a do-nothing didn't do nothing

Today's E-cubed:  a do-nothing|didn't do nothing

Giải thích ý nghĩa: ~ lazy : lười biếng, người không làm gì cả, không được nhờ, không nhờ vả được
gì, ăn không ngồi rồi, nặng hơn là vô tích sự 

firing on all cylinders

Today's E-cubed:  firing on all cylinders

Giải thích ý nghĩa: cháy hết mình, làm gì đó với hết khả năng của mình, làm gì đó trong trạng thái năng lượng tốt nhất/đỉnh cao của bản thân... 

he had it coming to him

Today's E-cubed:  He had it coming to him

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Daily Easy English Expression. Today's expression is very good: He had it coming to him.

bae

Today's E-cubed:  bae

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Daily Easy English Expression - E-cubed - the video. Today, we're going to learn a word. And that word is BAE, my bae. You will hear it in a couple of different situations, but 98.7% of the time you will hear it referring to my girlfriend, or lady my boyfriend. My bae almost always means my baby, my babe, my baby, my sweetheart. Not my little infant but the person that I love, could be your wife, could be your husband, could be your boyfriend, could be your girlfriend. That's how we use it. Check out the dialog.

- Who was that woman you were with?
- Sally? She’s my bae~
- Since when? I thought you were dating Sue.
- Yeah~ She’s my fun bae. Sally’s my real bae. I like lots of baes~

Oh yeah, not a good idea. Now I know some there are guys out there, and I'm sure women out there too, who have several baes, lots of boyfriends, lots of girls friends right? You're players. I don't know. Personally, I'm a one woman guy and that's the easiest life there is. Remembers, baes can be expensive. They can be financially expensive, they can be emotionally expensive, they can be physically expensive. The more baes you have, the more you will pay. The more baes, the more pay. Have one bae and only pay once. All rights, so that's a little bit of life advice and also an English expression. Now once again, you know I'm not a young guy. I'm a little bit older. And to be honest, me, my generation, I don't really use the word bae very much. I could but I don't. But if you're like in your teen twenties, thirties, definitely you're using the word bae. Thanks guys. Don't forget the free lesson www.LetsMasterEnglish.com/FREE. Get free lessons and join us. And together, let's master English.

Giải thích:

bae ~ gấu, người yêu, bạn trai (bạn gái) ~ my babe, my baby, my sweetheart.

water off a duck's back

Today's E-cubed:  water off a duck's back

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Daily Easy English Expression. Today's expression is very good: water off a duck's back. Do you know a duck is, quack quack... They can fly, they can swim.

So imagine if you have some water, and you spray, you throw some water onto a duck. What happens to the water? It immediately comes off the duck, right? So this is the back of the duck. If you put water on a duck, the water just immediately flows off the duck. Right? Sure. So in daily English, if we says it was like water off a duck's back, that means it did not affect me or whoever. So, he said something not nice to me. But, no problem, water off a duck's back. His evil works, his mean works came to me and it was like water off a duck's back. It didn't bother me. It didn't affect me. No problem. That's how we use this expression.

Now, for ESL students, this expression might be a little bit difficult to use. However, I guarantee you'll read it or you'll hear it if you expose yourself to lots of English. Check out the dialog.

- Why are you so mad?
- It’s Trump. We are doing everything we can to destroy him…
- Yeah~ But it’s not working.
- I know~
- It’s like water off a duck’s back~

I don't know what's gonna happen in the future. But in 2018, the end of 2018, if you watch the news, media in America CNN, places like that. They really do try to destroy the image of president Donald Trump. So what's gonna happen? I don't know. But they try. Every week, they talk about some bad stories, some horrible things. Every week, there's something new that they tell us, that they hope will destroy Donald Trump so he resigns, I don't know what they want. They try all the time. All of those bad things, all of those rumors, all of those stories, when they hit Donald Trump it's like water off a duck's back. And it's a perfect expression for Donald Trump because his hair, for some reasons, his hair looks somewhat like, it related to a duck. I don't know why. I don't mind Donald Trump. Yeah, I mean the economy is going good. Anyways, we'll see what happens so far. Everybody tries so hard. But so far, all of those bad things, as soon as they hit Donald Trump, no effect, no effect. It's like water off a duck's back. That's the expression. Go to Google, water off a duck's back in the news sections and you will see many many examples. I want you guys to master this expression. That's it. Don't forget the free lessons at www.LetsMasterEnglish.com/FREE. And you guys have a fantastic day. Together, let's master English.

