[00:00:00] On today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'm teaching you 20 phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms, all about friendships. You'll be learning vocabulary like "ride or die," "two peas in a pod," "through thick and thin," "attached at the hip," and more. Let's go.
Hey there, welcome to the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.
Are you ready to improve your English skills? Let's jump right in.
Hello? Hello. Greetings from New York City. Thanks so much for listening [00:01:00] to this episode today. If you're new here, I just want to say welcome. February is the month that we celebrate love. And in the previous episode, we studied some vocabulary that's used for romantic relationships. And so today I'm teaching you all about friendships and real-world vocabulary about celebrating those friendships.
Friendships are a really important thing in every culture in the world, and American culture is no different. If you've ever watched an American TV show or movie, you've probably seen that normally a group of friends is at the center. So if you think about the most popular American TV shows like "Friends," "How I Met Your Mother," "Stranger Things," "Gossip Girl," "Sex and the City," shows that are internationally [00:02:00] famous, they're all about groups of friends living life, and most of those, coincidentally, are set in New York City. But anyway.
Talking about friendships and knowing how to describe your friendships and those relationships are really important in English. And so that's why for today's episode, I wanted to focus all about friendship and the love that you have for friends and how you can describe your friendships if you're talking about them in English.
Recording this episode makes me think about all of the amazing friends that I've had in my life, all the best friends that I've had in different seasons. There's normally two types of people in the world. There are people who prefer large groups of friends, and then there are people who only have a set, very small group of friends that they go through their whole life with. I had a very large friendship circle when I was younger. [00:03:00]
My friends are very important to me. I'm one of those people that if we were friends at any point in our lifetime, you will always be my friend. So if I went to elementary school with someone and I see them next week, I'll be like, "Hey, how are you? Oh my gosh." And we can pick up where we left off. My husband, for example, is not like that. If he hasn't talked to someone in like a year, he's like, "Oh, they're not my friend anymore."
Which of these are you, or maybe you're somewhere in the middle?
Either way, friendships are very important and being able to communicate in English about friendships is also very important.
Okay, let me tell you the vocabulary that I'm going to be teaching you in this episode: "through thick and thin," "besties," "best buds," [00:04:00] "attached at the hip," "ride or die," "wing man" or "wing woman," "partner in crime," "to have someone's back," "to be on the same wavelength," "to click," "to be inseparable," "to be like two peas in a pod," "to be tight," "be there for someone," "to go way back," "catch up," "lean on," "stick together," "squad" or "squad goals," and "brother from another mother" and "sister from another mister."
Before we get into today's story, I just want to remind you that there's a study guide waiting for you that has the episode transcript, all of the words, definitions, and new example sentences [00:05:00] and some practice activities. Make sure you get that study guide so that you can practice everything that you hear in this episode. The more you practice, the more naturally you can use it in your English. To get the study guide, all you have to do is look at the episode description and click on the link. All right. So let's get into today's story.
Have you ever had a best friend? You shared a special connection with them that you didn't share with any other friend. Some people are lucky enough to have relationships like this throughout their lifetime. This was the case with Jackie and Maya, two besties who had been attached at the hip since childhood. [00:06:00]
When Maya was four years old, her family moved from Chicago to Brooklyn, New York. They moved to a street that had lots of kids who were always playing outside. Maya met Jackie the day she moved into her new home. They played together outside while their parents were moving all of their things inside. That first day they clicked and quickly became like two peas in a pod. They soon happily discovered that they would be attending the same school. The two young girls were inseparable and had become tighter than anyone could imagine. They shared everything from their deepest secrets to their wildest dreams.
The girls were always there for each other through thick and thin. They leaned on each other during [00:07:00] all of the hard times they faced from parents divorcing to grandparents passing away and first crushes becoming first heartbreaks. Through it all, the girls always stuck together and supported each other. They had become more like sisters than friends. When they got to high school, they made many awesome friends. In fact, their whole group of friends were considered squad goals. No matter what happened though, it was always about Jackie and Maya. They always had each other's backs and no one could get between them.
In high school, they were ride or die, true partners in crime, always getting into trouble together but also finding a way to make things right.
