hey lindsay how's it going awesome aubry i'm excited to be here on the mic with you how's
everything in your world excellent i have a question for you i know you've done a lot
of traveling yeah and i think it's interesting how people get around the city so when you're
traveling what is your favorite way to get around do you walk a lot do you take the subway what do
you do no question aubrey 100 i like to hoof it i like to walk nice i like to walk yeah because
you know what that's how you get to know a city and you know when i travel i want to know the
city know all the corners all the places and just really get it understand it on that visceral level
so is that you too yeah every now and then i might take a train or a subway if i have to get
to a museum to meet a friend way across town but for the most part i love to just wander a
city like you said i love to hoof it walk around see places that i didn't even know existed on my
way somewhere else yes that's the best way to discover it 100 especially if you're in europe
i mean if you're traveling in europe or something yeah something like that paris i mean what
paris is the ultimate walking city right so maybe if you're traveling somewhere else where there's
like bad air pollution you may not think about you might think about taking a motorbike instead
or hiring a driver but walking is definitely my go-to yes we rented a scooter once in the
south of france and we actually made a huge mistake because we like put in the wrong
petrol it was not labeled the same and like there there was like a specific mix
or something for scooters we didn't know we put in the stuff for cars didn't know it started like
smoking we had to take it back and they're like you put in the wrong that's hilarious
they're like you americans did you have to pay for it like did you have a fine or a fee or something
yeah because it's kind of expensive for them to have to like clean out the tank or i feel like it
wasn't unreasonably exorbitant like it was kind of affordable but i still we just felt dumb all right
so maybe no motorbikes next time or ask ray okay what type of fuel does this use i need to get all
the details yes exactly do we have a question for a listener today i mean we're getting into this
topic of you know walking places or how to talk about this right yes you use that great expression
hoofit meaning to like walk around the city and we had a listener write in this really interesting
question i'll go ahead and read it okay they said hoof something means kicking a ball very hard or
a long way however surfing through the internet i saw the sentence we hoofed it all the way to 42nd
street i'm well aware that there's no ball in this sentence whatsoever so it makes it clear that this
verb has a different meaning i think it would be really useful for me and other students to know
what it actually means in this context and this is khadir from turkey so many great questions from
another question from khadir i love it so good so good guys so make sure to send in your questions
yes support english dot com we love to get your questions guys love it so good all right this
hoof the ball i've never heard that i've never heard anyone say hoof the ball have you lindsey
i really haven't i mean i don't play soccer that's one important disclosure i don't really
play any like sports where you kick the ball i'm terrible at that even when i try to play like a
little soccer with my dog like kicking the ball and he tries to catch i can't kick it properly
so i wouldn't know your dog looks at you all condescendingly like that's a kick
i love it well i do play soccer some and i and my kids play soccer and i've never heard this we
would say boot it if we want them to kick it really hard downfield would say boot it that
means kick it really hard here in the states and i even i texted a friend who's a big soccer fan
she's like a big fan of manchester's team in england so she watches lots of football games
meaning soccer in england and she had also never heard this hoof it so it could be that
it's british slang and anyone from england is like rolling their eyes at us right now yeah could be
but it's i've never heard it interesting but we do have that expression in the united states hoof it
to mean walk to walk really far right yeah isn't that interesting how we take a word
that maybe comes from a sport in england and we use it for some other action you know writers
interesting so a hoof is actually the hard part of an animal's foot right so it kind of
makes sense to use it to say walk because it's an animal's foot right but i also thought it'd
be interesting to talk about pronunciation because i think you and i both say hoof
but a lot of people will say hoof with a hard o especially i'll say roof but a lot of people
would say roof with that o-o it depends on where you're from it's very geographic
oh yeah and if we're going to get into this this is great because a couple things i was listening
to another podcast with a guy who i feel very connected to because he's from the boston area
and he podcasts about podcasting and all of a sudden i'm listening and his co-work his co-host
starts teasing him for saying room room instead of room i said and i say that too so room i was
having drinks last sunday with uh with some some people getting to know some people some co-workers
and as i was leaving i knew one of the guys was from boston and i wanted to like kind of do a
send-off and i was like hey you know hey dude how do you say the thing that's the thing where
the place where you sleep in a house he goes room and we had that moment of connection it was great
i love the boston accent i have a good friend i play volleyball with from boston and i love when
he announces his score he's like 24 22 like he doesn't do the r at the end of the numbers i love
it oh he has a thick boston accent big boss yeah i think he's from southie oh my gosh that is for
real okay this is great so yeah so talking about how people do pronoun when there's that double o
there is some geographic variation here albright right yep exactly neither is wrong no one's going
to think you sound strange either way but yeah you might get teased if you're somewhere where
they would always say roof you know i will go there and they'll be like where are you from you
speak differently from me i'll be like i'm from idaho from the west and i'll be like uh there's
so many things like if you say soda and they're saying pop or soda pop oh yeah what do you say
do you say pop or soda pop yeah i say pop but in the midwest they say soda i think right or so oh
i don't yeah i know it i thought the midwest was pop but now i'm confused we'll do that in another
episode oh that would be good to find out we need to interview some natives from everywhere and find
out who says soda and who says pop or who says soda pop definitely all right so getting back to
this then so to hoof it is to walk right exactly right especially a long distance right we hoofed
it all the way to 42nd street like the sentence kadir saw yeah that just means you walked all the
way to 42nd street it was probably pretty far yeah when you lived in new york aubry did you used to
hoof it all over the city i mean to get to places did you he'll fit uptown downtown across town
sometimes i had to because the subways would be down for whatever reason or like we'd grab a cab
and be stuck in traffic so we'd pay him and jump out and hoof it totally we're gonna pay a fortune
if we stay in this cat taxi cab and the the blocks are so short in new york and i used to hoof it
from like union square you know 14th street all the way up to 59th 86th street and i would just
be there in no time because it's so entertaining walking manhattan that's true it's the best people
watching like sights and sounds and smells on the street you love it if you have time yes you always
opt to hook it perfect puff it i love it so good so good so that's a great expression it's kind of
fun it's kind of animated right yes for sure but it does have um it does imply distance right you'd
never say i'm going to hoof it next door right or i'm going to hook the other round the block
that wouldn't make sense that's right you're talking about a little bit of distance here if
you're going to hoof it yeah it kind of implies that you're going to breathe heavily you know
in my mind that's what i think of like i'm going to hoof it uptown downtown all that kind of thing
i wonder i wonder sometimes if people spell it h-u-f-f which would be wrong because when you're
breathing heavily you're huffing and people saying oh that's huff it because that would make sense
interesting yes okay we have another fun expression here that's related because instead of
hoof it it's a leg it have you heard this lindsay geez i'm just learning so many new words with you
it's great it's great i don't hear this very often i have heard it a couple times like in the movies
especially if someone is trying to portray uh maybe like the 20s i know yeah i feel like um
the turn of the century i think this was used like if you had someone with a getaway car or you
know what i mean if someone's like robbing a bank and then be like we got a leg and that's how they
would say run away from the cops right it means to like flee to escape yeah so i know i've heard this
i think my grandpa would say it sometimes like to be funny if we if us kids got in trouble he'd be
like you better like it oh i love that you better escape or you're gonna get in trouble yeah so guys
you know if you're listening you're watching a movie you probably could i feel like i've
heard this in a movie based in that time period more or less and i never knew what they said
so now that you're aware of this guys you can watch a movie based in the roaring 20s at that
time period and you can really be in it fully more than your friends will be able to because
they won't know what that what they're saying yeah how fun would that be if you're watching it
with natives and somebody says like oh the kids liked it when the cops showed up and the native
speaker's like what does that mean i'm not sure what that means you can tell them tell them i love