Giải thích:

Water off a duck's back ~ nước đổ lưng vịt: ý muốn nói những lời khiêu khích, nói xấu, chọc tức không gây ảnh hưởng tới người đón nhận nó, như nước đổ đầu vịt - trôi tuột trong tích tắc.

gets the noggin joggin'

Today's E-cubed:  gets the noggin joggin'

Hello, everybody. It's time for Daily Easy English Expression. We've got a very great expression for you. It is something gets the noggin joggin'.

- Oh, that really gets my noggin joggin'.
- This really get my noggin joggin'.

Alright, so really gets my... in this case, get is the same as make. It really makes my... it's the influence. That's the idea. NOGGIN - this is a really old slang word for your head. So my noggin = my head. Especially we're thinking of the brain. JOGGIN' should be jogging. Jogging like running. But if something, in this case, if your noggin is joggin'. Your brain is working. And the idea, the nuance is your brain is working hard, it's thinking hard. There's a problem and you're trying to solve it. So, if something really get your noggin joggin' that something is really difficult and it's a difficult question, you're trying to find the answer. It really makes you think. It makes you think hard. Check out the dialog.

- Where is my towel.
- It’s being washed.
- I wash myself, then use the towel. Why is the towel dirty?
- … Wow~ That really gets the noggin joggin’~

That's a great question, right? You take a bath, or a shower right. After you take a shower, we have a towel to dry ourselves off to remove the water. Our body is clean. The towel is removing clean water. But, why do we wash the towel? That's a good idea. That's a good question. It really make you think. It really gets the noggin joggin'. Yeah, that's kind of silly. That's kind of weird. Here's an other question that really gets the noggin joggin':

- Do fish get thirsty?
- Why is the slowest part of the day called "rush hour"?
- Why do we call this a building if it has already been built?

These questions really get the noggin joggin'. Can you think of some more questions that really make you think? Yeah, we don't need the answers. We just want the questions. You guys have a fantastic day. Don't forget the free lessons - www.LetsMasterEnglish.com/FREE. And together let's master English.

Giải thích:

something gets the noggin joggin' ~ cái gì đó khiến đầu óc phải làm việc, phải suy nghĩ để tìm ra câu trả lời.

It gets my noggin joggin' ~ Cái đó khiến tôi phải nghĩ đấy.

E-cubed 1211: rub it in

Today's E-cubed:  rub it in

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Daily Easy English expression. Today's expression is very good. It is to rub it in.

Now, we actually studied this expression a long time ago. We studied to rub your nose in it, or to rub your face in it. But today, I wanna focus on a short version "rub it in".

- Don't rub it in.
- Please don't rub it in.
- Do you have to rub it in?

So get that pronunciation. Rub it in. And we use the flap T.

So we use this expression, for example: don't rub it in. Don't rub my nose in it. Don't rub my face in it. And the idea is: I did something bad, I said something bad, I wrote something bad, I made a mistake, and you are reminding me of my mistake. You're taking my head and rubbing it in the mistake. Hey Shane, do you remember your mistake. You made a mistake. And you're taking my head, and you're rubbing it in the mistake. Do you understand? That's a good expression.

And once again, the idea: if you've ever had a dog, or a cat. And if the dog or the cat is inside the house and it goes to the bathroom on the floor. You don't like that. So what many people do is they take their dog's face and they show them: No, no. And they put the dog's face right into the poop or the pee, not touching but right next to it. Do you understand? This is the idea.

So to a human, don't put the face to some poop or pee. But if they made a mistake, to remind them of a bad mistake, to remind them of something negative, something sad, something terrible, ok. Hey Shane, you look really good. To bad, your hair is missing. Why did you say that? Why are you rubbing it in? Why are you teasing me? Why are you trying to make me feel bad? Why are you reminding me that I don't have any hair. Check out a dialog.

- Hi, Tommy. Did you have a Merry Christmas?
- Sure did! 
- Did you spend it alone again?
- Hey~ You don’t have to rub it in.

Uh... poor Tommy. Tommy last year 2017, he was all alone during Christmas. It's a kind of sad. You know, the holiday, in America it's the family time you know. Be with your family, if you're married, your wife, your children, mom and dad, you know, aunts and uncles, you wanna be together with your family right? But last year, Tommy was alone. And this year were you alone again? So Tommy said, why do you remind me of something so terrible. Yes I was alone. Yes I'm sad. Yes I'm depressed. Why do you remind me of that sad terrible thing. Why are you rubbing it in. That's the idea.

