VOA · Ask a Teacher
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In Ask a Teacher, real learner questions about English grammar and usage get short, clear answers. Episodes are only a few minutes long and use simple classroom English — a gentle entry point if you are new to dictation practice.
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01Hello!
02This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Emmanuel in France about how to know if an expression is still popular in English.
03Dear Teacher, Sometimes when I am reading or watching the older films, I find some interesting expressions.
04But I do not know if the people are speaking them nowadays.
05How can I figure this out?
06Thank you, Emmanuel.
07I am happy to answer this question, Emmanuel.
08It can sometimes be very difficult for learners of English to know if a word or expression sounds like it belongs to an earlier time.
09For example, if you watch an older American film from the 1930s, you might hear the expression, Gee, that's swell!
10The expression, that's swell, means that something is good and that the speaker is pleased.
11But nowadays, people do not commonly say that.
12And if they do say it, they are probably saying it in a joking way because they know the expression is rare and not currently used.
13Here are some ways to help you find out if an expression belongs to an earlier time.
14Find a native English language partner.
15Then you can ask him or her if expressions are no longer used very much.
16Our VOA Learning English article, Five Tips for Great Language Exchanges, gives advice on how you can do a language exchange.
17Note, however, that native English speakers can have different opinions about what expressions are still popular.
18That is because people in different age groups use different expressions.
19For example, a 20-year-old person might not even know a few of the expressions that older people still use.
20Some older people do not know expressions that young people, such as teenagers, use.
21Also, some older people might not even know that expressions they use are becoming less popular over time.
22You can also use technology to get more information about expressions.
23Language researchers have collected over one billion words in the Corpus of Contemporary American English, or COCA.
24The examples come from American printed writing, video, and sound recordings.
25You can use COCA to get information about how often an expression is used.
26It will not tell you if an expression sounds out of date, but an expression might rarely be used because it sounds old.
27This VOA Learning English Education Tips article gives information on how to use COCA.
28Lastly, dictionaries will show if a word belongs to an earlier time by putting the word archaic before its definition.
29Remember that it is more important to understand idiomatic expressions than to be able to use them.
30That's because you can always express your ideas without using idioms in simple language.
31For our readers and listeners, what are your questions about American English?
32We want to hear from you.
33Send us an email at learningenglish at voanews.com.
34And please let us know where you are from, too.
35And that's Ask a Teacher.
36I'm Andrew Smith.
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
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