There is a lot of slang and many idioms using “hell”
According to many religions, Hell (n) is the underworld, the place the devil lives, and a place of punishment in the afterlife for those who do bad or evil things in their life on earth. This mysterious place called hell is also the source of a fair number of slang expressions and idioms in English. You can hear this word and its expressions/slang in movies and TV shows quite often. Let’s have a look at the word hell today.
IMPORTANT! Keep in mind that using the word hell can be considered offensive, and because of that, hell is considered a “bad” or “taboo” word in English. Because of this, I am presenting this lesson for your information and for educational purposes only. While I think it is good to know these expressions, I can not recommend that you use them. Please, be careful!
We use the hell to emphasize the question word, usually (but not always) when we are upset or irritated.
- What the hell are you doing?
- Where the hell is Jack?
- Who the hell left these dirty dishes here?
- Why the hell did you say that to me?
- How the hell did he do that?
We use go to hell when we are angry with someone. It means “go away!” or “I’m so angry at you!”
- Go to hell!
We use be + hell to mean an unpleasant place or situation:
- Driving to work in rush hour traffic is hell.
- My job is hell!
- It was hell trying to a parking space in Manhattan during the snowstorm.
We use [someone (or) something] from hell to mean an unpleasant person or situation:
- Last night at the restaurant we had the waiter from hell. He spilled my wine but didn’t apologize!
- Jane hates her new job. She said she has the boss from hell.
- Tom had the vacation from hell. He lost his passport, got his wallet stolen and then missed the flight coming home.
We use a/one hell of a + [noun] to mean “a really great/impressive [noun]” in a positive meaning.
- That was a hell of a party last night. I really enjoyed it!
- That is one hell of a big birthday cake!
- Did you see the baseball game last night? That was a hell of a home run!
We also can use hell to emphasize our yes or no response in a conversation:
- Jack: Did you enjoy the party?
- Joe: Hell yes! (Yes, very much!)
- Jane: Do you like that guy?
- Cathy: Hell no! (No way!)
Have you heard hell in a movie or TV show recently? How was it used? Leave a comment here and let me know. Would you like to learn more Taboo words? Let me know
If you know anyone who has trouble with this English language point, why not help them out! Just share this lesson with them.
Thanks for studying today!