1 hour of common phrases in English (with examples)

hey guys welcome to lingo marina and welcome to this new beautiful location my first question to you is where am i what's this place if you know you know comment down below this class a little bit longer because it's very important have you ever been in a situation when you talk to native speaker and then you hear something like let's take a rain check or let's play by ear and you're like what did he or she just say this class is all about phrases that native speakers use idioms slang phrases phrasal verbs there's going to be a lot of important information so don't forget to write the new words down let's start the class idiom number one white elephant white elephant means a thing that is no longer needed but it costs a lot of money for example this office building is a white elephant because everyone is working from home but we keep paying the rent white elephant the white elephant the next idiom white lie white lie is this small lie that you say because you don't want to hurt someone just a little white lie you lied i don't know your mom cooked dinner and you said i love this dinner but you actually didn't like it this is kind of white lie you didn't want to offend your mom this is why you lied a little little white lie everyone does by the way the idioms in this video are arranged by color so if you are writing something down if you're using different colors make sure you're highlighting them with different colors because it really helps our brain to remember those idioms white color if you've been following me for quite a while and if you've been watching my videos where i give advice on what kind of tv shows to watch you probably know this idiom the collar is something that you have on your shirt and somebody who's a white collar is an office worker so you can say this is a white collar profession that means most likely you would go to the office every single day wearing a formal shirt sitting at the office etc there are also other word combinations with this idiom white collar resort for example means that people who work in the office mostly come to this resort i don't know maybe there is some town in florida where most of people from new york travel to a vacation i've heard fort lauderdale is one of those towns which is regularly filled by white collars from new york this would have been some cushy white collar resort on the other hand we have blue collar so compared to white colors blue colors do more physical work white colors do more mental work white color blue color out of the blue when something happens out of the blue it happens unexpectedly for example you know my cousin called me out of the blue yeah out of the blue calling someone these days is most often out of the blue because the majority of my calls for example are pre-planned i have a calendar and we plan different calls with my company we plan different calls with my partners so whenever somebody just calls me it is always out of the blue i'm like why can't you text me by the way guys let me know if you're the same if you are very surprised whenever somebody calls you like i get super surprised i'm like why are you calling me instead of texting because i don't know remember there were days like 20 years ago we would always have this phone ringing my classmates would call me my friends will call me would chat on the phone these days nobody goes no and everyone is texting so whenever i get a call from someone i can say he called me out of the blue i didn't expect his call that was so out of the blue once in a blue moon when something happens once in a blue moon that means it happens really rarely once in a blue moon they come to visit us once in a blue moon that means maybe they visit us like once in five years once in 10 years very very rare occasion and he said that only once in a blue moon does a dog's ear grow back sometimes you can say i feel sad but the more elegant way to say it is to say i have the blues i've had if you're looking for one resource to learn english that would be both educational and motivational i'm happy to recommend a workbook that i created together with linguatrip team and at linguatrip we have a team of accredited teachers who help me create language learning products this workbook has everything to motivate you to study english but also to guide you through a daily process like what do you do on monday what do you do on tuesday so these are all the sections that we have in it it starts with habit trackers that you can use to develop a habit of learning something every day then i try to make it as exciting as possible so i listed all the tv shows and movies that i really like that helped me improve english this is one of my favorite i think i mentioned it several times in the video we also made sure we included all the phrases from different shows and movies so you could learn from them and you also have a section to write down words that you've learned while watching videos and movies in english now i also made sure to include one of my favorite tasks in english and that is listening to a song so basically you would need to go to youtube switch on the weekend blinding lights and start filling in the gaps this is the best listening exercise ever i first did it when i was i think 14 years old and that was the day when i realized i don't understand 90 of english because when a teacher speaks when you watch someone a non-native speaker talking you're like okay i understand what's going on but then we listened to to some british band that had really really strong acts and i was like okay i need to do more of these so we made sure we included a lot of different songs that are trending right now so you can not only learn what's in them but also you know sing along next time you're with your friends and show off that you actually know all the lyrics and then of course we have grammar we have reported speech we have tenses explained on a table we have adjectives we have phrasal verbs my favorite when you have a verb but then you add a preposition and it changes the meaning we have all the tables that help you learn them and we also have exercises in the end this is the first part it's actually 142 pages one thing to remember is that when you're buying this you're getting a pdf version uh which you can print out i printed out if you're in the us at office depot or you can just use an ipad or a computer to access the digital version and use it in your everyday life and another option is also to print out pages that you need specifically for some specific tasks the link is in the description below i hope you'll fall in love with it as much as i did i have the blues generally means that you're melancholic