Talk like Shakespeare

Neil Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary with me Neil.

Finn And me, Finn. In this programme we’re talking about phrases from Shakespeare.

Neil They’re phrases that were either invented by Shakespeare or used by him in his plays and that we still use a lot today. We’ll give you plenty of examples of these and we’ll teach you what they mean.

Finn We’ll have a quiz; and we’ll also bring you a top tip for learning vocabulary.

Neil Let’s start with Danny. He’s talking about cooking, and entertaining friends.

Finn And while you listen, think about this question: Does Danny think it’s easy to find special ingredients for recipes?

Danny For some people food is the be-all and end-all and I have friends who, whenever I visit, produce a dish fit for the gods ! But in my opinion, cooking is not for the faint-hearted . I really hate spending forever and a day in the kitchen. Dinner parties usually mean trying to track down some special ingredient, which ends up being a wild-goose chase . It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that my chosen recipe won’t work out as I hope. So I just throw a party once a year to repay all my friends in one fell swoop . Fortunately, every one of them has a heart of gold , so they understand!

Neil That was Danny. And we asked you: Does Danny think it’s easy to find special ingredients for recipes?

Finn And the answer is no, because usually it’s a wild-goose chase .

Neil Now a wild-goose chase is used in Romeo and Juliet. This means a situation where you waste time chasing after something that you can’t get.

Finn So Danny clearly has had bad experiences of trying to find ingredients and not succeeding.

Neil Exactly. Well, there are four more Shakespearean phrases in our first clip. Listen out for them!

CLIP 1
For some people food is the be-all and end-all and I have friends who, whenever I visit, produce a dish fit for the gods ! But in my opinion, cooking is not for the faint-hearted . I really hate spending forever and a day in the kitchen.

Finn So food is the be-all and end-all . That’s the beginning and ending of everything, which means it’s the most important thing.

Neil And that’s why they always produce a dish fit for the gods . Clearly if something is suitable for the gods, it is the best possible.

Finn But cooking is not for the faint-hearted , Danny says. The faint-hearted are people who lack courage or determination and he thinks people like that shouldn’t cook. This phrase shows how difficult Danny finds cooking.

Neil And he hates spending a long time in the kitchen.

Finn He does. Forever and a day is a very long time! Right, there are three more phrases coming up in our next clip.

CLIP 2 It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that my chosen recipe won’t work out as I hope. So I throw a party once a year to repay all my friends in one fell swoop . Fortunately, every one of them has a heart of gold , so they understand!

Neil Now, if something is a foregone conclusion , it’s a result that is certain to happen. He thinks it’s certain that his recipe won’t work out.

Finn And that’s why he entertains his friends in one fell swoop . Now if you deal with things in one fell swoop , that means you deal with them all together and suddenly, like a bird sweeping down through the air to attack something.

Neil Yes, he doesn’t want to cook for people more often than necessary! But fortunately his friends understand how he feels, don’t they?

Finn They do. They each have a heart of gold . Now that means they are very kind and caring.

IDENT
6 Minute Vocabulary from BBC Learning English.

Finn And it’s quiz time! Today you have to change the last three or four words of each sentence to use a phrase from Shakespeare from the programme. So number one: Some successful people don’t go to university. It’s really not the most important thing . Which phrase from Shakespeare can replace the most important thing ?

Neil It’s really not the be-all and end-all .

Finn
Right. Number two. We got stuck in bad traffic so the journey took a very long time . So what can replace a very long time ?

Neil
The journey took forever and a day .

Finn Correct! And number three: Everyone thinks Clare is the nicest person. She’s always been very kind . What can replace very kind ?

Neil She’s always had a heart of gold .

Finn She has. That’s excellent! And that is the end of our quiz. Well done if you got them all right.

Neil But before we go, here’s today’s top tip. English is very rich in phrases and idioms like the ones in this programme. Using them makes your English sound much more like that of a native speaker. Use an idioms dictionary and try learning five idioms a day. Then try working them into your conversations too.

Finn There’s more about this at bbclearningenglish.com . Join us again for more 6 Minute Vocabulary.

Both Bye!