Shadowing Practice: AEE - No Dice! Fun Ways to Say Something Didn’t Work - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hey, Lindsay. How are you? I'm feeling good. Michelle, how are you? How's it going? Everything is good over here. Um, Lindsay, is it easy to find parking where you live? Yeah. No, it not really. It's tough because I live in a neighborhood where a lot of people don't have a garage and so there's a lot of street parking that happens. So, it can be tricky. Um, but we actually have we do have a garage so we don't have to worry about it too much. So, we're lucky. Yeah. What about you? No. Well, when I used to live in the city, yeah, I was Oh gosh. I mean, I just remember circling and circling with Dan and then you have to park further away and um but now um certainly it's much easier. But yeah, in the States, I mean, if you don't live in a big city, you drive a lot and so depending on where you're going, parking can be tricky.

Um, so but yeah, sometimes it can just feel like all right, you circled around again and then you just go no dice. I know you really No dice. Yeah. So yeah, when you try to find parking, you have no luck. Say no dice. Right. Yeah. So I could say to you, "Hey Michelle, any luck finding parking?" No dice. Yeah. So are you talking about like playing a a game, like a gambling game here?

What are we talking about here? So yeah. No. Uh today we're talking about how to use this no dice and daily conversation. And it's and it's not just for parking. It's for any casual situation.

Um to me, this is a really fun phrase to learn because it's an easy way to build connection.

It's playful. It's really about luck or not really so much being lucky. Right. Right. Right. Because it's more often used. It's really just used in the negative. Right. You don't ever say dice dice. No. No. So, it's really about not being No, you wouldn't. It's only no dice, right? So, it's like saying you didn't get what you what you were looking for, didn't get what you were hoping for, right? Yeah. But it's kind of a little bit lighthearted. It's a little relatable. So, even in your if you're in a unlucky situation, it's a little on the lighter end. Yep. Totally. So, we're going to get into this one today. We love giving you guys these supernatural expressions you probably never learned in school or in your dictionary or any other app or podcast. We're getting into them here on the show. First though, make sure you hit the follow button on Apple Podcast or Spotify or if you're on YouTube, hit subscribe so you don't miss a single one of these episodes. All right. Exactly. Yes. So, Lindsay, where does this phrase come from? Well, it was originally about gambling. We looked into it a little bit. So, in dice games, if the roll wasn't what you wanted, you could say no dice, right? But then, of course, it expanded to be a common everyday saying. I love thinking about etmology of words, Michelle. Yeah, it's really really interesting. Um, yeah. So, I mean, dice, of course, we all know dice. They're the with the What's Lindsay? Is dice plural or singular? I think so. I think dye is the singular, isn't that right? Am I wrong? Okay, good. Yeah. No, you're as far as I know it's dye and dice.

Yeah. Um but I don't like when you're playing a if you're playing a game and do you ever say like give me the dye like if you ask Not really. Everyone just kind of says dice. I mean everyone kind of says it sounds a little it sounds like a little like hidy toy like oh can I have the dice? Right. No no yeah. Um so yeah but so how can we use no dice? Well it's casual. So, we're not going to use it for professional situations. Maybe if your boss asks you how that sales conversation went and it just totally fell through and it was a highstake scenario, you might avoid it there. Or serious or emotional topics like health or relationship issues. Let's say you go back for like a scan or something has bad result. It's too heavy. This is too heavy those topics, right? I mean, you could use it at work if it's, you know, more in your lighthearted, you know, but not a very serious situation. And it depends, of course, on your company culture and your relationships with everyone. But yeah, this is in general, it's for lighter topics. It's it's basically like saying, I tried something and didn't work or I'm not going to get it right. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Um, and other things you might say, no success.

So for example you well I mean this is what but like another kind of meaning right is just like it's no success right so um did you get a hold of her no dice so I did not have success right these are all the man all the different like iterations of the meaning of no dice how about no luck right yeah yeah any luck finding your keys no dice okay or if something didn't work right yeah I mean did your computer finally work once you restarted it? No dice, right? Oh, no. Yeah. I mean, and it can also be used. It doesn't have to be just if somebody's asking you the question. You might just say something like, "Oh my gosh, and today was like with storytelling." This is really good. Oh, I was trying. And then, um, Lindsay, you mentioned you almost got locked out of your apartment today.

Um, you know, so you could I mean you could say and I was I was putting the keys in and it would it's just every I was trying everything but no dice. No dice. Exactly. Right. Yeah, that would be a great example. Uh the the little keypad stopped working because the battery died.

