Episode 0114
Summary
Two friends, Charlie and Jim, discuss cars. Jim criticizes Charlie's old Chevy Impala, but Charlie expresses confidence in his plans to fix it up. When a third person (Speaker 3) arrives in a flashy car, Charlie sarcastically compliments it, then reveals he was joking, leading to an angry exchange with Speaker 3 threatening revenge, while Jim tries to mediate.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
Jim, what's up, man?
Charlie, is that your ride?
It's butt ugly, dude.
Don't be an airhead. This is a 1969 Chevy Impala.
I just need to fix it up a bit. In a couple of months this baby is gonna be wicked.
Not even. Check it out. Now that's a fresh ride.
Well, too bad the driver's a major dweeb. Anyone can have a car like that if their daddy's loaded like his.
He's coming this way, be cool.
Hey guys, what do you think of my automobile? Isn't it bad to the bone?
Word. The ladies are gonna be lining up to get with you when they see you driving around in that car.
You really think so?
For sure.
Awesome.
Psych! You totally fell for it.
You're a real scumbag, Charlie. When I do the nasty with the prom queen, we'll see who has the last laugh.
Dude, don't have a cow.
Summary
This audio is an English lesson focused on 1980s slang. Two hosts, Marco and Erica, introduce and then explain various informal words and phrases from that decade, such as "ride" (car), "loaded" (rich), "butt ugly" (very ugly), "airhead" (not smart), "wicked" (cool), "fresh ride" (cool car), "scumbag" (not a nice person), "dweeb" (uncool person), "bad to the bone" (super cool), "get with" (have sex with), "do the nasty" (have sex), "don't have a cow" (don't get angry), and "psych" (just kidding). The lesson includes a dialogue featuring some of these terms, followed by detailed explanations and discussions of their meanings and modern usage.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
Hello English learners, welcome back to English Pod. My name is Marco.
And I'm Erica.
And today we're gonna be looking at English slang and informal words used in the 1980s.
So this is the next part of our Decades dialogues.
Exactly. So the 1980s, maybe for many of our listeners is a little bit more familiar and there are a lot of phrases and a lot of words that were born in this decade and we still use them today.
So we're going to learn those words and phrases in this dialogue, but before we start, we need to preview a couple of words. So let's go now to vocabulary preview.
Vocabulary preview.
So one of the words that we're gonna hear in our dialogue is ride.
Is that your ride?
Is that your ride?
So, a ride. Normally, we know this word as a verb, right?
Right, to ride a bicycle. In this context, it's an informal way of referring to your car.
So, a ride is a car.
Yeah, so I just bought a new ride.
All right. Well, maybe you'll take me for a ride in your new ride.
In your new ride. All right. And we also, we're also gonna be looking at this word loaded.
He's loaded.
So, if you are loaded.
You're really rich.
You're really, you have a lot of money. You are loaded with money.
Mhm.
So, loaded and ride. Those are our two words for vocabulary preview and well, let's listen to our 1980s dialogue and see what happens.
Jim, what's up, man?
Charlie, is that your ride? It's butt ugly, dude.
Don't be an airhead. This is a 1969 Chevy Impala. I just need to fix it up a bit. In a couple of months this baby is gonna be wicked.
Not even. Check it out. Now that's a fresh ride.
Too bad the driver's a major dweeb. Anyone can have a car like that if their daddy's loaded like his.
He's coming this way. Be cool.
Hey guys, what do you think of my automobile? Isn't it bad to the bone?
Word. The ladies are gonna be lining up to get with you when they see you driving around in that car.
You really think so?
For sure.
Awesome.
Psych, you totally fell for it.
You're a real scumbag, Charlie. When I do the nasty with the prom queen, we'll see who has the last laugh.
Dude, don't have a cow.
All right, so typical high school students of the decade, right?
Definitely very, very eighties.
Very eighties. And well, of course, you always have the situation with the cool kids and maybe the the kids that are not so cool and well, they're making fun of him, right?
Yeah, but they use some really cool words. So let's look at them now in language takeaway.
Language takeaway.
All right, so the first word that we saw in language takeaway and was really interesting, this word, butt ugly.
It's butt ugly.
That car is butt ugly.
So when something is butt ugly, it's really ugly, right?
It's very ugly. It's not just ugly, it's very ugly.
And what do but is like
from your
your bottom.
from your bottom, yeah.
Yeah.
So, he said the car was butt ugly and the other guy answered by saying, hey, don't be an airhead.
An airhead.
Don't be an airhead.
So, an airhead is someone with air in their head.
In their head. So, they're not very smart.
They've got no brains.
They've got no brains, right? So, he said, don't be an airhead. Don't be such a idiot.
Mhm.
All right. Now, for the third word, he described his car as being wicked.
It's wicked.
Wicked. That's wicked.
It's gonna be wicked.
Okay, so this is a very 80s way of saying it's gonna be cool.
Yeah.
