Learn 60 Useful Phrases for Advanced English Speaking

he didn't really want to talk to me he wasn't being very nice and I think that he's mad he gave me the cold shoulder has someone ever given you the cold shoulder in English we use this phrase to say that somebody has been very cold or meaning very closed off and you can tell that they're mad but they won't actually say it so if someone gives you the cold shoulder they won't talk to you or they'll talk to you as little as possible and they'll actually be quite rude to you so next time that you want to say that someone is a little bit rude and cold and you don't know exactly why they're not talking to you you can say they gave me the cold shoulder or if you want to be rude to someone and you're kind of mad at them you can say I'm going to give them the cold shoulder please let me know the latest information keep me posted this is an extremely useful phrase that you can add to your English vocabulary when you want to say that someone should give you the details as soon as they're available or they should give you some sort of information as soon as possible you can say please keep me posted or if you want to tell someone that you will let them know the information as soon as it's available you can say I will keep you posted when you use this phrase you can say I'll keep you posted by text this means I'll text message you as soon as the information is available or you could say I'll keep you posted via email this phrase is especially useful when you're waiting to hear how someone did in a surgery or if they had some sort of medical procedure the doctor will say I will keep you posted on how they're feeling and you can see them after the surgery or something like that the secret that I just told you I heard from someone else but I don't want to tell you who I heard it from a little birdie told me this phrase is really a funny one and I'm wondering if your native language has a phrase that is very similar when you want to tell someone a secret but you do not want to reveal your Source you can just say a little birdie told me or someone says how did you know that how did you know it was my birthday and you don't want to say how you knew maybe you looked it up online or on their Facebook or their friend told you but you just want to you know be kind of joking that you just you just happen to know oh you can say a little birdie told me so it's a cute way to say that I have this information and I'm not telling you how I know it I'm just pretending that a little birdie flew by and told me when we met we had a really awkward introduction and now I think that they don't like me we got off on the wrong foot try not to do this when you meet someone for the first time when you get off on the wrong foot it means you have a very bad introduction with the person and things are a little bit awkward and you are not necessarily friends right away so in order to get off on the right foot which means to get off in a really good way or a good introduction you need to be friendly you need to smile you need to be enthusiastic maybe if you're having a bad day and you meet someone for the first time you guys might get off on the wrong foot but eventually you will warm up to one another and become friends so instead of saying we had an awkward introduction or a bad introduction you can say we got off on the wrong foot and hopefully you will get off on the right foot in your conversations I think that we're going to stop our efforts on this project even though it's not done let's just end it let's just pull the plug on this a really dramatic way to say that you are going to end something or stop putting effort into a project is to say you are going to pull the plug on it instead of just saying yeah we're going to give up you could say we're going to just pull the plug this phrase I think comes from the idea that if you have something plugged into the wall you just pull the plug it will stop working because it will not have any more power or energy when people are on life support in a very serious medical situation and we are no long longer going to support their life with machines because it seems like they are going to die you can say they are going to pull the plug this means they are going to you know end their life from life support this is a very touchy or sensitive way to use this phrase so be careful with it in this way but in a casual conversation it's okay to say we're just going to pull the plug on this project or we're just going to pull the plug on this activity and be done with it we haven't talked in a long time we haven't had an in-person meeting and I don't know what's going on in their life right now we lost touch have you ever had a friend where you stopped talking for many years you don't know what happened with their life maybe they got married and you just don't really know what's going on with them and they haven't really talked to you either they haven't called you on the phone or sent you any messages we call that losing touch in English so I picture this phrase to kind of help you understand what the idiom is saying as two people floating in the water next to each other and maybe the water starts to drift them away from one another and they can't touch each other anymore so we say we've lost touch meaning we don't have any contact or any communication another way that you can kind of use this phrase is to say please keep in touch this means please keep Communication open and update me about your life so if you want to keep in touch with with your friends you have to try to call one another on the phone or message one another at least on your birthday or on holidays once in a while I haven't taken the time to do this because I just really don't want to do it I have been dragging my feet when you have those tasks and those jobs and responsibilities that are just so annoying to do and you just put them off you procrastinate you can use the phrase dragging your feet I'm just dragging my feet having to do this it's like someone is just pulling you and your feet are dragging on the ground cuz you don't want to do something if you say I'm just dragging my feet about getting a new driver's license this is a really annoying task in the United States when you move houses you have to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and get a new driver's license and it takes a lot of time it's very annoying if you're putting it off if you're delaying doing this this you could say I'm just really dragging my feet about getting a new driver's license this is an awesome idiom to say procrastinating or delaying excuse my bad and inappropriate language pardon my French American English speakers often say pardon my French a lot of us don't speak French but when we have inappropriate language or bad language cussing swearing and we want to apologize for using these bad words we sometimes say pardon my French you hear this a lot in movies and TV shows it's just kind of a fun and sarcastic phrase to say ah sorry I'm I'm speaking so badly or so inappropriately and usually even though it comes off as an apology you're not actually sorry that you swore or you said something kind of bad Parton my French don't encourage their bad behavior anymore stop egging them on when you were a kid and your teacher was annoyed with someone's behavior in the classroom and they wanted them to stop but everyone's laughing and kind of cheering for them and the