Your neighbour buys a brand new flat screen TV and, of course, he can’t wait to show off his new toy. Standing in front of said toy, in awe, your jaw drops as you see the HD quality and you utter those inevitable words “Wouldn’t it be great to watch Liverpool …”
Keeping up with the Joneses is one thing, being the competitive soul that you are, your new flat screen TV has to be simply BETTER (capable even of remotely putting the kettle on for your cuppa tea at a distance of 500 miles).
You always want to one up your neighbour – this is called one-upmanship.
To show off (angeben/prahlen), in awe (bewundernd) to utter (in den Mund nehmen), to keep up with the Joneses (mit den Nachbarn mithalten)
Learn more ‚weird (sounding) words‘ like ad-lib, pussyfoot or sugar-coat in Chapter 10 of the PDF book WED1 @ https://teatimetitbits.de/downloads/walking-english-dictionary-1/
The Sparkasse or the advertising agency Jung von Matt respectively, has always been good at one-upmanship with the legendary „mein Haus, mein Auto, mein Boot“ TV spot: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U0MU-2_MuUE.
The new version of this spot is great, too, sort of one-upwomanship. 😉 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XlP6knNk2y0
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