Giải thích:

Rub it in ~ chỉ việc ai đó khơi gợi lại những việc không hay, những lỗi lầm của người khác ra  khiến cho người nghe cảm thấy buồn phiền, hoặc bực dọc.

Don't rub it in ~ Đừng lôi những chuyện không hay đó ra nữa./Đừng xát muối tim tôi./Đừng đụng vào nỗi đau của tôi.

E-cubed 1195: pull up a chair

Today's E-cubed:  Pull up a chair

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Daily Easy English Expression. Today's expression is really good. And it's similar to last time. Last time - PULL UP with a car meaning stop the car some place. This time - pull up a chair. Pull up a chair. Instead of chair, we can say a seat or a stool, the same thing. This is an excellent expression that you can use at a bar or a restaurant. It means bring a chair over here and sit down. It means join us, but bring over a chair. Check out a dialogue.

E-cubed 1180: It’s not over ‘til the fat lady sings

Today's E-cubed:  It’s not over ‘til the fat lady sings

We can use this expression in many situations, where one guy or a woman was thinking "Oh, it's over. Let's stop. Let's not wait..." But the other guy says "No, no, no. We should wait. Maybe something will happen, and things will be very good."

Ecubed 1179: ~ish

Today's E-cubed:  ~ish

Today, we're learning a suffix - something we can add at the end of a word, especially an adjective.

It's kind of red = It's reddish
He's kind of bald = He's baldish
It kind of hurts = It's hurtish

Ecubed 1178: Caught me off guard

Today's E-cubed:  Caught me off guard

Caught me off guard means something happens, and you weren't able to prepare. It's possible to prepare but you weren't able.

Caught me off guard nghĩa là rơi vào thế bị động. Đáng lẽ ra bạn có thể chuẩn bị, nhưng vì bạn không biết trước nên bạn chưa chuẩn bị để ứng phó với tình huống đó.

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:

Think fast! Whoa~ Ha! You d ropped it! You caught me off guard~ 

Anh thấy nhanh phải không!
Ối trời!
Ha ha! Anh đánh rơi mất rồi!
Tôi bị động chưa kịp chuẩn bị gì.~

Ecubed 1177: To spike SMT/spiked

Today's E-cubed:  To spike SMT/spiked

To spike something means to add alcohol to something.
To spike something nghĩa là pha thêm rượu vào đồ uống nào đó.

Example: Who spiked my Coca-Cola? = Who put alcohol in my Coca-Cola?

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:

Are you okay? You look a little red~ I’m feeling…weird. Dizzy. Have you been drinking the fruit punch? Yeah. It’s delicious. Why? It’s SPIKED!

Anh bạn ổn chứ? Trông anh có vẻ hơi đỏ rồi.
Tôi thấy...lạ lắm. Chóng mặt thật.
Anh bạn đã uống nước ngâm trái cây phải không?
Phải rồi. Nó ngon lắm. Nhưng sao anh hỏi vậy?
Nước đó đã được pha thêm rượu đấy!

Ecubed 1176: 20/20

Today's E-cubed: 20/20

In America, if you have 20/20 vision that means without glasses, without contact lenses, you can see find. Your vision is perfect.

20/20 vision nghĩa là thị lực tốt. Bạn không cần phải đeo kính để nhìn rõ hơn những thứ xung quanh bạn.

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:

My grandmother’s 96 and she went to the hospital yesterday. Oh…is she alright? Yeah, she told the doctor she wants to live to be a hundred and that she really wants to see 20/20. Aw~ And what did the doctor say? He said she’d never see 20/20.
Bà ngoại tôi năm nay 96 tuổi rồi và hôm qua bà đã đi viện.
Ồ... thế bà ổn chứ?
Vâng, bà nói với bác sĩ là bà muốn sống đến trăm tuổi và bà rất muốn mắt vẫn sáng rõ không cần đeo kính.
Vậy á~ Thế bác sĩ bảo sao?
Bác sỹ bảo bà chuyện đó không thể được.

Easy Engish Expression 1175: Y’all

Today's E-cubed:  Y’all

Y'all = You + All = You guys => mang nghĩa "tất cả các bạn, tất cả mọi người..."

