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  • Hi, my name is Emma and today we are going to talk about

  • expressions with the word hell.

  • I don't know if you know what the word hell means,

  • but you'll notice some flames to help you understand the meaning of hell.

  • So first what we're going to do is we're going to talk about the phrase "what the hell"

  • And then once we finish that, we're going to look at some common idioms and phrases that contain the word hell

  • So let's get started

  • Before we begin with "what the hell",

  • I just wanna talk about pronunciation

  • and also what the word hell means.

  • So hell is a noun. It's a place.

  • In certain religions, if you're very, very bad, you go to hell.

  • For people who are very good, they go to heaven.

  • Hell is supposed to be a very hot place with a lot of flames, with fire

  • A lot of evil people are supposed to go to hell

  • So that's just a bit of a background on the word hell

  • Now here is a word that people might confuse with the word hell.

  • He'll. He'll

  • Does anyone know what this means? Well, it's a contraction

  • You see this apostrophe. It means he will

  • So these two words have complete different meaning, so don't mix them up.

  • In terms of pronunciation, you don't wanna mix these two words up

  • So remember hell rhymes with bell

  • And he'll is pronounced the same way as

  • like a hill. Hill.

  • Okay, good.

  • So let's look at the first expression.

  • I've had a lot of ESL student ask me about this expression.

  • What the hell! What the hell! And you'll notice an exclamation mark.

  • So what does this expression mean?

  • I'm sure if you watch American movies, TV shows, Friends, sitcoms,

  • you are going to see this a lot. You're going to hear it a lot.

  • Well, what the hell is what's known as an interjection

  • So we use this to show we are surprised, we're angry, we're frustrated.

  • But usually with the surprise and anger

  • So for example,

  • maybe I'm walking down the street

  • and all of a sudden, in the sky, I see something fly pass me.

  • Maybe it looks like an alien spaceship. I'm gonna be shocked. I'm gonna be surprised.

  • So right away, I'm going to say something like "what the hell"

  • It's surprising, what the hell.

  • So we use this a lot with surprise

  • So now let's look at

  • using hell as what's known as an intensifier.

  • So in this case, it's used as an interjection

  • Other interjections are woah or ah. These are interjections

  • Now we are going to look at hell as what's known as an intensifier,

  • because hell is intense

  • So what do I mean by this?

  • Well, look at the following sentence. Well, it's a question.

  • What _ happened? What happened?

  • Now say if I want to add emotion to this sentence.

  • I want people to know that I feel something when I'm saying this

  • Maybe it's surprise; maybe it's shock, anger, frustration.

  • Usually the 4 emotions we use hell with

  • Instead of just saying "Ah, what happened?"

  • I can say, "what the hell happened?"

  • What the hell happened last night?

  • I don't know if any of you guys have seen the movie "The Hangover"

  • But in that movie, three men wake up hungover with no memory of the night before

  • And so they have this type of moment.

  • What the hell happened last night?

  • They don't remember. They're shocked by what they see around them

  • Another example is:

  • I had a friend in high school who had a big, big party.

  • Her parents were away for the weekend or so she thought.

  • So she invited a whole bunch of people to her house

  • and it was a Saturday night

  • Her parents were supposed to come home Sunday

  • They came home Saturday.

  • So when her father walked in to their house

  • He said, "what the hell is going on here?"

  • he wasn't happy.

  • So we use this for anger, surprise, frustration

  • Now let's look at another question

  • Who _ is that? Who is that?

  • Well, what if I add the word the hell.

  • Who the hell is that

  • It really changes the meaning of this question

  • Before, the question was more polite.

  • When I add who the hell is that, it's a bit rude

  • So you don't want to use this with your boss. It is rude.

  • But I'm showing either I'm angry or surprised

  • So when am I gonna use this?

  • Well, maybe I see my best friend's husband at a bar with another woman.

  • Well, if I'm shocked I might ask him

  • who the hell is that?

  • When. When did you get married?

  • May be I found out my friend just got married.

  • "Oh, when did you get married?"

  • well, what if I'm really, really surprised or I'm angry because she didn't invite me to the

  • I might say, "when the hell did you get married?"

  • Again, it's not the nicest thing to say. You say it with your friends a lot actually

  • But it can be taken rudely depending on your tone of voice.

  • Where. Where are my keys?