They went to different colleges, but [00:08:00] thankfully they were still in the same state, just two hours away from each other. One weekend during their senior year of college, after catching up with each other for the first time in a week, they were at a party on Maya's college campus.
They were both single and acting as each other's wingmen or wingwomen. That's when Jackie met Jake, a handsome student who is majoring in business. Jackie knew the minute she met Jake that he would be perfect for Maya. So she introduced the two of them and they hit it off right away. An amazing thing happened next. Jake called over his friend, Matt. He introduced Matt as his brother from another mother and explained that they went way back and have been best buds since childhood. [00:09:00]
Matt and Jackie started talking and the two of them hit it off right away as well. The relationships between Matt and Jackie and Maya and Jake continued after the party. Matt and Jackie started dating and fell in love pretty quickly. The same thing happened with Maya and Jake.
The couples and best friends all got along well with each other and were all on the same wavelength about most things. Maya and Jake got married after a year, and Matt and Jackie got married six months after that.
What an incredible thing to happen to two best friends, that they would fall in love with two best friends.
After years of being inseparable, Jake and Maya moved to another city for work. Despite [00:10:00] the distance, their friendships remained as strong as ever. They made sure to catch up with each other regularly even though they were miles apart. Maya and Jackie knew that they would always be best friends because true friendship knows no boundaries and their bond was one that would last a lifetime.
That was one of those stories that you hear once in a lifetime, like I heard a story about twin brothers marrying twin sisters. It went viral maybe two or three years ago. So maybe you heard about that. But stories like this are really cool and even though this one is not a true story, I'm sure that this has happened somewhere in the world. [00:11:00]
Did you notice in the story that I used some vocabulary words from the previous episode, "to have a crush on someone" and "to be into" someone? I usually try to sneak vocabulary words into a story or even just into the episode that you learned in previous weeks, so pay attention.
All right. So let's talk about the words that you just heard in the story.
So the first thing that we're going to talk about is the slang word "besties." I'm sure you've heard this, seen this somewhere on social media. Besties is a slang term that we use for people who are talking about their best friend. It could be a very close friend, a trusted friend, but typically we say besties, best friends. In the past, we used to say oh, we're BFF, best friends forever. But now people typically say besties and it's typically used for female friendships or like a female and a guy, but usually it's the women who say this guys typically don't say besties.
What guys do say is "best buds." So the word, "bud" is short for "buddy." The word buddy is a really common way to describe friends. And this is very popular among men. Kind of like guys calling each other dude. Guys call each other buds or buddies.
So best buds is typically used to describe male best friends. We hear best buds towards the end of the story. When Matt and Jake are talking about each other and how they met, they call each other best buds. Most of the time, American men would not say we're besties. But there are always exceptions.
The expression that's used to describe the relationship between the girls is that they are "attached at the hip." This is a really cool expression. This is describing people who are very close to each other. I'm actually going to also define the word that comes in this same paragraph, which is "to be inseparable." Okay. "Attached at the hip" and "inseparable" means cannot be separated. So let's break down this word. Let me show you how prefixes and suffixes work in English. Let's do a little mini lesson here. Okay. In English, we have root words, right? Let's take the word "separate." We have something called prefix that goes in front of the word. And for example anti-, un-, pro-. When this is in front of a word, it changes the definition of the word.
Then we have suffixes that go at the end of the word. And these don't change the definition, these change the type of word. So it'll change a noun to an adjective, for example. So with this word, "inseparable." You can actually figure out what it means just by breaking it down. So we have the word "separate" in the middle. And then we have "able" at the end. "Able" is the ability to. And then "in," I N means not. So "inseparable" means the ability to not separate. Which is really cool that you can break down the word that way. So "inseparable" means two things that don't have the ability to be separated. So if I describe two people as being attached at the hip, I'm saying that they are inseparable. They're always together. They have a very close relationship. It's almost as if they are actually attached.
The next word is "click." Now click is usually a sound right. Like I click my seatbelt in. But in this case, when you say that you click with someone. This means that you get along well with them. You have a good connection. Good chemistry. You can use the word click for romantic relationships or regular relationships. Even professional relationships. For example, you could say, I love my manager. We really click, there's a good connection. Between the two of us.
