In this mini episode, you will learn the surprising idiom “to blow it.”
Episode 490 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the surprising idiom “to blow it.” 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
“This is Marwa from Iraq, and you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 490 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 a common and surprising expression. The idiom I’m going to teach you today is “blow it. “Blow it.” That’s blow, b-l-o-w, it, i-t. Blow it.
I’m sure you have seen the verb blow before. Blow can actually have many meanings. The most common meaning is “to force or push air out of your mouth.” That is blowing: pushing or forcing air out of your mouth.
That’s the meaning of blow that we are using when we tell somebody, “Blow out the candles on your birthday cake.” Blow out the candles. In other words, force air out and aim that air at the candles until the candles are out, until the flames go out. The flames disappear.
But in the expression that I’m going to talk about right now, blow doesn’t mean that at all. In fact, “to blow it” means “to fail or to miss an opportunity.” If you fail at something, or if you miss the opportunity to do something, we can say that you blow it. You blow it.
That’s how we make this phrase. How do we use it? Or what is a situation where you might hear somebody say “to blow it”?
Let’s say that your friend is a musician. Your friend is a piano player. Your friend comes to you and says, “I am going to audition for a job with this musical group. I’m going to try to get this job. I will need to go and play the piano for everybody who is in the group, and they will decide if they think I am good enough. But I am really worried. I am afraid that I will blow it.” I’m afraid that I will blow it. I’m afraid that I will fail.
In other words, I’m afraid that I will try, but I will not be good enough, and I will not get the job.
Here’s another example:
Imagine that somebody wants to enter a poetry contest. In order to enter this contest, they need to submit a poem by the 15th of the month. They need to submit their poem by the 15th of the month.
Imagine that the person does not send their poem in before the 15th. They sent their poem in late. They cannot enter the contest. They sent their poem too late.
The person who did that could say, “Oh, no. I submitted my poem too late. I really blew it.”
I really blew it.
(This uses the past tense of the verb blow, which is blew: b-l-e-w.)
I really blew it!
In other words, I failed. I missed the opportunity. I missed the opportunity to enter this contest because I was late.
In these examples, you can see how “blow it” is used to mean “to fail something” or “to miss an opportunity to do something.”
And that is “blow it,” a common and maybe surprising idiom that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 490 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 and send an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Marwa recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!