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cover of episode AEE 2380: Keep English Straight With these Idioms

AEE 2380: Keep English Straight With these Idioms

2025/3/26
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All Ears English Podcast

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Aubrey
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Lindsay
创立并主持《All Ears English》播客,帮助全球英语学习者通过自然和实用的方式提高英语水平。
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@Lindsay : 我在日常生活中经常遇到记不住电话号码的情况,这让我意识到记忆力在现代社会中面临的挑战。随着科技的发展,我们越来越依赖手机等电子设备,以至于忘记了一些原本应该记住的信息,例如电话号码。这让我开始思考,我们是否会因为过度依赖科技而逐渐丧失一些基本的能力。 此外,在学习英语的过程中,我也发现有很多习语很难记住,特别是那些与straight相关的表达。这些习语的含义和用法都比较灵活,需要我们多加练习和积累才能熟练掌握。 在与@Aubrey 的对话中,我们讨论了几个与straight相关的习语,例如keep straight, get something straight, think straight, play it straight。这些习语在日常生活中应用广泛,可以帮助我们更准确、更有效地表达自己的想法。 Aubrey: 在英语学习中,理解和运用习语至关重要。习语是英语口语表达中不可或缺的一部分,掌握习语能够提升英语表达的流利度和地道性。 在与Lindsay的对话中,我们一起探讨了几个与straight相关的习语,并通过角色扮演的方式进行了实践。这些习语的含义和用法各不相同,但都与“直接”、“清晰”、“诚实”等概念相关。例如,keep straight指的是区分不同的事物,避免混淆;get something straight指的是澄清误解或解释模糊不清的事情;think straight指的是能够集中注意力或集中精力;play it straight指的是诚实或坦率。 通过学习和运用这些习语,我们可以更好地理解英语的表达方式,并提升自己的英语口语表达能力。在日常生活中,我们可以尝试将这些习语融入到自己的对话中,这将有助于我们更好地与他人沟通交流。

Deep Dive

Chapters
This chapter explores the common struggle of keeping things straight, using the example of phone numbers and the difficulty of remembering names. It introduces the idiom "keep straight" and provides examples of its usage in various contexts, including remembering names, keeping a story straight, and the implications of lying.
  • Difficulty in keeping things straight is a common experience.
  • The idiom "keep straight" means to correctly distinguish one thing from another.
  • It is used in various contexts such as remembering names, keeping a story straight, and maintaining consistency in details.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2380. Keep English straight with these idioms. Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. 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 host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz.

and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com/subscribe. In today's episode, you'll get four idioms using the word straight to talk about being direct and more in English.

How do you know when you've finally hit the advanced English level? You can not only have interesting conversations in English, but also be interesting in English. You can make astute observations, ask good questions, speak with a confident pitch, and

Real English.

Hello, Lindsay. How are you? I'm doing great, Aubrey. How are you today? How's it going? I'm great. I have a question for you. Is there anything you have trouble keeping straight?

Oh, yeah, for sure. You know, it's so funny because everyone's phone number is now in my phone. And so if I ever don't have my phone, but I need to call someone, I can't keep numbers straight, their phone numbers, unless I knew them from childhood and they're still living in that place, which is unlikely. So phone numbers is a really good example. I had something happen last summer where we were on a river and I had left my phone and

in someone else's car. So we got to the end and we were supposed to call for them to come pick us up. Yeah. And we didn't have a phone and none of us knew anyone's phone number. If we don't have our phones, we don't know anyone's number to call anymore. It kind of scares me about chat GPT. Are we going to forget how to think entirely? Right. It's the same idea. It is hard to keep numbers straight. Yeah. As kids, we used to memorize our kids' names straight. I often would call them the wrong name.

Well, that is another level, Aubrey, when you're forgetting your kids' names. That's trouble. That's trouble. I find myself going through, I'm like, "Adeline, Penelope, Georgia." I say everyone's name before the right one. Oh, that's great. I love that. So I love what we said here. We said the expression to keep something straight. Is that what we're going into in today's episode? Yes. This came up in a recent episode that Michelle and I recorded about phrasal verbs. And we said, "It's hard to keep these all straight."

