This is an All Ears English Podcast. Chat up a storm with this new English phrase. 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 hosts, Lindsay McMahon, The English Adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, The New York Radio Girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe.
When you fully immerse yourself in an activity like cooking, cleaning, or dancing, how can you communicate it to others and connect in English? Listen in today.
Lindsay, how are you? Excellent, Michelle. How are you doing today? I'm good. I'm good. Yeah. Actually, my friends, they just got a new dog. Oh, wonderful. Yes. Two days ago. Yeah. So I'm very curious to see how it works out. But I mean, I know, you know, when you got Piefer, it was a pretty big deal. Is Piefer a big barker or is he usually pretty quiet?
No, he's super quiet. He's super. The only time he barks is sometimes when the male lady comes, he'll bark or if someone delivers something, he'll try to protect the house, which is pretty normal. But otherwise you don't hear a peep from him all day long. He's just sleeping. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Do you think? Yeah, I wonder, did you know that when you got him? Because I'm wondering about with podcasting, it kind of worked out, right? I was a little worried. I wasn't sure how that was going to work, honestly. Yeah. But we trained him. And luckily, he just, I think maybe his breeds also just aren't very, there are certain breeds that are barky breeds.
You know, Markie Brady. Markie Brady. You want to be careful. I'll do a little research on the breed. But he's also a mutt. He's a mix of water quality lab, German Shepherd. That's his protective side, probably the German Shepherd. But yeah, I know he's good. Thank goodness.
Like if, okay. So if he sees a squirrel though, does he bark up a storm? I remember my dog used to do that. He just tries to run to and get the squirrel more. He'll try to, yeah, he doesn't bark up a storm. Yeah. The time they, it's just, it's really when someone's like, or if we have a friend over and the friend comes in the house, if he doesn't know that friend, he'll bark at that person for a little while and then we'll like calm him down and we'll say, we know this person, it's okay. He'll sniff them and get used to them. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Oh, well, very cute. We love key for here. So yeah. Well, today we're going to talk about this interesting and unique expression that you can use to talk about enthusiasm or really excessiveness. Um, so good.
Yeah, yeah, this is going to be fun. So today, before we get into it, we want to remind you to hit follow wherever you're listening to the Allers English podcast, never miss anything. And yeah, hit that button. Yeah, exactly. So again, the expression that we're teaching today is doing something up a storm. So barking up a storm, talking up a storm could be something you might say, what does it mean, Michelle?
Yeah, it means that you're doing a lot of something, or maybe that you're really excited about it, enthusiastic about it. So there's a lot of places that it could take you. But the idea is thinking of kind of enthusiasm a lot, maybe in excess. Yes. So what's the structure, the general structure of how this is used?
Yeah, so we have the verb and then the ING form of the verb, right? So barking, cooking, talking, studying, and we do barking up, we add the up. So barking up a storm, cooking up a storm, singing up a storm, maybe anything that you're just fully just doing with complete enthusiasm or excessiveness, you're really into it. Usually it's someone else saying that you're doing that thing.
Could be, yep, yep, yep, exactly. So let's do some examples. So here we're going to go back to the dog example. So my dog was barking up a storm. I don't know why, but then I saw there were four deer outside. Yeah, exactly. There's usually a reason why they're barking like that, hopefully. Or I've been cooking up a storm for three days, getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. It actually makes me think of COVID times. I feel like people just started cooking, making bread, baking bread at home.
cooking up a storm because there was nothing else to do. Yeah, I didn't do that. Did you do that? No, we were, oh my gosh, we were too scared to go to the grocery store. So we were ordering things on Amazon. We were, oh, it was horrible. Like what we were eating. It was like, you know, just like packets of tuna. And we were trying to ration it because we were nervous and yeah. Oh my gosh. Wow. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, or here's another one. I'm sorry. I'm talking up a storm. I know. I'm just so excited to see you. Nice. Talking up a storm is another good example. You're talking a lot. Um, or he's been studying up a storm preparing for his law exam.
Yes. Another example. Well, what's interesting is when I was planning this, I realized it doesn't necessarily sound natural with everything. I don't think that you can just plug anything into this. I mean, to me, the most natural verbs would be to use things like cook, clean, talk, chat.
Yeah, I completely agree with you. Yeah. Yeah. Even dance. I mean, it just, it's very action oriented. So, you know, it doesn't, it just doesn't sound natural with everything. And unfortunately, some of that you would just have to learn or listen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So for example, it doesn't really work to say I'm driving up a storm. Yeah. I think no, it just doesn't sound right.
Don't you think that the thread here that all those words have in common is kind of the creative arts? You're creating, you're creating, you're creating, painting up a storm, dancing up a storm, cooking a cooking, right?
Yeah, then you have talking. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's aggressive. No, but I think that I think you're on to something. They're creating something, right? You're doing something. You're making something. So even, I mean, yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't necessarily work for everything, but it is to me. That's the closest thread that I would be able to think of.
for sure. And I do use this personally, I would say it feels like it's becoming maybe a little dated now, right? I feel like it's something you may have heard in a 90s flick. Yeah, meaning movie on 90s flick, a great word for movies, you know, but
You know, expressions can still live on even if they're not the most because I don't necessarily use the most cutting edge team slang myself right now. And that's okay because I'm not a teenager, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Right. No, I think that this is a very useful expression, but I definitely think it would not be used by the... I don't know. The teens. I wouldn't. No, they wouldn't.
But they have their own, you know, they have their own set of, you know, Aubrey sometimes informs us of that, right? Because her kids, she brings us all the team slang. Um, and it's okay. Like adults in their thirties and forties don't need to be speaking like teens and vice versa. It's okay. Yes. Exactly.
