AEE 2621: Vocabulary You Should Not Put Behind You

Summary

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All Ears English Podcast – Episode 2621: "Vocabulary You Should Not Put Behind You"

Hosts: Lindsay McMahon & Aubrey Carter
Date: May 21, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this fun and practical episode, Lindsay and Aubrey explore the vocabulary and idioms that native English speakers use to talk about moving on from disappointments, breakups, mistakes, and setbacks. Listeners learn not only alternative phrases for “getting over” something, but also how mastering this nuanced language can deepen connections and smooth conversations in English. Practical, real-life tips and a relatable role play reinforce the learning, making the episode perfect for intermediate to advanced ESL students looking to up their fluency and confidence.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origin of the Episode – Spelling Surprises and Phrasing (02:04–04:13)

• Aubrey shares recent surprises about English spelling, including the tennis move "pesci," illustrating how unexpected spellings and homophones can cause confusion, especially for language learners.
• The conversation transitions from AI transcription errors into the idea of handling and talking about mistakes in English.
  • Memorable Moment:
    Aubrey (03:32): "AI is making mistakes, guys. It's not perfect. Be aware, if you are learning English with AI, you're pro. You may be learning mistakes."

2. Setting the Context – Why “Getting Over” Vocabulary Matters (04:13–05:11)

• Lindsay and Aubrey emphasize the importance of these phrases for connecting with others and expressing empathy during challenges, big and small.
• They introduce the idea that moving on can refer to anything, from a failed relationship to not getting dessert.

3. Core Vocabulary & Idioms for Moving On (05:11–09:09)

A. Get Past It

• Used for encouraging someone not to dwell on a negative event.
  • Examples:
    • "Dwelling on the argument won’t help. You need to get past it."
    • "I know the mistake was embarrassing, but you need to get past it and focus on the game." (06:09)
  • Insight: Can be used gently or firmly, depending on context.

B. Get Over It

• A classic phrase for recovering from disappointment or sadness; can sound harsher than “get past it” depending on delivery.
  • Examples:
    • "It took him a while to get over it after losing the game." (06:44)
    • "I'm gonna have a hard time getting over this breakup." (06:49)
  • Aubrey: “It’s kind of mean. You’re sort of giving no understanding for them going through that.” (06:49)

C. Move On

• Can be used both in emotional and unemotional/professional contexts.
  • Examples:
    • "After the project failed, the team decided to move on and start fresh." (07:38)
    • "She couldn’t forgive him at first, but eventually she moved on." (07:41)
  • Lindsay: “I like it when a word has a literal meaning and a figurative meaning.” (07:51)

D. Let Go

• Means to release negative feelings or attachments.
  • Examples:
    • "He had to let go of his anger toward his former boss." (08:10)
  • Related to mindfulness and mental health; Lindsay references Buddhism and meditation.

E. Put It Behind You

• Directs a person to stop dwelling and focus on the future.
  • Example:
    • "It’s time to put it behind you and focus on the future." (08:55)

4. Personal Strategies for Moving On (09:09–10:35)

• Aubrey recommends “talking it out”—either with the person involved or with a therapist (09:21).
  • Aubrey: "I cannot just, like, think it through in my own head… I personally often need to talk something out before I can put it behind me."
• Lindsay shares her approach of “re-centering” on her own life, starting new activities, and distracting herself after setbacks or breakups.
  • Lindsay: "For me, it was like recentering on my own life... Maybe starting a new hobby and a bit of a distraction." (09:53)
• They discuss healthy ways to cope—using hobbies or activities rather than unhealthy distractions.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Spelling confusion & language learning pitfalls: 02:04–04:13
• The importance of “getting over” language: 04:13–05:11
• Idioms for moving on:
  • Get past it: 05:11–06:09
  • Get over it: 06:25–07:07
  • Move on: 07:17–07:51
  • Let go: 07:56–08:39
  • Put it behind you: 08:48–09:09
• Personal strategies to get past things: 09:09–10:35
• Role play using all idioms in conversation: 12:02–13:39
• Recap & encouragement for connection: 13:39–14:12

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Memorable Quotes

On AI Mistakes

• Aubrey (03:32): "AI is making mistakes, guys. It's not perfect. Be aware, if you are learning English with AI, you may be learning mistakes."

On “Get Over It” vs. “Get Past It”

• Aubrey (06:32): “To say to someone ‘get over it’ is kind of mean. You’re giving no understanding for them going through that. But to say, ‘it takes a while to get over,’ about yourself, that’s different.”

