#32- *BONUS* Episode- 20 Popular Words for Thanksgiving

Welcome to The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast! In this bonus episode, I'll be teaching you 20 phrasal verbs, slang words and idioms to use for Thanksgiving celebrations! Whether you're celebrating Thanksgiving with Americans or just watching a Thanksgiving episode of a popular TV series, these words will give you the confidence you need to speak like a native. 

This episode comes with TWO FREE Study Packets: The episode Study Guide comes with: 

• Words & definitions
• Example sentences
• Practice activities
• Transcript

But also, in honor of Thanksgiving, I gave you a fun English through Media lesson from one of the most popular in American TV History: How I Met Your Mother. In this episode Study Guide, you'll get vocabulary words, listening comprehension sentences and more!

You can find BOTH at the same link and in the same folder right >> HERE <<

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Transcript

[00:00:00] On this episode of the RealLife English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 20 phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms all about Thanksgiving. You'll be learning words like baste, casserole, break bread, stuffing, and more. Let's get to it.

Hey there, welcome to the RealLife 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 there! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate. This is probably the second biggest holiday in the [00:01:00] U.S.A. The biggest holiday, of course, is Christmas. But Thanksgiving is a really fun time of year where we get together with our family and friends and eat our hearts out.

The cool thing about Thanksgiving is that you can celebrate this holiday, whether or not you're an American and whatever your religious beliefs are, because it's truly just a day for love and thankfulness.

If you are currently living in the United States, definitely find an American friend and ask to spend Thanksgiving with them, so that you can see how much fun it is. If you're not in the USA but know some Americans where you live, also ask them if you can celebrate Thanksgiving with them, because maybe they're planning to cook an American Thanksgiving meal.

While we do love spending it with family, we also love spending it with friends as well.

The cool thing about Thanksgiving, like I mentioned before, is that it's a very [00:02:00] inclusive holiday, which means that although it's an American holiday—even though it's a North American holiday celebrated mainly by Americans and Canadians—anyone can celebrate it. And even though we have specific Thanksgiving food that is traditional, that you'll hear more about in the episode, the way it works in American culture is that you take your family's culture and you mix it with American culture.

As I'm sure you know, the USA is full of immigrants. It's full of second- and third-generation immigrants who moved to the United States or whose parents, whose grandparents were not from here originally. So for my Italian American friends, they'll mix traditional American food with Italian food. For my family growing up, we spent Thanksgiving with my mother's side of the family, my Colombian family. We had Latino food, and we also had American food mixed together.

[00:03:00] And that's why Thanksgiving is such a cool and fun holiday—because you'll have American food mixed with food from all different cultures. And it's amazing. So, if I were an American person living in another country, I would try to find some American food ingredients and make our traditional food, but I would also use food from whatever country I were currently in.

Thanksgiving has been celebrated here in the USA for a long time. The history of the holiday has been disputed at times, and it is a bit controversial. But the main idea is that, in the past, the Native Americans and European settlers or pilgrims worked together peacefully, even if it was just for a short time.

Modern-day celebrations revolve around being grateful for what you have, which, at times, can seem a bit ironic considering the day after [00:04:00] Thanksgiving is Black Friday, where people push other people to get discounted products.

The reason why I wanted to do a Thanksgiving episode was not only so that you'll be familiar with Thanksgiving, but even more than that, so that you'll understand when you hear Americans speaking about Thanksgiving. As you probably know, I love media. I love using American TV shows, movies, interviews, articles, and books to teach my students English. And so with every single popular American TV show, like Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy, Gossip Girl, etc., they always have holiday episodes. And if you watch these holiday episodes, I know that there's gonna be a lot of English expressions that are specific just for this holiday.

So hopefully the [00:05:00] vocabulary that you learn in this episode will be helpful to you. And, as a little treat, in addition to the regular study guide that I do with every episode, I'm giving you a special lesson that includes a Thanksgiving episode from one of the most popular American TV shows, How I Met Your Mother. Stay tuned for that.

Remember that to get the study guide or any study materials that I give you with this episode, click the link in the description, and that'll get sent right to your inbox.