and sad i feel the blues every single day right now because it's winter and it's getting dark really early and i just feel that it's kind of pressing on top of me i don't know if you guys feel the same but these are my feelings when i'm in the winter climate i have the blues blue blood this is something that can be translated in my language and my original language is russian we definitely have this blue blood when somebody has blue blood or from a blue blood family means that he or she is royal or from a noble family it is often used in a negative way we want to say something like oh of course the senator is a blue blood he cannot understand real people's problems because he's so you know upscale or whatever he doesn't understand us blue blood running through my veins now i want to let you guess the meaning of this idiom to paint the town red and let me give you an example after our exam we decided to get all dressed up and paint the town red what do you do after an exam you go to every single bar you go to every single restaurant and you enjoy life this is what it means to paint the town red means to go to a lot of different bars and restaurants oh we're gonna paint the town red tonight i think it's coming from the older days when we had a map and we would mark i would do that i would mark with like a pencil or a pen the places that i visited and this is basically painting the whole map with the one color and if it's red then you know i painted the town red i've been to all of those places red tape red tape means a lot of bureaucracy a lot of rules a lot of documents that you have to get in order to do something like starting a company in this country or whatever country i don't mean any specific country but you can say in order to start the company in this country we must cut through the red tape this is crazy how many restrictions they have for entrepreneurs red tape means a lot of rules bureaucracy etc that's what makes us special no more red team to roll out the red carpet when you roll out the red carpet you give someone a special treatment my friend rolled out the red carpet for me when i came to visit her that means she decorated her house gave me the best room prepared the best dinner rolled out the red carpet oh yes well let's roll out the red carpet red herring you know what a herring is right it's this fish red herring is something weird actually it's a funny phrase that denotes a fact or idea that takes away attention from the main problem for example the police was investigated in this case and they had a lot of clues but all of them turned out to be red herrings that means that those clues didn't lead to actually solving the case they were just you know random facts that didn't have any specific meaning red herring they were a red herring thank you catch somebody red handed when someone is caught red-handed that means he was caught doing something illegal catch him right-handed he was caught red-handed taking money from my desk that means i spotted him stealing my money a silver spoon in one's mouth to have a silver spoon in one's mouth means to be born in a rich family means you had no trouble growing up everything was given to you a lot of money a lot of privilege poor little rich boy choking on that silver spoon and again just like blue blood this idiom is very often used in a negative way what does he know about hardship he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth which means he doesn't understand us he doesn't understand our problems a golden opportunity a golden opportunity is an outstanding chance to do something oh my god starting an online company in 2020 was a golden opportunity or i'd better phrase it starting an online conference company was a golden opportunity 2020 and if you had it your company has probably grown by a lot you've got a golden opportunity here golden parachute this is an idiom that again exists in many languages and this is when a top manager is asked to leave a company he gets a huge compensation like sometimes you hear that a ceo steps down from a company the company was making losses and still the ceo is paid billions of dollars millions okay millions of dollars this is called golden parachute and a lot of shareholders aren't normally happy about that a lot of workers would say why did this person bring our company to bankruptcy or whatever but they still got those golden parachutes a lot of examples of golden parachutes are mentioned in documentaries about the 2008 crisis and i was recently watching one on netflix and they were talking about how ceos and top managers from banks that went bankrupt got golden parachutes they got millions of dollars because they were asked to leave their job which might sound a little weird he and you are my golden parachute green with envy when you're green with envy then means you're really really jealous i don't know that girl got my favorite dress and it was the only one in the store and they are sold out across the country and i'm green with envy that she got it they'll be green with envy green light you got a green light for me to have rest today to take this evening off and uh watch a documentary or watch a movie green light means you get my permission you get my permission to do nothing this evening have you cleaned it with nationals we've got the green light gray area is a subject that is not really clear and you can't really define like i don't know when you're dealing with taxes or when you're dealing with illegal documents and you're asking your lawyer what i do here and the lawyer says you see this is a grey area we don't know exactly there aren't enough rules regarding this subject this is a gray area we don't really understand see that's where you and i are different i just suck at the whole gray area thing and the last but not the least again i'm pretty sure most of you guys languages have this word uh have this idiom it's called black sheep black sheep means you're different from everyone normally we have white sheep and then there will be black sheep and you know we'll be talking about how different it is and it stands out so the black sheep returns sometimes it's used in a negative way like the whole class is behaving well but nathan is black sheep he's often misbehaving running around and playing during classes he's a black sheep he was the black sheep i love love love how you can actually learn a lot of useful expressions and idioms from songs so the idiom sounds like face the music now i'm gonna give you five seconds ten seconds and you're gonna think about a song that uses this idiom you know the song write it down in comments below i'm doing like a clock so it's time to face the music i'm no longer your muse katy perry it's