تنها در خانه

Hey there! happy holidays! Today we are learning English with a classic Christmas movie: Home alone!

So, this movie is all about a young boy named Kevin, whose family goes on a Christmas vacation and they accidentally leave him home alone. First for him it’s all fun and games as he’s able to do everything that he’s not able to do with his parents supervision but soon it turns into a bit of chaos and a scary situation when burglars tried to break into the house. So obviously this movie is full of hilarious pranks but its also full a fantastic vocabulary and you’re going to have a lot of fun learning with it today.

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Now let’s have a lot of fun learning with home alone.

• Remember that kid we saw the other day? He lives here.
• Well if the kid’s there, the parents gotta be.
• He’s home alone.
• You gotta be kidding me, you wanna come back tonight?
• Uh-huh.
• Even with the kid here?
• Uh-huh.
• I don’t think that’s a good idea.
• Hey, look! That house is the only reason we started working this block in the first place. Ever since I laid eyes on that house, I wanted it.
• So let’s take it one step at a time, okay?
• We’ll unload the van. We’ll get a bite to eat, we’ll come back above 9:00. This way it’s dark then.
• Yeah. Kids are scared of the dark.
• You’re afraid of the dark too, Marv. You know you are.
• No, I’m not.

This is a great line to practice connected speech. How natives cut and link their words together.

These two words link. [] . this is a [z] sound, and this is all one word []. And of course, this is an American T []. Lastly. Both occurrences of “the” in this utterance are unstressed, they sound like a weak syllable [].

All together: well if the kidz-there, the pehrents godda be.

Can you notice any difference in meaning in the sentence: I don’t think that’s a good idea. I think that’s not a good idea? Besides possibly a nuance of meaning, they can communicate the same idea.

In English when we use the verb think or the verb believe (although there are others, as well) we just have the habit of negative in the first verb.

• I don’t think something like that’s even possible.
• Oh, gee, Sheldon, I don’t think we can play on Sunday.
• Hey, look! That house is the only reason we started working this block in the first place.

He says they’ve been working the block. A block is an urban area surrounded by four streets.

We also call a block the length of one side of a block, especially as a measure of distance. Example: the school is three blocks away. Can you notice that the way they use the verb work here is different from how we traditionally use it? This is a less common use of work. For example, if you work the land, you do all the work necessary to grow up crops on it. What he means here by working the block is that they’re robbing the houses from that block.

• I will have you know I come from simple farm folk. There is permanent dirt underneath theses fingernails from working the soil.
• Really? I had no idea that re-potting your orchids counted as “working the soil”.

How would you complete this sentence?

Now most learners often confuse steal, rob, and other similar words. While Rob and steal both mean “to take something without permission,” we use the word rob to refer to the place or person where the things are being taken from. So you would rob a bank, rob a house, or rob the billionaire. Collocated with house, you will often also hear the word burgle. Example: the house was burgled while we were sleeping. Now steal focuses on the thing that was taken. Example: the thieves stole our TV. The pick-pocketer stole my wallet.

• Somebody stole a very expensive bottle of wine from my office.

So now you know, you don’t rob a wallet or money, you steal them. And you don’t steal a house, a bank, or a person. You rob them. Can you give me an example with rob and steal in the comments below?

• Hey, look! That house is the only reason we started working this block in the first place.

We say in the first place at the end of a sentence to indicate what was true or what should have been done at the beginning of a situation.

• If you hated it so much, why’d you but it in the first place?
• Hey, sorry about that.
• No, we’re sorry. We never should have been comparing relationships in the first place.
• Why? We won.
• Ever since I laid eyes on that house, I wanted it. So let’s take it one step at a time, Okay?

Did you noticed how he pronounced “wanted it” as “wannid it”. We usually reduce or remove the t sound when it’s after an n sound. Here, the N takes up the place of the T.

• I wanted what those kids had then, and 40 years later, I still wanted it.

Some other times, however, we pronounce each sound clearly.

• Well, see, I wanted it…

To lay eyes on something or someone means to see something/someone for the first time. Then he says let’s take it one step at a time. If you do something one step at a time, you do it slowly and carefully, doing just a little at a time. Or as he says “take it one step at a time”.

• It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever tried to do.
• Contestants, ready position.
• Just take it one step at a time. Don’t worry about the 50 to hopefully 75 hotdogs you’re gonna eat. Just worry about the dog in front of you.
• We’ll unload the van, we’ll get a bite to eat. We’ll come back about 9:00.

Here they explain how they will take it one step at a time. To load means to put something inside of a container. In this case they plan to load the van with the things they’ll steal. The opposite of to load is to unload.

