a swing and a miss - sincere but unsuccessful attempt - холостой замах битой:

Boy, that joke was a swing and a miss—not one person in the room laughed.

Ooh, a swing and a miss, huh, buddy? Well, there's plenty of other girls to hit on here—maybe one of them will give you their number.

Good luck to you—my last attempt to get a raise out of the boss was a swing and miss.

Petty cash - an accessible store of money kept by an organization for expenditure on small items.

Take the money for stamps out of petty cash.

#vocab

To rescind your apology - отозвать свои извинения

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fall on (one's) sword - to accept the responsibility or blame for a problem or mistake. Likened to the former practice of a soldier using his sword to take his own life for such a misdeed - бросаться на меч/упасть на свой меч

The CEO fell on his sword when widespread corruption in the company was exposed.

So, because I lost the contract, I am supposed to fall on my sword or something?

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Crowd pleaser - a person or thing with great popular appeal - что-то, пользующееся популярностью публики

Once again, the group has produced an album which is bound to be a crowd-pleaser.

#vocab

Hey guys, I happened to stumble upon this video when going down one of my YouTube rabbit holes. I think I’ll soon hit the bottom of the YouTube algorithm where I’ll hopefully meet SpongeBob or something.
There’s no doubt it’s one of those clickbait-y videos, but despite that the author raises a couple of really interesting and stimulating points in it, which I would like to share with you down below.
1. “Why would I want to do that?” This is a response to the “speak like a native” incentive, and I’m fully on board with it, with one caveat. Firstly, English is a pluricentric language with billions of speakers around the world. In fact, most speakers of English are non-native, which brings us to my point - most likely both you and I will be communicating with other non-natives, using English as a lingua franca. So who is there to impress if everyone is going to be in the same boat anyway? Additionally, English’s pluricentricity comes into play in that you’d have to pick one of the standard varieties for consistency’s sake. There’s no one common English, there’s no one common accent. So which of the many Englishes do you want to sound like a native of?
2. Because somebody is a native speaker, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re articulate enough for you to emulate. They’re not the guardians of the sacred English language.
3. Don’t speak like a native, speak like yourself, become the best version of yourself. Naturally, any language learning journey starts with simple copying, and it takes quite a while until a learner has the wherewithal to find their own voice and let it be heard.
And here’s a bit of second language acquisition theory to support this point: What all second language learners are using at any given moment of time is not the same kind of English used by native speakers anyway. It’s called interlanguage - a term coined by Larry Selinker in 1972 to do away with the perception of learners’ English as a flawed version of the “ideal” English.
Interlanguage is complex, subject to its own rules, and predicated on our experiences with the language. It’s more of a continuum where you can both advance and backslide.
Well anyway, as an English teacher I still consider it my professional goal to bring my interlanguage as close to the other end as possible because my students naturally pick up my English, and I want to them to pick up the best English that I can give.

#pettyramblings

to have a knock-on effect on sth - to have a secondary, often unintended effect on sth - иметь/оказывать косвенное воздействие на что-л

The drought is likely to have a knock-on effect throughout the whole economy.

Also: The knock-on effect of sth

The knock-on effect of eating ice cream is gaining weight.

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What does that/it come to? - What does the total cost of the purchases/food (at a restaurant) come out to be? - Сколько с меня/с нас?
It comes to 25 dollars. - It will be 25 dollars. - с вас 25 долларов.

-Here's your food.
-Thanks, what does that come to?

P.S. The dish in the pic is shakshuka. It came out perfect. Compliments to the chef (=my husband).

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Step on it! - hurry up! - поднажми/поторопись

If we don’t leave in 5 minutes, we’re going to miss the bus. Step on it!

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A leopard can’t/doesn’t change its spots
OR
A tiger can’t/doesn’t change its stripes - people don’t change their basic nature - горбатого могила исправит (или менее морбидные эквиваленты типа «сколько волка не корми, он все в лес смотрит»)💀🐺

-Oh come on, we’re on vacation, why do you always have to work?
-What did you expect? A leopard can’t change its spots.

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to whip sth out - to expose/pull out sth quickly or unexpectedly, has nothing to do with whips - резко и неожиданно вынуть что-то 😁🔪

And then Indiana Jones whips out a gun and shoots the guy. Boy was that random!

Michael whips out a 100 dollar note to tip the waiter, and Jan is kind off pissed off with him because it’s his per diem. (The Office)

Let me cut my hangnail here so that people don’t see me whip out a knife in a public street. (A rather creepy yet real sample sentence from my husband)

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I’ve been looking at memes that would match the post above and this is what I’ve found so far. Idk what it talks about but it was way too cute not to post.

Quick update:

It plays off of the verb “to jones for sth” meaning “to want sth very badly”, “to have a strong need, desire, or craving for something”.

Learn and let learn guys. Learn. And. Let. Learn.

#vocab