Learn English with a bad newspaper!

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• published: 12 Sep 2015
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It's a great idea to read newspapers to improve your English. But it's also fun to learn expressions that are mostly used in celebrity gossip magazines. These are called "tabloids". Did you know that they sometimes invent new words that become part of regular speech? Stay in the know about celeb culture and learn new words at the same time. You don't want to miss this funny lesson! http://www.engvid.com/learn-english-tabloids/ TRANSCRIPT Hi, everybody. Today I'm going to be having a look at The Sun, one of the fine contributions to U.K. publishing. We're going to be looking at terms, words that are used in a tabloid. A "tabloid" is a small newspaper that opens like this. We're looking at use for journalistic terms used in the U.K. press. Lovely. Lovely. I hope you enjoy my words that I'm going to be giving to you today. Make sure that as we're going along, you practice saying them, too. I don't want you sitting there, like this. That's no good. You're going to say the words back to me. Okay? So, on page number seven, I read about an "Obsessive Mum and Dad". Look at them, they're talking about their little child. They're really thinking about what they should do with the child. They are "helicopter parents". Okay? They have a lot of money. Right? And they can afford to give anything to their child, but they think a bit too much about that child. We call them "helicopter parents". Yeah? Great. Now, I turn to page 11, and it's this person, Ulrika Jonsson, and she is showing me some arguments. Now, she makes a good point about Miley Cyrus, and she goes: "Boom!" Okay? If you're having a bit... A bit of a conversation with a friend and you win the argument, you go: "Boom!" Okay? It's an exclamation mark to show that you won the argument. This is an exclamation mark. You're shouting out. "Ex", out, "clamo", the Latin word "to shout". Yeah, I'm a bit of a boffin; clever person. Now, I turn to page, I think it was 12, and I'm reading all about the economy, and the "EU is in trouble". The European Union, right? So, what do we call it? "Eurageddon". Okay? All this language, it's exaggerated. Yeah? It's silly language. We make it like a disaster movie, because bad news sells. "Eurageddon", obviously we get that from Armageddon, end of the world, the EU in trouble. Now, some poor girl's got bitten by a dog. Where was she? But look at the use of verb. We say that she's been "mauled". Yeah? A "savage" is like a wild person. The dog has savaged her so much she's got blood bursting out. [Roars] Yeah? Savage, mauled. It's... You know, she's actually just been bitten by a dog, but you know, we exaggerate. These are strong verbs. Strong, yeah, strong. Oh, dear, there's a man wearing tights. Good thing he's called David Beckham. What do we call these "man tights"? We call them "mantyhose". Yeah, that is the correct word for "man tights". Not quite sure where... Why Becks is wearing them here, but there we are. Becks, mantyhose. So, some people have been criticising David Beckham's choice of man tights, here. In fact, they've been "slamming" them. Yeah? Because The Sun likes to exaggerate. Yeah? So it's slamming it. Yeah? It's not just saying: "Becks, not a very appropriate choice of underwear." They've slammed it. Slam, yeah? You slam the door, that's how badly they've criticised it. They've said he's a little bit different, but they haven't just said: "He's a little bit different", they've called him a "loony". Yeah? That's really rude to call someone a loony. He's completely mad. And the new launch, okay? It didn't go very well, so they don't just say that it "went badly", something can go badly or it can go well; they say that it "flopped". Yeah? It flopped. So we could talk about this the opening weekend of a film, the premiere of a film, and it flopped. Okay? No one went to go and see the film. And if I look on page 15, if I remember correctly, we have a "1st time that the story has been told", yeah? "Revenge Slayer", okay? So this is a "world exclusive". "World exclusive" means the first time it has been told. Okay? It's just a... Sort of, again, exaggerate. It sounds really important: A world exclusive. "Showing off his legs" in a photo, we call that a "legbombing". See this lucky lady, here, she's showing off her legs, she's sticking in her legs, she's legbombing. We're not talking about... We're not talking about a bomb, okay? We're talking about the surprise caused by showing a bit of leg. Uh-oh. Now, if I turn to page three, I see a bit of a "stunner". Okay? So, "stunner" is a word for "good looking".