  • Every morning I wake up and before work, I cannot find my keys

  • I search the whole house for my keys. I can never find them

  • Well, maybe one morning I'm very, very stressed out. I'm late for work

  • I need to get there by a certain time.

  • I might, instead of just saying "oh, where are my keys?",

  • I might say, "where the hell are my keys?"

  • How do I fix this? Maybe I broke something

  • If I add "the hell",

  • it shows maybe I'm frustrated. I don't know how to fix it

  • How the hell do I fix this?

  • So again, we have all of the questions:

  • Dialogue: 0,0:07:28.89,0:07:30.89,Default,,0,0,0,,

  • Oh, we don't have why up here. You can also use it for why.

  • Why the hell did you do this?

  • You can use it with any of these question words

  • and what it does again, is it shows you're either surprised, shocked, frustrated, or angry.

  • Now, two other things we can intensify

  • are common words like "no", "yes" and "yeah"

  • Now, if somebody asks me a question.

  • Say, for instance, if they ask me

  • do I think George W Bush did a great job as president of the United States

  • Now for some of you, you'll say "yeah, I think he did a good job"

  • For other, maybe you don't really care. You say "no, I don't think he did that good of a job"

  • Well, if you're very opinionated like me,

  • you might say "hell no!" hell no.

  • Which is a very strong way of saying no.

  • Similar to that, if you feel very strongly about something and you wanna say yes

  • You can say "hell yeah" or "hell yes"

  • Do you want cake with dinner? Hell yeah

  • Do you want to go to the movies tonight? Hell yeah

  • Do you want to do your homework? Hell no

  • So you can use these to intensify yes or no answers

  • Alright, so we've covered some question words.

  • We've seen what the hell as an interjection

  • We've looked at adding the hell as an intensifier

  • Well, there's another common meaning to what the hell.

  • So, it can also mean

  • I don't know if you can see this

  • I don't care.

  • Which is pretty opposite to what we were just talk about

  • We were just saying when we add "the hell", it really makes a sentence strong.

  • It makes a question very strong and shows you're angry or surprised.

  • Well, depending on our tone of voice, it can also mean I don't care

  • So for instance, somebody wants to borrow my car.

  • If I don't really care, I might say,

  • "what the hell, go ahead. Here's my keys."

  • Another example is, if somebody

  • I have a test on Monday and I should be studying

  • And somebody says, "do you wanna go to the bar tonight?"

  • "uh, what the hell, okay."

  • I should be studying but I don't really care, so what the hell.

  • Alright, I hope none of you do that, by the way.

  • Alright, so next, we are going to look at some common idioms and phrases, expressions with the

  • Alright, so here are 6 expressions.

  • Some of them are more common than others, but you'll hear all of these, that have to do with the

  • Now the first one I really like. To give someone hell

  • When you give someone hellso again here's the verb.

  • To give someone hell, it's altogether

  • It means to reproach, to reprimand,

  • to yell at someone severely

  • So for example, to really understand this concept

  • I have a dog.

  • If my dog ate some of my jewelry, I would be very, very angry.

  • So I might give my dog hell, meaning I might yell at my dog

  • And say "why did you do that" you know, "bad dog"

  • Parents. I told you earlier that my friend had a party one weekend when her parents were out for

  • And here dad came home early

  • Her dad gave her hell.

  • Meaning her dad was very, very angry with her, yelled at her, screamed at her,

  • Really, really disappointed.

  • When you give someone hell, it's a bit negative

  • You're not happy when you give someone hell.

  • It means you really put them in the place

  • So for example, bosses. If a boss is very, very upset with something you've done

  • Maybe an employee stole something from their company

  • The boss will give that person hell.

  • So again, it means reproach, reprimand, to yell at someone, to scream at someone.

  • Give someone hell

  • Okay, expression #2.

  • Now this expression "go to hell" is not polite at all

  • It's very, very, very rude, so try not to use it

  • But you will hear it a lot, especially on movies and TV

  • Go to hell. So I've drawn a very angry face.

