250 Important English Expressions for daily conversation

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Are you ready to amaze your friends as you speak English confidently and clearly? Let's talk about it. Today, you are going to master 250 of the most common English idioms. Just cut to the chase teach me English, phrasal verbs. You don't need to look up these phrases. You'll learn them right here in this lesson and common questions. "Whatcha got going on this weekend?" "I'm headed to New York City tomorrow." To help you with this big lesson, I have created a gigantic 27 page free ebook. I'm calling this an ebook when it's 27 pages, it's not a free worksheet anymore, it is an ebook. I have created a free 27 page ebook with all of today's phrases, expressions, phrasal verbs, questions, ideas, sample sentences. This is my gift to you. It took a long time to create this. So please click on the link in the description to download this free ebook so that you will never forget these phrases. You can download it, print it out, study it whenever you'd like, make your own notes, put it under your pillow while you sleep so that you can soak in it. This is my gift to you. Click on the link in the description to download this free ebook today. Without further ado, let's get started with the most common phrases that Americans use in daily English conversation, let's go. Having a good vocabulary level is essential for being able to express yourself completely and have your true personality show when you're speaking English. I would love to share with you today, 50 most important English idioms according to me. These are idioms that I use regularly and that are commonly used in daily conversation. Idioms are expressions that are not exactly literal. When we talk about a calm before the storm, we're not talking about the weather. This has another meaning that's more figurative. All of these expressions will help you to understand spoken English better when you're watching movies. And they're talking about the calm before the storm, or you want to up the ante, you want to get the ball rolling? What in the world are people talking about? I hope that this will help you with your understanding and listening skills and also with your speaking so that you can express yourself. I created this video because at the end of all my email newsletters, I write, you rock! And at least two or three times a week, I get a reply to my email asking, "Vanessa, what does you rock mean?" So I thought that I would reply to this question and also up the ante, an expression we're going to talk about in just a minute and give you 49 other expressions as well. Are you ready to get started? I broke these 50 idioms into different categories, depending on what kind of words were used in those idioms. So our first category that we're going to look at are idioms with nature related words in them. And that leads us to our first expression, which is, you rock! This means you are great. Thank you for watching my cats while I went on vacation. You rock! Number two, the calm before the storm. This is referring to a quiet period before there's some chaos or craziness. You might say, I like to wake up at 6:00 AM before my children wake up, because this is the calm before the storm. I can drink my tea in quiet. I can just reflect on the day and what's going to happen and just be alone with my thoughts. This is the calm before the storm. Under the weather, this means you feel a little bit sick. You might say, I wish I could go apple picking with you, but I feel a bit under the weather today. We often add the expression a bit just to make this a little softer. I feel a bit under the weather. You're not extremely sick. But you just don't feel so great. I feel a bit under the weather. When it rains, it pours. This means that when bad things happen, they happen all at the same time. If you've watched my weather video, you can check out that weather video up here. You know that to pour means to rain a lot. So here we're talking about not just a couple bad things happening, but a lot of bad things happening at one time. For example, you might say, between COVID, and protests, and riots, and then the presidential election, 2020 is a crazy year. When it rains, it pours. It seems like everything happened in this year. Hopefully 2021 will be a peaceful time. We don't know yet, but when it rains, it pours. Rain or shine, this means that you are doing something in any weather. This idiom is a little bit more literal because we're actually talking about rain, or snow, or bad weather, or shine, which means sunshine, good weather. You might say, my family likes to go hiking every Friday, rain or shine. That means, if it's wonderful weather, we'll go hiking. But also if it's awful weather, we try to go for at least a little hike. We will do it rain or shine. Every cloud has a silver lining, this means that there is something good in every bad situation. You might say, "Lockdowns were really tough this year, but I guess every cloud has a silver lining. I got to spend some quiet time doing some enjoyable things with my family." We often add, I guess, before this idiom. I guess every cloud has a silver lining. And that means that, it's not 100% good. Of course, lockdowns were not 100% good. There was a lot of awful things that happened because of lockdowns. But we could say, well, there's a little bit, there's a silver lining. There's a little bit of good that we can try to find in this difficult situation. The cloud is the difficult situation. There's a silver lining. Well, I got to have some quiet family time together. To go with the flow and this means that you're able to adapt to whatever happens. You might say, "When you have kids, you need to be able to go with the flow every day." You can have a schedule, a plan, an outline, but do you know what? When you have kids things change, things happen that you don't expect. So you need to be able to be flexible and adapt to every situation. This is an expression that I try to think about every day, because sometimes I have certain things that I want to get done every day, certain goals or tasks, but I have two kids. There's other things going on in life that might change my plans. I need to be able to go with the flow, to adapt depending on whatever's happening. Let's just go with the flow. Down to earth. This is someone who is practical, relatable. You feel that they are really human. We often use this for people who are celebrities or famous. People who seem larger than life. You might say, when the movie star came to give a speech at my school, even though she is a celebrity, she seemed really down to earth. This means I felt like she was just like me. I could relate to her. She is down to earth. This is generally seen as a really positive character quality or personality trait. When people can relate to you, even if they think that you are larger than life. Tip of the iceberg, this is something small that's part of something bigger. And it's usually something negative. You might say, when a parent yells at their child at the park, this is probably just the tip of the iceberg. Their parenting is probably much more aggressive at home when other people can't see them. What you see in public is just the tip of the iceberg. We often use the word just in front of this expression, just the tip of the iceberg. You can only see the top when you see that parent yelling at their child in public. Well under the water there's probably a lot more negativity that's happening at home when you can't see. It's just the tip of the iceberg. Nip it in the bud. Nip it in the bud means that you are stopping some bad behavior, right when it starts. A bud is a flower that's closed and it hasn't opened yet. We can imagine a rose bud is a closed rose. And if you nip it in the bud, that means that you're cutting off the rose bud, before it can open. But let's take that to talk about a negative situation. If there is something negative that's happening before it becomes a big deal, you need to cut that off. For example we might say, when my three year old son first lied to me, I knew that I needed to nip it in the bud. So that that behavior didn't continue. Here the word it in the middle of this expression is his behavior, nip it, nip his behavior in the bud. But we usually just say this fixed idiom, nip it in the bud. We don't usually exchange it for something else. This is true. This happened to me a couple weeks ago. It wasn't such a serious situation, but I felt like I needed to nip it in the bud. My three year old was building a huge LEGO Tower in the other room and it crashed and fell down and he was really upset. And he said, "Mommy, why did you do that?" The problem was that I wasn't even in the room. I was in the kitchen. So there's no way that I could have done that. And I knew that this behavior, blaming something that isn't the cause when you're upset, just lashing out and blaming something else. This is not good behavior. He's only three years old. He's just learning. I didn't make a big deal of it, but I just said, "Hey, you know what? It's okay to be upset when your tower crashes, but I don't want you to blame something that isn't the reason. Don't blame me for your LEGO Tower crashing. You can just say, oh, why did that crash? I'm so upset, ah. You can be upset, but it's not good behavior to blame something that's not responsible." Just a little lesson, but I knew that I needed to nip that behavior in the bud. Beat around the bush. This is to indirectly without getting to the main point. Sometimes we do this if we are uncomfortable, if we're talking about something that's a little bit difficult to talk about, or maybe something we don't really want to talk about. You might say, for example, "Stop beating around the bush. Tell me, do you want to date me or not?" Someone is being too indirect about this. We often use this with words like don't beat around the bush. Stop beating around the bush. Why are you beating around the bush? We usually use this in these kind of negative ways because it's usually not seen as a good thing to beat around the bush. You should just get to the point. The best of both worlds. This is an ideal situation. For me, my husband and I work from home. And we also share the job of taking care of our children. This is the best of both worlds because we can be fulfilled by our job and also fulfilled by taking care of our children. Get wind of something. This is to hear news about something that's secret. If the media gets wind of the political scandal, they are going to be talking about it for days. Plain as day. This is something that's obvious to see. "It's plain as day that she loves you. Why don't you ask her on a date?" Up in the air. This is talking about having no definite plans. "I want to visit Switzerland next year, but because of COVID, our travel plans are up in of the air." I don't know when they will become definite if they will ever become definite, but I hope so. But right now they are just up in the air. Call it a day. This is when you stop working on a project for the day. "Great job team, you did it. Let's call it a day." We often use this at the end of a work day when you've been working really hard, or if you're feeling really tired after working, you might say, "Ugh, I'm so tired. I'm ready to call it a day." The next category of idioms are animal idioms. There are only three of these that I included, but they are essential in daily conversation. The first one is to go cold turkey. And this means to quit something completely. I looked up where this expression came from and it's thought that maybe it originated because when you quit smoking, for example, or if you are addicted to a drug or even caffeine and you quit, your skin kind of becomes like a turkey, as like a chicken kind of cold and pale and clammy. You don't feel so great. This is maybe the origin of this, to go cold turkey. You might say, "If you want to quit smoking, you need to go cold turkey." Just stop. Stop completely. Go on a wild goose chase. If you have ever tried to chase a duck or a goose, they all just fly in every direction, right? It's not very possible to just chase a duck and catch it. It's pretty tough. That's the feeling of this expression, is that you are just doing something pointless. For example, you might say, "I went on a wild goose chase. I went to four stores to find molasses." This happened when I was living in Paris, I was trying to make some gingerbread men, which are some typical cookies that we eat in the U.S over Christmas time, the Christmas holidays. I wanted to make this for the French family that I was living with. But do you know what? Apparently molasses is almost impossible to find in Paris. I went on a wild goose chase to four different stores. Finally, I found it in a British international store, but it wasn't called molasses. It had a different name. It was a big deal. I felt like I would never find it. I was on a wild goose chase. Crying wolf, to lie so many times about something that people stop believing you. Definitely a negative thing. This comes from the classic tale of Peter and the Wolf. He cries wolf so many times is, "There's a wolf. There's a wolf." And the wolf, there's no wolf eating his sheep, but the villagers come and they see there's no wolf. And then when there's actually a wolf, they don't come. I think this tale is universal. I feel like almost every culture has some version of this story, but we often use this idiom to cry wolf in daily conversation. You might say in the U.S this happens often, "Weather forecasters cry wolf about dangerous hurricanes so many times that people stop believing them." Every time there's a hurricane weather forecasters say, "This is it. This is the worst hurricane. It's awful. It's terrible. You should leave." And you know what? People stop believing them. And when there actually is a dangerous hurricane, people stay and they don't listen to the weather forecasters because they have cried wolf so many times. The next category of idioms are food related idioms. They have a food word in them. Our first one is to bring home the bacon. Are you actually bringing bacon home? No. This just means money. It means that you are the financial supporter of your family. You are making money. When I was growing up, my dad brought home the bacon. He was the one who financially supported our family. And my mom was the one who did everything else. That she was in charge of our house, the kids, of our doctor's appointments, of our school clubs, everything else. But my dad brought home the bacon. Two peas in a pod. This refers to two people who have a perfect little relationship. It's usually a cute relationship often with kids or with a couple that's really cute. You might say, "My son and his friend who lives down the street are two peas in a pod when they play together, they are adorable." Butter me up. This is to flatter someone in order to get something. If your child suddenly comes to you and says that you look beautiful, beware, they are probably trying to butter you up to get some money or to get a favor. Spill the beans, to tell a secret. When I was pregnant with my first son, we didn't spill the beans that I was pregnant for the first couple months. We often use this idiom with negative expressions. Like we didn't spill the beans. Or if you tell someone a secret, you might say, "Don't spill the beans until I'm ready to tell everyone." Don't spill the beans. I didn't spill the beans. These kind of negative expressions around this. Take it with a grain of salt. This means that you don't believe something seriously. When my neighbor asks me for gardening advice, this is what I tell her. If I say, "Hey, yeah, don't plant tomatoes and potatoes together, but take it with a grain of salt. I'm just an amateur gardener. I read that in some article. I don't really know if it's true, but the article said tomatoes and potatoes are not good together." Okay, if I tell someone this, they should probably still do their own research. Take it with a grain of salt. Spice things up. This means that you're doing something differently in order for it to be more interesting and exciting. You might say, "When you work for a news journal, don't spice things up, just write the facts." But you can also use this for daily life as well. You might say, "I try to spice things up by going for a walk down a different road." I go for a walk every day, but if I took the same walk every day, 365 days a year, it might get a little boring. So I try to spice things up and go for a walk down a different road. The next category of idioms have body related words in them. And our first one is to lose your touch. This means that you're losing something that you had a skill or a talent for. If you don't speak English for months, you will lose your touch. So try to practice every day. Rule of thumb, thumb, a rule of thumb. This is a general rule or guideline. The keyword here is general. It's just a general rule. For example, you might say, "Texting your friend before you go to his house is a good rule of thumb." Don't just show up at his door without announcing yourself. You can just send a quick text message first and it's a good rule of thumb. We often add the word good in front of this. It is a good rule of thumb. By the skin of my teeth. This is meaning to barely make it. You barely survived. If you said that a passing exam score is 75% and you got a 76%. Well, you passed by the skin of your teeth. You barely survived. To get something off your chest. This means to talk about something that's bothering you. If you have a close friend, you might say to them, "You seem upset, is something bothering you. Would you like to get something off your chest?" And your friend might say, "Yes, I need to get something off my chest. I am changing my career." But it's not true for me. Notice how the pronoun in the middle of this idiom changes depending on the subject, do you need to get something off your chest? I need to get something off my chest. Those always match. Put your foot in your mouth. This means to say something, you shouldn't have said. This happened to me. I really put my foot in my mouth when I asked my neighbor about her husband. But I didn't realize that she was divorced. Thankfully, she was very understanding and just said it lightly, "Oh, I'm divorced." And we went on from there. Bite the bullet. A bullet is something very hard. It's something that comes out of a gun. It doesn't seem like a fun activity, right? To bite a bullet? Well, that's what this idio means. It means to stop procrastinating and do something difficult. For me I hate calling my insurance company, but sometimes I just have to bite the bullet and do it. We often use, just have to, with this expression. I just have to bite the bullet. Or if you're trying to encourage someone to do something difficult, you might say, "You just have to bite the bullet, just do it." Get out of hand, to lose control. A classroom of 20 three-year-old children can quickly get out of hand as you might imagine. We often use the expression quickly get out of hand to explain something that is almost impossible. 20 three-year-olds in the same classroom, I can't imagine. Wrap your head around something. This is to understand something complicated. We usually use this in negative sentences though. I can't wrap my head around something. This was true for me as a high school student, I couldn't wrap my head around complex math problems. That just wasn't how my brain was working in high school. I couldn't wrap my brain or wrap my head around them. To play something by ear. This means you are not making definite plans. You might say, "Well, I want to go hiking tomorrow, but it might rain. So let's play it by ear." That means that you are going to look at the news report in the morning. Look at the weather forecast in the morning. And if it seems fine, you'll go. If it seems bad, you won't go. You will just play it by ear. A blessing in disguise. This is something good that seemed bad at first. Like we just talked about previously with COVID lockdowns, there's a silver lining. This has a similar idea here. "COVID lockdowns were kind of a blessing in disguise for some people because they got to spend more time with their family." Notice that I used kind of a blessing in disguise. This phrase kind of makes this not so strong. Of course there were many terrible things about COVID lockdowns. A lot of people were lonely. A lot of people lost jobs. A lot of people felt fear, but if we're talking about a blessing, a positive thing that was disguised as something negative, well, we might try to find the silver lining here that people got to spend time, more time with their family. Our next category of idioms are related to money. And the first one is to break the bank. When you break the bank, it means that there is something really expensive, but we often use this in a negative sense. For example, you might say that, "Learning English on YouTube, doesn't break the bank. In fact it's free." So there's no way that it could be expensive when it's free. "Learning on YouTube doesn't break the bank." Give you a run for your money. This is talking about a challenge. If you need to run in order to catch money, this is probably going to be a little difficult. So we're talking about this challenge here. You might say that, "The Italian soccer team or football team like the rest of the world says, the Italian soccer team gave the German soccer team a run for their money." This means that the Italian soccer team was really tough to beat. Maybe the German soccer team is awesome and they think they're going to win but then when they play the Italian team, they think, "Oh wow, they are giving us a run for their money." Or you might say, "Having a toddler and a newborn is giving me a run for my money." This isn't talking about some kind of competition or even money, but it's a challenge. Having a toddler a three-year-old and a newborn like I do is a difficult thing. It's just the way it is, but it is giving me a run for my money. Up the ante, or we could say this final word, ante. Sometimes we cut off the te, to up the ante or to up the ante. This has to do with when you're playing cards in a gambling situation, you put some money on the table, maybe $5. And then the next person puts $10 on the table. They upped the ante. They raised the situation to be better or more difficult. And that's what this figurative idiom is talking about as well, to request or to do more. We might say, "My so sister brought a salad to the dinner party, but I decided to up the ante, I brought homemade bread and two bottles of wine." That means that I did more than she did. I kind of raised the bar, another wonderful idiom for what is expected. I did something better. The next category of idioms include action words. I'm sorry, I tried to find a way to put these idioms into a category, but it was almost impossible because they don't have money words, animal words, human body words. They're kind of in a category of their own. Our next two categories, the first one is action words. And the last one is just extra idioms. Sorry that these don't exactly perfectly fall into a category, but they're still extremely useful. And I wanted to make sure that they were included in this lesson. Let's get started with the next idiom that talks about an action word at the beginning. Cut someone some slack. This means that you don't judge someone too harshly. For example, you might say, "Sorry, I forgot to call you. Please cut me some slack I haven't slept in weeks." We usually use this as a request. Please cut me some slack. Please be gentle with me. If I make a mistake in this video related to one of these idioms, please cut me some slack. Please be gentle in your judgment. Don't be too harsh. Draw a line or draw the line. These are used interchangeably. And that means that, you know the difference between something that's okay and not okay. Something that's acceptable or not acceptable. We might say that, "There are a lot of ways to raise a child, but most people draw the line at violence." So we might say there's a lot of ways that you can be a good parent or a bad parent, but most people say, "On the side here, that's not acceptable is violence." Most people draw the line at violence. Don't be violent. Just be gentle with your children. Play devil's advocate. Here you are arguing the opposite point just for the fun of it. Just for the purpose of debate. If you're having a conversation about how best to learn a language, how best to learn English, you might say, "Yeah, I know. I agree with you that textbooks are not the best way to learn a language, but to play devil's advocate, aren't grammar books useful when you are just starting to learn a language?" Here, the person has said, yes, I agree with you. Textbooks are not the best way to learn a language. And then they're going to argue the opposite point, a point that they don't exactly agree with, but they want to have some kind of fun debate with you about the topic. We use this expression, to play devil's advocate when you're introducing an opposite opinion that you don't really agree with, but you just want to talk about. Rings a bell. This is something that sounds familiar, but you don't know exactly why. You might say "Victor Hugo? That name rings a bell. What did he do? He was only one of the greatest authors of all time." That name rings a bell. Go the extra mile. This means that you are doing something above and beyond what is expected. This happened a couple weeks ago, my neighbors went the extra mile and picked up my trash, when a raccoon made a mess. We had our trash in the trash bin, but overnight when we weren't home, a raccoon got into the trash bin and put trash in our yard. So my neighbor came over and picked it up and put it back in the bin. This was not necessary. It was not required. I never asked him to do this, but he went the extra mile. And I thanked him a lot. Make a lot long story short. This is to tell a long story briefly in just a couple words. If you ask me how Dan and I met, my husband, how we met. I might say, well, we met on the first day of college and to make a long story short, we became friends. We dated for five years, and then we got married. We often use this expression with to at the beginning. To make a long story short and then you can continue and tell your abbreviated a summary of that long story. Jump on that band wagon. This is to do a trend just because everyone else is doing it. For example, when I was in high school, a lot of high school girls were dying their hair blonde, but I didn't jump on that bandwagon. I didn't do this. In fact, I've never dyed my hair. Just something that's never really interested me. But when I was in high school, I didn't jump on that bandwagon. Our final category of idioms are just other miscellaneous idioms. There's five left. And I want to share them with you. I didn't want to forget about them, even though they don't really fit in one of the other categories. On the ball, to be prepared for something. My house is often messy. The sink is full of dishes, but in my professional life, I am almost always on the ball. You might think that I always am on the ball or another similar expression is, I always have it together, but this is not the case. When you can record a video and edit it and plan it, this is much more different than doing the dishes and keeping your house in order. 24/7, all the time. Something that happens constantly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 24/7. For example, when you are a parent, you are busy 24/7. Or you might say, "My neighbors play loud music, 24/7. Help! What do I do?" Easier said than done. This is something that seems easier than it really is. For example, I always say that it is important, it is essential to use English a little bit every day, but easier said than done. Life is busy. Things happen. But today, congratulations, you are using English today. You are enriching your mind with these idioms. So congratulations. Better late than never. Well, this is kind of self explanatory, it's better to arrive late somewhere than not arriving at all. If you come late to your friend's house, you might say, "So sorry, I'm late. Traffic was awful." And they might say to you, "Oh, it's okay. Better late than never." This is probably an idiom that you don't want to use at work, but it's okay to use in more informal situations. Our final idiom is, so far so our final idiom is, so far so good. And this means that everything is going well so far. I've been making videos on YouTube for almost five years, and so far so good. I don't plan to stop anytime soon, it has been going well so far so good. Congratulations on flooding your mind with the top 50 English idioms, at least according to me. I have to get something off my chest and I won't beat around the bush. Making this lesson was tough. What you see here on YouTube is just the tip of the iceberg, but I decided to just bite the bullet and go the extra mile for you my beloved students. I hope these 50 idioms are plain as day now, it's time for me to call it a day. Today, I'm going to help you to grow your knowledge, expand your vocabulary, and learn 50 more important phrases in English. These phrases are divided into different categories like animals, body, work, transportation, wisdom. This will just help you to kind of categorize them in your mind and help you to remember them. I hope you are definitely going to hear these when you watch English movies and TV shows, and have conversations, we use them all the time. Let's get started with our first category. Our first category are idioms that have to do with animals or animal characteristics. A little bird told me. A little bird told me it was your birthday, here's a present. This is when you know a secret, but you don't want to reveal who told you. So if you're giving a little present to your friend, and your friend thinks that you don't know that it's his birthday, you might say this sentence, a little bird told me it was your birthday today, here you go. As the crow flies. As the crow flies, I'm pretty close to the school, but because of lots of one-way streets, it takes me a long time to get there. What do you think this means, as the crow flies? A crow is a kind of bird. It's really big and black. There's a lot of crows in my yard, and they always make loud caw sounds... They're always really loud. I'm not sure why they chose this for this idiom, but this means that if you take the straightest distance, not accounting for one-way streets, just a straight distance. As the crow flies, I'm not that far from my school, but because of one-way streets, it takes me forever to get there. To kill two birds with one stone. I wanted to bake cookies with my son and I needed to make another English lesson for you here on YouTube, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone, and I did both. Have you seen the lesson where I baked cookies, chocolate chip cookies with my three-year-old son? You can watch this up here. It is a delight. It was delightful to film that with him, and to eat cookies together. What do you think this idiom means? It means that you're getting two things done at the same time. You're saving time and you're being efficient. Curiosity killed the cat. Well, it's getting close to Christmas time here in the US, and if a package arrives at our door and my son says, "Hey, I see we got a package." I might say, "Hey, curiosity killed the cat. Don't ask questions around Christmas time." And that's kind of hinting that probably this is a Christmas present for him, and I don't want him to open that package. I'm kind of warning him about being too curious. So this is the meaning of the idiom that being curious can sometimes get you into trouble. Cat got your tongue. What's the matter, why are you so quiet? Cat got your tongue? Imagine if a cat got your tongue? This is talking about being speechless or not talking, being quiet. And usually it's probably because you can't think of something to say, oh wow, she just told me something really shocking. I can't say anything. And the other person might say, what, cat got your tongue? Why aren't you saying anything? To bark up the wrong tree. The word bark is the sound that a dog makes... bark, bark. Well, we might say in this sample sentence, my sister was barking up the wrong tree when she accused me of taking her favorite shirt, it was in the dirty laundry the whole time. I didn't do it. What do you think this means? It's when you believe or pursue something that's wrong. So she was accusing me of taking her favorite shirt, but I wasn't the one who did it, it was just in the dirty laundry basket. I want to let you know that we often use this idiom to talk about sexuality. For example, the famous TV Host Ellen DeGeneres is married to a woman. So if a man flirts with Ellen DeGeneres, she might say, sorry, you're barking up the wrong tree. That means, you believe that I'm going to be interested in you, but that's not true. You are believing something that's not true. So we often use it in those situations. Our final idiom for the animal section is to be packed like sardines. Have you ever eaten sardines, they are the little fish that are often packaged in a little tin or in a can. And they're often a lot in that can. So what do you think about this sentence? When everyone got in the train, we were packed like sardines. This is kind of something that hasn't happened much in the year 2020, but we can remember back to the good old days when we were all together. Lots of people together. Well, when you are packed like sardines, you feel like that little fish that's smashed into a tin or into a jar or a can, you are packed like sardines. In our next category, there are a lot of idioms that have to do with the farm or farm related vocabulary. But don't worry, you don't have to be a farmer to use these or understand them. I hope that they will be useful to you. The first one in this category is, when pigs fly. I told my husband that I would stop eating chocolate when pigs fly. This is something impossible, something that will never happen, and you can use it in those situations. I will never stop eating chocolate. I will stop eating chocolate when pigs fly. To put all your eggs in one basket. When you're applying for a job, don't put all your eggs in one basket, you should apply to multiple companies. To put all your eggs in a basket, are you applying to become a farmer? No. In this situation, we're talking about diversifying, don't put all of your hope, all of your dreams in just one option. Instead, you should apply to multiple companies. It's not a good idea to put all of your efforts and resources in just one place. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. I wanted to buy a car with my end-of-year bonus that I was expecting from my job. But my friend told me not to count my chickens before they hatch. Not to count my chickens before they hatch. This means that you shouldn't assume something is going to happen, you should wait until you are certain. You are not sure if you're going to get that end-of-year bonus from your company, so don't buy a car in advance. Instead, wait until you have the money and then you can buy the car. Don't put the cart before the horse. Don't put the cart before the horse by quitting your job before you have another one. Can you imagine the same idea, counting your chickens before they hatch, putting the cart before the horse? This is the same idea, talking about doing something in the wrong order. Before you quit your job, you probably should secure another job so that you're not jobless while you're searching for a job. So don't do things in the wrong order. Don't put the cart before the horse, make sure the cart is behind the horse. Straight from the horse's mouth. If you don't believe me, ask him and hear it straight from the horse's mouth. If your friend tells you that he just quit his job because he got a job as an advisor to the entire company. Wow, this is a big promotion. You might not believe it, so you might say, hey, ask him and get it straight from the horse's mouth. Is that guy a horse? No. It just means, hear it directly from the source. Instead of hearing it from someone else, hear something directly from the source, the horse's mouth. A needle in a haystack, trying to find my friend in a crowd was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Do you imagine that this is an easy task or a tough task? Very tough task, maybe impossible. If there is a needle in the middle of a haystack, good luck trying to find it. In fact, this happened to me literally. Last year, my two-year-old son, Theo, dropped a basketball pump needle in our grass. We were pumping a basketball in the grass, we should not have done this in the grass. We should have done it on the sidewalk. But he dropped the needle, and I knew almost exactly where it fell, but do you know what? It took almost one hour. It took me, my husband, two neighbors and my son trying to find that needle in the grass. It was almost impossible. Thankfully, we found it, but this is a really tough task to find a needle in a haystack. Or in my case, a needle in the grass. To hit the hay. Are you hitting the hay? No. When we say, whoo, after learning these 50 idioms, you are probably going to be ready to hit the hay. That means, oh, you're so tired, you want to just go to sleep? Maybe at the end of a long day, you say, all right, I'm going to go hit the hay. I'm so tired, I'm going to go hit the hay. You're not sleeping in a barn, you're just going to bed. Our next section of idioms have to do with the body or different body parts. They might seem a little bit strange when you first hear them, but stick with them, and you'll be able to use it. Our first one is, break a leg. This sounds kind of like a mean thing to say, right? Hey, I hope you break your leg. No, if you say break a leg to someone, think about this situation. Before I went onstage for the performance, my fellow actors told me to break a leg. Are they evil, terrible people trying to make me get hurt? No. This simply means good luck. And it's something that you can use usually in a performing or competing situation. If you're performing or competing, you can say it to other people, break a leg. In fact, sometimes it's seen as bad luck if you say good luck to someone who's giving a performance. So if you are a singer and you're going to sing in front of other people, if someone says to you, good luck, you can do it. You might think, oh no, I'm going to fail. Because in some situations, depending on how superstitious your theater group is, or your singing group is, saying good luck can be considered bad luck. So instead, this expression break a leg is used for these professional competing or performing situations. Pulling my leg. I thought my dad was telling me a serious story, but it turns out he was just pulling my leg. Is my dad pulling my leg? No. In this situation, it just means that he is teasing me or telling me a joke. I want to tell you a little story. I live in the mountains, and as I've mentioned before, there's black bears everywhere. Sometimes there's a black bear walking down my street really. But one time, I was at the store and my hands were full of grocery bags. I had just bought some food and I was walking towards my car when I saw a black bear in the parking lot. And the black bear started to chase after me, maybe he wanted my food. And I started to run. You should not run when you see a black bear. But that was just by instincts. I ran and I got my bags, and I started running. And the black bear caught my shoe and he started pulling my leg, just like I'm pulling yours. Do you get it? Do you understand this joke? If you don't, first of all, don't worry, this story is not true at all. Well, it is true that there are black bears in my neighborhood, but a black bear has never chased me at the grocery store. Instead, black bears are really shy and timid. And usually, if you just go... and make a loud noise, they run away. They're very shy. But I wanted to tell you this story. When I was little, I loved to tell this joke because usually people are listening, like, oh really? Oh really? Oh really? And then you say, the black bear was pulling my leg. This is literally he's pulling my leg. And then we say, just like I'm pulling your leg, or just like I'm pulling yours. And this is called a punchline, that means it's the end of the joke, it's something funny that was said. And it means ha ha, I'm just teasing you. I'm just telling a joke. So if you have any English friends or English speaking friends who know this idiom, you can tell this little story, this little joke. And maybe they'll get a good laugh. If they don't understand this idiom, maybe it's a good time to teach them. Keep an eye out. Take your eye out? No, keep an eye out. Keep an eye out for snakes when you're hiking, they're everywhere. A couple of years ago, my husband Dan and I saw a huge thick rattle snake right beside the trail where we were hiking. And it was kind of a little reality shock for me, because when I hike, I'm just looking at the trail. I'm not really thinking about every possibility. But now, because of that experience, I try to keep an eye out for snakes, and always just remember that they could be there and to keep an eye out for them. Can you imagine what this means? It means to be on the lookout for something. This is like active searching. So now, whenever I step off the path, or if I step over a log, or especially for my kids. If they're running ahead of me, I need to make sure that they're safe because snakes are much more dangerous for children. So I want to keep an eye out for snakes. This is actively looking. Keep your eyes peeled. Ugh, that sounds awful. Usually for a banana, you peel a banana. But to keep your eyes peeled... What about this sentence? When I go hiking, I keep my eyes peeled for snakes. I keep my eyes peeled for snakes. We can imagine your eyelids are kind of like a banana peel. So you're keeping your eyes open. You're peeling your eyes so that you can be on the lookout for snakes. This is the exact same meaning to keep an eye out, to keep your eyes peeled for something. This is the exact same thing. See eye to eye. We may not see eye to eye on all issues, but we both love cats. This means that you agree or don't agree with someone else. We see eye to eye on something. It's very important, when you have children, that you and your spouse, this is your husband or wife, you need to see eye to eye on parenting. How are you going to teach your children, discipline your children? You need to agree on how you're going to do that. You need to see eye to eye. My eyes were bigger than my stomach. When I put all this food on my plate for Thanksgiving, my eyes were bigger than my stomach. This means that I thought I was hungrier than I really was. So I put lots of food on my plate, oh, my eyes were getting big and excited. And then when I ate, oh, my stomach couldn't actually eat all of that food. Bite off more than you can chew. Right now, I'm creating two new English courses, but I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew. I'm going to need to delay one of them. This means that I over committed. I'm doing too much. I bit more than I can chew, it's just too much food, or figuratively, too much work. Keep your chin up. I know that learning 50 idioms is tough, but keep your chin up, you can do it. This is talking about having courage or strength during a difficult time. Keep your chin up, it's a great word of encouragement. A chip on your shoulder. When he missed the game winning shot because the other player hit the ball out of his hands, he left the game with a chip on his shoulder. Does that mean that there is actually like a potato chip on his shoulder? No. Instead, this means that you have some kind of grudge or grievance, or this kind of hard feeling because of something else. When you feel like someone did something wrong to you that wasn't fair, maybe you have a chip on your shoulder. He missed the basket at the end of the game, but it's maybe because someone hit it, maybe it's because it was his fault. We don't know, but in any case, he had a chip on his shoulder. He had this kind of angry feeling inside of him because of how he was wronged. Bend over backwards. Can you bend over backwards. We might say that car companies are bending over backwards to sell cars nowadays, because of the difficult economic situation, people aren't buying new cars. So car salesmen have to bend over backwards to sell cars. This means they have to make a great effort in order to do something. They have to put in a lot of effort to sell cars. Add insult to injury, ooh. So here, the injury is when you get hurt, and an insult is a mean word. If you get hurt, if you fall on the ground, and someone says you're so dumb you fell on the ground. That's awful. You're hurt, and then someone says something mean to you, how terrible. Look at this situation. I accidentally locked my keys in my car, and then to add insult to injury, my phone battery died so I couldn't even call a locksmith. You see, one bad thing happened, I locked my keys in my car, and then another bad thing happened. My phone battery died so I couldn't call anyone for help. To add insult to injury, this is about making a bad situation even worse, to add insult to injury. Rub salt in the wound. A wound is if you get a cut or it could be a lot worse, and you put salt in that wound, ouch, that sounds awful. Let's look at this situation. My kids woke up really early and grumpy. They were not happy. And then seeing my friend's pictures of her kids happily playing together, just rubbed salt in the wound. My friend wasn't doing something bad. She was just sharing about her day. That's no problem, we love to share pictures, especially of our families. But for me, I was already having a tough situation. My kids woke up early, I was tired. They were grumpy, they were not happy. It was not good, but then it got even worse when my friend showed me, look, we're playing together. We're having a happy time. Oh, it makes me feel not too good. So it is rubbing salt in my wound. Does that sound familiar? It's making a bad situation worse. Yep, this is exactly the same as our previous idiom. It's making something that was already bad even worse. Go behind someone's back. Ooh. When I told my teenage daughter that she couldn't go on a date, she went behind my back, and climbed out her bedroom window to go on a date with him. Do you get a sense that this is a good thing? No. This means that you're doing something bad secretively. She snuck out the window. Not exactly a good thing to do if you want to build trust in a relationship. But here, she is going behind my back. Our next category are idioms that have to do with work and productivity. So if you are a student, if you are working at a job, and you have a lot of projects to do, I'm sure you'll be able to use these idioms to describe your daily life. Burn the candle at both ends. Usually, we burn a candle just on one end, right? But if you burn a candle on the other end, what happens? Look at this sentence. I've been burning the candle at both ends by working a morning job and a nighttime job. Do you think that you can do both of those jobs effectively, and keep up your energy and motivation? Not really. This means that you're working so hard, that you're not really being effective, that you are working too hard. You are burning the candle at both ends. So this might be some kind of warning that your friend gives you. If you are studying during the day, studying in the afternoon, in the evening and staying up all night to study. Your friend or your family might say, hey, you're burning the candle at both ends. You can't do that. You need to get some sleep, you need to get some exercise. You need to eat well. You can't burn the candle at both ends, it's not a good idea. Burn the midnight oil. Even though we don't use oil lamps anymore, at least I don't. We can still use this idiom. We might say, I've been burning the midnight oil to finish my project on time. It just means that you're working really hard, usually late at night. If you need oil, a little oil lamp to work hard, then it's probably at night, you probably don't need that during the day with sunlight. So we might say, yeah, I just burned the midnight oil last night and finished my project. I got it all done, but I didn't sleep. Running on fumes. Making holiday preparations has left me so tired, I feel like I'm running on fumes. What are fumes? This is gas. So when you are driving a car, and your gas meter says low, you might say, oh no, I'm running on fumes, I need to go to a gas station to fill up my car. That means that there's not much gasoline left. It's just air. Just some fumes, not a good idea. And this is how we're using it, but in a figurative sense. That my body has no energy left. I am just running on fumes, I have no real energy. It's just like air and gas that's keeping me going. Cut corners. I tried to cut corners when I was making the meal, but I just ruined the whole thing. This means that you're doing something in the easiest, cheapest or fastest way, and usually that means it's not the best way. So you are cutting corners, not always a good idea. Get the ball rolling. You want to get the ball rolling on your English skills, so you're watching this lesson. Great, it means that you're getting started doing something. There's a ball rolling down the hill, that's great, that's progress. Imagine now that's your English skills, you're pushing your English skills ahead by watching this lesson. Back to the drawing board. I'm not an artist and you don't have to be an artist or an architect to use this expression. Look at this situation. My dream of having a beautiful flower garden was ruined when my neighbor's dog dug up all of my flowers. Well, back to the drawing board. What do you think that means? I have to start over, completely start over. We often use this idiom at the end of a little situation, just like I did. And we often use it by itself. Kind of to say, well, there's nothing else I can do right now, so back to the drawing board. Hit the books. Is this a new study method, [inaudible 01:00:59] some aggressive study method so that you can really learn something? No, look at this situation. If I want to get good grades, I need to hit the books. Yeah, if you're just sleeping all day, taking a nap, your mom might say, hey, you need to hit the books if you're going to pass your exam. This means you need to study hard. I don't recommend hitting your books, be nice to your books. But this means that you are studying hard. Our next couple of idioms are about transportation. The first one is to miss the boat. Don't miss the boat on practicing these idioms. Keep watching this lesson, you're almost there. Don't miss the boat means don't miss an opportunity. Don't miss the boat, keep watching this lesson. You're going to learn a couple of idioms that have a similar meaning in this transportation section. Listen up, don't miss the boat. That ship has sailed. I wanted to buy some shoes at 50% off, but when I went back to the store, I realized, oh no, that ship has sailed. The sale was over. Can you guess what this means? There is an opportunity that I missed, that ship has sailed. Or, I missed the boat, the sale was over, these have a similar meaning. The train has left the station. If someone just told you, nope, that train has left the station. Would you think that they're about to go on a trip and they missed the boat, missed the train? Look at the situation. My husband said he didn't want to go to the party, but that train had already left the station because I told the host that we would be there. Ooh, I don't recommend this situation. I've been there and done that. If you are going to go somewhere, and it is also involving your spouse, make sure you consult with them first, before you commit them to going to a party. What do you think this is? There is some process that is already happening, and there is in a way, a missed opportunity to say, yeah, you don't need to go, because you already said yes, you can go. So I already told the host, yep, we'll be there. We'll be at your party. And when my husband says, "I don't want to go," well, sorry that ship has sailed. Sorry, we missed the boat. Sorry, that train has left the station because I already made the decision that we were going to be there... not a good idea. Drive someone up a wall. It sounds kind of impossible, huh? We might say when my neighbor's dog was barking all night, it was driving me up the wall. The dog was driving me up the wall? Well, in this situation, we're talking about being extremely annoyed or angry because of a situation. You can also say, it drove me crazy. It was driving me crazy. Or it was driving me up the wall. Our next category of idioms didn't neatly fit into one of the other categories, but I wanted to make sure I included them because they're really useful and commonly used. Our first one is, on the fence. I'm on the fence about hiring a professional cleaner to help clean my house. Maybe I should just do it myself, I'm on the fence. Well, you're not completely on one side or completely on the other side, you are in the middle. This means you're unable to make a decision, or you haven't made a decision yet. Well, are you going to hire a professional cleaner? I don't know, I'm on the fence. I heard it through the grape vine. To hear something through the grapevine. What if your friend says to you, how did you find out that she was pregnant? You might say, I heard it through the grape vine. Did a grape tell you this? Did the grapevine send you a little message? Well, in a figurative way, yes. This means that you learned a secret from usually an anonymous or a secret source. You don't want to reveal who told you. This is kind of similar to a little birdie told me, a little bird told me that she was pregnant. How did you hear about it? I heard about it through