لغات

CONVERSATIONAL VOCABULARY

UNUSUAL INHERITANCES

Hi there ladies and gentlemen. Aaron here of Deep English. In this lesson I want to talk with you about some of the words and phrases that Dan and I used in our conversation about inheritance. So, let’s get started.

1. ‘til death do us part

The first is ‘til death do us part. This is what Dan says when he’s joking with me at the beginning of the conversation when he says, “We’re a team Aaron. We’re a duo. We’re tied together ‘til death do us part.” So, what does that mean and where does it come from? Well, ‘til death do us part is an idiom and it actually is a very common idiom in traditional Protestant marriage vows. It basically signifies the couple’s intention to say together until the very last day. Until one of them dies, right? They’re together forever. It’s the strongest commitment that you can make to another person. It actually sounds like this, these are the traditional wedding vows in a Protestant wedding. “I take thee to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, ‘til death do us part.”

So, this is what you’ll hear in a very traditional wedding. You know, to part, ‘til death do us part, that verb means to break up, to split apart. Right? Until death breaks us up. Until death splits us apart. So, if you ever hear that outside of a marriage ceremony, know that that’s what it means and that’s where it comes from.

1. to have a bone to pick with someone

Alright. The next one is to have a bone to pick with someone. You’ll also hear this as to pick a bone with someone. Alright? But to have a bone to pick with someone. What does that mean? Well, Dan says this when he’s talking about that man Luis Carlos who just gave money to random people. Dan was talking about how normally in his society money just goes to your family, but if you don’t have family then the government takes it. So, apparently this guy had some bones to pick with the government.

So, what does that mean? Well, to have a bone to pick with someone means to have a problem with someone that needs to be discussed or dealt with in some fashion. This is usually a problem due to some kind of wrongdoing or something bad that hurt your feelings that the other person did. So, you need to resolve it.

You need to talk with that person about it. You need to express your feelings and opinions toward that person who you feel wronged you or did something bad to you. You don’t want to let go of it. Like, imagine a dog gnawing, like chewing on a bone after all the meat is gone. That dog does not want to let go of that bone, and if you try to take the bone away from the dog it’ll get angry. It might growl at you.

It might even bite you. Right? So, you don’t want to let go of it. It’s something you need to resolve.

Let me give you a few examples to see how this might be used. Let’s imagine that you go out to dinner with a group of people and some of them are your friends, and one of your very best friends during dinner makes some comments about your family members that you don’t like. You don’t like the way your friend talked about your family members, but you also don’t want to create a scene at the dinner table. So, when dinner’s over you feel that you have a bone to pick with that friend and you might go up to that friend and say, “Hey, I have a bone to pick with you.” Your friend might say, “Really? What’s the problem?” Then you would say, “Well, I really disliked what you said about my family members. I thought that was way out of line. I don’t want you to ever do that again.” Then your friend says, “Oh, man, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble.” Etcetera. So, you had a bone to pick with your friend and you picked a bone with your friend.

You talked to him about it and now everything’s fine.

Another example might be if you’re a student in a classroom and every time that you get your test back from the teacher, let’s say it’s a writing class and you’re writing essays, and the comments you get from your teacher and the grade that you get you feel is unfair. You feel like the teacher is really going easy on other students but for some reason is grading you too harshly and you don’t agree with the grade, and you think the teacher might be playing favorites that he or she is just making it easy for other students but making it very difficult for you. You don’t think it’s fair. You have a problem with it. You have a bone to pick with your teacher. So, you wait until all the students are gone after class and then you approach your teacher and you say, “Hey, I’ve got a problem here. I’ve got a bone to pick with you.” Right? So, that’s what it means. When you hear that it means there’s a problem that needs to be dealt with. It needs to be discussed.

1. bite the dust

Okay. Moving on. The next one is bite the dust. We were talking about this Canadian man, Archibald McArthur. I said to Dan, “After he bit the dust he gave these inheritance gifts to people to put them in odd situations.” So, to bite the dust is an idiom that simply means to die. That’s what it means. It’s very colloquial. You wouldn’t want to use it in a serious or formal or polite situation that could get you in trouble because the imagery is kind of harsh or violent. I mean, to bite the dust literally means your mouth hits the dirt. You know? You’ve been shot by a gun or you’ve been shot by an arrow, or someone’s hit you over the head. You bite the dust. Your face hits the ground. So, it’s pretty brutal. It’s kind of a brutal imagery.

We would only use it when we’re talking with friends and we know that we’re not going to offend anyone. It’s just a colloquial way of saying to die. There are other ways to say this. Some people might shorten it and say, “He bit it. She bit it. You better be careful, you’re going to bite it.” That means, to die. Right? You’re going to bite it. You’re going to die. Then there are other idioms that mean the same thing like by the farm, cash in your chips, meet your maker, push up daisies.

