#19 - 22 Slang Words, Phrasal Verbs, and Slang Words for House Problems and Repairs
[00:00:00] On today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'm teaching you slang words, phrasal verbs, and idioms all about house repairs and problems. You'll be learning vocabulary like wonky, patch up, tear down, busted, clog, and more. Let's get to it.
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.
Hey, hey, hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode. Today, you're learning everything [00:01:00] you need to know about house repairs. If something goes wrong in your apartment or your house now, you'll know exactly what to say in English. Last week, my students asked me how to describe bathroom repairs, and I taught them the word clog or clogged. They had never heard it before. And so immediately my brain was like, "Oh, my goodness. I have to do this on the podcast." And here we are. My students inspire my lessons. When I notice that there are things that they don't know, I usually add it to the list of podcast episodes that I want to create. Being an English teacher now for 13 years has given me so many ideas about content creation. So thank you to all of you out there who inspire me. My students in the classroom [00:02:00] inspire me. My students who comment on social media posts inspire me. And all of you, when you give me your feedback, you inspire me as well.
I want to give a quick shout out to Patricia or Patricia. I just wanted to thank you so much for your five-star review. She said, "Gabby, I love your podcast. I always listen to your podcasts over and over while I'm working and try to mimic your voice to make my pronunciation better. Thanks a lot for your efforts." Thank you, Patricia, for giving me a five-star review. Having ratings like this really helps Apple Podcasts to push out my podcast to more people. Also, a big thank you to my Spotify crew. I just looked and I have 51 five-star reviews. I am so touched. Thank you so much.
Guys, I just found out something [00:03:00] really cool. So I decided to look and see where all of my podcast listeners come from around the world. And very interestingly, the number one continent that listens to my podcast is Europe. Woo, congratulations Europe. Number two was North America. And number three is Asia, following closely behind North America. Which is really funny because on Instagram and TikTok, I feel like South America dominates a lot of the time. When it breaks down to countries, the number one country is the USA. So it seems like it's a lot of people who live here who are trying to survive in American culture, which is really cool. And then the number two country is Germany. Thank you to my Germans. So, guten Tag. Yeah.
Just a reminder that you have a study guide waiting for you in the show notes. Remember that these study guides have the full transcript, vocabulary definitions, [00:04:00] example sentences that you don't hear in the podcast, and they also have two practice activities. And also, there are practice activities so that you can get more and more exposure to everything that you learned in the podcast. To get that study guide, just go to the show notes and click the link.
So let's get to it, shall we? Today, I have 22 new words and expressions for you to learn. And let me tell you what they are. We have fixer-upper, fix up, wonky, clog, leak, toast, busted, shot, on the Fritz, a hack job, a quick fix, take matters into your own hands, DIY, roll up your sleeves, get down to business, patch up, tear down, cross something off the list, janky, settle in, mess up, break down, act up, and lastly, put your blood, sweat, and tears into something.
So, the story that I'm about to tell you [00:06:00] is a story that I wrote because I wanted you to get a glimpse or a look into something that is very common here in the USA when it comes to real estate and home ownership. And that is buying a fixer-upper.
So today, it's pretty different because I'm teaching you one of the words before the story. It's very common here in the USA for people who are on a tight budget to buy cheaper homes that require work to get done. And then they slowly work on it themselves while preparing to move in. These kinds of homes are called fixer-uppers. But we also call them a handyman special. A handyman is someone who is handy or who knows how to fix or repair many things. So buying fixer-uppers here is huge. So big in American culture, even to the point that we have tons of reality shows on all of our [00:07:00] home networks that are focused on people buying fixer-uppers and making them beautiful.
And in some cases, they flip the home, which is what we call someone who buys a fixer-upper that needs serious work, then they make it beautiful, and then they sell it for a profit. Very common here. That's why I wrote today's story very specifically about a couple who buys a fixer-upper and fixes it up. It is the perfect context for all of the words that I want to teach you. All right, so let's get into the story.
Jenna and Theo were from New York City and had been city kids their whole lives. They had gotten engaged six months earlier and in preparation for starting their lives together, they decided to buy a house outside of the city. After months of house hunting, they found a beautiful home that they both loved. It was in their favorite neighborhood and it worked with their small budget. The only catch was that it was a fixer-upper. There were only five months left until their wedding, [00:08:00] and they weren't sure whether or not they'd be able to finish the repairs in time. Even though they knew that it would be a lot of work, they had both fallen in love with the house and so they went ahead and bought it.
