Advanced (C1) Idioms to Strengthen Your Vocabulary

I want to set the record straight learning these Advanced and common C1 idioms will help you do two things you will build your vocabulary as well as improve your overall fluency by having a more natural way of speaking so let's begin with an idiom that I just mentioned to set the record straight this means to write or say something in order to make the true facts known so it's really a great way to emphasize the fact that you want to explain the truth or at least tell someone what you believe is the truth now you may also use this idiom with the verb put to put the record straight but as you can see it's overwhelmingly more common to use the verb set to set the record straight when pronouncing this idiom it's pretty simple and straightforward there are some overlapping sounds with the final stop T in set and the voice th inth so your tongue is going to be behind your top front teeth and you're just going to transition from one sound right into to the next set the set the record straight it's just it allows for a much easier and smoother transition from one word to the next now I want to set the record straight once again if you are someone who enjoys building your vocabulary then I can help please subscribe turn on notifications that way I can become your teacher my name is West the channel is interactive English it's all about trying to help you reach your fluency goal and throughout the lesson I'm going to tell you the meaning of each idiom I'll talk about how it's used in context as well as give you a variety of examples and if if needed I will talk to you a little bit about the pronunciation now I always try to strike a balance between giving you a lot of useful information while not overwhelming you at the same time and to strike a balance is the next idiom that I want to teach you this means to achieve a state in which two things occur in equal or proper amounts or have an equal or proper amount of importance and often you're going to follow this idiom with the preposition between to strike a balance between two things so you may need to strike a balance between work and family you may need to strike a balance between screen time and social activities you may need to strike a balance between how much you make and how much you spend so this is really a great idiom to tell someone that you're trying to satisfy the need for both things instead of just satisfying the need for one thing you need to strike a balance when pronouncing this phrase there is some linking that may occur we can link the final consonant sound in strike with the beginning vowel sound in uh and it's almost like we're moving that consonant sound over strike a to strike a balance try to listen for it we need to strike a balance between your needs as investigators and the First Amendment rights of the Sun and its source the color of anger rage but also the color of the Heart of Love This strikes the perfect balance between the two now perhaps you are trying to strike a balance between learning English and all the other things you have going on in your life and if that's the case then I have a great idea so allow me to set the record straight you can take classes and improve your English fluency with Ling who is the sponsor of today's lesson lingoda is an online language school where you can learn English business English Spanish German or French and lingoda flex is a great way to develop your language skills if you are someone who has a busy schedule or you would just like to learn at your own pace so it's exactly what it says it is you have flexibility you can take oneon-one lessons if you would like a little more individual attention or for social Learners you can take small group classes let me show you how easy it is to start speaking English after you choose your subscription plan and log into your account you go straight to book a class you can choose the level of the class you would like to take and as you can see classes are available 24/7 which allows you to fit these lessons into your busy schedule you can even look for classes searching by date as well as the exact time you would like to have the lesson you choose your class and once you confirm before you know it you are in a lesson with a native speaking teacher I have been taking some classes in Spanish you can see me right there and the teachers are great they're friendly they're knowledgeable and I've been given some excellent feedback so if you would like to improve your English skills click on the link Down Below in the description you can get up to 35% off your first month of a subscription or if you'd like to try out L go to First you can get a 7-Day trial for free and take three group classes or one one-on-one class so check out my unique link down in the description choose a plan and you will be on your way to taking your fluency to the next level let's get back to our Advanced and common C1 idioms the next one that I have for you is to not think twice this means to do something immediately without considering whether or not it's a good idea so there are two things I want to point out with this idiom the first thing is that you're often going to use this to talk about something in the past that you did without thinking about it you did not think twice the other thing is that you may often follow this idiom with the preposition about you did not think twice about something so to to give you a better idea as to how this idiom is used in context I have some news headlines for you teenar Talis Magno I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly did not think twice about joining NYC FC I didn't think twice man says after rescuing motorists who fell into sea I did not think twice about swallowing capsules to smuggle drugs to Malta now one thing I want to say is that you may hear people use this in the affirmative telling you hey think twice which would mean that you should think about something before doing it and in this case I I guess I would say you should think twice before you decide to smuggle drugs to any country but of course you should not think twice about hitting that like button so please you can you can go ahead and do that the next idiom that I want to teach you is at short notice or you could say