There are probably dozens more to signify death or to die. Right? That’s what they mean. Okay. Don’t bite the dust anytime soon.

1. teetotaler

The next one is teetotaler, actually we kind of explained this in the conversation but just in case some of you are still wondering what it means, a teetotaler is a person who has declared or who has completely abstained, that means stopped, stopped drinking alcohol. That’s pretty much what we mean when we say teetotaler. We’re almost always talking about alcohol. I suppose it could be other things, but it’s almost always used when talking about drinking. You know, drinking can be a very addictive kind of activity and it gets certain people in trouble, especially certain personality types. The solution sometimes is to be a teetotaler. Just to stop completely and make a vow never for the rest of your life to have another drink. You’re a teetotaler.

Now, some people do it for religious reasons or it may conflict with their beliefs about how people should live their lives. Sometimes very religious people are teetotalers. They vow not to partake in the imbibing of substances that cloud their judgment and cause them to follow certain passions. So, yeah, there are many reasons why people would become teetotalers but that’s what it means when you hear it. Someone who never drinks or never engages in some kind of addictive activity or potentially addictive activity.

1. come into

Alright. The next one is come into. This is a phrasal verb that Dan uses when he’s talking about someone that he and I know who came into a lot of money when that person was young, and for that reason, didn’t have any ambition in life. So, when you hear this phrasal verb connected with money or something of value, it means to either inherit it or suddenly possess it whether it’s through inheritance or whether it’s through winning some kind of contest or whether it’s finding it.

You know, six feet underground. Whatever it is. You suddenly are in possession of a lot of money. Right? You come into that money. You inherit it in some way. Some common collocations are come into a fortune. Come into a lot of money. Come into some money. Come into an inheritance. Right? Of course, if you’re not talking about money, like you can come into a situation but that has a different meaning.

It just means to enter it, to become a part of it. You come into it. You can come into a room. Right? You become part of that room. You come inside of it. Right?

1. fall back on

Okay. So, that’s what it means. Now, just in the very next sentence Dan says he didn’t have any ambition in life because he knew he could fall back on that. So, fall back on that. What is that? Well, that means the money. All that money he has. He can fall back on it. So, what exactly does that mean? Actually I think the best way to communicate the meaning of this phrasal verb is to imagine climbing up a 10 meter high stone wall without any ropes, without any ladders, without any help and without any protection on the ground. Let’s imagine the ground is a concrete ground. It’s a very hard ground. So, if you fall you’re going to break some bones.

You could even break your neck. You could even die. Right? So, it’s risky. It’s risky to climb up 10 meters because if you fall backwards, when you hit the ground, you’re going to be in a lot of pain and you’re going to get injured. Potentially even mortally injured.

Imagine though that you’re doing this and this time you have this big air-filled mattress on the ground, so that if you do fall back, no problem. You’re going to land on it. You’re going to bounce. You’re not going to be injured. It’s pretty much completely safe. Now, in which situation would you want to climb up that wall? I would definitely take the risk if I had that large cushion underneath me. So, that’s what it means to fall back on something means to use that something as your security blanket. As your safety. It allows you to take risks without suffering the consequences. So, when you attempt to do something that is risky and you fail, it’s no big deal. Right? But for most people if they attempt to do something risky, there is a potential to be harmed or injured. Whether that’s physically or whether that is financially or emotionally, etcetera.

So, what Dan and I are talking about here is that someone who’s born into a family with a lot of money and they know they have that money to fall back on, they’re willing to take all kinds of risks in life that other people wouldn’t such as start a business, a very risky business. They don’t really care if they fail or not because well, I have lots of money to fall back on. Or maybe the opposite happens. They take the risk of not being ambitious at all, of not caring, of not working, of just lounging around and spending their money and not really contributing to society. Most people can’t afford to do something like that even if they wanted to. They couldn’t. It’s too risky. They would end up poor and on the street and homeless. So, when you fall back on something, that’s your safety blanket. That’s your safety net.

Family is actually good to fall back on. Right? That’s what family’s for. We help each other out when we’re down. In times of need we can fall back on each other.

You can use fall back as an adjective. For example, when American high school students are applying to colleges they have a list of different universities and colleges that they apply to and maybe one of them or two of them are their dream schools. Schools that they probably won’t get accepted into. Then they apply to maybe three or four other schools that they can probably get into, but not 100% sure. Maybe it’s 50/50. Maybe it’s 60/40 percent. Then they always have a fall back school. A school they’re a 100% guaranteed to get into. Usually it’s a local community college or a local state university that they’re sure, 100% sure they can get into. That’s their fall back school. If everything else fails, they have a fall back school to get into. So, remember that phrasal verb fall back on. To fall back on. Who do you fall back on in times of trouble?

