking

down on that person so if you hear

somebody say okay boomer it means they

heard that person that older person’s

opinion and they disagree with it and

they’re just kind of putting that person

off to the side let’s say for example

you’re in a conversation with a boomer a

person from this generation and a

younger person from maybe the millennial

generation or younger and the millennial

person the younger person is very

accustomed to changing jobs or maybe

working freelance or they have a certain

work style they’re accustomed to and

they’re talking about how difficult it

is to work and earn money in today’s

economic climate the boomer however

being from a different generation might

make a comment about securing a job like

a full-time position in a big company

for example which was perhaps the normal

thing to do many years ago so they might

say something like why don’t you just

get a full-time job a stable job at a

regular company something like that

in some cases the younger person might

feel offended by this kind of comment

and say okay boomer which really means

you don’t understand my situation at all

or this is an outdated idea that you’re

expressing to me right now so okay

boomer is used in this kind of

impolite way to dismiss the opinions of

older people and it’s often used

actually not just with boomers but with

people who are older than the speaker

too so i hope this gives you a good

introduction to what this expression

means it relates to different

generations and a dismissal of older

people’s opinions by younger generations

so thanks very much for an interesting

question okay let’s move on to the next

question next question comes from erica

hi erica erica says what’s the

difference between sorted and ready

great question sorted is used in british

english ready is used in american

english when we say that’s sorted in

british english it means like that’s

finished or that’s taken care of when we

say ready in american english we don’t

say that’s ready we usually say i’m

ready so we don’t use sorted in the same

way as it’s used in british english

british english uses it to mean like

something is taken care of like

preparations are done in this way we can

use sorted but we do not use sorted in

this way in american english something

that is sorted is something that has

been organized like according to color

or size perhaps we don’t use it as an

adjective in american english we use

ready to talk about being prepared for

something or to talk about something

that is complete like oh dinner’s ready

we would not say dinner’s sorted in

american english you might hear

something like that in british english

though so i hope that this helps you

understand the differences thanks for

this question okay on to our next

question next question comes from carla

d hi carla carla says hi alicia what

does fangirling mean great question

fangirling or you might also sometimes

hear fanboying refers to being super

super excited super enthusiastic about

your favorite celebrity this can be any

kind of celebrity a musician actor

actress an artist whatever it is you are

so excited about that person or that

group that you scream maybe you have

posters of them you buy all their

merchandise you wear their t-shirts you

talk about them you have pictures of

them on your social media whatever it

means to go super super crazy for your

favorite celebrity or your favorite

artist or whatever that is so you might

say something like oh my gosh sorry i

missed your message i was fangirling

about this person so it’s kind of like

an expression of really really excited

like passion for some kind of celebrity

usually so you might also hear people

say fanboying i feel like fangirling is

used a little bit more uh but you can

say he’s a fanboy of such and such

artist you can say that as well you can

use it as a noun like a fanboy or a fan

girl that means that someone is a super

fan of a certain celebrity so this is

what it means to fangirl or to fanboy

means to be super super enthusiastic and

excited about an artist of some kind

really interesting question thanks very

much alright that is everything for this

week thank you as always for sending

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watching this week’s episode of ask

alicia and i will see you again next

time bye

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