On How Long It Takes to Move On

• Lindsay (04:46): "Are we talking about, like, the end of a relationship… or a small disappointment… maybe we couldn’t get ice cream? How long we dwell on something definitely depends on how serious the issue was."
• Aubrey (05:46): "Ain't nobody got time for that. That's right. That's kind of a fun expression in English that we use with poor grammar."

On Talking it Out

• Aubrey (09:21): "For me, I have to talk it out. Whether it’s with a person that I have some kind of resentment with or with a therapist, I cannot just think it through in my own head."
• Lindsay (09:53): "I need to talk through stuff and then maybe also … recentering on why my life is great and all the great things going on."

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Role Play Demonstration (12:02–13:39)

A realistic conversation between friends showcases all five idioms naturally:

• Aubrey: “Honestly, I'm still kind of upset. I'm having a really hard time getting over it.”
• Lindsay: “It might take some time, but you'll be able to get past it.”
• Aubrey: “I know I really need to move on, but it's tough to let go of the resentment.”
• Lindsay: “Maybe a new hobby to distract yourself would help you put it behind you.”
• Aubrey: “That's not a bad idea. I've been wanting to learn to play the guitar. No time like the present.”

Takeaway: These idioms are essential for both expressing your own feelings and connecting empathetically with others in English.

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Final Insights & Recommendations

• Everyone faces setbacks—from small disappointments to big life changes. Having the right words doesn’t just help you express yourself—it helps you connect with others going through similar things.
• Practical tip: When checking on a friend or discussing your own experiences, weave these idioms naturally into conversation to sound fluent and create deeper bonds.

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Related Episodes

• Episode 2612: "I'm up for it if you are – How to recruit your friends to join you at social events." (14:24)

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Hosts’ Closing Thoughts:

• Lindsay and Aubrey encourage listeners to check in with friends, use these vocabulary phrases for connection, and, most importantly, to focus on connection, not perfection in speaking English.

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[End of summary]

Transcript

[A]

This is an All Ears English podcast. Episode 2621 vocabulary you should not put behind you welcome to the All Ears English Podcast downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz and Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, usa. To get real time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the Allears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven day free trial at allearsenglish.com app.

[B]

Are you currently getting over something or someone today? Learn new ways to talk about healing after a big disappointment and find out why this is a connection skill. There's a big difference between understanding English and participating in English. Understanding means you follow the conversation. You participate by adding your ideas, reacting naturally, and keeping the conversation moving. Moving Many English learners are strong listeners, but hesitant speakers. Once you know your current fluency level, it becomes much easier to close that gap. Take our free 2 minute quiz to discover your level and what to focus on next. Go to allersenglish.com fluencyscore that's allersenglish.com flu e n c y s c o r e foreign.

[A]

Hey Aubry, I have a question for you.

[B]

Oh, let's hear it.

[A]

When is the last time that you saw the spelling of something and it was actually very different from what you expected?

[B]

Okay, this has happened to me a couple of times recently. The first was you said in a recent episode pesci.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I was just checking the transcripts to make sure it was spelled correctly and I looked up the name and it was spelled so differently.

[A]

That's really so funny. How did you even look that up?

[B]

Like, how did you like I saw the name, it was just P E S H I and so then I searched. It was like Pesci tennis. Okay, something. And it all came up, right? It was like French tennis player Giovanni Pesci, but the pesci is spelled M P E T S H I, which is very surprising. It doesn't sound like that right when people say it. So I was surprised. And then another one I just saw a couple of days ago was AI had transcribed something and it said everyone's going to get past it in a couple days, which would should be spelled get and then past P A S T. Yes. But it wasn't. It had been spelled P A S S E D which sounds exactly the same when you're speaking but doesn't make sense would mean something totally different. And then it also inspired this episode because I was like, oh, that's interesting. Get past it and other phrases for getting over something.

[A]

Right. Can we get past the mistakes that AI makes?

[B]

Right?

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

We have to.

[A]

We have to. AI is making mistakes, guys. It's not perfect. Be aware, if you are learning English with AI, you're pro. You may be learning mistakes.

[B]

Yes, absolutely. If you just are getting AI transcripts somewhere, I guarantee you they're full of mistakes.

[A]

Yeah, for sure.

[B]

Unfortunately.

[A]

And by the way, a pesci, just so our listeners have some context, is where you turn. If you're a tennis player, if you can do this, it's very advanced skill. You turn around and you hit the ball between your legs. So that's why it's such a fun term and everyone loves it and such a fun move.

[B]

If ever somebody pulls it off, we're very impressed.

[A]

Very friends. But yeah. So today's episode, then, is really all about moving past things. Like, what would be another way of saying that, Aubrey?