  • If you tell someone to go to hell,

  • you're probably going to be very angry when you say it

  • And you're pretty much saying I don't wanna deal with you right now, get away, leave me alone

  • But it's a very, very, very mean and angry way to say it

  • Because again, hell is not a nice place

  • It's a place where bad people go,

  • so if you're saying go to hell to someone, it's a very strong thing to say

  • #3 is to hell with it or the hell with it

  • So you have a choice. You can say to hell with it or you can say the hell with it

  • Now, this expression is often used when you give up on something

  • You decide that you don't want to do something anymore

  • So for example, maybe I've been studying all day,

  • and then I decide I want to go out and party

  • I might say, "to hell with studying"

  • so the "it" is what you change. So to hell with studying

  • I'm going to go party. So you give up on studying. To hell with studying

  • You don't care about studying, you're going to go party

  • Or to hell withyou can also use a person

  • Replace it with her. To hell with her

  • I might say that if I give up on someone, I'm kind of tired of them

  • I tried to call my friend all weekend.

  • She didn't pick up her phone.

  • To hell with her

  • Meaning I don't care anymore. I'm giving up. I'm not calling her anymore

  • #4 for the hell of it

  • I really like this expression, actually

  • For the hell of it. What does it mean?

  • Have you ever done something for no reason?

  • When somebody ask you "why did you do that?" you don't really have an answer

  • An answer is "for the hell of it"

  • meaning you did it for either no reason

  • or just for fun

  • So for example, maybe

  • I'm not working tomorrow, I don't have anything to do

  • and I decide to drive to Montreal

  • I live in Toronto. Montreal is five hours away.

  • So maybe one day I just think "I'm going to drive to Montreal today"

  • Somebody might ask me why did you do that? What were you doing in Montreal?

  • Well, I drove there for the hell of it,

  • meaning I didn't really have a reason. Maybe I just did it for fun

  • #5 like hell.

  • When we use like hell, we're talking about describing something

  • Usually it has to do with driving, running, studying. So it has to do with a verb.It describes the

  • So how did you do it? How did you drive?

  • I drove like hell

  • How did you run? I ran like hell

  • So like hell describes the verb

  • and it means you did it either with great speed, so very fast,

  • 1. or recklessly, meaning you weren't careful

  • So when we use something like "like hell" for example

  • Well, maybe you have a wife.

  • She's pregnant. She's about to give birth

  • And you're very, very stressed out. You're getting a panic.

  • How would you drive your car to the hospital?

  • Do you think you'd drive at 40km/hr?

  • No, you're probably going to drive as fast as you can to get there on time before she gives birth

  • You drive like hell.

  • Maybe some of you have been late for class before

  • This has happened to me before.

  • And if you have a very strict teacher, you don't want to be late

  • So what do you do?

  • Well, you run.

  • And how do you run? You run like hell

  • Meaning you run as fast as you can.

  • You just sprint. You run hard

  • So run like hell. You could use this with studying.

  • How do you study? I study like hell meaning I study with great speed

  • Maybe you didn't study for weeks and you're test is tomorrow.

  • How are you going to study your test? You're gonna study like hell

  • #6 when hell freezes over

  • Now this is a fun expression

  • because hell, like I said before, is a very hot place. Notice the flames

  • Well, freezing is what happens in the winter. It's when ice comes

  • So when hell freezes over

  • means hell is going to be covered in ice

  • Now, this is another way of saying never,

  • because hell will never freeze over

  • So this is a fun way to say never

  • So let's think of some examples.

  • Well, maybe I have a friend,

  • and a guy wants to go on a date with her

  • I ask her, "will you go on a date with Bob?" we'll call him Bob

  • Will you go on a date with Bob?

  • Maybe she really doesn't like Bob.

  • She will say, "I'll go on a date with Bob when hell freezes over"

  • Which means she will never go on a date with Bob

  • Will you go seewhat's a good movie

  • Maybe you hate Lord of the Rings.

  • I don't know why. I love Lord of the Rings,

  • but maybe some of you out there thought it was a very boring movie, very long

  • So maybe somebody will ask you,

  • "will you see The Hobbit?"

  • the new Lord of the Rings movie coming out

  • You might say, "I will see the Hobbit when hell freezes over"

  • meaning you will never see that movie

  • It's a very strong way to say that

  • So today we have looked at expressions like what the hell.

  • We've looked at interjections. What the hell again. Hell no, hell yes

  • We've also looked at common expressions with hell

  • So I hope you come visit our website and take our quiz on these expressions

  • at www.engvid.com

  • And I hope that if I ask you

  • are you going to continue watching our videos,

  • your answer will be hell yes.

  • Take care.

Hi, my name is Emma and today we are going to talk about

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