Advanced Expressions (C1 + C2) to Build Your Vocabulary

let's learn some Advanced expressions and this lesson is going to be extremely informative to say the least and let's start with that last expression to say the least so you would use this when you want to say that you could have expressed something in a much stronger and more detailed way however you chose not to elaborate and give more information something else I want to say about this expression is that typically you're going to use it at the end of a statement maybe you don't want to talk about something or give more information or or perhaps it's just not relevant so if I say you know the flight was a bumpy ride to say the least somebody asked me hey how was your flight and I don't want to give a lot of detail or really have to explain it so I can use this expression to draw attention to bumpy flight without having to give those extra details it was a bumpy flight to say the least or I could use this expression when I don't want to be too critical and I don't want to be too rude and I could say yeah dinner wasn't very good to say the least so once again I'm drawing attention to the fact that the dinner wasn't that good but I don't have to give extra information because if I said the chicken was undercooked and I think I might get food poisoning that that could come off as being a little rude so you could use this expression to really tamper down the level of criticism when pronouncing this there are two unstressed words that I'd like to point out the first one is two so when it's unstressed it's going to sound weaker and it'll sound like ta with that schwa sound the other unstressed word is the article the and this is because it comes before a word that begins with a consonant sound and I think the article is commonly pronounced with that schwa the so all together it's going to sound like to say the least to say the least just listen for it young Master how does it feel to walk on a new web exciting say the least has identified the atheist as Brian Griffin of Spooner Street here's the reaction from City Hall they're shocking to say the least now as we go through the lesson I am going to tell you the meaning of each expression I'll talk a little bit about how it's used and I'll go over the pronunciation so that you can pronounce these different Expressions just like a native speaker and if you are someone who enjoys building your vocabulary Please Subscribe turn on notifications that way I can become your teacher my name is Wes the channel is interactive English it's all about trying to help you reach your fluency goals and I trust that you will subscribe to the channel and I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt which is the next expression that I want to teach you to give someone the benefit of the doubt so this may be used in situations in which there's a lot of uncertainty but you're going to believe someone or give that person a favorable judgment or opinion so if you're really skeptic call you may still say okay I believe you I'll give you the benefit of the doubt to help you better understand how this expression is used in context I have some news headlines for you give Pope Francis the benefit of the doubt I don't know what people are skeptical of but the headline is saying hey just just trust him believe him progressives get benefit of the doubt when accusations of bullying fly and the Supreme Court has lost benefit of the doubt so with these last two headlines I'd like to point out that verb that's being used overwhelmingly you're going to use this with the verb give to give someone the benefit of the doubt however you may use it with other verbs as well for pronunciation there are a couple of things that I want to talk about the first is that final TN benefit I am going to pronounce this as a flap T because I'm from the United States and this is very common with the American accent when the t comes between two vowel sounds often I am going to say it as a flap T it's going to sound more like a soft D and then I can link that flap t with the beginning vowel sound in of and linking commonly occurs when one word ends in a consonant sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound so it's going to sound like benefit of to give someone the benefit of the doubt now if you were to tell me that you want to improve your pronunciation and practice speaking well I'll certainly give you the benefit of the doubt and that's why I'd like to tell you about Elsa speak who is the sponsor of today's lesson this is a great app to help you fine-tune your pronunciation and practice your speaking skills but not only that you can practice your conversation skills and that's what I want to show you right now so you download the app and there are many ways to practice your pronunciation but if you want to have a back and forth conversation you can do that using Elsa AI hi welcome to Elsa AI please select one of the following role plays as you can see there are several different scenarios to choose from but you can also create your own scenario which is what we're going to do right now sure what kind of scenario would you like to create I want to have a conversation with a friend at a coffee shop and I want to talk about possibly changing jobs and starting a new career hey there what's been going on with you lately lately I've been thinking about changing jobs and maybe starting a new career that's interesting what sparked this desire for change well I just have a strong desire to do something that allows me to be more creative so I'm thinking about becoming a content creator on YouTube have you done any research on what it