And so stay to the end. We'll share what episode that was in case you missed it, but definitely hit follow. If you are missing any of our episodes, talk about vocabulary, idioms, phrasal verbs, strategies. You don't want to miss any of them. Yes, 100%. And as we said before, bonus episodes as well. You don't want to miss them. So hit that follow button. All right. Let's go

into number one and this is the one that we used at the top of the show to keep straight what is this and then we're also going to share some other idioms sort of related or with straight so the first one keep straight means to not mix up right to correctly distinguish one thing from another

So I think about my daughter's soccer coach. He has this little whiteboard that he always has the names of the girls that are on the field because he has such a hard time keeping their names straight or even just keeping the players straight. A lot of them look alike, right? It's tricky. Oh, I bet. Yeah. Some people are just not named people. Not too. It can be really hard. Yeah.

How many times you need to introduce yourself. I've been starting to do tango lessons. I think I might have shared that on the show. And now it's, I've been to three classes and still asking for names, but the same people are still asking for my name. So I figured that's okay. As long as they're still asking for my name, I can still ask for my name. That's when it gets tricky. When you're like, I know that I've talked to you enough times that I should know your name. I'm still asking for it. I'm sorry. Hopefully by the fourth class, I'll have the name straight. Right? Keep them straight. Exactly.

But let's give some examples. So I talked about my daughter's coach. He has a difficult time keeping the players' names straight. So he mixes them up. He'll call the girls the wrong name sometimes. Oh, no. Or it was clear he had lied when he wasn't able to keep his story straight. Yeah. Yeah. This is one way we use this a lot. Keep your story straight means not mix up the facts. Yeah.

So if you tell a lie, it's hard to keep straight which details you change. Well, it's true. And that's why if you're ever in a deposition, I was listening to a podcast episode about someone who worked for Boeing and he was involved in multiple depositions. And they asked the same questions over and over again for hours and hours to try to break your story, to try to see if you're lying. I don't think he was lying, by the way. But that will happen if you're under pressure in the legal system.

yeah right they're gonna see if you can keep your story straight because if you're lying you probably can't yes exactly all right so that's a really important one where we see all across the culture right families the legal system number two get something straight now this is different

Yeah, this means to clear up a misunderstanding or to clarify something that's confusing. So you might say, let's get this straight. You weren't home until 2 a.m. So it'd be something I'd say to my daughter who broke curfew. And I'm like, let's make sure we're on the same page. Make sure there's no misunderstandings here. Yeah. And the famous phrase here is, let me get this straight.

Let me get this straight. You might hear that in movies or just in the culture in general, right? Yeah, that's almost more idiomatic. That is often said when something is unbelievable or you're kind of saying like, are you serious? That's really what you're saying. Let me get this straight.

It's a little different, right? Let me get this straight. And then you say something kind of ridiculous. Is this true? Is this really what happened? Is that really what happened? Yes, exactly. Here's another example of get something straight. I need to get one thing straight. I never lied to you. And what you're saying here is you need to convey clearly one thing.

Exactly. This is especially used when there's a misunderstanding or something that is believed that is not true. You want to clear it up and be like, okay, I need to get one thing straight or I need to get something straight. We say it both of these ways. Yes. Number three, think straight. Think straight. How about this one, Aubrey? That means to be able to focus or concentrate. I say this a lot when my kids are being so noisy. I can't think straight with all this noise. How do you handle that noise? Yes.

it's really difficult send them outside oh gosh good thing you live in arizona they can go outside any time of the year i love that right exactly or let's meet in the conference room so we can think straight yeah yeah so it's just another way of saying so we can really focus hone in on what we're doing aubry question when you were when you if you want to get work done do you feel like your space needs to be neat and kind of zen in a sense or are you okay with a messy space where you work

I do prefer to it for it to be neat, right? Clutter free to get work done to really be able to think straight. But you know who especially I know you've talked about needing to tidy up clutter, right? My husband cannot think straight if there's any clutter, like everything needs to be in its place. Everything needs to be tidy. So I know that's pretty common.

