125 of the Most Useful English Phrases | English Vocabulary Help

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Let's start off with a quick explanation of four really common phrases that are taught at the elementary level of English.

So this is a level of English that maybe you learned in the classroom, and these are the phrases that you can start using right away in your English speaking even if you're not feeling confident.

So the first phrase is How's it going? How's it going?

This is what we teach English speakers to use at the beginning of a conversation, especially in a more informal conversation.

Maybe you're getting more fluent and you're speaking now and you're working on your accent.

So it sounds more like, how's it going? How's it going?

Then rather than how is it going? How's it going?

How's it going? The next phrase is pretty similar.

It's a nice slang phrase that we teach in the elementary level.

It's what's up? What's up? It's the same as saying hi or how's it going?

Hey, what's up? What's up? What's up? I'm sure you know those two phrases.

The next idiom is something that we teach new English learners. especially if they want to say, you know, I'm listening.

Go ahead and tell your story. It's a really nice idiom that means this.

It's I'm all ears. Hey, can I tell you my story?

Yes, I'm all ears. It means I'm ready to listen.

It's a great idiom. I'm all ears. Finally, another great alternative phrase that even elementary English speakers can say is hang in there.

If you want to say that someone is, you know, they should kind of encourage them and you're trying to say something kind, even though the person is maybe a complaining or saying they're having a tough time, you can say, hang in there.

Hang in there. So those four elementary phrases are pretty basic and I'm sure you already knew them.

Let's move on to intermediate. I have a feeling if you're watching this video, you might be at the intermediate or intermediate advanced level.

Let's check with these idioms and phrases that I'm sure you've already learned or maybe you've heard in conversation and you're pretty sure about the meaning.

The first is one of the most common idioms that seems to be taught at the intermediate level.

If you want to say good luck to someone, the idiom that you would never guess... until you know it, is break a leg.

So oftentimes, if someone is about to go on stage and give a performance, instead of saying good luck, we say, break a leg.

And you can say this not only if someone's going on stage, just in any sort of performance, or if they're about to start any sort of challenge, just to say good luck, we say break a leg.

So maybe you've learned this phrase, but maybe it's new to you as well.

Break a leg. Break a leg. Another one of those phrases that is taught so frequently by English teachers like myself, just as a good alternative that English teachers speakers use all the time is instead of saying, we're going home, we're finished with our work,

We say we're going to call it a day. So this is kind of like an idiom because you wouldn't guess at first that this is what we mean.

But if we are done with our work, we're very tired, we might say, OK, I'm going to call it a day and go home.

This means you are done. You are finished.

You're calling it a full day of work. And another idiom that kind of goes along with this one, it wasn't originally in my lesson.

It's just kind of a bonus for you. is one of the most common ways that we casually say we're tired is we say, I'm pooped.

So maybe we'll say... I'm pooped. I'm gonna call it a day.

This just means I'm tired. I'm going home.

I'm done with work. Well, I'm calling it a day.

The next idiom on this list today in the intermediate section is taught so frequently by English teachers, and I've noticed that English students, even if they're children, can even use this idiom.

And once you learn this idiom, it's just so fun to say.

I notice English learners use it a lot.

Now, this isn't to discourage you. It's a great idiom.

If you want to say that doing something is easy, you can call it a piece of cake.

So for some people, riding a bike is a piece of cake.

Or for some people, public speaking is a piece of cake.

It's very easy. For some people, it is not a piece of cake.

It's very difficult. So it just means that something is easy to do if you call it a piece of cake. piece of cake now finally you've probably learned that in english instead of saying i'm a little sick English speakers will use the idiom, I'm under the weather.

And again, this is a pretty easy one to start to use as an alternative while you're speaking English.

I use it myself. If I feel like I have, you know, just a minor sore throat or I'm getting stuffed up like I'm going to get a cold or I'm just kind of tired.

I might say I'm a bit under the weather.

I'm under the weather. And of course, you need to make sure that you never use this phrase when talking about a serious illness, like a disease or cancer, Because that's way different than just being under the weather, being a little bit sick.

Now, if you have mastered all these phrases in the intermediate level, let's move on to advanced intermediate English.

If you haven't quite mastered all these phrases, that's okay.

It's good to also challenge yourself. Never be afraid to use phrases that seem challenging to you because you have to actually be able to try and use the English and make the mistakes in order to get better.

That's how we grow. The first phrase I've taught many times before, it's a great idiom.

If you want to say that you are working into the night, we say...

I'm burning the midnight oil. Recently, I've been working on a new English course for my students and...

I'm really passionate about it. I'm really excited about it.

So sometimes I'm just burning the midnight oil.

I'm working late into the night. So rather than sleeping, I just keep working very late at night.

So that's all this idiom means simply is You're working late at night.

You're burning the midnight oil. Work has been difficult lately.

I've just been burning the midnight oil.

This means you've been working, working, working.

Long late hours. Oh, Bing. Burning the midnight oil.

You know me, sir. I have two phrases on this list that you might have learned to mean that you have revealed a secret or you have revealed something. some information.

The first phrase is to let the cat out of the bag.

So maybe you accidentally revealed a secret about someone or you revealed a secret about a party or a wedding or something, and you didn't mean to say what you said, you could say, whoops, I let the cat out of the bag.

Another phrase that English speakers use when they're starting to advance their English, instead of saying they revealed a secret, they might say, I spilled the beans and this is just another classic idiom that's always taught by English teachers like myself.

Oh, well, cat's out of the bag. Well, time to spill the beans.

Finally, when it comes to making major life decisions... you're about to go through with something or do something that's going to change your life in a dramatic way, you might get cold feet.

This means you get really nervous or even doubtful about your decision that you're about to make.

This idiom is used really commonly when people are a bit nervous about getting married or having a wedding.

You might ask the bride or the groom on their wedding day, are you getting cold feet?

This means are you getting nervous or are you having...

Second thoughts. So this idiom, you know, it's a bit difficult to use because you have to be in the exact right situation, but it's a good idiom. that you are starting to advance your English if you're able to use a phrase like this.

Because it's so, you know, you would never be able to guess what it means just based on the context of the words.

Cold feet means nervous when using this idiom.

You're getting cold feet. If you've been watching my channel for a while, you'll actually already know these next four idioms in the advanced English category.

The first idiom is a sports idiom and is the ball is in your court.

The ball's in your court. When we use this idiom, we're telling someone that The decision is now up to them or the responsibility is now theirs.

You've done everything that you could do.

And now it is up to them to either finish the job, finish the deal, or, you know, the responsibility is theirs now.

The ball is in your court now. It means it's no longer my responsibility.

I can't do anything with the ball, you know.

It's not a literal ball. It's a responsibility or a decision when we use this idiom.

And it's really common to use this idiom in your everyday conversations when it comes to making decisions.

When you are saying someone is correct in English, there are so many ways to say it.

You can even just say exactly. Totally correct.

Now, if you are in the advanced English category, you may be able to use an idiom like this one.

You hit the nail on the head. This idiom means you are exactly correct.

We can use this idiom as well to compliment someone's problem solving or to compliment someone's solution to something.

Like maybe someone has come up with this plan to fix something at work and you can say, wow, you really hit the nail on the head with this idea. plan.

It's really good. So it means they're correct and it means it's good problem solving. so when we use the phrase to bite the bullet it means we have to do something that is difficult or unpleasant.

Like for a lot of people, they don't like going to the dentist, but they just have to bite the bullet and do it.

So it means they just have to do something unpleasant.

Oftentimes we use this phrase when we're talking about doing something that's just unpleasant. unavoidable.

We know it's good for us. So we have to do it like going to the dentist or going to the doctor or paying your taxes here in the United States.

You just have to bite the bullet and do it because it's just a part of normal life and it's good for us.

Go, bite the bullet. Instead of saying that you are giving up on something, maybe it's a challenge or something just personal that you were trying to do, you can say you're going to throw in the towel. just going to throw in the towel.

This isn't working. It means you are giving up.

So we can use this literally in a competition with someone to mean that we're done.

They win. We give up. Or if we were trying to solve a problem, we just personally can't do it anymore because we've tried everything.

We're just throwing in the towel. The thing is I'm not ready yet to throw in the towel.

This first phrase I saw on an advertisement and I thought wow this is a great phrase that isn't obvious what it means, but once you know it, it's super easy to use in your conversations.

The phrase is to drop a hint. When someone drops a hint, they give you a little piece of information about what's going to happen or what they want. or something that they're trying to have you find out, but they're not just saying it and saying it obviously and bluntly.

The most common example I can think of is many women who are in relationships will drop a hint that they want to get married, that they want to be proposed to.

Especially in the United States, it's most traditional for the man to ask the woman to marry them.

So women will say, wow, wouldn't it be interesting if we had a wedding or if I had a ring to wear so these are just little hints that they want to get married but they're not saying i want you to propose to me they're just dropping hints One of my favorite sporting events to watch on television is anything from the Olympics.

I remember watching the Summer Olympics and the famous Jamaican sprinter, Usain Bolt, absolutely blew all of the other runners out of the water.

Now this example means that he beat them by so much It was not even close.

You can use this phrase to blow someone out of the water When you beat someone by a very large margin or you completely surpass them or completely defeat them, the competition is not good. close when you blow someone out of the water.

And doing a little bit of research, I found that this phrase comes from the idea of dropping a bomb in the water and a boat just flies out of the water because the bomb is so large.

Well, we use this phrase in just daily English to mean that you beat someone by a lot.

Instead of saying that there was bad weather while you were driving on a trip, We say in the United States, we hit some weather.

Now this phrase seems a little bit strange.

It seems a little bit broad, but it really just means that there was some significant weather, either a snowstorm, a rainstorm, a tornado, some sort of weather event that...

This phrase is a spoiler. especially useful in the United States or countries like the United States where the weather can change so so quickly across many parts of the united states either snows we have tornadoes in the south we have hurricanes by the ocean There are just so many different types of weather in the United States that this phrase is super useful.

So maybe you're driving to a place like Texas in the United States and you can say, our trip got delayed because we hit some weather on the road.

This can mean there is either some sort of storm or tornado that made it take longer in your drive.

Maybe you had to stop while you're driving because the weather was dangerous.

So instead of saying we had bad weather while we were driving, you can just simply say we hit some weather.

I love this next English idiom. The phrase is to poke the bear.

You guys will have to let me know in the comments if you have a phrase like this in your native language as well.

But this idiom comes from the idea that if there was a bear sleeping, you could kind of antagonize the bear.

It means just bother it. by giving it little pokes.

And if you do a little poke, most of the time a sleeping bear would not wake up But if you poke the bear enough, it will wake up and be a scary bear and attack you maybe.

