Hey there! This is TOP episode 232. Learn English with Tyla ‘Water’
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Hey there! Thank you for tuning in. In this episode we’re going to look at some phrases from the song ‘Water’ by Tyla. I picekd this song because of the recent Grammy Awards. Tyla took home the Grammy for Best African Music Performance in the category’s first year. Let’s see some phrases from ‘Water’.
Make me sweat – sweat. Sweat is drops of liquid that appear on the surface of your skin when you are hot, ill or afraid. We sweat when we work out, when we run when we work hard. To make someone do something is to cause someone do something. Make me sweat. Sweat has several other meanings. Sweat can be hard work. Like in this example:
Growing your own business sounds like a lot of sweat.
Sweats means sweatsuit or sweatpants, like in this sentence:
At weekends I love to spend some time at home in my sweats.
One more expression with ‘sweat’:
no sweat – this idiomatic expression is used to tell somebody that something is not difficult or a problem when they thank you or ask you to do something. No sweat! No problem!
Make me hotter – Here I just want to point your attention to pronunciation. ‘Hotter’ in British English and ‘hotter’ in American English. So in American English you don’t hear the /o/ sound, hot. But there’s a long /a/ sound, hot. Make me sweat, make me hotter.
Make me lose my breath – when you lose your breath you can’t breathe calmly. Breath, well there are so many interesting collocations with breath. Let me give you one:
A breath of fresh air – that is clean air breathed in after being indoors or in a dirty atmosphere.
I’m going outside for a breath of fresh air.
A breath of fresh air can also be a person, thing or place that is new and different and therefore interesting and exciting. For example:
Ana’s so cheerful, she’s like a breath of fresh air.
I can keep my cool – I can maintain a calm and controlled attitude. I can manage to remain calm even though the situation is dangerous, difficult or very exciting.
Try to keep your cool and not get angry.
Can you match my timing? – to match the timing. Timing is the skill or action of judging the right moment in a situation or activity at which to do something. If someone can match your timing, they can accurately choose the right moment the same you would choose. So you are aligned. Let’s see the word ‘timing’ in a sentence:
He was just walking into the restaurant when we got there. Perfect timing.
Talk is cheap – this phrase is used to say that you do not believe someone will do what they say. It’s easy to talk, it’s cheap, everybody can afford that, right? Everybody can say: I’ll do this, I’ll do that, but what really matters and makes a difference is action. Little less conversation, little more action please. Executing, doing, performing, actually doing things you have promised is expensive and not everybody can do that.
You’ve been promising that for a long time, talk is cheap.
Can you blow my mind? – to blow somebody’s mind is to produce a very strong feeling of pleasure or shock. Something can be mind-blowing. Like in this example:
Wait till you see this. It’ll blow your mind.
Set off my whole body – Set off has got a few meanings, I’ll leave the interpretation to you but I’ll give you the definitions of ‘set off’ you need to know:
Set of means to start a journey, for example:
We set off for Paris tomorrow.
Set off also means to make an alarm start ringing of make a bomb or something like a bomb explode:
The alarm set off at 5 but I hit a snooze button.
Can you snatch my soul from me? – to snatch means to take something quickly and often rudely or roughly. To grab.
Someone tried to snatch my phone.
Take me where I ain’t been before – I ain’t been before – ain’t is a negation, so the phrase is: Take me where I haven’t been before. It’s a slang way of expressing a negative sentence, for instance:
I ain’t going nowhere near them.
Time for your move. Listen to some sentences again and say them out loud:
Growing your own business sounds like a lot of sweat.
I’m going outside for a breath of fresh air.
Try to keep your cool and don’t get angry.
He was just walking into the restaurant when we got there. Perfect timing.
You’ve been promising that for a long time, talk is cheap.
Wait till you see this. It’ll blow your mind.
We set off for Paris tomorrow.
The alarm set off at 5 but I hit a snooze button.
Someone tried to snatch my phone.
I ain’t going nowhere near them.
Thank you for listening and practicing with me. Now, don’t forget to complete the Worksheet for this episode. It’s available at teacherola.com/232.
I’m sure you’ve learned some new phrases today, if you like my work please leave a comment on iTunes, leave a star on Spotify and a like on Youtube. And tell someone about me! They will thank you!
I’ll be back soon, and you stay fearless, say it out loud and take care! I’m your teacher, Teacher Ola, and you were listening to Teacher Ola Podcast. Bye for now!