yeah it's a thing right it's definitely a thing but then you might find that you spend the time cleaning up the place and then there's no time left to do the work right that's that's the problem all the time i had to do this i spent tidying exactly exactly now play it straight is another one we use doing something without tricks or subterfuge what does that mean aubry yeah deceit right so now that's a band nine ielts word that's an impressive subterfuge which means deceit

So we also use it to mean honestly or trust in a trustworthy way. So for example, I wish you would just play it straight with me. Someone might say this about someone they're dating and they feel like they're getting mixed messages or they're being breadcrumbed. We talked about dating terms recently. And you may be like, I wish they would just play it straight. They would be more less deceitful, more trustworthy. Yes.

Right. Exactly. So you could say, okay, play it straight with me. Where were you last night? This is again, something I might say to my daughter after breaking curfew. All right. Play it straight. It means like, okay, just be honest. Yeah. Be honest. Good.

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Okay, Aubrey, let's break into a role play here. So here we are at a happy hour after work. All right. Good. Start us out. I can't think straight in here with all this noise. It is so loud. Hey, I thought we were meeting tomorrow at five, but Mark just said he thought the plan was seven.

I can never keep time straight when they're changing it so often. It was switched from five to seven, then six. I thought it was back to five though. Let's get something straight. I was fine with whatever. So all the time changes were not my fault. I feel like someone's not playing it straight. I wonder if they're planning a surprise or something.

Okay, so something's going on. Something strange is happening here behind the scenes, right? Right. We're starting to detect like, okay, something's up. Exactly. So I started off by saying, I can't think straight in here with all this noise. So maybe it's just a noisy bar. Exactly, right. A lot of noise. And this is how I stay instead of like, you know, it's so loud in here. I can't concentrate. I can't focus. We're much more likely to say, I can't think straight. Exactly. Exactly. And then you said, Aubrey?

I can never keep times straight when they're changed so often, right? So if the meeting time or where you're meeting keeps changing, then you'd say like, oh, I can't keep the time straight. Nice. And then I said, let's get something straight. I was fine with whatever. So all the time changes were not my fault. So I'm just trying to tell you, hey, um,

"This is not my fault. I didn't cause this problem." Right, because I don't know, maybe I do think you're the one that needs the time changes, right? And so you're wanting to clear up that misunderstanding like, "Okay, let's get something straight. Not my fault." Right, exactly. And then you said, Aubrey, "I feel like someone's not playing it straight."

So I wonder if they're planning a surprise. So it sounds like you think someone is kind of not being 100% straightforward. Exactly. Yeah, there's related straight and straightforward in this way, playing it straight, being straightforward. There's some kind of deceit or subterfuge happening. So we're starting to sense like, oh, wait, maybe someone's planning a surprise. Well, I wonder if that's where these expressions came from, straightforward. Yeah.

Right? They're definitely all related. Get something straight, keep straight, play it straight from the word straightforward, potentially. Yes, probably. Interesting. And they're all, they all have such different meanings, like little, you know, sort of related. But this is what's so tricky about idioms and idiomatic phrasal verbs as well. You know, it's hard to keep them straight. Yes, 100%. And that's why we are here to help our listeners, right, Aubrey?

But there's another episode that our listeners should check out. Why should they check that one out? Yeah, this is the episode that inspired this one. 2366, don't blow off this English vocabulary episode. We were talking about phrasal verbs and we used keep straight when we're talking about how difficult those phrasal verbs with the word blow are to keep straight.

Yes, and I love it. So as a takeaway today, I agree with you, Aubrey, it can be hard when we're learning a new language to keep idioms straight. But I think the key is the more exposure we have to the language, the better. So that's coming back, listening to All Ears English five days a week, listening to other podcasts, consuming a lot of native natural English.

Absolutely. And these are all very common in daily conversations at work. None of them are overly formal or informal. So throw a couple into your conversations. Throw it in. See what happens. I love it. Good stuff. All right, Aubrey. Well, we'll talk to you very soon. Awesome. See you next time. All right. Take care. Bye. You too. Bye.

Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.

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