Are you looking to add to your English vocabulary so you can sound like a master in English?
Well, in today's lesson, I have 24 phrases for you.
And if you already know all of these phrases, your English is definitely super advanced.
But I'm guessing you might not know all of them.
So make sure to study today's lesson to expand your vocabulary, to talk about things in a natural way, just like a native speaker would.
In today's lesson i'll teach you the natural phrases and if you want to go further in the lesson and have me be your teacher, make sure to visit englishwithkaylacom or the link below, where you can join my membership and be my student there.
I'm Kayla.
Let's get started with this lesson.
Maybe you've studied a lot of complicated idioms in English.
While we're not going to do complicated idioms to start out this lesson, we're going to talk about some natural phrases that you can actually use very quickly to respond to things.
The first phrase is good to know.
Good to know.
I would say this phrase like, ah, good to know, good to know.
So this is just a reaction when someone tells you some really useful information, or if they're cautioning you or telling you something that is literally nice or convenient to know in the situation.
Let's say I'm in a store and I ask one of the workers to help me with something, and they help me and they say just so you know, our store closes in 10 minutes.
So you'll need to check out soon.
And I'll say, oh, good to know.
Thanks.
This means like, thanks for letting me know.
Like they obviously didn't have to tell me, but it was very convenient that they told me that.
Another thing maybe your friend is driving to your house and you say hey, just to let you know, or I want you to know, there is construction on the road leading to my house, so it might take a little bit longer.
The person might say, oh, good to know, thanks.
So this is just a really quick reaction that we use all of the time in English.
The next phrase is, that explains a lot.
That explains a lot.
So we use this phrase when someone tells us information that adds to our knowledge of a situation.
So it makes everything actually make sense or it tells us something that we didn't know.
Now you need to be careful, because this phrase it can definitely be used sarcastically or like humorously.
So just be careful how it's taken when you say the phrase.
So maybe you have a friend and their teenager is acting really cranky.
Like they're just giving a lot of attitude, they're being rude, and the parent says hey, I'm sorry, they were up super late playing video games.
You say, ah, that makes a lot of sense.
So you're kind of humorously saying like yes, it makes sense that they're acting cranky, or it makes sense that they're a teenager staying up playing a lot of video games.
But you're saying, you know oh, of course that makes sense.
It kind of excuses the behavior in a way.
Maybe you go to someone's house and it's a really, really nice house and everything seems super expensive.
And you find out that they actually inherited a lot of money.
And you might say, oh, that makes a lot of sense.
That makes a lot of sense.
So explain something that wasn't so clear or you weren't really sure how it happened before.
You may have heard an English speaker say before, that came out of nowhere.
That came out of nowhere.
A biker came out of nowhere, right?
This is such a common English expression to mean that something was just very unexpected.
So it could be something like weather.
Maybe it's a sunny day out and an hour later there's a big storm and a tornado warning.
And you say well, that came out of nowhere, meaning you weren't expecting it and you had gotten used to the nice sunny weather outside.
Or maybe someone tells you that they just quit their job and you'll say well, that came out of nowhere, meaning you weren't expecting it.
The person had liked their job before they had never complained about it.
That's when we use this phrase, that came out of nowhere.
It means we were completely blindsided or we did not expect something.
Another phrase that we can use when talking about more serious, unexpected or surprising information is I'm going to wrap my head around it or I'm trying to wrap my head around it.
I'm still wrapping my head around that.
This means you're trying to process your emotions and really understand it.
Maybe someone in your family is sick and they get a diagnosis of cancer or something else very bad and unexpected.
You might say, I'm just still trying to wrap my head around it and understand it.
Meaning like kind of process your emotions and really think about what's happening.
So when we say the phrase to wrap your head around something, it means you get news or information and you have to kind of think and reflect on it, just to kind of get your emotions in check.
Maybe your best friend tells you that they're going to move out of the country.
You'll say, it's going to take me a while to wrap my head around this.
I'm going to miss you so much.
So I need to think about this and process my emotions.
Here are some more just everyday life English phrases.
Maybe you're talking about stress or just the everyday tasks.
The first one is, I'm just trying to keep up.
I'm just trying to keep up.
I'm just trying to keep up.
So to keep up with someone or something means to stay updated or stay at the same pace.
When we use this phrase, I'm just trying to keep up in a casual way.
It just means that life has been very busy or something is very busy or fast paced and you're just doing your best.
Maybe you're not succeeding really well, but you're keeping up.
If you have a busy work schedule and someone says, hey, how's everything going?
You might say, I'm so busy.
I'm just trying to keep up.
This means, you know, you're just kind of being relatable.
You're not doing anything above and beyond, but you're keeping up.
You're doing everything you're supposed to do.
Or if you have kids and work, maybe you're trying to balance things and just trying to keep up.
