[00:00:00] On this episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'm teaching you 24 phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms for cleaning and messes. You'll be learning vocabulary like "hot mess," "elbow grease," "scrub off," "air out," "pigsty," 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, welcome to today's episode. Here in New York City, it feels like [00:01:00] winter again. We have this joke about New York City that New York City actually has 12 seasons. And in between winter and spring, we have something called "spring of deception," which is basically when in the middle of winter, it feels like spring for two weeks. And that happened in early March. And then we have "third winter," which is happening right now. Last week was the worst. It was really cold, and then this weekend as well. It's ridiculous. But the good news is April is next week. And the real spring will be arriving. So in the last episode in episode 13, I talked about spring cleaning. And that inspired me to make a new episode about cleaning and messes [00:02:00] because of how important that topic is. So here we are. And in this episode, I'm teaching you all about cleaning.
Today's vocabulary is really helpful. We have a lot of phrasal verbs for cleaning. This episode alone has 15 phrasal verbs. One of the reasons why I like to focus on slang, phrasal verbs, and idioms for this podcast is because of how common they are in real-life spoken English.
Honestly, I imagine that I use hundreds of phrasal verbs per day. English is very much a living language. And so we constantly have new phrasal verbs or new definitions of old phrasal verbs. We always have slang and idioms as well being produced in English or evolving, changing in English. [00:03:00] If you want to keep up with your English skills, you have got to constantly practice slang, phrasal verbs, and idioms.
Today I have 24 new vocabulary words and expressions for you. Let me tell you what those are: a neat freak, germaphobe, looks like a hurricane hit it, pile up, gross, a hot mess, a disaster area, roll up your sleeves and get to work, straighten up, tidy up, pick up, sweep up, mop up, elbow grease, scrub off, squeaky clean, rinse out, clear out, wipe down, polish up, air out, pick up after, slob, and a pigsty.
In order to teach this new vocabulary, today I'm choosing a story that is about two best friends and roommates, and we're going to see their story of cleaning. So let's get to it.
Marco and Alessandro had been best friends since high school. They argued a lot because their personalities were very different. But they were still like brothers. They had moved to New York City last year to attend Columbia University together. They found an amazing apartment near Central Park that they loved. The main reason why these two best friends argued so much was because Marco was a neat freak and germophobe, while Alessandro was known for being a bit of a slob. Their apartment was usually kept tidy, thanks to Marco. However, when he returned home from a weekend trip, he found that their apartment looked like a hurricane had run through it. Clothes were everywhere, dishes were piled up in the sink, and a strange gross smell lingered in the air. It was a hot mess.
"Alessandro, what happened here? It looks like a disaster area," exclaimed Marco, looking at the disaster. Alessandro came out of his room looking guilty and ashamed. "I'm so sorry, Marco. I had the guys over last night and things got a bit out of hand. I promise I'll get better so that you don't have to always pick up after me," he said. Marco said, "Okay, well, let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. We have to straighten this place up." Together, they began to tidy up the living room. Marco picked up the clothes, while Alessandro grabbed a broom to sweep up the crumbs and trash. Then he mopped up. It took some elbow grease to scrub off the stains from the carpet. But they worked hard until the floor was squeaky clean. Next, they moved to the kitchen. Marco rinsed out the dirty glasses while Alessandro cleared out the expired food from the refrigerator. Afterward, they wiped down the counters and polished up the surfaces to make things shine again. After hours of hard work, they finally finished cleaning the apartment. With the windows open to air out the room and things being sparkling clean, it no longer looked or smelled like a pigsty.
"Wow, I never realized how much work it takes to keep our apartment looking nice," admitted Alessandro. Marco smiled, feeling proud of their accomplishment. "Yes, and it's so much easier when both of us work together." From that day on, Marco and Alessandro worked together to maintain a clean and organized apartment.