kid just keeps doing this annoying bad behavior the teacher might have said in English stop egging them on to egg someone on means Toc encourage them I have no idea where this word comes from but it's very natural to say in English like you keep egging them on this means you keep encouraging them and we use this in a negative way to egg someone on is to encourage them to do something that you perceive as negative I don't want to be the extra person on the date and ruin the romantic mood I don't want to be the third wheel I think I think that this last phrase translates really well to other languages but when we think of a bicycle there are typically two wheels and if you added a third wheel things would get kind of awkward so when there are two people that are going on a date and maybe one friend decides to join them who's not in the relationship we call that friend the Third Wheel because it's kind of awkward to be around a couple that's very romantic espe a couple that has just started dating I remember in high school I didn't have a boyfriend and I was just the third wheel with my friends sometimes and their boyfriends and it was kind of awkward but eventually I I moved on and I got married later in life and now I'm not a third wheel anymore so the awkward person that is not in the couple but is you know on the date kind of just hanging out is often referred to as the third wheel if you've ever been in a conversation with an English speaker they might say yeah we can make do with that make do this can be really confusing as an English learner when you make do with something it means you manage with it or you survive with it now you might use this phrase you can say we can make do with what we have so you could say I don't have many groceries at home right now but we should be able to make do until I go to the grocery store later it just means you can manage with what you have in the situation you could also ask someone can you make do with what you have can you make do with $20 I don't have any more money this means can you manage with it do you know the phrase that English speakers use when they want to say that somebody should never do something again well they'll actually say that something should teach you a lesson that will teach you a lesson if you saw somebody doing something dangerous and they fell and obviously you wouldn't want to say this if they were hurt very badly L but you know they got some cuts and scrapes you could say that will teach them a lesson that means that small injury will make them never want to do that again one time I broke my arm as an adult on the playground and honestly it taught me a lesson I'm I'm never doing that again if you give someone an offer and you want them to either accept the offer or just walk away you can say take it or leave it this can be considered Ed a little bit rude if you're using this in a negotiation or a bargain so be careful with it it's very harsh it's saying you can either have this offer or you can have nothing take it or leave it do you know the English phrase that we like to use to say that somebody is in trouble you'll see this a lot in the news and you'll hear this in television shows as well we say that somebody is in hot water if you say that someone is hot water it means they're in trouble I always think of this idiom as if someone were in a Boiling Pot of water if they're in that pot for too long they would burn up and they would get injured and burned so if somebody is you know getting into trouble they're in hot water it's like they're burning and they're like how do I get out of this trouble so we use this phrase if somebody says something very rude or very offensive we say they're in hot water for all of those mean comments that they said speaking of water this next idiom is to jump ship if someone jumps ship it means that they quit completely unexpectantly and they just abandon the ship they just abandon a job or you know they're in a group with a bunch of people and they just jump ship they just leave without saying anything so this is super common to say that somebody quits or leaves unexpectedly sometimes when two people are about to get married you'll hear somebody say that the bride or or the groom is getting cold feet now what does it mean to get cold feet this is an idiom that means that they are getting a little bit nervous and they're hesitating so you could say I was going to accept the job but I started to get cold feet I was worried about the salary I was worried about the duties whatever it is this means that you are getting nervous and you're hesitating about actually doing the thing if a bride gets cold feet the couple may not get married there are so many ways in English to say that something is clear or you understand something and one of my favorite phrases to use is to say clear as day does that make sense clear as day so this comes from the idea that at night it's dark it's hard to see and during the day the sun is out so we can see everything we can see all the details of the world so when you want to say that you understand something and and that it makes a lot of sense you can say it's clear as day I quizzed an English learner on some idioms recently and they were really confused about this one the idiom is to kick the bucket if you say that someone has kicked the bucket it means that they have died now it's kind of a crude and rude way to say this so be careful with this one but English speakers in the United States they all know what this means it means to die so if you say yeah they kick the bucket 2 years ago it means they died 2 years ago now this idiom is actually connected to another one it's to have a bucket list if you have a bucket list it's all the things that you want to do before you die or all the things that you want to do before you kick the bucket so I taught you something today those two idioms are totally connected when you don't want to do something but somebody does a lot of convincing and persuading to make you do it you can say that they twisted your arm so sometimes a husband and a wife will be arguing about going somewhere maybe they're going to a dinner party and the husband says I don't I don't want to go I don't want to get dressed up I don't want to have to hang out with all your friends sure this is very common occurrence the wife might have to twist his arm to go she might have to say come on it'll be fun we never go and do anything I know that you'll like it it will make me really happy the husband might say h you twisted my arm we can go so it just means that you did a lot of convincing to make someone do something finally when we talk about someone that is very irritating we can use the phrase that they get on your nerves so to get on someone's nerves is the most common way to say that they are becoming annoying if you don't like little children and you hang out with a 3-year-old all day after while you might say they are getting on my nerves or you can even say a thing is getting on your nerves you could say the air conditioner in my car is really getting on my nerves it never works correctly or you could say these high gas prices are really getting on my nerves they're starting to annoy me now it's time for a quiz on the idioms that I just taught you let's see how many you can get out of 10 make sure to comment below this is a great way to reinforce what you learned in this English lesson What's the phrase that we use to say that you