In this mini episode, you will learn the interesting expression “burst your bubble.”
Episode 453 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the interesting expression “burst your bubble.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi, everyone! This is Ellie, from China. You’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 453 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you an interesting phrase. The phrase is “burst your bubble.” Burst your bubble.
That’s b-u-r-s-t, y-o-u-r, b-u-b-b-l-e. Burst your bubble.
Of course, it’s not always “your bubble.” It could be “burst his bubble,” “burst her bubble,” “burst my bubble,” “burst their bubble,” and so on.
What does this expression mean? What does it mean to burst someone’s bubble? First of all, what does burst mean? What does it mean to burst something? To burst something means to pop something. To ruin it by popping it. When we talk about bursting something, we might be talking about a balloon. Or, as in this expression, a bubble.
We use “burst your bubble” to mean making someone feel bad by telling them the truth about something.
Imagine that somebody believes something that is not true. And that untrue belief makes them feel happy. Maybe it’s some kind of fantasy they have or just an incorrect belief about something. If you tell them the truth about their incorrect belief or about their fantasy, and they feel bad as a result, then we could say that you have burst their bubble.
You will often hear this phrase, “burst your bubble,” used as part of a larger sentence that starts with something like this:
“I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but...” or “I hate to burst your bubble, but...” and then telling them the truth about something.
Here’s an example of a situation where you might hear someone say “burst your bubble”:
Let’s say that your friend is very excited because it is winter, and your friend loves winter activities like ice skating. Your friend is very excited imagining going ice skating this weekend. You have looked at the weather report, and you know that it will not be cold enough for ice skating anytime soon. You know that your friend is wrong when she is having these happy thoughts or happy fantasies about going ice skating this weekend.
You might say to your friend, “I hate to burst your bubble, but it is not going to be cold enough for ice skating this weekend.” I hate to burst your bubble, but...
In other words, “I know you’re very happy about this incorrect belief or this fantasy, but now I’m telling you the truth, even though I know it might make you feel sad or disappointed.”
I guess we use this expression because a bubble is something that is very pretty and also very fragile. It is very easy to pop a bubble.
And that is “burst your bubble,” an interesting phrase that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 453 of Everybody ESL. Remember: If you have any questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Ellie recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with another episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!