AEE: Want the Lowdown on This Vocabulary?

This is an All Ears English podcast. Want the lowdown on this vocabulary? 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, Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA.

And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe. What is the difference between giving someone the rundown and giving them the lowdown? Find out today and learn how to improve your storytelling with these phrases.

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Get your level at allearsenglish.com fluency score. One more time, go to allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e. Michelle, how's your week been?

Give me the lowdown. Oh, well, my week has been good so far. I had a good weekend. So I'm kind of, you know, although I was very tired over the weekend.

And now the weather is it was very cold and gloomy this weekend. And today I feel just an immediate change because it is so nice and sunny. So I love it. So that's really the lowdown.

I could use some cold and gloomy weather. So I'm jealous. Let's trade. Let's trade. It's funny because, yeah, I'm asking you, how's your week been when it's like Monday morning?

That's kind of strange. But I wanted to ask, I wanted to say, give me the lowdown. We got a great question from a listener about this word. I'm going to go ahead and read that.

This is from Mateus. And he said, is there a difference between give someone the rundown and give someone the lowdown? Great question. They are used differently and we're going to break it down today.

Break it down. Okay. So thank you, Mateus. That is a very good question. And we also wanted to thank a review, a listener who sent us a review. Yes, this was amazing.

This is awesome. I love to hear feedback like this. Thank you, Bing Amjelina, for listening and for sharing this feedback with us. Guys, wherever you're listening, leave us comments.

Leave a rating, a review in Spotify, on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen. We love to see these ratings and reviews. Thank you so much. We really do appreciate it.

And guys, remember to hit follow wherever you are listening to the All Ears English podcast so you never miss anything from us. So give me the lowdown, Aubrey. The first word of today is lowdown. Lowdown, right?

We're first going to start with lowdown and then we'll cover rundown. So lowdown means, you know, the real often... complete or honest truth about something. Sometimes it has insider details that not a lot of people know.

Right. So someone asked about the latest news about something, I'd say, okay, I'll give you the lowdown and then update them. Exactly. But it's often more about secretive or unknown information, right?

We use it often to give someone inside information. For example, if you're training a new trainee at work and there's some office drama you need to let them know about, you might say, I'm going to give you the lowdown about office politics, right? And you're giving them the inside scoop.

Yes, exactly. I like that. The inside scoop. Yeah. So here's another example. All right. Give me the lowdown. What really happened at the party last night?

Ooh. Something juicy. Sid, yes. I want to know what did happen at the party. Or before I joined that club, I want the lowdown on what it's actually like.

This is often, right? You want reviews. You want recommendations. You want the lowdown sometimes before making a decision. Yeah. Or she gave me the lowdown on her new job and it sounds intense.

So I got to hear all the details, all the good, the bad, the ugly. Exactly. And now let's move to rundown. This is a little different. It's more a brief summary, an explanation of something, right?

So if I had to train someone on a process, I might say, let me give you the rundown. And then I'm going to give them the details, the bullet points of the step-by-step how to do something.

Right. So it sounds like it's more neutral than lowdown. Like, it's less about secrets or gossip. It's more just kind of a structured summary. Yes, I would much rather have the lowdown about something than the rundown.

Right, exactly. So here's an example with rundown. Can you give me a quick rundown of what I missed at the meeting? Yeah, this is super common. You're not asking for secretive insight or detail.

You're just asking, what did I miss? Bullet points. I see the agenda, but I missed some things and you're just going to provide details here, right? Or he gave us a rundown of his trip to Europe over dinner.

So that means he's sharing where they went, what they did, just kind of the high level details. They might give you the rundown of the trip and then say, now let me give you the lowdown of something crazy that happened, right? And that's going to be the interesting bits. Yes.

I want the lowdown. So, or before we start, let me give you a rundown of the plan. So yeah, basic, neutral, kind of the structured summary. So yeah, very useful.

Yeah. All right, let's do a role play here. Michelle, you and I are friends catching up after a party. I'm curious quickly, do you still go to parties a lot?

Yeah, but parties are very different. I mean, they're not like a barbecue with friends and kids. Yeah, exactly. Barbecue with friends. We just threw a birthday party for my daughter.

Or birthday parties. Oh, birthday parties I go to all the time. That's true. Very different from the parties you might have gone to in college. It's interesting how a party is the same word, but depending on the party you're talking about, it's a very different experience.

That's really funny. It's so true. So we are friends here and we are catching up after a party. Who knows what kind of party? Hey, I couldn't make it last night.

Give me the lowdown. What did I miss? Oh, wow. Where do I start? Do you want all the details or just a quick rundown? Start with the rundown, but then I want to hear the juicy stuff.

All right. So without Jake's place, music was great. A lot of people showed up and everything was pretty chill at first. Okay. Sounds normal so far. Now give me the lowdown.

Well, around midnight, two people got into an argument and drinks were spilled and it kind of turned into a scene. Oh, wow. I can't believe I missed all of that.

This is probably not the birthday parties you're attending. Yeah. Well, actually, little kids can get into a lot of... Oh, that's true. If you're talking about juice that was spilled and kids that were yelling at each other, it absolutely could be the birthday party you went to last weekend.

That's really funny. Depends on what drinks you're referring to. It's so it's so true. Yeah, so very interesting. So very good, like common sounding conversation.

Very interesting here. So let's go through it. You said, give me the lowdown. What did I miss? So you're you're saying, Oh, I want the I want the juicy details.

Right. And then you're like, well, you know, do you want all the details or just a quick rundown? And this is really smart to ask because someone saying, give me the lowdown, they might not really be thinking about what all is implied. They might be saying that, right?

I want the interesting bits. I want the juicy details. But they also might want just who was there, more of the things that would be in a rundown. So this is smart, actually, to ask them, like clarify.

Right. Like what exactly do you want to hear? Um, so yeah, I said, do you want all the details or just a quick rundown? And then you said, start with the rundown, but then I want to hear the juicy stuff.

Um, cause I want both, right? I'm saying I want, I do want to know just those details. How was it there? What happened? Just kind of the rundown. But then I also want the lowdown.

Yeah. And then I told you, so I gave you the rundown where it was, how the music was, who was there. And then you said, okay, sounds normal so far. Now give me the lowdown.

Yes. And there's a chance that nothing really exciting happened, right? You might just be like, Honestly, like that's about it really. Like we chatted about whatever, but like there may be some kind of interesting detail and this is your chance to highlight that.

Someone asks you for the lowdown. They want to know if anything exciting happened. Did someone say something controversial? Did two people show up who are in a fight?

Right? This is when you can give that interesting information and you had a doozy for me, right? I sure did. Yes. Yeah. That was a, that is a doozy. Yeah.

I love that word doozy, by the way. That's a bonus. I think we just did an episode on that. Or I have one planned. Either way, hit follow. I think I just did.

So, yeah. So, guys, also check out episode 2633. That was I've Got It Down, How to Say You've Mastered Something. Yeah. So sort of a takeaway here to keep them straight, right?

Lowdown is more informal. It's secretive, some kind of insider information or truth. Not everybody knows the lowdown. You're asking for the details, the inside details.

And rundown is much more neutral. It's more of like an organized summary. We use it more at work. Give me the rundown in a meeting. You'll hear it in casual conversations as well when someone's just wanting the high level details, just what happened.

Right, right, exactly. So definitely, you'll hear both of these. They're both very useful for so many different contexts. And yeah, give them a try today.

And when in doubt, give someone the lowdown instead of the rundown. If you're telling a story, right? Or if you're just kind of sharing what happened at a party. Yeah.

We don't always need the... The rundown can often be kind of boring. You're just kind of sharing like, who was there and what? But the lowdown, that's that interesting detail, something interesting that happened that is worth telling a story, right?

Share the lowdown instead. But you also have to be careful with the lowdown, you know? That's true. Or you've got something. If somebody finds out, oh, she gave the lowdown, she told them what I said.

I didn't want that to be out in the public. I was embarrassed, right? Good point. Especially if someone tells you a secret and asks you to not share it, that's a lowdown you shouldn't be sharing.

You're not going to immediately go to someone else and be like, let me give you the lowdown about all the secrets my friend told me, right? A lot of confidences you want to keep. But if you're telling a story about just a party and like something happened that a lot of people know and like that's an interesting detail to share, that's going to be the more interesting story. Right, right, right.

Exactly. So a lot of new ones there, guys. But give these words a try. Very useful. Thanks, Aubrey, for this episode. This was fun. You too. Awesome. Thanks, Michelle.

I will see you next time. All right. Bye, guys. Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz.

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