#22- 18 Phrasal Verbs, Slang Words and Idioms for Summer & Hot Weather

Welcome back to The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast! In episode #22, you'll be learning 18 phrasal verbs, slang words and idioms all about summer and hot weather! You'll be learning words like sweltering, a scorcher, heat up, cool down, sweating bullets and more! This episode will teach you everything you need to know to talk about hot weather with CONFIDENCE in English. This is real life English that native speakers use to talk about hot weather and after listening to this episode and using the STUDY GUIDE, you'll be able to use these words naturally in English.

To get the free Study Guide, click >> HERE <<

The Study Guide includes: 

• Word list and definitions
• Example sentences
• Full transcript
• Practice activities

If you like this episode, check out these as well:

#7- 16 Words for Winter and Cold Weather

#13- 22 Words for Storms, Spring and Weather

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Transcript

[00:00:00] On today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 18 phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms about summer and hot weather. You'll learn new vocabulary like scorcher, blazing, heat wave, a quick dip, summer glow, beach bum, sprinklers, 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.

Happy summer, everyone. This is officially the first week of [00:01:00] summer here in the USA. For those of you who are listening and you live in a country below the equator way down south, happy winter to you. I know that it's the first week of winter.

It's so interesting when you visit a country that's below the equator if you're above the equator or vice versa, and it's the totally opposite season. Imagine being from Brazil and having Christmas in the summer, for example, which is really cool. A few years ago, I went to Brazil—actually, not a few years ago. I went a long time ago. By the way, hi to all my Brazilians out there. Awesome country. Awesome people. I went to Brazil in July, and I left the hot New York City summer and went down to the cold Brazilian winter. Now I say cold, but for me, it was awesome because cold in Brazil is warm in New York.

[00:02:00] By the way, I would love to find out what cities you guys are from and what countries. I can see it in the demographics. When I check the stats of the podcast, I can see what countries and cities listen to this podcast the most, but I would love to hear from you. You guys can send messages on Instagram, on TikTok, by email. You can send me messages anywhere, or even when you guys review the podcast on Apple Podcasts, for example. Feel free to say whatever country you're from.

I would love to shout out your countries because I love all of your countries. But yes, happy first week of winter to those of you who are below the equator. Since some of you listening to this are in countries that have winter right now, let me remind you that episode number seven is all about winter and cold weather. So if you want to learn more about cold weather, go listen to episode number seven.

This [00:03:00] week in New York City, we are experiencing a heat wave. You'll learn more about that shortly. We're expecting temperatures of around 33 Celsius. Yes, I did have to convert that on the internet, since we use Fahrenheit here. So we're all preparing for these hot temperatures by making sure that our air conditioning systems are fully functional.

An interesting fact about the USA, for those of you who have never been here, is that Americans love air conditioning. Most homes in the USA have central air conditioning, meaning it flows through the entire apartment, and it's always on in the summertime. We can just set whatever temperature we want to set it to, and our houses stay at that specific temperature. However, [00:04:00] big cities like New York City, where people have apartments and the buildings are extremely old, we have window units. So in the summertime, we put air conditioners in the windows, and then we take them out when the weather gets colder.

So this week here in New York City, everyone has been installing their air conditioners because it's going to be very, very hot. Everywhere you go indoors in the USA has air conditioning, and so tourists are always cold here. My students are always complaining how cold everything is here. The classrooms are cold. The stores are cold. Everything is cold. And it's not normal for many other countries, but it is very normal here in the USA, especially in the southern half of the USA. 

In those states, you can actually drive [00:05:00] everywhere. You never have to get out of your car outside if you don't want to. When I visit my family in Florida, for example, we drive everywhere. It's so hot in the summer that people can get sick going outside. People pass out. They have heat stroke. It's not good. But here in New York City, we walk everywhere, even in the summer. Out on the street, we're hot, and then we go into buildings that are extremely cold.

In today's episode, I've got some great new vocabulary for you: phrasal verbs, slang, expressions, idioms, you know, the usual. Before I tell you about the 18 words that I'm going to teach you in this episode, I just want to remind you that this episode has a study guide. And in fact, every episode has a study guide waiting for you.

 Now, if you have already subscribed by email, all you have to [00:06:00] do is click the link to the Google Drive folder that has all the study guides in one place. I just want to say thank you. A lot of you guys email me with great feedback about the podcast, and it's very helpful. A lot of you have asked me if I could keep all the study guides in one place so that you don't have to fill out the form every single time. And so I created one. Now, each week when the podcast goes live, you can just go to the folder and download the newest one. I'll also be updating some of them.