time to face the music when i heard this song i loved it i wanted to understand whatever she was talking about and i was like what does it mean it's time to face the music so it means that it's time to admit something and understand the consequences it's time to face the music i'm no longer your muse okay it's time to realize that i no longer inspire you this is what she's singing about by the way what i want you to do throughout this video is to think about other songs where you've seen or heard the idioms that i'm mentioning and write them down in comments below like for example face the music katy perry song if you hear something else and you instantly remember a song please write it down because other students will be able to add these songs to their playlists so they can remember those idioms better looking forward to reading your comments time to face the music down in the dumps this idiom means to be depressed or upset about something he's been down in the dumps since he found out he didn't get a scholarship so instead of saying he's been said you can say he's been down in the dumps i think she's a little down in the dumps and when we talk about idioms it doesn't mean that you necessarily have to use them all the time in your speech but what i found very useful when learning idioms is that native speakers use them a lot and sometimes they're fine like down in the dumps yes you can feel down you can feel sad so you can make some connections in your brain about what this idiom means but sometimes you just listen to something and you're like what is this supposed to mean and this can change the meaning of the whole sentence so learning idioms is not only about using them it's also about understanding native speakers because again they use them a lot that hit the spot means that was really good this cup of coffee really hit the spot that means that i woke up in the morning felt really tired and then i had this cup of coffee and it was amazing it really hit the spot made me feel great well that hit the spot get something off your chest that means to say something that you wanted to say for a long time but you didn't find a chance or you felt uncomfortable and then you finally set it and you feel amazing i see that something is bothering you just get it off your chest tell this to me you'll feel better is there anything you want to get off your chest if you're listening and thinking marina how am i supposed to remember all of this i would say practice i have a course that is called intermediate to advanced in 30 days which is basically a 30 day course where every day you get a class from me and my friend vina from los angeles where we teach you all the things that you need to go from being intermediate being afraid to speak english to becoming advanced to using english as an instrument to achieve your goals and the thing is this course is not just video classes it's also about interaction because we match you with a student from a course we give you tasks so you can practice them so you can have a study buddy so you can have a speaking buddy and actually practice your english and a speaking buddy can be from anywhere in the world which makes it amazing this course has been completed by over 10 000 students and we get the best reviews this is our best seller and we have a batch coming up very soon check out the link below to see the next date and i'm also giving you a special promo code to get a discount the link is down below and the promo code is down below so once you enroll in the course choose a pro package which means that you're going to be paired with the students you're going to get your homework checked and you're going to be able to participate in our lottery to win the prizes our intermediate to advanced in 30 days course will help you improve your vocabulary improve your speaking skills improve your grammar and immerse yourself into english in 30 days and make it your instrument to achieve your bigger goals to become a citizen of the world the link is down below alongside with a promo code see you there just what the doctor ordered you know this one right when you get something that you needed from intermediate to advanced marathon is just what the doctor ordered for a person who wants to boost their english the link is down below just what the doctor ordered feel like a new person to feel refreshed or revived after this trip i feel like a new person and this is true travel makes us different when we travel we become a better version of ourselves we just have a different perspective on things i love traveling and i miss traveling hopefully i'll travel soon and feel like a new person drive up the wall my boss's constant criticism is driving me up the wall you might have guessed the meaning that means that something is making you mad making you angry making crazy drive up the wall hang in there to stay calm to continue doing something even when things go wrong even when it's really difficult to do so so let's look at the previous example somebody tells you my boss's criticism is driving me up the wall you can reply with hang in there it's gonna get better he's going on vacation in two weeks and maybe he comes back feeling like a new person hang in there hang in there that's the last straw that means that your patience is wearing out and you're about to explode and start screaming and shouting and or quitting whatever that's the last straw my patience has run out i am quitting this job because of my boss that is the last straw better late than never it's better to do things later rather than not doing them at all for example if your friend had a birthday last week and you open your calendar and you realize your best friend's birthday was a week ago happened to me so many times i would still congratulate them on on their birthday and apologize for being too late but it's still better than just forgetting about their birthday better late never speak of the devil you use this phrase when somebody shows up in a room unexpectedly when you were talking about them and i had this situation i have this massage therapist who comes in every week to help me with my body and she was massaging me and we were talking about lily and i was telling that she's a really nice baby and she's almost two months old and then my mom walks into the room with lily because lily wanted to eat up to nurse and the massage lady says speak of the devil here here she is and i knew it was an idiom but i felt so bad that she kind of called my baby a devil and i almost almost told her she's not a devil but then i was like marina this is an idiom she doesn't mean uh calling your baby a devil but if i didn't know the idiom i would have been really angry because somebody just