These are some really natural ways that you can use this phrase here, just trying to keep up.
A really similar phrase that you can use to just show again that you're really humble.
You're not doing anything.
That's really great.
You're not going above and beyond, but you're doing the best of your abilities, even if it's just keeping up with everything, doing the minimum.
You can say, I'm just doing what I can.
Or you could say, I'm just doing my best.
I'm doing what I can.
Things might not be perfect, but you're doing what you can.
Maybe at work, again, your coworker says, oh my goodness, you have so much to do.
You might say, yeah, I'm just doing what I can.
That just means you're doing what you can to either keep up or just keep things going smoothly.
So you can definitely use this phrase when you're really in a difficult situation that requires a lot of work, but you're trying to explain that you're doing your best or you're doing what you can.
When we say in English it's been one of those days, we mean, it's been a day where everything that can go wrong does go wrong.
It's just been one of those days.
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
So this is a pretty negative expression.
Maybe you are late to work because there was so much traffic and you spilled all of your coffee getting out of the car.
Your coworker might say, hey, how are you doing?
And be like, it's just one of those days.
Meaning it's one of those days where it feels like everything goes wrong.
Nothing can go right.
This is, again, a really casual used expression that we can say every day in our English.
Hopefully not every day.
Hopefully you're not having one of those days every day.
But if you really just need to convey that it's been challenging and things just haven't gone your way,
Another phrase that's really good for giving those humble updates.
When you're working on a project or you're just working on something in general that isn't perfect yet or isn't complete yet, you could say we're getting there.
We're getting there.
We're getting there.
This means you're doing enough work to progress.
But again, it's not perfect and it's not done.
So if your boss says, hey, how's it going?
You can say, oh, we're getting there.
We maybe need a couple more days to finish this.
This means we're getting to the stopping point or we're getting to the finishing point.
But in English, we just say we're getting there.
Oftentimes if I'm working on a house project like painting or decorating or any sort of thing that I need to put together in the house and it's not done yet, I'll say oh, this is really challenging, but we're getting there.
So it's kind of optimistic, like we're getting there. to where I need to be.
A similar phrase is it's coming together.
Or it's starting to come together.
Meaning.
Things were challenging or very disjointed and disorganized at first, but it's starting to look like it's going to be successful.
You could say it's coming together.
So if you're planning a wedding ever and you're trying to organize all of these details, it might feel very chaotic and disorganized at first.
But once you get most of the things set up, you could say it's coming together, or you can say it's all coming together.
Any sort of big project with lots of different parts, or any big project in your house where you're decorating painting, doing lots of different things.
Once it starts to kind of look like the way you want it, you can say it's coming together.
A very positive and motivating phrase is it's a step in the right direction.
That's a step in the right direction.
So when things are challenging or if things haven't been going well, but you take action and it's going in the right direction, now we say that it's a step in the right direction.
We've made some progress.
And when you have a big project or a big task and you make a small amount of progress or you just do a small task, within that it feels like you know maybe you're not doing much, but you can encourage people by saying it's a step in the right direction.
A lot of times I'm trying to teach my kids different responsibilities, like putting their laundry away or helping with dishes, and they aren't doing things perfectly.
Like maybe they still, you know, have some laundry on the floor, but they try, they try to put their laundry away.
I'll say well, it's a step in the right direction, meaning they didn't do it perfectly, but we're making some small amount of progress that i'm happy with.
Let's talk about some phrases that can help you take action and make decisions.
This is so important.
The first phrase I use all the time
It's very agreeable.
It's very friendly.
That works for me.
That works for me.
That works for me.
This is one of the most natural ways to say yes when somebody proposes a plan or something that they want to do.
And it's like, not like, yes, let's do that.
But yeah, that works for me.
Very positive.
It says it works well for me.
And it could be a very elaborate plan that someone's saying and you're just agreeing.
Yeah, that works for me.
Or, hey, do you want to meet at six?
Yeah, that works for me.
Something very simple.
So this is just such a natural way to say yes to plans in English.
A really natural way to say I'm ready or I'm finished is to say I'm all set.
I'm all set.
Right.
I'm all set.
Hey, are you all set?
That means are you ready or are you finished?
Are you all set to go?
This means are you ready to go?
We say this all the time in English instead of ready or finished or I'm all set to go on our trip.
This means I have everything in place.
I've packed everything.
I have all my documents, whatever it is.
Or if you're in a workplace, again, your coworkers might say, are you all set for the project?
Yeah, I have everything I need.
I'm all set.
This means I have everything I need.
I can be prepared to do whatever I'm going to do.
I'm all set.
You will hear English speakers say all the time, no worries.
No worries.
No worries.
If someone says no worries, they literally don't want you to stress, or they might just mean okay, yeah.
