Hello and welcome back to another lesson from English with Greg. In today's lesson I'm going to teach you ten phrases and
expressions that native speakers never really use. They're all expressions
that I'm sure you've learned at school or perhaps in textbooks but that in
modern spoken English we never really use them anymore, so if you don't want to
speak English like a textbook let's go! Alright guys, I'm Greg this is my
YouTube channel, I teach British English pronunciation
and advanced grammar and vocabulary so if you want to take your English to an
advanced level click Subscribe! I give you free videos every Friday on this
channel and I would love to have you as one of my students. So today's lesson
we're looking at ten words that we never use. The reason we never use them and the reason you've learnt them is this, it's usually one of two reasons: 1) they're a
little bit outdated a little bit old-fashioned,
we maybe used them 40, 50, 60 years ago but we don't really use them nowadays.
The second reason why you might be using these phrases and expressions that we
never use is because we use them in written English in a formal situation
but we never use them in spoken English especially when we're talking informally
to people. So yes these phrases and expressions are all acceptable they're
all correct in English but I'm just saying that we don't use them in spoken
English. Number one is the biggest one: How do you do?
How do you do is a greeting that many many textbooks teach. Many students have used this to me, how do you do, but really it's an expression that we used maybe
sixty years ago but not anymore. Instead the most common way of saying
this is 'how are you?' How are you? Are you OK? Are you alright? But never 'how do you do?' Number two is the answer: I'm fine thanks, how are you? Now, I did a video a while ago on different ways we can answer -
'how are you?'... "I'm fine thanks how are you" it's a bit old-fashioned and there are
many, many more common and modern ways to answer the question 'how are you?' so after this video I definitely recommend you watch that video which will teach you 10
different ways that you can answer - 'how are you?' without saying "I'm fine thanks"
Number 3 is "so-so" I remember when little kids were
learning English that there were three option:s something was either good, bad or so-so. But the fact is we never say "so so" Instead the most common way is saying
"not bad". Good - bad - not bad. You could also say "alright". Alright - that's neither great
nor terrible: alright. OK, it's okay. These are all common expressions but we never say "so so". The next 3 are idioms and students (I include myself in this
because I also speak different languages) we love idioms! If you learn an idiom, a
real native expression in a foreign language, you feel great, you want to use
it, you want to tell the world that you know that idiom in English, right, because
you know that the person you are speaking to will say 'Wow how do you
know that expression in English? Your English is amazing!' It's great! But there
are three idioms that people tend to use all the time that when I hear them I
just think 'oh I really appreciate you learning this idiom and I want to tell
you how fantastic your English is but... we never say that the expressions!' I had
a ball. I had a ball. It's a really old-fashioned expression and nowadays we just say I had a great time, I had an amazing time. Hey how was your holiday in Egypt? I had a ball! I had an amazing time, it was fantastic! But not 'I had a ball'.
The next one is 'It's raining... it's raining cats and dogs!' Yes it's a
beautiful expression, yes it's a beautiful image of it raining cats and
dogs instead of water and yes it is an English expression but guess what... we
never use it! If you want to really impress a native speaker with idioms use
one of these, which are expressions that we use all the time to say the same
thing which basically means it's raining heavily. The expressions we can use are:
it's pouring, it's pouring. If you have a jug of water,
you pour it into a glass. OK, so pouring means obviously a lot of
water coming down at once. It's pouring. Two more informal ones
are 'it's chucking it down' It's chucking it down. Chuck means throw in an informal way. Chuck. So it's chucking it down. Or it's lashing
it down. Lash is what you do when you go to the toilet - again lots of liquid
coming down at once - now obviously this is not very polite but it's a more
polite version of a very, very common expression that we use with a different
word instead of lashing. As I've said before I don't teach bad words on
YouTube because my mother watches these videos and I like to keep things clean!
And the third one is: I'm on cloud nine. I'm on cloud nine. It means that you are
extremely, extremely happy. I'm on cloud nine and yes, again, it's a beautiful expression but it's really, really
old-fashioned and we never use it in spoken English now. We can say I'm happy or I'm very happy but it's better to use a different adjective which means very,
very happy. For example thrilled. I am thrilled or I
am delighted. I am delighted or I'm so happy. But not I'm on cloud nine.
By the way, finding an adjective like delighted instead of very happy can
really make your English sound more advanced and I did a video up there in
which I give you 21 adjectives that we can use instead of saying very (like very
good, very bad, very happy, very hungry). Try to use more advanced adjectives to help
you speak more advanced English. Right I hear these next three quite frequently
and the reason we never say these are because they're simply too formal,
and yes there are situations where you need formal English when you are
communicating orally but usually, usually spoken English is more informal so
number seven is: don't hesitate to contact me. Now this is a great way to
end a letter or an email but when you're speaking to somebody and finishing a
conversation it sounds a bit awkward if you say 'don't hesitate to contact me'. I
mean, what's next? Kind regards? Yours sincerely? No, we don't speak like that.
Instead a much more common expression is 'let me know', 'just let me know if you need anything', 'I'll be happy to help' But not do not hesitate to contact me ,that's too
formal and not really appropriate for oral communication. The next one is
'moreover' and if you're writing an essay or a report it's a great linking word to
use to begin a sentence, moreover, but in spoken English
it's just a little bit too formal. Like 'Jill told Andy he was boring.
Moreover she said he was mean'. Mean. It's just too formal and this word does
not belong in this type of English. Instead the most common alternative is
'also'. Also. 'Jill told Andy he was boring. She also said he was mean'. Or 'Also she
said it was mean'. Another couple of expressions we can use are 'as well as
that', as well as that. Like, 'Jill told Andy he was boring. As well as that she said
he was mean'. Or 'on top of that', on top of that. 'Jill told Andy he was boring. On top
of that she said he was mean'. On top of that. So they are much more appropriate
alternatives to use in spoken English. The next one is 'Sir'. Sir. When I was at
high school I always had to call the male teachers 'Sir'. I've got question, sir.
Can I go to the bathroom, Sir? And if there was a female teacher we used to
have to call her Miss. 'Hi, Miss'. However, when you are speaking to an informal
English teacher in an academy, in private lessons, a Youtube English teacher, you
don't call them Sir. Instead you just call them by their first name. I know in
some cultures this might seem disrespectful, but it's
not disrespectful. Teachers like me informal English teachers don't expect
to be called Sir and often creates a distance between the
teacher and student that we don't want, we don't need and we don't feel
comfortable with. If we're talking about an adult teaching English to another
adult we feel much more comfortable if we are on a first-name basis - that means
where you call somebody by their first name. And the final one number ten is the word 'trendy'. Trendy was a word which meant cool, stylish,
fashionable in the 80s perhaps but nowadays it's really not a
word we use instead. We say that something is cool. Cool is a word that
has lasted a long time, I'm sure the kids at school now use other words as well as
cool but with the word cool you are good. It means good, fashionable, fun, exciting...
So don't say that something is trendy, it's just a really outdated word, trendy.
Alright guys, there are the videos I mentioned earlier in this lesson. Watch
those next and I'll see you in the next lesson... bye for now!
