Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles What are you doing? Bad dog. Get down. Get down. Get down. Dog's always up on the table; getting cookies, getting his dog treats. Get down. Ow! Hmm. Wow. So, "get down" literally means you're on something and you go down. Mm-hmm. But there's many other slang mean... meanings for "down", "get down". And a lot of people ask me, like: "Ronnie, where... where...? Where do you come up with ideas for videos? Or where do you get your material for your videos?" The answer is: Music. I listen to music. Obviously, I don't eat music; I listen to it. And a lot of the material I get are from the bands I listen to. First one: "down for life". Billy Biohazard — the guys from Biohazard. Thank you for being "down for life". Amazing band, Biohazard; really old, metal band. Metal crossover band, if you will. So, "Down for Life" is a Biohazard song. And what does it mean? It means that you will always be with someone, or: "I will always trust you". If you're "down for life", it means: "I can always count on you to help me". Great song, by the way; check him out. Second: "I'm not down." This is from my second-favorite band ever in the world, called: "The Clash". And they have a song, and the lyrics are: "I'm not down". And I thought: "Wow. Are they up?" Oh, what does that mean? It means: "I don't agree" or: "I don't want to do that." So, I can say to you: "Hey. Are you down with giving me 100 dollars?" Someone's like: "Nah, I'm not down with that". "I don't want to do that", or: "I don't agree with that." Oh. I don't have a musical reference for this one. That's okay. "I'm down", obviously, is the opposite of: "I'm not down". "I'm down for that" means: "I agree", or: "Let's do this". So, I say: -"Oh, hey. I'm having a party at my house. Are you down?" -"I'm up. No, I'm down". "Are you down for that?" means: "Do you want to come? Do you want to hang out?" You agree to something. Now, you have to be careful, because: "I'm down for" and then if you have: "I'm down with" someone, the meaning is different. So: "I'm down with Teddy", or with someone means you're friends. So, listening to the Beastie Boys, they say: "Oh, I'm not down with that guy." It means they're not friends with that person. But if you hear people say: "Oh, I'm down with them. It's okay. We can go to their party." It means they have a good relationship or they're friends. So, you can "be down with" someone or "not down with" someone. This is a really, really common thing that I hear people use all the time, even in a business situation at work. People would say: "You know, you've gotta get" — and "gotta" is "have to" or "got to" — "You gotta get your presentation down." Huh. The presentation should be not up; I don't get it. "To get something down" means you perfect it. And if you perfect something, it means you make sure it is 100% wonderful. So, you have no mistakes in something. So, you can say: "Oh, you know, I've tried to cook this dish, but I just haven't got the recipe down yet" means it's not perfect yet. But when you "get the recipe down", it means that it's perfect and it's ready for me to eat. Thank you. Oh, next one. Ah. KC and the Sunshine Band — yeah. Wasn't a big fan, but, sometimes, words and lyrics get stuck in my head. Today, "The Carpenters" are stuck in my head. They're a band from the 70s. Wow. We're not going to talk about that because "Get Down and Boogie" by the KC and the Sunshine Band: "Get down, get down! Boogie." I don't know how it goes even. "Get down" in this situation means, like, disco and dance. So, you'll hear songs from the 70s, saying: "Get down. Get down on it. Get down on it". "Cool in the gang", again, basically in the 70s this meant, like, party and dance. So, hey. We can still use that vocabulary now. It's not as recent as we'd like to have it, but we still use it and it helps you understand the lyrics. "Get down on the dance floor." Oh, are people on the dance floor falling down? I don't get it. It means dance. Dance, people, come on. Shake that ass. This happens; happens a lot and people freak out. -"Oh my god. What's happened?" -"Oh, my social media doesn't work! How am I supposed to post pictures, and let the world know what I'm eating today? Oh, my social media is down. Oh my god, I can't watch a series on TV." Some series providers, Netflix, for example, might be down and you're devastated. You just don't know what to do with yourself. So, if some kind of social media or some kind of computer things are "down", it means it's not working. I'm really thirsty. Hold on. All right, much better. Thank you. "Did you get this down?" Or somebody say: "Hey, take this down." But it's not anything to take, and it's not down. So, maybe you're in a meeting and your boss says: -"Hey, take this down." -"But you've given me nothing." This means: "Write this down." Please write. So, if someone says: "Take this down", "Did you get this down?" This means: "Did you write it?" Or: "Can you write it for me, please?" English is weird. Why don't you just say: "Hey, did you write this? Can you write this?" If you're sad, or depressed, you can say: "I'm down." A lot of people... No, not a lot of people. But people will say: "I'm down in the dumps", which is weird as well. But the short-form is: "I'm down." And last one, so popular. So, humans, we can take a goose or a duck, and we rip off their little feathers, and then we stuffed them in a jacket or in a blanket, and it keeps us warm. So, this is a material called: "down". And it's a material made from goose or duck feathers. So, feathers are the deuce... The deuce. That means poo. Feathers are the hair of a... not a cat; a duck or a goose. So, we call it "down". I don't know why it magically changes names, but when it's on the duck, it's a feather; as soon as we pull it off, it's "down". So, it's really, really common and popular for people to buy 1,000s dollar jackets with the little symbols right there. You know what I mean. It's not an American duck. And people spend millions of dollars on these "down jackets" with a special symbol here. You could get a much cheaper "down jacket" to keep you warm. And a lot of people are against "down". They're like: "No, we don't want you to kill the ducks and the geese, and take their feathers off and put it in a warm jacket." And that's your opinion. I mean, I don't have a jacket from an American duck, but if you're living in the Arctic or living in a very cold country, it's probably the material you're gonna want to go with. If you're not "down with down jackets" and killing animals for their feathers, you should be "down with me, down for life" taking English lessons online; private lessons with me. We can get "down and boogie". Woo, and have some fun. www.englishwithronnie.com. Learn all this slang and more with me. I'm out of here.
A2 band duck material write jacket boogie Learn 10 ways to use “DOWN” in English: I’m down, get down, down for life... 6 1 Summer posted on 2022/02/01 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary