Your English Five a Day #6.4

E114: Welcome to another riveting episode of Your English Five a Day, where we deconstruct the adverb 'metaphorically', alongside the powerful phrase 'metaphorically speaking', and their usage in day-to-day conversations. As we journey further into the world of words, we'll touch upon the concept of 'momentum' and how it relates to a series of events. Next in line is a quirky little word called 'peculiarity', which will help you add a touch of the unconventional to your language. Wrapping up this session, we unpack the phrasal verb 'tide over' and illustrate its usage through relatable examples as well as the phrase 'an honourable mention'. So, buckle up and get ready to turbocharge your word power with this fun-filled exploration of the English language.

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Transcript

0:02

Hello and welcome to the English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you are listening to a series called Your English Five a Day, where we aim to increase your vocabulary or at the very least your confidence in using the vocabulary. This is Week Six, Day Four. Let's get straight into it with five new pieces of vocabulary. Number one on the list is an adverb. And it's the adverb metaphorically. Metaphorically. Now this is spelt M E T A, meta, P H, which in this case is representing F, which is quite common actually, P H. So M E T A P H O R I C A L L Y. Once again, the whole thing, M E T A P H O R I C A L L Y. So metaphorically means to be relating to or using metaphors. A metaphor is an expression that describes a person or an object by referring to something else that's considered to have similar characteristics. Now a common collocation using the adverb metaphorically is metaphorically speaking. So you often see these two words together. Metaphorically speaking. So I'd use this if I'm going to talk about a situation that hasn't occurred and may not occur, but I just want to ask the question or discuss something from a metaphorical point of view. So for example, if I wanted to talk to my partner about a situation where we didn't have children, something that's actually impossible because we have children, but if I wanted to find out his opinion on something or where he thinks we'd be if we didn't have children, then I might say,"Metaphorically speaking, where do you think we'd be living if we didn't have children? What do you think we would be doing with our lives right now if we didn't have two children?" So by using the phrase metaphorically speaking, I'm letting him know that I understand that this is an impossible scenario. But I want to explore this alternative reality. Okay, so here's another example."By leaving school without any qualifications, she has, metaphorically speaking, shot herself in the foot." Now, shot yourself in the foot is another phrase, which is really interesting. And it means to harm your chance of success. So you've, you've hurt your opportunity, basically. Okay. But we'll probably deep dive into that particular phrase another time. Alright. I think I'm digging a big hole here, so let me move swiftly on from metaphorically and come to the noun momentum, momentum. Now this is spelt M O M E N T U M. It's quite similar to a word we had in yesterday's episode. This noun, momentum, means the quality that keeps an event developing or making progress after it's started. Here's an example sentence."It was sheer momentum that got me to the top of the mountain. It was the hardest challenge I have ever had to face." When you start something new, like a new business or start to learn a new skill, you would hope that your success within your business and your sales, if you're in a commercial business picks up momentum. And that that momentum continues so it develops and it makes progress. Okay, so the next word on our list is another noun and it is the word peculiarity. Peculiarity. Peculiarity, spelled P E C U L I A R I T Y. Peculiarity. Peculiarity. Peculiarity is the quality of being strange or unusual, or an unusual characteristic or habit. A peculiarity. Here's an example sentence."The peculiarity of Ali's clothes caused everyone in the room to stop and stare." Okay, moving on, we have the phrasal verb. Woo hoo! We love phrasal verbs. Tide someone over. So to tide over. It's spelt T I D E, tide. O V E R, over. Tide over. So to tide someone over. This means to help someone to work or operate normally during a difficult period, usually by lending them money. So let's imagine that you are struggling to pay your rent. You're a hundred pounds short on your rent and your landlord is telling you that you must pay today or you're going to be kicked out of your flat. And you're not due to be paid your wages until Monday, which is three days away. In which case I might give you the hundred pounds to help you to pay your rent today, and you'll just owe it me another time, and I'm giving you that money to tide you over so I'm not giving it to you for you to have forever. It's just a loan to help you get by. Okay. So I help you and it can be financially or in other ways, but usually it's financially. You help someone during a difficult time so they can continue just to operate normally. Here's another example."I've given the kids some money to tide them over until their uni grant comes through. I hope they don't waste it." Uni, in this case, is short for university. So a university grant is money given, awarded to, given to, students. In fact, I think the grant, no, you get a student loan. A grant is usually awarded. It's like an amount of money that doesn't have to be paid back, but it's given to students to help them to survive while they're at university. Okay. Let's move on to the last of today's list, which is a noun. Well, this is a phrase, an honourable mention, an honorable mention. So this is spelt. A N, an. Honourable, H O N O U R A B L E, honourable. Mention, M E N T I O N, mention. An honourable mention is a prize given in a competition for work of high quality that did not receive first, second, or third prize. So, imagine you enter a competition and you have a really good, entry. So whatever it is, a talent contest or you've entered a piece of artwork into an art competition and your piece is very good and the judges say, yes, yes, that, that's very good. But you don't win first, second or third place. But the judges still think it's very good. They may give you an honourable mention, and that can be in many forms. It might just literally be the mention of your name. It could be a special badge. It could be a monetary prize. So it just means that your work has been noticed and commended in some way. Here's an example sentence."I was disappointed I didn't win the art prize, but at least I received an honourable mention for my efforts. Better luck next time." Okay, that was our five. So we had Metaphorically, adverb, often found in the phrase metaphorically speaking, which is relating to using metaphors. Momentum, the noun, which is the quality of keeping things going and progressing. Peculiarity, a noun, the quality of being strange or unusual. The phrasal verb tide someone over, to help someone to act normally and be normal through a difficult time. And the noun, an honorable mention, which is a'well done', even though you didn't win first, second or third prize. Okay. So now let's give it a go for pronunciation. So repeat after me. Metaphorically. Momentum. Peculiarity. Tide someone over. An honourable mention. Very good. Alright, let's bring that all together in a little story. Isabella was, metaphorically speaking, climbing the walls waiting for the outcome of her audition. As a budding young actress, fresh out of drama school, she was shocked when she received a call from the casting agent asking her to attend an audition to play one of the lead characters in a theatre production of The Time Traveller's Wife. It was a book she had read and loved a few years ago. And never in her wildest dreams did she ever expect to play the part of Claire, the actual time traveller's wife. Isabella had an air of peculiarity about her. In drama school, she always took on the roles that were a little different. Ones that most students didn't want to do. Maybe this is why they thought she would be a good match for this part. If you haven't read the book, I definitely recommend it. Studying and being away from home had been tough on Isabella. She missed her family and friends back in Dorset. Also, she had to take on bar and cleaning work to tide her over and get her through the hard times until she could find a well-paid job in the acting world. When the call came through informing Isabella that she had got the part, she was over the moon, thrilled to bits. It was like a dream come true. She was going to be in the West End, performing in a real show in front of huge audiences. Opening night was a big hit and the show gained more and more momentum with every performance. Isabella shone on stage night after night and after about six months, there was to be an award ceremony held by her drama school for the students who had gained the most success since graduating. Of course, Isabella was in the running. The night of the awards, luckily, was the one night that the show didn't run, and so Isabella attended the ceremony full of hope and enthusiasm. Unfortunately, she did not win, but she did receive an honourable mention and was awarded a place in the school's Hall of Fame. What an amazing start to her career! Who knows where she will go from here. Alright, that's the end of today's episode. If you found this useful in any way, then I'd really appreciate if you could leave a rating or review so that others can find this podcast too. Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.