Y'all là cách nói kết hợp của 2 từ "You" và "All". Bạn sẽ nghe người Mỹ dùng nhiều từ này, đặc biệt là ở miền Nam, cụ thể hơn là bang Texas. Ở các khu vực khác người ta hay dùng cụm từ "You guys" hơn với ý nghĩa tương tự Y'all.

Ví dụ:

Did you guys have a good time?
Y'all have a good time?
Mọi người có vui vẻ không?

Are you guys going there?
Y'all going there?
Tất cả sẽ đến đó chứ?

Do you guys understand?
Y'all understand?
Các bạn có hiểu không?

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:

Y’all coming to the party? Me? I’ll be home with the family. All y’all! Come on! Great food~~ Well…why not?! We’ll be there!

Tất cả các bạn sẽ đến dự tiệc chứ?
Tôi á? Tôi sẽ ở nhà với vợ con.
Tất cả cùng đi! Thôi nào! Nhiều đồ ăn ngon lắm..
À thì.... tại sao không nhỉ?! Chúng ta sẽ cùng có mặt ở đó.

Ecubed 1174: pipe dream

Today's E-cubed:  pipe dream (giấc mộng hão huyền)

Pipe dream: a hope/dream/scheme that is highly unlikely to turn into reality...
Pipe dream: mong ước/giấc mộng/âm mưu hão huyền, viễn vông, không thực tế, khó trở thành hiện thực...

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:

Did you hear what Johnny said? About having homes in California and Florida? Yeah!! What a pipe dream! Hey~ Let the kid dream a little!

Bạn đã nghe thấy bé John nói gì chưa?
Về việc có nhà ở California và Florida à?
Ừ!! Thật là một ước mơ viễn vông!
Này anh bạn! Cứ để cho đưa bé mơ mộng chút đi!

Ecubed 1173: out of the blue

Today's E-cubed: out of the blue = hoàn toàn bất ngờ, không tưởng tượng nổi, một sự kiện từ trên trời rơi xuống

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:

Where are you going? John’s house. John! You haven’t seen him in so long~ Yeah, he called me today out of the blue!

Anh đi đâu vây?

Tới nhà anh John.

Anh John à! Anh lâu lắm rồi chưa gặp anh ấy nhỉ.

Ừ, cậu ấy vừa gọi cho tôi hôm nay thật ngoài sức tưởng tượng!

Transcript:

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Daily Easy English Expression (Ecubed). Today's expression is "out of the blue". And I'm guessing most of you probably know this expression. But, do you know why we use this expression? I will explain that after the dialogue.

Out of the blue means suddenly, without any planning, without expectation.Just boom! something happens.

Examples:
- Somebody said something out of the blue.
- I went some places out of the blue.

Or check out the dialogue.

- Where are you going?
- John’s house.
- John! You haven’t seen him in so long~
- Yeah, he called me today out of the blue!

John called me today out of the blue. I'm just suddenly, I means I wasn't thinking about John. I didn't expect a phone call. But, BOom! He called me!And probably John wasn't thinking about me. But suddenly, Boom! Hey, I should call Coach Shane. And John called me. That's the idea.

Out of the blue. Why do we use this expression?

OK. So, imagine you're outside. It's a nice day. There's no cloud in the sky. You look up. What color is the sky? Blue. Right. It's blue.

Now, imagine a little bird, a bird next to you flies into the sky. Right? And you watch the bird. And it goes straight up. It goes up up up up. And then it disappears. It's gone. Right? The bird is so high. Then it disappears. And it's just blue. It's blue. And you are watching. Wow, that's amazing. And then suddenly, poop. A bird turd falls on your forehead. Where did the bird turd come from? It came from the blue. It came out of the blue. Obviously, there'a a bird up there, but we don't see the bird. We were'nt expecting anything. And then poop!! Suddenly. It came out of the blue.

That's the idea of the expression. Out of the blue. On the clear blue sky, when you look up you see nothing, nothing there. But actually there are things there. We don't see them. When do we see them? We see them when boom! It's too late.

Now sometimes out of the blue is a good thing. John called me out of the blue. I like John. That's good. But sometimes, it's a bird turd. Be careful! You guys have a fantastic day. Don't forget get free lessons: www.LetsMasterEnglish.com/FREE. And did you listen to our internet radio show? It's so cool: www.LMEToday.com. See ya!!

Ecubed 1172: chicken out

Today's E-cubed: chicken out ~ quyết định không làm gì đó vì quá sợ hãi, lo lắng, nhát gan.

