ENSPIRING.ai: Learn English with FAMILY GUY

ENSPIRING.ai: Learn English with FAMILY GUY

The video uses a comedic clip from "Family Guy" to educate viewers on understanding fast-spoken English, particularly focusing on connected speech, informal expressions, and cultural references found in American English. Through a scene featuring characters Stewie and Brian, learners are introduced to phrases like "none of your beeswax," "tooth fairy," and the playfully formal "you will be missed." The commentary elaborates on informal linguistic nuances and provides context for expressions and pronunciations that may challenge non-native speakers.

This is an enlightening watch for anyone looking to improve their comprehension of conversational English, particularly those expressions that blend together quickly in natural speech. The hosts break down phrases to illustrate how native speakers often connect words, making them sound like singular, new words. They also touch upon American cultural elements, such as the idea of a "piggy bank" and "lemonade stands," which can aid in understanding humor and references often encountered in American media.

Main takeaways from the video:

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"Family Guy" can be a useful tool for learning English through its humor and complex language use.
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Phrases in fast-spoken English can merge, making them hard to distinguish; understanding cultural references can aid comprehension.
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The communication of informal expressions, like "none of your beeswax," can help demystify conversational tone and intent in English conversations.
Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. beeswax [ˈbiːzwæks] - (noun) - Natural substance produced by bees, often used to create candles and cosmetic products. - Synonyms: (wax, ointment, balm)

What are you doing? None of your beeswax, Ramona.

2. flinch [flɪntʃ] - (verb) - Make a quick, nervous movement in reaction to fear or surprise. - Synonyms: (shudder, wince, recoil)

Well, of course I flinched. You were going to hit me.

3. piggy bank [ˈpɪɡi bæŋk] - (noun) - A container, often shaped like a pig, for saving money. - Synonyms: (savings bank, money box, cash holder)

And he referred to his piggy bank as Mister Oinkbaum.

4. pardon [ˈpɑːrdn] - (verb) - To politely ask someone to repeat something if not initially heard or understood. - Synonyms: (excuse, forgive, absolve)

pardon me, sir, sir, sir.

5. connected speech [kəˈnɛktɪd spiːtʃ] - (noun) - A natural aspect of phonetics where words are blended together in spoken language. - Synonyms: (fluent speech, flowing speech, continuous speech)

So what do you want me to do? Becomes what do you want me to do? What's happening there with the connected speech, Izzy? So exactly what we already explained with what ya

6. tooth fairy [tuːθ ˈferi] - (noun) - A mythical figure in various children's stories who rewards children for lost teeth. - Synonyms: (fairy, sprite, mythical creature)

I hear this tooth fairy gives you money for your teeth.

7. hard to read [hɑːrd tuː riːd] - (adjective) - Difficult to understand or interpret someone's thoughts or emotions. - Synonyms: (enigmatic, inscrutable, mysterious)

I know I'm being hard to read.

8. prego [ˈpreɪgoʊ] - (adjective) - Informal slang term for 'pregnant.' - Synonyms: (expectant, carrying, with child)

Hey, prego, prego.

9. tubby [ˈtʌbi] - (adjective) - A colloquial and sometimes derogatory term referring to someone overweight. - Synonyms: (chubby, plump, stout)

I’m talking to you, tubby.

10. to hell with [tuː hɛl wɪð] - (phrase) - Expression of dismissal or disregard, often in frustration. - Synonyms: (forget, disregard, ignore)

Go to hell with this.

Learn English with FAMILY GUY

Please forgive me, Mister Oinkbaum. You will be missed. There we are. What are you doing? None of your beeswax, Ramona. But if you must know, I need a plane ticket to San Francisco. Good luck. Plane tickets are about $450 400. Brian, hit me in the mouth. What? Why? I hear this truth fairy gives you money for your teeth. Have at it. Uh, okay.

No, no, no. Don't. Stop. Stop. Why did you stop? I said hit me. You flinched. Well, of course I flinched. You were going to hit me. Well, make up your mind. What do you want me to do? Hit me. Ah, no, don't, don't, don't. I'm sorry. Look, I know I'm being hard to read.

What are you doing? None of your beeswax, Ramona. Alright, Izzy. So what is this that he's saying? None of your beeswax? I think it's just a playful way of saying none of your business or mind your own business. It's none of your concern. Exactly. And this variation of it using beeswax, it sounds very much what a child would say instead of none of your business. None of your beeswax.

What is beeswax? beeswax is that natural substance that bees produce. Right. And I think people make candles out of that too. I don't know, kind of other products you can make out of it. But candle is one of them. Cosmetic products. It smells really nice. All right. And he referred to his piggy bank. That's what this place where kids keep money is called, is a piggy bank. As Mister Oinkbaum. What's the humor in that name for the piggy bank?

