Category: American Culture

Here are some more TV related words and phrases…

couch potato – Someone who watches too much TV. You are such a couch potato! Get up and go get some exercise!

episode – This is one particular show of a TV series. I really loved watching last night’s episode of Lost!

pilot – This is the first show of a new series. It’s also called the pilot episode. Wow, that pilot episode was amazing. I’ll be watching this series from now on.

season finale – This is the last episode of a TV show for the season. A TV show season runs from about September to May. That season finale made me so mad, it left the show hanging.

series finale – This is the final episode of a TV show. I’ll be sad to watch the series finale of Ugly Betty.

cancelled – When a TV show doesn’t have enough viewers, then they stop making the show or they ‘cancel’ it. I was so bummed when Jericho got cancelled.

prime time – This is the most popular time when people watch TV. It’s from 8pm-11pm on the East Coast. In Texas, it’s from 7pm-10pm. The most popular TV shows are aired during this time. Then, news follows the programs at 11pm or 10pm depending on where you live. I can’t wait for 7pm, so I can watch all of the prime time shows.

lineup (or line-up) – This is an expression that means the order of shows on a particular night. Friday night’s lineup is great. First, you have Desperate Housewives, then you have CSI.

host – This is the person to stars in a talk show or a game show. I would love to be a game show host and give away money!

live coverage – This is when someone from the news station is at a specific location and they report on the situation in real time. It is not pre-recorded. My brother is a meteorologist and sometimes does live coverage of a big storm. (This is true!)

anchor – This is the main person who reports the news. They can also be called newscasters. This anchor is great. He tells the news how it is, without any bias.

I’m on a “media” role with my “Talking about” series, so I thought I’d write a post about TV!

Television has many names: TV, Telly (British English), idiot box, small screen, TV set, the tube & the boob tube.

Soap Operas is one type of TV program. Soap Operas usually are shown from 10:00am in the morning until 2pm in the afternoon. They are shown at that time for elderly women and house wives, but many college students watch them as well. They are a never-ending series and they have a new show every day. They just keep going and going. There are bizarre things that happen on soap operas, like baby switching, people being possessed by the devil, and sex changes. There is never a dull moment!

Talk shows are programs where a host talks about a particular topic during each show. They have guests on their shows as well. “The Oprah Winfrey Show” is an example of this type of program. There are also late-night talk shows like “Jay Leno”.

Reality shows are a fairly new type of show. They’ve only been around for about 10 years. They use average people and they make the people do odd things, like eating cockroaches. YUCK!

Game shows are shows where average people get to win money by answering questions or playing some kind of silly game.

Dramas are shows which usually last 1 hour per episode. They are a bit more serious in nature, but some can still be funny. “24” and “CSI” are examples of this type of program.

Sit-coms are comedies which usually last for 30 minutes per episode. “Friends” was a very popular sit-com in the past.

Then, of course, there are cartoons and news programs.

Here are more words and phrases for when you want to talk about movies.

The leading man/lady – The main male actor or female actress of a movie. You can also call them the star, leading actor/actress.

The supporting actor/actress – These are lessor roles in a movie than the roles of the leading actor/actress.

Bit part – This is an small acting role in a movie with usually under 6 spoken lines.

Extras – These are non-speaking roles. People just hanging out in the background pretending to be the crowd.

Movie soundtracks – All of the music for the movie.

Screenplay or script – It is written work made specifically for a movie. It can be adapted from a book like “Harry Potter” or “Lord of the Rings.”

Plot – This is the main plan or story of the movie. You can say, “The plot of that movie had holes in it!” This means you felt like there were pieces missing or the story line was wrong. On the flip side you can say, “That plot was tight!”

Here are some words you can use when describing how an actor or actress did in their role in a movie.

convincing – He was so convincing in that role. I really believed he was the King of England.

talented – She is so talented. She’s a wonderful actress.

versatile – He’s such a versatile actor. I’ve seen him play a doctor, as well as a janitor.

good/bad – simple words, but we use them a lot when describing actors/actresses. Wow, he is a bad actor!

overacted – OMG, she overacted so much in this movie. I didn’t believe her at all.

