Health & Fitness Slang in British and American English

Katie opens this one by asking why a butcher's dog might be fit. The answer she gets — "It would be eating...meat" — goes nowhere useful, and the two of them end up laughing at an idiom that barely makes sense to the people who say it. That is most of this episode: ten colloquial expressions for health and fitness, tested live on someone whose honest verdict is "Fiddle sounds more familiar to me, butcher’s dog – nothing."

What you'll hear in this episode

Katie is in the park with Cathy, playing the guessing game they use across this level: Katie describes a colloquial expression and Cathy tries to name it before the answer arrives. Several of the expressions are marked from the start as particularly British, so Katie also asks for the American English equivalent each time — which is where the episode gets interesting.

Some expressions cross over easily. In shape, out of shape, love handles, six pack and guns all get recognised, though with small differences: slob, one speaker notes, is used more for someone "who, is not clean, and doesn’t dress well" than for someone unfit. Others land flat. A spare tyre draws "Ohhh, yeah I’ve never heard that before." As fit as a butcher's dog draws nothing at all.

There's a neat moment on the double meaning of fit. Katie explains that in British English "wow! He’s fit" is about looks, not exercise, and demonstrates the difference twice so you can hear it: "what you have to listen for then is the tone of voice."

You also get an American word going the other way — shlumpy, offered as a description of someone who has "no particular shape" and sits around, "they’re like a big blob, basically." Katie admits she doesn't know it. The episode closes with a warning worth taking seriously out of context: "So be careful what you say listeners, look at those guns."

Quick facts

Episode	3.14 – Health & Fitness
Pack	Colloquial 3
Level	3
Duration	15 minutes 09 seconds
Recorded	In the park
Workbook	Included in the all-in-one pack

What you'll learn

The most useful thing here isn't vocabulary at all — it's tone. He's fit means two completely different things depending on how it's said, and Katie says it both ways deliberately so you can compare. That kind of contrast is very hard to learn from a written list, and it's the reason this episode is worth listening to more than once.

You'll also practise listening to a guessing game, which trains a specific skill: following a definition forwards to a word. Katie describes fat around the waist and pauses on "we call this our spare...", leaving the listener to complete it. You can play along, and you'll notice how often English idioms are built from an everyday object — a tyre, a fiddle, a dog.

There's a second layer on variety. Rather than teaching British English as the only English, the conversation checks each expression against North American usage and flags what doesn't travel. Knackered is a good example: one speaker recalls first hearing it from a British friend and having to ask what it meant, before getting the explanation "I’m completely exhausted, I can’t think, I can’t do anything, I’m knackered."

After each conversation there's a scripted Meaning and Pronunciation section, where you answer a question then repeat the expression in a full example sentence after the beep.

The expressions covered

The workbook glossary rates each one for informality, from (1) usable with most people to (3) likely to offend:

to be in shape / out of shape (1) – to have a healthy body through exercise. Cathy's first answer in Task 1.
as fit as a butcher's dog / as fit as a fiddle (1) – very fit. Both defeat her.
a fitness freak / a fitness fanatic (1) – a person who is always thinking about and doing exercise. She guesses fanatic first, then adds "you’re obsessed, you can’t get enough of the gym".
to be fit (well fit!) (2) – physically attractive. The tone-of-voice example.
a slob (2) – a person who is lazy and untidy.
a spare tyre (2) – a ring of extra fat around your waist.
love handles (2) – extra fat around the hips. Used on both sides of the Atlantic.
knackered (2) – very tired.
out of breath (1) – finding it difficult to breathe.
guns (2) – bicep muscles (on the arms).
a six pack (2) – very well developed stomach muscles.

In the workbook

The unit 14 workbook gives you the full transcript of both conversations, so you can read back the parts where the speakers talk over each other or trail off mid-sentence. Alongside it you get the glossary above with its 1–3 informality ratings — a small detail that matters, because knowing a word isn't the same as knowing who you can say it to.

There are two practice exercises. Practice Exercise 1 is a gap-fill: a short first-person text about someone who used to be in good shape and now gets out of breath running for the bus, with six expressions removed. Practice Exercise 2 gives you five sentences containing deliberate mistakes — "He’s fit as a butcher." and "All she thinks of is exercise – she’s a bit of a fitness freaky." — for you to correct. Full answers follow, so you can mark your own work.

This workbook is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack: every episode across every level, with the workbook for each, for €39.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Common questions

Is the conversation scripted?

No. Katie and Cathy are genuinely guessing, correcting each other and laughing at the odd idiom. The teaching sections that set up the pronunciation tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

Are these expressions safe to use?

Use the glossary ratings. Everything in this unit is rated 1 or 2 — informal, but nothing in the danger category. Spare tyre, guns and slob are best kept for people you know well.

Will these work outside Britain?

Some will, some won't, and the episode tells you which. Six pack, guns and love handles are recognised in American English; spare tyre and as fit as a butcher's dog aren't.

Can I follow this at level 3?

Yes. It's unscripted natural speech at conversational speed, but the game format means every expression is explained, guessed and then repeated in the pronunciation drill.

How do I get the workbook?

The audio is free. The workbook for this episode comes with the all-in-one pack at €39, which covers every episode.

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