Hey friends! Let’s continue learning idioms through Movies and TV series. Today, I picked a very popular TV Series: LOST. I’m sure most of you know it, but let me tell you in ‘broad strokes’ (in a general way, without giving details) that the plot is about a group of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, somewhere in the South Pacific. The examples below belong to Lost’s second season.

That said, let’s learn a couple of idioms: in the loop & out of the loop.

To be in the loop means to be provided with information (usually known to only a privileged few) and included in a decision-making process.

For example, “Hurley then says he’d be more help if Jack kept him in the loop.”
http://www.tvrules.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9905

This expression uses loop in the sense of “a circle of individuals among whom information or responsibility circulates.” The antonym is to be out of the loop, meaning “left out of such a circle”.

For example, “…and poor Sun and Jin are so out of the loop that they didn’t seem to know that Michael had returned, much less that Libby and Ana-Lucia were dead.”
http://televisionary.blogspot.com/2006/05/messages-in-bottle-lost-thoughts-10.html
This statement means Sun and Jin are not part of the privileged group that knows everything that’s going on in the island.

Now, let’s check examples from other sources:

Alias – Season 3
“Sydney tries to manipulate the CIA to stay in the loop of the organization (they don’t trust her because of her absence).”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Bristow

24 – Season 2 (3:00 P.M.- 4:00 P.M.)
“Sherry reveals that Ron refused her deal. She then asks her ex-husband if she can stay in the loop.”
http://www.tv.com/24/day-2-300-p.m.-400-p.m./episode/191810/recap.html

Friends
“Feeling a little out of the loop for never having attended college, Phoebe comes up with a fake story involving a sorority named ‘Thigh-Mega-Tampon, which was shut down after Regina Phalange died of alcohol poisoning’.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Buffay

Finally…if you are out of the loop, and you want to become fully informed or up to date, you can say: “Bring me up to speed”.

Karin,
From Guatemala

Oi pessoal, hoje eu apresento a vocês a Karin. Ela é Guatemalteca e apesar de ter o Espanhol como idioma principal, fala Inglês como poucos. Já faz um bom tempo que eu a convidei para participar do English Experts, hoje para minha surpresa ela mandou a sua primeira contribuição, um texto bem interessante onde ela fala sobre como é possível aprender Inglês estudando através de Filmes. Confira abaixo.

Hi friends! I believe that watching movies in English is one of the best ways to learn vocabulary and improve your listening skills if you don’t live in an English-speaking country. So, I will be writing regularly about new idioms, phrases or expressions from movies or TV series.

Today, I would like to start with “to have a twenty on something”. This is a phrase used a lot in “24” a famous TV series where Jack Bauer works for the fictional Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) as they try to safeguard the nation from terrorist threats.

The expression “to have a twenty on something” belongs to the “ten-codes”, properly known as “ten signals”, which are code words used to represent common phrases in voice communication, particularly in radio transmissions. “Twenty” is the short form for 10-20 (ten-twenty), which refers to the location of something or someone.

For example, in Episode 9 of Season 1, agent Hays says “I have a twenty on Bauer” meaning “I’m looking at Bauer right now”. In the previous episode, another agent says “I got a possible twenty on Bauer” meaning “I think I’m looking (or ‘I think I just saw him’) at Bauer”.

Another example, in Episode 13 of Season 2, Jack says “Unit three will await my command as soon as I’ve got a twenty on the bomb.” He means, unit three should wait for his orders, which he will give as soon as he finds the bomb.
http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/24/season2/24-213.htm

Now, let’s look at some other examples in other sources….

“Do you have a ‘twenty’ on this?” she asked referring to the location of the crime as they hurried down the hall.
Mourning Dove by Aimée and David Thurlo
http://www.aimeeanddavidthurlo.com/dove.htm

- “Do you have a twenty a shooter?”
- “Negative. The roof is bare.”
The Team by Bluejay
http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~david/derya/storys6/story8071.htm

“I’ve got a twenty on the FOB (father of the bride).”
The wedding planner
http://www.filmquipsonline.com/weddingplanner.html

For more information on the ten-codes, check this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-code

Karin,
From Guatemala