But this phrase is just saying, you know, don't antagonize people.

Don't bother them because if you poke the bear enough or if you bother people enough, They'll explode or they'll do something bad to you or they will retaliate.

This phrase is also used in the news if there is a country that's very powerful.

And people are doing things politically to bother that country that they don't like.

They're negative to the bigger country. People can say they're poking the bear to start a war.

This next phrase is obviously used in a very casual way, very informally. but I actually say this phrase all of the time and my four-year-old son thinks it's hilarious.

When I have a moment where I make a mistake, just because there's too much going on in my mind, or I just mess up on something that would be very simple normally, I'll say, oh, I'm sorry, I had a brain fart.

So the other day, I gave my son a cup that belonged to his brother in their very particular... about who gets what cup.

And my son said, hey, that's not mine. That's my brother's.

And I said, oh, I'm sorry. I had a brain fart.

This just means I forgot briefly. I had a quick moment where my brain wasn't working.

It's like a brain fart. An interesting thing about this next phrase is that many Americans are actually saying the wrong word for this phrase.

The phrase is brass tacks, like sharp tacks.

But many Americans hear it as brass tax, T-A-X, like a fee imposed to you by the government.

I had to do a little bit of research of where this phrase brass tacks comes from, and it comes from the old trade of making men's suits in order to accurately measure the cloth that was going to be used for the suits.

The people who would make the suits would nail down brass tacks, the sharp tacks, and that would be the most accurate measurement that they could get.

So, this phrase in the English language is used to say, let's start talking about the important details details, the very specific details.

So maybe if you're going to a business meeting, you'll start out by making small talk.

You know, how's your day? How's the weather?

Things like that. And then when you want to start talking about money or very important things in the meeting, you can say, all right, let's get down to brass tacks now.

So let's get down to brass tacks means let's start talking about the important details of what our conversation is about.

This next phrase is a compliment. It's a compliment that I've heard in my own life, but I think it's very strange to hear for the first time when you're learning English.

The phrase is you're so smiley. To describe someone as smiley might seem obvious.

It just means they smile a lot. Maybe your friend has a new girlfriend or a new boyfriend and they're just smiling all the time.

You could say, you're so smiley. You're so smiley lately.

That just means you're very happy, but it's obvious that you're happy because you're smiling a lot.

A very important phrase in the English language is give or take.

If you are giving someone an approximate number, that means you're kind of guessing.

It's not exactly accurate. you will say it's about six give or take, for example.

So that means it could be five, it could be four, it could be seven, it could be eight.

It's just kind of an estimate. You can also ask someone for an estimate by saying, how many do you think?

Give or take. Maybe you're throwing a party.

And you're not sure exactly how many guests you will have.

So in your head, you can say, I think I will need to have...

Five pizzas give or take. That means you could order an extra pizza for your guests at the party or you could probably just stick with five or maybe even four and you would be okay.

You're just giving an estimate by saying give or take or you're asking for an estimate if you say how many give or take. of my English students will come to me and say, I have tried to learn English in every single way possible.

I just can't memorize all of these phrases.

Well, here's a phrase that you could use instead of saying all of these words.

You could say... I have tried every trick in the book to learn English.

This means that you've tried every single option available to you.

So if you've tried every trick in the book to do something, usually you're trying to reach a goal, or you're trying to complete a task that's usually very difficult and you've used every single strategy available.

Another way that we use this phrase is, let's say we have a child that needs to take medicine.

Kids don't usually like to take medicine because it tastes bad to them. we try every trick in the book to make it taste good and to get them to take it more easily.

So I could give my child ice cream if they eat their medicine, or I could say, I'll mix your medicine up with some juice.

I've tried every trick in the book. And usually one of the tricks will work, but sometimes you can try every trick in the book And you just can't figure out how to get a kid to take their medicine. an intermediate or advanced English learner, it might be challenging for you to actually level up your English because you're either finding lessons that are too easy and they're teaching you the everyday phrases that you already know, or you just can't find the exact lesson that's going to teach you phrases that you can actually use in your everyday English.

I have a solution for you. Today's video will teach you 10 phrases that native English speakers like myself actually use in their everyday conversations.

And I promise you, even if you've heard these phrases before, this video will teach you how to actually use them while you're speaking.

Make sure to visit englishwithkayla.com to learn more about these phrases and join my membership.

But for now, let's get started with this lesson.

Here's a phrase that's going to help you be encouraging and positive in your English.

And I guarantee you, you haven't used this phrase like this before.

The phrase is... There you go. I hear native English speakers use this phrase a lot just like I do to say like, hey, great job.

You've got it. You're doing good. There you go.

There you go, miss. Sometimes if someone is a bit confused about something and then they finally say, the right idea, you'll just say, Yeah, there you go.

Okay, we've got it. Now. This is just affirming or just saying that they actually are finally understanding what you've been explaining or what they've been trying to learn.

Anyone learning a new language does not give themself enough credit.

This phrase to give yourself credit or to give anyone credit, it means to give themselves recognition, to say that they're doing a good job.

You have to give yourself credit for even being able to sleep here.

A lot of times I'll use this phrase if I have a friend that's complaining, they're saying, oh, I'm doing such a bad job.

Oh, I'm never going to get this done. I'll say hey, you're not giving yourself enough credit.

You're working very hard. So this is just recognizing their effort.

It's encouraging them. It's saying like, you are actually doing better than you think. you are doing.

And English speakers use this phrase a lot just to encourage someone or recognize someone's effort. even if the person thinks they're doing a bad job or they're unsure that they're even doing something correctly.

So keep studying English, give yourself credit.

You're doing a great job. probably been able to use this phrase before in English, but I want you to understand how often English speakers use this phrase, so we're going to go over it today.

The phrase is just in case. Just in case it rains, I'm going to bring an umbrella.

Just in case I get hungry later, I'm going to bring a snack.

So a lot of times we use this phrase to say like as a precaution or just to be safe is another phrase that we use just like this.

Do you think that you could like dispatch someone to like my house or escort me to school just in case?

You might say sorry to your friend, just in case they're mad.

So it's like, you don't know for sure that they're mad or they even notice that you made a mistake or said something rude, but you're going to apologize just in case like as a safety measure, you're going to do it before it becomes a problem.

English speakers use this phrase just in case all the time.

We're very precautionary in our actions and in our speech.

Oh, just in case you get bored, here's the this, you know, whatever it might be.

Have you ever worked with someone and they're very smart, they're really good at their job, but They're always late.

That's the thing though. Like they're good at their job, but if they're late, they're not a good worker in general.

Did you recognize the phrase here? That's the thing.

So when you want to introduce something that contrasts like the main idea or what someone has been saying or Maybe someone's talking about this person.

Oh, they're really good at their job, but they're always late.

And you say, Yeah, that's the thing, though, like, they're always late.

So you're emphasizing the point they made that contrast, or that's the opposite of everything that they just said.

That's the thing. You see, that's the thing though, is that I am what I say I am.

You may have heard an English speaker say, oh, it's my fault or, In slang, we say it's my bad.

It just means it's a mistake that I made.

Another phrase that you might not be using yet is that's on me.

That's on me. So this is more informal, kind of like that's my bad.

Instead of saying it's my mistake, you can say, oh, that's on me.

Sorry. So it's really just a casual, quick way to to own up to a mistake or to take accountability for something that you did wrong or that you forgot.

That's on me because I heard you sniffle a while ago and I did nothing with that information.

So this week I really procrastinated going grocery shopping.

And by the time it was Friday, I had to text my husband and be like, hey, can you pick up some dinner?

I have like no groceries. That's on me. Sorry.

And so it was my way of taking accountability.

And he's like, yeah, no problem, of course.

But it's just like a small mistake that I made.

Like I'm not blaming anyone else, but I need you to help me because I forgot to get groceries.

I didn't feel like doing it. That's on me.

This next phrase, if you're ever at a party in the United States, And you know, if someone's having a hard time like loosening up or you know, someone's being kind of reserved or quiet, you might say,

Live a little. This phrase, it just means enjoy yourself, relax.

If someone seems very uptight or very rigid and they're having a hard time having fun, you might use this phrase, hey, live a little.

It's just reminding someone that they need to enjoy things in life as well as have discipline and do all the things that they need to do as well.

They need to live a little. And in English, we say, oh, we're really living as we're really enjoying life.

We're doing fun things. We're not just doing... know, things like exercise, eating healthy, working every day.

We're living too. We're living a little.

Live a little. So if you had strict parents growing up, You might have felt this phrase at times.

You might have felt that your parents were really hard on you.

English speakers use this phrase to be hard on someone to mean that someone is either being unfair or they're being too critical, too harsh, or they're just expecting way too much from someone.

So if you are hard on your kids, it means you expect a lot from them or you punish them for doing things that you know, some other people might not punish their kids for.

So for instance, like if your kid lies and you say you're grounded for a week, Some people might consider you being really hard on your kids.

You need to maybe just teach them instead.

It's up to everyone. We have to be hard on you.

And a lot of times in English, we'll say, hey, don't be hard on yourself.

This just means don't be too cross. critical of yourself.

Give yourself grace. Let yourself make mistakes.

Like it's okay. Everyone's human. Everyone makes mistakes.

Don't be hard on yourself. One phrase that is very surprising to English learners because We're using this phrase all of the time in several different ways as well is it's not a big deal.

This phrase big deal is kind of used in a lot of different ways. different ways.

So the most common way I use this phrase and all the time because I'm a very laid back, relaxed type of person.

So If someone says, Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.

I forgot to text you back about whatever it might be.

I'll say, Oh, It's no big deal. I forget to text people back all the time.

This means don't worry. It's not a big problem.

It's not a problem at all. It's no big deal.

This is not a big deal, but my name is not Angie or Ann.

You can even say this preemptively be like, Hey, let's try to meet at four o'clock, but it's no big deal.

If you're a little late, I'm not in a hurry.

So this just means it's not a problem. Don't worry about about it.

It's implying that you're very relaxed. And then the opposite, if you say, oh, it's a big deal, It means it is a problem.

It is going to cause some sort of problem, even if the person was like, oh, hey, I'm going to be late tomorrow.

You'd be like, oh, sorry, that's kind of a big deal.

Like you can't be late to this meeting or whatever it might be.

So big deal means a big problem. Fight on tonight, Sanchez versus Diaz, and it's a big deal.

And then we can also say like something is a big deal, just meaning that it's important.

Like, oh, this is such a big deal. This is my wedding.

It's very important. That's exactly what it means.

