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| Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. Welcome back to Top Words. Today, we're going to talk about 10 phrases for gossip. Let's go. |
| "Oh, my God, so…" The first phrase is "Oh, my God, so…" So, "Oh, my God, so…" is an introductory phrase you can use to start your topic with like a surprise factor. So, you say, "Oh, my God." And then "so" is your transition phrase. For example, "Oh, my God, so I have to tell you about this movie I saw." Or, "Oh, my God, so I saw my neighbor in the shopping mall this morning." Or, "Oh, my God, so did you see my new dog?" It's kind of weird. Usually, it's about a person, not about a dog but who knows. |
| "You won't believe what happened to me the other day." The next expression is "you won't believe what happened to me the other day," meaning something happened to you and you think it's going to be a surprise to the person listening to you. "You won't believe what happened to me the other day." So, it's a very fast phrase because it sounds like you want to share very quickly. Like, "You won't believe what happened to me." You can drop "the other day" if you want, or you can say, "You won't believe what happened to me this morning. You won't believe what happened to me last night. You won't believe what happened to me this weekend. You won't believe what happened to me over my winter vacation." So, that "you won't believe what happened to me" gets very, very quick and short. So, examples, "You won't believe what happened to me the other day. I ran into my ex-boss." Or, "You won't believe what happened to me the other day. I tripped and fell down a flight of stairs." Or, "You won't believe what happened to me the other day. I got a new parrot." Sure. I don't know. Maybe one of you can use that. |
| "Guess what." The next phrase is very short. The next phrase is like an exclamation, so an excited statement and a question. "Guess what." So, "guess what" is inviting the listener to guess what happened to you. "Guess what." The full question would be, "Guess what happened." Or, "Guess what happened to me." But we only say, "Guess what." So, "Guess what." And sometimes the listener guesses and sometimes the listener just says, "What?" Usually, the listener just says, "What?" Ask, so meaning you should continue the story. So, if you say, "Guess what. I quit my job." Or, "Guess what. I saw my best friend with a new guy I haven't seen before." Another example, "Guess what. I got a new car." Something like that. So, some kind of shocking like difficult to guess situation. |
| "I haven't told you about this yet." The next expression is "I haven't told you about this yet." So, have not becomes haven't. "I haven't told you about this yet." So, maybe you have told other people but this specific person maybe you have not told that person your news or some information yet. But this "yet" implies you are planning to or you want to tell them this. It creates a little suspense. "I haven't told you about this yet." So, we could use this like, "I haven't told you about this yet. I'm going to France next summer." Or, "I haven't told you about this yet, but I broke up with my boyfriend last night." Or, "I haven't told you about this yet, but I'm throwing a big party for my coworker this weekend. Can you come?" Other examples, "I haven't told you about this yet. I saw my boss out for dinner with someone who's not his wife. Oh, my God, that's not true." Or, "I haven't told you about this yet. I heard that the company is going to go bankrupt. Oh, also not true." Okay. So, those are some pretty juicy gossip. That's an expression we use. We say "juicy gossip" is something that's like really, really interesting gossip or a really interesting story about people. We say "juicy gossip" for that. |
| "Have you heard about?" The next expression is "have you heard about?" blah, blah, blah. "Have you heard about?" can be followed with a noun phrase. "Have you heard about a person?" You can use a person, or, "Have you heard about a situation?" You can use both. You can use an object, too. So, "Have you heard about the new iPhone?" Or, "Have you heard about the new office policies?" You can use that for pretty much anything you want to inform your listener about. So, "Have you heard about?" is usually said very quickly. "Have you heard about?" So, the "you" becomes shortened to "yeah." "Have yeah heard about?" "Have you heard about?" blah, blah, blah. So, "Have you heard about the new secretary? Have you heard about our new boss?" Or, "Have you heard about my coworker quitting his job? Have you heard about the neighbors above us? They're moving." So, you can use people here for gossip expressions, or you can use objects in this expression just to introduce something new. Very useful phrase. "Have you heard about my mom?" Sorry, mom. I don't know why I came into that one. |
| Okay. "So, the other day." The next expression is kind of like the beginning to a story. Maybe this can be for gossip, maybe it can just be like a story, something interesting or maybe boring that happened to you. The expression is "so the other day." "The other day" here means not today, some other day. Which day? It doesn't really matter. It's not really important but we say, "The other day, some day in the past," this expression is used for. So, we can say, "So, the other day, I was sitting at my desk in the office when my manager came and asked if he could speak to me." Or, "So, the other day, I was shopping and I ran into my ex-boyfriend." Or, "So, the other day, I was renting a car and the former President of the United States came into the car rental shop. What?" All right, "so the other day," just some day in the past. |