can either accept an offer or take nothing take it or leave it what phrase is used to say that something makes sense it's clear as day if you are in trouble you can also say that you are in hot water if somebody quits unexpectantly you can say that they jumped ship what phrase do we like to use when people are getting nervous about getting married getting cold feet if you want to say that you can make something work you can say that you [Music] can make do when somebody is irritating you can say that they are getting on your nerves Which idiom means the same as to die to kick the bucket when somebody figures out not to do something again we can say that they were taught a lesson finally if you convince someone to do something by persuading them a lot you have twisted their arm how many right did you get out of 10 today let me know in the comments this seems kind of strange and suspicious this is fishy when something seems kind of strange and suspicious you can describe it as fishy we get this phrase from the idea that if something smells kind of bad It might smell like fish or fish that has been you know sitting in the sun or has been rotting for a few days so if you want to say you're not sure if something bad is happening or someone's lying you can say uh it seems kind of fishy I'm not so sure they have not told me about anything and I don't know any information about it they have kept me in the dark if you feel like someone has not told you a lot of information about a situation or you're just waiting to hear the details about an event a party or somebody's relationship you can say you feel like you are in the dark this phrase comes from the idea that if you can't see you are in the dark so if someone is not telling you a lot of details and you feel like you just don't know what's going on you can say I've been kept in the dark or I'm in the dark about this that means you don't know because you don't have any information I can almost think of the name but I keep forgetting it it's on the tip of my tongue have you ever had that feeling where you can't quite think of somebody's name or you can't think of what you were trying to say and you just kind of forget it but you know it's right there in your mind well in English we use the phrase it's on the tip of my tongue when something is on the tip of your tongue it means that you can almost remember it and a lot of times if the person reminds you of things you can finally get the words out but if you can't quite remember what you're going to say you can say it's on the tip of your tongue for English Learners if you can't think of an English word or if you can't think of the exact thing that you're trying to say this phrase could be quite useful the more that you practice something the better that you will get practice makes perfect as an English teacher I absolutely love this phrase It's a saying but it's also a great motto to live by practice makes perfect if you say practice makes perfect it means that you just need to practice more it's a really encouraging phrase if you say this to someone it means that they're doing a good job practicing and the more that they practice the better they will get and eventually they will be perfect here is another phrase that I'm sure translates to your language as well if you haven't already heard it the phrase is a picture is worth a thousand words sometimes English speakers say this really fast and it sounds like a pictures worth a thousand words this means that you can't describe the moment or what was happening as well as a picture could we would use this phrase to talk about pictures that capture the moment or they capture an idea or a concept much better than words can actually describe I will talk about many details in my life and I don't have a lot of Secrets I am an open book you can use this phrase to talk about a person that does not have many secrets and is willing to share all of the details about their life you can say that person is an open book or if you are one of these people that don't have many secrets and don't mind sharing lots of things you can say you are an open book I am an open book personally I'm not an open book I don't just like to share everything about my life I do like to be more private and maybe keep some Secrets but I do know people that have no problem sharing everything and they are just total open books you can use this phrase again to describe people as open books I made this at home without using any modern technology I made it by hand when you want to say that something was made by you and you did not buy it or you did not buy it from a store or use extreme technology you can say it was made by hand to make something by hand means to make it by yourself we use this phrase a ton when it comes to cooking it's super useful you can say hey I made these by hand it means you did not buy them from the store and of course if you wanted to know the opposite of making something by hand when it comes to cooking is to say it was store bought don't worry about other people's problems you should just worry about yourself mind your own business be careful with this English phrase it can come off as a little bit rude a little bit spicy it's kind of just giving attitude if you want someone to not be so worried about what you're doing or you know what other people are doing and you're kind of protecting their privacy you can say mind your business sometimes mothers say this phrase a lot to their children when children start asking way too many questions or asking people about personal things in their life you can say hey mind your business don't worry about them so be careful with this phrase cuz it can come off as rude when you say it to another person if they're you know asking you too many personal questions you say hey mind your business but if you want to give attitude and be a little spicy just say mind your business this part of my house house is really messy and it's not very nice to look at it's an ey sore we all have that part of our house that is extremely messy maybe we throw all of our laundry there or we forget to clean it and we're just being a little bit lazy and if we don't want our guests to see this part of our house we can say hey it's an eyesore don't look over there this phrase to be an eyesore means that it's just ugly it's not nice to look at so it could be a part of your house if you called a person an eyesore that would be really really rude you would be calling them extremely ugly like it they're so ugly it hurts your eyes to look at them and so mostly we just use this phrase to describe things or parts of our houses or you know sometimes there's a house in the neighborhood that is not kept up well they don't trim their lawn they don't rake their leaves and and they haven't painted the house for years you could say that house is really an eyesore in this neighborhood he just stopped talking about the main subject he totally just trailed off so when you're in a conversation and someone just starts talking about things that aren't really related to the main subject or you're kind of unsure what they're talking about maybe they're even mumbling like they're talking about this you can say that they have trailed off so to Trail off in a conversation it means to not really talk about things that are relevant anymore or you can say I didn't really hear what they were saying at the end of their speech because they just started trailing off