Someone might say, I'm sorry, I'm late.
You might say, no worries.
This means don't stress.
It's okay.
It's a really friendly way to respond to someone when you say this too.
Like it means like, I'm not offended.
Like, don't worry.
Someone might say they forgot something or they forgot to call you, and it's kind of like they're apologizing.
You might say, oh, no worries, it was fine.
So try out this phrase if you wanna sound very friendly and agreeable.
If somebody has apologized or you know, say they can't do something.
This next phrase is really confident and professional.
The phrase is, I'll take it from here.
I'll take it from here.
I'll take it from here so it can be more of an aggressive or assertive phrase, or it can just be a really friendly phrase to say like don't worry, i'll do it, i'll take it from here.
So, for instance, maybe you are going to babysit your friend's children and they're, you know, kind of worried.
They're getting everything ready.
You say listen, I'll take it from here.
You go ahead and relax, whatever it is.
So this means I can handle the situation.
Or maybe you're at work and someone is trying to, you know, guide a project or become like the leader, and you feel like you can do it say, don't worry, I'll take it from here.
I'll take this task from here.
So again, it can be a little aggressive if you are taking over a situation unexpectedly, but you can also just use it in a friendly way to mean that I can handle this, don't worry about it.
You can also use this phrase, I'll take it from here.
If somebody is helping you out and now you understand what you're supposed to do, you can say thank you so much for your help.
I'll take it from here, meaning I don't need your help anymore.
In English, sometimes we use the phrase a call to mean somebody's decision.
So if you want to tell someone that they are not allowed to decide something, it's not up to them, you can say that's not your call.
Or you can say, that's not my call.
That's not my call.
It just means it's not my decision.
I don't have the authority to make the decision.
Someone might say, hey, can we change the schedule?
This isn't really going to work.
Maybe you don't make the schedule.
You'll say, that's not my call.
We'll have to ask whoever's in charge of it.
Or you might need approval and you'll say, that's not my call.
We'll have to ask someone for approval here.
This phrase is really common in a professional situation.
Maybe if you're, you know, buying something from someone, or if you're just in any workplace situation where somebody doesn't have authority, you'll have to go to someone else to make the decision or to make the call, as we say in English. if you want to share an idea or a solution without sounding pushy or you're not even trying to be too assertive you just want to suggest something really casually you can say i'm just putting it out there i'm just putting it out there what if we tried this i'm just putting it out there So you're putting out an idea or suggestion that you're not super confident in, like, it doesn't have to be something that you know is going to work, but you just want to put something out there so that people can hear your idea or think about it.
Perhaps you're making plans with a friend and they're saying, you know, I'm really busy.
You could say, I'm just putting it out there.
We could meet next week instead.
So you're just kind of suggesting something.
You say, you know, I can meet either time, but for you it sounds like you're busy.
So I'll just put it out there that we could do it next week instead.
Or if you are at work and everybody is, you know, a little bit stressed about something, you can say well, I'm just putting it out there.
Maybe we could divide up this task.
So again, you're kind of trying to suggest something without being too pushy.
Let's see if you know these phrases for when things are uncertain or you just want to caution someone and kind of control the expectations to make sure that everyone's thinking realistically.
The first phrase is, it's still up in the air.
It's still up in the air.
Something's in the air still.
This means we don't know exactly what is going to happen, or it can mean a decision isn't completely made yet.
So maybe someone says, hey, are you going to go to the party on Saturday?
You might say, ah, I'm still up in the air.
It's still up in the air.
You can say either with this expression meaning like the decision is still uncertain or up in the air, or my decision is uncertain or up in the air.
So this phrase is pretty flexible how we use it.
I'm still up in the air or it's still up in the air.
You can use this phrase with pretty big life events or more serious things as well.
For instance, maybe you're getting married, but you don't know exactly when yet.
You might say, it's kind of still up in the air.
We don't know what day we are going to pick yet.
So it's uncertain.
Or maybe you're thinking about moving houses.
You might say, I'm still kind of up in the air whether we're going to move in the near future.
When you're thinking a little bit more pessimistically, a little bit more negatively, and you don't think something is going to happen very soon, or you don't have a lot of belief in someone to take action, you might say I'm not holding my breath.
Maybe you've heard this expression before, but it just means that you're not going to wait for someone to take action, or you're kind of skeptical that someone will actually do something.
So you're not going to hold your breath and wait for it.
So be careful with this phrase.
It can sound negative or kind of sarcastic.
You might be complaining about all the potholes or the uneven roads in your city and maybe you're waiting for your city to fix them, but you don't have a lot of faith or belief in your city to actually fix your problems, especially if you're thinking about the government.
So you might say I'm not holding my breath for them to fix these roads, meaning like I don't expect it's actually going to happen or happen anytime soon.
