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Conversational Vocabulary

Hello everyone. This is Aaron from Deep English. I’m now going to talk with you about some of the vocabulary and phrases that arose in the conversation Dan and I had about sleepwalking. I want to give you an idea of what some of these words and phrases mean and how you can use them.

kind of

One of the very first things I want to draw your attention to is the phrase ‘kind of’. We use this a lot in the conversation and in our daily conversation that we have with many different people. It’s very, very common. You’ve probably heard it before. It has different meanings, slightly, depending on the context. One of the meanings is ‘somewhat’ or ‘quite’ or ‘a little bit’, ‘a tad’. I say that jumping through a window when sleepwalking and I say, “That’s pretty extreme,” and Dan says, “Yeah” and then I say, “And kind of scary in a way.” Kind of, in this sense, means ‘somewhat’; it’s somewhat scary. It’s a little bit scary. All instances of “kind of,” that mean somewhat or quite, we have highlighted in blue in this conversation. They’re in blue text.

Another meaning of ‘kind of’, and actually Dan says this on the very next line. He says, “Yeah. Have you ever had any kind of sleep problems?” In this sense it means ‘type of’ or ‘variety of’ or ‘category of’, right? Have you ever had any type of sleep problems? Have you ever had any category of sleep problems? Tell me about them, okay?

Let me give you a few more examples of this. These instances are highlighted in green; they’re in green text in the transcript. Let’s say we see some creepy, crawly thing on the ground and I say, “Oh my gosh, is that an insect?” And my friend says, “No. That looks like some kind of spider.” I say, “Well, it looks kind of creepy to me.” When the person says kind of spider, we’re talking about type of, variety of. Then when I say, “Well, it looks kind of creepy to me,” I mean somewhat creepy, a little bit creepy.

Another example might be someone asks you a question. They say, “Hey. What kind of music do you like?” You answer, “I like classical music. It’s relaxing. Do you like classical?” I might say, “Well, I find it kind of slow. I prefer jazz or rock.” Again, that means I find it somewhat slow. A little bit slow. Of course, in the question, what kind of music do you like, we’re talking about type of, variety of. Okay, so that’s “kind of.” I hope you kind of understand what it means.

picky

All right. The next one is “picky.” This is a little bit later in the conversation. Let’s see. Who was it that said ‘picky’? Was it Dan or was it me? I think it might have been Dan. Let me scroll through the conversation here and find it. Yeah, it was Dan. He says, “I was a really picky eater, so this was tough for me.” He’s talking about when he was a kid and having to eat meatloaf that his mother made.

Picky basically means very selective, very choosy, only accepting a narrow range of choices. You have a very specific idea of what you like or want and you only accept what falls into that very narrow range of specificity. We often use this with eaters, especially children. Children can be picky eaters and it’s hoped that when you become an adult, you’re not so picky anymore, that you’ll eat a wide variety of things.

Some people are picky when it comes to clothes for example. They only wear certain things; they won’t wear just anything and that’s another useful phrase, “when it comes to.” Picky when it comes to clothes. My daughter is picky when it comes to food. My friend is picky when it comes to clothes. My sister is picky when it comes to guys. My wife is picky when it comes to music and I’m picky when it comes to movies. That’s basically what it means. You’re very selective. “Don’t be so picky!” Some people will say that. Don’t be so picky. Okay, that’s picky. Let’s not be too picky.

hooked up

‘Hooked up’. Here’s another one. A little bit later we’re talking about a truck driver who had special glasses that would detect when his eyes were moving and these glasses were hooked up to a laptop in his truck. That basically means connected, attached to. Connected to, hooked up to. For example, my computer is hooked up to my TV, so I can watch Youtube videos on a big screen. Sometimes an elderly person who is sick and dying might be hooked up to a machine to help him or her breath, something like that.

Another meaning of hooked up, actually, it also has a social meaning. The one meaning is connecting one object to another object, but you can be hooked up with another person. that basically means, if you hooked up with someone, you had a meeting with them or some kind of social encounter with them.