Yeah, but it definitely reminds me, I just feel like in father of the bride part two, there must be a, I think there's something where they use this expression. Yeah, I have to find it, but I feel like it's the cooking up a storm on it. I don't know.
Guys, whether or not you decide to use this, it's good to know, right? Because you're going to hear this. Again, with some expressions, we may teach them not always because you're necessarily going to use them right away, but you will hear them. And so, you know, it's important to learn these expressions for comprehension as well as to use them in your conversations. And then, you know, when you're, when you feel ready, if you choose, so you can certainly use this. Yes, I love that.
All right, Michelle. So there are other things if we feel like we don't want to go as far as using this phrase, we're not sure. There are other words that we want to know that just mean the same thing that you can swap in. So for example, excessively, and we've already said this, you know, immersively or excessively, she was chatting excessively with her friends last night and now she lost her voice.
And that could happen. That happens to me at conferences sometimes. Or to no end. I've been looking for jobs to no end lately. I hope something comes through soon. And this also means just, again, excessively, there's no end to the job you've just been continuously searching for jobs. And then I just added this last one on because I just thought of it. Lindsay, what do you think of this one?
Yeah, sure. Like crazy. I've been looking for jobs like crazy. I use this one too. Yeah. Meaning like crazy all day to get ready for our dinner party. Yeah. I think this one's pretty common. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whether or not it's like we've talked about the word crazy and you know, but you will hear it.
And these expressions actually work really well when you are hosting some kind of a party, because what I noticed, I love hosting dinner parties, having friends over for parties. But when I, you know, you wake up the morning you're hosting from that evening and you are cleaning all day and then you're cooking and everything is, you know,
you're running out to the store, you basically spend your entire day prepping for that party. Right. So any of these would fit with that kind of scenario. Right? Yeah, that's true. That's true. Oh, that's just an area we have in our role play here, Michelle. Yeah. There you go. What do you know? I guess I guess great minds think alike. I guess so. Yeah. Look at this. All right. So then let's dive into our role play Michelle. So here, what's going on?
All right. Well, we are getting ready for our holiday party. We're friends and we're throwing a party together. Exact scenario. Here we go. So did you get all the ingredients? Yes, of course. I've been shopping to no end, it seems. I have everything. Okay, great. I've been cleaning up a storm since yesterday. So the place is spotless.
Oh, that's great. Yeah. Claudia told me she's been baking to no end. She's a. Oh, wait. I did. Okay. Well, I'm going to switch that. Claudia told me she's been baking like crazy. She's a great baker. I'm so excited to try her desserts.
Oh, me too. Nice. All right. Good. So this is perfect. This is the scenario. It's kind of in situations where you're fully immersed in something. It's a big project. You're in knee deep. Prey, you're fully in this thing that you have to prepare. Maybe there's a little sense of time, urgency. Yeah. It's just surrounded by this thing you have to do. Okay.
Yeah, I think that's a really good point, Lindsay, of when you could use it. Now, we didn't use excessively, but guys, that's another one you could use. It doesn't quite necessarily work completely in the same way, but something you could consider using as well. Yeah, it's a little formal for this, you know, using this excessively, you know, like I've been cleaning excessively. I think between friends, that'd be a little too formal.
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So I said, I've been shopping to no end, it seems. So I'm saying it feels like I'm never, I was never going to fit in a shop. Yeah. And then I said, okay, great. I've been cleaning up a storm since yesterday. So the place is spotless. And that'll be a bonus phrase for today. Spotless, Michelle. What does that one mean? That's a great one. It's extremely clean. Yes, I love that. Great expression for extremely clean. And then what did you say?
And then I said, yeah, Claudia told me she's been baking like crazy. So she's just baking, baking, baking. She's got a pie. She's got a cake. She's got some muffins. Yeah. Wow, a lot of work. Sounds delicious, though. I had a really good mixed berry pie over the weekend because I went to a friend's giving. It was good. That's my favorite thing about Thanksgiving, Michelle is pies.
Yeah, I'd love to apply to. Yeah. So good. Michelle, is there some other place our listeners should go right now to check out Aller's English? More Aller's English? All right. Guys, head on over to episode 20, 30, 21. That was, there you go. One phrase for confirming in English. Super important as a communication and connection skill. Confirming, right? Right. Yes. Absolutely. So, Lindsay, anything you want to bring up before the end of the episode?
Yeah, I just love the idea of when you are fully immersed in something like cooking, like cleaning, like preparing for a party, having the words to express it because it's kind of a unique moment in life. When you're just, you can't see anything else, but this thing you have to take care of, right? You're either so excited about it like during COVID times when people were cooking up a storm or you're under pressure because the party starts at six and, you know, it's four and you're still cooking or cleaning. This is the way you can express that moment.
two people to connect what's actually going on. These are the phrases. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Very, very useful. You'll definitely hear it in some 90s comedy movies. Yeah. But yeah, this is, this is really great for just immersing yourself, doing a lot of something, usually preparing for something or maybe, maybe a new hobby or enjoying that you just, yeah.
Yeah, I've been painting up a storm recently. I love it, right? So many different ways to that. That's actually another good example. So again, we said the arts, right, is kind of what the expressive arts, what this has in common is maybe you're going to you went to a trial class of a dance class and all of a sudden you loved it. So you started going every night, every night you went back to that school dance school and you just kept. So you tell your friend on the weekend, I've been dancing up a storm lately. Right. I just love it.
Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly. All right. Well, this was fun. And Lindsey, we've been talking up a storm. So we have time to go. I guess we do talk up a storm on all our singlet. We definitely do. All right, Michelle. Well, you have a good day and I'll see you in the next episode. All right. Bye, Lindsey. Bye guys. Bye.
Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.