that means they started mumbling or you know just not really talking to the audience anymore the way I feel about this has changed I've really had a change of heart so if you want to say that your own opinion or someone else's opinion has really changed you can say that they've had a change of heart when I was growing up I would say Mom can I have a sleepover with my friend or can I do this and maybe she'd say no and then a few hours later maybe would say I've had a change of heart you can go you can have your sleepover with your friend or whatever it might be if someone has a change a heart it just means their opinion on something or their decision has really changed and usually it's changed for a reason like maybe they've realized something or you've convinced them that is going to be voided that's just going to cancel out so the word void or the verb to void something it's pretty formal so a lot of times in English we'll just say oh can you cancel that or can you cancel it out so the phrasal verb cancel out is super useful when you want to say void it or get rid B of it another way that we use this phrasal verb cancel out that I think is super useful is if two things just cancel out each other let me give you an example so some people they exercise in the morning and then in the evening they eat very unhealthy food they eat junk food they eat McDonald's or pizza and I would say those two things that kind of just cancel out there's no reason to exercise if you're just going to eat unhealth healthy they cancel out each other I'm going to take a risk by saying something that people are not going to like I'm just going to stick my neck out this is totally one of those idioms that I just heard in a conversation and I had to take my phone out and write it down because I knew I had to teach it to you if you want to say that you're going to say something and you know it's going to be unfavorable or people might even criticize you for it you can say I'm going to stick my neck out now I don't want to get too graphic or too you know gory but we think about a chicken and how we butcher them in order to be eaten that is where this idiom comes from so if you're going to say something and you know you're going to be criticized and you know have to deal with some consequences for saying it you can say you're going to stick your neck out and sometimes it's really important to be the person that's sticking their neck out and going against the popular opinion of things I want to show you what's happening in secret I'm going to show you what's happening behind the scenes a great way to say that something is going on in secret or you're going to show someone you know the things that they don't know about necessarily you can say I'm going to show you what's happening behind the scenes so if I was showing you behind the scenes of me recording this video I would literally be showing you my camera my computer my scripts things like that so behind the scenes is what happens that people don't usually know about when it comes to running a business or you know filming something or even in a kitchen behind the scenes what's happening I have to record the time that I'm going to start work I'm going to clock in one phrase that is completely essential to know in the United States if you have a job where you have to record the time that you start working is to clock in so instead of saying recording the time we say we're going to clock in and when we leave work we're say we're going to clock out when I I've had many jobs in my life sometimes I would clock in on a cash register sometimes I would clock in on a computer sometimes I would clock in with an oldfashioned machine so it just records the time that you start work you can also use this phrase in the past tense you could say I clocked in early today I have really relied on your support to help me I really banked on you helping me instead of saying I relied on something English speakers will very frequently say that we banked on something especially if we were thinking that something was going to happen and our actions were assuming that was going to happen we can say I banked on that happening so you could say I banked on winning the lottery this would not be a very good thing to rely on happening but if you banked on winning the lottery you would probably spend a lot of money before you've actually won the lottery I don't know about that example but you know you don't want to rely on things before they happen or Bank on them what you said just doesn't matter it's a moot point so if someone is arguing something that really doesn't matter or they're asking questions about something that's totally irrelevant you can tell them that's a moot point this means that the idea that they're talking about is so irrelevant that it's Moot and I believe Shakespeare was the one to coin this term moot point so we can thank the British for this one I think things turned out fine even though there were some difficulties it turned out fine given the circumstances so when you want to say that things were not perfect in a situation you can say given the circumstances and when we say this we can say that the circumstances were bad so given the circumstances I did really well on the test so maybe in these circumstances you didn't get much sleep the night before you were late to the test um you were feeling sick the circumstances or you know the things surrounding the experience that you you had were very poor but usually we use this when we're saying but we're you know negating what we just said given the circumstances I did well even though it was bad I did well I told her all of my negative opinions about her behavior I went off on her so when you want to say that you criticize someone you know you told them all the things that you don't like about them you can use this slang phrase you can say you went off on someone or if you're going to do it in the future you can say I'm going to go off on someone this just means you're going to be very honest and you're actually going to be brutally honest and maybe kind of rude to the person and you're going to speak your opinions and your feelings about them and you're not going to be polite or kind at all I was able to see what the experience would be like from trying it out I was able just to get a taste of it so I use this phrase to get a taste of something when I've done the experience or the thing for just a little bit so growing up I never played softball a sport here in the United States but when I was in college I you know played in a league for a little bit with my friends it was you know very informal very relaxed so I just got a taste of the sport I didn't play very competitively I just got a taste of it I was able to resist eating before it was time even though I was very hungry I was starving but I was able to hold out instead of saying that you were able to resist something or resist a Temptation you can say I was able to hold out so I think that this phrasal verb is used a lot when it comes to having to eat you're very hungry but you're waiting for a special meal or you're waiting for your food to come out at dinner at a restaurant and you're saying oh I'm just holding out for dinner I'm holding out for the main dish it means you're waiting and you're resisting you know just going to get a candy bar or going to eat something very quickly they are very smart and quick to answer questions they are so sharp a really common way that we tell someone that they're smart in the United States as we say they are sharp a really kind of funny a little bit rude idiom to say that someone is not smart is to say they are not the sharpest crayon in the Box this is a way to say that they're stupid I would attribute her success to her hard work she owes her success to hard work so instead of saying attributing something or giving credit to something we just say I owe it to this so you might say I owe my hard work ethic to my mom because she always taught me how to work hard uh I'm starting to reconsider my decision I'm second guessing myself instead of saying that you are reconsidering something you might want to say that you're second guessing it this phrase is really common it just means that you made your decision but you're thinking again about it so we use this phrase second guess to mean reconsider since they were mean and harsh to you you should treat them in the same way you've got to fight fire with fire this English phrase to Fight Fire with Fire is super useful when you have someone that's being mean or rude and you just figure out that being kind to them or being gentle with them will not help the situation so you need to be rude as well when I worked in customer service sometimes you would just have to fight fire with fire this means that if the customer was being rude you'd say Hey listen to me stop talking to me like that this is not the most kind way to talk to them but sometimes people just don't respond to you being kind so to Fight Fire with Fire means to do the exact same thing to a person that's being mean to you or to a person that's your enemy I'm going to take a guess but I really don't know I'll take a shot in the dark a lot of times as language Learners we just have to take a shot in the dark when it comes to knowing what things mean so a shot in the dark is like shooting a gun in the dark you don't know if you're going to hit what you wanted to hit if you take a guess with really no information to base your guess on you can say I've taken a shot in the dark this means I've tried even though I know I don't have much of a chance much like taking a real shot in the dark we often use this phrase in the past tense we say well I just took a shot in the dark I had no idea aide how this would turn out the judge punished him as much as the law allowed him to they threw the book at him if you like to watch any sort of television show especially American television shows that are based on crime or punishment or police dramas you might hear the phrase to throw the book at someone to throw the book at someone means to punish them to the fullest extent so this this would be a very bad thing if someone threw the book at you not literally throw a book at you but just to punish you to the fullest extent of the law we sometimes use this in a joking way maybe if you're in school or if you have a child and the child says well what's My Punishment I could say I'm going to throw the book at you this means I'm going to punish you as much as possible I'm going to make you do chores for 2 weeks or I'm going to take your phone away or whatever so it could be used in a joking matter as well but this is mainly used in the courtroom it's a very informal phrase but it's used very commonly and almost all Americans would know what you're saying if you say you're going to throw the book at someone or they're going to get the book thrown at them we are very friendly come talk to us hey we won't bite have you ever heard an English speaker say that they won't bite this sounds incredibly strange but it's a fun kind of playful phrase to mean that we will be friendly or I will be friendly if I say hey I don't bite come sit over here this means I'm friendly it's like saying you have a dog and many people will say my dog doesn't bite you can pet him you can come sit with me I won't bite so it's a playful phrase used to mean that we are social we are friendly come over here and join us I really like this it's very convenient it's the best thing since sliced bread you might have heard this idiom before but you probably didn't know what it means because this idium does not translate to any language I don't think at least if you say that something is the best thing since sliced bread you mean it's awesome it's really convenient um sliced bread of course is used for making sandwiches and Americans love to eat sandwiches some people eat a sandwich about every day for lunch so if you say it's the best thing since sliced bread it means that it's very convenient it's a good invention I really like it it's a super positive phrase I feel a lot of pressure right now I really feel under the gun take a guess at what it means to do something under the gun did you say that it means to do something very quickly or under a lot of pressure you are correct so if you do something under the gun it doesn't literally mean that someone is forcing you to do it but you just feel a lot of pressure in the situation so at American universities when you take a course usually you have homework grades and tests throughout the whole semester and then at the end you have one big final test that's worth a large portion of your grade so if you do kind of poorly throughout the course you might be under the gun to do well on the final exam this means you might have a lot of pressure to do well so that you can get a good grade so being under the gun just means having a lot of pressure she gets very stressed out very easily she is just wound too tight so you need to be careful with this next English phrase if you tell someone that they are wound too tight it means that they get angry stressed out or nervous too easily or sometimes it can just mean that they're too stripped so before with my kids you know I try to limit their sugar I try to limit their screen time um I make them wear bike helmets someone might say you are just wound to tight and I would take extreme offense to this I would say I am just a caring mother but some people might see it as just stressing out too much so if you say that someone is wound too tight it means they're stressed out they're ready to be angry or nervous at any time they are from a poor neighborhood they live on the wrong side of the tracks this next phrase most Americans would know but it is a bit discriminatory to people who have less money it's very classist if you say that someone is from the wrong side of the tracks it means they're from the wrong neighborhood they're from a poorer neighborhood of course you can also use this phrase to just say that you are in a sketchy area of a city you could say I was really on the wrong side of the tracks this maybe means that there was a lot of crime going around you didn't feel super safe so in the United States this this phrase is pretty popular to say that someone is from the wrong side of the tracks or you were on the wrong side of the tracks this is like imaginary railroad tracks separate the town from the good side to the bad side so I don't know how I feel about this phrase but I do think that you should know exactly what it means cuz you might see it come up in American television or American movies she wanted to do this very secretly to do something under the radar means to do it very secretly or very quietly so you could say I just want to do this under the radar it means that a lot of people won't find out what you're doing or sometimes celebrities they like to