called my baby a devil so that's why it's really important to learn idioms speak of the devil a blessing in disguise we use this phrase when we talk about something that seems bad at the beginning but then turns out to be the best ever for example you applied to a university and you got rejected and you were really sad you thought your life was over and then the next year you applied to a better university and you got accepted with a full-ride scholarship this means that the first rejection from your first university was actually a blessing in disguise all i'm saying is maybe this is a blessing in disguise to get out of hand to become difficult to control another idiom i just remembered a song for it this crazy world is getting out of hand so tell me while you fail to understand and this i don't remember the the song exactly but i remember the idiom so this world is becoming too difficult to control this crazy world is getting out of hand get your act together that means organize your life in a way that you're able to achieve something in a more organized way like for example i have two babies three youtube channels two businesses i need to get my act together in order to accomplish my goals because there are so many things happening throughout the day and i need to set my priorities get your act together i gotta get my act together so far so good that's another idiom that we often use to reply to a question how's it going and you're like so far so good which means that the progress so far is a success do you like your new job so far so good well so far so good act your age to behave in a way that's suitable for your age and this is what my grandma tells me a lot at your age in russian though regarding the clothes that i'm wearing regarding the way i treat my life she thinks i'm still a kid and i'm still a kid and i think it's great and she doesn't think so but yeah she tells me to act my age now if you can't act your age then you shouldn't be here at all burst into tears to start crying all of a sudden she saw her parents and burst into tears that's what babies do sometimes they just can't control their emotions and they're so happy to see their parents and at the same time they feel so sad that they've been without their parents for so long so they just burst into tears this is something i deal with i try to spend more and more time with my kids but still this happens my mother bursts into tears follow your heart do what your intuition tells you to do because sometimes we follow the rules we follow our plan but our heart tells us you need to stop here you need to go and do something different that means follow your heart follow your heart full plate that means that someone is extremely busy and their schedule is full and they can't fit you in i'd love to meet up but i have a full plate right now that means that my schedule is full and i i can't make it i'm sorry she's got her plateful let's take a quick break and enjoy the view with me and while you're enjoying the view please write down in comments below three phrases that you'll learn from this class and that you want to use in your speech write them down in comments because doing this will help you remember those phrases better and start actually using them oh my god i love this view these are really widely used idioms i'm pretty sure you know some of them but still i want to encourage you to write things down whenever you hear something new and even if you don't hear a new idiom ask yourself are you using it in your conversational english are you using it when you write essays because if you don't use it yet that means you understand it but the goal is to use things that you learn that means you learn them 100 because sometimes you kind of understand the idiom but when you start using it you realize you're using it in a wrong way and if you do that in a test that is definitely taking away some points from you so take out your exercise books start writing things down let's dive into common english idioms pull yourself together that means stop acting like a baby stop crying stop panicking pull yourself together and start acting like an adult that basically means to take control of your emotions after hearing some bad news he couldn't pull himself together he was acting like a baby hold yourself together be in two minds that means you're kind of in two minds you are unable to make a decision about something because you have this thought and you have another thought and you don't know which one is right i'm in two minds about immigrating to a new country i have my family here i grew up here but i also have more opportunities in that new country but you should be a no two minds by the way if you don't know what an idiom is it is a phrase that you don't really translate you just have to understand its meaning but sometimes like this one be in two minds you can kind of guess what it means it kind of tells you the definition to have a lot on one's blade that means you have a lot going on in your life maybe you have a lot of problems that you have to solve and you're kind of overwhelmed with them i have a lot on my plate right now since i have to finish all the projects by the end of this year unfortunately i have a lot on my plate today to get or to have cold feet means to be afraid of doing something that you plan to do for example did you get cold feet when you were getting married you really think you might get cold feet actions speak louder than words this one is quite easy instead of saying i'm gonna make millions or i'm gonna do this this and that just do it people tend to react better to actions people tend to react better to results other than just phrases well actions speak louder than words to take a rain check on something you can use this phrase when you can't accept the offer right now but you don't mind accepting it sometime later for example you got invited to a museum and you're like i'm taking a raincheck on it this weekend that means you can't do it this weekend but you're open to doing it maybe in two weeks can i take a rain check on our dinner this weekend i have to finish a project by monday do you think we can do it next saturday can we take a brain check cry over spilled milk to waste time feeling sorry about an earlier mistake or a problem that cannot be changed there is no use crying over spilled milk it was a bad decision to invest in that company yes we lost money but we can't change anything right now hit the nail on the head to say or do something exactly right she hit the nail when she chose a present for her boyfriend he was over the moon over the moon means very happy another idiom he'll be over the moon kill two birds with one stone achieve two goals with one