(someone) is a (real) pain in the neck

Use this expression to talk about a person who causes problems for you. For example, use it on a person who asks a lot of favors from you.

There are some other related expressions that people also use:

You're a real pain in the ass.

You're a real pain in the you-know-what.

"Pain in the ass" is more rude than "pain in the neck". But it expresses the feeling of frustration more clearly. "Pain in the you-know-what" is a way of saying "pain in the ass" without using the rude word "ass".

When you say that someone is "a real" pain in the neck, it just means that they're really annoying.

(sentence), you know?

You can add "you know?" to the end of a sentence. One occasion to do this is when you're criticizing someone. Specifically, this is the situation:

Someone has a bad quality, like being "a pain in the neck".

• You've always known about this bad quality, but tried no to say anything about it.
• They do something that makes you even more annoyed or mad than usual.
• You feel like you have to complain, so you say "___, you know?"

For example:

You're a real jerk, you know?

You're really not a very good listener, you know?

(something) is a real (something)

You use "very" and "really" with adjectives like this:

That's very dangerous. You shouldn't be doing that.

He's a really nice guy.

But you can't use "very" to modify nouns. Instead, you can use "a real ___":

You're a real pain in the neck, you know?

Angelo is a real pleasure to work with.