go get coffee or they like to go to a movie or they like to do their own grocery shopping but they try to stay under the radar so they'll put on a baseball cap and they'll you know put sunglasses on so that nobody recognizes them so so if you do something under the radar this is a super popular idiom to say that you do it quietly without a lot of attention and almost in a secret way the restaurant is so good people have just been telling each other about it the restaurant is so good people are talking about it it's spreading word of mouth so many times American businesses they won't officially advertise something they'll just have Word of Mouth spread their idea or they'll spread their business that way so if you say that something is spread by Word of Mouth it just means that people have told each other about it it means that there's no official message it hasn't been emailed it hasn't been advertised online or on TV it's just spread by word of mouth so if something is very good especially a restaurant people will start talking about it and it will become popular by Word of Mouth did you answer the phone did you pick up the phone and instead of just saying answer the phone native English speakers will sometimes say pick up the phone I'm going to pick up the phone that means I'm going to answer the phone you can also use this as a command it's quite common to say hey can you pick up the phone for me this means can you answer the phone for me so instead of saying answer go ahead and try and say pick up when it comes to answering the phone you should really try to have the same skill level as me get on my level okay I love this phrase get on my level if you want to tell someone that they really need to step up maybe they studying or their training because your ability is getting really good this is kind of a slang phrase it's very informal you can say get on my level you will often hear athletes in competition tell each other oh get on On My Level this means I'm really good you better get good too it's very informal and it's just a great way to tell someone that they better step up their game or get better I have to complain to you right now I have to vent the most common way that I say I'm going to complain is I say I'm going to vent of course I try not to complain very often but if I do if I'm having just a conversation with a close friend and we're talking about the things in life that are not going well I say we're having a vent session this is like the idea that when you're very angry or when you're very frustrated you need to let off steam so if you're venting you're letting your frustrations and your complaints out and you're telling them to a friend or whoever it may be so instead of saying complaining you can say venting and if you have a friend that just needs to complain and you feel like you're being a good listener you can say yeah you can always vent to me this means you can always complain to me or you can always tell me your frustrations it's still happening it's ongoing if you want to say that something is currently happening or currently going on you can say it's ongoing the reason that I mentioned this phrase is because it tends to confuse my English students if I say yeah it's it's ongoing because they start to think of all their verb tenses and where this fits in but if you say it's ongoing it means it's still happening it hasn't ended a good way to use this phrase is if there is a competition or some sort of event and someone says oh did that end last week you can say no it's actually still ongoing you can still participate my job is very difficult I'm working all of the time my jobs grind this is an awesome slang phrase if you want to say that you are working really hard and it's kind of unpleasant how hard you're working you can say It's a Grind now some people they love to grind at work this means they love to work very hard very long hours because it just gives them a lot of satisfaction so some people love the grind and some people hate the grind it can be used in a really positive way or negative way it just means that it's hard work a really popular thing people used to put on social media is rise and grind this was slang for Rise awaken and work hard is your job a grind or do you enjoy the grind let me know in the comments that is not possible there's no way one thing that's important to understand about American English speakers is that we're very hyperbolic we're very dramatic and over-the-top in our speech we tend to be dramatic when we're talking about our problems and things like that so instead of saying it's not possible we will say something like there's no way so it just means like there's no way to do it it's a bit of a negative phrase but it's really common to say in spoken English instead of saying there's no way to do that we just say there's no way or if we don't believe that something is going going to happen again we don't believe it's possible we will say there's no way that happens when I first started watching the show Game of Thrones I thought it was such a good show there's no way that they could mess it up but the ending of the show was so bad I couldn't believe it I am going to reveal a bad thing that this organization has done I'm going to pull back the curtain on them this is one of those phrases that I heard really really recently and I was like oh I hear this all the time I have to teach it to my English students if you want to say you're going to reveal things especially bad things that people have done in secret you can say I'm going to pull back the curtain on this so I like to think of you know this idiom as literal if you were at a show in a theater and you pulled the curtain you would see all sorts of weird things going on that aren't related to the show you would see people setting up things you would see people changing their costumes you wouldn't want to pull back the curtain during a theater performance because it would just reveal you know things that ruin the show so if you pull back the curtain on you know people's businesses or organization it means that you're going to show all the things that maybe they shouldn't be doing or people would be surprised to see so you're kind of revealing things if you're pulling back the curtain so this is a great natural idiom add this to your vocabulary I have a problem with this Behavior I am the worst going back to the idea that American English speakers are the most dramatic instead of saying that they do something that's kind of negative American English speakers will say I am the worst so maybe someone will say oh yeah I'm always late to school or I'm always late to work you'll say ah I'm the worst that mean means I do this a lot I can relate I'm the worst at being late or someone might say I have a sweet tooth this means that they always like to eat sweets they crave sugar a lot if you agree with this and you think you have a bad Sweet Tooth as well in the conversation you could say oh I am the worst I can't get enough of chocolate or I can't get enough of cookies and ice cream if you've experienced this then you would know without me explaining it if you know you know so you might have seen this abbreviated online before if you know you know I y k y k I've seen this on Twitter I've seen this on other social media it means exactly as I've said before if you know you know it means if you've experienced this thing or this situation then I don't even have to describe