So I was standing out there. I was looking at my dog and I'm thinking we might be spending the day in the hallway. Wait, so what ended up happening? Actually, luckily my my parents-in-law had a key in a lock box like right behind us. So yeah, very smart. Um, so I was able to just get the key and get into the house, but I was panicking for a minute there. My dog was too kefir. He was like whining. He was hungry. Yeah. Not good. So, but yeah, this is great for storytelling. Um, yeah. And it can also be used for something that's just not allowed. So like you asked, you were told no, or you already know it's not allowed from previous experience, right? Okay. So, for example, can we bring outside food into the theater? Uh, no dice. Yeah. So, who would say that? And that would that be like a friend? You're asking a friend or would it be like like a person working at the theater? Just so we know the perspective there. I I personally think I don't think that the person working at the theater would say this, right? If it's a theater, maybe if it's a sports game, a little bit more casual something, but like a theater, I feel like they would say, "Oh, sorry." Right? And that goes along with that episode we did about like something just isn't allowed, right? Um, right. So, or something isn't possible. But this would be more, okay, I've been at this theater before and you're asking me. And then I might say no dice. And I might expand and say something like, I wish we could, but no dice. They've yelled at me about it in the past. Or something like that. Right. Like, this place is especially strict, so sorry, no dice. We can't do it. Or maybe you're talking to your spouse, right? Um, can she watch the movie? No dice. She's too young. Right. So maybe one spouse has a very strong perspective on that. Right. Right. Yep. Exactly. Yeah, that is a tricky thing deciding, you know, what movies you can show your kids. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Hey, quick question. Do you want to feel more confident when you speak English? If so, we made a free guide for you. It'll help you avoid those common mistakes and start speaking more naturally in real conversations. Go grab it in the description below. And if this is helpful for you, make sure that you like and subscribe. We are here five times a week to help you connect in English. All right, so let's talk about alternative phrases. No luck. I think our listeners have figured out that this is an alternative, right? This is neutral. casual, a little less playful, but maybe it's softer than No Dice. Maybe No Dice has a bit of a a harder edge to it. Maybe potentially it's a little bit more blunt, but it's still playful. So, it's kind of interesting. It's kind of a unique expression.

Mhm. So, how's the job hunt going? No luck so far. Right. Right. So, of course, you could have said there no dice so far. I guess I don't know if it goes with so far. I think no dice period.

Right. Um it's like it stands on its own, that phrase. Yeah. Um but no luck so far is a good alternative. Any luck with the Wi-Fi? H no luck. I just can't get it to work. All right. And did you find a seat? No luck. H what about no go? Is that another thing we could say, Michelle? Yeah, that's another good one. So that Yeah, not allowed or not possible. So, it's more matterof fact, not quite as playful, but also really useful. So, um, were you able to book a later flight? That's a no-go. Yeah. Yeah. Um, or can we park here? No go. Or can you come out tonight? No.

Go. I'm absolutely exhausted. Yeah. I like to say that's a no-go. It feels Yeah, that's a nogo. Same here. Yeah. I I I like that, too. I don't know. I don't know that I would say like just no go, but possible in some contexts. Um, all right. So, should we do a role play? Yeah. So, here Michelle, we are friends and we're trying to make last minute dinner plans. So, we're going to try a few things here. You ready? Okie dokie. Hey, any luck making a reservation for tonight? H, no dice.

Everywhere is fully booked, unfortunately. Uh, what about that new place by yours? Oh, no luck either. They're not answering their phone. Okay. So, should we just grab takeout from that Chinese place and eat at mine? No. Go. It's actually closed today. Wow. It sounds like tonight is not our night. I know. I say we just call it and try again next week. Agreed. Oh, there's so much good stuff in this role play. Yeah, there's a lot of interesting stuff going on. Yep. I was thinking the same thing. So, we'll we'll focus here on our our pieces for today. So, you said, you know, any luck? I'm making a reservation. And I said, oh, no dice. And I I mean it didn't work.

I could not get us a reservation. Right. Yes. And then you said, "What about that new place by yours?" Which is Do you want to make a comment on that? This is something I think we're going to we're going to do another episode on. Uh for sure. So in this role play, we said both by yours or eat at mine. We're talking about our homes, our places where we live, our apartments. But I actually don't think that we say this that much. Like I think it's I think it might be more British actually. I think it's I've heard Australians say this more actually. I don't know if it's British or Australian or both. Probably both because they're kind of like there's some connection there for sure. Um yeah, I think you're right. That's interesting. But but I think it's good if our listeners know it because it does cross over into American English sometimes. Yep. Um so I said, "No luck either. They're not answering their phone." And I said, "Should we just grab takeout uh from that Chinese place and eat at mine?" And you said, "No, go. It's actually closed today." I We're just gonna starve. No, there there must be somewhere. We'll figure it out, Lindsay. Yeah. Um, so guys, check out episode 2555. That was capture the connection when you agree with someone in English. Yeah. And there was another good bonus in this roleplay, too. In the last line, you said, "I know. I say we I say we just call it and try again next week." Call it. Right. So, this could be an episode in the future. for Michelle. Guys, hit follow if you want to catch this ways of sort of saying you're going to give up, right? Right. Call it, you know, let's let's um declare the loss. I don't know. Well, you'll have to come up with what we're going to teach our listeners for that episode, but I know there's some good stuff. Exactly. Um so, yeah, takeaway for today is just um yeah, these are some really useful expressions. No dice. We talked about how useful it is. Um, and yeah, sometimes things unfortunately just don't work out.

Sometimes things don't work out. And that's what this episode is about. It's nice though if you can and I mean these are scenarios that you could get pretty frustrated, especially the parking example is a good example. Yeah. And especially if you don't know the person well, you want to maintain the connection. No dice is a way to to to like maybe hide your frustration a little bit. Yeah.

Yeah. Right. And be a little less serious about it, which can be good to build a relationship, I think. Yeah, definitely. All right, I think we should leave it at that. All right, sounds good, Michelle. See you next time. Take care. All right, bye, Lindsay. Bye, guys. Bye.