on short notice this idiom is used to say there is only a short time before something happens and you may use it when talking about something in which generally you you need a little more time to plan but it's it's coming soon so if I asked you to write a 20page essay and give it to me tomorrow you may say look I can't do that on such short notice you need more time or if I tell you they were engaged but then got married on such short notice it's also used to say that you did something immediately after someone asks so I could tell you thank you for coming at such short notice one thing I want to point out is that you may often use this idiom with such at such short notice or on such short notice when pronouncing this phrase and this is more specific to the American accent because I am from the United States the T in notice I am going to pronounce that as a flap T it's going to sound more like a soft D this is because that t comes between two vowel sounds notice at such short notice on such short notice let's listen to some more examples and I don't know where to find a replace on such short notice first I want to thank all of you for putting together those proposals for Pakistan on such short notice and bless you for coming at such short notice I'm Trixie thank you for coming at such short notice Trixie wait and see this means to wait and discover what will happen and often you're going to use this in a couple of different contexts so the first one would just be to be patient that you need to wait and well let's find out what the results are if I were to say we don't know how your body is going to react to the medication we'll just have to wait and see or I could use it in the context of really expressing confidence that I'm right and I'm telling you like look just wait you will eventually see that I was correct if I were to say the United States is going to win the next World Cup you just wait and see and I just have that confidence that that my prediction whatever it is that I'm saying is going to be true for pronunciation it may seem simple wait and see but I'm not really going to say it like that I would say wait and see so what's going on and in spoken English is often reduced to just n and with the American ACC when you have the T followed by an N that t may get changed to a gladle t so think about these words right here and just listen for that glottal T when I say Mountain certain kitten the The Sounds coming from your throat waitting wait and see I I want you to try to listen for that glottal te just wait and see you have to wait and see wait and see oh yeah wait and see oh you just wait and see the next idiom is to take something at face value this means to accept something as it appears rather than studying it more closely so really you would be accepting something as true even though you don't really know if it's true perhaps you don't come to work and you tell me that you're sick well I may not know that that's true or not but I will take your word at face value and in this case your word just means whatever it is that you're saying to give you another example I would love it if you write to me in the comments and you're probably thinking okay yes I will do that I don't know if it's true I want to believe you so once again I will take your word at face value here are some more examples this is a troubled man I mean we can't take everything he says at face value okay so that's it you just accept my answer at face value why how the hell do we miss that apparently CIA took the stats at face value then we have the best of both worlds this means that you get to enjoy the advantages of two very different things at the same time so I I could say that you get the best of both worlds when you work very little but make a lot of money or perhaps you get the best of both worlds when you don't step at all but you get perfect grades or maybe you get the best of both worlds when you eat a lot of junk food unhealthy food fast food whatever and your doctor tells you that you're in great health so you can use this idiom to accurately describe such a situation it's the best of both worlds when pronouncing this phrase I just want to point out that more linking may occur we can link the final consonant sound in best with the vowel sound in of Best of the Best of Both Worlds the goal of course is to be like you all our strengths of our weaknesses you got the best of both world it's half keyboard half guitar so is it a guitar or a keyboard exactly it's the best of both worlds so I put the brains and the bra together and now look at me Best of Both Worlds the next idiom to be in the public eye this means to be famous and Rich WR about in newspapers and magazines or seen on television and in movies so really celebrities athletes these are people who are generally in the public eye so to help you better understand how this idiom is used in context I thought it would be fun to read some celebrity quotes using this idiom so Taylor Swift says it's dangerous to read the internet about yourself when you're me or when you're anyone in the public eye Ricky h erson people recognize me but if you've been in the public eye as long as I have and people don't recognize you I feel bad about myself I don't I don't know why Ricky feels that way in case you don't know who Ricky Henderson is he he was a famous baseball player a long time ago the next one I am not a big fan of Mike Tyson I almost idolized him for what he did in the ring he was such a great fighter but his behavior out of the ring he needed to realize he was in the public and there is a responsibility well said Tommy Morrison one thing I want to add about this idiom is that even though you can say that people are in the public eye you could also say that people are out of the public eye for example if I were to say even though some celebrities are in the public eye they often hope to keep their children out of the public eye for pronunciation you guessed it more linking may occur we can link the final consonant sound in public with the beginning vowel sound in I public ey to be in the public eye next is the idiom get a grip and I say it like that because it means to make an effort to control your emotions and behave more calmly and somebody just tells you as like a command