I might say, “I had a great weekend last week. I hooked up with all my old college buddies and we went out to dinner and we had drinks and we had a great time. It was so good to hook up with them again.” That’s a social meaning. Or you might say to a good friend, “Hey, let’s hook up the next time you’re in town. Maybe we can have lunch together or something.” That’s what hooked up means in a social sense. That’s hook up. A lot of different meanings there.

mess around with

Let’s see. there’s also a similar one that also is common in English conversations and this is “mess around with.” We’re talking in the conversation about taking melatonin to help you sleep or some kind of drug to help you sleep at night. Dan says, “Yeah, I think messing around with your hormone levels and neuro- transmitters just seems kind of dangerous to me.” There’s that ‘kind of’ again, meaning somewhat or quite. In this sense, messing around with, means fooling around with, experimenting with, playing with, goofing around with. He’s just talking about experimenting with your hormone levels and neurotransmitters might be somewhat dangerous to do. Trial and error.

Here’re some other examples. You see a child playing with matches and you say, “Hey, don’t mess around with fire or you’ll get burned.” Maybe the same child is playing with a knife, “Hey, never mess around with a knife or you’ll get cut. You’ll hurt yourself.” Another example might be, “Last weekend, I was working on my computer and I messed around with the settings and now it doesn’t work anymore. I can’t turn it on.” I messed around with it. I experimented with the settings and it no longer works.

You could use this with people. Let’s say there’s some scary guy that lives in your neighborhood and you give someone advice. You say, “Hey. You shouldn’t mess around with that guy or he’ll cause you trouble,” like that. So that’s mess around with.

nightmare

Let’s see. What’s next here? ‘Nightmare’. That’s a great word. Nightmare. We use it in different ways. I’m going to take a drink of water here. Yeah, I actually bring this up. I said, going back to the story, Mike Birbiglia when he had this terrible nightmare, it frightened him so much that he did something very extreme and that’s jump out of a window.

Okay, nightmare. I’m sure you’ve heard this before and it basically just means a bad dream, a scary dream. But, the reason I’m drawing your attention to it is that you can use this word to describe other situations in your life that are unfavorable or terrible or extremely troublesome or very problematic. For example, every year I have to do my taxes in America because I’m American. Even though I live overseas, I still have to file for taxes in the States. And it’s a nightmare. There’re so many different rules, there’s many loopholes, there’s many different forms. It’s so hard to understand. It’s so time consuming. Doing taxes is a nightmare. It’s just an absolute nightmare.

I have a friend who is in a really bad marriage. In fact his marriage is a nightmare. He and his wife are always fighting; they always have problems. He’s never happy. She’s never happy. Their marriage is a nightmare. That’s two examples of how you can use this in other situations. For some people, learning a new language can be a nightmare. Is it a nightmare for you? I hope not.

on a regular basis

What else? There’s another phrase I want to talk about and draw your attention to and it’s ‘on a regular basis’. On a regular basis. This goes back right before I mentioned the word ‘nightmare’. Dan mentioned ‘on a regular basis’ and so Dan says, “I think messing around with your hormone levels and neurotransmitters just seems kind of dangerous to me.” I say, “Yeah, yeah.” He says, “On a regular basis.” I say, “On a regular basis. Yeah, right.” On a regular basis; this is a really common phrase that we use to basically say to do something often and regularly. To do it in a consistent way over time at the same time intervals, something over and over and over again. It becomes very predictable and habitual.

For example, smoking on a regular basis is bad for you. Reading on a regular basis is good for you and you should also exercise on a regular basis. Do you catch colds on a regular basis? If so, you should examine your lifestyle and make changes. On a regular basis. I feel, and so does Dan, that to improve your English fluency, you need to be listening and speaking on a regular basis.

cue

Let’s move on to another one. ‘Cue’. Here’s one. We’re talking about lucid dreaming, I think it was, and some techniques of how to realize that you’re dreaming. Dan talks about focusing on your hands because that’s something that’s likely to come up in a dream. Dan says, “It’s kind of a cue.” There’s that kind of again. It’s somewhat of a cue and that’s when … and then when you see your hands in a dream, that’s a cue of what’s going on here.

