AEE 2385: Order in the Court - Everyday Courtroom English
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This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2385. Order in the court. Everyday courtroom English. 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 hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven-day free trial now.

Do you like to watch courtroom dramas? Today, find out which words you hear on these TV shows are used in everyday life.

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Hey there, Michelle. How's it going today? Good, Lindsay. Lindsay, have you ever had jury duty? I actually have recently, Michelle. I was called in

And, you know, you go through stages. You get a mailing and then you have to call the night before and find out if your number was called. My number was called. So that means you go in that day and then you watch the videos. And then if your number gets called again, you're actually on the selection process. So it's like three rounds that you have to be lucky or unlucky, depending on how you think of it.

But my number did not get called that time. Okay. What about you, Michelle? Yes, I have had it. I've had it in New York. And I remember I actually made it to the voir dire. The voir dire. It is voir dire. Yes. Yeah. And they give you a microphone. Yeah, I did. And they asked me questions. And I remember I was really nervous because it was right before kind of a break in my schedule or I had planned to go home. Oh, yes.

I was just hoping, I think I said something to the judge and they were like, sorry, you know? Yeah. But then luckily I didn't get chosen after the four years. They didn't like you as a jury then, as a juror, juror, I guess is the word. Interesting. Interesting. What about, what about courtroom dramas? Do you like, do you watch anything like,

Of course, of course. And there was a great movie called Jury Duty, actually. And a TV show. Yeah, I highly recommend the movie. I remember thinking it was really funny or really good or something. Yeah, I've seen the courtroom dramas, you know, the crime shows, the true crime series. They're everywhere. I think most of what we learn about juries and trials is actually on TV. Yeah.

yes or movies like i was thinking you and i have talked many times about my cousin vinnie uh michelle i have an update there i actually watched that over the weekend oh did you i watched it over the weekend yeah amazing still right good movie but you know what the second time or the third time whatever time it was i remember it being funnier the first time i watched it this time i didn't i it was funny but it wasn't like stitches funny you know i

I've got stitches in my belly. Funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. Like it was a clever movie. Also, it's just fun because it's from the 80s, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love them.

I love that movie. Yeah. Oh, that's so funny that we're talking about this then. So perfect. Guys, before we get into it, we want to let you know that we are going to have a poll on Spotify that we announced at the end of the episode, towards the end. And yeah, we have a lot of fun with these because we ask you guys a question. And if you're listening on Spotify, you can put your answer in. And some of them, like this one, we will read on a future show. So we will read actually what the results were. So it's a really fun way to interact with us.

Exactly. And we'll get to that at the end of the episode. So stick with us here. But today we're going to have this fun episode about idioms that come from the courtroom. And I think it probably is the fact that courts and trials and juries are so embedded in our psyche due to the media. We actually use a lot of idioms, a lot of law idioms.

in everyday life, Michelle. What do you think? Why? Why do you think we use them? Yeah, I agree. I would say that it's on TV. I mean, there are always, what is it? There's a hundred different law and orders and people seem to just gravitate towards

towards courtroom stuff. They do. Yeah. And so, yeah, I think it's just seeped its way into our natural vocabulary. Yes. People love maybe they like justice. They like the truth. It seems dramatic and exciting. These jury trials, right? Lawyers, trial lawyers have to really think on their feet and be creative and also very smart. So it's kind of inspiring in a sense.

Watch her. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So again, these expressions that we're going to teach, they're not there. They use courtroom kind of lingo, but they're not used. You don't have to be talking about the court, right? We don't have to go. We don't have to be in a jury trial. Hopefully you're not right to use these expressions, right? We don't want to be in courtrooms. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So

Lindsay, we did want to announce our Android app reviewers, right? Yeah, I just want to say a special shout out to one recent reviewer. Special thank you to Khosra, who reviewed us on February 27th, 2025 with a five-star review. You know, we love seeing these reviews, guys. They are huge for us because we do this podcast for you. So huge thank you to Khosra. And Michelle, what can our listeners do if they want to hear their name on the show?

Definitely go wherever you're listening to us and leave us a review because we do read them. Lindsay sends them around and I always read them and they make us smile and you can even ask a question in your review. So yes, just to know that we'll directly be reading that review. So go ahead and leave it guys. We'll try to announce your name on the show.