[B]

Yeah, get over it. We are going to share a few today. We have five different ways that we say this in English, so let's dive into the first one here. But of course, if all of this sounded unfamiliar, if you missed that conversation about the pesi, you might not be following the podcast. You might be missing great episodes. So hit follow wherever you listen.

[A]

Yeah, guys, hit that follow, follow button right now. I mean, it's, you know, so it depends on what happens here in terms of how quickly we're able to get over something. Right. Are we talking about, like, the end of a relationship?

[B]

You know, that's a good point.

[A]

For years and years. Are we talking about a small disappointment that happened? Maybe we couldn't get ice cream. We expected to have ice cream after dinner and we couldn't have it.

[B]

I mean, would like to hope you'd get over that more quickly. Right. How long we dwell on something definitely depends on how serious the offense is or how serious the. The issue the situation was.

[A]

Yeah. So again, the first phrase we could use is get past it to move beyond that problem. What are some other examples here? Aubry?

[B]

Yeah, dwelling on the argument won't help. You need to get past it. I think we've all said this to friends who are still mad about something after a while. And then the advice might be at some point, you got to get past it.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, some people, I think, tend to hold on to things a bit more than others. Aubrey, are you someone that holds on to things, or are you able to?

[B]

Sometimes I will. There'll be something that I'm upset about after a while. A while. But for the most part, I let things go pretty well. I think I can get past things. What about you?

[A]

Yeah, pretty much. There's almost not enough time to, you know, remember things like that. You have to move on.

[B]

Ain't nobody got time for that. That's right. That's kind of a fun expression in English that we use with poor grammar.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's like we don't have time to.

[A]

We don't have time. We don't have time. Here's another example. I know the mistake was embarrassing, but you need to get past it and focus on the game. Yeah. I mean, if you're an athlete, you have to be present. Tennis is one of those games that requires total mental presence. It's very mental.

[B]

Yes. A lot of sports are that way. I'm coaching basketball right now, and this will happen if a girl misses a shot or trips and falls in front of people and they're embarrassed and they get in their heads and they start playing really terribly. And a coach might say this, like, you've just got to get past it and focus on the game. That's forget about it.

[A]

Yeah, for sure. Or the coach might say. Well, would the coach say, you need to get over it? That one's a little more harsh.

[B]

This is a little more harsh. Right. It means to get over, you recover from disappointment or sadness, some kind of obstacle. But it is a little more harsh. It's a little less understanding of the emotion. Right.

[A]

So, for example, it took him a while to get over it after losing the game. Right.

[B]

Or I'm gonna have a hard time getting over this breakup. So those are ways like that to actually to say to someone get over it. It's kind of mean. You're sort of giving no understanding for them going through that. Something that's difficult.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But these. Where we're saying it about ourselves, like it takes a while to get over. That's different.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. Who's delivering the message and with what tone of voice, what context. Moving on. Right. Move on. Right. To move on. Moving on. Let's talk about. Move on.

[B]

There you go. Right. So to emotionally or mentally leave a past event behind and focus on the present or future. So it is interesting how we just talk about this with no emotion involved. Like, let's move on to the next topic. Topic. But we also talk about it for emotional things. For example, after the project failed the team decided to move on and start fresh.

[A]

Or she couldn't forgive him at first, but eventually she moved on.

[B]

And then I kind of have both examples. The first one is sort of unemotional. At work, we're moving to the next thing.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And the second one to move on is like, to let the emotion of it go.

[A]

Yeah. I like it when a word has a literal meaning and a figurative meaning, in a way. Yeah.

[B]

It's kind of fun.

[A]

Let go again would be the next one to release negative feelings, resentment, or attachment to something that's holding you back. I mean, I study Buddhism, and we talk about letting go a lot. It's a huge theme within meditation and Buddhist practice, Right?

[B]

Absolutely. We've all had things that we need to let go. We feel it holding us back. If it's a resentment or something that we're dwelling on. For example, he had to let go of his anger toward his former boss. Like, maybe you're still seeing each other at conferences or at events. And if there's lingering angry feelings that could keep you from networking connections that could be having dire consequences.

[A]

Yeah, for sure. Or sometimes you need to let go. You just need to let go in order to move on again. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

This is kind of a chunk we use to say, you just need to let go in order to move on. Right. We're sort of saying you need to leave something in the past or you won't be able to move forward.

[A]

Or we could put it behind us. Right. Put it behind you. This is, again, to stop thinking about stopping. Stop dwelling on something.

[B]

Right, Exactly. Like it's time to put it behind you and focus on the future. So this could be. Maybe you don't get a job you want or you're not accepted to a university you want. Instead of dwelling on that, put it behind you, move on to the next opportunity.

