Don't try to front?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

How often do you hear or use expressions with ‘front’ such as ‘don’t try to front’, ‘why do you keep on fronting’?, ‘stop fronting’, etc?

Thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, question-response: You couldn’t finish the report by tomorrow, could you?[YSaerTTEW443543]

2

Never.

Is it a UK expression?

There’s one sense of one organization “fronting” for another, but not on a personal basis.

3

Hi Barb,

No it’s probably a US expression used by young Americans. Also, US pop stars such as Britney Spears and The Pussycat Dolls use the expression in their lyrics:

'…Boy, don’t try to front, I
I know just
Just what you are-are-are…

‘I’m telling you loosen up my buttons babe
But you keep fronting
Saying what you going to do to me
But I ain’t seen nothing’[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, question-response: Which vendor do we use for break-room supplies?[YSaerTTEW443543]

4

.
I don’t use “front” that way either, Torsten. I also haven’t noticed teenagers in this neck of the woods using it, but I’ll ask a few whether any of their friends at school are using “front” that way.
.

5

:slight_smile: thank you

6

Hi Torsten

I thought you might find this “slanguage” dictionary interesting. The word frontin’ is listed in it:
thesource4ym.com/teenlingo/

I’d say some words and expressions listed in that slang dictionary are far more widely used than others. There are quite a few words and expressions listed there that I’ve never heard people use. But there are also a few things listed there that aren’t at all new.
.

7

Hi Amy,

Thanks a lot for pointing out that ‘slanguage’ dictionary – I hadn’t been aware of it. It’s interesting that the use of ‘frontin’ is new to you too. You know, sometimes my friends and acquaintances ask me about certain expressions they hear in pop songs and when I tell them I’ve never heard those phrases they look at me kind of strange. Sometimes they say things like ‘how come you don’t even know expressions that are used by such household names like Britney Spears or the Pussycat Dolls’? And then I usually tell them that it’s not my aim to learn all the expressions that Britney Spears uses because I’m not a teenager and she isn’t a person I want to emulate. My aim is to create and maintain a medium that helps people get answers to their questions.

So now I can handle such situation with even greater confidence.
Many thanks for your support.
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, question-response: How much did we budget for marketing?[YSaerTTEW443543]

8

Hi Torsten

I think Fred Lynch makes some interesting points on that site (the added highlighting in the quote is my doing):

Thus, some slang words and expressions are used specifically because they are incomprehensible to the vast majority of people.

As I see it, some of the slang that’s used today may well be gone by next year. Some of it will hang on a little longer than that, but will also ultimately die out. However, some of it will end up sticking around for quite some time, and ultimately become more generally and widely used. The problem is that it’s difficult to predict what’s going to stick and what isn’t.

I would also add that it has always been the case that language is often used “differently” in poetry and music, and some “poetic” usages are simply easier to figure out than others. As I see it, music aimed at teenagers sometimes uses a special sort of “poetic license” – and this sort of license frequently means: “These words are not intended to be understood or used by people outside our group”. :lol:

The Pussycat Dolls certainly is not a “household name” in my household.
.

9

Hi Torsten

I’ve now had a chance to ask a few local teenagers ( ages 15-18 ) specifically about “fronting”, “fronted”, etc and none of the kids I asked use the word “front” that way, and none of them said they’d heard anyone else use it that way either. (If they’ve heard a song in which it was used, apparently it didn’t mean anything to them since they all claimed not to have heard it at all.) That’s about the best I can do for you.
.

10

I’m no expert, but I remember the expression “front” as referring to putting on a face figuratively…generally I would probably site Britney Spears affiliation with the entertainment world, and Front stage is a well understood idiom where you are performing and attempting to blur the lines between where your personality is your own and that of who you are attempting to portray.

Wikipedia states…
“The goal of this presentation of self is acceptance from the audience through carefully conducted performance. If the actor succeeds, the audience will view the actor as he or she wants to be viewed.”

So when Britney states in her song, Womanizer, “don’t try to front” I suspect she is trying to communicate to her implied “boy” that is the object of her cantata that she has no time for his “performance”…she already knows how who he is “backstage” if you will or when he’s not performing and trying to convince her he’s something he is not. It’s a long winded way of saying…“Cut the crap!, I know what you are.” Rather, my way is long winded…the other is a little more artfully stated.