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I don’t have much time to spend on Netflix, at least from September to August, so when one of my Legal English students suggested that I watched the series Suits I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.
But after the first episode I decided it was worth making time for it, and not only because of the plot and the brilliant acting.
I am, as a matter of fact, an extremely choosy person when it comes to tv series.
For me to like them, not only must they be gripping and unpredictable, but the English used in them must be interesting – from a linguist’s perspective.
In the case of Suits, my expectations were high, as such is the value I attach to my students’ opinion. I wasn’t disappointed.
So here’s what you can find on Suits
- it goes without saying, but of course the series is full of terms that belong to Legal English (the series is set in the Big Apple, so prepare yourself to be swamped by American Legal English terms).
- an incredible amount of idioms, to the point where sometimes a character can utter two in the same sentence. And that’s a lot for non-native ears.
- jokes and puns, that wouldn’t be as effective when translated into another language (or at least into Italian).
I am not going to spoil much, as this is a discovery you’ll have to do by yourself.
So, I’m just going to focus on one particular aspect of English creativity that is recurrent in Suits: the creation of new verbs.
As you can read in the title, the beauty of English (as if it only had one!) is that any word can potentially become a verb. Yes, even a person’s name.
Harvey is this incredibly confident, obviously attractive, top-notch lawyer who claims to be the best closer in New York (and he probably is).
As everybody has flaws, he tends not to follow people’s advice when he thinks he knows better (which is every time), which is why you’ll hear his name been pronounced many, many times, and not only in a nice tone.
“Don’t Harvey me!”, indeed, is something he says after another character tries to convince him of something, and to be honest I forgot how many times she says his name 😀
So there you go, what he means by that is “stop calling my name with the intent of trying to convince me otherwise”.
Another example is “I’ll Netflix it”, which has become a verb now, as a matter of fact, just like it happened with Google.
I find it funny as now Netflix is basically using self-referential expressions in the series on a regular basis. Well, I guess they can afford to do that.
So, do you have Netflix? Then, if you are at least an upper-intermediate user and you fancy some juicy, rich, stimulating English then Suits is the right place to go. Especially if you know a thing or two about law.
Take care
Ilaria
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