blow away: meaning and explanation
If something blows you away, it amazes or impresses you.
It is more common for this expression to be used in the passive, e.g. I was blown away by the quality of support I was offered.
However, it can also be used in the active voice, e.g. The quality of support I was offered blew me away.
Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?
Listening exercises
Micro-listening #1
Accent: North America
About the sentence
…Laura and Michael were blown away…
When the word were is spoken naturally as part of a sentence, it is pronounced quickly and weakly as /wə/.
If someone is speaking quite quickly, it can sound almost the same as are, pronounced /ə/.
In this situation, you need to think about the context to decide whether you have heard were or are (e.g. in this example, the speaker is talking about a past event, so were is more likely).
Micro-listening #2
Accent: Scotland
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Micro-listening #3
Accent: England (RP)
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