action i try to kill two birds with one stone by getting a manicure and going over my emails well maybe we can kill two birds with one stone if you want to improve your english including your grammar download our workbook grammar is all you need where we cover the most important topics regarding english grammar the link will be below we made it really affordable and really really content happy so you can learn new things and you can practice them there if you purchase it together with a handbook speak one's mind to say what you think about something very directly he spoke his mind to his boss and then quit speak your mind your guess is as good as mine you use this phrase when you don't know the answer to the problem or to the question when will the borders be open your gas is good as mine your guess is as good as mine to hit the sack or hit the hay means you're going to bed after being really exhausted it's fine for you to hit the sack after a sleepless night you had to prepare for an exam hit the sack to lose one's touch if you lose your touch you can no longer do something as good as you used to do it before when was the last time you played the piano it looks like you really lost your touch i just don't at least touch you do i know about losing touch to lose one's mind start to behaving like crazy or start to behaving in a silly way if this lockdown continues i will lose my mind i lose my mind though to let off the steam or to blow off the steam this means to do something like exercising or crushing something to put the stress away i usually go for a long walk to blow off steam out and blow off a little steam huh to pay an arm or leg for something or to cast an arm and leg that means that something is really really expensive i paid arm and leg for my mom's present but it was worth it cost me an arm and a leg to find your feet means to adjust to a new situation how's your new job going i still don't know i couldn't find my feed yet that means you're still adjusting you can't say whether you like it or not food for thought something to think seriously about you know we're not gonna discuss this today this is your food for thought let's get back to this tomorrow that means think about it today and we'll talk about it tomorrow after you have some more thoughts on the problem food for thought spill the beans tell someone information that was supposed to be kept secret promise not to spill the beans about our secret party would you guys spill the beans to go with the flow i like this phrase a lot that means not stressing out about things going wrong just follow the situation follow whatever happens i decided not to plan anything just go with the flow and see what happens you know me i just go with the flow to break the ice means to remove tension especially during the first meeting normally you use small talks to break the ice normally you start talking about the weather to break the ice i'll be the one to break the ice and the last but not the least clear as mud if you didn't get anything in this video you can say marina it was clear as mud and this is very controversial because mud is dirty and it is not clear that means you didn't get anything this article is as clear as mud i haven't understood any of it but as clear as mud hello can you hear me this is lego marina and today we're gonna learn phrasal verbs with songs i'm gonna sing get ready i know some of you wrote comments that you actually like me singing so here you go you're gonna hear me singing a lot today let's do it i think songs are the best way out there to remember phrasal verbs because you just learn songs by heart and you're like oh this conditional wish you were here okay okay i remember now so for me it's a game changer once i started learning english with songs german with songs i realized i remember so much more things so let's get into it oh don't you dare look back just keep your eyes on me just keep your eyes on me two phrasal verbs look back to think about the past so he's not actually saying don't you dare look back like don't look back you can't look back but looking back here means thinking about the past oh don't you dare think about the past oh don't you dare look back keep your eyes on me here means focus on me but also if you say can you keep an eye on emily while she plays here that means can you just watch her from time to time so she doesn't cause trouble or fall or whatever keep your eyes on something shut up shut up and drive stop talking shut up i was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet to go over everything to go over [Music] everything to go over means to consider examine something so she's talking to her ex and she's like do you want to meet again and like talk about what we've had what happened to go over everything hit the road jack and don't you come back no more no more no no more hit the road jack and don't you come back no more to hit the road means to start a trip or begin a journey and to come back means to return i'm thinking bout how people fall in love in mysterious ways in love to be attracted to someone to fall in love it's like i really like this expression because it can be attributed to a person like you see a person suddenly you fall in love it's not you're like oh i like him oh i really like him oh i really really like him gradually every day no no it's like you fall in love oh my god i love this person the same with something you do it's not like oh i like making youtube videos i like seeing no you'll love it and this is why i fall in love you like and you're in love acting up drinking my cup beyonce all the single ladies to act up means to behave badly she's like i'm acting up drinking my cup probably alcoholic so she's like starting to behave badly and she says i can care less what you think and she doesn't care so she's like going out there doing whatever she wants makeup like it never happened in the mirror you didn't have to cut me off make it like [Music] i sing a little different way but to cut off means to stop communicating you'd suddenly abruptly you didn't have to cut me off you could have just explained you know i don't really want to talk to you but if you cut somebody off no explanation you stopped answering their calls replying to their texts i'm now looking for somebody with some super human gifts look for to attempt to find someone i am not looking for somebody with some superhuman gifts i am not searching for somebody with some superhuman gifts i heard that you settle down adele settle down [Music] when you settle down you begin to live a quiet and steady life so probably to draw this picture for you there was a party girl who would go to every party meet a lot of people and then she got married and