get a grip D get a grip get a grip n is going to ruin s's life as well get a grip what's a b she got a grip you're right T or you may follow this with the preposition on and a reflexive pronoun and because you're typically talking to another person you would say get a grip on yourself all right okay let's fly get a grip on yourself it's all a dream what about Jim we can't just leave him down there need to get a grip on yourself doctor you've got to get a grip on yourself St put rert and Chris out of your head for pronunciation there are two things I want to point out first that final T and get because I'm from the US I am going to pronounce it as a flap T that I can then link with the vowel sound in the article uh get I can also link the final consonant sound in grip with the beginning vow sound in on gripon so we have two phrases that we can link together I'll say it slowly get a grip on yourself now I want to say it a little faster I want you to repeat after me get a grip on yourself good the next idiom off the record this is used to indicate that what someone is saying should not be publicly reported and this is an idiom that you're probably not going to use it that often but it is certainly one that you will hear if you watch movies and TV shows so really this idiom may be used in the context of one person asking questions and the other person perhaps they want to be honest but they just don't want the information to be publicly reported so perhaps someone is interviewing a famous celebrity who is in the public eye and they ask did you get along well with the other actors and you say yes we got along well but off the Record there were a lot of issues please keep in mind that just as something may be off the record it can also be on the record in which case it is okay to be publicly reported do code red still happen on this BAS want to ask me about code Reds on the record I tell you I discourage the practice off the record I tell you it is an invaluable part of close infantry training then we have the idiom up to speed this means all the latest information about an activity or subject and often you're going to use this idiom with the verb get to get someone up to speed or the verb bring to bring someone up to speed we hired a math tutor to work with your daughter so we can get her up to speed or he missed the meeting because his flight was delayed could you please bring him up to speed for pronunciation the only thing that I want to point out is that weak unstressed to because when it's unstressed it may sound a bit more like it has that schah sound to up to speed to bring someone up to speed or to get someone up to speed again just listen for it jump in and then when this calms down maybe we can grab a cup of coffee I'd love to be a chance to get you up to speed before I start I will find you did me up to speed it's a miracle he survived this long better bring him up to speed I'll need the copywriters and sent here get me up to speed oh Dante bring me up to speed and then we have rule of thumb this refers to a practical approach and way of doing something based on experience and often you may use this idiom with the word General and talk about a general rule of thumb so let's look at some general rules of thumb in business you should overpromise and under no no I got that wrong that is not a rule of thumb you should under promise and overd deliver another rule of thumb is that you should set benchmarks for reaching goals and another rule of thumb is that you should sell what people will buy now we can get a little silly and have fun with comics and memes I like this one all should be under me that is certainly the rule of thumb or I rule cuz I has thumb and that cat really does look like he has a thumb and I don't know why they said I has I think just being playful and having fun and finally if it tastes good don't eat it yeah that that could be a general rule of thumb and sometimes I feel like that's what my doctor is trying to tell me here are some more examples my B think I'm a fool for coming in If I Was Your Hand I would have advised against it general rule of thumb Stark men don't fare well when they travel South after a heart attack rule of thumb is if you can climb a flight of stairs you can have sex what to you as a large crowd any he group big enough to trample me to death general rule of thumb is 36 adults or 70 children now for a little review I hope that I was able to strike a balance between giving you helpful information as well as making it easy to follow and understand because building vocabulary I I think a general rule of thumb is that you don't want to overwhelm people with too many words and of course it's always good to review just like we're doing right now I I believe that you will take my word at face value and of course when it comes to using idioms I think people often worry that they're going to make a mistake and what I would recommend is that you don't think twice about using these idioms and practice using them in casual conversation I think it's always going to help and if you make a mistake just don't worry about it over time it's all going to come together you just wait and see now I need to start wrapping up the lesson I know that may be upsetting to hear so I would just tell you you know got to get a grip on yourself but if you want to continue building your vocabulary and just bring yourself up to speed feel free to watch another video Lesson they're entertaining they're informative It's the Best of Both Worlds and if you enjoyed this lesson and learned something new please hit that like button as always thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time so long

Channel: Interactive English

Views: 49,773

Keywords: interactive english, learn english, learn advanced vocabulary, advanced vocabulary in english, advanced vocabulary, build vocabulary, learn advanced vocabulary in english, idioms, english idioms, learn english idioms, advanced english idioms, idioms c1 level, c1 vocabulary, c1 vocabulary english, learn c1 vocabulary, idioms with meanings, idioms with meaning and examples, idioms in english, c1 idioms in english, english idioms c1 level, advanced idioms, idioms with meaning

Id: b9yp_wddmTI

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2024