All right, Michelle, let's get into it. So where does jury and courtroom language show up in everyday English outside of court? Yes. So one thing sometimes people say is what's the verdict, right? Do you ever hear people say that or you say that? Yep. Oh yeah, for sure. So what is the verdict? I mean, I'm not asking what's the verdict, but what is a verdict, Michelle? A verdict, it's kind of, this is

the decision that the jury comes to so the verdict guilty not guilty right yeah yeah exactly what's the decision so someone has been thinking about something in everyday language someone's been considering something maybe they're thinking of taking a new job for example right or it's something lighter like where do you want to go for lunch I gave you some time to think about it

And Michelle, what's a sample sentence then? Yeah. So yeah. What's the verdict on lunch? Are we getting Thai? Right. Exactly. Yeah. Like what was the outcome of the decision? What did you decide? Exactly. So, and the key thing to know here, this is a real nuance, Michelle, but I feel like there needs to be a gap of time in which someone has been thinking about it. Right.

Let's say I called you in the morning and we're both at work. I say, hey, Michelle, you want to get lunch today? Sure. And you say, sure. And then I say, can you think of where you want to go? And when we meet up, we can decide.

So I gave you the choice and I know that you're thinking about it. And then when we come back together, I'm going to say to you, so Michelle, what's the verdict on lunch? Verdict on lunch. Right. Don't you think? Right. There needs to be that time. And I guess that comes if you think about it makes sense with the courtroom, right? The verdict is after some deliberation amongst the jury. So it's not I wouldn't say to you, Lindsay, what do you want to do for lunch? And then you say, I don't know. And they say, what's the verdict?

And actually that's fun because that leads directly into our next one. The jury's still out. So the jury's out, right? Deciding where you want to go for lunch. We're just doing these fun little analogies here. So, so with the verdict piece, someone needs to have been thinking about something. Okay.

Okay. Yes. So I wouldn't just say, Hey, what do you want to do tonight? What's the verdict? No, that doesn't really work. Right? No, no, no, no. There needs to be time. So with the jury still being out, the jury hasn't decided yet. There's no decision yet. So you could say, you could say the jury's out or you could even say the jury is still out. Yeah. Either one. But what's an example with that? Okay. You can say the jury's still out as to whether or not school will be closed for snow tomorrow.

And I don't know what your thoughts are on kind of belaboring an analogy or, uh,

But I probably wouldn't continue with that same line. Like if I asked you, what's the verdict on lunch? And you probably wouldn't say, oh, I don't know. The jury's still out. You probably wouldn't know. It's too much. I mean, unless I was trying to be super, oh, you know, I don't know, humorous or whatever. But no, I want to know. No, it doesn't mean we have to continue with these same, I guess, is kind of analogies in a sense. Not what's the word I'm looking for? Metaphors or I'm not sure. But.

But it's too much. It just gets a little overwhelming. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Snow days, Lindsay. Did you do you remember being a kid and just like looking at the bottom of the TV to see if your school was closed or the jury was still out? Yeah. Oh, and I remember there was a number we could call either TV downstairs or a number. And I was I had memorized, you know, your school administrative unit district. Right. Right.

And then you're waiting for that SAU 29. Come on, say it, say it. Right. Yep. Yep. Yep. Exactly. So a lot of jury was still out anyway. Yeah. So funny. All right.

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Okay, so now, Michelle, we have another great one, super relevant in everyday life and culture. What is it? This is to plead the fifth.

Now, yeah, let's get into the amendments a little bit. Let's see, what is this about? Okay, this is talking about the Fifth Amendment in the Constitution, the amendment of not having to self-incriminate. So you don't have to say anything. If lawyers ask you questions or the DA, the district attorney is asking you questions, you can plead the Fifth. And we see this a lot on crime

crime shows and also when people first get arrested they're read their what do they call them the miranda rights and i think the fifth amendment is probably one of them i'm guessing probably i don't know um but yeah and whenever somebody says plead the fifth you get this feeling of

It's guilty. You know what I mean? Maybe it's not true, but at least in fun language, that's how it's used. If you're kind of guilty of something. So let's do this little role play. Yeah. Let's take this back to a normal situation at home. Right. Hey, did you eat the last cookie?

I plead the fifth. Yeah. So we're not in a courtroom here. Right. We're not being arrested. It's more like, oh, yeah, I probably did. But I'm just being playful and I'm not going to admit that I did. Right. Right. I'm saying I did. Essentially. Yeah. You're saying you did. OK. That's an important piece. Case closed, Michelle. Case closed. Case closed.