Another phrase that we can use when we say we're going to try to enjoy something is we say we're going to make the most of something. if you're on vacation laying out on the beach you might say i'm gonna make the most of this day And I'm just going to lay here and relax and read my book and swim in the ocean.

It just means that you're going to take advantage of a really good situation.

Now we can also use this phrase, we're going to make the most of something when a situation seems complicated. kind of bad, maybe we plan for it to be really good and things are going wrong.

If we say, let's just make the most of this situation It means like, let's try to do the best out of what we have.

We've got to make the most of that. This last phrase, it's very informal.

It's kind of a slang phrase, but you definitely can use this in everyday English.

No matter how old you are, the phrase is to get the hang of something.

So when you start to understand something or you start to do something well, you say you're getting the hang of it.

I always say that if you start a new job, especially if it's something that you've never done before, it takes at least, at least four months to get the hang of it.

Any job I've ever had, for the first four months, I feel like, what the heck am I doing?

I'm always asking questions, I'm always feeling lost, But after about four months, I start to get the hang of things.

That means I understand things and I know exactly how they work.

Use the drones to find the targets. It'll take you a while to get the hang of it.

You could say, I just can't get the hang of this, meaning I can't get good at doing something.

Every time I try to learn a new dance or do a new dance move, I'll be like, oh, I cannot get the hang of this.

It's really difficult for me. If you've taken the time to learn these 10 English phrases today, kudos to you!

I'm really happy. I would love it if you visited my website, englishwithkayla.com.

The next natural step is to join my membership and dive deeper deeper into these types of lessons to really upgrade your English and to work with myself and my community.

Thanks again so much for watching. I'll see you guys in the next English lesson.

Check out one of the ones on screen and goodbye.

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See mintmobile.com. This next phrase is super, super useful, so pay close attention.

When you want to say that someone has the start of a really good idea or they have achieved something that's really good and they should take it further, you can say, you're onto something.

So I think of the company Apple, they created iPhones and they realized that people really like having all of these apps on their phone, that can do different things like a calculator, text messages.

You can even use your maps on your phone.

They really realize they're onto something.

And now, of course, today we have thousands and thousands, maybe even more apps that we can download on our phone to do different things.

I mean, people even connect to cameras in their house from their phone.

They were really on to something in the early days of creating the iPhone and now Our iPhones are like our entire lives.

So when you use this phrase, you're onto something new.

You say it to someone to make sure that they know they have a good idea and they should take it even further.

This next phrase is very simple, but it's used in a few different ways.

If you want to say that something happens again and again, it's very predictable.

Or you can say, you know, you've achieved results by working hard.

You can say it once again. Once again, we worked hard. and we achieved our goal.

It's a really common way to start a sentence.

Or you can use it in a negative way. If you are irritated with someone for sleeping late all the time, you can say once again, you slept through your alarm and you were late.

You're just using this phrase to emphasize that someone keeps doing the same thing again and again.

Once again. This next phrase is also very simple, but used extremely frequently in the English language, especially in casual English conversations.

The phrase is the fact that. So we start our sentences with this.

Usually when we're irritated about something or annoyed with something, So going back to my last example, you could say, the fact that you slept in late again means it really means that you don't care about your work.

So you're emphasizing a fact or something that has happened to prove your point.

You can also use this phrase in a positive way as well.

You could say about someone, the fact that they donated so much money to charity really shows that they're a good person.

So it's just one thing proving another. You start your sentence with saying, the fact that...

Instead of saying that you are contributing money or investing money in something, You can say you put up money for something.

So to put up money for something means you invest or you contribute.

For example, you could say, I put up money for you to go to college and you're just wasting your time.

That means you invested your money in... a friend or a family member to go to college.

Maybe you helped them out by giving them some money to pay for the tuition and now they're just wasting their time.

A really common phrase that we use in our everyday conversations and a phrase that's super common in literature as well, that means books and different types of writing, is little did I know or little did he know or little did she know. whoever it might be.

So it just indicates that something that seems insignificant or just not very important is going to be very important soon to that person.

A funny story that has this phrase in it is when I was at college, I met my husband and I'm sure he just thought, you know, I was some girl that liked him but now little did he know i was going to be his wife and i was going to have a family with him someday So it's just kind of funny when something that seems insignificant or it might not be that important becomes very important later.

If you want to say that you have a very strong and committed belief to something, And you will always define yourself with that belief.

You can say, I always have and I always will.

For example, let's say you are a very hard worker and you think that hard work is one of the most important qualities that you can have.

And someone says, wow, you're a very hard worker.

You can say, I always have been and I always will be.

This just indicates that you're very strongly believing in this thing.

Or you can use this in a negative way to describe someone.

You could say, they have always been a liar and they always will be a liar.

So the phrase is always have and always will. saying that you are waiting for some sort of authority to approve what you're going to do, what you're about to do. you can say, you're waiting on the go-ahead.

So this phrase is very common in conversation.

You could use this in a more formal sense Or informally, but it just means that you're waiting for a go ahead, which would mean an approval of your actions.

A common scenario when you might use this phrase, let's say you are a builder.

And you are ready to build a house. All of the plans are ready.

They're just waiting to be approved by whoever's paying for the building.

So you could say... Our plans are ready.

We're just waiting for the go ahead from the people who bought this building.

So you're waiting for approval from an authority on the project.

This next word is used very commonly in the English language.

The word is naturally, so oftentimes we say things are naturally occurring.

For instance, you could say, there are not many naturally occurring fruit trees in the United States.

That means trees with fruit don't just often grow in the United States, People have to plant them.

So they're planted by a human, but they don't come naturally.

That means from the earth without intervention.

Now, we also use this word in conversation quite frequently to mean that something is obvious.

So naturally, I would be really excited about winning a million dollars.

Or you could use this in a negative way to say, naturally, you will be disappointed if you don't get the job.

This means don't worry about how you feel because it's so natural.

It's what we would expect. So it's obvious or expected when you throw in the word naturally.

And you'll hear English speakers in the United States use this word in their sentences quite frequently.

Naturally, we will say naturally all the time.

This phrase to trash someone is used so frequently now, especially by younger people in the United States.

It's more of a slang phrase, but it's very common now.

To trash someone means to talk very negatively about someone or to insult them. especially if we say behind their backs or not to their face.

So, In the United States, it's not uncommon at all to trash politicians because we have such free speech here, you can't really get in trouble for speaking negatively about the people in power, where I know that's not common everywhere in the world.

But here, it's very common to trash politicians or to talk very negatively or to insult them even.

A funny phrase that's actually used quite commonly in the English language is the phrase, dry as a bone.

If you want to say that something just doesn't have any water or has nothing left, you can say it's dry as a bone.

For instance, right now there's not a lot of rain where I live, so my grass in my yard is turning kind of brown.

It's really dry as bone. That means there's no water present.

Or you can say, can I have a sip of your drink?

And someone might say, sorry, it's dry as a bone.

That means there's no water or no liquid left in it.

It's a really funny phrase, but it's used quite frequently.

When we want to say that something is very normal and we always do it, we can say it's routine.

For instance, when you go to the doctor in the United States, they ask you so many different questions about your health.

And they'll even ask you, have you had cancer?

Do you have heart problems? And you might say, why do you need all of this information?

The doctor will say, well, it's just routine that we ask these questions just in case.

That means it's completely normal. We do it for everyone.

It's the routine. Or if you go to an airport in the United States, of course we have... very, very intense security at an airport.

It's called TSA And you have to go through, you have to take your shoes off, you have to take your belt off, you put your bag through an x-ray scanner.

And you might say, why do we need to do all of this?

And we just usually say, well, it's just routine.

Everyone has to do it. That means it's common.

It's completely normal. It is what the norm is.

It's routine. In English, when someone makes a mistake and they're kind of worried about it, but you want to assure them that there's no penalty for their mistake, Nothing happened that was bad to anyone because of their mistake.

It's just not a big deal. you can use the phrase no harm, no foul.

This just means no harm was done. That means no one was hurt.

So there is no foul or no penalty. Usually this word foul means a penalty in soccer or basketball or whatever sport you're talking about, but we can use it in this phrase as well.

Let's say that you were going to a meeting and you actually got the time wrong for a meeting.

You showed up an hour early. And the person you're meeting with says, oh, I'm sorry, you're early.

And you say, oh, I'm so sorry. I totally messed up.

And they'll say, well, I have time now. No harm, no foul.

That means there's no penalty for being early.

Even though you made this mistake, there's no... foul because nothing bad happened.

So if you want to just say to someone that their mistake is insignificant it doesn't hurt anyone they're not going to be penalized use the phrase no harm no foul Speaking of the word foul, this next phrase is foul play.

This phrase is important to know, especially if you like watching crime shows, because oftentimes when someone dies or they get hurt, the police will say there was no foul play suspected.

That means the person was maybe sick or they died of natural causes, or there just was an accident that was not caused by someone else.

But if there was foul play suspected, that means that they think that someone else did this crime.

Now you can use this in less severe situations as well.

Again, if you're at work, and someone made a mistake, but you don't think the mistake was done to purposely hurt you or purposely hurt your company, you can say, well, there was no foul play.

That means it was just an accident. A great phrase that you can use to give a compliment, especially in English, is to say that something was well-deserved.

So when someone wins an award or if someone gets a raise in their salary, you can say that was really well-deserved.

That means that you think they worked so hard that they... especially deserve the award or the merit or the amount of money that they've been given.

Or someone might say, well, I'm just so lucky to have the job that I have right now.

You can say, well, it's very well-deserved.

You worked very hard in school and you got good grades.

So to say that something is well-deserved means the person has earned it and the person has worked very hard.

Okay, you might not feel like a fluent English speaker, but I promise you, you are able to still use the phrases that are in the fluent category today.

I categorize these as fluente because if you are at a high level of English, it is really natural and easy to use these phrases.

Whereas if you're still learning, it might take some effort, but you can do it.

Again, it's important to just challenge yourself because that's how we actually grow in our speaking.

And we just grow as a person in general while learning.

So I'm not going to waste any more time.

I'm going to cut to the chase. This phrase comes really natural to English speakers if they want to say, I'm going to stop wasting time and I'm going to start talking about what's important or I'm going to do what task I have to do right now, rather than procrastinating or delaying.

Oftentimes, people don't want to talk about their money or their budget, and so they'll waste time and try not to talk about it, but they might say, okay, Let's cut to the chase.

We need to talk about our budget and how much we're spending.

Cut to the chase. So this is used either in casual situations or like teaching if you're in a business or workplace conversation and you're ready to talk about the serious matter or what needs to be discussed.

Another phrase that's just like this is to beat around the bush.

I love teaching this phrase. I use it really naturally in my conversations as well.