The next is an idiom and it's "two peas in a pod." Now. "Pea" is a vegetable pea. It's a little round vegetable. That vegetable comes in a pod. And the pod has several peas inside of it. This expression means that two people are very similar in their interests and in their behaviors. It's like they were born in the same pod. That's basically what this is saying.
Next we have "to be tight." Now the word "tight" has a lot of different meanings in English, but in this context, to be tight means to have a strong bond or a strong friendship. So you can say for example, oh yeah, my siblings and I were really tight. We have a very close bond, close relationship.
Next we have the expression "to be there for someone." This means that you offer support or assistance to someone when they are in need. After a difficult time, we would say to someone, thank you so much for being there for me. You supported me, And you helped me when I needed you.
Ooo I love this next one. "Through thick [00:17:00] and thin." This is a really cool expression. We use this very often. Through thick and thin is when you support someone during the good times, the thick and the bad times, the thin. You could say she's been my best friend because she's been there for me through thick and thin.
Next we have a phrasal verb and this is "to lean on." To lean on someone. Or to lean on something is to rely on that person or thing for support. Or guidance. An example would be, I know I can always lean on my best friend when I need advice. I can rely on them. I know they're going to support me.
Next we have "stick together." The word "stick" usually means something you cannot separate. So in this context, stick together, we use it as a phrasal verb. And this is when you remain United or supportive of someone like you stay connected on the same team. even during the tough times, they stuck together and worked as a team. They did not separate.
Next is a really cool slang word and slang expression. And that's the word "squad"? Squad is what we use for a friendship group. Squad goals, Is this is the kind of friendship group that everybody wants. This is goals, You'll see this a lot on social media with hashtag squad. If I'm out with my friends and it's a big group of us, we're going to take a picture and I'm going to put like squad or like squad goals.
Next we have "to have someone's back." So to have someone's back is to support or defend someone. Like we say, Oh, do you have my back? [00:19:00] That means are you going to support me? Are you going to defend me?
Ooh next. We have a really good one. "Ride or die." So ride or die is someone who will stick with you through anything even dangerous or difficult situations. Ride or die means no matter what I'm riding with you. Even if you do something illegal, I'm going to do it with you.
Cause I'm ride or die. So when you say that you're ride or die, it means you are really loyal.
We have a similar expression and that is "a partner in crime." a partner in crime is someone who will do bad things. With you. And they won't be scared to get in trouble.
Next we have the phrasal verb "catch up." This is a really common one. In fact, I usually include catch up on my list of 50 most popular phrasal verbs. Catch up is when you update people on news or events that have happened since the last time you saw each other. So if I haven't seen one of my friends in a year, I would say, Hey, let's catch up. You want to go get dinner?
this next one's kind of funny. It's "brother from another mother" or "sister from another mister." Okay. So both of these expressions are for close friends who are more like siblings than friends. So for my best friend, if she's a girl, I say, oh, she's my sister from another mister. But if it's a guy, I say, he's my brother from another mother. Meaning like we're brothers and sisters, but we have different parents. So it's kind of a joke.
this next one is really cool. This is big for social English, especially if you're single, you're going out to clubs, to parties, to lounges, to try to meet people. Okay. A wingman or a wingwoman. This is a friend who helps you meet? Potential romantic partners. When you're out somewhere. So for example, If I'm with my best friend and I'm her wingwoman. I'm going to look around and look for single attractive guys. Then maybe I'll go talk to him. And then bring my friend over and introduce them. I'm helping her out. Because she's maybe a little bit more shy.
The next one is when people say that they go way back. Oh, Jenny and I, we go way back. This means we've known each other for a long time. And lastly. we have the idiom "to be on the same wavelengths." This means that you share similar thoughts or ideas, you have the same worldview. This is a really good idiom to describe your relationship with romantic partners or friends like, oh, we're just, we're really on the same wavelength. Like we feel. Very similarly about big topics and our views of life are similar.
Okay, so you just learned 20 real life English words about friendship. Go call your best friend. Go call a close friend. Tell them. Hi, catch up. See, if you can get together.
Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English learning. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a review.
Thanks so much for tuning in.