Yeah, this means the case has ended. The judge is moving on to the next one, right? - Yeah, this is fun. This episode is fun. So essentially outside of the courtroom, which is where we all exist,

is it means this is over or this has been resolved. We're no longer talking about this thing. Right. Maybe you've been debating this for a while and this could be used in more serious like arguments between spouses, maybe. Right. Right. Like you want to live in the city and maybe he wants to live in the countryside and you've been debating for years and then finally you decide, OK, case closed. We've decided this. Right. Yep. Exactly. Or it could be used in a much lighter way. Like this is the best ice cream ever. Case closed.

closed nice I like that so you can see the range for that one is pretty wide in terms of scenarios yes very much so let's see what should these do like the most oh my gosh I really like I like the jury's still out I think that's kind of fun the jury's still out because it means the decision is still being made about something yeah yeah and often that's the place we live where we hang out in the world is we're we're ruminating over something or we we're thinking about something

and taking our time. So the jury's still out.

Exactly. So let's get into our poll for today, guys. Again, you're going to see this on Spotify. So the question is, do you like to watch courtroom shows? Yes or no. So we want to know who's into those kinds of shows. Yes. And if you're listening in YouTube, Michelle, let's throw this out there. If you are watching today in YouTube, you can answer this to answer the poll in the comments. But tell us what is your favorite. So answer yes or no. But then if it's yes, you're

you have a place to make a comment. So tell us what is your favorite courtroom drama? We're looking for recommendations. Right, Michelle? All right, perfect. All right, let's do a role play, Lindsay. All right, so here we are friends and we're trying to figure out who forgot to pay their dinner bill on Venmo after a group dinner. Ooh.

So again, we're going to use these expressions, but as Lindsay mentioned earlier, you probably wouldn't use them all like this. Yes. Yeah. You wouldn't belabor that too much, right? You wouldn't, it just gets a little tacky if you, yeah, it's a little much unless you're having fun. I don't know. Okay. Here we go. All right. So, okay. Okay. So you paid. Uh, yeah. Okay. So the jury's still out as to who didn't Venmo you yet.

- Yeah, I have to look through. Who ordered the giant cake? - Ooh, I plead the fifth, but I paid for it. - Okay, good. And what's the verdict on the restaurant for next week? - Undecided. - Just because I hope whoever it is pays me back by then. Oh wait, I just got an alert. Jared just paid. All good now. - Oh good, case closed.

Nice. We're going to investigate Jared if he doesn't pay. Yes. All right. So here we have a bunch of idioms, fun idioms. And first you said who, so you paid, clearly you're looking to figure out who needs to pay. And then I said, okay, so the jury's still out as to who didn't Venmo yet.

Right. So we don't know who it was. Right. And just to pay attention to the grammar here, the jury's still out as to something. Right. So I want our listeners to pay attention to that. We need the grammar to make this work. Right. The jury is still out as to something. Right. And again, this is a little bit different because it's not like, oh, the decision being made. Right. The jury being out. But it's still, I think it's just used also in terms of

something is still a mystery yeah we're figuring something out yeah yeah you're figuring something out there's a mystery you've got to do some research maybe yes yes yeah then what i said who ordered the giant cake and it was me and i'm admitting it here right as we said oh i plead the fifth but i paid for it and it's funny because by saying i plead the fifth you're saying i ordered it yeah yeah right exactly because i didn't even ask you specifically but you just yeah yeah yeah yeah okay um

And I said, and what's the verdict on the restaurant for next week? So it sounds like we do kind of a, maybe a weekly dinner or we just know that. Yeah. And we're deciding. So I'm saying what's the decision. Okay. Excellent. What's the verdict. Good. And then we, we went down to the bottom and you said, oh, Jerry just paid all good now. And then I say, oh, good case closed. Yes. So that just means we figured it out. We're moving on. That is all set. Yeah. Good.

Fun episode today, Michelle, because especially because these actually, you know, we're not just making this up here, guys. Like these, we genuinely do use these expressions in everyday life. Okay. Yeah. That's why I, that's where I got the idea because I said, I said one of these in real life. So, and then I was like, Oh, I love it. They're fun. Um, anyway, guys, check out episode 2382 drive safe or drive safely. When to use flat adverbs in English. Hmm.

Interesting. I love it. And what's our takeaway? Where should we leave our listeners? Where should we? Yeah, these are just fun. They're used, as you can see, they're very versatile because they can be used in more serious situations or more lighthearted, humorous situations like where's the ice cream? Oh, I plead the fifth. So, you know, just listen for these. Don't use them.

at once. Give them a try and yeah, let us know how it goes. You will definitely hear these around. Excellent. And guys, don't forget to leave us a review wherever you listen, whether it's Spotify or Apple Podcasts or YouTube. You could write a comment or in the app. All right. Good stuff. Okay, Michelle. Well, we'll see you very soon back on the show. All right. Bye, Lindsay. Bye. Bye.

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