It's gonna be awesome.
It's gonna be wicked.
All right. And now when they saw another car pulling up, a new car, he described it as a fresh ride.
It's a fresh ride.
Now we understand that ride is a car, right? So a fresh ride.
It's another way of saying cool.
Okay, so kind of similar, wicked and fresh.
Yeah. Now, finally, at the end of our dialogue, they said, you're a real scumbag, Charlie. So, this word scumbag is interesting.
You're a scumbag.
A scumbag.
Yeah, it's interesting and it's still used today, I would say.
Yeah. So when someone is a scumbag, they're just really not a nice person.
Yeah, they're not nice or they're not maybe to a certain point honest.
They're not kind.
Exactly. You're a scumbag.
Mhm.
Okay, but it's not a very harsh word, right? It's not harsh to say call somebody a scumbag.
Well, it's not like a swear word, but it's certainly not a nice thing to say to someone.
Okay, exactly. All right, so let's listen to all these adjectives that we've just looked at right now. Again in our dialogue and then we'll come back and look at some more phrases.
Jim, what's up, man?
Charlie, is that your ride? It's butt ugly, dude.
Don't be an airhead. This is a 1969 Chevy Impala. I just need to fix it up a bit. In a couple of months, this baby's gonna be wicked.
Not even. Check it out. Now that's a fresh ride.
Too bad the driver is a major dweeb. Anyone can have a car like that if their daddy's loaded like his.
He's coming this way. Be cool.
Hey guys, what do you think of my automobile? Isn't it bad to the bone?
Word. The ladies are gonna be lining up to get with you when they see you driving around in that car.
You really think so?
For sure.
Awesome.
Psych, you totally fell for it.
You are a real scumbag, Charlie. When I do the nasty with the prom queen, we'll see who has the last laugh.
Dude, don't have a cow.
Okay, well, you know what, Marco, I love the 80s. I love the language of the 80s, I love the music of the 80s and I'm really uh loving these phrases from the 80s. So why don't we look at them now in uh fluency builder.
Fluency builder.
All right, so on fluency builder today, let's take a look at these phrases that you were talking about. And the first one is very interesting. So these two guys that were making fun of this other person that was in this nice car and he called him a major dweeb.
A major dweeb.
He's a major dweeb.
What a major dweeb.
Now, let's break this into two parts first. Um, well, let's see what dweeb means.
Well, a dweeb is a very uncool person.
Okay, so kind of similar to a nerd.
Yeah, a small, kind of guy with no power.
Okay, he's a dweeb. Now, this word major.
It just means big, really, serious.
So it's a way of emphasizing, right?
Yeah. And you can say anything, you can have a major anything, like, oh, I've got a major headache.
All right, I can say, I have a major problem this week.
Mhm. Okay. So major, a very big problem.
Yeah. Now they're talking about this really cool car and the the guy who was a bit of a dweeb, he said, isn't it bad to the bone?
Bad to the bone.
It's bad to the bone.
All right. Now, this is also part of a famous song, bad to the bone, but what does it mean?
Well, when something is bad to the bone, it's super cool. It's like, it's so dangerous that it's cool.
Exactly. It's very, very cool. It's bad to the bone. Now, this is not used anymore.
No, no, no. Don't walk out of your house and use this this phrase tomorrow.
All right. So, but it's interesting to know because there is a famous song that has this phrase in it, so, bad to the bone.
All right. So, the car was so cool, it was bad to the bone, that all of the ladies would be wanting to get with the driver.
All right, so somebody wants to get with you.
He just wants to get with you.
So, if you want to get with someone, you have you want to have sex with them.
Right. So if you want to get with someone, basically, it means that you want to have sex with him, but there's another phrase that was used in the dialogue that means pretty much the same thing.
Yeah, to do the nasty.
To do the nasty.
They're doing the nasty.
Okay. Now this was a very popular way of saying it in the 80s, it means to have sex as well.
Yeah. But it but this one is a little bit rude, isn't it?
Yeah, I think it's a little bit more direct. If you and your friends are talking and you say, hey, I think that girl wants to get with you.
It's a little bit more casual and less obvious.
Yeah. Yes. Do the nasty is a little bit more, a little more rude.
Yeah, a little bit more direct.
And now the last phrase that we're gonna look at today was made famous by the cartoons, The Simpsons.
Mhm and it's don't have a cow.
Don't have a cow, man.
Don't have a cow.
So, to not have a cow, don't have a cow means.
Uh to get really angry, to uh to freak out, to get upset.
All right, so now we know that you say don't have a cow, but can I say it and use it in the positive? Can I say, hey, my boss totally had a cow today in the office?
Yeah, and it means again, so it freaked out, got angry, made a big deal of something.
Okay, he had a cow.
Yeah. So Frank's gonna have a cow when he finds out I smashed his car.