it to you because you know it all too well or you can relate very well so I might say something to an English learner I might say ah IR regular verbs right if you know you know this means like if you struggle with these then you know my struggle so this phrase is super informal I see it a lot online and you can even use this great abbreviation just to say it in a text message or on social media if you know you know I want to add something brief to the conversation I wanted to say something so instead of saying I'm going to add something to the conversation or you know let me just have a moment to speak within this conversation Americans will just quickly say I wanted to say or I just wanted to say or I just wanted to ask this is just a way of saying I'm going to do it very briefly and kind of interrupt the conversation to do it it's almost polite as if you're saying like can I have a little bit of permission to do this but usually you're just saying it quickly you might say I just wanted to add ask and then you say it and it's considered polite but it's just very informal as well in saying instead of saying could I please take a moment to ask you say I just wanted to ask what was the problem why didn't it work out if there is a problem English speakers will say that something didn't work out I would say this is a more polite way of saying there was a problem or an issue you could say it just didn't work out we even use this phrase if two people break up or their relationship ends maybe they're no longer friends or they get divorced they're no longer husband and wife instead of saying there's problems or there's issues or there was a fight a very polite kind of gentle way of saying this is to say it just didn't work out I like what you're doing keep it up one of my favorite ways to tell people to keep going or to keep doing something that's really good that they're doing is to say keep it up this could be also said as keep up the good work or keep up the hard work but I just like to say keep it up so if you're watching this English lesson and you're really studying the vocabulary keep it up this is my reliable choice this is my go-to if you want to say that you really like something and you tend to always choose it because it's such a reliable Choice the natural phrase to use here would be to say that something is your go-to so for instance my go-to outfit in the morning if I'm not going to work or anywhere else is probably just leggings and a sweatshirt just so I'm comfy and I'm warm but my go-to show would probably be the office I love the American version of the office it's so funny when I don't feel like choosing a new show it's just my go-to maybe you have a go-to meal or you have a go-to book that you like to read just something that you constantly choose because it's so reliably good you can continue carry on when someone wants to say that you shouldn't stop or they don't mean to interrupt you instead of just saying keep going they'll say oh carry on it's almost a very polite phrase that means like sorry to interrupt keep going or if someone pauses while they're giving a presentation you could say oh please carry on Don't Stop can you please make me some phood you can you please make me something to eat Americans more commonly will say make something to eat rather than say make food or make a meal when you say that you want to make something to eat it just is a really casual phrase that means make some food if my children are hungry they almost always say Mom can you make me something to eat this could be a snack or it could be a meal I'm going to let you convince me I'm going to give in this phrase is really useful if you want to say that someone's kind of convincing you to do something or they're convincing you to believe their opinion you could say I'm going to give in if a kid asks you for a cookie again and again and again and originally you say no but then the kid says please I'll be really good you can say fine I'm going to give in and give you the cookie so it just means you're going to be convinced and you're going to let go of your first opinion or what you wanted to happen I'm going to quickly make some mashed potatoes I'm going to whip up some mashed potatoes if you want to say that you're going to cook something very quickly you might want to use the phrase whip up you'll hear American English speakers say this all the time I'm going to whip up some mac and cheese I'm going to whip up some pizza it just means you're going to cook something very casually you know it's not a very fancy meal and you're going to cook it quickly here is the gossip here is the word on the the street gossip can be very toxic so there's a lot of different ways in English to say like here's some gossip or here's some secret you might hear someone say here's the word on the street so it's a very idiomatic phrase there's no real street it's not literal but if a lot of people are talking about something or sharing a secret or some information about someone you might say it's the word on the street that means it's not official but it's just gossip right now it's what everyone is saying you would to understand well it's over your head if you want to say that someone would not understand something because either they are not smart enough or they're just not knowledgeable on a subject you could say this is over your head so sometimes when children are young a lot of jokes and movies will go over their head it means they won't understand the jokes because they're too mature you can also use this phrase if you really don't understand something and you want to say I just completely didn't understand that I'm not smart enough or I'm not knowledgeable enough you can say that totally went over my head can you explain that simply I got lucky and I found this cool thing I came across this when someone finds something that's very unique or very useful and they weren't deliberately searching for it which means they weren't really trying to find it they just happened to find it they can say that they came across it so you could say I came across this really interesting piece of information that means you found it in a book or you found it online even though you weren't searching for it it's just a good way to say that you found something by chance I have to spend a few minutes studying to understand this I just have to take this in When someone tells you a lot of information and you can't quite understand it at first or maybe it's just something that's very big new or very you know lifechanging news you can say I just need a minute to take this in or I'm going to take it in this just means I kind of got to study the information or you just really need to think about it to really understand what it means to you I'm going to take it in we lost all of our progress we have to start over we're back to square one an idiom that almost all American English speakers would know is to say we're going to go back to square one when you say that you're going back to square one it means that you've lost your progress or you just need to go all the way back to the beginning you know to redo something so when I was in college before there was Google Docs and things like that you know we would save our written essays and papers on our computer and if for some reason our computer broke we'd be back to square one if we didn't have an extra copy of the document I would say I lost all of my progress I'm back to