For those of you who are new listeners to the podcast, all you have to do is subscribe one time, and then you get access to all of the previous study guides and the future study guides. The study guides have the full transcript, of course, all the new words from the episode with definitions, new example sentences in different [00:07:00] contexts. Then you hear it in the podcast, and two practice activities. My goal is that you can really remember everything that I teach you in this podcast by using the study guide. The link for the study guide is going to be in the episode description. Also, thank you to all of you who have left positive reviews. If you love the show, please, please leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify because the higher the reviews, the more that the algorithm sends out my podcast to new listeners. So thank you very much.

Okay, so I'm really excited about this episode because these summer words are so cool, and I'm getting excited about summer. Now I'm a spring baby. I was born in April, if you remember from my episode about birthdays and celebrations. I love spring. I love [00:08:00] the flowers blooming. I love rain. I love thunder. I love storms. Personally, my favorite season is the fall. So, you know, September, when it's fall, I'm going to be really excited to do that episode. Fall is the absolute best season here in New York City. More about that in the future. But I do like summer when it comes. I love winter too. But I do like summer when it comes. I'm so ready for some really warm weather, but personally, I'm not a big heat fan. This week, temperatures in the thirties—that's too high for me. I like the upper twenties much, much better. 

Okay, so here are the new vocabulary words and expressions that you are learning in this episode: summer glow, beach bum, soak up the sun, beat the heat, a quick dip [00:09:00] in the pool, lounging, a run through sprinklers, cookout, to fire up the grill, sit in the shade, turn up the AC, humid, heat wave, sweating bullets, cool off, heat up, a scorcher, blazing. And so this was 18 words, but it's actually more than 18. You're really learning 25 words, but the last few words have the same use in English: blazing, sweltering, sizzling, steaming or steamy, burning, stifling. All of these words have the same use, and you'll hear about that shortly.

All right. So let's get to the story, shall we?

The summer sun had been heating up [00:10:00] in recent days, and Marianna and her friends were ready for the coming heat wave. They were all beach bums who loved to soak up the sun at every opportunity. They wanted to go tanning, hopeful of getting a beautiful summer glow. The weather forecast predicted that it was going to be a scorcher with blazing high temperatures. In order to beat the heat, they decided to enjoy a relaxing day at her house. By mid-morning, it was already sweltering, and everyone was sweating bullets. Marianna suggested they start with a quick dip in the pool to cool off. They spent hours lounging by the pool, chatting and laughing, occasionally jumping in to [00:11:00] escape the heat.

As the day went on, they decided to run through sprinklers set up in her backyard, adding to the fun and helping them stay cool. The combination of laughter and refreshing water helped them forget about the humid air from the heat wave. Around noon, it was time for a cookout. Mariana's dad, always the grill master, decided to fire up the grill. The smell of barbecue sauce, burgers, and corn filled the air as everyone found a spot to sit in the shade, enjoying the break from the intense sun. Despite the blazing afternoon heat, the group refused to let it ruin their day. 

Mariana’s mom decided to turn up the AC inside, providing a welcome break from the outdoor heat. They took turns going inside to chill out in the cool air, making the most of the refreshing environment.

As evening approached and the temperature finally began to drop, they gathered around the patio, enjoying the cooler air. The combination of sun, water, and great company had made this the perfect summer day.

Doesn't this story just make you so excited about summer? As much as I don't like super hot weather, I was really wishing that this story were real because I would love to just be in my friend's backyard during a cookout, hanging out by the pool. It's the perfect summer day.

All right, let's talk about the definitions of these words. Firstly, we see that in the story, it says that the summer sun had been heating up. Heat up is a phrasal verb. This is when the temperature becomes warmer or more intense. We can use it for weather, and it's often used for weather like, "Wow, the temperature is really warming up." But we can also use it for food when we're making food warmer. For example, I can say, "I'm heating up my food in the microwave." This just means that the food is getting warmer.

Next, Marianna and her friends were ready for the coming heat wave. You also heard me use this term at the beginning of the podcast when I said that New York City was experiencing a heat wave. A heat wave is a long or prolonged, we say, meaning an extended period of super hot weather. If you remember from the winter episode, episode number seven, it's the opposite of a cold spell. A cold spell is consecutive cold weather, and a heat wave is the same, except with hot weather. It's consecutive days with extremely hot temperatures.

