Full video

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hello lovely students and welcome back

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to English with Lucy today we're going

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to be covering the topic of slang but

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more importantly rhyming slang I'm going

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to teach you how and why we use phrases

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like holy moly

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nitty-gritty fuddy-duddy

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higgledy-piggledy it's the ultimate

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vocabulary grammar and slang and

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pronunciation lesson today I'm going to

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teach you about something that most

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native speakers won't even realize they

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do and they certainly wouldn't be able

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to explain why we're going to talk about

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rhyming reduplication before we get

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started two important points number one

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we have a free pdf that goes with

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today's lesson if you'd like to download

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it click on the link in the description

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box it's got everything we cover today

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lots of examples plus a quiz so you can

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test your understanding the next thing I

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want to mention is language talk you

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free this is usually worth 15 so it's

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worth it okay I've written a little poem

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for you and there's a reason behind it

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I've not just gone into poetry there was

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once a teacher from Britain who gave

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classes to Alfonso the kitten but he

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didn't like reading he just wanted

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feeding so he munched up what Lucy had

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written

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Alfonso is the name of my cat now there

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is something inherently satisfying about

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rhyming words isn't there apparently it

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makes our brains really happy when they

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hear the sound patterns that occur in

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Rhymes now we do this a lot in English

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especially to say something in a

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light-hearted way for example holy moly

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there are a lot of examples holy moly is

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an interjection showing surprise now

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don't worry I'm going to show you the

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nitty-gritty the nitty-gritty is the

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important detail we're going to go from

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the itsy bitsy and itsy bitsy means very

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very small to the higgledy-piggledy

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higgledy-piggledy means confused or

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jumbled

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trust me these expressions are the bee's

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knees the bee's knees is an idiom that

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means excellent

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okie dokie let's go

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okie dokie means okay see there are a

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lot of them okay so these rhyming

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expressions are called rhyming

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reduplication and in rhyming

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reduplication we alter the beginning of

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the word and generally this is a

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consonant or a consonant cluster for

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example ease ease bees knees bees knees

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is a copy apart from the consonant

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sounds at the start of the words

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two-part expressions like this sound

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extremely informal and bring the

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register right down to a fun level so

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that you won't sound

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hoity-toity another one hoity-toity is

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behaving like you are better than

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everyone else I hate all this

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hoity-toity here are a few more boogie

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boogie I love I love that boogie woogie

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boogie means dance and so does Boogie

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Woogie let's go out next weekend and

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Boogie Woogie uh that one does sound a

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little old-fashioned this one does too

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but not in the same way fuddy duddy

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fuddy duddy this noun or sometimes

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adjective describes someone who is

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old-fashioned or something that is

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old-fashioned I find it adorable though

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don't be such a fuddy duddy come out

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tonight or his outfit was a bit fuddy

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daddy we also have quite a childish one

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Silly Billy Silly Billy and this is what

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we say to children who aren't behaving

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in a sensible way we also use it a lot

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with our pets because we treat our pets

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as our children in the UK the tone of

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voice is important with this one as

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otherwise it could sound pretty

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insulting oh you are a silly Billy take

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that bucket off your head fun fact I

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actually got a bucket stuck on my head

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as a child I put it on like this and put

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the strap under my chin to look like a

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soldier I was definitely a silly Billy

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it had to be cut off and it was my

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favorite bucket in fact I don't think

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I've recovered another Hocus Pocus this

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is silliness or magical activity often

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used to trick someone just be honest

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stop all this Hocus Pocus often Wizards

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will say it before casting a spell hocus

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pocus

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she's disappeared

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we also have lovey-dovey this is a

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romantic adjective for people who show

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pdas ah pdas these are public displays

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of affection mum and dad are far too

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lovey-dovey they're always holding hands

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another you might come across not so

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common Helter Skelter this is either a

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type of slide that goes all the way

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around like that you'll find it in a

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playground or an adjective to describe

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hurrying and confusion we had a Helter

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Skelter Journey to the show we also have

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one that I love to say Namby pambi nambi

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pambi this is an adjective meaning weak

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feeble maybe excessively emotional and

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it's a bit cruel to be honest what a

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Namby pamby idea it's really insulting

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willy-nilly is one that I use all the

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time and this is an adverb to describe

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doing something in an irregular way the

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new agency just sends its proposals

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willy-nilly yeah if you do something

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willy-nilly it's without planning or

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organization it's in a random chaotic

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way don't just do it willy-nilly think

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about it first we also have jeepers

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creepers jeepers creepers and this is an

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exclamation showing surprise or shock

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and I'm pretty sure that it comes from

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avoiding saying something Blasphemous

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um avoiding saying Jesus Christ because

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we have Jesus Christ Jeepers Creepers

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some people want to avoid that it's

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quite a nice one to use cheapest

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creepers knock on the door before you

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just come in next time now let's move on

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to the topic of nicknames British people

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quite like assigning nicknames to each

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other and we love them even more if they

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rhyme so you could have a steady Eddie

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Handy Andy Mary Jerry Bonnie Johnny

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Smiley Kylie I'm often called Juicy Lucy

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it really works well with two syllable

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names here's a challenge for you can you

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think of a rhyming reduplication for

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your own name or a British name that you

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can think of preferably your own name

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but some of them might be quite

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difficult I'm thinking Muhammad doesn't

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really rhyme with much maybe you could

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go with Mo now anyone can make rhyming

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reduplications about anything and

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there's a really common format it often

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happens by replacing the first consonant

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with in the reduplication it's very

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childlike as you can hear

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my friend Jenny Winnie wrote a bookie

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Wookie about her doggy Woogie there's

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another challenge for you in the

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comments section see if you can write a

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childish sentence using this W consonant

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sound it's your homework won't work

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okay one more thing I want to cover

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rhyming schmiming rhyming smiling why do

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we say things like that this is called

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reduplication I repeated the word

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rhyming but I replaced the first

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consonant with

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rhyming schmining I used it here as an

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intensifier to make the concept more

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memorable here we have some more money

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Shmoney

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this kind of means like money is not

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important or money's no object

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homework shmom work if I heard this I'd

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think that the speaker was implying that

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there are better things to do

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we also have board schmard this is sort

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of confrontational it's like saying I

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don't believe you you aren't bored well

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you don't have to be bored

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reduplication originated in Yiddish and

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it's generally used to indicate irony

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sarcasm skepticism to be dismissive or

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as an interjection it really depends on

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the context and the intonation and it's

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very informal do not use this in a job

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interview I thought it would be valuable

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to mention it because you do hear it in

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a lot of movies especially ones based in

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New York you might hear people saying I

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feel fancy schmancy today a bit of

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emphasis there fancy schmancy okay

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that's it for today I really enjoyed

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this lesson it's fascinating it's such a

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fascinating topic to me I like helping

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you to understand why we say and use

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certain things don't forget to check out

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PDF for today's lesson the link is down

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there as well don't forget to connect

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can find an interactive pronunciation

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tool and you can also see all of my

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slang or you can take my level courses

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I will see you soon for another lesson

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