They knew that they had a big project ahead to fix up the home of their dreams. There was a lot of work to be done. The paint was messed up, the air conditioning system had broken down, and the garage door was acting up. The plumbing was wonky, with pipes clogging and leaks happening all over the house. The electrical system was toast, leaving half of the house in darkness and the other half on the Fritz. They decided to hire professionals to fix the electrical, heating, and cooling systems in their home, and thankfully, those companies all did a great job.
After those were fixed, however, they tried to hire some help from local repairmen to fix other parts of the house. Unfortunately, the people they hired did a hack job. They did mostly quick fixes that only lasted a short time. After that point, Jenna and Theo decided to take matters into their own hands and fix the rest of the house by themselves and with some of their friends and family. With a mix of excitement and fear, they started on their DIY dream home journey. They rolled up their sleeves and got down to business. The first thing they did together was fix the leaky pipes and patch up the bad paint on the walls. Weeks and months passed as they worked tirelessly on their home. They tore down walls, installed new light fixtures, and painted every surface. They were tired and sore, but with each task that they crossed off their list, they became more and more determined to finish their house. Finally, after countless nights and endless cups of coffee, their hard work paid off. The once janky house was now perfect. They could now begin the journey of settling into their beautiful new home. Jenna and Theo drove up to their beautiful new home and saw how perfect it looked. They walked in and were extremely proud of all that they had accomplished along with the people closest to them. They truly poured their blood, sweat, and tears into their home and they would forever be proud of all that they accomplished. The end.
This is a really cute little story based on so many similar situations that I've seen throughout the years of friends or acquaintances of mine who buy fixer-upper homes and then have beautiful results.
Okay, let's discuss these words. Even though I already explained a fixer-upper or a handyman special, let me give you the official definition again. So these two expressions are actually real estate terms and they're used to describe a property that requires a lot of repairs and a lot of renovations. A renovation is when you take something old and make it into better condition. Because of all of the repairs and renovations that are required for the home to be livable. These types of homes are typically offered at a lower price. Now the word fixer-upper comes from the phrasal verb to fix up. Fix up means to repair, renovate, or improve something, typically to restore it to its original condition or even to make it into better condition. If you remember back to episode number 14 about cleaning and house chores, we actually spoke about adding the word up to the end of a word to make it a phrasal verb. And so when you add the word up to the end of an action verb, it's because we're adding emphasis. So you might say, well, why can't we just say that we're fixing, why do we have to say fix up? And so in English, it's very common to do this and it's just for added emphasis. So for example, clean up, sweep up, fix up pretty much mean the same thing as clean, sweep, and fix, but they add emphasis.
Next we have wonky. I love this word. It sounds a little crazy. It's actually an adjective and it's used to describe something that is unstable or unreliable or not working correctly. So we say, oh my gosh, everything is really wonky. It means that things are off, it's not working correctly. The next two words are very much connected. They're both verbs. It's clog and leak. The word clog is actually a verb and this means to block. Often we use this when we're talking about pipes or drains. Pipes are those round metal things that water travels through in your sink or your bathroom. Let's say someone puts too much toilet paper in the toilet, it gets clogged, meaning that it's blocked with something and nothing else can pass through. By the way, little side note, the things that we use in the bathroom, the rubber thing to unclog the toilet, it's called a plunger. So if your toilet's clogged, you get the plunger and you plunge it. And if you can't plunge it, you have to call your landlord and say, "Hey, my toilet is clogged. Can you come help me?" Then the other word that's linked to clog is leak. Leak and clog are connected not because they mean the same thing, but because they are both very, very common household problems and they both have to do with water. The word leak is when there's some kind of liquid or gas that's escaping from a container or some kind of system of pipes. If I have water that's dripping from a pipe, I say, "Oh my gosh, there's a leak." Or even scarier, if there's some kind of gas coming out from a pipe or a hose, we say, "Oh my gosh, there's a gas leak. We've got to leave the apartment." The next word is a slang word and it's the word toast. Okay. When we say that something is toast, it means that something is broken or something is totally done. I know this is strange because we use the word toast mainly for two other things. Do you know what we use the word toast for? One meaning of toast is when we use it as a verb and it's to add heat to bread, usually in a toaster or toaster oven. That's the verb to toast to add heat. But as a noun, we say a piece of toast. For example, this morning I had toast for breakfast. That's the noun. And then the verb, can you toast some bread for me, please? Now the word toast is also commonly used at parties or celebrations when we raise our glasses. Usually, we put some kind of champagne or alcohol or like sparkling cider. We put it in a glass and we raise the glass to honor or celebrate someone. And then we hit our glasses together gently. So we say like, "I'd like to make a toast for the bride