Heavy
| Neil: | Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. My name's Neil. |
| Helen: | (Sigh) And I'm Helen. |
| Neil: | Oh Helen, that was a very heavy sigh. |
| Helen: | A heavy sigh? By that, you mean a big sigh?! Well, I suppose it was. It's just I've been trying to lose some weight but my diet is not working. |
| Neil: | So how heavy are you exactly? |
| Helen: | I'm not going to tell you my weight! |
| Neil: | OK but my advice is to cut down on the biscuits, eat more fruit and stick to the diet! |
| Helen: | Yeah, yeah, yeah! |
| Neil: | Sorry, am I getting too heavy? |
| Helen: | Heavy? You mean you're putting on weight too? |
| Neil: | No! Heavy can have another meaning. Used informally, it can mean serious or intense. Have a listen to this: |
| Our relationship's getting a bit heavy. I think we need to go out more and have a bit more fun. | |
| Neil: | And another informal use of the word can mean difficult. |
| Helen: | A heavy lecture—I've been to a few of them! |
| Neil: | Me too. But Helen, we can also use the word 'heavy' in a more formal way to mean 'intense': |
| Helen: | So heavy in those examples also means intense, bad or strong. What about a heavy drinker or a heavy smoker? What does that mean? |
| Neil: | Heavy here means to indulge to a great extent. |
| Helen: | Well that's not me—but there is one kind of 'heavy' I do like to indulge in. |
| Neil: | And what's that? |
| Helen: | Heavy metal! (Turns on heavy metal music) |
| Neil: | (shouting) That's a little heavy on my ears. Turn it down! What a noise! |