This is an all ears English podcast, Episode 15 46, Staycation Mocktail, How to combine two English words.

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. Linda McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York Radio Girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City U. S a..

What do the words brunch, motel and netiquette have in common? They are all a combination of two different words. Find out today how widespread these types of words are in English and get some of the tiniest ones in this episode.

Hey, Lindsay, how are you? Oh, my gosh, I'm doing excellent. Michelle, how are you? How's life? I'm good.

I'm good. You know what? It was snowing today. Well, it's been like snowing every day.

And I slipped and I fell on my back, and I never had that happen, like, quite a fall. And my friend was there and it was just it was quite something. Oh, my gosh. Michelle, be careful, Jean. I know. Be careful. I know. I know.

So, anyway, how are you? I'm doing good. I'm feeling good. Things are good. Well, as always, Michelle, I'm happy to be recording on the podcast. It's my favorite thing to do. And, you know, because I like languages, I think languages are so interesting and I think our listeners do, too.

Oh, yeah, of course.

I think that's why we're all here. All right. I mean, yeah. I mean, I was just looking into doing an episode about the word staycation. When I was researching for the episode, I learned a new word myself.

Yes. Yes. So we're going to get into that in just a second. But guys, we want to remind you first to follow us on social media, right?

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Yes, definitely. I love it. I love it all the time. So I was saying that I learned a new word so.

And you said, you know those words. So portmanteau.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me. I mean I don't know, I don't know how I missed this one. I know. Michelle, where have you been.

I don't know. It's funny, you know. You think you know you're on you. Well I mean. Well this word sounds French to me, right. So. Right. This is definitely sure. This comes from French. But the dictionary definition for this is a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two other words. For example, motel. Oh, my gosh, I never knew that that was a portmanteau, portmanteau, motor and hotel motel.

That's so funny. I never knew that or which is breakfast and lunch. So those are ones that are have become so common that we don't even think of them as portmanteau is anymore. Right. Because they're just such a they're normal words. They're just words.

This is a great one, though. I know.

And you know what I mean. It's funny because I guess I wrote this here. I'm assuming this is from the the dictionary, but they wrote someplace. I think the dictionary said podcast. Yeah. Is yeah. So that's a portmanteau. And it's funny because I don't think of it, but yeah it's from the words iPod and broadcast that makes total sense.

That makes total sense because podcast as far as I know originated on Apple right through the iPod or the or maybe not the iPod, but the idea of like Apple podcast or iTunes, that was all originally Apple and that's so great. I love it. I love it. But there are more, though, Michel, that are more in vogue right now.

Right. Yeah. And you know what? We've used a lot of these words before. I like the calm, angry in our conversations on the show. And but now we kind of have this name, you know, that could go along with some of these words.

Yeah, I'm trying to think, oh, I think sitcom is situational comedy. Is that right? Durational comedy. Yeah. OK, another one. Hangry is what you, our listeners know.

Hungry and hungry and hungry. Hungry and angry. Yeah. And that's one that I feel like is a little different from sitcom or motel or brunch because it's kind of you know, people know you're using this portmanteau like they know that you're just maybe they'll become more mainstream, the word hungry, you know what I mean, in the future. But it's kind of it's slangy. More so than, say, motor. True. True, true. True.

Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we can also call these, like, blended words.

But, you know, in general, some of them are obvious and well known, but some might surprise you like that motor and hotel.

I mean, so we're going to get into some of the some of the obvious ones today because they're super, super common and they're fun and we can always follow up in the future.

Yeah, I mean, we can talk about even dog breeds. That's the big one. We could talk about that another day. Maybe we'll get into that a little bit today and maybe extend it another day. So let's get into them. Michelle, what are they?

OK, so with the first one a staycation, that's again, I guess I guess I was probably looking into how do I do a staycation because I'm not going anywhere. But yeah, I mean, staycation, right? It's a blend. I don't I mean, then I wonder, is it like officially a portmanteau? You know, I don't know if a grammarian would say one is officially and one is not. But I think it's close enough. It's blended.

You know, it's a stay. Vacation, right? Yeah, actually, I have to say a bonus, one that comes to mind before we go into these couples, couples like they used to say, benefactor like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston or not.

Who was it? Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. Yeah, Jennifer Garner.

Oh, no. I think that was actually when he dated Jennifer Lopez.

Oh, maybe. Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. But anyways, this idea of like couples combining their names together that's also really common with portmanteau is.