Basically, a cue in this sense is a very strong hint. It’s a trigger. It’s an obvious clue. Very often, it’s a call to action. When you see the cue, you have to do something. You have to make a decision. You have to take action.

Probably the easiest example of this is when you’re driving and you’re stopped at a red light and then suddenly the light turns green. Well, that’s your cue for moving forward.

Actually several months ago, I was at a work party and all the co-workers and staff members were there. Then suddenly the boss nodded and winked at me and that was my cue to stand up and deliver the short speech that I had prepared. I followed the cue.

It does have other meanings, one is a very long stick used for playing snooker or billiards or pool. In the U.K. and I believe in Australia as well, they use the word to describe a line, a line of people waiting for something. Of course, they spell it differently, it’s q-u- e-u-e and you might hear it like, “stand at the back of a queue,” or “there was a long queue to get into the stadium before the game.” Or you might hear someone say, like a mother say to her child, “Hey, you shouldn’t cut in front of others in a queue. It’s a bad thing to do.” Don’t cut in line at the queue. All right. That’s a cue for me to move on.

I bet

Let’s see. Here’s one that a lot of people ask me about. I use it a lot and I get questions from students. “What does that mean? I don’t understand that.” It’s the very short phrase ‘I bet’. Towards the end of the conversation, Dan says, “… and you train yourself. You get better at remembering your dreams by keeping a dream journal.” I said, “Yeah, I bet you do. Yeah, I bet you do.” What does that mean exactly? It means that I am very sure that, or, it is no surprise to me that.

When I say, “Yeah, I bet you do Dan.” I’m saying that it’s no surprise to me that keeping a dream journal will help you remember your dreams,” or “I’m very sure that if you do that, if you keep that journal, you will definitely remember your dreams. I bet you will. I bet you will.”

The verb ‘to bet’ basically means to wager or to put up money to win more money. You can bet money at a casino or you can bet on a horse race or bet on a football game. And if you bet on a football game and if your team wins then you win money and if your team loses, you lose money.

In this case it means “I’m very sure that it’s going to happen.” Let me give you a few examples. Let’s say, your friend is applying for a job and that job is very difficult to get. He suddenly comes with the news that, “Hey, I’m so happy. I got the job. Can you believe it?” I said, “Wow, I bet you are happy.

I bet you are.” Meaning that I’m sure you’re happy because I understand how difficult and stressful it was for you to get that job.

Someone might say, “Oh boy. Travelling around the world without any money is very difficult.” I might say, “I bet it is. I bet it is.” That means I can imagine that it is very difficult. I’m sure that it is very difficult. I bet it is. Let’s talk about George. George is very depressed because his best friend died in a tragic accident. I might say, “Yeah, I bet he is. I bet he is.” Meaning no surprise to me. I would be depressed too.

there you go / there we go

Okay. Let’s get to the very last one. I bet you’re ready. ‘There we go’. I say, “Yeah, I bet you do Dan. I bet you do.

Well, there we go. Dream journals and lucid dreaming.” What does that mean, ‘there we go’ or ‘there you go’. A lot of times people say, “there you go,” or “there we go.” Basically, it means there it is, now it exists. You’re doing it correctly. You did it. You understand now.

Basically, we use this when we want to bring something to a conclusion or a summary usually when teaching something. When you teach somebody something, we use this a lot. For example, I might teach a child how to ride a bicycle and the child keeps falling off over and over and over again, but we stay consistent; we’d keep at it. Finally the child gets it. She gets up on her bike and she rides and she doesn’t fall off. Then I might say, “There you go! Now you’re riding a bike!” Or let’s say I’m teaching someone how to fold a paper airplane and they’re having difficulty remember all the folds. Then they try to fly the airplane and it doesn’t fly, it falls to the ground, but we keep at it; we keep going. I explain more times and eventually the person is able to perfectly fold the airplane. As they throw it, it soars across the room and it beautifully stays in the air as it should, as a good paper airplane should. At that moment, I’ll say, “There you go. You got it. You’ve made the paper airplane. It works. There you go.” So, we’re now at the end of our vocabulary commentary, there you go. I hope you’ve learned some new phrases that you can put to use in your daily conversations with other people.