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This is an All-Ears English Podcast episode 2713. Take a crack at these English phrases. Welcome to the All-Ears English Podcast downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the Isles Wiz, and Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer. Coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All-Ears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven-day free trial at allyoursenglish.com/app. Are you a crack English student? What does that even mean? In today's episode, get four ways to use the word crack in English to connect. Do you ever start speaking English and suddenly the words disappear? You pause too much, you hesitate, you know what you want to say, but only later, not in the moment when it matters. This is where your fluency is breaking down, and it's fixable. That's why we created our two-minute fluency quiz. It shows you your exact English level right now, so you know what to work on next. Are you B1, B2, or C1? Find out. Go now to AllEarsEnglish.com/fluencyscore and get clarity on your English level and how you can improve this year, starting today. One more time, go to AllEarsEnglish.com/F-L-U-E-M-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E. Hello, Lindsay, how are you today? Doing good, Aubrey. When's the last time you cracked up? Mmm, I have a couple of neighbors who are really funny, and pretty much anytime we get together, they're cracking jokes, and I'll always crack up. I think it's so hard. Oh, that's awesome. What about you, friends that you laughed really hard with? Oh, for sure. I feel like just this weekend, I had my friend visiting, and she was so excited to meet my son, and it's, yeah, babies can be funny sometimes, just the way they act, so we cracked up a lot of. Oh, that's so fun. Yes, that's true. The expressions they're making, little funny things that happen. Yes, what do you remember those days? For sure. So we're cracking up a lot over here, but this episode is inspired by one of our listeners on YouTube, SteelFam391. Aubrey, do you want to read the question? Absolutely. They said, thanks a lot for the awesome job you've been doing so far, great channel. The best ESL source on YouTube hands down. Thank you. Wow, thank you. Yeah, guys, hit subscribe if you're watching on YouTube. It's always an option. Hit the subscribe button now. Great. Yes, absolutely. And then they said, they asked for more American idioms, slang terms, phrasal verbs, and jokes related to all aspects of life in the US would be really appreciated. We feel that without that part of the language, we won't be able to take the process of communicating with native speakers of American English to the next level. Keep up the good work. And this was from a few ESL students, so I love this. It's so true. It's interesting, 'cause we'll get questions like this a lot, or they're like, we need more slang and idioms. But not about something specific, so I have a good way to answer this today. Yes, really good stuff. Guys, and if you remember, if you want to go really deep with vocabulary, we also have a full vocabulary course called active vocabulary. And the goal that course is to move your vocabulary from being passive in your head to being active that you can actually use. So go to allersenglish.com/vocabulary if you're interested in that. Yes, that is an amazing course, especially if you know you have learned all of this vocabulary, but you're not able to use it when you have the conversations you need strategies to be able to access that vocabulary. Exactly, but for today, let's go into this word crack. So it's used in a lot of different ways, right? Yeah, so I saw this and I had wanted to do this episode 'cause I heard a football commentator say, our crack crew is doing its best. So we use this adjective, but not only do we use it to slang this way, it's in idioms and freezel verbs. So I thought this would be fun sort of a way to give one of each. Yeah, so many different ways that it comes out. So the first one is kind of as a slang adjective, like in meaning in expert, right? Exactly, right. So this is something I don't, I don't really, do you use this, I don't use this very much. I don't use it a ton, but I do feel like I hear it pollicated with certain words like a crack pilot, crack crew, a crack, right? There are a few things where instead of saying a expert or a professional, we'll say crack. Awesome. Okay, so for example, the company hired a crack lawyer to handle the negotiations. So we're saying this person is really good at what they do. Exactly, I've heard this to a crack lawyer, meaning an expert lawyer, or he's a crack marksman and never misses the target. I hear that too when someone's like a sharp shooter, they'll call them a crack marksman. Yeah, meaning someone that essentially shoots guns out of target, whether it's in the military or-- And has a really good aim, like they hit the target every time. Mm-hmm. Okay, so that one, I personally don't use very much. I'll be use it sometimes. But the next one, I like this one in idiom to take a crack at something, just to try something. A humble way of saying you're gonna try something. Exactly, usually something difficult you're admitting like, I might not be able to do this, but I'm gonna try, I'm gonna take a crack at it. Exactly, so I'll take a crack at fixing the computer, but I'm not sure I'll be able to figure out what's