it so good so good so do we have a role play for our listeners yes this is a fun role play you and
i are on vacation together okay so fun here we go just talking about uh yeah well you guys will see
i'll start it ready okay oh no the subway isn't working oh it looks like we'll have to hoof it yep
this sign says the trains won't be running until tomorrow oh boy should we get a cab no i need the
exercise let's hope it okay but don't jaywalk you always do that and it makes me so nervous
i won't i don't know if it's illegal here and i don't want to have to like it if the cops show up
are you a jaywalker would you say you jaywalk aubrey
yes i was so bad in new york about jaywalking so guys that just means when you cross the street
illegally there's a designated place where you're supposed to cross and instead you just cross in
the middle of the road right i don't do it here in arizona because most the roads people are driving
so fast and it's like a mile between roads and it's so dangerous to cross but in new york city
i did this all the time all the time but would you say that jaywalking also qualifies for if it
says don't walk and you're still crossing in the crosswalk would you call that jaywalking because
in new york that's so common too right people are they don't pay attention to the signs like they're
crossing in the crosswalk but you're not waiting until it says walk exactly i'm sure that's also
considered jaywalking okay okay because that's the most common thing isaiah new york is like people
are like right behind the cab the cab's right in front of you you make your way in between the
cabin the car and you look weird if if you're in new york and you don't do that you look
weird yes to be standing on the corner waiting no right other cities definitely but new york no
nobody does that we've got time for that new yorkers i think it's it might be an especially
new york but a boston thing like a northeastern thing because out here i see people standing and
waiting for it to change and i just think oh my gosh where do they have all this time how
do you have time for that right all right let's go through this role play you first said looks
like we'll have to hoof it meaning all right we're gonna have to walk a little bit of distance here
yeah and then you were saying maybe we shouldn't maybe we should get a cab use that fun native
phrase oh boy right like oh we're in for something right and then i said i need exercise let's
hoof it let's hope it so you're admitting it's going to be a long walk it's going to be tough
and then at the end you said well i said don't jaywalk and guys write that one down that's a
great bonus for today okay don't jaywalk and he said i won't i don't know if it's illegal here and
i don't want to have to leg it if the cops show up wouldn't that be embarrassing if someone did
get arrested for jaywalking i've never seen that happen but i mean imagine a cop coming over you
know i know right the only time i could see that happening is if someone caused an accident if they
were jaywalking and it caused an accident maybe they get hit but they might be the one actually
ticketed if they step in front of someone i don't know how that would work but i could imagine
because it's illegal and it's very dangerous actually yeah you gotta watch out for bikes in
the big cities especially on the east coast a lot of people just flying by delivery guys and bikes
gotta be really careful yes so true guys these are really fun expressions
and slang is just all of these are slaying right and slang is such a great way to build connection
it's native it's natural it helps you avoid that textbook english that natives don't use
yeah and it's kind of fun if you think about this could also be a connection moment guys if you are
let's say you're traveling with a colleague or a friend from one place to the next and all of a
sudden you have to change your plan and walk it's fun to have some very natural slang to not be so
stiff all the time oh let's walk no say something different say let's hoof it you know we have to
like it let's do it right let's go and that could be a common experience you could have together
which could build that connection you know i love that right yeah so formal threw in some slang
love it and just becomes better friends everyone becomes better friends when you use slang
i i think so i think i think so too and also like being in that moment
under pressure does build a relationship too maybe you're late for that meeting
gotta jump out of the cab and you're running together if you have the language to talk about it
it brings you closer right this is what language can do for us aubrey for sure right and then you
don't want to be formal and say i guess we'll have to walk right be like yeah yeah take off i love it
so good all right guys if you love this episode and you want to make sure you get four episodes a
week from all airs english go ahead and hit follow on your podcast player wherever you listen to
the show aubrey thanks for hanging out it's been fun yeah see you next time alright take care bye