| "So, I was talking with." The next one you can use maybe for gossip sometimes, but also you can use for making plans. It's, "So, I was talking with someone and blah, blah, blah." "So, I was talking with someone" means you were having a conversation at another time with a person and you want to kind of report information or share something from that conversation with the person listening now. I might say, "So, I was talking with Riza and I think that we should plan a party for this weekend. What do you think? So, I was talking with my team about this and I think that we should make some changes." So, that's a very kind of everyday work situation use of this phrase. But you can also use it for gossip like, "So, I was talking to my best friend and I think I'm going to move." Or, "I was talking to my parents and I think it's best if we break up." So, it can be for plans, it can be for gossip, it can be for just any conversation, plus a report. |
| "What's up with?" The next expression is kind of a little mysterious. The expression is "what's up with?" blah, blah, blah. Usually, what's up with person for gossip, meaning, like the nuance here is there's some problem or it seems like something's wrong with this person. They're unhappy, they're sad, they're angry. Some kind of negative emotion we use this as like, "What's up with Stevens? I haven't heard from him lately." "What's up with your brother? He seems really upset." Or, "What's up with your neighbor? Why is he so noisy?" Or, "What's up with your boss? He's so strict." So, it sounds like there's some problem. We usually use this intonation. "What's up with…" to introduce somebody who has a problem. We don't say, "What's up?" It's not that. It's not that sort of hello expression. It's an expression for a problem. You can also use a noun phrase that is not a person here like, "What's up with this new office policy?" Or, "What's up with this new rule at work?" Or, "What's up with this new item on the menu at this restaurant? It's super weird." So, "what's up with blah, blah, blah," has sort of a negative nuance. You can use it for people to talk about strange behavior. "What's up with you?" |
| "Have you heard from ___ lately?" The next expression is, "Have you heard from blah, blah, blah, lately?" Have you heard from, person, lately? "Have you heard from Stevens lately? I haven't seen him." "Have you heard from your mom lately? Have you heard from your dad lately? Have you heard from your brother lately? Have you heard from your landlord lately?" I don't know why you hear from your landlord but, "Have you heard from someone lately?" There is sort of like a little bit of an expectation that you are in contact with the person involved in this sentence, like you have some relationship. Maybe it's a family relationship, romantic relationship, professional relationship. There's some relationship with this person, and lately is like, "Have you heard from them recently, lately, in the last few days, in the last few weeks? |
| So, you can use this if, for example, you are looking for someone or you're worried about someone, you can use this here. You can also use it just to check in about some other person without asking that person directly. So, like if I want to ask about--I'm using Riza in my example. Riza is our Japanese channel host. If I want to ask about how Riza is but I don't want to ask Riza, I know maybe she's busy or, I don't know, for some reason, it's difficult to talk to her, I can ask like a coworker. I can say, "Hey, have you heard from Riza lately? It seems she's really busy." Or, "Have you heard from so and so lately? It seems they're busy." So, if I want to ask about another person but I don't want to bother this person or that something makes it difficult, I can use, "Have you heard from blah, blah, blah, recently or lately?" to ask about them. Very useful phrase. |
| "I have to tell you about…" The next expression is "I have to tell you about blah, blah, blah." "I have to tell you." So, "have to" becomes /hafta./ "I have to tell you about." It has a nice--sound. "I have to tell you about blah, blah, blah." Or, "I have to tell you about something." So, "I have to tell you about my weekend. I have to tell you about Stevens. I have to tell you about my mom. I had to tell you about my boyfriend. I had to tell you about my girlfriend." whatever it is. Some person used at the end of this sentence creates a nuance like there's exciting news about that person. Or, "I have to tell you about this thing that happened." You can use a situation at the end of the sentence, too. But you're using "I have to" at the beginning of this sentence. So, that sounds like it's really important, like I feel it's so important and it's my responsibility to tell you because this is so exciting. |
| Of course, you can use this in more boring situations as well like, "I have to tell you about the new office policy." You can use it in that way with a very flat intonation, but for gossip purposes, use, "I have to tell you about blah, blah, blah." That sounds really good. So, what do you have to tell somebody about? "I have to tell you about this new idea I have for a business." Or, "I have to tell you about what happened to me last night." |
| Okay. So, there are these really exciting ways that we can introduce things that happened or that we can talk about people or whatever. Okay. So, those are 10 phrases that you can use for gossip. I hope that those are useful. I hope that you don't gossip too much. I don't really like to gossip that much but sometimes it's a little bit useful. So, give them a try. If you want to try them out a little bit, you can do so in the comment section below the video for sure. Thank you very much for watching this episode of Top Words and I will see you again soon. Bye! |
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