For English learners: You need to know that, unfortunately, the real world looks a bit different from what you learnt, more confusing and less structured with the use of slang. Here we will tell you why you must study slang, and you will learn 5 of the most used English slangs in everyday life and how to use them properly!
Slang is an aspect of language that isn’t usually taught in the classroom but is an important part of becoming proficient in any language. A person learning English might attend daily classes. They might study the grammar and the formalities and might even produce complex and coherent sentences. But, take this student out of the classroom and away from the textbooks, and they will encounter a world of language that breaks the rules they learned.
Although studying proper English rules is important, slang is unavoidable, no matter what language you’re speaking. In drama and music, conversations and advertising, language becomes less formal and goes less and less “by the rules”. Real-life English is so different from the textbooks.
Taking the time to understand slang and informal speech will boost your communication and language skills, and save a whole lot of confusion. Slang will allow you to use language in a current, useful way. No amount of time in class can prepare you for the contemporary nuances you’ll be faced with when you put your language knowledge to practical use out in the real world.
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It’s time to cover common English slang expressions that are used every day in the United States!
1.Get it? = Did you understand it?
Get it? is an informal way of asking whether a person understands something.
For example, if someone says “I got the joke, but he didn’t get it,” it means that the speaker understood the joke, but the other person did not.
Got it? I can tell you once again..
2. Flaky = Someone who constantly cancels plans, often at the last minute
Many people have a friend who’s flaky. You make a plan a week in advance, you show up to the venue and your friend suddenly texts you, “Sorry! I can’t make it.” This person would be considered flaky: one who constantly cancels plans, often at the last minute.
Jennifer is really flaky; she always cancels our plans!
3. Dead = Empty or not popular
This word is usually used to describe someone who is deceased. However, as a slang word, it’s used to describe an unpopular place or a place where there are not a lot of people. For example, if you and your friends go out on a Saturday night to a bar, and there are only a few people there, you can say, This bar is really dead.
This club is dead; let’s go to another one.
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4. Cushy = Comfortable or nice
Cushy is another way to say “comfortable” or “nice.” It can also be used to describe a really great job. If your friend gets paid 100,000 dollars a year, has health benefits, and gets to travel the world, you could say that he or she has a cushy job.
My roommate has a really cushy job. He gets paid $10,000 a month.
5. Eating away at = To bother or upset
This phrase has nothing to do with lunch. In fact, it might make you lose your appetite. The phrase eating away at means something is really bothering you or upsetting you and you can’t seem to shake it. For example, if you’re in a difficult situation and are becoming very stressed you could say, [The problem] is eating away at me.
I don’t know what to do; it’s really eating away at me.
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