Learn advanced English in this episode of The Aussie English Podcast where I tell you a story about some informal English: ‘To Be Shit’ vs ‘To be THE Shit’



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AE 514 – Informal English: ‘To Be Shit’ vs ‘To Be THE Shit’

What’s going on, guys? So, I had to share this story with you because it was quite funny. I had never even thought of this to be honest, but this it’s going to be an episode where I talk about a swear word in English or informal English.

So, just be careful if you decide to use these phrases or the word. Just be careful when and how you use it, but I want to share this with you because I think it’ll be helpful for your understanding a bit more about English expressions, a bit more about how we use swear words and a bit more about Australian culture in particular where swearing is pretty common amongst friends in informal situations.

Okay, so, the two expressions that I want to talk about today are when you say that something is shit and when you say that something is the shit. Ok? And so, if something is shit, it’s awful. Ok, so I have coffee here, if I take a sip.

Oh, that coffees horrible, it’s awful. It’s shit. Well, this is really shit. It’s shit. So, in that case I’m using the word shit which means faeces, poo. We use that in English to talk about things that are horrible, we can use it in English to talk about things that are horrible not always as you’re about to find out.

So, if I say something is shit, it’s horrible. The weather is shit, outside is shit, my friends are shit. The beach is shit. There are no waves. I can’t surf today. It’s shit!

This room is shit. If I want to use it like that, it’s very informal because I’m using a swear word, but I can say this around friends, around people that you hear swearing. If you hear people using the word shit, generally, that means it’s okay for you to use the word shit and again because you’re describing other things, you’re not using it directly at that person, you’re in less danger of offending anyone, right? So, if I say you’re shit, that’s when it starts to get more offensive, right?

If the person doesn’t see that I’m kidding, if I’m not joking around they may get offended, anyway, to say something is shit using it as an adjective like that, it is shit, is describing it as horrible, awful, really bad.

Alright. Now when I use it as a noun to say that something is THE shit. Ok? That is the important difference here, THE shit

It means the thing is awesome, that it is amazing that it is the best, okay? So, it has literally completely changed the meaning. If I use it as an adjective this coffee is shit, it’s horrible. If I say this coffee is the shit, and now I’m saying it as a noun, it’s awesome. It is the best, it is the shit. Ok?

So, that was something really confusing for Kel recently. I went away with my family and my mum had cooked a really good cake, a cheesecake and


we loved this cheesecake and my friend James had come over, you’ve probably heard or seen him on videos, on the podcast.