Marianna and her friends in the story are described as being beach bums who loved to soak up the sun at every opportunity. A beach bum is a person who spends a lot of time at the beach, often in a relaxed and leisurely way. A beach bum is just a fun way of saying that someone just loves to stay at the beach. Imagine someone who lives in Hawaii or Florida, California, and they just want to be at the beach all day long. They're beach bums.

And then these beach bums love to soak up the sun. Soak up is a phrasal verb, and it means to absorb. Let's talk about the word soak. S-O-A-K. If I go outside in the rain, I think I mentioned this word, I think I taught this word during the spring and summer storms episode. But if you go outside during the rain and you have no umbrella, you're like, "Oh my gosh, I'm soaked. I'm drenched." Drenched was another word from the spring episode. So it usually means full of water in that context. But when we add up to the end of soak, it means to absorb whatever it's around. So soak up water means to absorb water. And here, soak up the sun, so like we would say a sponge soaked up water. In this context, soak up the sun, it means to enjoy the sun, absorb the sun, take in the sunlight, especially while relaxing outdoors.

So this is perfect for the many, many Americans who want to get a tan. They want to darken their skin with the sun because in the USA, if your skin is too light, we say, "Oh, you look pale. You need the sun." We associate being pale or too light with being sick. That's why everybody wants a summer glow. Marianna and her friends in the story, they're beach bums, they love to soak up the sun, and they are hopeful of getting a summer glow, which is a beautiful tan, skin darkening that makes you look healthy, bright, and glowing. If you ever take a look at many American celebrities, you see that their skin looks like it's sparkling. It looks like it's glowing. And this is because everybody wants their skin to look like bronze, gold. They want their skin sparkling. This is a summer glow.

Many years ago when I was about 21, I went to Morocco. Amazing country. Shout out to any Moroccans that are listening to this. And let me just tell you, my skin has never looked so beautiful. That African sun is incredible. And I had the best summer glow. So I understand why these friends in the story wanted to soak up the sun. So if you really want to see your skin glow, go to Morocco.

Okay, getting back on track. Next, in the story, I said that the weather forecast predicted that it was going to be a scorcher with blazing high temperatures. A scorcher. This word means an extremely hot day. So if we're watching the news, the weather forecasters, the meteorologists, they might say, "All right, everyone. It's going to be a real scorcher out there today." And that indicates that it's going to be extremely hot. It's the perfect day to either stay inside or go to the beach. Blazing and sweltering are two of the many words that we use to mean extremely hot. We also use the words sizzling, steamy, burning, stifling. And these are actually cooking words: sizzle, steam, burn, cook. We use cooking words often to describe the warm weather. So for example, like today, it's extremely hot in New York City, so I could tell my husband, "Oh my gosh, I need to get inside. I'm burning out here. I'm cooking. I'm sizzling." Basically, the sun is cooking us. That's why we use these words.

Next up, the story says that in order to beat the heat, they decided to enjoy a relaxing day at her house. To beat the heat is to defeat, win against the hot temperatures. This is to find ways to stay cool and comfortable during hot weather. So when we say this, it means that we are avoiding the hot weather in fun ways.

Next up, it said that everyone was sweating bullets. Sweating bullets means to sweat a lot, usually due to extreme heat or stress. Sweating bullets is an expression that I would say is used most by Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. So pretty much people born before 1996, 1997, which is a majority of the United States. The younger generation, Gen Z, they don't really use sweating bullets too much anymore. But this expression is a very, very common expression. The younger generations would just say, "I'm drenched. I'm soaked. I'm just, I'm sweating so much." But again, even if you are Gen Z, you can use this expression, and most of us will understand you because it is so popular.

Next, it says Marianna suggested they start with a quick dip in the pool to cool off. They spent hours lounging by the pool. All right, first let's talk about the phrasal verb cool off. Cool off means to make something cooler. In the summertime here in the USA, we typically cool off with the pool, the beach, or the air conditioning.

Now let's talk about pools. All right, so in the USA, pools are everywhere. Some people have them in their backyards. Actually, a lot of Americans have big pools in their backyards. Whenever you watch movies about like Americans and American homes, American families, that is true. Most of my friends who live across the USA, they have big houses, big backyards, and some of them have pools. And those who don't have pools in their backyard usually have pools in their neighborhood or their community. Like we'll have a community room, a community center, a club where anyone who lives in the neighborhood can join, and they have a private pool. Pools are very much a normal part of growing up, especially in the southern USA. But even here in the north, you know, kids take swimming lessons, we all know how to swim. We love to pay for private pools. By the way, in New York City, most people unfortunately do not have pools because most of us live in apartments. But there are people who have pools. A quick dip in the pool is a short, brief swim in a pool. Mainly it's to cool off and refresh yourself.