The next thing they’ll do is to get a bite to eat. This is an informal way of saying to eat something; to have a meal. We also say grab a bite to eat.

• Listen, what do you say we go grab a bite to eat, get the car fixed later?
• At my apartment. It’s, um… 5 Morton street, apartment 14. And then maybe, you know, after, we could grab a bite to eat or whatever. Okay. Okay, I’ll see you then. Bye.
• This way it’s dark then.
• Yeah. Kids are scared of the dark.
• You’re afraid of the dark too, Marv. You know you are.

We say it’s dark when it’s night time and you can’t see. The opposite is light. Example: in the winter, it doesn’t get light out until after 9 AM.

• There he is!
• Hey, I’m calling the cops.
• Wait, wait, wait, wait! He wants us to follow him. I got a better idea. Come on!
• Hiya, pal. We outsmarted you this time. Get over here!
• What are we gonna do to him, Harry?
• We’ll do exactly what he did to us. I’m gonna burn his head with a blowtorch.
• Then we can smash his face with an iron!
• I’d like to slap him right in the face with a paint can maybe.
• Or shove a nail through his foot.
• First thing I’m gonna do is bite off every on of these little fingers one at a time.
• Wait, wait, wait, wait! He wants us to follow him.

This is another utterance with the same interesting connected speech. First there is linking. These two words sound like one []. There’s also the omission of the “h” in him. As we seen many times, this is common in words such as he, her, and his as well. In this utterance, we’re going to emphasize these syllables only: “he”, “want”, “follow”, everything else is unstressed.

• Wait, wait, wait, wait! He wants us to follow him
• Hiya, pal. We outsmarted you this time. Get over here!

Hiya is an informal greeting, like hi, hello or hey.

• Hiya, big boy. Charlie?
• Hiya. Jay Pritchett here. Holidays are just around the corner…

The word pal is usually used to refer to a man.

• I’m out of here. See you, pals.
• See you.

It’s also equivalent to friend if you say “he’s my pal” for example. Or as chandler says here, which means “be a friend”.

• Joey, be a pal. Lift up my hand and smack her with it.
• We outsmarted you this time. Get over here!

If you outsmart someone, you defeat someone by being more intelligent or clever. In this word, out is used as a prefix meaning “more”.

• Well, if he’s so wise, why does he need fireballs? Why can’t he just, you know, outsmart the bad guys?
• Thus, outlive means live longer.
• Well, taking your medication, you’ll outlive all of us.

Outrun means run faster.

• Dad, you’re not gonna outrun me in that dress.

Here, it’s him VS many people in an argument, that’s why he says he’s outnumbered.

• Hey, alright, you know what? Clearly, I’m outnumbered here. But can I just say one thing? Please?

Then he says get over here. This can be understood by looking what he’s doing in this clip. We say this when we tell someone to come closer to us, or join in what we’re doing.

• Sheldon, get over here!
• She might be contagious.
• Oh, for God’s sake. Would you like to join me?
• Oh, no no no. I don’t want to impose.
• Just get over here.

What do you think would be the opposite of this?

In the rest of the clip, once they catch Kevin, they say what they’re going to do to him, which is the same things he did to them in the movie. He burned Marv’s head with a blowtorch. He smashed Harry’s face with an iron. He hit Marv with a paint can in the face.

• Don’t worry Marv, I’ll get him for you.
• Remember that kid we saw the other day? He lives here.
• Well if the kid’s there, the parents gotta be.
• He’s home alone.
• You gotta be kidding me, you wanna come back tonight?
• Uh-huh.
• Even with the kid here?
• Uh-huh.
• I don’t think that’s a good idea.
• Hey, look! That house is the only reason we started working this block in the first place. Ever since I laid eyes on that house, I wanted it.
• So let’s take it one step at a time, okay?
• We’ll unload the van. We’ll get a bite to eat, we’ll come back above 9:00. This way it’s dark then.
• Yeah. Kids are scared of the dark.
• You’re afraid of the dark too, Marv. You know you are.
• No, I’m not.
• There he is!
• Hey, I’m calling the cops.
• Wait, wait, wait, wait! He wants us to follow him. I got a better idea. Come on!
• Hiya, pal. We outsmarted you this time. Get over here!
• What are we gonna do to him, Harry?
• We’ll do exactly what he did to us. I’m gonna burn his head with a blowtorch.
• Then we can smash his face with an iron!
• I’d like to slap him right in the face with a paint can maybe.
• Or shove a nail through his foot.
• First thing I’m gonna do is bite off every on of these little fingers one at a time.

All right I hope you have a lot of fun today and laughed alongside this classic Christmas movie and I hope that you’ll go and watch it in English and understand a lot more of it.