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  • Welcome to the Summer of Slang,

  • where every video in July and August, we go over American slang terms and meanings.

  • Today were looking at slang that uses acronyms, like GOAT and BAE.

  • What do they mean?

  • How should you use them? Let’s find out.

  • In this video, were also going to talk about when it’s appropriate to use slang.

  • Hint: not all the time.

  • Before we get started, I wanted to let you know that I just released a new episode on my brand new podcast and it is also on slang.

  • Just like this video series.

  • The podcast is called the Rachel’s English podcast.

  • And there will be new podcasts once a week.

  • I’ll be covering all sorts of topics in learning English and spoken English.

  • Idioms, slang, questions from you guys.

  • So be sure to check it out.

  • So much good stuff there. Okay.

  • Back to slang.

  • An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words.

  • Sobaecomes from a phrase with three words that start with B, A, and E.

  • Before anyone else.

  • So this would be your boyfriend or girlfriend, your significant other.

  • David’s my bae.

  • But, what often happens with slang is a term will evolve.

  • And from what I understand, now anything can be bae. Like, ‘pizza is bae’.

  • Someone who really loves pizza might say that.

  • GOAT.

  • A phrase where we have a phrase with four words beginning with G, O, A, T.

  • This stands for greatest of all time.

  • The absolute best, the absolute best at something.

  • Of course the wordgoat’, not in all caps is also an animal.

  • Unrelated meaning.

  • Unless you think a goat is the greatest animal of all time, then the meaning is related.

  • I said in my last video, a great way to get context for the meaning of slang is to go to Instagram.

  • Let’s do that.

  • 3.3 million public posts.

  • Looks like most of them have to do with sports, doesn’t it?

  • This person says ‘2 GOATS’, greatest of all times.

  • We have Jay Z and Michael Jordan.

  • Here’s Michael Phelps.

  • Olympic swimmer.

  • Happy Birthday GOAT!

  • Greatest of all time.

  • And it looks like we even have some actual real goats.

  • And finally, AF.

  • Now, I need to be careful here because I don’t want to be marked as explicit for using this cuss word.

  • This stands foras fff.’

  • F beginning a four-letter word which is probably the worst cuss word in American English, or at least one of them.

  • F consonant, UH as in BUTTER vowel,

  • and the ending K consonant.

  • So I’m not going to say it. You probably know it.

  • But you can add this to pretty much any phrase to show intensity.

  • An extreme amount.

  • I’m tired AF.

  • That means I’m sooo tired.

  • Now, even though youre not saying the cuss word, you're just saying 'F',

  • it is slang that involves a cuss word. So be really careful about how you use it,

  • when you use it, where you use it.

  • I’m hungry AF!

  • Only use it around people youre comfortable swearing around.

  • And actually, that takes me to an important point.

  • When is it appropriate to use slang in general?

  • I guess the main guide that I would use for this is:

  • only use it around people who are also using slang.

  • Let the people youre talking with guide the appropriateness of that.

  • For example, I would say in general, it’s not a good idea to use slang in a work environment,

  • but maybe you work in a laid-back setting with lots of younger people and they use slang a lot in conversation.

  • Great, then you can feel free to use it.

  • Honestly, when youre in a situation where other people are using slang,

  • that’s really where youre going to get to know what current slang is,

  • what it means, and how to use it.

  • And if you don’t know what it means, don’t be afraid to ask.

  • It’s not just because youre a non-native speaker.

  • It’s because it’s slang, and lots of native speakers also don’t know what certain terms mean.

  • Let’s go over the pronunciations.

  • So we have bae, goat, and AF.

  • What’s interesting is, bae and goat,

  • we say both of those as words.

  • But AF, we say the letters out loud.

  • When youre saying a sequence of letters, it’s always the last letter that gets stressed.

  • So it’s a-F. Fff-- Not A-f.

  • a-F. da-DA.

  • Stress pattern: da-DA. Second syllable stress.

  • Bae: simple pronunciation.

  • B and the AY diphthong.

  • But I’ve been teaching English long enough to know that a lot of people have problems with the AY diphthong.

  • It’s really common to say beh- or bey instead.

  • Eh, ey.

  • Both of those are vowel sounds. But we need a diphthong:

  • a changing sound with two positions.

  • Bae--

  • So drop your jaw: bae-- then bring it up. Bae.

  • Bae.

  • Youre my bae.

  • Goat: We have another diphthong.

  • Two positions: jaw drop and lip rounding.

  • Oh, oh, oh. Goat.

  • Goaat.

  • Now, the ending T pronunciation can be a True T, goat,

  • or a Stop T, goat.

  • Goat, goat, goat.

  • Make up a sentence with one of these slang terms and put it in the comments.

  • Fun! And if you want to see other videos I’ve made on slang,

  • learn even more terms, check out this slang playlist.

  • If you want to see my absolute most recent video, click here.

  • If youre new and you want to know more about what kinds of English lessons I do, then click here.

  • I make new videos every Tuesday.

  • Be sure to subscribe and check back often.

  • Youll get all sorts of tips and tricks on the English language.

  • And, the thing that would be the best possible thing

  • would be for you to sign up for my mailing list.

  • Click here or visit RachelsEnglish.com/newsletter.

Welcome to the Summer of Slang,

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