So again, it's kind of a pessimistic or negative phrase.
Maybe on a more personal note, you have a friend that always tells you you know oh, I'm not going to be late this time.
I'm not going to be late this time.
And they are late every single time that you're supposed to get together.
You might say, I'm not holding my breath for him to change.
So this means like you're not actually expecting for them to make this change and be on time or often.
A really nice and mature phrase.
That means that you don't want to make judgments before you have all of the information, is you don't want to jump to conclusions.
I don't jump to conclusions.
We use this common phrase.
Collocation or phrase all of the time, jump to conclusions.
If we say that someone is jumping to conclusions, it means they're assuming things too quickly.
They're making a decision or judgment without knowing all of the information about something.
If you are accusing someone of a serious crime, like theft, for instance, you would want to have some real evidence or some real things that show you they actually did it, without just jumping to conclusions.
Because it could be really harmful to accuse someone of a crime without any evidence.
Don't jump to conclusions.
You might tell someone this hey, just don't jump to conclusions if they're making a judgment too quickly.
So again, a really common idiom or phrase that you can use to say don't make a judgment, just be thoughtful and look at all the evidence, or look at all the information surrounding a situation.
If you know someone that gets excited about things a little bit too quickly or perhaps they celebrate things before they actually happen you might tell them let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
This phrase means let's not celebrate or assume that we're successful too soon before it actually happens.
So, for instance, you might have a friend, and every time they meet a new guy or new girl, or they have a new boyfriend or girlfriend, they think it's the love of their life and they're going to get married right away.
And you might say, hey, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Let's get to know them a little bit more before we start thinking this way.
Or maybe your friends just started their business and it's going OK.
It's going pretty well.
They say, I'm going to be a millionaire.
You might say, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Let's. you know, work a little bit more and see what happens.
So it just means like, don't start to assume things or celebrate things and let's be a little bit more realistic.
The next phrase that we're going over is I'm not ruling it out.
I'm not ruling it out.
So to rule something out means to eliminate it as a possibility.
If you want to say that you're keeping an open mind or something could actually happen, you might say i'm not ruling it out.
Maybe you're trying to think of a solution to a very complicated problem.
You might say to someone, I'm not ruling anything out.
I'm going to try everything.
This just means, even if something sounds like it wouldn't work or it sounds kind of crazy, I will still try it, because I'm really trying to solve this problem.
So I'm not ruling anything out to try to solve this problem.
That's a really common way to use this phrase.
Or if you're thinking about a big life decision and you're just trying to weigh all your options.
Maybe you're thinking about moving and you're trying to think about where you want to move.
You're thinking about lots of different locations.
You might say, I'm not ruling anywhere out yet.
This means I'm not eliminating any options.
Everything's possible.
Sometimes, when you have a really difficult situation in English and you're telling your friend, or whoever it might be, about your problems, they might give you a really simple solution.
Like for instance, you're like, oh, I never have enough money.
I am always broke.
The person might say, just save some money.
You might say, well, that's easier said than done.
That's easier said than done.
This is a phrase we use to mean like that sounds simple, but it's actually really challenging, or really challenging for me in particular.
Or, for instance, someone might say if you're tired, just get more sleep.
That's easier said than done.
Like I have a hard time falling asleep, staying asleep, I stay up late with my kids, whatever it is.
So easier said than done.
This tells a person that, even though it seems like a simple problem, it's not a simple problem or a simple solution.
When you want to compare two different situations and usually one is more difficult we use this interesting phrase
It's a whole different story.
It would have been a whole different story.
So for instance, when I was younger and I would go on a trip, It was pretty easy.
I would plan it.
I could be spontaneous.
Now that I have kids, going on a trip is a whole different story.
It's way more difficult.
I have to think about things like strollers and car seats and make sure I have everybody's things.
It's a lot more difficult.
So the phrase here, it's a whole different story.
It's comparing one situation to another.
Even though they're a little similar, they're very different, especially when I'm talking about difficulty here.
So that's how we use this phrase.
It's a whole different story.
We're on the right track.
You're on the right track by studying English.
This is a really positive, really encouraging phrase.
We're on the right track.
Sure is.
We're on the right track.
Again, it means we're making progress.
We're moving in the right direction and things are going well.
Maybe you have a goal and you're kind of tracking data on that goal.
You're trying to lose weight.
And even though you're only losing a little bit of weight on the scale at a time, you could say I'm on the right track.
I'm moving in the right direction.
So it's a very optimistic, very positive phrase here.
Thank you so much for watching this lesson with me, Kayla.
Make sure to visit englishwithcala.com.
You're on the right track to learn more English phrases and advance your vocabulary.
If you liked this lesson, make sure to check out the next one on screen.
Thanks again for watching.
I'll see you in the next video.
Goodbye.