takes to become a successful content creator you know I haven't really given it much thought you have any ideas yes there are definitely some things you'll want to consider for example it's always good to have a clear focus on what kind of content you want to create and who your target audience is wow that sounds like some great advice and I'm really going to think about it but right now I have to get going so I'll talk to you later keep me posted on how things go role play completed we are Computing your feedback as you can see you get a full assessment of your conversation with overall feedback as well as specific feedback when it comes to pronunciation vocabulary and grammar and right now when you click on the link in the description you can sign up to get Early Access of the AI feature and start having a conversation in English you can sign up for free without a paid membership and use Elsa AI for three scenarios a day so check out that link below if you want to improve your pronunciation and practice speaking English let's get back to some more advanced expressions and the next expression that I have for you is per se this is a Latin term that means of or by itself it's a little more formal so it's not one that you're going to use all the time in just everyday conversation but you can use this to emphasize the importance of other factors money per se does not make people truly happy true happiness comes from the relationships that you build with others so I'm saying money by itself it doesn't make people truly happy and I'm using per se to emphasize the importance of other factors and that is why I follow it with the next sentence because it helps complete the thought this is not a criticism of the government per se it's about holding people accountable once again I'm using per se to emphasize the importance of other factors I was born in the state of Alabama it's not a famous State per se but it does have some charming towns here are a couple of other examples to help make this easier to understand upstairs from here but under you not under you per se but under your apartment no no I mean he's not over but is there anything relevant to the sales staff here no sales topic per se well the new Andy Bernard per se when pronouncing this expression I just want to focus on that second word say even though it's spelled s-e you're going to pronounce it with that long a sound say per se and then we have to top it all off so this is used when you're describing several things that happened but you'll use this expression to introduce the final thing that happened that made the situation either Better or Worse there was no traffic on my way to work this morning and it was a pretty easy day because a couple of meetings got canceled and to top it all off the boss said everyone can go home early so in this case I'm talking about a series of positive things but in my opinion I think most of the time this expression gets used when talking about negative things and describing a series of bad events my alarm didn't go off this morning so I was late for work on my way to work it started raining I didn't have an umbrella so I got soaked and to top it all off I gave a horrible presentation because I had forgotten my notes at home it was not a good day for pronunciation once again we're going to use that week two which is more like ta and then we can link the next four words together top it all off that final t in it I am also going to pronounce it as a flap T to top it all off to top it all off the next expression at the end of the day I really like this one maybe because I feel like I use it quite often but this means when everything is taken into consideration and then you're going to say the most important thing about a situation so this expression is an adverb phrase that it's very similar to saying ultimately and typically you're going to use it at the beginning of a sentence or Clause so I could say you can give me your opinion but at the end of the day I'm going to make the final decision or perhaps you're in a situation in which there are a lot of different choices and it was a difficult decision to make and perhaps the result was a good one and you could say at the end of the day I made the right decision when you pronounce this expression I want you to keep in mind that the article the is both stressed and unstressed it's stressed when it comes before the vowel sound in end the end and it's unstressed when it comes before the consonant sound in day the day there's also linking that may occur we can link that final consonant sound and end with the beginning vowel sound in of end of so listen for those two things the stressed and unstressed the along with linking and then just Richard and I because at the end of the day people only want to see a picture of the board members members but at the end of the day if we show up for each other is reason enough keep believing and then there's few and far between this means not happening or existing very often so if something is not happening very often you could say something is few and far between here are some news headlines for you so you can see how this expression is used in context storms stay few and far between as summer heat continues no shortage of ideas but affordable housing options remain few and far between food inflation is easing but price breaks are still few and far between for pronunciation the first thing that we're going to do is reduce and to just n which is very common in spoken English and then we're going to link that final consonant sound and few with that beginning vowel sound and it's going to sound like few when few went far between