Here are some more terms you can use when discussing movies:

“I give it 2 thumbs up.” – This means you really liked the movie. You could give it “1 thumb up”, which means it was just okay. “2 thumbs down” means you didn’t like it at all. When you say it, you put your thumbs up or down according to what you are saying. This expression comes from some movie critics who rate movies.

Rotten Tomatoes – You can also discuss its Rotten Tomatoes score. “It received 98% on Rotten Tomatoes; it must be good.” “It only got 8% on Rotten Tomatoes; you couldn’t pay me to watch it.”

Reviews – Along these same lines, you can talk about the reviews a movie received. “This movie got great reviews. I really want to see it!”

“That is 2 hours I’ll never get back again.” That’s a expression you can say about a movie or anything really that you disliked and felt like you wasted your time. I felt like that about the movie “Dr. T and the women.”

“That was a fantastic flick.” You can use any adjective before the word flick. Flick is another name for a movie.

“It was a total flop!” That means that the movie didn’t make any money and hardly anyone saw it. You can also call it a bomb.

“That movie was a sleeper.” (Also, sleeper hit or surprise hit) This means that the movie gained unexpected success or recognition.

“Did you check the listing to see when it starts?’ Listing is another way to talk about the show-times.

“Let’s get advanced tickets. I hear it’s going to fill up!” Advanced tickets are tickets you buy a few days or several hours before the movie. You can get them either on the Internet or at the box-office (ticket booth).

“It’s sold-out!” There are no more tickets for that showing of the movie.

In part 3, I’ll talk about the parts of a movie like plot, characters, etc.

One fun way to practice English is to watch movies in English. It’s also important to be able to talk about the movies you just watched. The first part of this post on movies I will focus on various genres (categories) of movies.

Science-Fiction (Sci-Fi) are movies that have imaginary elements that are based on scientific possibilities. They can be set in the future, or even in outer space. Some examples are “Star Wars” and “Star Trek.”

Fantasy movies focus on magic and the supernatural. They differ from Sci-Fi movies because they do not have themes that are scientific. Some examples are “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings.”

Animated movies are full length cartoons. They can be hand drawn or computer animated. Examples are: “Toy Story” and “Snow White.”

War and Military movies are pretty much self-explanatory. They are movies that focus on warfare, battles, prisoners of war, or military training. An example is “Saving Private Ryan.”

Westerns are movies that focus on the Western part of the USA (the wild west), and are usually about gunfighters or cowboys. Some examples are “Battle of the Alamo” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”

Horror movies are movies that scare you!!!! They keep you on the edge of your seat and they try to terrify you. “Dawn of the Dead” and “28 Days Later” are example of these.

Romantic movies have some kind of romance between 2 major characters in the movie. It also can be a subcategory to comedy and then the type of movie would be called a romantic comedy. Examples of romance movies are “A walk to remember” and “Love Story.”

Comedy films are movies with humor as the main emphasis. There are many sub-categories to comedy like slap-stick. “When Harry Met Sally…” and “American Pie” are 2 examples of comedies.

Dramatic films are movies they concentrate on the development of realistic characters. The themes could be alcoholism, prejudice, poverty, etc. Some examples are “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Brokeback Mountain.”

Musical films are movies which have many songs and may even have some dance scenes, as well. “High School Musical” is one of the more recent musical movies.

Action movies are movies where the story is told mostly through physical actions and not dialogue. There is usually a hero in this movie type. “Rush Hour” and “Air Force One” are examples.

A chick flick is a movie which is designed for female viewers. It’s a slang term, but used a lot today. Examples are: “Pretty Women” and “Clueless.”

Chick flicks are usually my favorite type of movies. What is your favorite type?

Saying “I’m sorry” is a useful phrase to know in any language. In this post, I will teach you a few other ways of saying, “I’m sorry.”

I’m so sorry.
I’m very sorry.
Excuse me.
Pardon me.
Pardon.
Please forgive me.
I regret what I did or I regret what I have done.
I wish I could change things.
I’m sorry for your loss. (You can use this when someone dies.)
I owe you an apology.
I apologize.
I’m sorry to hear that. (You can use this when someone tells you bad news, like they lost their job.)
Opps or Whoops, sorry
My bad. (Slang – teenagers use it a lot.)

And guys – if you are saying sorry to your girlfriend or wife, make sure you bring some flowers. Flowers are a good way of saying, “I’m sorry!”