Sounds like a real last name. Right? Because the Baum, I think that's maybe Dutch or, I don't know, kind of european language. Yeah, but oink is the sound that a pig makes. Or that's how you would try and imitate that in English. It's like oink, right? Exactly. And he says, there we are. As an expression, what does that mean? Please forgive me, Mister Oinkbaum, you will be missed. There we are.

What are you doing? It's just like, there you go. It's another way of saying it, which is like, all done, or I'm finished doing what I'm doing. So whenever you just accomplish something and you want to just express that you're done, you say, there you go. There you are. Amazing. And this construction he used. You will be missed. It's a really interesting word order, right. But it just means the same as, we'll miss you. Please forgive me, Mister Oinkbaum. You will be missed. Yeah. It's kind of formal, right? And you'll see that it's kind of a theme in his language, the way he speaks that right. From time to time, use a more formal expression. Mm hmm. And family Guy has some really amazing instances of connect speech.

Let's check out some that we had already just in this short beginning of the clip. So this expression, none of your beeswax, it almost sounds like one word. Can you replicate how he said that? There we are. What are you doing? None of your beeswax, Ramona. Yes. It's all connected. Basically, none connects with of. So none of. And of connects with your. None of your. None of your beeswax, Ramona.

And we have a great example here of something that happens all the time, that many questions become completely connected. And this can make it really difficult to understand. Fast speaking natives. Right. So we have. What are you doing? How did Brian say that? There we are. What are you doing? So he comes in and immediately says, what are you doing? What are you. What are you doing?

And this. What are you becoming? What are you. That's a really nice word. Chunk to learn. Meaning series of words that become, like, one sound. So instead of saying, what are you? What are you? And you're going to notice this all the time. Now, if you pay attention to that, that we native see that all the time. What are you doing? So, that's very oddly specific, that Brian knows how much a plane ticket costs. But he said $450.

What does that mean? Bucks. But if you must know, I need a plane ticket to San Francisco. Good luck. Plane tickets are about $450, 400, basically. Dollars, right. Or any currency, I guess. But more commonly, just when you're talking about american dollars. Exactly. It's a nickname for our currency, pretty much. And I'd say we use that even more than we say dollars.

A fun fact is that brits use a different word to refer to their currency, pounds. They'll say quidditch. So if you're watching a british series, you might hear 450 quid. I think we all have that, right in Portuguese. We have our own ways of saying, hey, I switch is our currency. Mmm. That's true. 400. Brian, hit me in the mouth. What? Why? I hear this truth fairy gives you money for your teeth. Have at it.

There's kind of this ongoing joke in this series, because Stewie is a baby, and he has these things that are very innocent, very childlike, like the tooth fairy, but. But then at the same time, he's like this mad genius. So we see here, he refers to the tooth fairy. Do you know what the tooth fairy is, Izzy?

Yeah. We have that here in our culture in Brazil. And I think it's the same as it is in the american culture that you would, as a kid, you believe that if you put your baby tooth that fell right, you put it under your pillow, and when you go to sleep, the tooth fairy will trade it for some sort of reward, right? Sort of gift.

Yeah. Actually, in the States, they give you money, which I suppose depends on how good the child is or how generous the tooth fairy is feeling. And I like that you also brought up this term baby tooth, or baby teeth, which are the teeth that you have that you get when you're a kid, but then fall out before you get your permanent teeth, I guess, or your adult teeth.

I was curious about this, because here in Spain, actually, they don't have the tooth fairy, but they do have a different character called the ratoncito pereth, which is like a little rat. The pereth little rat. For me, that's kind of like a bizarre concept, that there's a rat coming into your room in the middle of the night and taking your tooth away. But that's what they believe here.

That's scary, isn't it? It's almost like a boogeyman kind of thing. Exactly. What's a boogeyman, by the way? Oh, boogeyman is it's like a general concept of a monster that might sneak into your room while you're sleeping and I think takes children away or something like that. It's probably used to scare children into behaving well.

Hey, I'm sure that by the end of this lesson, you'll have learned tons of advanced words and expressions in English. But let me tell you that unfortunately, if you don't review them enough, you will forget them. So to help you remember all this vocabulary that you're learning with this lesson, we've created an exclusive deck of flashcards on a real life app.

Hey, you there. Buy this yellow drink. Hey. prego, prego. Hey. Hey. I'm talking to you, tubby. Don't you ignore me. Ooo. pardon me, sir. Sir. Sir. Go the hell with this. So we had to do it the hard way.

Hmm. $6. Nice looking wife you've got. Maybe I'll look her up while you're in the hospital. Don't forget your lemonade. All right, so in just these two short clips, we have some really nice examples of american culture with the piggy bank, the tooth fairy, the lemonade stand.

I actually, when I was a kid, did this myself. It's very typical that in the summer, you'll set up a lemonade stand and you'll sell each one, you know, maybe for like $0.50 or a dollar or something like that. And it gives you some spending money that you can use to buy a toy, buy a video game, something like that.