If you think that you are talking about things that aren't really important or you're kind of just rambling in order to has some small friendly talk or you're just not ready to discuss a serious matter, you could say, sorry, I'm just beating around the bush here.

Let's cut to the chase. So you could use these two idioms together and it would actually be pretty natural.

Sometimes if you can sense that someone is nervous to tell you something.

Maybe they think that they're going to disappoint you or make you angry.

But you just want them to tell you anyway.

You could say, stop beating around the bush.

Tell me what's wrong. Oftentimes, this idiom is relevant when speaking with American English speakers, because we don't like to be direct.

So sometimes whatever we say, you have to read between the lines.

This phrase to read between the lines It's not stupid. super direct, instead of saying, I'm super angry at you, or I'm really pissed off at you.

They'll say, well, I'm kind of having a hard time understanding why you did this.

So if you read between the lines of what I just said, you know, I'm having a hard time.

That probably means I'm angry or I'm disappointed or I'm even pissed off.

Read between the lines, Theo. Now, if you're ready to learn some master phrases, get ready because these are good.

These are really, really good idioms, guys, and they are going to challenge you, but you're going to be able to use these up taught them in my lessons here before.

So if you've watched a ton of my channel or listened to a ton of my lessons here, You might actually already know these and you may be surprised.

The first phrase is to pull out all the stops.

So if you say, I'm gonna pull out all the stops, it means you're going to try to impress someone with a lot of big details that you're going to have.

For instance, if you've ever been to a really expensive wedding, you will say they have pulled out all the stops at this wedding.

Maybe they have fireworks. Maybe they have a live band.

Maybe they have really fancy food. They've made all the efforts they can to make this wedding really fancy. and really impressive.

I pulled out all the stops. This phrase, to pull out all the stops, it's used really frequently when we're talking about big events or big celebrations. that are pretty impressive and extravagant.

And you know, you're just surprised at how nice it is.

They pulled out all the stops. It means Nothing, no effort was spared.

There's a lot of effort going into this event to make it nice.

When I was in college, I took a lot of science classes, even though they were quite difficult for me.

And I remember when I took biology, I passed... by the skin of my teeth.

This means I barely passed the class. Like I was studying for these tests.

I was literally like going over these flashcards again and again and again.

I would study for a week in advance just to try to pass these tests.

So I wanted to do well, but I actually just passed by the skin of my teeth, which means I barely passed.

So when you use this phrase, it means you were barely barely able to succeed or meet the limit.

Sometimes if you just avoided danger, like you almost were in danger, you almost got attacked by an animal but you ran away, And close the door, you can say, we got away by the skin of our teeth.

You barely escaped a dangerous situation or you barely succeeded in a difficult situation.

We just escaped by the skin of our teeth.

So to push the envelope, this phrase means you go beyond what is normally acceptable.

A lot of times we use this phrase when we're talking about art or culture.

Lady Gaga is someone who has always pushed the envelope.

You can say envelope or envelope. By the way, both pronunciations are common in American English.

It just means she's always pushed what was culturally normal in fashion or in music, and she's done all these things innovative and creative things that people at first were like, I don't know if I like this or Maybe they even thought it was bad or inappropriate at first, but she'll push the envelope a little bit and then she kind of makes it become more mainstream and it acceptable by pushing the envelope.

So that's what we mean when we use this phrase to push the envelope to try to, you know, push the boundaries of what is normally acceptable.

And of course, this phrase comes down to being, you know, culturally aware of what's going on.

And that can make it difficult to use as well.

The final idiom in today's lesson, it's a bit tricky to use, so pay attention here.

The phrase is to get the short end of the stick.

So this means that you are either treated unfairly or you get a bad deal in a situation.

Let's go over a couple examples here so maybe you're at work and you have a project and you work really hard on it and you feel like you actually did most the work but your coworker kind of takes credit for it and your boss is like, oh, good job to your coworker.

You feel like you kind of got the short end of the stick here because you worked so hard, but you didn't get any of the credit.

Another example is maybe you are going on vacation with some friends and you split the cost to rent a house And when everyone arrives, they pick their room and you arrive last.

And maybe you get the worst room in the house, even though you're paying the same amount as everyone else.

Maybe you just get a small room. or a room with no window, or everyone, you know, gets a view of the ocean on the beach and maybe you're in the basement of the house.

You got the short end of the stick. So there's a lot of ways that we can use this phrase just to mean we got a bad deal or we got treated unfairly.

And this can be a really tricky one to use in your native English conversation.

So that's why I say this is a master level idiom. oh yeah you're getting the short end of the stick all right let's start off with some of the most useful phrases in this lesson they're really fun phrases that i feel like anyone who is speaking English at an intermediate to advanced level can actually use right away in their daily conversations.

So the first phrase is one that I use just the other day, so I had to write down.

The phrase is whatever floats your boat.

That's Hindi for whatever floats your boat.

If you're a really easygoing person, this idiom is going to be really easy for you to use in your everyday conversations.

Because all it means is that you are okay with whatever choice the person you're speaking to has made.

It means you're indifferent or you just, you don't really care.

You're not bothered. So for instance, someone might say, I think I'm going to probably eat lunch before I start working.

And you're like, I don't care. Like, instead of just saying, yeah, I don't care.

That can be kind of rude. And say, yeah, whatever floats your boat.

That means whatever makes you happy. I don't care.

It's not my decision. Maybe you have company at your house and they say, oh, I like to wake up early.

Is that okay with you? You might say, yeah, whatever floats your boat.

I'll be up at, you know, 9 a.m. But if you want to wake up early, that doesn't bother me.

Whenever floats your boat. So that just means whatever makes the other person happy does not affect you. you don't care and you think that's great.

It's a positive phrase. You may have heard heard an English speaker use this next phrase before, it isn't necessarily an idiom, but it doesn't mean what you think it does.

It can actually mean a lot of different things.

So paying attention to the tone and context is really important here.

So when English speakers say... Get out of here.

This can either mean they're excited. Get out of here.

They're in disbelief. Get out of here. They're surprised.

Oh, get out of here. Like pleasantly surprised.

It can mean a lot of different things. So you have to pay attention to the tone here.

So if someone's surprised, maybe their friend got them Taylor Swift concert tickets.

You might say, oh my gosh, get out of here.

I can't. Can't believe you got the tickets.

This is just expressing excitement and surprise.

And then maybe you found out your friend spent way too much money on those concert tickets.

You could also use this phrase. You might say, get out of here.

That is way too much money because People pay thousands and thousands of dollars for these concert tickets.

So this phrase, super unique. useful, super fun to use in your everyday informal conversations.

Get out of here. It can mean excitement or disbelief.

This next phrase also suggests that you are surprised or in disbelief about something, but it's used quite differently.

The phrase is, what are the odds? So we say this to someone when we're kind of surprised, like pleasantly surprised that something unusual has happened.

Or we can use it when we are not happy, we're unhappy, we're kind of dissatisfied about something that's unusual or weird that happened.

What are the odds? One instance that you can use it in a more negative way is if you're you know, surprised that something happened or you're thinking like, why me?

Why did this happen to me? What are the odds?

So maybe you are supposed to be having a party and it's supposed to be outside. and it rains and it's really bad weather that day, even though you've been having really good weather, you might say, What are the odds that it rains on the day that I have a party?

That's just meaning like, why today? Why does it have to be today, even though the chances are low?

Now, if you use this in a more excited way, you might say, what are the odds of you being here at the same time as me?

This is used really frequently when we see a friend, a colleague, or just anyone we're familiar with in a public place that we weren't expecting to see them.

For instance, maybe you go to the airport and you see an old friend from high school or something.

You might say, what are the odds that we run into each other here?

You know, you're at an airport. You're not expecting to see anyone that you know.

And sometimes I use this in kind of a sarcastic way.

If I am... expecting to see someone or like it's not surprising that i see someone for instance when the weather is really nice where i live my family and other families that live around me usually go to the park, to the playground,

And if I see one of my neighbors that has kids and is probably going to be at the playground, I say, oh, what are the odds of seeing you here today?

It's like. yeah, of course, we're both here.

It's a nice day. And we both have kids. So we use it sarcastically all the time to like, of course, what are the odds?

Odds are probably pretty good that we run into each other.

So this phrase, it's used in daily conversation and it's pretty fun to use it in either a serious matter, you can be happy about it or sad about something happening, or you can just be sarcastic as well.

What are the odds? Of course we're both here.

Sometimes in English we repeat things in a phrase just to kind of emphasize them and it's hard to explain exactly what the phrase means in the minute, but if you look at the phrase, you'll understand it.

So the phrase is when you know, you know.

This is used most commonly to say that your instinct is correct.

The way you feel is correct in the situation.

And I... I think this phrase is probably most commonly used when you find something that's right, like a romantic partner.

When you meet your husband or you meet your wife, You just kind of know.

When you know, you know it's the right person.

Or maybe you started a new job and at first you were thinking like, I don't know if this job is going to work out.

And on the first day it went great. And you say, oh, this job is great.

When you know, you know. So you're glad that you took the job and it feels like a good fit and you're trusting your instinct. you know, you know.

This can also mean that when you know something is a bad situation, you know, you got to trust your instinct and get out of that situation as well.

Maybe you have a job interview and you can tell by the questions that the boss is asking you and they're talking about the job you know it's not going to be a good fit.

So maybe you just decline the job. You say, this job isn't going to be a good fit for me.

When you know, you know. Speaking of knowing things, this next phrase it's more of a slang phrase.

It's definitely used very casually. But it's not one of those slang phrases that only young people can use.

Anyone any age can use this phrase. So the phrase is, they know what's up.

This is a way to show you respect someone, you respect their opinion, or you think that they have the right idea.

Maybe your friend gives you a recommendation for a restaurant and you go there and it's so good.

You might say, oh, my friend recommended this to me.

They know what's up. This is a slang phrase.

It just means I respect, you know, they know they have a lot of intelligence when it comes to picking a restaurant.

They have a really good opinion. Or if you see someone with some really cool shoes and you have the same shoes and you like those, you might say, I like your shoes.

You know what's up. So like. You're saying like, this is a sign of respect.

I really like your taste. Maybe you want to show that you respect someone at work and you think they're really good at the job and they're really smart. you'll say, I'll ask Peter, he knows what's up.

So this is saying like he actually knows the answer probably, but he's also just very smart.

And again, you could use this in the workplace, but it is a pretty casual phrase.

Let's move on. some phrases that are going to help you deal with people and friendly situations and social situations and professional situations as well.

Let's talk about what the phrase means to win someone over.

Maybe you can guess by just looking at the words in this phrase, but it basically means that you change someone's opinion about yourself.