So if it's really hot outside and you're at the beach or you're at a friend's house with a pool, you're going to say, "All right, I'm going to go take a quick dip." That just means you're going to go quickly in the water for a few minutes, but really it's just to cool off.

Then we have lounging by the pool. Lounging by the pool means relaxing, spending time near a swimming pool. Lounging is relaxing. Like a lounge. The noun lounge is a place where people just hang out, chill with their friends, and relax. So lounging by the pool is when you relax and spend time near the pool. Often you're on like some kind of lounge chair or on a blanket, like a towel. And often we do this because we want to get a tan in the sun, or we just want to hang out with friends.

Next up. In the story, they decided to run through sprinklers that were set up in the backyard. Let's break this down. Sprinklers are things that spray water. Now we have different types of sprinklers. We have sprinklers that are in a park or a backyard for fun. These are usually for children. In every New York City park, we have sprinklers that spray water. Then we have sprinklers in our front yard or backyard that water our plants. And then we have sprinklers inside buildings for fire safety. They're typically on the ceiling, and they're silver, they're metal, and in case of fire, they spray water. Sprinklers can be any of these. And running through the sprinklers is when you decide to literally run in the middle of, or in front of, sprinklers in order to just have fun and cool down.

Next in the story, it says that the combination of laughter and refreshing water helped them to forget about the humid air in the heatwave.

Okay, so let's talk about humid and humidity. Some of you come from countries that have a lot of humidity, and some of you come from countries that have almost zero humidity. So, what is humidity? Humidity is a high level of moisture, wetness, water in the air, and it makes the weather feel warmer than it is and more uncomfortable. Here in New York City, we have crazy humidity during the summer.

If the temperature for us is 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 26.6 Celsius (thank you, Google), that means that it feels like it's 30 Celsius. The humidity is what makes New York summers so hot. Humidity makes you sweat more, makes you feel hotter. This is very different from dry heat that they have on the west coast of the USA, for example.

If it's 30 degrees, it feels 30 degrees. There's not a lot of humidity over on the west coast.

Next up, the story talks about having a cookout around noon. Just a little note here about time. Okay, maybe I'll do an episode on time, by the way, about the word noon. If some of you have never heard the term noon, N-O-O-N, this is 12 o'clock PM, or I guess for most of you, it's 1200. In British English, they say midday. We do not say that here in the USA. We say noon.

So let's talk about barbecues. Okay, barbecues are a staple in the USA, meaning they are one of the cores, one of the centerpieces, of our culture. We invite friends over to our house, we go in the backyard, we open up the barbecue grill. Everybody that has a backyard has a barbecue grill. We put meat and veggies on the grill, and then we just hang out with our friends. Cookouts are so much fun.

And this is basically what a cookout is. It's an indoor meal or party where food is grilled or barbecued. Usually, there are a lot of friends or family members gathered together. Everybody brings something, which we call a potluck. Everybody brings something to share, and then we have fun.

Another barbecue vocabulary word is fire up. Fire up the grill. Fire up is a phrasal verb, and fire up the grill is an expression that we use to start or ignite the barbecue grill because we are going to cook.

Next up, we see that everyone found a shady spot to sit in. The word shade is a noun, and it means relief or shelter from direct sunlight. So shade is if you're up against a tree and the tree is casting a shadow on you and it's blocking you from direct sunlight. That is shade. Shady is the adjective. And if we say a place is shady, that means that a place has shelter from direct sunlight.

So we can say, oh, we found a shady place to sit, or we sat in the shade.

Next up, it says that Marianna's mom turned up the AC inside the house. Turn up is a phrasal verb, and it has a few different meanings, but in this context, it means to increase.

So she increased the volume. And by the way, AC is what we call air conditioner, air conditioning. We rarely say air conditioner. We always say AC. Hey, it's really hot. Can you turn up the AC? Can you increase the power of the air conditioner?

All right. So now you've got the definitions and context for 18 new words and expressions. My advice is always to practice what you learn. So be sure to get the study guide and reinforce all of these words so that you can start to use them naturally in your English.

I can't wait until you see all the cool topics that are coming up on the podcast.

For those of you who have sent me some ideas, keep sending them my way because I listen to what you guys say. Because I always listen to feedback, and I just want to make you guys happy and help you learn English as best as I can.

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.