All right, so let's talk about the 20 words that you're going to learn in this episode. Here we go: Friendsgiving, pitch in, potluck, platter, to baste, casserole, pile on, too many chefs in the [00:06:00] kitchen, carve up, break bread, all the trimmings, stuffing, second helping, food coma, turkey hangover, food baby, bursting at the seams, finish off, put your feet up, and feast.

Now, let's get to the story. Remember, as I read, to listen for the context of all 20 words that I'm going to teach you. Here we go.

This year, Maria decided to host her first Friendsgiving, since she couldn't fly home for the holidays. She sent a group text to her closest friends, asking everyone to pitch in by bringing a dish for the potluck. "I'll handle the turkey and stuffing," she wrote. "You guys bring the sides and desserts."

On the [00:07:00] big day, Maria's apartment was chaotic. Her friends showed up with casserole dishes, dessert trays, and serving platters, ready to cook and reheat their food. In addition to all of this, Maria had to still finish the stuffing and then baste the turkey one last time.

"Can you pass me that casserole dish?" Carlos shouted as he was finishing up his green bean casserole and mashed potatoes. Meanwhile, Julia was busy preparing the gravy, and Ava was trying to figure out how to pile on the marshmallows for her sweet potato dish without burning them. In the dining room, everyone was hurrying to set up the tables and chairs before dinner was ready, but it was too chaotic. It was clear that there were too many chefs in the kitchen. So Brady told everyone to sit and relax, and he would handle the rest of the setup.

Finally, Maria pulled the turkey out of the oven and began [00:08:00] to carve it up.

"All right, everyone, it's time to break bread and enjoy," she said. The table was overflowing with food. There was turkey with all the trimmings, stuffing, creamy casseroles, and three kinds of pies. Everyone grabbed a plate and started piling it high. Carlos finished his plate in record time and immediately went back for a second helping.

"Don't judge me," he said with a grin. "It's Friendsgiving!"

After the meal, the group relaxed in the living room, each of them battling a food coma.

Ava joked, "Turkey hangovers are the worst." Then she patted her stomach and said, "I also think I've got a food baby now."

Carlos laughed. "Same here. I'm bursting at the seams." Even though everyone was stuffed, [00:09:00] they couldn't resist finishing off the last few slices of pumpkin pie. Maria told everyone to put their feet up and talk while she cleaned up in the kitchen. As the evening came to an end, Maria looked around at her friends, all full and happy.

"I think we've just had the best Friendsgiving feast ever," she said with a smile. "But next year, one of you are gonna host."

The end.

So, now that you're all hungry because I've been talking about delicious food, let's talk about these words and definitions. First up, we have Friendsgiving. As you probably imagined, Friendsgiving is when you spend Thanksgiving with your friends. As I mentioned before, Thanksgiving is a very inclusive holiday, meaning that anyone can celebrate. So, what often happens [00:10:00] is in big cities like New York City, a city that many people move to for work or other opportunities, there are a lot of people here without their families. Some of them cannot afford to fly home for the holidays. So, instead, they do Friendsgiving. Also, people who do have their families here spend Thanksgiving with their families and then have a Friendsgiving the weekend before or after Thanksgiving. It's a lot of fun. For example, we're having Friendsgiving this year because most of our families live too far away.

Next is the phrasal verb pitch in. Pitch in is a really popular phrasal verb, and you're going to hear this all the time in American culture. It means to contribute time, effort, or resources to help out with something. Everyone pitched in to make the Thanksgiving dinner [00:11:00] a success.

Next up is a super popular word, potluck. A potluck is a meal where each guest brings a dish to share. This is a very popular style of celebration here in the United States. This relieves a little bit of pressure from the host, and it helps everyone to bring something that they want to share with their friends. The potluck had everything from salad to homemade pies.

Next up, we have probably one of the most popular Thanksgiving side dishes, stuffing. Now, stuffing is a seasoned mixture of bread, herbs, seasoning, and other ingredients cooked inside or alongside a turkey. The reason why it's called stuffing is because it used to be stuffed inside the middle of the [00:12:00] turkey, and it would cook along with the turkey. But now it's more common for it to be cooked separately from the turkey. The only definite things that stuffing has are bread, herbs, and chicken broth. Some people add onion, some people add sausage, and some people add cranberries. Lots of other ingredients. People can add their own flavor to it. The stuffing was so delicious that everyone asked for the recipe.