1. born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth

Okay. The next one is born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth. I’m pretty sure most of you have heard this before. It just means to be born into a wealthy family.

To have all the privileges, even to the extent that you’re being fed as a baby with a silver soon, which is a very expensive kind of spoon. It’s not a plastic spoon, it’s not a metal spoon. It’s a silver spoon. How many babies do you know, eat their breakfast, lunch and dinner with a silver spoon? Right? So, if you’ve got a silver spoon in your mouth it means you’re rich.

1. jeesh/jeez

Alright. The next one is something that I say in response to some of the statements that Dan is making, and that is jeesh, or jeez, like this. This is a way of just basically saying, “Wow” or, “Man. Yeah. Uh-huh? Wow. Man. Yeah.” So, these are little sounds that we make when we’re listening to someone. You know, they don’t really have a whole lot of meaning. They’re just noises that we make to participate in the conversation, but actually jeez is short for Jesus. So, sometimes we say, “Jesus. Jeez.” Right? Jesus. You have to understand that in the English language, words like Jesus and God and hell and damn and fuck and all these really crude strong words have equivalents that are more polite. That are softer.

So, instead of saying Jesus people will say jeez. Or instead of saying God they’ll say gosh. Or instead of hell, heck. Or damn, darn. Or fucking, fricking, like this. It’s just a way for people to soften words that sound very crude or too strong for certain situations.

So, I might use the word damn or hell or fuck with my friends when I’m talking with them over a beer but when I’m speaking with my parents or when I’m speaking in a more formal or polite situation I wouldn’t use those words. Almost certainly not. If I needed to express something similar I would use gosh, heck, darn, like this. This all comes from the puritanical roots of North American English speaking society. Right? The puritans were a group of people that were very religious, very pure in the way that they tried to live their lives and so cursing and using God’s name in vain was not acceptable. So, yeah. That’s where it comes from.

1. well off

Alright. A few more here. Well off. Right? Well off. What does that mean? Well, I’m talking about this act of rich people giving money, lots of money to their children.

I’m saying that yeah, it makes lots of sense not to do that for the well-being of the children unless you’re one of those people who really value, like a dynasty, a family dynasty for hundreds of years into the future, then you may want to ensure that your progeny for many generations to come, are well off. That means financially comfortable. To be well off means to not worry about money at all because you have enough. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re rich, but it does mean that you’re comfortable. Right? You’re not worried so much about money.

You’re well off. You don’t need to worry, you can go out to eat any time you want.

You can buy a shirt in the store any time you want. You’re well off. You don’t need to worry about it.

So, you can also use this in the negative, like they’re not well off. Right? He has to be careful with his money because he’s not well off. For example, I have an uncle who grew up poor but he worked really hard in his life, he remained frugal, he didn’t spend lots of money. He actually saved and invested his money every month and now he’s quite well off. He’s quite well off. He doesn’t have to worry about money anymore in his elderly years. His older years. I have another uncle on the other side of the family who didn’t save and just spent money as he got it.

Week to week, month to month he just got it and he spent it. Now he’s also an elderly guy and he and his wife are not so well off. They really have to struggle with money. So, well off. That’s what it means.

1. blow one’s mind

Okay. Finally, the last one is blow one’s mind. Dan is talking about epigenetics with me and he’s mentioning how these starving Swedish adolescents in fact ended up creating healthier grandchildren in the future, and that really blew his mind he said. “That really blew my mind.” So, I think a good way to imagine this is the image of your brain exploding, like your head actually exploding. Your mind is blown. It blows your mind. It’s basically … What it means is when something shocks and amazes you, something you cannot believe, it makes a big impression on you, it blows your mind. Right? So, if you receive any unexpected information that’s so incredible it’s so hard to believe, it blows your mind.

For example, let’s imagine that a new guy moves into your apartment building and you meet him and he’s really friendly, he’s such a nice guy and every time you meet him he’s very polite and you have nice conversations and you get to know him more and more, and then after about six months you find out that he has a long criminal history and it’s a violent criminal history and it scares you. It blows your mind. You can’t believe it. Oh my God I cannot believe it, I never would have guessed this very proper, clean, friendly, polite guy is actually a really violent person or at least has a past of being a violent person. That would blow your mind. That would blow anyone’s mind. Right? It’s just kind of shocking, unexpected information.

You can also use this when … It doesn’t necessarily have to be unexpected. For example, if you’re trying to imagine the size of the universe, it’s really hard to imagine that. If you think about it, how vast the universe is. You know, that really blows … That can blow your mind, trying to do that. Just trying to imagine infinity.

That can blow your mind. Right? Yeah. It just makes it so hard to believe, so hard to imagine it blows your mind.

Alright. That brings me to the end of this vocab commentary. I hope you found my explanations of some use and please, ask us if you’re still not sure or want to hear more examples. Alright guys, we’ll see you in the next lesson.