English, baby!

Word of the Year

Date: Aug 11 2006

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Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

flip-flopper

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Every year, new words are created. As a learner of the English language, there is a place you can look to find the most popular new words of the year.
Check it out as Steph and John talk about this little known award.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Steph

John

Steph: Hey John, have you ever heard of the Linguists Society of America?

John: No. Who are they?

Steph: Well, they’re a group of linguists, you know people who study words? And they get together every year and they decide what the best word or phrase of the year is.

John: Have they announced that best word for last year yet?

Steph: Totally. They did.

John: What was it?

Steph: Well, it’s like a phrase actually. And it’s ‘red state, blue state, purple state.’

John: What does that mean?

Steph: You know with all the politics last year? The blue states were for the Democrats, the red states were for the Republicans and the purple states were the undecided ones.

John: Oh. I never heard purple states before.

Steph: Yeah. Kind of weird. Some other words were ‘flip-flopper’ and ‘wardrobe malfunction.’

John: Where did wardrobe malfunction come from?

Steph: Janet Jackson. Remember when her dress fell off?

John: Oh. That’s right. That’s right.

Steph: Yeah. They call that a wardrobe malfunction.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

Actually, the group that comes up with the winners of this award is called the Linguistic Society of America.
It can be handy to keep an eye on the list and impress your native English-speaking friends of your knowledge.
Sure, some of these words and phrases may just be fads, but some of them might be around for a while.
See you later! Have a great weekend!

Comments

Staisy

Russian Federation

It is interesting to know about the Linguistic Society of America and about the results of their work. I am sure , I’ ve came across the word ‘flip-flopper’ here, on this site, but two other words are new to me.

I am wondering now, if all thеse terms are still around, or they were just fads in that year?