Of course, Frank is gonna have a cow. How can you smash his car? All right, but now it's time for us to listen to this dialogue for the last time and then we'll come back and talk a little bit more about this decade of the 1980s.
Jim, what's up, man?
Charlie, is that your ride? It's butt ugly, dude.
Don't be an airhead. This is a 1969 Chevy Impala. I just need to fix it up a bit. In a couple of months this baby is gonna be wicked.
Not even. Check it out. Now that's a fresh ride.
Too bad the driver's a major dweeb. Anyone can have a car like that if their daddy's loaded like his.
He's coming this way. Be cool.
Hey guys, what do you think of my automobile? Isn't it bad to the bone?
Word. The ladies are gonna be lining up to get with you when they see you driving around in that car.
You really think so?
For sure.
Awesome.
Psych, you totally fell for it.
You're a real scumbag, Charlie. When I do the nasty with the prom queen, we'll see who has the last laugh.
Dude, don't have a cow.
Okay, so Marco, when I was listening to the dialogue this time, I heard a really cool word. Um, they said psych.
Right. Now, this was a very popular thing during the 80s when you would say to somebody psych.
So, this is like saying just kidding, right?
Just kidding, right? So you would say, oh, Eric, I really like your hat. Oh, thank you. Psych, that hat is terrible.
Oh.
Right? So that's how you would use it. You would give somebody a compliment or you would lie to somebody and then tell them psych and then like tell them the truth, like, oh, that hat is terrible or, oh, I was just kidding.
Okay. So, psych. What a great phrase.
It was very, very popular and when when I was in school, we would use it as well. We would psych each other out.
So, do we still use this phrase today?
I don't think we use it today. I don't think it's cool anymore.
Well, if you use it, it's kind of like you're joking, right?
Yeah, and I think it would make people laugh. Like, you know, that's pretty funny.
Yeah, you're joking about how you're a little bit old-fashioned.
Exactly. I'm very sure you would surprise a lot of your native English speaking friends if you use this phrase.
A good one to try out. Now, if you have any questions about this phrase or any other of the language, come to our website at Englishpod.com.
Right, we're there to answer all your questions and also let us know any other lessons or topics that you would like to learn about in the future.
Well, thanks for listening to this lesson, you guys, and until next time. Goodbye.
Bye.
Summary
This audio presents an English vocabulary review. It begins with an instructor defining words and phrases, followed by their pronunciation. The second part of the review features the instructor prompting a word, and a second speaker then uses that word in various example sentences, often conveying different emotions depending on the context of the sentence.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
The English Pod audio review.
Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.
A silly or stupid person.
Airhead.
Information.
411.
Nerd, loser.
Dweeb.
Relax, chill out.
Take a chill pill.
Very good.
Wicked.
A male who plays a lot of sports.
Jock.
To be romantic with.
To get with.
Leave a place quickly.
Jet.
Rich.
Loaded.
Leave me alone. Go away. I don't care.
Bite me.
A car.
Ride.
Very ugly.
Butt.
Man.
Dude.
New, cool.
Fresh.
Completely cool.
Bad to the bones.
Just kidding. I was joking.
Psych.
Get angry.
Have a cow.
Let's try that faster.
Leave a place quickly.
Jet.
Very ugly.
Butt.
Very good.
Wicked.
New, cool.
Fresh.
A silly or stupid person.
Airhead.
A male who plays a lot of sports.
Jock.
Completely cool.
Bad to the bones.
Nerd, loser.
Dweeb.
A car.
Ride.
Just kidding. I was joking.
Psych.
Man.
Dude.
To be romantic with.
To get with.
Leave me alone. Go away. I don't care.
Bite me.
Rich.
Loaded.
Relax, chill out.
Take a chill pill.
Information.
411.
Get angry.
Have a cow.
Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.
Airhead.
I dated a girl in college and she was a real airhead. She thought Europe was a country.
Airhead.
Bob is a real airhead. All he can talk about is girls, parties and drinking.
Airhead.
Can you believe that Nick called me an airhead? He's such a jerk.
Wicked.
My brother is an amazing hockey player. He has a wicked slap shot.
Wicked.
I just saw the new Terminator movie and it's wicked!
Wicked.
There's a comedian that does a wicked imitation of the president. It's so funny.
Dweeb.
My classmates in high school thought I was a dweeb because I liked math.
Dweeb.
Stop being a dweeb! Let's go out tonight. You can study tomorrow.
Dweeb.
Katherine has a new boyfriend and from what I hear, he's a real dweeb.
Loaded.
I wish I were like Bill Gates. That guy is loaded!
Loaded.
Jason's father owns stock in most Fortune 500 companies. That guy is loaded!
Loaded.
You want to buy a Ferrari? Dude, you need to be loaded to even think about doing that.
To get with.
Tom has been dreaming of getting with Sarah, but she already has a boyfriend.
To get with.
If you want to get with Lucy, you have to be nice and sweet.
To get with.
I heard you got with Daniel last night. Is that true?