say it with me few and far between good the next expression be my guest this is something you say when you give someone permission to do or use something it seems pretty simple and straightforward it's like you're saying okay no problem go ahead you think I can have submit be my guest can I use magnetizing glass magnifying Bobby be my guest but to add one thing when it comes to usage another time people would use this expression is when they're upset and they're really angry and it's like they're saying ah okay fine do it and you can really hear the frustration you want to spend the rest of your life with your head up your ass be my guest can I put Randy to bed please you want to sleep here be my guest when pronouncing this expression it's pretty simple and straightforward you're just saying the three words one right after the other be my guest be my guest and then we have to give someone a run for their money this means to not allow someone to win easily so often you're going to use this expression in some sort of competitive situation like a sport or a game I also want you to keep in mind the grammar because we have an object pronoun as well as an adjective pronoun you are going to give me a run for my money they're going to give us a run for our money but people are not really going to pronounce it like that I was really trying to emphasize those pronouns so let's talk about pronunciation right now and there are a few different things I want to tell you about and some of it really depends on that object pronoun no matter what I think people are going to reduce the word for to fur and I want you to listen for that but if the object pronoun is me we have give me we can reduce that to gimme give me a run for my money but it looks like you're going to give me a run for my money now if someone is him her or them in that case a lesion may occur which is when certain sounds or syllables get removed so if we remove that first consonant sound of each word we can then link the phrases together give him give them give her Giver give them give them once again just listen for it you're giving her a run for her money I'm at least going to give him a run for his money what do you say we give him a run for their money huh so hopefully you can hear those three things that weak fur along with illusion and linking then there's the expression sooner rather than later and this is really an extension of the binomial pair sooner or later which means something is going to happen but you're not exactly sure when so with this expression it can mean fairly soon it's going to rain probably sooner rather than later fairly soon but it could also mean without too much delay I want you to turn in the report I need it sooner rather than later so I need it without much delay you're gonna run out I guess it's sooner rather than later painful detox is inevitable no although I look I see you after right there it will work and we need this to work sooner rather than later for pronunciation there is some co-articulation which refers to overlapping sounds and in this case I think it's pretty straightforward that final R sound and sooner is going to overlap with the beginning R sound and rather and it just allows us to make a very smooth transition from one word to the next sooner rather than later sooner rather than later and then we have on the fence this is another expression that I like probably because I use it quite often and it means not being able to decide something and usually it's between two choices but not always so think about it if you are on a fence you may fall on this side or you may fall on the other you're not really sure so this also implies a difficult and tough decision and it's often used with the verb to be to be on the fence I don't know which job applicant to choose I'm really on the fence sometimes I ask you to write to me in the comments maybe you do maybe you don't perhaps you're on the fence and in that case I would encourage you to write to me because yeah I love hearing from you for pronunciation just know that linking may occur it really depends on the verb to be I'm on the fence she's on the fence you're on the fence so in that case you may be able to link that final consonant sound with the beginning vowel sound in on now for a little review I know when it comes to language learning vocabulary per se is only one piece of the puzzle but it's a very important piece especially as you become more proficient and I really hope that you learn some new Expressions but I don't expect you to remember all of them because at the end of the day as long as you learn one or two new things and can practice them that's going to help you take a step in the right direction and believe me your mistakes will become few and far between if you would like to watch another video Lesson be my guest and if you're on the fence just click on one of the lessons that you see around me right now that's all for today I hope to see you again sooner rather than later if you enjoyed the lesson 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: 108,132

Keywords: interactive english, advanced english expressions, advanced english lesson, advanced english vocabulary, learn english expressions, learn expressions in english, advanced vocabulary in english, english vocabulary c2, advanced english vocabulary c2, english vocabulary lesson, english vocabulary, english expressions, advanced vocabulary, vocabulary c1, vocabulary c2, english vocabulary car1, learn advanced vocabulary, advanced words in english, vocabulary with meaning

Id: IOoND9VopY4

Length: 18min 19sec (1099 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 19 2023