So you make them like you, essentially. Smile, be charming, win them over.

And sometimes it's not that the person doesn't like you to begin with.

Maybe you're trying to gain their trust.

Or maybe you're just trying to persuade them into an idea or to support you in something.

That's how you win someone over. When I was much younger, in the middle of the school year, I got transferred to a new school and essentially a new job.

I was working with an older, more experienced teacher, and I think she just thought, you I was just a young person.

I didn't really care about the job. But then when she saw how hard I worked and how much I cared about the students, I really won her over and she really took me under her wing and taught me a lot about teaching.

So oftentimes people might just be skeptical of you at first or just not really care.

And when you show them your good qualities or you give them, you know, reasons to like you and persuade them to your ideas, you can win them over.

If you're dating someone new and you're about to meet their parents and maybe their parents have a reason to be skeptical about you or You know, they're not sure if they're going to like you yet.

You might say, I can win them over. Trust me.

And this just means you're going to be very charming and very friendly and hopefully you can win them over into like you some people are very forgiving and they refuse to hold a grudge or stay mad at someone in any situation now some people are not like this and they will hold things against other people for a very, very long time.

This phrase, to hold something against another person, this is exactly what it means.

It basically means that you are going to say resentful and bitter about something that someone has done to you.

I hold nothing against your cousin. Maybe you're explaining that you have some sort of flaw or shortcoming, but you want to explain to people that doesn't define you.

That doesn't mean that you can't do a job.

For instance, maybe you went to college, but you never graduated.

You might say to someone in a job, don't hold that against me.

I'm a really hard worker. You know, there was just a few reasons why I couldn't graduate.

We can use this in a lot of different ways when it comes to having characteristics that we aren't going to hold against someone and we're not going to doubt them or resent them for something and we can kind of use it in a joking matter as well.

For instance, when I got married, my whole family is big Vikings football fans.

And my husband... is a Packers fan. Now these two teams are rivals, and my family jokingly said at the wedding, We won't hold that against you, meaning we're not going to resent you.

We're not going to be bitter just because you don't like our football team.

But we do like to joke around and, you know, have this rivalry between the two teams during football season.

Maybe someone is late to a meeting, but you know there was very bad traffic.

You might say, oh, don't worry, I won't hold that against you.

That means I won't resent you and I don't think of you in a bad way just because of the small thing.

So this raise, it's very useful when communicating with people.

The next phrase in this lesson is to scare someone off.

Now, literally, if you scare someone or something like an animal off, you know, you're going, blah. get out of here.

Maybe you have a coyote, you know, a wild dog in your yard and you yell at it, make lots of noise. you scare it off.

This is how we would literally use this phrase.

Well, you scared her off. Now we can also use this phrase if we're going to make someone uncomfortable in a situation and maybe they just won't want to interact with us anymore or they won't want to be a part of our organization, our group, because they're uncomfortable and maybe we just come on a little bit too strong.

Maybe you're in a job interview and the manager that's interviewing says, you know, I don't want to scare you off, but this job is a lot of hard work.

It's a lot of long hours. So they're just meaning like, I'm being honest with you, but I'm not saying this just to deter you or make you uncomfortable or make you go away.

Maybe a new friend is going to join your group for the day and one of your other friends start asking the You know, a lot of questions and you say, hey, don't scare her off and ask too many questions.

Let's just let her, you know, warm up to us, get used to having conversation with us, whatever it might be.

Speaking of friends, this next phrase is probably pretty useful to you because If you are not a native English speaker, sometimes it can be a little bit uncomfortable to put yourself out there.

Let's talk about what this phrase is. put yourself out there good so this phrase to put yourself out there it means that you are going to enter a social situation or professional situation that you aren't super comfortable in.

Maybe you feel a little bit vulnerable or maybe you feel like you're underqualified or maybe you haven't spoken to a group of people before.

But you're going to put yourself out there and try to socially interact with them.

So it's just like being brave and being vulnerable in a new situation.

Sometimes you might put yourself out there and get rejected.

And sometimes you might put yourself out there and you might make a new friend that's going to be your friend for life.

I've had both situations happen. Being friends with people as an adult, making new friends I should say, is really difficult.

And I don't have a lot of friends from when I was younger that I still talk to.

So I'm always trying to make new friends and be social.

And sometimes, you know, I see someone I have something in common. common with.

And I put myself out there. Oh, hi, like, I like your shoes.

I have ones just like that. Or, you know, do you live around here?

The person might, you know, I'm like, all right, crazy lady, I don't want to talk to you right now.

I've had this happen. And then sometimes I'll be like, oh, yeah, you know, actually, I've seen you here before.

And then we become friends. So it's really important in social context to put yourself out there.

It's also important in professional context as well.

If you are trying to get a new job, you might have to put yourself out there and apply to companies that you don't think are going to accept you.

But you know, you got to take a chance. You got to put yourself out there.

The last phrase that we're going to use when talking about dealing with people is to let someone off the hook.

So this phrase, it means you are going to release someone of their obligation or their punishment.

Maybe you just started a new job and you were supposed to do some sort of task for the day and your coworker or your boss says, hey, how come you didn't do that?

And you say, oh, I'm sorry, I just didn't know.

And they'll say, oh, well, I'll let you off the hook this time.

No big deal. But next time you have to do it.

So this just means, you know, you're new.

I'm going to be extra forgiving. I'm going to let you off the hook of this responsibility or I'm not going to have any punishment or punishment.

You know, I'm not going to criticize you even.

This idiom probably comes from the idea that if you have a fish and you just let it go, you're letting it off the hook.

You're not going to eat the fish. Don't let him off the hook.

You can also use this idiom in a more serious manner.

You can be like... You know, rich people get let off the hook for all of these crimes.

They never get punished because they can just pay their way out of the crime.

They get let off the hook. So again, this idiom is pretty useful, it's pretty versatile.

All right, now we're going to go over some phrases that will help you when talking about taking risks or decision making.

The first phrase is to second guess yourself or to second guess something, to second guess a decision.

When I go somewhere and it's really busy, I hate big crowds.

I'm always like, ah, second guessing my decision to go here today because... maybe I should have picked a different day or a different time to go there.

Some people have have a hard time making big decisions and they feel like they always second guess themselves.

This means they doubt their ability to make a decision to make the right decision.

If someone tells you to do something or to go somewhere and you get there, you're like, this might not be right.

This might not be good. You might be, I'm second guessing their decision.

Or if your phone tells you directions and you're like, I don't think these are correct.

This address might not be correct because sometimes technology is wrong.

You might say, I'm second guessing my phone right now.

I don't think it's correct. And this has happened to me before.

You know, I drive to the wrong place because I look up the address and it's not the correct place that I need to go.

So we're using this phrase when we're not completely sure if something is correct or we're starting to doubt something.

And we're saying, maybe this isn't right.

The next phrase is quite the opposite. The phrase is to go all in on something.

So if you have a plan or some sort of decision or some sort of strategy that you want to fully commit to, you're not doubting it at all, you think that you need to fully commit in order for it to work, you say, I'm going to go all in on this plan or I'm going to go all in on this strategy.

Maybe at work, if you're in sales, your team has a new marketing strategy and they need everyone to be working their best, doing all the things in this new strategy.

Your boss might say, we need to go all in on this plan.

I need everybody to be working their hardest.

So just to go all in means you're fully committed to something.

Sometimes if people are in a romantic relationship, They want to make it very official.

They're kind of showing that they're intending maybe to get engaged and get married someday.

They might say to their partner, they might say, I am all in on our relationship.

This just means I fully believe in it. all except, you know, being engaged, like we're trying to build a relationship and get you know, closer, whatever it might be.

This next phrase is very useful. The phrase is to be cut out for something.

So this phrase, it's used when we're talking about having natural talent. ability or just being able to adjust to a situation.

If you are able to do that, you can say, I am cut out for this. a thief.

I'm cut out to be a salesman. Maybe you are a person that cannot sit at a desk all day.

You need to be active. You need to be doing things.

And if you think about getting a desk job, you might say, I'm just not cut out for that type of work.

I need to be more active. This just means like my personality and my skills are not suited best to that job.

Personally, I've either been in a creative job or in an education-based job my entire adult life, so I don't think I'm really cut out to be sitting in a desk just working on a computer or making phone calls.

When someone is from a place that has a warmer climate or warmer weather, They might move somewhere and it's really cold in the winter.

They might say, I am not cut out for these winters.

This just means like I can barely survive.

This is not very pleasant for me. I used to teach English and tutor English for taking English placement exams.

So in these tests or exams, there are questions that are meant to trick students English learners.

They're supposed to trip you up. So this phrase to trip someone up is It means it's intentionally trying to trick someone or make them choose the wrong thing.

Maybe someone's really focused and you say something to them and it kind of takes them out of the moment and they're not as focused anymore.

You might say, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to trip you up.

So to trip someone up, you're either making them lose focus or you're distracting them from what they're supposed to do.

Or maybe you're trying to confuse them if you're tripping them up.

And a lot of times tests have questions that are meant to trip learners up.

Okay, I'm so sorry to say, but oftentimes English learners, when they're starting to speak English, will say, I'm so happy, I'm so happy, I'm so happy.

They will overuse this phrase especially if they want to show they're happy and friendly and maybe you're more advanced so you're not using this phrase too much anymore.

But a good phrase that you can throw into your vocabulary is, this brought me so much joy.

Native English speakers will use this phrase when they want to say that something was very, very joyful or it made them very happy, but it's just a good alternative phrase to use to saying I'm so happy.

So right now, the new Spider-Man movie is out.

For many people, this brings them so much joy to see this movie.

I've heard it's very good and I want to see it soon.

Or if something very simple makes you very happy, you could say, wow, this ice cream just brought me so much joy today.

That means a small thing just made me very happy.

It brought me joy. This next phrase is very common and it's really funny as well.

Make sure to remember this one. If you want to say that someone has betrayed you or someone blamed you for something and they didn't try to cover it up at all, you can say they threw you under the bus.

So, this idiom is very common. An example I can think of for this idiom is one time my kids were eating a bunch of candy and I said, who let you have all this candy?

This is way too much candy. They said, well, dad gave it to us. they totally threw their dad under the bus.

So instead of, you know, thanking their dad for giving them candy by, you know, not telling mom.

They just threw him under the bus. They blamed him right away.

A very interesting phrase in English is, it led me to believe.

So this phrase is used very specifically when you see something happening quite frequently and So it leads you to believe or it makes you think that something is the norm. or it makes you think something is going to always happen because you see it so frequently.