Okay, so let's talk about all of this new vocabulary. Firstly, I want to talk about phrasal verbs that end with "up". Oftentimes, the word "up" is placed after a verb for emphasis. For example, "clean up". Why do Americans say "let's clean up" instead of "let's clean"? The answer is because the "up" added to the verb adds emphasis.
You'll also notice that some of these phrasal verbs have the word "out" added to the end. In a similar way, we also have phrasal verbs that have "out" at the end. This is when something unwanted is being removed.
Both "clean" and "clean up" are correct, but it's typical to use the phrasal verb "clean up" due to the added emphasis.
Next, we have the expression "a neat freak". We can also say "clean freak", but in the story, we say "neat freak". Marco is described as being a neat freak and germaphobe, while Ali is described as being a slob. These expressions, as you probably guessed, are opposites. A neat freak or clean freak is someone who loves to clean and have everything clean around them. Sometimes it's obsessive, like they can't function if it's not clean. A germaphobe isn't exactly the same thing. A germaphobe is someone who is afraid of germs and wants to avoid them at all costs. They wash their hands all the time, they avoid places where people are sick, they even avoid places where there are big crowds, and they often will wear masks in public.
The opposite of a neat freak is a slob. This is someone who is habitually very messy and dirty, meaning consistently they're struggling to keep things clean.
The room is then described as looking like a hurricane hit it. We also say a hurricane ran through it. This expression means that a place or situation is extremely messy, chaotic, or disorganized. It's very literal. It looks like a hurricane or storm blew through and messed everything up. This is a very common expression to use in American culture.
Next, we have the phrasal verb "pile up". This means to accumulate or gather something in a big heap, especially when you're talking about objects or tasks. So imagine if you have textbooks and you put them one on top of the other, they're eventually going to form a pile or get piled up.
Next, we have the word "gross". Similar to the word "yuck", it's a very common word here and we use it to mean that something is disgusting or really, really unpleasant. It's often related to something dirty or unhygienic. So being around a slob is gross. Do you see what I did there?
Okay, then we have the slang expression "a hot mess". A hot mess is more than a regular mess. It's a situation or thing that's in a state of extreme disorder and extreme chaos. When we use the expression "a hot mess", it's because we really want to emphasize how messy things are, like I've said to my son, "Oh my gosh, your room is a hot mess", meaning it is much worse than a regular mess and needs to be cleaned immediately.
Next, we have the expression "a disaster area". A disaster area, literally, the literal definition is a place that's been affected by some kind of catastrophe or natural disaster. So when we use this metaphorically, when we use it as an expression, it's similar to saying that it looks like a hurricane ran through this place, because it means that something is so chaotic and bad that it looks like there was a hurricane. It looks like some kind of official disaster happened here.
The next one is "roll up your sleeves and get to work". This is an expression that we use when we are about to do something challenging. So it's like, "Alright, guys, let's prepare ourselves both mentally and physically, and let's get to work. We're going to have to start working really hard. So let's do this."
Next, we have another phrasal verb. We have quite a few phrasal verbs coming up in a row. The first one is "straighten up". Straighten up is to tidy or organize something. Typically, if you are straightening up a room, you put everything in its proper place. You don't just shove it under the couch or something like that.
Then we have "tidy up". The word "tidy" means neat, so tidy up means to clean or organize something, make it neat and orderly.
Next, we have the phrasal verb "pick up". Pick up is to collect or remove or take items from a [00:14:00] surface, often because we want to clean the area. That's why they picked up the trash from the floor.
Next, we have the phrasal verb "sweep up". Now, this is one of the examples that I was talking about before where the verbs "sweep" and the phrasal verb "sweep up" are almost exactly the same. It's just "sweep up" is adding emphasis.
The same thing is true for "mop up". It's like "mop", but they add the "up" for emphasis. So "mop up" is to clean a surface by using a mop to remove the dirt or the stains.
Okay, next is the expression "elbow grease". "Elbow grease" is an expression that means hard physical work, putting a lot of your effort into something, especially when cleaning or scrubbing.
Next, we have "scrub off". "Scrub" is when you rub something hard. So "scrub off" means to clean or remove dirt or stains or marks from any surface. Typically, you use friction moving back and forth and you need a few cleaning products.
Next, we have the slang expression "squeaky clean". So "squeaky clean" means that the place is extremely clean and free of impurities. We use the expression "squeaky clean" when we want to emphasize how clean something is. Like, it's not that it's just clean, it's extremely clean. Then we're going to say "squeaky clean".
Next, we have the expression "rinse out". This is when you clean something by rinsing it with water or putting it through water. Typically, you use some kind of soap or other cleaning agents. And this is one of the examples when "out" means that there's an unwanted object or that dirt is being removed.
The next phrasal verb is "clear out". "Clear out" is when you want to empty a space. So you're removing everything that is not necessary anymore. We could also say that we're "clearing out clutter", meaning things that are meaningless. So you open up your closet, you take everything out and you throw things away. We say, "Yesterday, I cleared out my closet. I removed everything that I didn't want or need."
Next, we have the phrasal verb "polish up". This is one of the examples that I was talking about before, where you could just use the verb "polish" and say that you're polishing something. But in order to add emphasis, we say "polish up". "Polish up" is when you kind of rub or clean a surface to make it shine. So something that you might polish is your table, especially if it's made of wood. You'll take some kind of shining solution with a rag and then rub it and it'll make it shine. And so when we're polishing things up, it's because we want them to shine.
The next expression I really like, well, actually it's a phrasal verb, to "air out". We can say "to air something out", but the most popular way to say it is "air out a room". To air out a room is to ventilate a room by opening windows or doors and allowing fresh air to circulate or to move around the room. Typically, airing out is done to get rid of a bad smell.
And then we have a three-word phrasal verb, "pick up after". To "pick up after someone" is to clean a space that someone else made dirty. So basically, you are fixing someone else's mess. Maybe you can do this throughout the day or you can do it at the end of the day, but either way, it's when you're cleaning a mess that was not your fault. This is often something that parents do for kids, they pick up after their kids, roommates pick up after their roommates, teachers pick up after their students, etc.
And lastly, we have the word "pigsty". So a pigsty is the place where pigs live on a farm. It's very dirty, it's full of mud, and it's not a place that you would want to stay or be. So when we call something a pigsty, we mean that it is extremely messy. I would say, using pigsty versus using "a hot mess" or "a disaster area", it really comes down to choice. So we have a lot of different ways to say that a place is very messy and you can choose whichever one you want. It's also a generational thing. So my parents' generation, which we call baby boomers, people born in the 1950s, 1960s, they're more likely to use pigsty or to say, "Oh, it looks like a hurricane ran through it." And then the younger generation is more likely to say, "This looks like a disaster area" or "This is a hot mess." But ultimately, you can choose whichever expression you want.
Personally, I don't really say that things look like a pigsty, I haven't said that in a long time, but I often say it looks like a hurricane ran through here. So again, it's really your choice. However, if you watch movies, you read books, you're definitely going to see expressions like, "Oh, this looks like a pigsty." Because, you know, this is very popular language. So you'll see a variety of things, which is why I still teach. I like to teach slang, idioms, and phrasal verbs that are common.
But just because the younger generation doesn't use it much doesn't mean it's not common because the older generation dominates most of the media and a lot of the books that were written in the past, a lot of the classic shows and movies. So it's still good to be familiar with these words from different generations. However, you don't have to feel the pressure to use all of them. Just pick one that you like and use it.
Well, okay. You just learned 24 new vocabulary words and expressions that Americans use all the time. Make sure that you study all of these words continuously so that you can remember them without having to look at your notes or a translator.
Come back next week for a new episode. Enjoy the rest of your day and go clean something.
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.
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