[A]

Yeah. Aubrey, do you have any strategies to do this? If there. There's something that you just can't seem to get past, like, any techniques of how you kind of. Of do that to facilitate the process,

[B]

what do you talk it out for? Me, I have to talk it out. Whether it's with a person that I have some kind of resentment with or if it's with a therapist, I cannot just, like, think it through in my own head. And if it's not something I want to talk out with another person, if I feel that might just make it worse, or if I am not ready to talk to that person, then I think a mental health expert is a great person to talk it out with. And this might not be a solution for everyone, but I personally often need to talk something out before I can put it behind me.

[A]

Yeah, you're a verbal. I mean, you're a podcaster. It makes sense.

[B]

I'm a verbal person. Very true.

[A]

Teacher podcaster. We're verbal people. I'm similar. I need to talk through stuff and then maybe also for me, if it's a breakup. I remember back in my dating days, you know, there were breakups and for me it was like re centering on my own life. So talking through it first but then re centering on why my life is great and like all the great things going on. Maybe starting a new hobby and a bit of a distraction, but like adding just recentering on what's going on on my side. Not so much thinking about the person. Right. That has broken up.

[B]

Interesting. It's sort of like a healthy rebound. Instead of rebounding with a different person.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

You are creating this rebound of a hobby or activity. Something to distract you. That's a healthy way to cope.

[A]

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[B]

you just had a difficult breakup. Here we go. I just went through a breakup. So there's been at least 20 years.

[A]

Oh, geez. I know, I know. Those are tough days, right? Dating. Dating days were tough.

[B]

We don't envy anyone out there. Who's still going through it. I. I remember how rough that was.

[A]

Yeah, for sure. Hey, Aubry. How have you been feeling since the breakup?

[B]

Honestly, I'm still kind of upset. I'm having a really hard time getting over it.

[A]

I get it. Breakups are tough. It might take some time, but you'll be able to get past it.

[B]

I know I really need to move on, but it's tough to let go of the resentment.

[A]

Maybe a new hobby to distract yourself would help you put it behind you.

[B]

That's not a bad idea. I've been wanting to learn to play the guitar. No time like the present.

[A]

That's so funny. I didn't even read our role play, but basically.

[B]

I know, but you're right. I mean, it just makes sense. Right. This is a great way to move past something, to have something else to occupy your time and your thoughts. Because otherwise, if you're just sitting around, you're going to dwell on it.

[A]

Exactly. Exactly. So I asked you how you're feeling, how you've been feeling since the breakup. You said, honestly, I'm still kind of upset. I'm having a hard time getting over it. Right. Getting over it. Yeah.

[B]

And then you said, breakups are tough, but you'll be able to get past it. So this is a great connection skill to use these phrases to encourage you're giving someone hope. Like, I know you're struggling, you're going through it, but, like, you will be able to get past it.

[A]

Yeah. And then you said, I know I really need to move on, but it's tough to let go of the resentment. Yes.

[B]

Yeah. So we got both of those. Right. I need to move on. Having a hard time letting go of those angry feelings. And then you said, maybe a new hobby would help you put it behind you.

[A]

Yeah. I love it. So good. Yeah. I mean, this is very human. I mean, that's why this is a connection episode. Guys. Everyone is. Y', all, at some point in life, has to get over something. Whether it's a big breakup or whether it's maybe you didn't get the job you wanted or so many scenarios. Aubry. Right.

[B]

Absolutely. And it could be more like a sadness, heartache, something tragic happens, the death of a loved one. There are so many things that you will eventually have to heal from. However, each person does that very differently in order to get past it, heal from it, and move on.

[A]

Yeah. So bringing this up with a friend, checking in like I did at the beginning of the role play, is a really nice connection skill. And then bringing in this vocabulary. Aubry, what's another episode to check out?

[B]

Yes, if you missed it, go check out 2612 right here on the Allers English podcast. I'm up for it if you are. How to recruit your friends to join you at social events. That's a really fun one, so don't miss it.

[A]

Yeah, good stuff, Aubry. We'll see you next time. You have a good rest of your day. And guys, don't forget to hit follow on the podcasts. Awesome.

[B]

See you next time.

[A]

Bye bye. Thanks for listening to Allears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com fluencyscore and if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time. You can't reason with the sun. Trust us, we've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's Omnishade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin. The sun is relentless, but so is our gear. Level up your [e-mail] to spend more time outside and less time slathering on aloe lotion. You're welcome, Columbia. Engineered for whatever

[B]

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[A]

Grab that boho, look for that rooftop dinner, those sandals that can keep up with you, and hang some string lights to give your patio a glow up.

[B]

Spring's calling, Ross. Work your magic.