Erica and Amaury from frenchpod.com discussing a great variery of cheeses you can buy in France.
Erica: How many types of cheese are there in France?
Amaury: There are in between 350 and 400 different types of cheeses, can you imagine?
Erica: No, it is hard to wrap your mind around that number.
I think it's a nice expression you can use meaning to find a way to understand or accept something.
Saturday, 21 August 2010
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
upbeat
Amy Macdonald, Poison Prince:
And what we all want and what we all crave,
Is an upbeat song so we can dance the night away
Upbeat generally means positive, bright and cheery. So we could interpret this line as a craving for a cheerful song, which would make one dance all night long. Too easy?
But wait a minute. Isn't it also something from music theory? Right.
Most of the rock music uses the 4/4 meter, which simply means we can count like one - two - three - four and back to one, and on and on, while listening to the song. Or one - and - two - and - three - and - four - and - and so on. This pulses, all these ones, ands and twos are actually called beats, and usually in rock we have ones and threes accented, like that:
one - and - two - and - three - and - four - and -
Ones, twos, threes and fours are downbeats, while ands are upbeats. When playing the guitar, one note on each beat, you will most probably play numbered beats using downstrokes, and ands - using upstrokes.
You can also accent upbeats:
one - and - two - and - three - and - four - and -
Thus achieving more dynamic and cheery feeling of the song. And this gives us another idea what could upbeat song mean.
By accident or not, but this song is exactly like that :)
And what we all want and what we all crave,
Is an upbeat song so we can dance the night away
Upbeat generally means positive, bright and cheery. So we could interpret this line as a craving for a cheerful song, which would make one dance all night long. Too easy?
But wait a minute. Isn't it also something from music theory? Right.
Most of the rock music uses the 4/4 meter, which simply means we can count like one - two - three - four and back to one, and on and on, while listening to the song. Or one - and - two - and - three - and - four - and - and so on. This pulses, all these ones, ands and twos are actually called beats, and usually in rock we have ones and threes accented, like that:
one - and - two - and - three - and - four - and -
Ones, twos, threes and fours are downbeats, while ands are upbeats. When playing the guitar, one note on each beat, you will most probably play numbered beats using downstrokes, and ands - using upstrokes.
You can also accent upbeats:
one - and - two - and - three - and - four - and -
Thus achieving more dynamic and cheery feeling of the song. And this gives us another idea what could upbeat song mean.
By accident or not, but this song is exactly like that :)
Monday, 16 August 2010
fly on the wall
I remember I heard it first in T.A.T.U. song:
When you're naked in the shower
When you're sleeping for an hour
When you're big, when you're small
Oh, I wish I was a fly on the wall!
Actually, there is no much hidden meaning behind this line. If you refer to someone as a fly on the wall, you mean that this person is an unnoticed observer of a particular situation, or just someone who secretly watches something, probably witness at a crime scene.
People still like this expression a lot. There are many other songs using it, there is a novel called the same, even The Beatles gave one of their releases this name.
Or, for instance, you might hear about fly-on-the-wall documentary, which is a film-making technique whereby events are recorded realistically with minimum interference rather than acted out under direction.
When you're naked in the shower
When you're sleeping for an hour
When you're big, when you're small
Oh, I wish I was a fly on the wall!
Actually, there is no much hidden meaning behind this line. If you refer to someone as a fly on the wall, you mean that this person is an unnoticed observer of a particular situation, or just someone who secretly watches something, probably witness at a crime scene.
People still like this expression a lot. There are many other songs using it, there is a novel called the same, even The Beatles gave one of their releases this name.
Or, for instance, you might hear about fly-on-the-wall documentary, which is a film-making technique whereby events are recorded realistically with minimum interference rather than acted out under direction.
square up
You could hear it in Morcheeba's song, Aqualung:
It don't come cheap
It don't come cheap
Square up to fight
Like dynamite
Like dynamite
So, to square up simply means to get ready to fight, get in the fighting position.
You could see also something like that:
US and China square up for a trade war.
Accidentally, to square up also has a different meaning, which is to settle a bill or debt, but this is a different story.
Hi and welcome!
Hi and welcome to AquaLangue blog!
Here I will be sharing some interesting words and phrases in English (or maybe not only) I found out while reading, listening to the songs, watching the movies etc.
Have fun!
Here I will be sharing some interesting words and phrases in English (or maybe not only) I found out while reading, listening to the songs, watching the movies etc.
Have fun!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)