the grapevine. There's a classic oldie song from the '60s called, I Heard It Through The Grapevine. I'm sure if you write this idiom into YouTube, you'll probably be able to listen to this song. It's a classic, and a lot of people love it. A short fuse. A fuse, you can imagine when you have dynamite, behind the dynamite, there's like a little string and you use a lighter or some kind of match, and you light the fuse... and then the dynamite explodes. What if there is a short fuse? Look at this situation. My geometry teacher had a short fuse. He would often throw chalk if a student was late to class. I can kind of imagine that he's easily angry. If you have a long fuse. Now we don't use this in this kind of positive sense. He has a long fuse, that means it's difficult for him to get angry. But a short fuse... it's very easy for him to get angry. He has a short fuse. So if you are the kind of person who has a short fuse, try to take a couple of deep breaths, try to count to five, count to three, count to 10, whatever it takes, because having a short fuse is usually not a good thing. A stone's throw away. A stone is a rock. I'm so happy that the closest grocery store is just a stone's throw away. Well, if you have a little rock and you throw it, you probably can't throw it that far. It's not too far away. And that's the same idea here, that the grocery store is close to my house. Well, how close is the grocery store? It's a stone's throw away. At the drop of a hat. I know that my friend will help me at the drop of a hat. This means that she's going to pick up my hat? No. This means that she'll help me immediately, whenever I need it, she will help me at the drop of a hat. This is something that my mother-in-law said to me when my second son was born. We needed someone to watch my oldest son when we went to give birth. So she said, "Don't worry. I will come to your house at the drop of a hat. You can call me at 3:AM, and I will be there. And I will watch your oldest son, and I will be there and I will watch your oldest son so that you can go have a wonderful time giving birth to your second son without worrying about your first son. So I will help you at the drop of a hat. Very kind. Cut to the chase. When my best friend was telling me about some cute guy that she met, I told her to, "Cut to the chase. Are they going on a date or not?" Well, maybe she's telling me a lot of details and I say, "No, cut to the chase. Are you going on a date or not?" This means to be direct and to not tell too many details, just to get it over with, tell me what I really to hear. Are you going on a date or not? Cut to the chase. Our final idiom from this category of not really any category is once in a blue moon. "When I was a kid, I flossed my teeth once in a blue moon, but now as an adult, I floss them every day." Do you see this comparison, once in a blue moon and every day? Hmm. This means not often. I didn't floss my teeth often, and surprisingly, I never got any cavities. Maybe it's because I didn't eat much sugar. I don't know. I was very lucky. But now as an adult, I floss my teeth every day. I don't floss them once in a blue moon. Now I floss them every day. Our final category has idioms that give words of wisdom. Don't judge a book by its cover. Maybe there's a similar idiom to this in your native language. If there is, let me know in the comments. Look at this situation. "I walked in into the restaurant, it was small, it didn't have many decorations, but the food was amazing. I guess you can't judge a book by its cover." This story has nothing to do with books. I'm not going to a library. I'm not reading a book. Nothing like this, but we can still use it to talk about forming an opinion based on only appearances. "Well, the restaurant didn't look that great, but really the quality was still there." You might say this about someone else. If someone doesn't have amazing clothes and their hair is a mess, you might say, "Yeah, don't judge a book by its cover. He's still an amazing person." Cross that bridge when you come to it. Hmm, a bridge, cross that bridge. "Well, I think it might rain next week and ruin our picnic plans, but let's cross that bridge when we come to it." Hmm. Weather often changes, especially be a week before. It could it change a lot. It might not rain. It might rain. So here we're talking about dealing with maybe a difficult situation when it happens. Don't worry about it in advance, not before it happens, especially if you think it might not happen. So in this situation, it might not rain, so we don't need to make second plans, third plans, fourth plans. "What if it rains? What else are we going to do?" No, worry about that closer to the event. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I personally use this expression a lot because sometimes when I'm thinking about out different things happening in life, we ask, "Well, what if this happens? What if this happens? What if this happens?" So I need to remind myself, "Okay, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. If that situation happens, then I will deal with it." Of course, it's good to have some plans in life. But for some situations that we can absolutely not predict, or it's so far away that it's not worth stressing yourself about, you can use this expression. "Okay, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Right now, I'm not going to worry about it." No use crying over spilled milk. "Ah, I forgot about my diet and had pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh, well, no use crying over spilled milk. I'll do better tomorrow." If something has already happened in the past, don't feel upset about it because that is over, that situation or the decision you made is finished. So don't cry because the milk spilled. That has already happened, that situation is already there, so instead we need to move forward. And our final idiom today is actions speak louder than words. I think that this is almost a universal idiom because it's so true. A lot of English learners say that they want to practice is their English. They want to improve their English. But actions speak louder than words. You are actually doing it. A lot of people are just sitting there thinking, "Oh, I wish I had time to do this. I wish I could improve my English." But no, you are the one who's taking action, and your actions show that you are really serious about learning English. Actions speak louder than words. What you do is more important than what you say. This is very true in relationships. Make sure that you show love to the people around you. Instead of just saying, "Yeah, I care about you. Yeah, you're my friend." Okay, well put some action behind that and do something special or show that you care about the people around you. Well, congratulations on flooding your mind with 50 important English idioms. You did it. I'm on the fence about which of these idioms is my favorite, but I hope that you will keep an eye out for these as you're watching English movies and TV shows and having conversations. Break a leg, you can do it. Have you ever been listening to an English conversation, but you just can't figure out what they're saying? You know the individual words, but the meaning just doesn't add up? If you've been putting off learning phrasal verbs, you may want to check out today's lesson. It will take you from, "Huh," to, "Bring it on," in no time. So what are phrasal verbs? Well, phrasal verbs are a two or three part verb like this. There is a normal verb, try, plus a second part. That second part could be called a participle, could be called a preposition. It doesn't really matter. That second part is what makes this a phrasal verb. To try is different than to try on or to try out. These have different meanings, so when we use phrasal verbs, it changes the meaning of the original verb. Phrasal verbs are incredibly common in daily conversations, so I hope that these top 50 phrasal verbs in this lesson will help you to gain some confide in your speaking, but also to help you understand what other people are saying. Because it's important to know the nuances and the different meanings of these phrasal verbs. Let's get started with number one. Number one is to add up, to add up. Take a look at this sentence. "Her story didn't add up. I think she's lying." What do you think this phrasal verb means? Instead of me directly telling you right away the meaning of the phrasal verb, I want you to guess based on the sentence. That's what we're going to be doing for all 50 of these phrasal verbs. It's kind of like a 50 question test, hopefully a fun test. What do you think add up means here? "Her story didn't add up. I think she's lying." Hmm. This means it didn't make sense. Something about it seemed not logical or strange. It didn't add up. We usually use this phrasal verb in a negative sentence, so that's what's happening here. Her story did not add up. If you are a student and you go to your teacher and say, "I'm sorry, I don't have my homework finished because last night I got into a car wreck and I had to go visit my grandmother in the hospital. And then I had my dog and my dog was eating my homework." This story seems a little bit unbelievable, so the teacher might think, "Oh, your story, doesn't add up. I think you're lying. You just didn't do your homework." So here the story doesn't make sense. It's not logical. It doesn't add up. Let's go to number two, to back somebody up. Take a look at this sentence. "My parents backed me up when I decided to apply for graduate school." "My parents backed me up," what do you think this means? My back backed me up. We can imagine your back, the part of your body. It gives you support. You can't sit up or stand up or do much without your back. So when you back someone up, you give them support. "My parents supported me when I decided to apply for graduate school." This is a great example of how a phrasal verb can directly replace another, maybe more textbook word. It's not wrong to say, "My parents supported me." But it's even better to say, "My parents backed me up when I decided to apply for graduate school." Phrasal verbs will just make you sound more comfortable and like you know what you're saying. Let's take a look at a similar expression. It's kind of a bonus tip that I'd like to add. What if I said to you, "I've got your back. I've got your back." Can you guess what this means? This isn't a phrase verb. It's just a bonus phrase that is kind of similar to this phrasal verb. It means, "I will support you. I am supporting you all the way. I got your back." We often use this when we want to give encouragement to someone. So if your friend is maybe going to do something a little bit risky, well, you can say, "I will support you no matter what. I got your back." Great, wonderful phrase to use. Let's go to our next phrasal verb, to blow up. Hmm. Take a look at this sentence. "When I told her I couldn't come to her party, she blew up." Hmm. This is the past tense. This is in a regular past tense verb. She blew up. Do you think she's really happy? Oh no. Instead, if this is to become suddenly angry, she blew up. So if this is part of your personality, to easily blow up, maybe there's some deep breaths you can take, clear your mind a bit. If you are easily angry, well, maybe you easily blow up and need to calm down a bit. All right, let's go to our next one. To bring on something, to bring on something. "50 new phrasal verbs. Yeah, bring it on." Can you tell by my facial expression? It's not like the previous one. I'm not blowing up. I'm not angry. Instead, I am excited about accepting some kind of challenge with confidence. "Yes, 50 new phrasal verbs. I can do it, bring it on." We often use this to give encouragement to ourselves. If you are faced with some kind of challenge and you want to really encourage yourself, you could say, "All right, bring it on. I can do it." To bring up. "You shouldn't bring up politics in this house unless you are ready for a long discussion." Hmm, you shouldn't bring up politics. This means you shouldn't mention politics in conversation, unless you want a long discussion because people here are quite passionate about politics. Hmm, to bring up something. What's something that you shouldn't bring up in your country? What is a topic that you should maybe avoid in your country? If you'd like to check out some common taboo questions in English, and especially in the US that you should avoid, check out this video that I made up here. It will help you know which topics you shouldn't bring up, unless you want to have a long discussion. To call off. "Instead of calling off the wedding, the couple decided to elope." Hmm. Probably last year, if you tried to get married in your country, it might have been a little difficult because you couldn't have big weddings. Very unfortunate for a lot of people who wanted to get married last year, and probably continuing this year too. So what's your other choice? Well, you could call off the wedding or you could elope. What do you think this phrasal verb means, to call off the wedding? It just means to cancel the wedding. "We're going to cancel the wedding." Well, maybe you still want to get married, so you could elope. If you watched one of my previous videos about 10 funny jokes in English, we talked about this word elope. It means to run away with your lover to get married, maybe in some courthouse or maybe in a nice destination, but it's just the two of you. You are eloping. So you could call off your wedding. You could cancel the wedding, or you could elope. To calm down. "When I have a stressful day, I like to calm down by taking a nice long walk outside." Maybe you feel the same way. When you take a long walk outside, it helps you to calm down. This phrasal herb means to relax, to calm down. To catch up, to catch up. "I met my friend for lunch to catch up because we haven't seen each other in a lot long time." Am I running after my friend and catching her? No. Take a look at this other question. "Want to meet for coffee and catch up? Want to meet for coffee and catch up?" We are not running. I'm not inviting you to have a race. Instead, this means that you are meeting with someone who you haven't seen for a while. You want to find out what has been happening in their life recently. You want to catch up. Sometimes we say catch up on what's happening in your life. "Yeah, I want to catch up on what's happening, so tell me all about it." To catch up on. To check in. Look at this sentence. "I went to the hotel to check in while my husband parked the car." To check in, what am I doing in the hotel? Check, check, check. No, this just means that you're registering at a hotel. You are telling them, "Hey, I'm here." And they write in the computer, "All right, Vanessa is here. Here's your keys." This process is called checking in. To check out. To check out could have the opposite meaning. When you leave the hotel, you check out. You give them back the keys and you say, "I'm done. I'm leaving. Thank you so much." But I'd like to give you another meaning. What if you saw this sentence? "I'm excited to check out the new park in my city." Hmm, to check out the new park. Or what if I just said, "Check it out." Oh, what do you think this means? This means to see something or to try something. "I can't wait to see the new park in my city. I can't wait to check out the new park in my city. Walk all around, see what's going on." Great, you are checking it out. We sometimes use this phrase all by itself, "Check it out." And this just means, "Look at this, check it out. I can't believe that my son finished a 100 piece puzzle by himself. Check it out. Look at this." It's kind of an expression of surprise and amazement. "Wow, check it out." To chip in. "I couldn't go to the party, but I still wanted to chip in for a gift." Hmm. I want to help participate in something. It might be with money or with your energy and time. Take a look at this. "My son likes to chip in and help me with the garden." He's giving time and energy, digging and weeding and helping me with the garden. He's not giving me money. He's not participating by giving money. Instead, it's his time. So if you can't go to a party, but you want to help pay for a special present, you could give some money to your friend and say, "Here's some money because I want to chip in for the present," And they will use that money to help pay for the present. It's a great phrasal verb. To close down, to close down. This is different than to close. Take a look at this. "Because of construction, they closed down two lanes of the highway." Hmm, they closed down two lanes of the highway. Or, "During the pandemic, a lot of restaurants closed down." Can you get the sense of this phrasal verb? It means that they closed completely, sometimes forever. So the highway, they completely closed two lanes because they were doing construction, or for the businesses, they closed forever because of the pandemic. It's a very unfortunate situation. To come down with something. "I'm not feeling so well. I think I'm coming down with something." Hmm. Can you guess that this means to start to feel sick, to come down with something? We use this for not serious sicknesses. For example, maybe you have a cold. Maybe you have a sore throat. Maybe you even have the flu, but it's not something so serious. You might use this as an excuse. "Sorry, I can't come to your party. I think I'm coming down with something." We often use something with this phrasal verb because at the beginning of a sickness, you might not know what it is, but you could say, "Sorry, I think I'm coming down with a cold." You could be specific if you know. Or, "I think I'm coming down with the flu. I should stay away from people for a few days." To come down with some type of sickness. And the opposite of this, to come down with, to come up with. To come up with something, take a look at this sentence. "I need to come up with a great present for my mom's birthday." Come up with a great present. Am I picking up a great present? No. Take a look at this other sentence. "I couldn't come up with anything special, so I just baked a cake." Hmm. This means you're finding an idea. To come up with a present means that I need to think about a great idea for a birthday present. "I can't come up with a great idea." Or maybe you need to write a thesis paper. You need to come up with an original idea. You need to find an idea that is original for your thesis paper, to come up with something. To cut back on, to cut back on. Hmm. Take a look at this sentence. "I'm trying to cut back on fried food, but it's so tasty." I'm trying to cut back on fried food. Do you think I'm trying to eat more? Nope. Instead, that means you're trying to do less of something. You're trying to take something out of your life. To cut back on your consumption of fried food. Or you could say it just by itself. If someone says, "Why aren't you eating ice cream? You could say, "I'm trying to cut back." You don't need to use on because you don't need to repeat, "I'm trying to cut back on ice cream," because they just said ice cream, so we know the general topic and context here. You could say ice cream again. "I'm trying to cut back on ice cream." But you could just say this by itself. "I'm trying to cut back." This is a really a natural thing to say. To cut off, to cut off. Cut off my hair? No, that's not what we're talking about. Take a look at this. "The driver in the red car cut me off and almost caused a wreck." Cut me off, it's kind of an angering situation. You're driving and another car comes in and you go, "Oh," and you slam on the brakes or you have to be ... swerve to the side and be safe. Hmm. He has made it so it was kind of ending abruptly or stopping something quickly. Usually we use this in driving, "That driver cut me off." Or with speaking. You could say, "He tried to tell the teacher his excuse, but she cut him off mid-sentence." Hmm, maybe she thought his story didn't add up. So as he's speaking, boom, she cut him off. "Ed, no, no, no. I don't think that's an excuse. No, you need to have your homework." She cut him off. This idea of ending abruptly what he was thinking. To drop by or to drop in. Take a look at this. "Hey, are you home? I'm in the neighborhood and I wanted to drop by." If you call your friend and tell your friend this, "I'm in the neighborhood and wanted to drop by." Does that mean you want to drop something on the ground or you want to give something to your friend? Nope. It just means, "I want to see you." You're kind of spontaneously going for a visit, to drop by. Usually this is a quick visit. It doesn't necessarily need to be, but usually it's kind of this quick visit. You can even use drop in similar situations. Maybe you want to encourage your friends to visit you at any time. You could say, "Drop in whenever you want. Drop in whenever you want, or drop by whenever you want. Please, I would love to see you at any time." To end up, to end up. "We ended up just ordering pizza and not going to the fancy restaurant. We ended up just ordering pizza." Maybe it's raining. Maybe you're just tired. You had plans to go to a fancy restaurant, but that is not what happened. Instead, you just ordered pizza. So we're talking about the conclusion. What is really happening at the end? "Well, we ended up ordering pizza." We can also use this in a little bit of a deeper way. Instead of saying just some actions that happen, sometimes we use this to talk about our character. For example, you might say, "He doesn't want to end up like his father." This is a little strong. But maybe his father is an alcoholic. Maybe his father is really rude or has some characteristics that the son doesn't want to have. So we could say, "He doesn't want to end up like his father." What is happening in his father's life as an adult, he doesn't want, the son doesn't want the same thing to happen to him. "I don't want to end up like my father, so I'm going to try to surround myself with good people and get a good education and focus on positivity." Okay, there's things you can do to not end up like someone who you don't want to end up like. To figure out, to figure out. "The mechanic tried to figure out what was wrong with my car." Hmm, he tried to figure out what was wrong with my car. This means he's trying to find a solution. Find what's happening here. We could simply say, "Ugh, I can't figure it out. Can you help me please?" This is a really common question a very polite question. It means you tried. "I tried to figure it out, but I can't figure it out. Can you help me please?" To fill in, to fill in. "I missed the meeting. Can someone fill me in?" Hmm. Notice here that we're talking about someone. Fill me in, does that mean that I need to drink a lot of water to fill my stomach? No, here we're talking about giving some information. Usually this is spoken information. If you miss a business meeting and you want to find out what happened, this is the perfect phrasal verb to use. "Can someone fill me in. What happened at the meeting?" Or maybe if you walk into your house and it's an absolute disaster, things are such a mess and your kids look up and say, "Hi mom." You might use this phrasal verb say, "All right, someone fill me in, what happened in this house?" So you want them to give you some information, some spoken information. Notice that this is spoken because our next phrasal verb is going to be the opposite. To fill out, fill out. When you go to a new doctor's office, you need to fill a lot of paperwork. Hmm. Are you talking to someone? Nope. You're giving information, but it's written. It's written down. So at the doctor's office, the secretary might say, "All right, can you please fill out these forms and give them back to me when you're finished." Fill out these forms. I think a good way to remember fill in and fill out is to imagine the image of information going into you. So when someone fills you in, the information is going in. But when you fill out a form, the information is going out of the pen. The ink is going out of the pen, so you need to fill out the form, but you want someone to fill you in. I hope that helps. To find out, to find out. "In the next episode, we will find out who the mysterious man is." To find out. Hmm. This just means that you're learning something that you didn't know before, some kind of information that you didn't know before. Or you might say, "Hmm, today I found out that phrasal verbs are really important." This is something knew that you learned that you didn't know before. "Hmm, I found out this is an irregular past tense verb. I found out." Or, "I am finding that out now." To get along, or to get along with. Take a look at this. "I get along with my neighbors really well. I get along with my neighbors." This means I have a friendly relationship with them. We could switch this sentence up a little bit and take out with. Take a look at this. "My neighbors and I get along well." Hmm. Notice how the sentence construction is different. We have both people as the subject of the sentence. "My husband and I get along well." Or we could switch it up and say, "I get along with my husband really well." So if we have both people at the beginning, you can cut out the word with. But if want to have one and then the other, you can add the word with. This is a great way to be flexible with phrasal verbs. To get around. Usually we add, to get around to it. To get around to doing something. Take a look at this. "One day, I'll get around to cleaning the garage, but not today. I'll get around to cleaning the garage, but not today." Hmm. This means you are eventually doing something. Usually you're kind of delaying it. "Ah, I'll get around to that later." This is a common phrase. "I'll get around to that," or it, "I'll get on to it later." So if you told your husband, "All right, I'm going to clean the garage." And then you don't do it and he says, "Hey, why's the garage still a mess?" You might say, "Ah, I'll get around to it later. I'll delay it. I delayed it, but eventually I'll just do it later." Or when you do it, you could say, "I finally got around to cleaning the garage." Oh, this means you have been delaying it for so long. You've been procrastinating. You said, "Eventually I'll do it," and then you did it. "I finally got around to cleaning the garage. Whew." To get back at, to get back at. Hmm. Look at this. "My sister took my shoes to get back at me for taking her sweater. If you have any siblings and you shared clothes with them, this can work out really well sometimes, but sometimes it doesn't work out so well. So what's happening in this sentence with, to get back at? "Hmm, my sister is trying to take revenge. She's angry that I took her sweater. So what's she going to do? She's going to take my shoes. Maybe she's going to wear my shoes and not tell me about it. She took my shoes to get back at me for taking her sweater." We can use this as a question too. If you are not sure about someone's motives, you might say, "Are you just trying to get back at me for taking your sweater?" And she might say, "Yep, I am." "Are you trying to get back at me? Are you trying to get revenge because you're angry about something I did." Hmm, maybe so. To give up. To give up? No. Look at this sentence. "After trying to change the oil in my car for a couple hours, I finally gave up and went to a mechanic." Could you guess that I'm really happy about doing this? It was really successful? No. I gave up and went to a mechanic. This means I quit. I tried a lot and then I quit and I just went to a mechanic. We can also use this phrasal verb to give some encouragement to someone. So I know that in today's lesson is a lot of information, a lot of phrasal verbs, but I want to tell you don't give up. You can do it. Continue learning. Say some of the sentences out loud with me. Repeat them, enjoy yourself, take some notes. Maybe cook some food, have a glass of wine at the same time that you're studying this lesson. Don't give up, you got this. To grow up, to grow up. This one is to grow up? Actually, yes. "When I was a child, I couldn't wait to grow up." Isn't that funny? When we're kids, we just want to grow up. And then when we're adults, we look at kids and say, "Oh, how innocent, how happy they are." This means that you are getting older. But we can also use this kind of as an insult to tell someone to stop acting like a child. So let's imagine that you make a little body sound. Maybe you fart and somebody laughs and you say, "That wasn't funny, grow up." Well, kids like to laugh at these types of things. Hey, adults do too. But it's usually considered a childish thing to laugh at. So you might say, "Hey, that wasn't funny, grow up. Stop acting like a child, grow up." This is pretty harsh, and you could say it with a light tone in your voice. "Hey, grow up. That's not funny." You could say it like that, lightly, but it can be pretty strong if you say this seriously. All right, let's go to our next phrasal verb. To hang on. "Oh, can you hang on for just a sec while I check this message?" Hmm. That's a great way to use this phrasal verb. "Can you hang on for just a sec? This is just a second." Can you imagine what this means, to wait, to pause for just a minute? Sometimes we even use this to pause the conversation. If someone tells you something shocking, they say, "Oh yeah, I was hiking and I saw a rattlesnake and I picked it up," and then they just keep talking. To pick up a rattlesnake is a very bad idea, so you might say, "Hang on. You did what?" You're telling them, "Pause the conversation. Stop." You're telling them, pause the conversation. Stop. What's happening? Hang on. You did what? Don't pick up a rattlesnake. So here it's the same idea. You're asking someone, "Hey, can you hang on just a sec while I check this message? Hang on, pause. Pause what we're doing while I check this message." Or, "Pause the conversation. Don't pick up a rattlesnake. Vanessa's public service announcement of the day. Please don't pick up dangerous snakes unless you are a professional. To hang out, to hang out. Do you want to come over to my house and hang out? This means we are just casually spending time together. Do you want to come over and hang out? There's no plan. There's no specific event. Just maybe throwing a Frisbee in the backyard. Maybe making some tea and coffee and some little snacks and we'll just hang out. We sometimes use this phrasal verb as a way to answer a common question. If someone says, "What did you do this weekend?" And either you did nothing or you don't want to tell them, you might say, "I just hung out." This is an irregular past verb. So you might say, "I just hung out, hung out." And it means I sat around the house. I didn't do anything special. I just hung out. Great. It's a way to answer this common question. "Hey, what'd you do this weekend?" "I just hung out, nothing special." If you'd like to see some other ways to answer this question, what'd you do this weekend or what you got going on this weekend? You can check out this video I made up here where you're going to have the opportunity to learn some common questions, answer those questions. And also practice speaking with me. I hope that you'll enjoy that lesson. Make sure you check it out. To hold on, to hold on. I'm holding on to hope that someday we'll be able to travel again soon. Wouldn't that be great? We can get the idea. I'm holding on to hope. I'm not holding on my phone. No, it's something more figurative. I'm holding on to hope. This is a great way to use this phrasal verb, which means you cling to something. But sometimes we use this in a more figurative way. Remember I just talked about, "Hang on. You did what? You picked up a rattlesnake?" Hang on. Well, we could also say, "Hold on, you did what? Hold on. You did what?" So we're kind of clinging to this moment in the conversation. Wait, you picked up a rattlesnake? No, don't talk about other things. I want to talk about this thing that you just said. It's shocking. Hold on. You did what? Also, if you would like to incorporate phrasal verbs into your life in a fun way with songs, take a look at this fun sentence. Hold on. I'm coming. Hold on. I'm coming. This is a classic Sam and David song. I recommend searching for it on YouTube. Some of the words are a little tough to understand in the way that he's singing it, but you can check out the lyrics at the same time that you're listening, but he uses this phrasal verb, hold on. And he's saying, "Wait. Don't go away, stay here. I want to cling to this relationship and I will help you. I'm coming. I'm coming to help you. Hold on." It's fun when you can recognize phrasal verbs in songs, in movies, in TV shows, and when you hear them and you understand them, it brings such joy and excitement because you're studying. Your hard work is worth it. To keep on. If you keep on practicing, you'll get better. That's true. If you keep on practicing the piano, eventually you'll get better. Maybe it will take a long time. Maybe it will take a week, but you'll get better. What's this mean? If you continue practicing, you'll get better. I feel like this phrasal verb, to keep on, is used a lot more than to continue. To continue is very descriptive. But in daily conversation we use keep on a lot more. Yes, I have to keep on working. I have a lot to do, keep on doing something. There's a fixed phrase that we sometimes use to encourage other people using this phrasal verb twice. Keep on keeping on. What do you think this means? If someone told you, "I know you're learning lots of phrasal verbs. It's a lot, but keep on keeping on." This means continue continuing. You're doing a hard job. This is a lot, but you know what? Keep on doing it. You got this. Keep on keeping on. To look forward to. I'm looking forward to visiting my family over the summer. I'm looking forward to it. This means there's something in the future that I'm excited about. Or maybe something I'm not excited about. No one looks forward to tax time. Maybe unless you're like a tax accountant and that's what makes you excited. Okay. But we could say most people don't look forward to tax time. It's not an exciting thing that you're waiting for. No. I don't look forward to tax time, but I look forward to seeing my family. To look out. When you hike, look out for snakes. I don't know why I'm thinking about snakes a lot right now. Maybe because it's getting warmer and they're coming out a lot more, especially where I live. So you have to look out for snakes. This means you need to be careful. Watch out for snakes. Watch out's actually another phrasal verb. We'll talk about later, but let's start with look out. Look out for snakes. There's another great idiom that has a similar meaning. It's kind of a bonus idiom. It's not a phrasal verb, but we might say you need to keep an eye out for snakes. Don't take your eye out and look for snakes. No, no, no. But we use this singularly. I mean, it's a good idea to use both your eyes to look out for snakes. But for some reason, this idiom just uses eye. You should keep an eye out for snakes. Keep an eye out for snakes. You never know when you might see one, you don't want to accidentally step on one, keep an eye out for snakes. Look out for snakes. To look up. To look up, not exactly this meaning. You might say, I didn't know the meaning of the word to hold on. So I looked it up in the dictionary. This is when you search for something usually online or in a book or in a dictionary to get some more information. I looked it up in the dictionary. You might even just say, I looked it up. If someone says, "How do you know so much about river otters?" You might say, "I looked it up." Or, "I looked up some information about them last week. So that's how I know a lot about river otters. I looked it up." To pull over. It was raining so hard that I had to pull over and wait for the rain to stop. I had to pull over. You get the sense here that it's not safe to drive. I didn't continue driving. I pulled over. This means you steer your car to the side of the road or maybe to like a gas station or somewhere safe and wait. You might just stop completely. Or you're just waiting for a period of time. We often use this phrasal verb for police. So you could say, "Yeah, I was driving too fast. And when I saw police lights behind me, I pulled over." But we can use this in a more specific ways to talk about this situation. You might say, "He," the police officer, "he pulled me over. He pulled me over." Or if we want to use this indirectly, this is a really common phrase, you might just say, "I got pulled over on my way to the party. I got pulled over." This means someone is doing the action to me. I wouldn't have stopped if the police weren't behind me. I would've just kept driving. So who did this? Well, I didn't directly say in my sentence, but this phrase always means the police. I got pulled over. There were some lights, a siren, "Man, I'm getting pulled over. I got pulled over." I hope that doesn't happen to you anytime soon. To put off, to put off. Look at this. I put off learning phrasal verbs for too long. It's time to start today. I put off. This means you are postponing something. You are delaying something. I can't put it off for any longer. I need to start today. When I saw Vanessa had this lesson about 50 phrasal verbs, I knew it was time to stop putting off learning phrasal verbs. Today was my chance. Bring it on. To put up with, to put up with. No we're not raising something up. You might say, "My sweet husband puts up with my terrible singing. He puts up with my terrible singing." Do you want to listen to terrible singing? Probably not. But if someone puts up with your terrible singing, they tolerate it. "Yeah. He puts up with my terrible singing because he knows that it makes me happy to sing." So we can use put up with for tolerating something. "Yep. He puts up with my singing." Or we can use it for someone, but this is a little bit harsher. What if you said, "I don't know how he puts up with her." Well, let's say that two people are dating and the girl in this situation is a little bit difficult. Well, you might be talking or gossiping about their relationship. You might say, "I don't know how he puts up with her. I don't know how he tolerates her." Do you see here? How this is not one heart of her, her singing. No, this is just her in general. Her character, her personality. This is a little bit harsher to say, "I cannot tolerate that person." That's much stronger than saying I can't tolerate this one thing that person does. It's okay to say, "I can't put up with your singing right now. Please stop. I'm trying to study." It's different than saying, "I can't put up with you." This is a little strong. So make sure if you use this, you use it in very strong situations. To run away. My dog is too lazy to run away. He knows where the food is. So he is going to stay here. He's too lazy to run away. Or did you ever try to run away from home as a kid? This is a common phrase to run away from home and it means to escape. My dog knows that the food is here. So he's not going to run away. He's not going to escape because it's not better out there. It's better here where there's food. And the same as a kid. Well, you might run away from home. This fixed phrase. Yeah. She tried to run away from home last week, but she only made it to the neighbor's house. To run away, to escape. To run into. Well, not exactly a physical running into someone, but it's a similar idea. Look at this sentence. I don't want to run into a bear while I'm hiking. Yes, of course you don't want to physically hit a bear while you're hiking, but a more likely situation is to unexpectedly see a bear. I don't want to run into a bear or you might say I ran into my high school English teacher last week at the grocery store. I didn't plan to meet her there. It was just unexpected. I unexpectedly saw my teacher, my old high school teacher at the grocery store. I ran into my teacher. Or we could use this as kind of a question. You'll never guess who I ran into today. This is kind of a fun little question to ask someone. And then they guess really random people. You'll never guess who I ran into today. Good question. To run out of or to run out. We ran out of milk and eggs yesterday. So I need to go to the store. We ran out of. Am I carrying milk and eggs and running out of the house? No. This just means that there's none left. It's all finished. We ran out of milk and eggs. So it's time to go to the store, but we can also just use to run out. Take a look at this. There's no more milk? Sorry, we ran out yesterday. Why did I not say we ran out of milk? Well, we already know the context. We know that we're talking about milk. So you could just say, "Yeah, sorry. We ran out yesterday and I haven't bought any new milk yet." We ran out. To stick with, to stick with. I tried guitar, piano, violin and finally I decided to stick with the drums. What do you think that means? That means you are continuing to do something. To continue playing the drums. I stopped playing guitar, stopped playing piano, stopped playing violin and continued playing the drums. I think I'm going to stick with the drums. Or we could use this for friends. We could say good friends stick with each other even through hard time times. They continue their friendship even through hard times. To think over, to think over. It's a good idea to think over big purchases before you buy them. Before you buy a car, you should think it over. This is a great phrase to maybe give someone and advice. Think it over. This means you need to consider it seriously. Think it over before you make the decision. You need to think over a big purchase before you buy it. To turn down. Now this is not really talking about physically turning something down. Take a look at this sentence. I was so full from dinner that I had to turn down dessert. I love dessert, but I was so full that I had to turn down desserts. This means you are refusing something. You might even use this politely and say, "I'm sorry. I need to turn it down. I'm so full. I need to refuse dessert because I'm just so full." We can use this for people too. But it's like I mentioned before with some of the other phrasal verbs, it's a little more serious. If you are proposing to your girlfriend, you were asking her to marry you. And she says no. Well you might say, "She turned me down." This means she refused me. And it's kind of deeper about your character or who you are. It's very serious. She turned me down. I can't believe it. To turn off. It's a good habit to turn off your phone an hour or more before bed. To turn off. This means you're stopping your phone, but we can imagine you're stopping the flow of something because we can use this more figuratively too. We might say that some people have trouble turning off their brain before bed. You lay in bed and you just keep thinking about so many things. You need to turn off your brain in order to relax and sleep. You don't want to have your brain turned off all the time. But before bed, it's important to turn off your brain. You're stopping the flow of thoughts, the flow of energy. Just like you need to turn off your phone, you need to turn off your brain a little bit too. To turn up, to turn up. I surprised my family when I turned up to the party unannounced. Can you guess what this means? I appeared unexpectedly. They didn't think that I was coming. And then I knocked on the door and there I was. I turned up unexpectedly. Or you could say, "My cat was gone for two days. And then he just turned up out of nowhere. I have no idea where he was. He didn't tell me. He just turned up. He appeared unexpectedly out of nowhere." To warm up to. Talking about cats. It took my cat a while to warm up to me. It took my cat a while to warm up to me. If you know anything about the difference between cats and dogs, well, dogs always want to, but cats, sometimes they need more time. And that's this idea of to warm up to, to start to like someone, it takes time. We can imagine a curling iron that sometimes people use to curl their hair. It doesn't heat up immediately. It takes time. And that's the idea here of someone or something. My cat took time to warm up to me immediately. He didn't sit on my lap and love me. No, he had to make sure that I was okay first. We can warm up to someone or something, but we could also warm up to something more figuratively, like an idea. We might say, "I didn't want to get a trampoline, but after some time, I started to warm up to the idea." I thought about it, realized, yeah, it could be pretty fun. And now we have a trampoline. I started to warm up to the idea. Watch out. Watch out for falling rocks or watch out, sometimes make a nest in the ground around there. Don't step without looking, watch out. This is used to caution someone, to be aware. Watch out when you hike, sometimes bears will walk by unexpectedly. Watch out. To wear off. The energy from my morning tea starts to wear off around noon. That's soon. The energy from my tea starts to wear off. Can you guess what this means? It's fading away. When I first drank my tea, I had lots of energy and then it's starting to fade away. It's wearing off. We could also use this for something that you write with. For example, you might say the marker is starting to wear off. A couple weeks ago, my son was really excited because he learned to write his name and he took a marker and during his nap time, he wrote his name all over his sheets. You can see this here. He kept writing his name everywhere. And it's pretty funny. The marker is washable. It's not a big deal. He was really excited. And now the marker is starting to wear off. So it's kind of fading away, but I'm sure he will write it more and more because he is so excited about his new skill. Phrasal verb, number 50, we're finally here, congratulations, is to work something out. Take a look at this. My husband likes the mountains. I like the beach. So for our next vacation, we're going to need to work something out. I could have said we are going to need to work out a mutually beneficial solution for our vacation. A little too much. It's much more natural to say, "We need to work something out." This means we need to find a compromise. Sometimes parents say this to their children. If their children are fighting and they say, "Mom, help me. No, she did this. No, he did this." And the parent doesn't want to get involved. Your parent might say, "Well, you guys need to work something out yourselves. This is something that I'm not going to get involved in. Both of you need to come up with some kind of compromise. You need to work something out yourselves." So how did you do, are you starting to warm up to some of these phrasal verbs? If you stick with practicing them, they'll get better and easier with time. What do you do? If I asked you this question, would you freeze and think, what am I doing? I'm watching a video. Okay. No, the question, what do you do is not asking, what are you doing right now? It is an extremely specific question that only has one correct answer. If I asked you this, would your heart start to beat a little bit? What do I do? What do you do? What do you do? Well, never fear. In today's lesson, you are going to master the question. What do you do? And also 50 of the most common questions in daily English conversation. Are you ready to get started? Let's start with some greetings. I'm going to say each question and answer two times the first time I want you to listen. And the second time I want you to speak out loud and say it with me. Practice your speaking muscles and your pronunciation. You will grow and gain confidence with this style. Are you ready? How's it going? Pretty good. And you? One more time. Say it with me. How's it going? Pretty good. And you? How are you doing? I'm good. How are you? How are you doing? I'm good. How are you? You doing okay? I'm doing all right. How about you? You doing okay? I'm all right. How about you? Notice that a lot of these questions send back the question by saying, "How about you?" You are returning the question. See this in the next one. How you been? I've been doing well. How about you? Great. You don't need to repeat "how you have been" to the other person. You can just say, "How about you?" Let's practice it together. How you been? I've been doing well. How about you?What's been going on? Not much. How about you? Say it with me. What's been going on? Not much. How about you? What's new? Not a lot. What's new with you? Say it with me. What's new? Not a lot. What's new with you? Let's go on to some weather questions. What's it like out there? It's cloudy. I think it might rain later. Say it with me. What's it like out there? It's cloudy. I think it might rain later. Crazy weather we're having, huh? Notice this question just ends with, "Huh?" Because you want the other person to hopefully agree with you. So what can you respond to this question with? You might say, "Yeah, it's been so windy." Let's say it together. Crazy weather we're having, huh? Yeah. It's been so windy. Is it hot enough for you? Almost. This question is very sarcastic. If the weather is extremely hot and you ask, "Is it hot enough for you?" It's a little bit of a silly question. So you can reply to this with, "Almost. It's not hot enough for me. I want it to be hotter." So you can say, "Almost." But you're really acknowledging it is so incredibly hot. So try to say this with me. Is it hot enough for you? Almost. Can you believe how hot it is? So crazy. I can't believe it. Maybe it's February and it's extremely hot. This is very strange. You could ask this question, say it with me. Can you believe how hot it is? So crazy. I can't believe how hot it is. I can't believe it. Let's talk about some weekend questions. If you would like to practice some weekend questions with me in a speaking conversation format, you can watch this video up here. I made speak with me about your weekend plans. Let's review some of those questions. What you got going on this weekend? I'm going to go have dinner and a movie. Say it with me. What you got going on this weekend? I'm going to go have dinner and a movie. How about you? Let's add that question to ask the other person, say it with me. How about you? You doing anything fun this weekend? Yeah, my family's coming to visit. How about you? Great. Can you say this with me? You doing anything fun this weekend? Yeah. My family's coming to visit. How about you? What time are you going to head over here? I think I'll leave my house around eight. Does that work for you? This is a great question. When someone is coming to your house or coming to the location where you are and you want to know, "Hey, when are you going to be here?" You can ask this question. Say it with me. What time are you going to head over here? I think I'll leave my house around eight. Does that work for you? Where do you want to meet up? Let's meet at the park at seven. Does that work with you? This is a great question to ask. Say it with me. Where do you want to meet up? Let's meet at the park at seven. Does that work with you? You can also substitute when for where? When do you want to meet up? Where do you want to meet up? Great. You're making plans to get together. You want to grab dinner? Sure. Where do you want to go? This is inviting someone to share a meal with you. Ask it with me. You want to grab dinner? Sure. Where do you want to go? You want to do dinner? Sure. What's a good time for you? To do dinner. This is a great way to form this question. You're asking if they want to join you for a meal. Another way to say that. Say it with me. You want to do dinner? Sure. What's a good time for you? Next let's talk about job questions. Are you ready? What do you do? I'm a teacher. I teach students online to speak confidently and clearly in English. This was the question at the beginning of this lesson. What do you do? It's just, what's your job. But in daily conversation, we hardly ever ask directly what's your job. Instead we ask, what do you do? This happens in almost every bit of small talk. Every time you meet someone for the first time, they'll ask you, what do you do? And you can ask this question now, too. So let me know in the comments. What do you do? What's your day job? I run my own business from home. What about you? A day job is something that you do to make money. Maybe you are a farmer, but you don't make much money being a farmer. So your day job is a video editor. Okay. You have two jobs, but your day job is the one that sustains you financially. Ask it with me. What's your day job? Oh, I have an online business at home. Great. What field are you in? I'm in software engineering. What about you? This is a great question. And a more general job question. Ask it with me. What field are you in? I'm in software engineering. What about you? What's it like to work there? I love it. It's so challenging. Every day there's so something new. Can you ask this question with me? What's it like to work there? I love it. It's challenging and every day there's something new. If you would like to grow your vocabulary and speak more confidently about your job, don't miss this video. How to pronounce 100 jobs in English. Next let's about some common questions in the office. You got a minute? Sure. What's up? Great question for interrupting someone and asking them a question. Ask it with me. You got a minute? Sure. What's up? What have you got for me? Here's the report you asked for. Great. Say it with me. What have you got for me? Here's the report you asked for. When you have a sec, can I ask you something? Sure. I'll be free in just a minute. This is great to interrupting someone politely. When you have a sec, can I ask you something? Sure. I'll be free in just a minute. Are we on the same page? I want to make sure that we understand each other correctly. This is great understanding on the same page. Are we on the same page? I want to make sure that we are understanding each other correctly. The next one is a silly one, working hard or hardly working? This question is unfortunately very common in the workplace. Usually between coworkers, usually a boss will not ask an employee this. The first one working hard means you're diligent. You're doing a lot, but what about the opposite? Hardly working means that you're only doing a little bit of work. Maybe if you look like you are relaxing at your desk, someone might say this, "Hey, working hard or hardly working?" Usually you don't want to say the last one, "Hardly working," even if it's true. So usually you should say the first one. Working hard. Yeah. Next let's talk about some common, small talk questions that you all the time. Do you come here often? I do. It's the best. And you? Say it with me. Do you come here often? I do. It's the best. And you? Do you live in this area? No, I don't. I'm just visiting some friends. How about you? Do you live in this area? No, I don't. I'm just visiting some friends. How about you? How long have you been coming here? It's my first time here. What about you? Ask it with me. How long have you been coming here? It's my first time. How about you? How do you know Dan? We went to college together. And you? This is a great way. If you have a mutual friend with someone else. You can ask what is their connection to that other person? Let's practice that together. How do you know Dan? We went to college together. How about you? Next, let's talk about some health questions. You might ask these or hear these if you get hurt and notice that we don't ask, "How about you? What about you?" Because it's not really a casual chatty conversation. You were just concerned only about one person. Not about the other. So you can ask, "You don't look so hot. You feeling okay?" "Yeah. I think I'll be all right." This is a great question. When you say hot, you don't mean their temperature. You don't mean their looks, you're just saying, "You don't look very healthy." Maybe you seem like you'll be sick. Maybe you seem like you didn't sleep well. Let's ask this question together. You don't look so hot. You feeling okay? Yeah. I think I'll be all right. You going to be okay? Yeah. I think I just need to rest. Maybe if you trip or you fall down or you're coughing a lot or there's some kind of problem, someone might say, "You going to be okay?" "Yeah, I think so. I just need to rest." When you go to the doctor or maybe a friend might even ask you, "Where does it hurt?" We might say, "It hurts between my neck and shoulders." Where does it hurt? It hurts between my neck and shoulders. Next, let's talk about some common questions that you might ask in your home, especially to other people who live there. Can you do the dishes? Sure. Will you sweep the floor? Say it with me. Can you do the dishes? Sure. Will you sweep the floor? Will you make the bed? I will, after I have coffee. Say it with me. Will you make the bed? I will. But after I have coffee. Can you get the door? Yeah. One second. What is get the door? This means someone is knocking on the door and you're asking someone else in the house to open the door. Can you get the door? You might even say, "Did you hear the door?" The door is not talking. It just means someone is knocking possibly on your door. Say it with me. Can you get the door? Yeah, in just a second. What's for dinner? No clue. I thought you were cooking. Is this a common question in your house? Say it with me. What's for dinner? No clue. I thought you were cooking. Can you give me a hand with the trash? Yeah, no problem. Can you give me a hand with is a great way to ask someone to help you. It's very polite and it's used in daily conversation. Say it with me. Can you give me a hand with the trash? Yeah, no problem. Will you ever clean up your stuff? Fine. I'll do it after this game. Do you get the tone here? Will you ever clean up your stuff? It's very angry and passive aggressive. So only say this if you're feeling very angry. Will you ever clean up your stuff? And the other person is a little bit angry too and says, "Fine. I'll do it after this game." Fine is not a positive thing to say. Instead, it's just, "I don't want to argue about this. Fine." Next, let's talk about some food related questions. What are you in the mood for? Does pizza sound okay with you? Whatcha is what are you. You're asking, what would you like to eat? What are you in the mood for? Does pizza sound okay to you? What sounds good to you? I feel like something light. What sounds good to you? We're not talking about sound. We're talking about what do you want to eat? It's another way to ask this question. What do you want to eat? Do you want to eat something heavy and fried or something light and not too heavy? Say it with me. What sounds good to you? I feel like something light, what sounds good to you? Let's imagine that you're at a restaurant and you ordered something, and then you realized that you wanted to change your mind. You ordered a side of French fries, and then you realized, eh, no, I should get something healthier. What can you say to change your order? You can ask this question. Actually, can I get the salad instead? Of course the waiter will say, yes, but it's still polite to ask, can I. Can I get the salad instead? And your waiter will probably say, sure. Anything else I can get for you? Can you ask that with me? Actually, can I get the salad instead? Sure. Anything else I can get for you? Next, let's talk about asking for directions. It's very important to ask the right questions to get to the right place and to answer them accurately. Where are you headed? I'm looking for the park, is it around here? Where are you headed? This is asking, where are you going? We often use the verb to head to mean, this is where I'm going. I'm heading to the park. Let's ask this question together. Where are you headed? I'm looking for the park, is it around here? Can you tell me where the bank is? Oh, it's two streets over at the intersection. You can't miss it. When someone says you can't miss it, usually that means you'll probably miss it. It's not so obvious, but let's ask this question together. Can you tell me where the bank is? Yes, it's two streets over at the intersection. You can't miss it. How far is the nearest grocery store? Oh, not far. It's right down the street on the left. Right down the street on the left. Sometimes we use the word right to mean close. So it's not very far. It's down the street, but when we add the word, right, you get the feeling of it's close. It's not all the way down the street, it's just right on the street, but it's actual on the left. Very interesting. Let's ask this question together. How far is the nearest grocery store? Not far, it's right down the street on the left. Is there a gas station around here? No. You have to drive 10 minutes to get to the nearest gas station. Ask it with me. Is there a gas station around here? No. You have to drive 10 minutes to get to the nearest gas station. For our final five common conversation questions, these are bonus expressions. I'd like to call them conversation nudges. A nudge is like a push and it helps keep the conversation going. You're not exactly asking for specific information, you're just asking them to continue talking about what they were saying. These questions we sometimes use when there is some surprising information. Let me give you a little example. I have a friend who has been going on some day dates that she found on Tinder. Well, I've been married for 11 years, so I don't really know about dating on Tinder, dating online, I don't know anything about that. So when she told me that, I can ask her this question, what's that like? I have no experience with it. Is it scary to talk to someone who you haven't met in person or is exciting? Is it thrilling? What's that like? And you're getting them to give you some more information. Oh, it's fine or, oh yeah, I really don't like it. You want to get some information by asking, oh, what's that like? Because I don't have experience with that and I want to know about your experience. Let's imagine a similar situation. Let's say that the same friend who's going on some date she met on Tinder tells you, well, actually she told me she went on a pretty nice date. He was nice, they had a good time and at the end of the date, he says, "Hey, do you want to come back to my house?" She wasn't very interested in going back to his house. At least not yet on the first date, but before she could say anything, he said, "Well, I need to call my wife and ask if that's okay with her." What? I haven't been on a date in a very long time, but I feel like this is probably not common. I hope not. Not very normal, so what kind of question can you ask in this type of shocking situation? Let me give you a couple. How did you feel about that? So we're not assuming that your friend is upset at that, but I'm imagining that she is. So you're asking, what was your experience like? How did you feel about that? If you want to be even more shocked, you can ask what's up with that? Why wasn't he honest with you at the beginning, what's up with that? And you're asking a question that doesn't really need a reply because you are just showing your feelings about this situation. Or you could say what's that all about, or what's the deal? Can't people just be honest at the beginning of a date and say, or even before you talk, "Hey, I'm married. Is it okay if we go on a date? My wife's okay with this. We have an unusual relationship." Just be honest and upfront about this because it's not exactly common, I would imagine. So if someone tells you something shocking, you could ask one of these questions. What's up with that? What's the deal? These are great ways to show you are shocked. All right. Congratulations on practicing all of those 50 questions. How are you feeling? You feeling okay? Do you like to travel? Do you wish you could travel more? Well, if you have ever visited another country, you know that English is essential or at least very helpful when you travel. So I have some good news. Today, you are going to learn 50 important phrases for travel. You'll learn how to plan for a trip, how to talk about directions and transportation, how to talk at the airport and at a hotel. And finally, how to tell someone about a trip that you just took. Let's get started with how to plan or book a trip in English. Where would you like to go? Excellent, starter question. Where would you like to go? Also, you can answer this by saying, I've never been to Rio de Janeiro. I've never been to Rome. I've never been to Tokyo. Excellent phrase. We should book tickets now. This verb to book means to reserve. We're not talking about something that you read. This is the noun, a book. This is talking about reserving something. We should book tickets now because it's a popular destination so let's book tickets. I hate making plans, let's just do something spur-of-the-moment. Spur-of-the-moment means without plan. Something spontaneous. Well, you need to book tickets to go to another country, but maybe when you get there, you don't want to have every hour planned. You like to do things spur-of-the-moment. Oh, there's a great park, let's go there. Oh, that's a cool museum, let's go there. This is spur-of-the-moment. A similar phrase you can use is we decided that we'll just go wherever the wind blows us. Maybe the wind will blow me to that museum. Maybe the wind will blow me to that restaurant. I don't know. This has the same idea as spur-of-the-moment, it's not planned. It's spontaneous. Maybe you are the opposite kind of person. You might say, we need to make a reservation. This is a great phrase to know, to make a reservation. You can make a reservation at a popular restaurant. You can make a reservation at a hotel. You can make a reservation for a seat at a concert. There's a lot of different things that you can make a reservation for. When you go to a museum or somewhere similar, you might ask, do you have an audio guide? Do you have an audio guide? This is actually a great way to improve your English because if you listen to an audio guide in English, as you're walking around the museum, I bet you are going to learn a ton of new vocabulary, some great expressions for describing what you're seeing. This is an excellent way to enjoy something, but also learn some English. You can ask, do you have an audio guide? When you go somewhere, you can ask, do you accept cash or credit card? Do you accept cash or credit card? Depending on the country you're in, they might prefer one option instead of the other. And we often use the word cash to talk about physical dollar bills or the physical money of the place that you're visiting. Do you accept cash or credit card? Because I only have a credit card, I don't have any cash with me. If you need cash, then I got to come back. You might ask, what are the hours for the museum? What are the hours for the tour? What are the hours for some event or place? It's a great question to ask. When are you open? What are the hours for something that you want to see? Our final question under this first category of planning or booking your vacation is an excellent question, what should I pack for? What should I pack for? Well, of course for vacation. Now this question has another meaning. It means I want to know what kind of activities will do, what the weather is going to be. I want to know, do I need to pack a swimsuit. Do I need to pack a winter coat? What should I pack for? That means, what should I prepare for? This is really helpful as you're trying to fit everything inside your small suitcase, this always happens to me and you really need to decide, okay, what do I need to pack for? Okay. I don't need three winter sweaters. It's probably going to be not too cold. I'll just bring something else. You can ask, what do I need to pack for? The next phrases have to do with transportation and directions. I want to help you not be lost in a foreign place with no words to say to help yourself. So let's talk about 10 important phrases for transportation and directions. The first one is a great question. You can ask someone else or they might ask you, if you look really lost, you might hear, where are you headed? This is often reduced to simply where ya headed. We cut out the verb, are, and we reduce you to ya. Where ya headed? Where ya headed? If you look really lost, someone might say, "Hey, where are you headed? Can I help you?" This great verb to head means the direction that you're going in. So you're going somewhere. I'm headed to the store. I'm headed to the doctor's office. I'm headed to the Metro station. Where is it? So someone might ask you, where are you headed? Or if you see someone who's lost, you can ask this too. Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the Metro station? Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the subway station? It's great to introduce a lot of these questions with, excuse me, because you're interrupting someone else and really it is the easiest way to be polite in a simple way. Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the subway station? Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the museum? To wherever you'd like to go. Excuse me, how far is it to the airport? Excuse me, how far is it to the airport? You might ask this to your bus driver as you're getting on the bus to go to the airport and you're worried about missing your flight. You want to know, is it going to take 30 minutes? Is it going to take two hours? Is it going to take 10 minutes? Excuse me, how far is it to the airport? And then they'll tell you, oh, don't worry, it's just going to take 10 minutes. We'll be there pretty soon. I don't know about you, but I've had many experiences looking for a bus stop and being so lost. Sometimes bus stops are not obvious. It's just a little sign or maybe it's just a poll and everyone knows where you should go, except for you because you're not from that area. This is a great question you can ask, excuse me, which way to the bus stop? Excuse me, which way to the bus stop? This way? That way? Over here, back there? Excuse me, which way to the bus stop? Excuse me, where's the closest ATM? This phrase ATM stands for automated teller machine and it's just that machine. Some other countries call these cash points where you can put your debit card or credit card into the machine and you can get cash. So if you happen to go to a store that requires cash, but you have no cash you can ask this question. Oh, do you know where's the closest ATM? Excuse me, where's the closest ATM? I need to get some cash. Great question. And the word ATM is most commonly used in the US. Some other countries might use other expressions, but if you're visiting the US ATM is an excellent word to use. Are you hungry? You can ask, is there a grocery store nearby? I don't want to go to another expensive restaurant. I just want to get some simple food that I can cook back at my place. Is there a grocery store nearby? Notice the pronunciation of this word. There's two pronunciations actually, you can say grossery, grossery, with an s, grossery but you're more likely to hear, at least that's what I say, you're more likely to hear groshery like an sh groshery, groshery, groshery store. Is there a grocery store nearby? Great question. When's the next train? When's the next train? If the board with all of the train information is so confusing, just ask someone, excuse me, when's the next train? Great. If you're still confused, you can ask, when does the next leave? When does the next bus leave? When does the next train leave? When does the next flight leave? I need to go now. When does the next leave? Great question. Will the departure be on time? Maybe you come from a country where things are always on time and you expect it to be on time, but you realize in the country that you're in right now, things are not on time or maybe the opposite and you need to know, excuse me, will the departure be on time? That's important. Our final phrase for transportation and directions is actually a two for one. Let's imagine that you're in a taxi, sometimes we call those a cab and you are at your destination, but maybe the taxi driver is looking for, oh, where should I drop them? You can use this phrase, you can drop me here. You can drop me here. It doesn't mean that they're holding you and dropping you. This is shortened from drop me off. To drop off someone means that you're driving them and they leave, you're dropping them off. Maybe you drop off your kids at school every morning. This is a great phrase to use in a taxi. You can drop me here, or if you want to make it even shorter, you can just say, this is me. Oh, you see your hotel out the window or you see the place you need to go, you can just say, oh, excuse me, this is me. Well, this is you here, no, this just means this is where I need to go. You'll often hear this in a taxi and you can use it too. The next 10 important phrases for travel will help you to talk at the airport. They'll help you to speak, but also they'll help you to understand, because a lot of these phrases and questions you will get asked. A lot of things get asked when you're traveling, when you're entering a new country and I want to make sure that you can understand completely. Let's start with the first one, you get to the airport, you look around, there's so many people, so many things going on. You feel lost. Well, you can easily ask, excuse me, where's the Delta counter? Excuse me, where's the Delta check in? Both of these questions are great for finding where can I go for my airline? If you know what your airline is, and I hope you do, you can just insert that. Excuse me, where's the American Airlines counter. Excuse me, where's the American Airlines check-in? Excellent question to get started. After you arrive at your gate, you want to make sure that you don't miss your flight. Even though you're there, you're so close, but maybe you need to go down the hall and get some food or go to the bathroom. You need to ask, excuse me, when will the plane be boarding? When will the plane be boarding? And that means when will the people be going on the airplane? When will the people board. Excuse me, when will the plane be boarding? If they tell you, oh, we'll board in 30 minutes. Cool. You have plenty of time. Go get some food, go to the bathroom. Stretch a little bit. Excellent question. If you've ever been at the airport, you get asked lots of questions. One of those might be what's your flight number, especially if you're lost and you're not sure where to go and you say, excuse me, I'm lost, can you help me? They might ask, oh, what's your flight number? And they'll look either at your ticket or they'll look on your phone or they'll look on the board and they'll be able to help you not be so lost. When you're checking in, you will be asked, do you have your passport? Do you have your passport? You might be asked a more direct question. They might just say, passport please. Passport please. And as long as you're familiar with the word passport, you know, aha, I need to give them my passport. Just a little note, make sure that you always get your passport back. When I first traveled to another country, I didn't know this and I thought that you were supposed to give them your passport and they kept it until you got on the flight. I don't know though, I was a young traveler. I had no idea. So make sure that you get your passport after you check in, when you enter your flight. When you go through security, you'll hear boarding pass please. Boarding pass, please. Or when you enter the airplane, they might ask you this boarding pass, please. And that's the piece of paper that the airline has printed out and it has all of your information, your flight number, your seat, all of this stuff is on your boarding pass. You'll also hear the question, are you checking any luggage or do you have anything to check? Are you checking any luggage? It doesn't mean I'm checking luggage, no. This means that you are giving the airline a big suitcase and they will take it and put it under the airplane. If you do this, maybe you might need to pay extra. They need to probably weigh your suitcase. So this is a good question that you will be asked, are you checking any luggage or do you have anything to check? When you are returning home from your wonderful travels, you might be asked at the airport, do you have anything to declare? To declare? Usually this means to speak. I declare that it's a beautiful day today, old fashioned English to use it like that. But in a modern sense, we use this at the airport to mean if you bought anything, especially anything expensive on your travels, well, you might need to pay specific tax to bring it back to your home country. So make sure that you know, so that they don't see something in your suitcase and say, ah, why did you not declare this $500 million diamond ring? So you will be asked, do you have anything to declare? And you can say yes or no. Oftentimes when you land in a new country, for example, if you land in New York city, they might ask you, is this your final destination? Is New York your final destination? If you're going to Chicago, you could say, no, I have a connecting flight. I have a connecting flight. Or maybe your flight is late, you might say I missed my connecting flight. That's always really annoying because you're going to have to figure something out. Spend time on the phone, spend time at a counter talking to someone but it's a good question to understand, and to be able to answer, is this your final destination? Yes or no, I have a connecting flight. So you finally land in your destination and you need to get your luggage, but what if you can't find it? What can you ask? It's a great question. You can ask, excuse me, can you tell me where baggage claim is? Excuse me, can you tell me where luggage claim is? Both of these words, luggage claim and baggage claim are both used interchangeably. And it's a great question to ask if you're trying to find your suitcase. Excuse me, can you tell me where baggage claim is? When you go through customs, you will probably be asked this common question, are you traveling for business or pleasure? Are you traveling for business or pleasure? And that means, are you coming here because of work or are you coming here just for the fun of traveling. This is also a question that a fellow traveler might ask you. Maybe when you sit down on the airplane, your seat mate might ask you, "Hey, are you traveling for business or pleasure? Why are you going to Chicago?" Maybe they'll ask you, maybe they won't. But it's a common question especially in customs. I'm traveling for business. No, I'm just traveling for pleasure. Great. The next 10 important phrases for travel are at the hotel to help you speak naturally and have the right words to use when you get to your hotel. The first one is when you first arrive at the hotel, you need to check in. So you can say, "Hello. I have a reservation for Prothe." That's my last name. Or you might say, "Hello, checking in for Prothe. Whatever your last name is, you can insert it here, that's when you come up to the counter. Or maybe you call in in advance, depending on what that hotel does, you can use this phrase, hello, I have a reservation under Prothe or, hello, checking in for Prothe. You can use either one of these phrases and both are perfectly fine. Is there somewhere I can print my boarding pass, bus tickets, et cetera? This is a great travel tip. Most hotels have a business room that has a printer and most guests can use this for free. So if you need to print anything, print a boarding pass, ticket, something like this, just ask the hotel this question, is there somewhere I can print my boarding pass? And there probably is. Great. If you arrive late, you're super hungry, you can ask someone at the front desk, is there a good restaurant nearby? Is there a good restaurant nearby? Don't feel hesitant to use the staff who works at the hotel for some advice. They really know about the area where you're living, especially that specific area close to the hotel, they might know, oh yeah, there's a good restaurant just two blocks over. Make sure you check it out. You don't need to take the bus and it's open late at night, go check it out. You might ask, can I get some more towels? Can I get some more pillows? Can I get some more blankets? These are all polite questions and perfectly reasonable at a hotel. Do you have a map? Do you have a map? Most hotels have a map and they will be more than happy to help you find your way around the city. And they often have free maps that you can use to find your way around. Excuse me, which way to the elevators? This is especially helpful if you have a lot of luggage and you don't want to go down one hallway and then try another and pull your luggage everywhere, or maybe you're just tired, it's the end of the day. You're not thinking straight. You just traveled 24 hours from your home country to New York city. Ugh. Just excuse me, which way to the elevators. Maybe you can't even see the sign because you're so tired. I just need a little help. That's totally fine. When you're booking a room, you might ask, can I get a queen bed? Can I get a double bed? Can I get two twin beds, depending on your sleeping situation it might be helpful to be specific. Well, it's going to be my husband and I and my two kids. They could sleep into the same bed, but it might be best if they each had their own bed so they don't stay up all night. So you could ask, do you have a queen bed and two twin beds in a room? Great. You want to be specific so that you can have the most comfortable time possible. Oftentimes hotels in the US will have a breakfast option. It's sometimes included and sometimes not in your fee. So you could ask, excuse me, is breakfast included? Excuse me, is breakfast included? And that implies is it included in the price that I already paid for the hotel room? Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not, but it's a great question to ask. Usually breakfast is not available all day, so you can ask, excuse me, what time is breakfast served? Excuse me, what time is breakfast served? And when you check in, the person who's checking you in, they'll probably tell you those things in advance, but if you didn't catch it or maybe they just didn't mention it, these are good questions to ask so that you can not be too hungry in the morning when you wake up. Another common way to get food, while you're in your hotel room is room service. You can ask, can I get room service, please. Can I get room service? That means someone comes to your door with food that they've made in the hotel. In my experience in the US, this is very expensive and not always the best quality food, but in certain circumstances, maybe this is something you want. So you can ask the question, can I get room service? Excellent. Our final 10 important phrases for talking about your travels is to talk about your travel experiences. That this is when you have finished traveling and you want to explain to someone the greats or terrible vacation that you just had. If you'd like to take these expressions to the next level, don't miss a chance to tell me about your city and where I should travel to in your city. In this lesson, you'll get a chance to practice speaking with me and tell me about where you live. The first important phrase for talking about where you just went is to ask this question. Have you ever been to Paris? Have you ever been to LA? When you're telling someone about your trip, you want to see if they've had a similar experience? Great question to ask. If they say, oh, no, I've never been to LA, but I would love to. Oh, what a good chance to give them some or advice about good things that you did, maybe things they should avoid. And they might be interested to hear what you have to say. You might hear the question, what was your favorite thing about LA? What was your favorite thing about Paris? Well, you can ask this question to someone else or they might ask you that and it helps to prompt a conversation about where you just went. If someone just heard that you went to Paris, the first question they might ask is, did you see the Eiffel tower? Of course, everyone who goes to Paris sees the Eiffel Tower. Why not? It's amazing. Every time that I've seen it, even though it's been hundreds of times so I used to live in Paris. It's always amazing. I still love it. But, there are often places that are not touristy that you enjoy. So you could use this phrase, my favorite places are off the beaten path. I love finding new places to visit. So yes, the Eiffel tower is great, but I love to find places off the beaten path. The beaten path is where your feet are beating down the path. There's so many people, everyone is visiting the Eiffel tower, but over here, there's a hidden cathedral that's so beautiful and no one visits, but right beside it, there's a little hot chocolate restaurant. You have to go there, it's off the beaten path. On the same note, you might say there's so many hidden gems in Paris. You could spend years discovering them all. Hidden gems. A gem is like a diamond or a Ruby, these precious stones. And we can use this in a more figurative way to talk about an amazing place especially somewhere that's hidden. There's so many hidden gems around the city. It's an excellent place to visit. On the other hand, what happens when everyone is there? Well, you might say that city used to be nice, but now it's just a big tourist trap. Have you ever been to Venice? Venice is beautiful. It's so cool. But now it has turned into a tourist trap. All of the shops, all of the restaurants, all the activities are only for tourists. It's lost that livable feeling and I don't know if that's just something that's inevitable. It's going to happen no matter what, or if it's something that can be prevented, but that's the way it is. It's a tourist trap, still worth visiting in my opinion. But it's a tourist trap. When I was 18 years old, I went on a road trip with my best friend and we drove for three days in the US. It's extremely common to go on a road trip. We don't have great public transportation. There's not trains that go all over the US in an easy way, so instead we drive and we often take a road trip. This is a common form of vacation in the US, maybe in your country too. Do you ever take road trips for a vacation? The next phrase for travel is one that you might see more often in writing than in spoken conversation, but I want to make sure you can understand it. It is, I need some R&R and it's often you with the symbol and, and a capital R and another capital R. This does not mean railroad because sometimes RR means railroad, this means rest and relaxation. So if you're feeling super stressed and you're just texting with your friends saying, I think I'm going to go on vacation next week, I need some R&R. We don't often say that I need some R&R, but you might write that in a text or write that in a message to talk about, I just need to take a break. I need some R&R. If you need some R&R, you don't want to take a whirlwind trip. I have done this. It is very hectic. It means that you visit a ton of places in a short period of time, or you see a ton of things in a short period of time. It's a whirlwind. When my husband and I visited Thailand, we only had four days, I think. And we visited Bangkok for a couple days. And then we took a train, a bus, a taxi, and then another bus to the south of the country, to the beach. And then we did the same thing to go back to Bangkok, to fly back to where we were living in Korea. It was a whirlwind trip. I wish we had more time. And someday I'd love to go back and spend a month, two months, just exploring the country in a little bit more of a slow pace. That would be amazing. When you travel somewhere far away, you might use this phrase, Ugh, I'm so tired, I'm still suffering from jet lag. Jet lag. It's one of the worst things when you travel. If you travel far away, maybe the morning for you is the night where you're traveling to. You need some time to recover. Your body needs some time to not feel tired to realize what time of day it is. It's something we don't often think about when we travel to another place that's far away. At least I don't often think about until I get there and realize, oh no, it's the morning. I haven't slept for two days. I have to wait another 12 hour as before I sleep, ugh, you are suffering from jet lag. Our final phrase is an excellent one to conclude talking about your travels. And that is I can't wait to go back. I can't wait to go back. If you had an excellent time, if you're dreaming about it, you can say, I can't wait to go back. Congratulations. You just learned 250 of the most common English phrases, questions and expressions for daily conversation. You can pat yourself on the back and don't forget to download the 27 page free ebook that goes along with today's lesson so that you can remember every phrase, phrase over question and idea from today's lesson. Also, at the bottom of the ebook, at the very end, you can answer Vanessa's challenge question so that you never forget what you've learned. Well, thank you so much for learning English with me. I will see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel, bye. The next step is to download the free PDF worksheet for this lesson. With this free PDF, you will master today's lesson and never forget what you have learned. You can be a confident English speaker. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.

Channel: Speak English With Vanessa

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Keywords: learn english, english conversation, speak english, english pronunciation, speak english with vanessa, Speak English With Vanessa, english with vanessa, native english teacher, american english, phrasal verbs, fast english, how to speak english, real english conversation, common english phrases, english idioms, english phrasal verbs, phrasal verb lesson

Id: Ia2q2Fy_XqI

Length: 169min 50sec (10190 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2022