settled down which means she stopped going out she's now focused on her family and kids so she settled down normally people use this verb this phrasal verb to describe somebody's life after they get married which is not necessarily true like your life doesn't end when you get married but still people use it a lot like oh he has he got married and settled down like okay go ahead and tell me how to lie a little bit finally i can see your crystal clear go ahead and sell me out and i'll lay your there [Music] what interests us here is sell me out to sell somebody out means that you promised somebody to do something but then you decided to not do it just because not doing it gives you more benefits like this is a very basic example you promise your parents to go grocery shopping and then you sell them out uh means that you stayed home and decided play computer games because well it just gives you more benefits or whatever but normally this is like a hard um phrasal verb so it will it will be used like if you're starting a business together with someone and they sell you out and they i don't tell about your idea to somebody else and start a business with them instead like this is something really kind of they deceived you this is a strong phrasal verb thank you guys so much for watching this video up to the very end i like this experiment i don't know about you let me know what you think let me know whether it helps you memorize words and uh you know what comment down below with your favorite song right now it has to be in english and if you like this video we gonna make another video like this i'm gonna sing the parts that actually have phrasal verbs or idioms that you have to know and we're gonna sing them together and i'm gonna explain to you whatever that idiom of phrasal verb mean a lot of native speakers use idioms all the time what is an idiom an idiom is a phrase or a couple words that you cannot just translate verbatim to understand what they mean so example number one in this class is an idiom hit the books what does that mean if we try to kind of translate and explain it by just translating every single word in this phrase hit the books i would say you know i will take books and start hitting my table with them what does that mean you're gonna hit the books and pass it in reality we can't just do that to an idiom with an idiom we have to understand what it means without translating every single word so hit the books means to study hard for example if your friend is asking you whether you want to go out tonight you can say no i gotta hit the books i gotta stay home this is an idiom that means study hard tomorrow i buckle down and hit the books so in this class we're going to go through 14 more idioms that you can use in your life those idioms are also used by native speakers very often and it's really important to know them in order to understand what's going on when you're talking to someone so make sure that you're ready have your pencil ready and start writing things down the next phrase sounds like cut corners let me give you an example first they really cut corners when they were building this office the doors are too small the windows don't open i don't like it so with this idiom like with a lot of other idioms you can try and guess their meaning from the context so with this idiom you kind of understand that when people were building this office they didn't really do a great job because you know they didn't think of people who would be working in this office so to cut corners means to do something in the easiest and cheapest way they cut corners when they were building this office and we can find some corners to cut the next idiom a drop in the ocean again let me start with an example my letter of complaint was just to drop in the ocean what does that mean that really speaks for itself you understand that your action was really small compared to what was happening so for example somebody is ruining the backyard of your house and you were complaining but they didn't really notice so your action was really small compared to what was needed how's that for japanese efficiency just a drop in the ocean the next phrase i really like it actions speak louder than words i don't know how to say goodbye actions speak louder than words what does that mean again here you can really guess what's going on it is really important to act instead of saying something because you can say a lot of things but your actions really show your result or really show that you're an expert in something an example is your promises mean nothing actions speak louder than words well actions speak louder than words to be a good catch that's a good one by the way catch of the day be a good cash is something related to fishing but here we're actually talking about relationships so when your friend approaches you and says you know your boyfriend is really a good catch i hope he proposes that means that you're dating somebody really nice and he was a really good choice so your boyfriend is worth marrying and this is when you can call him a good catch right good catch beat around the bush is something you can't really translate but i think you've known this phrase for ages because it's well really widely used has nothing to do with a bush but it has to do with you slowing things down and not getting to the point so for example you can have a conversation or you can have a class where the teacher tries to explain something but there is too much introduction of the topic and you're like stop beating around the bush get straight to the topic you won't say that to the teacher though but anyways it means that somebody is not getting straight to the point and giving you a lot of additional information that you don't really need best yes let's not beat around the bush another phrase that is widely used by americans sounds like i couldn't care less that means that you don't really care about what's going on i really couldn't care less he couldn't care less what his new co-workers think of him drive someone up the wall and just think about it so you take someone and put him up the wall what does that mean i'm sure that person is really unhappy because he wants to be on the floor so basically again the meaning of this idiom is to drive someone crazy the music my neighbors listen at the office is driving me up the wall this means that the music is driving crazy it's annoying me i don't like it at all god drove me up the wall boyfriends are for kids right go down in flames let me start with an example here he had a promising athletic career but it all went down in flames when he broke his leg makes sense right to go down in flames means to end suddenly and completely so his career was ended suddenly and completely once he broke his leg this whole enterprise is going down in flames judge the book by its cover again it's a really famous idiom a lot of people use it let me give you an example in america you can't really judge a book by its cover because a lot of people just wear sports clothes wherever they go and this is true in the us like a lot of people don't care about the way they look they just care about their comfort so you can't just look at the person say oh that's a rich person because he wears this and that or this person is homeless because this is the way he dresses up no people don't really care about the looks they care about their comfort so to judge a book by its cover means to judge a person based on what he or she is wearing never judge a book by its cover make a long story short this is a phrase that you can use to introduce something you can say long story short they bought the house so instead of beating around the bush and giving a lot of context you're getting straight to the point you're saying long story short they bought the house what does that mean that means that you're explaining something in a few words without going into detail long story short she fell the next idiom missed the boat very clear from just looking at it to miss the boat means to miss an opportunity i think i have missed the boat they did not accept my application sit on the fence is again when you imagine it so somebody is sitting on the fence so he's somewhere in the middle there is something here something here but you're on the fence so this idiom means that you're not taking any position you're kind of in the middle you are staying neutral let me give you an example i'm sitting on the fence with this one my team prefers solution a but my boss prefers solution b and i'm kind of neutral i can't choose sides i'm sitting on the fence i know how to sit on a fence when big fly is a very common idiom again let's just imagine the situation when big flight how can you describe the situation i would describe the situation as impossible because pigs don't fly so when pigs fly means that something will never happen this road will be renovated when pigs fly means i don't really believe it would ever be renovated yeah when pigs fly today we're gonna learn some smart phrases in english that you can use in your conversation in order to make your speech more natural and to sound more like a native speaker there are so many phrases that we use over and over again in our english language speech and i do the same mistakes sometimes i talk to people and i say the same phrase over and over and over again this makes my speech boring and this is why i decided to make this video where we would go through different situations and we're going to discuss smart phrases that native speakers use and that you can use to improve your spoken english so if you're interested continue watching this video up to the very end and do not forget to hit the like button if you like this video and don't forget to subscribe to my channel the first situation that we're gonna discuss is making plans with someone yes you can say oh let's see each other tonight or let's do this tonight do you know what americans say they say let's grab a coffee sometime and the thing is this coffee phrase doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to go to a coffee shop when an american invites me to grab a coffee we could also go to a sandwich place we could go and walk in a park this is just a phrase to invite someone to a casual meeting you want to grab a coffee or something another way you can say that let's catch up for a coffee tonight or in a week or tomorrow whatever maybe we could get a cup of coffee and catch up of course every person would understand that the purpose of this meeting is not drinking coffee together the purpose of this meeting is for you to connect to chat etc there is a phrase that would highlight this chatting over drinking coffee the phrase that you can use sounds like let's catch up over a coffee sometime so basically with this preposition over you're putting coffee here but you're putting catching up here so it's kind of above maybe over a cup of coffee and it's more meaningful for you to talk to this person and not just grab a coffee with them if you don't want to make any particular plans if you don't want to invite someone to a coffee shop or to a restaurant you can just say let's hang out tonight hang out means spend time together and it doesn't matter what you're gonna do you can go to a park you can go to a party you can go to a movie theater oh your boyfriend's out of town let's hang out tonight the whole purpose of this getting together is to connect with the person that you want to spend time with or if you don't want to make any particular plans but you want to inform the person that you really like him or her and you want to spend more time together you can say do you want to hang out sometime you want to hang out sometime go out and then you can continue this phrase by suggesting where you would go we could go to a movie theater see this this and that or there's a new coffee shop that opened next to my place do you want to meet there on saturday at 5 00 p.m if that's okay with you is a phrase that you can use in order to confirm plans if that's okay with you in my videos i talk a lot about cultural differences between americans and other cultures especially i'm coming from a russian-speaking country where people are very direct so if you're inviting somebody somewhere they would say no i'm busy and this doesn't mean they're impolite it just means they don't want to waste their energy and time on different phrases to make it more vague to make it more polite etc of course people are different but this is what i noticed this major difference between the two cultures so if you want to sound more american and more european you need to learn how to be less direct and more polite so instead of just saying no i don't want to go with you you can say it's very kind of you but i have other plans it's very very kind of you but i can't if you want to be super formal if you're chatting to a teacher whatever you can say i really appreciate your offer but unfortunately and then you explain why you can't accept it i really appreciate the offer but when you want to say that you really really like the offer but you just can't come you can say it is very tempting and tempting means you really want to try it or you really want to do it but i have to study for my exam but i'm on quarantine or whatever sounds tempting very tempting if you need more time to make a decision if the offer is really really grand like do you want to go to europe for a couple of days we were like oh my god i can't answer this right now you can say let me sleep on this which means that you're gonna give the answer tomorrow or the day after tomorrow you need more time to make a decision let me sleep on this i don't know let me sleep on it oh come on the next race is not like super polite because when people say i want to pass on it it's kind of they're refusing it you can use it but just be careful with the context and be careful with your intonation so somebody invites you to a party and you can say i'm sorry i think i'm gonna pass on it because i have some other plans but just make sure you don't say like i'm gonna pass on it this is a boring party because this is gonna be offensive so just make sure you watch your body language and you watch your intonation i just wanna pass another idiom that you can use sounds like to take a rain check on something and it means that you are declining the offer now but you might take it up later so for example you get an interview request or you get a vacation offer or you get like a huge deal and you like it but you're not ready to take it right now you can say can i take a rain check on it this would mean that you're saying no but you're open to discussing it in the future can i take a rain check there are also cases when you don't want to explain yourself so you can just say i'm sorry i don't think i can make it that's it no explanation needed but um unfortunately i don't think i can make it now imagine you were the one inviting somebody to a party or offering someone to catch up for a coffee and you got this refusal how do you respond to it you don't say you're a bad person i don't want to hang out with you anymore you don't do that there are several smart phrases again that you can use in this situation as well the phrase that you can use never mind it's fine the purpose of all of it is to make that person feel better because they refuse they kind of feel awkward and it's very important that you say never mind it's okay i will study over this weekend as well so we'll just study together you know virtually [Music] never mind it's fine or if your offer was inappropriate like maybe you offered to go on a date and then you realize this person is married or whatever you can say never mind forget what i just said literally just forget as if it never happened heck you know what never mind forget it but if you are in an informal situation and you're really really sorry that the person can make it like you invited your best friend to your birthday party and your best friend says p.s kobe whatever you can say oh no it's a bummer but you know get well soon thank you so much for getting back to me so the phrase is when you're sorry when you're upset that's a bummer oh man that's a bummer now leaving the conversation is also really important when you're talking on a phone or if you're in the middle of a group chat you can just say oh i gotta go bye you know you need to kind of introduce your intention to leave and again there are several phrases that you can use for this situation guys i'm sorry it's time for me to head out i have a couple more meetings today it was great seeing you all today see you tomorrow so the phrase is it is time for me to head out it's time for you to head home or another one i'd better be going well i better be going then if you're leaving in the middle of a conversation and you want people to inform you about what happened later you can say please guys keep me posted about the progress of this and that problem and the thing is keep me posted can be used in this situation when you're genuinely interested and also when we first came to silicon valley when we were pitching language rep to some investors of course when you are you know approaching a lot of people some people just don't want to invest in your company so some of those investors told us guys you're doing a great thing keep us posted and because i didn't know the meaning of that phrase i thought they were really actually interested in the company they wanted to hear everything that's going to happen in the future but then later my american friend explained that this is just a polite phrase when you feel that the meeting isn't going anywhere when you feel that a person isn't really interested when they say keep me posted that means this conversation is over of course you can send some updates but i'm not really interested but again you need to feel the situation sometimes people genuinely say you know keep me posted we need to solve this problem together but sometimes this is a way to end the conversation in a polite way and show someone that they're interested but they're actually not so read in between the lines this is you know all about psychology and the language keep me posted keep me posted and the last but not the least it was nice seeing you take care that's a great substitution to just saying goodbye or whatever it was nice seeing you take care it was nice seeing you thank you guys for watching this video up to the very end below you can find some links to my courses and workbooks that we've created together with my company language app uh the company that i've just told you about you know you're subscribed to this channel and you are learning english hit the red subscribe button and i will see you very soon in my next videos i produce them weekly it was nice seeing you take care all right that's the end of the class and i know it was a lot there was so many phrases but the thing is you don't have to remember all of them right away my task for you is to select five phrases that you're gonna learn during the next week you're gonna learn them you're gonna practice them and in a week you're gonna come back and take five more phrases from this class so that you expand your vocabulary gradually it doesn't make any sense when you try to learn 100 phrases at a time it's a step-by-step process and it's a step-by-step progress thank you so much for watching this video to the very end i'm looking forward to reading your comments and see you on my instagram it's lingo marina and i'm posting stories in english daily and i'm also posting short videos there see you bye

Channel: linguamarina

Views: 665,581

Keywords: english, english language, learn english, linguamarina, marina mogilko, linguatrip, english with linguatrip, idioms, phrasal verbs, phrasal verbs in english, slangs in english, slang phrases in english, slang phrases, speak like a native speaker, speak like a native english speaker, speak like a native, common expressions in english, common expressions, learn phrases in english, idioms with examples

Id: o6VtmK7aE4Y

Length: 57min 9sec (3429 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 06 2022