So when I was a kid, which I think this is very common for many children, see movies where people, adults, you know, drive nice cars, they have lots of money, they have all this freedom.

So it led me to believe that being an adult It's very fun and it's very cool.

But in reality, even though being an adult is fun sometimes, you have to work a lot when you're an adult. to pay for things like nice cars, nice houses, vacations, things like that.

So Don't lead your kids to believe that everything comes easy.

You have to teach them that you have to work a lot as an adult as well.

This next phrase makes me think of one time when I was at the mall with my husband.

So in the mall, there are these things called kiosks.

They're not stores, but they're little stands... in the middle of the mall floor where people try to sell you products.

So, maybe they'll say, oh, look at this.

This is an amazing cleaning device. It's not something that's usually sold commonly, so you kind of are intrigued and you look at it And oftentimes these people will really, really aggressively try to sell you something or One time, my husband almost got suckered in to buying some face cream from one of the... kiosk and I kept saying come on we have to go we're not going to buy this now the person who was selling this wanted a lot of money for this face cream that I had never even heard of And he tried to suck us into buying this because he was saying, oh, we're going to have all these great results.

This face cream is amazing. And I just, I didn't really believe it to be honest.

And my husband was like, I don't know, this guy seems really nice.

He seems really honest. And I said, come on, let's not get suckered into buying this.

So you might have heard the two phrases I heard while telling this story, to get sucked into something and to get suckered into something.

These phrases are both pretty much used in the same way.

I would say to get suckered into something is a little bit more harsh. because you're calling yourself a sucker or you're insulting your own intelligence.

If you say you got sucked into doing something or suckered into doing something, it means you kind of got tricked into doing it or tricked into buying it, even though you have better judgment normally.

So when salespeople are very aggressive, it's important not to get sucked into buying something that you can't afford or you don't need. a very common phrase that you can use when you're about to go do something that's either challenging or, you know, kind of scary at first, you can say I'm about to grave.

This phrase is very common when you're about to go somewhere that's very busy.

You can say, I'm about to go brave the crowd.

This means even though I know This place is going to be very crowded and there's going to be lots of people and lots of waiting.

I'm going to be brave. and I'm going to go there anyway.

Or if there's a big storm outside, you can say, I'm going to brave the storm.

That means even though the storm might make it difficult to drive or to go somewhere, I'm going to be brave and I'm just going to go out and face it.

If you like Adam Sandler movies, you might know this phrase because it's the title of a movie he made with Jennifer Aniston.

This movie is very strange, but it was pretty popular and the phrase is, just go with it.

Now, the premise of this movie that's titled, Just Go With It, It's all about him faking his family on a trip to kind of impress a woman.

It's a really strange movie. But basically, Jennifer Aniston and these two kids have to pretend like they are Adam Sandler's family.

And in order to get the lie to just work, the phrase they use again and again is just go with it.

Just pretend everything is real, even though it's a very strange situation.

So if you're about to lie and you want someone to play along with your lie, or kind of help you convince people of a lie, you can say, let's just go with it.

Just go with whatever I say. This means just accept it and act like it's normal.

You can also use this phrase when someone gives you the wrong item, but you think it's okay.

You can accept it. You can say, I'll just go with it.

It's fine. For instance, if you say, hey, can I get a Diet Pepsi? or a Diet Coke, and they give you a regular Pepsi or regular Coke, and they say, oh, I'm sorry, we just have the regular kind of...

Is that okay? And you can say, yeah, I'll just go with it.

It's fine. That means I'll accept it even though it's not exactly what I wanted or what I asked for.

Just go with it. This next one is kind of a phrasal verb, but it's very common in the English language, so I want to review some ways that we use pop up.

When you say that something pops up, it means it comes up unexpectedly.

You can be saying that something literally pops up, it comes into your view, You know, I was in a haunted house and all of a sudden somebody dressed in a costume popped up at me.

That means they jumped up. You didn't see them before, but now you see them.

Or you can say, my schedule was really free today, but all of the sudden a lot of meetings popped up.

That means you weren't expecting to have a lot of meetings on your schedule, but now they have come onto your schedule unexpectedly.

One phrase that I heard recently that I think is very useful to you as well is when someone wants to recommend something very strongly, they can say, I can't recommend it enough.

Again, the new Spider-Man movie is out and someone said to me recently, You should go see it.

I can't recommend it enough. They really enjoyed the movie.

They thought it was really good. So I'm going to go see Into the Spider-Verse.

Thank you guys so much for learning these 31 English phrases with you.

I hope they are really useful for your English vocabulary. and you start to feel like you're speaking very naturally with native English speakers in your conversations.

If you want more conversation practice, make sure you go check out my course at englishwithkayla.com and I'll see you guys in the next lesson.

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Offer valid 821-93. Let's talk about some phrases that can help you explain unpredictable situations or surprises that happen.

The first phrase is going to be a bit more formal.

If you have a formal plan of some sort and it goes wrong, you can say, it went askew.

Askew, I love this phrase and I love this word.

So for instance, maybe you had a meeting And, you know, a question got brought up and then nobody was talking about what was supposed to be going on in the meeting.

You could say the meeting went askew when somebody asked about this.

So it just means it did not go to plan. It can be used in a bit more informal situations too, but remember this is talking about when we have a real actual plan.

For instance, my friend went on vacation recently with her entire family, like eight people.

And one person got sick during the vacation.

And then Everybody got sick and the whole vacation went askew.

They were supposed to stay for another week.

And they actually had to go home early because everyone was sick and no one was enjoying the vacation.

So they drove home. So this just means that a formal plan got completely ruined.

It got off track. It went askew. This whole thing is to skew your system.

The next phrase is to make a concoction.

You probably haven't heard this English word before.

It's used very specifically, but it's actually used kind of frequently.

It's a pretty common word to use. So to make a concoction, it means you're getting kind of creative ideas you're mixing ingredients that wouldn't normally go together.

Maybe you're going to drink it as a beverage Or maybe you're making some sort of concoction that is supposed to heal something. or be a cleaner for your household.

Don't mix cleaners, by the way, it's never a good idea.

One thing that I keep seeing on my social media is, Street food in India.

So it's people that make these, you know, crazy concoctions or crazy drinks.

You know, they're adding certain fruit and ice and... sparkling water, like bubbly water to the beverage and they're shaking it up.

It's a concoction and it looks pretty good usually.

But I keep getting these crazy videos of them shaking it and the ingredients going everywhere.

It's kind of funny. So they're making a concoction.

They're mixing things that typically don't go together.

If you see someone making an alcoholic beverage and they're mixing some things together, you might say, oh, what are you making?

Is that quite the concoction there? concoction it just means you know a mix of ingredients and typically when we make a concoction it's liquids it's a special concoction Have you ever heard someone say that someone else is delusional?

If you say that someone's delusional, it means, you know, they believe things that aren't true and often They're overestimating their situation or their abilities and they think, you know, everything great.

They're being delusional. Now, a slang phrase I'm going to bring up today is to be de lulu.

De lulu. She's de lulu. It's kind of a funny phrase.

I would not typically use this in my everyday English, but I hear people use it online.

It's just kind of a funny way to say that somebody is delusional.

I don't think anyone's using this as a very serious slang phrase, but it's out there to be DeLulu.

It's really common just in casual conversation if you're talking about someone, you know, as we do, And they just, you know, there's someone that just doesn't understand what's going on.

They think everything is great. You might say, oh, they're just delusional. or she's just delusional.

She doesn't realize, you know, how bad things are right now.

He's paranoid, delusional. Basically, you're saying someone is being unrealistic or overly optimistic if...

They are delusional. Maybe your boss says, oh we can probably finish this project by the end of the week.

You might say to your coworker, our boss is delusional.

This is at least going to take us a month.

You know, they're being overly optimistic.

Okay, the next phrase is to be a knockoff.

So if you call something a knockoff, It means it's an imitation of something that's either more expensive or better.

And another slang phrase I'm gonna teach you, this is turning into a slang segment of the lesson here, is to be a dupe.

If we say something is a dupe, It means it's a fake version of a product, a product that's really good.

So for instance, a lot of girls in the United States like...

Lululemon. I think men like it too. It's an athletic clothing brand, if you didn't know. and it's really expensive you know it's a hundred dollars for a pair of pants so a lot of times Women will find dupes of the pants on Amazon or other websites.

They say, you know, I got this dupe. It's really good.

It's only $30 instead of $100. This is a really common dupe. or if you buy you know a certain food that tastes like the actual brand but you get it for cheaper you say oh this is a really good dupe it tastes really good It's just a cheap knockoff.

So we use knockoff in the same way, but I would say this phrase is more common and more versatile. to say that something is a knockoff.

So women will also buy knockoff handbags.

This is a really common way to use this phrase.

So maybe instead of buying a real Louis Vuitton, they buy a knockoff.

So it's a fake one, it looks exactly the same, And I think it's technically illegal to do this.

It's a counterfeit piece of merchandise, but people do it all the time.

If you want to say that something else is imitating something, but it's not as good, you can also call it a knockoff.

Like maybe a person is trying to be just like a celebrity and say, well, they're just kind of a knockoff.

They're not really like this person. Or maybe you have a movie that is just like another movie that was really good, but, you know, it's the lower budget version.

You could say, well, that was a knockoff, that movie was a knockoff of this other movie.

This next group of phrases is going to help you when understanding and analyzing things.

The first phrase, super useful. Definitely take notes on this one.

The phrase is the ins and outs of something.

If someone knows the ins and outs of something, it means that they know all the small details and the complexities of what this thing is.

At work, there's always a really smart person that knows the ins and outs of everything.

It just means I know all the details. I know how everything works, even if it's something complex or difficult to understand.

This phrase is really useful when you're talking about learning about something new or just discussing the details.

If you want to say we'll discuss the details later, we can say we'll discuss the ins and outs of everything later.

So it just means like the small components. complex details of it.

And again, if you're learning something, you might say, I need to know the ins and outs of how to do this before I actually submit my project or whatever. it might be.

Speaking of someone that's very smart at work, you might use this next phrase to describe them.

You might say, they bring a lot to the table, or what do they bring to the table?

This phrase is talking about someone who contributes something of value, or you're asking, you know, what are they contributing?

Not literally like food to a table, like What kinds of work and what kinds of knowledge are they contributing?

What do they bring to the table? what you're bringing to the table.

This phrase is used a lot in business English to just show that someone's contributing something Or if you're asking, what is this going to bring to the table?

Do you think this will bring a lot of sales to the table?

It's just meaning, what is it going to contribute?

What is it going to bring? Going back to detail, someone who is very detail-oriented and very thorough they leave no stone unturned.