So Stewie is trying to do that here to make some money to buy a plane ticket. But he's not such a polite vendor, we could say. So he says, buy this yellow drink. Which sounds like he could be talking about something else, but he's talking about lemonade. Hey, you there. Buy this yellow drink.

So, yeah, he says, like a prego. And tubby referring to the pregnant woman. So that's kind of offensive. Yeah, but both very offensive. If you refer to a. You refer to a pregnant woman in this way. Don't do that.

Hey, prego, prego. Hey, hey, I'm talking to you, tubby. That's pretty much that. Like, Frego is pregnant, right? Slaying for pregnant. And tubby is slaying for fat or overweight. pardon me, sir. Sir. Sir.

Go the hell with this. So he tried a more polite approach, but it also didn't work. So. So he said, pardon me. What does it mean? pardon me? It's just a polite way to ask for attention, to excuse yourself. Even you could say just sorry. I think that's a more american way to say it.

Right? Yeah, I think pardon me might be a bit more british. I'll use it sometimes, but we'll usually say excuse me. And he says, don't you ignore me. What does that mean? If you say this sort of construction? Don't you. Hey, prego, prego. Hey, hey. I'm talking to you, tubby. Don't you ignore me. Ooo. Yeah.

This is basically giving somebody a direct command. So don't you do this. Like, don't you dare. When you want to say, like, don't try, don't even try doing that. Don't you dare doing that. So it serves almost like as this warning or threat.

That don't you dare can be a very useful phrase if you have a naughty child who likes to push the limits and see what they can get away with. And then finally he said, to hell with this. What does that mean? pardon me, sir, sir, sir? Go to hell with this.

It's pretty much when you don't care anymore about a person or thing, and you're just willing to ignore it, to abandon it. So you just like, to hell with it. For example, to hell with the rules, let's just do it our way. Or to hell with the weather. Let's just go to the beach. You're ignoring it even if it's raining. to hell with it.

Yeah. So in the context here, he's kind of saying like, he's doing all this effort to try to get people to buy from me. He's like, let me just find an easier way. So we had to do it the hard way. Hmm. What does it mean when he says we had to do it the hard way? It simply means that he had to use a more aggressive or forceful method to solve his problem there.

So you can imagine that there could be an easy way to do it. In this case, the guy could have simply bought the lemonade for him. And the hard way, which is what you just saw. Exactly. And people will actually use this phrase, like, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, giving you the choice of giving into their wishes or having to suffer some sort of consequence.

A parent might even use this with their child to say, you know, you can either do this the easy way, basically do what I'm telling you to do, or the hard way, except for some sort of punishment. And he says, a nice looking wife you've got after looking in the guy's wallet.

There's a cultural thing here, too, that, I don't know if this happens in all countries, but people in the states at least used to carry small photographs, maybe, of their, their partner, their children, inside their wallet. $6 nice looking wife you've got. Maybe I'll look her up while you're in the hospital.

But what does he mean here by nice looking? Yeah, this is just a shortcut for saying that somebody looks nice. You can say that they are nice looking or good looking. Or if they look weird, you can see that they're weird looking.

And if you're writing, you want to make sure to include a hyphen there. So nice hyphen looking. And finally he says, it's very dark, but like that, he's going to look her up while he's in the hospital. So if you look someone up in this sort of context, it's like traditionally that you look them up in the phone book. You know, you have someone's name, and you'd look them up, and then you would. You would call them.

So you're searching for information about that person. We could also use another phrasal verb called reach out that might say, hey, Izzy, when you're in Barcelona. Reach out, meaning, like, get in contact with me. I think another common application for lookup these days, you know, digital world, would be to just Google somebody, right, or something. Look it up on the Internet.

You google it, $6 nice looking wife you've got. Maybe I'll look her up. While you're in the hospital. Don't forget your lemonade.

Awesome work today. Now it's time to put your listening to the test by watching that scene again without the subtitles and seeing how well you can comprehend it now that you've learned all the different vocabulary and cultural notes, please forgive me, mister Oinkbaum. You will be missed. There we are. What are you doing? None of your beeswax, Ramona. But if you must know, I need a plane ticket to San Francisco. Good luck. Plane tickets are about $450. 400. Brian, hit me in the mouth. What? Why? I hear this truth fairy gives you money for your teeth. Have at it. Uh, okay.

No, no, don't, don't. Stop. Stop. Why did you stop? I said hit me. You flinched. Well, of course I flinched. You were going to hit me. Well, make up your mind. What do you want me to do? Hit me. Ah. No, don't, don't, don't. I'm sorry. Look, I know I'm being hard to read.

Hey, you there. Buy this yellow drink. Hey. prego, prego. Hey. Hey. I'm talking to you, tubby. Don't you ignore me. Ooo. pardon me, sir? Sir? Sir. Go. The hell with this. So we had to do it the hard way. Hmm. $6. Nice looking wife you've got. Maybe I'll look her up while you're in the hospital. Don't forget to lemonade.

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