[174] On The Fly | When Pigs Fly | Time Flies

Learn New English Expressions – Time Flies

 

 

Tune in to today’s show and learn 4 English expressions related to the word FLY: On The Fly, When Pigs Fly, It Will Never Fly and Time Flies. I also share a scary story that involves me and an insect. Enjoy :)

Episodes mentioned

[113] When Pigs Fly – No Way José – Ain’t Gonna Happen

Transcript

Hey amigos, today we are going to learn 4 expression related to the word FLY – F L Y.
Also, today’s episode has been inspired by a flying cockroach. Confused? Don’t be, just listen and everything will start to make sense soon.

Hola amigos y amigas, you are listening to the English made Simple show, this is episode number 1-7-4, number one hundred and seventy four, numero ciento setenta y cuatro.

Welcome to EMS, my name is Milena from www.englishmadesimple.net, thanks for joining me today.

I wanted to start off today’s episode with a funny story. I am full of stories, aren’t I?
It’s not an embarrassing story. It’s a scary and funny story.

The story involves, me and an insect.

So let me share it with you quickly.

One night, I was chatting with my husband about what to have for dinner that night. And as we were discussing what to eat, something flew in front of me.

I thought it was a moth. You know those things that fly towards the light. They are called moths.

So this thing, flew in front of me and it went into another room. This room was dark. The lights were off. No lights.

I thought to myself, what a stupid moth. It should be flying towards the light in the living room, or something like that. I am not a moth, so I don’t know. I can’t think like a moth.

So I’ve decided to investigate. I went into the room to look for it. The ‘thing’ that flew in front of me. It was on the carpet, it wasn’t flying anymore, it was walking haha I should say crawling. Ok because it’s an insect, it’s a bug, we can’t say ‘it was walking’, the bug was crawling on the carpet. It was crawling in the dark.

To crawl – we spell it as C R A W L.

I turned the light on and then I saw it. *inhale deeply* It was a….. Start singing: La cucaracha, la cucaracha…

For my non-Spanish speakers, let me translate it for you. La cucaracha means… It was a cockroach!

Have you ever seen a flying cockroach? Me neither! But here it was, in my bedroom… And it was huge. As big as the palm of my hand.

Of course I screamed, swore, used bad words you know the typical reaction… whatta hell is this?

Ok so how many people are singing the la cucaracha song? Hahah

Good. I hope it gets stuck in your head all day. Haha I actually don’t know the rest of the lyrics, I just go mmhmhm… You are going to hate me now hahha

So you guessed it amigos y amigas today’s topic is TO FLY.

The story I shared with you is true, it is a true story. I didn’t make it up – to make up something means to invent it… it was a flying cockroach.

I want to teach you 4 English Expressions which I am sure you will hear everywhere around you.
I used this in my everyday speech, I use it at work and I use it with friends.

Let’s start with the Expression number 1.

TO DO SOMETHING ON THE FLY – this is used informally.

If you do something on the fly, you do it quickly, often while you are doing something else, without preparing for it, without planning to do it at all. You just do it without thinking too much about it.

I rarely prepare my breakfast in the morning, I just go out and eat something on the fly.

Ok it doesn’t mean I am going to eat a fly. Hahaha
If you use the word FLY as a noun, it describes that annoying insect your get in your house every summer, the fly flies around the house and around the food. It’s a small blackish thing with wings. It is call a fly.

Right, so I am not going to eat the fly. Let’s just get that straight.

The expression you need to remember is ON THE FLY. To do something on the fly.

In my example earlier, I wasn’t planning on eating at home, I just decided to choose something to eat on the fly. Whatever I felt like eating at the time.

Some experienced podcasters record their episodes on the fly, I am not there yet. I still have to prepare for each episode, I have to prepare the Introduction and the closing part too. So I don’t do my episodes on the fly.

Hopefully that’s clear!

The next expression is, the expression number 2.

IT WON’T FLY OR IT WILL NEVER FLY – Ok, what this means is that there is very little chance of something not working or being successful.

If my husband came to me and said: hey Milena I have a great idea… I will stop him right there and say: You know what, spare me the details, your idea will never fly.

That’s a bit mean. Not very nice of me… haha but it’s funny. [My husband cops a lot of jokes on the show.]

Let me give you a real life example:

You can use this expression at work: let’s imagine my imaginary friend Carlos is at work, working on a project with his boss, he wanted to present a couple of solutions to his boss. His boss hears him out, hears both solutions and says, ok Carlos – solution #1 won’t fly – it would be just too difficult to implement. However, I quite like the idea number 2. You are definitely onto something there.

Meaning you are on the right path…. Carlos should go with the solution number 2.

The expressions I am sharing with you today, are the ones you can use at work. Remember, it’s fine to use them at work. They will make you sound more fluent.

Another expression I wanted to share with you that uses the word FLY is ‘When pigs fly’

WHEN PIGS FLY –
When pigs fly is similar to the previous expression: It Will Never Fly or It Won’t fly.

But it’s used in a sarcastic manner, and maybe don’t use this at work haha that would be funny. It is a funny expression. You could use it at work if you have a really good relationship with your boss and your colleagues.

Alrighty, so we use this expression when we want to emphasize the fact that something will never happen.

Let me think of an example for you…

Someday I will run a marathon. And my husband would reply, “yeah sure and when pigs fly.”
Thanks for your support!
You could ask your boss at work: Hi Mr Boss, can I have 4 weeks off next month? I am going on a holiday. And your boss says: Sure, when pigs fly.

What this means basically, your boss is saying NO. It is a sarcastic remark.

That’s very rude of him to say, he could probably be thinking that to himself.

Hey guys, if this expression sounds familiar to you, it is because we heard it in episode #113 – the episode called When Pigs Fly – No Way José – Ain’t Gonna Happen.

When was that?? Oh my goodness, it was a long time ago!

Isn’t it interesting how the time flies?

And that’s your next expression! Your last expression for today!

TIME FLIES – it feels as though I started EMS yesterday but no, it’s now been 2 years. To be exact, as of 16th March 2018, my EMS baby turns 2.

Time flies indeed.

So next week we are going to do a special episode to mark 2 years of EMS. Stay tuned!

When I say next week, this means 19th of March of 2018 – for those of you who are listening in the real time.

We are approaching the end of the show.

Let me share something with you quicky…

Remember amigos y amigas, I have a Facebook group called English Made Simple, now if you join the Facebook group you will be asked 1 question and that is How did you hear about EMS? Where from? The reason I ask this question is because I want to attract the real followers of EMS. I get people who are not real people but robots trying to join the group and spam everyone in the group. So that’s the reason for the question don’t let this stop you from joining the group, you are all welcome, except if you a robot, then you are not welcome. But you know what I mean!

We do some fun stuff inside the Facebook group, once a week we do a quiz where you have to guess the correct answer. This is just another way to learn the language! Thanks to everyone who have been participating so far!

So today, you’ve learnt 4 expressions: To do something on the fly, It Will never fly, When pigs fly and Time flies. Those were some expression related to the word fly.

Oh yes, we’ve also learnt about the flying cockroach (cucaracha) – yes they do exist buahahaha

Thanks again for joining me today!

Thank you for listening to another awesome episode of the English Made Simple show, you’ve been an amazing audience, and you’ve been jamming with Milena from English Made Simple. Have a great rest of the week. Until next time. Hasta la proxima!