This is a great idiom just to mean that someone was very thorough in their search or in checking all the details.

No stone unturned. If someone is a detective or they're trying to put together a crime figure out who did it they might leave no stone unturned this just means they check everything they look at all the small details.

It's like they're not missing anything if you use this phrase to leave no stone unturned.

So when someone's seeking out answers and very thorough, this is the phrase that we can use to describe what they're doing.

They're leaving no stone unturned. And it's, you know, kind of an idiom you can think about looking out in the grass or some sort of field and you're literally turning over every rock and every little thing just to find out an answer.

This next phrase is also very common for native English speakers to use in their everyday conversation.

If you want to talk about starting a journey or starting a career or just some sort of early life event, and you know going through all of these steps and different places and different experiences and then ending up at the same place you started at, you can use this phrase to go full circle.

Let me give you a few examples of how this is used.

So maybe you work a job at a company and you start at a very low level and And then maybe you go away from that company and get experience somewhere else.

And then you go back to that. original company and now you're the boss there.

You could say my career has gone full circle.

I'm back to where I started, but you know, now I'm a manager. whatever it might be, or maybe you are becoming a teacher.

And after many years of going to school and going to college, you go back and teach at your original school. school that you started learning at.

You know, your career kind of went full circle or your life kind of went full circle in this situation.

A lot of times people grow older and they go live somewhere else to work a different job and go to school and then they end up back in their hometown, they might say, I feel like I've gone full circle.

You know, I've traveled and now I'm back to where I began.

So this phrase, it's super useful when you want to say that something has returned back to the starting point.

It's gone full circle. the phrase, it's a gray area.

If you want to say that something isn't really illegal, And it's not really good to do either, though.

You can say it's a gray area. A lot of times if people are doing things that, you know... you're like, isn't that illegal?

You could say, no, it's not technically illegal.

It's a gray area. So it means it's not good to do, but it's not going to end you up in jail or it's not super ethical but you can do it still and get away with it it is okay but it's not good It's a gray area.

And this can be, you know, you're actually in a gray area of the law, something really serious or just, you know, a small rule for instance.

So in the United States, a lot of people know health care is so complex and it's just... a mess of a system.

It's not free. It's not cheap. It's very expensive to get good health care here.

And a lot of times you'll get billed for very small things if you go to the hospital.

And, you know, you're like, isn't this illegal?

And... It's kind of a gray area. Like they can just bill you whatever they want, even though they're supposed to be more transparent with their pricing.

But it's a gray area, you know. We don't know.

It's not technically ethical or good, but they do it anyway and there's not much you can do to fight against it.

A lot of social media companies, they collect your data, they don't give you a lot of online privacy, and although You know, it's technically not illegal.

Some of the things they do, it's not ethical.

So it's kind of a gray area. So hopefully this gives you an idea of how we actually use this phrase in our everyday English.

Now it's time to get into some phrases that are philosophical and a bit more self-reflective.

Have you ever heard anyone say, we're only human?

Maybe you have this phrase in your first language as well.

This phrase just means that humans make mistakes and all we can be is human.

So we're going to make mistakes. It's a way of just saying like, it's okay to make a mistake here.

But still, we're only human. Maybe you're on a diet and you're talking to your friend like, oh, I'm having a hard time, you know, sticking to this diet.

I keep eating dessert all the time or getting fast food and they say, well, we're only human.

You can just try your best and try to do better.

So it's just like, don't worry about failing or making mistakes because we're only human.

It's a way to comfort someone if you say this phrase.

Have you ever heard anyone say, I'm not getting any younger?

This phrase is used just to say, time is passing, I should live my life as I want to.

I should go on some trips or do whatever I want to do before I die because time isn't going to stop or go backwards.

I'm not getting any younger. And obviously this phrase is, you know, kind of sarcastic.

Of course, you're not getting younger, but it's just a saying that you need to live.

Life to the fullest or, you know, whoever's saying it needs to live life to the fullest because time isn't going to stop or go backwards.

Well, she's not getting any younger. And sometimes we use this phrase to say we need to value our time with people. who are older than us, like our parents and our grandparents, you might say, well, I want to go visit my grandparents because they're not getting any younger.

I need to visit them before time runs out or before they pass away.

If you want to say that you have empathy for someone in a situation, you know you feel sad for them, use the phrase I feel sorry for them.

Oh, I feel sorry for them. You know, that's too bad that that happened.

This is just the most common way that we say that we are feeling sadness for another person.

Or if you want to tell people, you know, you don't have to feel sad for me.

I'm okay. Saying, oh, don't feel sorry for me.

I'll be just fine. This means, you know, Don't waste your emotions, your feelings because I'm a strong person.

Let's end our lesson today. on a strong note, these phrases are going to make you feel really confident and help you express yourself in English as well.

You might hear someone say, I'm going to take a page from that person.

This means you are going to follow their example or do something just like they do because you think it's a good idea.

Maybe you have a friend that's really organized and they're always cleaning their house.

They're always meal planning. They're always getting, you know, ready to do something and they just seem very organized in general.

You might say, I'm going to take a page from them and I'm going to set a plan for the week.

I'm going to set a meal plan. I'm going to keep my house clean.

You know, You're just trying to adopt their behavior.

If you use this phrase, I'm going to take a page.

It's like saying I'm going to take a page from their book and copy it.

If you want to say that you're going to do something so that you don't have to worry about it anymore or be concerned about it anymore, you can use the phrase to get it out of the way.

Sometimes I like to work out in the morning just to get it out of the way So I don't have to think about it for the rest of the day.

Like, oh, I should work out. I should exercise.

It feels good to just get it out of the way in the morning.

Or if you're entering a conversation with someone and you have to talk about something that's a little bit awkward or uncomfortable or sad, You might say, I just want to get this out of the way first so that we can go on to having a happy conversation. you know, more pleasant time.

So usually you get something out of the way that's not fun to deal with or not pleasant.

Speaking of having a conversation in English and in the United States when we speak...

It's really common to you know, try to keep up the small talk, you know, talk about little things that aren't super meaningful.

They're not super Deep parts of our conversation.

I feel like that's a very American thing to do You know, we feel like we always have to be like, oh, yeah And how's your weekend?

And oh, how's this been? And oh, do you like that?

Small talk. Now, when you have a point in the conversation where where you just can't find anything to talk about and you feel like, oh, this is just awkward or boring.

We call that a lull in conversation. So a lull in conversation is kind of like saying a low in conversation.

It's just the phrase that we use for this instant, a lull.

Now there's kind of a lull in our conversation on the date. where we didn't really have anything else to talk about or we didn't have anything else in common.

So this is just you know, it's kind of a negative thing.

It means it was kind of awkward. You didn't have much to talk about.

I was waiting for a lull in the conversation.

We have a saying in the United States and this is kind of a bonus saying for you.

It's just a word of wisdom that we say here in the United States that it's not what you know, it's who you know.

This just means that when you're trying to get a job or some sort of opportunity, if you know a person that's in a high place at a company, it's more valuable than being skilled even, which It's kind of sad to say, but it's true.

And when you know a person that's high up in a company or has a lot of power, and you want to ask them for a favor, you want to ask them for an opportunity, and they're going to go out of their way to do it for you, we use this next phrase.

This phrase is very valuable to know. The phrase is to pull strings.

I pull some strings. So when someone pulls strings for you, it means they use their power, they use their influence, they use their connections to make something happen for you.

It's an opportunity or something that you wish to happen.

For instance, one time my husband worked with someone and their side job, their job on the concert security.

And he said, you know, anytime you want, I can pull some strings and get you some tickets to a concert.

So he got us some tickets. I think we went to... the Goo Goo Dolls and Philip Phillips for free.

He pulled some strings and he got us some free tickets.

It was awesome. So this just means that he's using his connections and he's using his power at the job.

You know, he's a security person. to get us something free or get us a benefit.

Going back to the idea of getting a job even though you might not have the best skills.

If you know someone in power at the company, You can ask them to pull some strings and get you an interview.

And maybe you can impress the person interviewing you And maybe they wouldn't normally interview you just based off your resume, but just because They're giving a courtesy to someone they know at the company.

They're going to give you the opportunity.

They pulled some strings to get you the interview.

This next phrase, you definitely won't learn it in your textbook, but it's very useful when you're trying to debate a decision or having an argument or just, You know, any sort of discussion, if you want to look at it from a different way, you use this phrase.

So you say on the flip side. So maybe you're saying to your friend, you know, we should go out to eat tonight.

We should celebrate, you know, it's Friday, whatever.

And your friend might say, well, On the flip side, we did spend a lot of money this week and I just stayed out yesterday.

Maybe we should stay in and save some money.

So they're just looking at the situation in a different perspective.

Maybe you're talking about working from home rather than going to an office.

You might say, yeah, I really like working from home, but on the flip side, I definitely do miss talking to people and getting to know my coworkers in real life.

So just looking at the situation in the opposite way.

And it's a common phrase that we just use in our conversations very naturally.

On the flip side, you can think about it like this.

And this phrase, it's a bit more informal than just saying, you know, on the contrary or to contrast this, but it's used in just everyday professional English and cat So sometimes we tell people to have their fun.

The phrase is to have your fun here. So this phrase means enjoy yourself because, you know, life is short or the situation won't last forever.

You know, eventually you'll have to do something serious.

But for now. Have your fun. Have your fun, boys.

Have your fun. A lot of people in their early 20s, they don't have a lot of responsibilities.

So they're able to go out with their friends to the clubs and have drinks late and stuff like that.

They have their fun, but then When they get into their later 20s or 30s, you know, it's time to settle down and be serious.

You know, they had their fun. Now it's time to be serious and take on more responsibility.

Okay, this next phrase is very important, I want to make sure you know what it means.

Do you know what it means when someone says that something was a violation of their privacy?

So this comes from the idea that everybody is entitled or deserves to have some privacy in their life.

For instance, online, we're supposed to have privacy, but a lot of times these big companies might be violating our privacy by saying saving our data and using our data for advertisements and things like that.

And we kind of feel like that's a violation of our privacy.

You violated our privacy. Or a lot of people, you know, they say if you read your husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend's phone...

That's a violation of their privacy. They should have some privacy.

They should have a right to privacy. And you are violating that.

It might not be illegal. But, you know, a lot of people just consider it wrong and a violation.

So that's all we mean when we use this phrase a violation of privacy.

Get your act together. This is one phrase that I've already used at the beginning of this lesson.

When you tell someone to get their act Together, this phrase can come off as a bit harsh, so be careful how you use it.

Make sure you're really familiar with the person you're using it with.

You're basically just telling the person that they either need to put in more effort or they need to be more organized.