square one that just means I have to start over again and I like to think of square one as being back at the beginning of a board game like think of Candy Land if you have to go all the way back to the beginning you're on the first square of the game I don't want to let them know this I don't want to let on if you let on to a secret or some information that you're trying to keep secret it means that you are starting to hint at something or you're kind of revealing your secret one year I had a surprise birthday party for my husband and I didn't want his friends to let on to the surprise I wanted it to be a surprise until his birthday so I told everyone to keep a secret and I made sure that nobody texted him about it and everyone knew it was going to be a surprise because I didn't want to let on that there would be a party on that day that was really poorly planned that was Ill conceived so this prefix ill it means poorly or bad so obviously if you feel ill you feel sick you feel poorly or bad if you add ill to a word ill conceived it means it was poorly conceived or it was not conceived in a good way so if you say this plan was poorly conceived it means that we did not plan this event or this idea very well for instance if I was having a surprise party for my husband and I asked my husband to go get balloons and a cake he might know that there is a surprise party so that would be a poorly conceived plan or an ill-conceived plan so this phrase ill conceived is very common to use instead of saying it was horing plan you'll hear both of these phrases but just be really aware of the phrase ill conceived because it's such an advanced English word but it's really useful yes I can listen to your problems and I can probably help you out I'm all ears one English phrase that I really like to teach to my English students is to say I'm all ears instead of just saying I'm ready to listen or I'm going to be listening to you to help you solve your problem you can say hey I'm all ears go ahead and tell me whatever it is that you need to tell me so this phrase is really it's really friendly for English and it's also just very useful because people all the time need to tell you about their problems and if you want to say I'm going to be helpful and listening you can say I'm all ears okay make sure that you relax today take it easy this phrase is also very polite and friendly to use in your English conversations if you want to tell someone to relax you can tell them to take it easy now if someone is sick or they just had an injury and you just want to say politely you know please relax say hey take it easy or if you want to say that you're going to have a very relaxing day that's not going to be full of work or full of very productive things you can say I'm just going to take it easy today this means you're going to relax you're only going to do things that are easy and you're just trying to rest for the day I need to go get ready for the [Music] day I have to pull myself together if you've had a particularly rough night of sleep maybe you have young children or you have very noisy neighbors and you need to just feel better in the morning you need to get ready you need to look nice so that you can you know go out and do things like work and socialize you can say I'm just going to pull myself together this means you're going to get ready maybe take a shower put on some nicer clothes you're pulling your look together you're you're trying to dress up and look nice now if you're very emotional and very sad and you just need a minute to try to calm down your emotions you could say I just need a minute to pull myself together this means I need a minute to calm down and and look calm as well so pulling yourself together just means to try to look normal decent and you know look professional you can also use this phrase to say you're going to make your house look nice you could say I got to pull my house together this means you're going to make your house clean you are very smart and prepared you are on the ball if you've ever wanted to tell someone in English that they are very prepared they're very smart and witty you can say that they are on the ball this natural English phrase is used when someone says something or does something that shows that they are very prepared or if you think that's just a characteristic of the person you're talking about you can say you are always on the ball this means you're always prepared and you always know what's coming next if you want to say that you're very prepared and you're having a good day you could say hey we are on the ball today we're very prepared I have made a [Music] decision I have to make up my mind I'm sure that you have heard an English speaker say that they have made up their mind this English phrase is used to say that someone has made a decision if you have not made up your mind it means you have not made a decision and you're still thinking about your choices if you want someone to quickly make a decision you can say hey can you please make make up your mind I teach English Learners you know we make our bed we make up our bed this means we know we're putting it together we have to make up our minds sometimes and we have to think about our decisions before we say them out loud we have to make up our minds I am going to go focus and [Music] study I've got to go hit the books now this English phrase would be used daily if you are a student especially but if you say that you have to hit the books it means you have to study and you have to take studying very seriously sometimes in college I would say you know I'm going to study tonight and I would procrastinate I would maybe be online be on social media I would start doing things that were not related to studying and then I would finally say all right now I have to be serious and I have to hit the books and that's when I would start studying so if you hit the books it means you're going to start studying and you're going to really focus things are getting very crazy and we don't have control over the situation things are getting out of hand this English phrase is very very useful when things are getting out of control they're getting very messy and very crazy you can say they are getting out of hand when you think that somebody's actions or behaviors are getting to be too crazy too ridiculous and they're bothering everybody else around them you can say that your behavior or your actions are getting out of hand you can also say that a situation is getting out of hand this means you have no control over it it's like it physically is removed from your hand so you can't grab it anymore but we use this inum to say that things are crazy and we have no control over them thanks again for studying with me today I hope that you guys learned lots of new natural English phrases that you'll actually understand now in your English conversations make sure to subscribe to the channel and leave me a comment with your favorite phrase from today's lesson I'll see you guys in the next video [Music] goodbye

Channel: English With Kayla

Views: 42,572

Keywords: learn english, speak english, english conversation, English with kayla, speak advanced english, speak fluent english, learn english idioms, daily english vocabulary, long english lesson, one hour of english, english phrases for daily use, business english

Id: ZCo-2Zz2PR8

Length: 67min 59sec (4079 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 11 2024