and groom." So these are the other ways that we use the word toast, these are official definitions. And the one that I gave you is slang. Next, we have three words that mean that something is broken or malfunctioning. They are busted, shot, on the Fritz. These are all slang terms and they mean almost the same thing. On the Fritz is slightly different than busted or shot because on the Fritz is a little bit more specific. Typically, it's used more for things that are electrical. For example, I can say this door is busted or this door is shot. We need to buy a new one. But I wouldn't say this door is on the Fritz. But I would say the electrical system is on the Fritz because it's electrical. Next we have the expression, a hack job. A hack job is a job, like a repair job that was very poorly done. It was done quickly. Whoever did it did not really have good skills or maybe they just didn't care. But a hack job is a terrible repair job. Connected to that is the expression a quick fix. A quick fix is a temporary solution. Typically, it's done very quickly. There's not a lot of planning and we don't expect it to last a long time. Next we have the expression to take matters into your own hands. This expression means to take responsibility for someone or something and to act independently in order to solve a problem. So I tried to get someone else to help me. They can't, so you know what? I'm going to take matters into my own hands. I'm going to do this myself. That's exactly what this expression means. Next up, we have an acronym. DIY. Do you know what these three letters stand for? DIY actually stands for do it yourself. This is used for doing tasks by yourself rather than hiring someone else to do them for you. Sometimes DIY involves home improvement or repair projects. However, it very often refers to small arts and crafts projects or cooking experiments. Things like that. And then sometimes you'll notice that people use it as a verb. Like they say, "I'm going to DIY this." So they use it as a verb. Okay. The next expression is roll up your sleeves. I'm sure you know this, but sleeves are like the pieces of material that cover your arms. We say, "I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt" or "I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt" or "sleeveless" without sleeves. Rolling up your sleeves is like pushing your sleeves up when you're about to do hard work. So if I say, "I'm going to roll up my sleeves," that means, "Alright, time to get serious, do some hard work, physical labor. Let's go." Similarly, we have the expression get down to business. Get down to business is a phrase that means, "Alright, we're going to start working seriously. We're going to work hard on a specific task or project." Next up, we have the phrasal verb patch up. Patch up means to temporarily fix something, but often it's improvised, meaning we didn't plan it ahead of time. We're just going to do it quickly until we can figure out a more permanent solution. Next we have tear down. Tear down means to destroy a structure. So maybe there's a building, but it's very old, so I need to tear it down in order to rebuild or to build a new building. Next step is cross something off the list. To cross something off the list means to complete or accomplish a task. This is usually something that you decided on ahead of time, you made a list, you planned to do it. Then you accomplished it and you check it or cross it off the list. Next we have the word janky. This is a slang word and this describes something that's really low quality, poor quality, bad condition. Sometimes this can mean that something had a very quick fix. So maybe something broke, you fixed it with tape and it looks really bad. That's what we would call janky. Next we have the phrasal verb settle in. This expression means to become comfortable and familiar with a new place, such as a home. It was new to you and then it became really, really comfortable to you. Next up, we have mess up. Mess up means ordinarily to make a mistake. "I'm so sorry, I messed up my test." However, in the context of repairs, it means that something is broken like, "Oh, this is messed up. It's wrong, it's not right." Next we have another phrasal verb, which is break down. This phrasal verb means to stop working or functioning properly. We often use this for electrical devices, mechanical devices. You'll probably hear this most commonly used with cars. So I would say, "My car broke down. I need to bring it to a mechanic." But we can also use it for other types of machinery. "My air conditioner broke down," etc. Then we have the phrasal verb act up. When something acts up, it means that it's not working correctly. It's going a little crazy. So I could say, "My phone is acting up. I need to go to the Apple store." We can also use this for kids or people who are misbehaving, not behaving well. We say, "Oh, your child is acting up. Can you come and pick them up from school?" And lastly, we have a really awesome idiom, blood, sweat, and tears, or to put your blood, sweat, and tears into something. It can be used the longer way and the shorter way. This idiom means to sacrifice a lot to accomplish something. So you put your blood, which represents your pain or physical injury, you put your sweat or hard work and determination, and your tears. So maybe frustration, difficulties, obstacles. You put all of this into something. So in the story, Theo and Jenna put their blood, sweat, and tears into fixing this house. We also use this for sports or anything else that we put all of our energy into. Okay, well, those were the beautiful 22 new words and expressions that you got from this story. Remember that the best way to remember all of these words is to actually use them. So read through the transcript, look at the examples, do the practice activities, and you will be closer and closer to speaking English confidently and using this new vocabulary very naturally. Stay tuned for next week's episode because it's going to be really good. 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.