For instance, if you miss a meeting because you didn't write it down in your calendar, you might want to say to yourself, I need to get my act together.

I need to get more organized. And this has happened to me recently.

It happened to me. I had an appointment.

And usually, you know, when I make an appointment, I get a text message reminder and I just...

I didn't see it and I didn't write it down correctly in my calendar.

I wrote it down for the wrong week. So I said to myself, geez, you need to get your act together.

You need to make sure that you're writing everything down correctly, you know, getting notifications, getting reminders in your calendar.

So trust me, I've got my act together. I'm really using my calendar efficiently now.

And this phrase is not just used for organization, although it's very useful if you're using it for organization.

But if you just need to tell someone, you know, They need to start putting in effort, putting in more hard work.

You can tell them, you need to start getting your act together.

For instance, maybe they have... an exam, a test coming up, and they haven't really been studying much.

And you're like, the test is this week. You need to get your act together because it's going to be difficult.

So that means you just need to start putting in more effort or the necessary amount of effort.

The next phrase, I've already said it, it's very useful.

The phrase is to come in handy. This is used all of the time by English speakers like myself.

We say that something is going to come in handy when it's going to be useful.

So we can say an actual tool will come in handy.

That hammer will come in handy when you need to build something. or you can use it for knowledge.

Like this phrase will come in handy when you're speaking to native English speakers.

It means it will be Useful. It's a really casual, really common expression to come in handy.

Come in handy someday. If you want to thank someone for their advice, for their knowledge, you can say, you know, oh, thank you so much for your advice.

It will really come in handy during my job interview or it will really come in handy when I do this, whatever it might be.

So it's a good way to say that knowledge or an actual item is super useful.

Sometimes when I get a useful gift, I say, oh, thank you so much.

This will really come in handy. This means it will be very useful.

It'll be utilized. Have you ever heard the phrase, let that sink in?

We use this phrase when we're wanting someone to process some news or some knowledge that they just learned that's going to affect them emotionally.

So it can be positive news or negative news.

For instance, you could say, you know, I just lost my job.

It's still sinking in. Or someone could say to you, you know, you just you lost your job.

Let that sink in. That just means, you know, really like process it.

It's going to be emotional. Or it can be happy news.

Someone could tell you at work, hey, you just got a promotion.

You're going to be the new manager. Let that sink in.

It's like, let that excitement sink in. Feel that excitement.

It means they want you to have an emotional response if they tell you to let something sink in.

Let that sink in. That's not nothing. Definitely use this phrase when you are telling someone something that is surprising or kind of sad and devastating, you know, oh, just let it sink in.

I'm so sorry. So it can be anything from really exciting news to really serious, sad news when you use this phrase.

You're letting something sink in. You're processing it emotionally.

If you've ever been around someone that is a big talker, they're very loud, they like to talk a lot, they like to tell a lot of stories, It just seems like they're always, always talking.

We can say, I just can't get a word in. Edgewise.

This phrase means that it's hard to interrupt.

It's hard to talk because the other person is talking so much.

If you're in a really chaotic social situation and everybody seems to be talking, having a lot of different conversations, maybe they're excited to see old friends.

It might feel like you really can't find room in the conversation to talk.

So that's when you would use this phrase.

I can't get a word in edgewise. Sometimes you can use this, you know, in a positive way.

You know, it's not a bad thing. It's just everyone's excited and talking.

And sometimes when we use this in a more direct way, directed at just one person, it's perceived as a more negative thing like she talks so much i can't get a word in edgewise this would be a negative thing to say about someone in this case This next phrase is very useful if you're speaking English here in the United States because there are so many processes and so many things that make you jump through hoops just to get something done.

So the phrase to jump through hoops, this means you have to go through unnecessary steps or You have to complete a lot of paperwork or a lot of different processes just to get something done.

And maybe you just want to do something simple.

For instance, a lot of people in the United States complain that just to apply and get an entry-level job.

So this is a job that's very beginner. It doesn't require a lot of skill to do.

You need to, you know, fill out an application, do a background check.

You need references. And it's asking for years of experience, even though you're like, isn't this a beginner job?

It's asking you to write a cover letter when you're just simply going to be a barista at a coffee shop.

It's jumping through a lot of hoops just to get a very beginner entry-level job, and people get annoyed with this.

A lot of times when people have to deal with the government, for instance, getting a driver's license in the United States, you have to jump through so many hoops.

I had to jump through hoops all night for Barney.

Not only will you have to take a test, you'll have to submit all these documents, you'll have to find... an electrical bill or something with your address on it just to prove you live there and you have to find several things that prove you live at your address and several documents that prove your identity.

It's kind of unnecessary. So we say you have to jump through so many hoops just to get a driver's license here.

If you've ever tried to return an item that has a warranty on it, so the company says if it breaks or gets damaged within...

90 days of buying it or even up to a year of buying it, then you can return it for free or you can get a replacement for free.

A lot of times they say it's free, but you have to spend a lot of your time and efforts to get the thing.

So you have to jump through a lot of hoops.

For instance, I had a battery last year that I needed to file a warranty claim for.

And not only did I have to take a picture of the battery, take a picture of the original receipt, you know, email this person, call this person.

I had to jump through so many hoops, but I was relentless.

I got it done because it was a lot of money to replace this battery if I did not. file it through the warranty and it did not work as long as they said it would work.

This next phrase is very powerful when you're speaking English.

If you want to set a firm boundary or be strict, you can use the phrase to put your foot down.

If somebody asks you for money again and again, and finally you're like, they're never going to pay me back.

They just keep asking me for money because they know I'll say yes. you might say, I'm sorry, I have to put my foot down.

I cannot loan you money anymore. So this would be being strict, enforcing a boundary.

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A lot of situations require parents to be strict.

For instance, screen time, you know, playing video games and things like that.

Parents have to put their foot down and tell their kids You know, no more TV, no more video games.

Go outside and play. So they have to put their foot down and strictly enforce this because we know these things are not good for kids.

And finally, maybe you're at a job and you have been getting paid the same amount for years and you haven't really been getting raises.

You might put your foot down and say to your boss, I need a raise.

I've been working very hard. You're trying to be strict.

You're trying to be forceful and saying, I need a raise.

You're putting your foot down. You're finally saying, I'm not going to work hard for such a little amount of pay.

Has someone ever just rubbed you the wrong way?

This phrase is very interesting. So a lot of times, In the United States, people don't like to have a lot of confrontation.

But sometimes if you just don't like someone because of something small that they said or it feels like they're kind of saying things that are offensive to you, But not directly, you might say.

They just kind of rub me the wrong way. For instance, recently I met someone and they started asking me a lot of... personal questions about money and finances and things like that.

And I just thought it was kind of rude. It wasn't really any of their business, you know.

It just rubbed me the wrong way a little bit.

It's not like they were being mean to me, but I just felt like they were being... you know, a little bit too prying and asking too many personal questions.

The other day, someone was telling me about they were talking to someone.

And again, this comes down to money. Again, it's interesting that both of these stories have to do with money, but.

They were talking about how they wish they made more money.

And the person said, well, have you ever thought about going back to school and getting a doctorate degree?

And this person said, I already have a doctorate degree.

And that just kind of rubbed them the wrong way because it's not always degrees that get you more money.

And it takes a lot of time and effort to get a new degree or to get a higher degree.

So it was such a, you know, a simple suggestion but in reality not everyone can go get a doctor's degree and this person was saying you know I already have this so it's kind of rude that you suggested this to make more money.

It wasn't necessarily like the person was trying to be mean, but they did kind of rub this other person the wrong way.

This means, you know, they kind of offended them and now You know, they don't really like them that much.

But again, it's not being directly offensive or doing something directly rude.

When I was a teacher to young children, sometimes the kids would do such funny things and you know, they're so innocent, but as a teacher, it's hard to keep a straight face when you're supposed to be the one that's serious in the situation or not laughing.

So the phrase is to keep a straight face.

And this again means to be super serious, even though something seems kind of funny or it's just not serious at all.

For instance, little kids, they say really funny things or sometimes they fart in class and...

Everybody thinks farts are funny, to be honest, especially here in the United States.

I don't know why. It's just our sense of humor and all the little kids would laugh and I would have to try to keep a straight face and be like, okay everyone you know we're being serious we're still learning so this phrase is super useful when you're in a situation where you have to just be serious even though something would normally make you laugh A lot of times in presentations, you know, if people feel nervous, it's hard for them to keep a straight face.

They'll start giggling in their presentation and they have to just try to be serious.

A lot of times, again, in weddings or funerals, it's a very serious time and someone might crack a joke and they might have a hard time keeping a straight face.

Look at me. I can't keep a straight face.

So if you just wanna say, you know, you have to maintain a serious attitude and not show emotion, you can use this phrase, I had to keep a straight face.

I couldn't laugh or I couldn't cry or I couldn't show any dramatic emotion. phrase in today's lesson is again very useful.

This is a must-know phrase. This phrase is to have mixed feelings or you can say mixed emotions.

I more commonly say I have mixed feelings.

So this just means that something feels good and bad or happy and sad.

So for instance, a long time ago, you know, when I started having kids, we moved away from our house.

We had to move to a new house and a safer neighborhood. you know, more space, closer to family, things like that.

But, you know, I had mixed feelings feelings about it I was sad to be leaving the friends that lived nearby and the house that I lived in But I was happy to be starting this new chapter of my life as well.

So a lot of times moving or selling your house, it comes with mixed emotions. feelings.

So you feel happy and sad at the same time.

Maybe you leave your job and you're going to start a new job.

You might have mixed feelings because again, Maybe you liked your old job, you just didn't get paid enough, and maybe you're excited about your new job, so you're happy about your new job but you're sad about leaving your old job you know mixed feelings i know what it's like to have mixed feelings about a place I want to thank you so much for trusting me with your English learning today.

I promise you that if you visit EnglishWithKayla.com and join my membership, We can go further on these phrases.

We can learn together. We can learn as a community on my community membership. and you'll just have a better understanding of these English phrases as well as access to a whole library of lessons just like this one.

I'll see you guys in the next English lesson.

And thank you so much again for watching.

Goodbye.

[Mastering English Idioms and Phrases for Everyday Conversations]-[125 of the Most Useful English Phrases]

📋 Summary

Mastering English Idioms and Phrases for Everyday Conversations

Elementary Phrases: The Building Blocks

Intermediate Idioms: Adding Flavor to Speech

Advanced Intermediate: Expressing Complex Situations

Advanced Level: Professional and Social Dynamics

Everyday Nuances and Practical Phrases

Navigating Social and Professional Challenges

Conclusion: The Path to Fluency

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript