Welcome to our Daily English Listening Practice with this week’s series:
11 Common English Expressions
for Lying and Telling the Truth
Have you ever needed to give some advice to someone who is stressing out or starting to get emotional, and they need a little encouragement?
Listen to the English audio clips for information and pronunciation.
A White Lie
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Notes: a small lie that’s told to protect someone’s feelings or to make someone feel better; it’s usually not important and is usually forgotten quickly after
Fibbing
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Notes: telling little lies, often with kids; very young kids can make up stories and can sometimes fib very easily
Leading me On
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Notes: when someone deliberately makes you believe something; when someone lies to you for a long time or creates a story that seems real, but it’s actually fake
Lied to My Face
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Notes: when someone lies to you directly, face to face; sometimes when you know someone is lying, you can use this phrase to confront them to tell the truth
Telling Porkies
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Notes: British slang; pork pies rhymes with lies; don’t tell porkies = don’t tell lies
It’s Written All Over Your Face
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Notes: when someone tries to tell a lie, but they let their emotions show that they’re lying; can be used when someone is trying to hide their true emotions like anger or guilt or love
That’s Total BS / Bollocks
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Notes: very informal; NSFW: don’t use these phrases at work or in a professional setting; American slang: BS – Bullsh*t; British slang: Bollocks; BS can be used pretty openly with friends; you need to be very casual with people before you’d use Bullsh*t as it can be taken very seriously
‘Fess Up
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Notes: much more casual way of saying: confess or tell me the truth; often lighthearted for teasing or keeping something from someone
Come Clean
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Notes: pretty serious, used when you want to confess or tell the truth because you made a mistake or you’re in the wrong
Be Straight with Me / Be Real with Me
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Notes: used when you want to hear the truth from someone and you don’t want them to cover up the truth to protect your feelings; “be straight with me” can be used in any situation, even at work; “be real with me” is a little less formal and should probably be said with friends
Narc’ing on Someone/Grass Someone Up
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Notes: very informal slang; to tell the police or teacher or parents that someone was doing something wrong; Narcing on Someone: American slang; Grassing Someone Up: British Slang
Thanks,
Kat and Mark