I know it's funny. Well, Dan and I have a joke because it's like, well, Wollard Arabs B and we said it would just be man.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. All right. So staycation.

This is one we all know about that in twenty, twenty and twenty twenty one. What about mocktail? Let's talk about mocktails more. So that's a mock cocktail, right.

Lensink. I like it. Meaning mock. Meaning what Michelle. It's like a fake. OK, yeah.

So the idea for kids or teenagers or people who just don't want to drink. Right. When I was growing up I used to always have. Yes exactly. I feel like you know my thoughts, but very well. Strawbery Dockery's I used to order those a lot. Or Shirley Temples, right. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean yeah I feel like strawberry daiquiris. They're just basically like smoothies in that situation. But they're so good.

They're so good. So packed with sugar but so good. Oh yeah. You always say whenever it's I always notice you always call things Sugar Bowl. Sugar Bowl.

Yeah. It's a sugar bomb. Another episode for another day. But that's good. That's good stuff. And the next one netiquette. Now this one is good. I love it when they just work so well. Right. Internet and it's like so beautiful. Yeah. It's beautiful. It's poetry. It's beautiful.

So what is this.

Lindsy this is internet and etiquette. Right. So the idea I mean, Michelle, do you think that that netiquette has become more important than regular etiquette?

Mm. Yeah.

I mean, I think that especially nowadays in the world we live in, netiquette is huge. And I think well this could be a whole other episode is, you know, just people navigating their way around, like the netiquette becoming even more important than in the past. I mean, it was always important in some way.

But now, you know, people are trying to figure out what's appropriate on Zoom, can you wear your pajamas and things like that. And so it kind of netiquette is becoming super, super important.

What do you think? Yeah, I mean, when I think of netiquette, I think of things like being on Zoom and making sure you mute yourself when you're not talking right. That's kind of a more sophisticated one. If you're in a large group, that's usually good netiquette to do. I forget sometimes, right.

Yeah. Oh. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly the muting.

Right. Did you see did you happen to see that there is this viral video about a lawyer who accidently had a filter on. No.

OK, I'm going to send you this one later. OK, there is yeah. I had a filter on and he couldn't get it off and he was coming up.

He's a lawyer and he was coming up as a cat and it was hilarious. And he got super famous just because of this. Like he went on the Today show.

What was the topic of his appearance like? I don't remember, but you just get on it. It's like they're all trying to tell him, like, oh, you have a filter. And he's like, I know I can't figure out how to get it off. And it's like with a judge. So funny. I love that. I love that.

Guys, I'll have to go look that up on YouTube when this comes out so good. So that's netiquette. And then the next one I love, too. What is it, Michelle?

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This one. This is what we are all about. Entertainment.

Yeah, this is Oz, right? This is what I see that we do, at least on the podcast. Obviously, we go into courses where it's education, entertainment is education and entertainment combined together. Beautiful thing. Absolutely.

Absolutely. I mean, I feel like entertainment has become so popular because people are tired of, you know, the old ways of learning the textbook ways.

Right. We know that. We know that. Right. There's a new way, a better way. And with the Internet, with podcasting, YouTube, we're able to do this. So we love it. There's so much fun. Yeah, absolutely.

And the last one, Lindsay, your you have your dog. Oh, my gosh. We just found out we actually my dog was able to meet his siblings. That was so fun, really. And his sister, we all got together well, his two sisters, he has a huge litter. So there were others, but we didn't meet them. And then his sister's mom had done a doggie DNA test. So we figured out what he is.

And he's he's a supermodel, what they call a supermodel. Right.

Which is a combination of, I don't know, nine or. War breeds something crazy, but a lot of people will get these often they been called like designer dogs, right?

My brother had won a puggle and this is a combination of a pug and a beagle. And I feel like they were quite popular, like 10 or 15 years ago.

Yeah, they're they're they're pretty cute. I love beagles because I had a beagle growing up, but OK.

So, yeah, it's like it'll have kind of the cutest traits of each year and whatever for a beagle. But yeah, there's also like a labradoodle. I know a really popular labradoodle and there's so many.

So guys, this is you know, how we're combining Labrador and Poodle, right.

For that one. Mm hmm. I think so. Yeah. Poodle. Yeah.

And there are so many others. I just can't think of them right now unfortunately. But there are a bunch guys and you guys probably know because I think these words go across cultures too. So let us know, you know, do you guys use these terms in your culture as well for your dogs? Yeah, definitely.

Definitely, yeah. I mean, do you think Pug girls are cute and labradoodle? Yeah, I don't know.