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:

- Where’s Mary? - She chickened out~ - What? She’s the reason we’re bunjee jumping! - I know~

- Mary đâu rồi?
- Cô ấy sợ quá không đi nữa.
- Gì cơ? Cô ấy là lý do chúng ta đi nhảy bunjee đấy!
- Tớ biết mà...

Transcript:

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Daily Easy English Expression (Ecubed).Yeah, the video. OK so today, we have a phrasal verb. Everybody loves phrasal verbs. The phrasal verb? Yeah, it is "to chicken out". What? To chicken out.

To chicken out means you were going to do something, but then you said "No, it's too difficult. It's too scary. I'm afraid. I'm nervous. I don't want to..." This is the idea. To chicken out. So you have a chance to give a speech in front of many people. Yes, I will do it. But then before the speech, you say: "Oh no, I'm sick. I can't do it. Oh, I have to go on a business trip, I can't". You're afraid. You are chickening out. That's the idea. Check out the dialogue.

- Where’s Mary?
- She chickened out~
- What? She’s the reason we’re bunjee jumping!
- I know~

So Mary told these to guys: "Hey, let's go bunjee jumping." Do you know bunjee jumping. I did it once. I enjoyed it. But no more for me. It's scary. It's cool, but it's scary. Anyway, Mary told these guys "Let's go bunjee jumping." And they said: "Oh,..OK." And now they're ready to go bunjee jumping, but Mary chickend out. She didn't go. She didn't show up. What's the heck, Mary? What's the problem, Mary? Mary is a chicken. Oh, a chicken as a noun means a coward - somebody who's afraid. You are a chicken. It's not nice to say.

Are you a member of my DDM (Daily Dictation Members) class, my PIRF (Pronunciation, Intonation, Rhythm, Flow) class. Are you a member of DDM Brasil? Are you a member of Action English? Are you a member of LME Weekly? No? Why? Are you a chicken? Don't chicken out. Join those classes. Start mastering your English and have a fantastic day. Take care, guys. Bye bye.

Ecubed 1167: going places

Today's E-cubed:  going places

If someone is going places, he or she is going to be successful.

Chúng ta dùng cụm từ "tobe going places" khi nói một ai đó sẽ thành công.
She is going places ~ She is going to be successful.
Nghĩa đen "sẽ được đi đây đi đó" - Người thành công thường được đi nhiều nơi.

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:

With this new dress, I’ll be going places. Like where? On the road to success! Your dress will make you successful? Duh~ Look how sexy I look!!

Với bộ váy mới này, tôi sẽ được đi đây đó.
Đi đâu cơ?
Đi đến thành công!
Bộ váy này có thể khiến cô thành công ư?
Vâng~ Anh nhìn xem tôi sexy thế này cơ mà!!!

Ecubed 1166: In the boondocks

Today's E-cubed:  In the boondocks

in the boondocks ~ in the (remote) rural area; in rough country

The boondocks chỉ những nơi hoang vu hẻo lánh, ít người sinh sống, nông thôn. Khi sử dụng từ lóng này, chúng ta chú ý sử dụng giới từ "the" đi trước.

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:

Why’d you leave the city, Shane? My heart was never in the city. So, you moved to the country? I feel at home in the boondocks~

Sao anh lại có thể rời bỏ thành phố vậy Shane?
Trái tim tôi chưa bao giờ dành cho thành phố cả.
Vậy nên anh đã chuyển về sống ở nông thôn sao?
Tôi cảm thấy nông thôn mới là nhà của mình.

Ecubed 1165: My heart ain’t in it…

Today's E-cubed:  My heart ain't in it...

My heart ain't in it = My heart isn't in it.
Meaning: I don't feel enough enthusiasm/passion for "it" to do "it"

My heart ain't in it: Tôi cảm thấy không đủ nhiệt huyết, đam mê, không đủ động lực, cảm hứng để làm điều gì đó.

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:

Are you still learning about gardening? You bet! I’m really loving it. You? No, I quit. My heart ain’t in it~ Aw, that’s too bad~

Cậu vẫn đang học làm vườn đấy chứ?
Chuẩn rồi! Tớ thực sự say mê công việc này. Cậu thì sao?
Tớ thì không thế, tớ từ bỏ rồi. Tớ không có đủ động lực để tiếp tục.
Ồ vậy à, thế thì chán nhỉ~