Now, I'm gonna give you a bonus word here, and that is the word sides or side dishes. A lot of times, if you go to a restaurant, you'll see that your main dish comes with two sides. So, when you see two sides, just know that this is short for side dishes—something to go along with the main meal. So you can pick roasted chicken or barbecue pork, and then [00:13:00] you can pick what's gonna go on the side, like macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, tacos, vegetables, rice, etc.

Next, we have the noun platter. A platter is a large, flat dish used for serving food. A platter could be glass, silver, porcelain, or made from a lot of different materials. We sometimes use it to refer to food. "Oh, that was a delicious platter," meaning the food that was on top of the actual platter, which is the dish. The turkey was served on a beautiful silver platter.

Next up, we have the verb baste. To baste the turkey—or to baste any meat—is to pour liquid, like butter or juices, over food while cooking to keep it [00:14:00] moist and to keep it from getting dry. With a turkey specifically, we take the juices at the bottom of the cooking tray and we put them all over the turkey. Cooking a turkey is very difficult work here because they are so big, so basting a turkey is part of cooking a turkey. Don't forget to baste the turkey every 30 minutes so it stays juicy.

Next up is the word casserole. A casserole is a dish that's made by cooking ingredients together in the oven, often in a deep pan. A casserole is when you want to mix different things together and bake them. Casseroles are very common in American culture. For example, for Thanksgiving, one of the more popular dishes is a green bean casserole. So, they'll put green beans, [00:15:00] cheese, and a few other things together in a pan and bake it. She brought a cheesy broccoli casserole that everyone loved.

Next, we have the phrasal verb pile on. A pile, the noun, is things that are put on top of each other. So, if you have a pile of books, it's one book on top of the other. The phrasal verb "to pile on" is basically to make a pile. So you're adding a lot of something. Typically, when we use "pile on" for food, it's a little bit too much food. It's an excess of food. He piled on the mashed potatoes until his plate was overflowing.

Next, we have the idiom too many chefs in the kitchen or too many cooks in the kitchen. Now, if you're in the kitchen with four other people trying to cook, you [00:16:00] could literally say, "There are too many chefs in the kitchen." However, this is a phrase that we use in general outside of cooking when too many people are involved in a task, and it causes confusion or inefficiency. Imagine if you're at your job and a bunch of people are working on one thing, but it's causing chaos. We would say, "Alright, guys, there are too many chefs in the kitchen. Let's get rid of some people." This is what happens in the story when everyone's trying to set up the table and chairs for dinner, and it's just chaotic. There were too many chefs in the kitchen, and nothing was getting done in the meeting.

Next, the phrasal verb carve up. Carve is when you take a knife and you cut. So, I don't know if they do this in your countries—I think it's universal—but if you go in the woods and you see some [00:17:00] trees, or maybe you go to a nice park, and someone carved their boyfriend's name or their girlfriend's name in a heart in a tree, that's carving. When you use a knife or something sharp to put a mark in something. When we add "up" to the end—carve up—this is when we cut meat into smaller pieces, like into smaller portions. Especially, we use this for a turkey. So, he carved up the turkey and put the pieces on a platter. This is a big thing for Thanksgiving. One person typically carves up the turkey because some people like the leg, some people like the breast, and some people like the wing.

Next up, we have break bread. Break bread has [00:18:00] nothing to do with cutting bread, okay? Because we just say cut bread. To break bread is an expression that means to share a meal with others. It was wonderful to break bread with family and friends for Thanksgiving. People often say, "Let's break bread together."

Next up, we have the expression all the trimmings. All the trimmings—or just trimmings—are the traditional side dishes that accompany a main meal. For Thanksgiving, for example, the trimmings would include stuffing, cranberry sauce, and gravy. These are the three most popular things that we eat with turkey. Of course, we also have rice, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese. However, turkey trimmings are things that enhance the flavor of the turkey. So, we usually put cranberry sauce [00:19:00] and gravy on the turkey pieces, and stuffing is eaten with it as well. My grandmother always makes the turkey, and my mom, aunts, and uncles always make the trimmings.

Next up, we have a second helping. In last year's episode, my first episode, which was about food and drinks, one of the things I taught was the word "seconds." Seconds and leftovers. When you finish your first plate, and you want more food, we say, "I would like some seconds," or "I'd like a second helping," or "a second serving." A second helping is just an additional serving of food. We might say, "Oh, do you want another helping?" This comes from the expression "help yourself." So, if someone's at the house and they say, "Hey, do you want some water? Help yourself." That means you're free to serve yourself. Make my home your home. So, this is where second helping comes from. Second serving, okay? Just an extra serving of food. After finishing her plate, she went back for a second helping of pumpkin pie.

Next up, we have the expression "a food coma." The next three slang expressions that I'm going to teach you all have to do with eating too much food. So, a food coma is a feeling of extreme tiredness, we say drowsiness, after overeating. You eat too much food, and then, you can't move. After the meal, everyone sat on the couch with a food coma.

Now, let's get more specific and talk about a turkey hangover. A turkey hangover is very specific. A food coma is, in general, you eat a really delicious meal, you're full, you're stuffed, and then you get tired. A turkey hangover is specifically for turkey, and this is when you feel tired, or we say sluggish, and this comes after eating too much turkey.

Next, we have a food baby. A food baby is like a funny term, and this is when your stomach gets big or bloated because you ate too much food. So, imagine that it's the biggest holiday that you celebrate. Maybe it's Eid, maybe it's Christmas, maybe it's Lunar New Year. You've eaten so much food, and now your stomach is big. And we say food baby because it maybe looks like you're pregnant a little bit. Maybe it looks like you got a little baby in your stomach because you've eaten so much food. And so, we say, "Ooh, I have a food baby." You know the meal was good. I ate so much that I feel like I'm carrying a food baby.

Next up, we have the expression "bursting at the seams." Let's break this down a little bit. Burst means to explode. Now, a seam is when you sew something. Let's say you're sewing a pair of pants and you put the thread and needle in the material. It creates like a line that keeps the clothes together. This is a seam. Okay, so when you're bursting at the seams, it means that you're almost exploding out of your clothing. You're feeling overly full from eating too much. "Oh my gosh, I'm bursting at the seams. My clothes are about to pop off, my pants especially." It's kind of a funny joke. If you've ever seen one of the Thanksgiving episodes with Friends, Joey wears stretchy pants so that he can eat as much food as he wants. And actually, that's kind of true. A lot of Americans wear kind of loose pants on Thanksgiving. After dinner, I was bursting at the seams and could barely move.

Next up, we have the phrasal verb "finish off." This is to eat or use the last part of something. They finished off the apple pie, even though everyone was already full. Now, we've talked about this in various episodes, but sometimes we add "off" or "up" after a verb to make it a phrasal verb. And really, it's just for emphasis. If you remember from the cleaning episode, we say "clean up" instead of just "clean." Same thing here. I could say, "They finished the apple pie," but I'm going to say "finish off" just to emphasize that it was the very last part of the pie.

Next up, we have an idiom: "to put your feet up." This means to relax. After hard work, after putting in a lot of effort, "I'm just gonna put my feet up and relax." Sometimes, it actually involves putting your feet up on a hammock, on a sofa, on furniture, but it's really a symbolic thing to just relax. Go home, put your feet up, rest. After dinner, we all put our feet up and watched a movie.

And lastly, we have the word "feast." A feast is a large and elaborate meal. So, Thanksgiving dinner is absolutely a feast because you're going to use your best dishes, plates, cups, silverware. You're going to have a lot of different types of food, different types of drinks. And that's what a feast is. This is only for special occasions where there's a lot of food and very beautifully cooked food. The Thanksgiving feast included turkey, casseroles, and three kinds of pie.

That concludes your 20 new vocabulary words and expressions, and I hope that you have learned a lot about Thanksgiving from the story and from these words. Your homework is to watch a Thanksgiving episode from one of the shows on the study guide and do a little mini Thanksgiving lesson.

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.