You know, these days I'm just into mutts. I know, but you found your you found your your guy.

So cute. He's actually like 20 percent, 25 percent Border Collie and Labrador and German Shepherd. He's got all these things in him. But he's special. Right. There's no other way to replicate him. So I kind of like that idea. Just the unique dog with his own weird mix of all these other dogs.

That's kind of so cute. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, guys, these words are used very frequently, right? These are very popular. I mean, Lindsey, would you say that they're formal or informal necessarily?

I'd say they're pretty informal. I mean, the ones that are new and trendy, right? I mean, well, we talked before about Mattel and brunch. I didn't even think of those as portmanteau, really, because those are just words in the dictionary. But these new ones, mocktails netiquette edutainment, brand new staycation, brand new last few years. So those ones are definitely much more informal, I think.

Mm hmm.

Yeah. Yeah, interesting. But like, I feel like they could be come more formal over time. Who knows. Gosh, crazy idea to think about that.

But yeah, I suppose they could become more mainstream, right. Definitely. I think entertainment is pretty mainstream now actually. Really interesting. I don't understand. Maybe.

Yeah. There's so many more to do. We have time for a role play today Michelle.

I think we do. Right. I think we do. Guys, we didn't include the dogs in there today because there are too many women will do a dog follow up at some point, but we got everything else. So here we are talking about a future vacation, dreaming about a vacation.

I love it. OK, so where should we go or should we just take a staycation and explore the area? What are we going to do? Drink mocktails in my backyard.

And I see your point. Oh, man, look at this email. My friend has terrible netiquette.

Wow. Yeah. I mean, don't worry about it. Should we watch some entertainment? I want to learn more about bees.

Sure. I'm sure there's a YouTube channel where you could learn as much as you want about bees. I'm sure there's an expert for everything. That's what I always say. It's like anything you can think of. There's an expert for like there's an expert on, you know, like, you know, a draw.

You know, everybody there's always something. And I bet there's a YouTube channel for everything. Probably a podcast, too. Yeah. That's our new world of entertainment.

That's right. That's right.

So what we use here, Michelle, what do we throw in there?

You said, should we just take a staycation and explore our area? Yeah. Should we just take a staycation? Then you said, oh, what are we going to do, drink mocktails in my backyard? That doesn't sound like the worst thing ever, you know, hanging out in the yard. I love backyards because I don't have one right now. I live in an apartment in the city, so sounds pretty good to me, huh.

And then I thought, my friend has terrible netiquette. So I'm sounds like I'm showing you an email or a text message or something like that.

What do you think she did there? What did your friend do? I'm ready now. Oh, gosh.

Well, I'm guessing she she was too serious and oh, maybe maybe she sounded angry even if she didn't mean to be too formal.

Yeah. I mean, sometimes people are a little too like stream of consciousness in their emails. Right. They just like write, just write whatever they're thinking. And there's no I don't know, there's a lot of things we can mess up on emails. Are you there are you saying that because that's what I do.

Because I know that's what I do for. Oh really? I feel like I do. Yeah.

I don't know. I'm straight. I'm really stream of consciousness on maybe especially my emails are just like Jessica, if you happen to hear this episode, you know what I'm talking about. Oh like oh like send her one email and then I'll be like, oh I forgot to say this and then I'll just send her like this. Jane.

Yeah. That's all good, good stuff. And then OK, so the last one we talked about should we watch some edutainment and. Yeah. This could be used here or it could also be used to describe a channel that you found, right? I mean, we use this again, like we said, to describe all the English, like it's kind of entertainment, education, entertainment. So talking about things that you have found.

Definitely. Definitely love it. Yes, OK. Wow. So, yeah, these are super fun guys and they're useful.

And we have a link for you. If you want to look for more examples, we can give you a link on the blog. So go check that out.

And guys, remember, follow us on social media. Like I said, we are all over Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and we chat and we are there having a ton of fun teaching you things, lots of different stuff going on.

So make sure you follow us definitely on what is the takeaway for our listeners today, Michel?

Well, yeah. I mean, this is extremely common in our language to have these blended words.

And, you know, we've talked today about being formal or informal. And I'm you know, I'm curious if this is something that happens in other languages frequently as well. So kind of. Kind of just want to know. So let us know. And the blog and also, guys, again, listen for examples of these and try them out in your conversations. All right.

Sounds great. Glad we talked about this today. Fun topic, Michel. Fun. Yeah. Good times. All right. I'll talk to you soon. Take care. All right. Bye.

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