wrong. So you're just humbly saying, I'll try, but I'm not really a computer expert. Exactly. Or nobody's been able to solve the puzzle, so I decided to take a crack at it. Yeah, it's true, there's humility here. You're not like, I'm for sure gonna be able to figure this out. You're just like, I'll try, but no guarantees. For sure, yeah, again, means I'll try. So let's do a little role play. So can you figure out how to open this, Aubrey? Sure, I'll take a crack at it. Yeah, that humility of like, I have no guarantee that I'm able to do it, but I'll try. You're open to helping, to try. Yes. And sometimes I feel like we use this in order to not sort of criticize the person who couldn't do it the first time. If someone's saying like, I couldn't figure this out, can you try it? Yeah, that's good. Yeah, right, that's sort of polite to be like, I'll take a crack at it, you're saying like, if you couldn't do it, I'm sure I can't either. And I think that's the connection piece of today's episode, right? It's really important at the B2C1 level, you guys are ready for this, not to just speak in isolation, right? We never speak in isolation because we're always speaking relative to what someone else has said or what they've failed at or succeeded at. So it's a really important point you're making, Aubrey, for what we focus on the show. Absolutely. Yeah, there's so much implied here, right? That if, when someone asks you to try to do something that they have already tried and failed, there are so many things you could say that could hurt the connection, that would be really rude, be like, oh yeah, move out of the way I got this. Yeah, or even just saying a plane, yes, I'll do it. That implies this will be easy, right? So at this level, we start to think about what's the implication of our words, not just what are the straightforward words to say. Yes, I'm realizing there's a few ways we say this. I'll take a crack at it. I'll give it a shot, I'll give it a try. There's so many ways we say that because we're sparing their feelings, we're recognizing, they've admitted they couldn't do this. So we have all these thoughtful ways to say like, I'll try, but we'll see. Yeah, I think that would make a great other episode for another day, right? How to say you'll try something when someone else has failed. We can take that in a whole other direction. Guys, if you love that idea, that's a true connection episode. Hit the follow button or the subscribe button, right? Good. Awesome, and then we use this other ways. Here's another fun idiom that means to tell a joke. We'll say crack a joke. Yes, exactly. Crack a joke, cracking jokes. Right, when I get nervous, I sometimes crack a joke. Some people will do that, when they feel nervous, they go to humor. Yeah, I definitely do that. Do you ever do that when see I crack a joke? Not so much. Not so much. Awkward nervous. Or he's always cracking jokes at work, even when everyone else is trying to be serious. Yeah, some people do it. Yeah, interesting. You may have noticed, let's see. I do find that I'm like, okay, stop. It's time to be serious, right? I didn't really notice that about you. However, that's interesting. So when you're nervous, you start cracking joke after joke after joke. And it's not like I'm telling dad jokes. I'll just make a funny comment about whatever's happening. I do find myself doing that a lot. And then sometimes I need to dial it back. We're like the serious situation. Time to be serious. We all have our own art coping mechanism for things, right? Yeah. All right, number four is crack up as a phrasal verb, just to laugh, right? So Aubrey, what does this feel like when we put it into a sentence? Yeah, so you might say, my sister always cracks up when she watches funny cat videos. Yeah, it's just a fun way to say laugh. A phrasal verb we use with crack. Very informal. Like I asked you at the beginning of the episode, do you have any friends that you crack up with a lot, right? It's means laughing hard. Yep. Or we were cracking up at the stand up comedy show. Yes. That's a good example, right? We're always end up laughing really hard and loud, maybe part of it to like encourage the comedian. and have good energy there, but also stuff will be really funny. It's a lot of fun out loud. - I know, is it funny? Do you go to a lot of stand-up comedy, Aubrey? Do you watch a lot of stand-up? I mean, you've done some yourself, I know, but as an audience, do you go pretty often? - Yeah, I haven't in a little while, but there are a couple of great stand-up places here of there's one just around the corner from my house. And it's like free entry, but then it's a two-drink minimum. So I'm like, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, you know, it's funny. It's always, my partner always says that it's really important, like who you go to stand-up comedy with matters a lot, because it tells a lot about who you are, what you laugh at in a way. And you know, you could have some people might be really offended by certain comments and other people just take it lighter, it's comedy. We're just gonna laugh, right? So you might have like a mismatch with who you're with. - That's such a good point. I would never go to stand-up comedy like on a first date. I need it to be someone that we see eye-to-eye or we're gonna laugh at the same thing. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - 'Cause that could be really awkward if the person you're with is laughing really hard at something you don't find funny or vice versa. - Right, right, exactly. It's fascinating. So you have to really know the person well and have an established relationship. Even like another couple, for example, if you go with your husband or your partner or the other couple, you have to know them well. And it would not be an early, like, getting to know someone. That could be a friendship ender. - Yeah, yeah. - You realize like, oh, we have very different senses of humor. - So funny. All right, good stuff. - Have you ever walked out of a meeting thinking, I kind of said that better. You understood everything, but your response came out short or unclear or not quite like you. Maybe your ideas are strong, but your English doesn't show it yet. You forget words you know. You can't explain things naturally and fast conversations leave you quietly catching up. That gap can be frustrating, but it's also very specific and very fixable. Our two-minute fluency quiz helps you understand where that gap is and whether your level is B1, B2 or C1. When you know your level, progress feels lighter and faster. Take the quiz now at allhearsenglish.com/fluencyscore and move closer to speaking English the way you think. One more time, go to allhearsenglish.com/F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E. (upbeat music) Okay, we are back for a role play. So here were coworkers and I'm having a computer issue. Okay, I'll start us out. Oh, I heard you're having trouble with your computer. Yeah, it keeps freezing and I can't figure out why. Samantha might be able to help. She is a crack computer technician. Good idea. I took a crack at this morning but didn't get anywhere. Wait, before you call her, can I crack a joke? Sure, make you good. Okay, why did the computer go to the doctor? Why? Because it had a virus. That was terrible, Aubrey Terrible. I told her to my son and he was cracking up. There's always an audience for dad jokes, you know? It's just right. Maybe not at work with someone having a computer. It's just wait. Wait, I've got a great joke. Yeah, that's probably not the time to tell a joke. We've all known that person though, right? It just like puns. Terrible jokes, save these for your kids. Yeah, I mean, while the person's like panicking, they have a presentation in an hour where they need their lab top and you're telling a joke. Oh my God. I'd probably just say no. Before you call, can I crack a joke? No, thanks. I have no time for that. Walk away. Another time. All right. Let's see what we did here. So I said, yeah, it keeps freezing and I can't figure out why. And what did you say, Aubrey? And then I recommended Samantha, who I said, she's a crack computer technician. This might be a small company where there's no IT department. Right. But there are people who are like good with troubleshooting computers. And you could say this, like, she's a crack IT specialist or a crack computer tech. And then I said, good idea. I took a crack at it this morning but didn't get anywhere. So I tried to fix it this morning, right? Is what I'm saying there. Exactly. And there is a little humility there too, even when you're just talking about your own efforts. You're like, I'm no computer expert, but I took a crack at it. Perfect, yeah. And then you said, well, wait, before you go, before you call her, can I crack a joke? And then I made the mistake of saying, sure. Tell me the joke. I should have walked away. I had a little bit tricky to stick this phrase into this conversation. Sometimes I do that. I'm like, how can I get this to work? Yes, yes. 'Cause this is probably pretty rare. But maybe not. We all know people who do like to crack a joke whenever they can get away with it. Sure, for sure. And then let's see, the word virus was not a key word. So we don't need to worry about that one. The last one. What was that, Aubrey? And then I said, I told it to my son. He was cracking up, right? So I'm saying this joke worked really well for my son. He was laughing really hard. So I would use that phrase over if he was cracking up. Meaning he was laughing. All right, good stuff, guys. Go over to 27.09 when ugly doesn't mean what you think it means. That's a thought-provoking title. Don't miss that episode. Aubrey, what's the connection takeaway for today? Yeah, I love what you pointed out there, right? Often we do want to show that humility. It could hurt the connection. If someone's admitting vulnerability, they're admitting they weren't able to do something. They're asking for help. The way we respond is really going to make a difference for the connection. Yeah, huge. And connection is our entire angle because we believe that's what leads to a happy life, right? So that's the kind of English we're teaching you. We're not teaching you English and isolation of grammar or vocabulary. We're teaching it to you so that you can connect, okay? Absolutely. Yeah, so use these phrases. If ever someone asks you for help, this is the perfect way to do it without being rude or maybe making them feel like they failed in some way. Exactly, all right, good stuff, Aubrey. You take care. I'll talk to you soon. All right, see you next time. Bye. (upbeat music) Thanks for listening to all ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two-minute quiz. Go to all earsenglish.com/fluencyscore. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time. (upbeat music)