This first phrase, it adds excitement to your everyday English.
You'll hear this phrase in television shows and in movies because it's kind of dramatic.
It adds excitement again, but you can actually use it in your everyday life as well.
The phrase is, it's go time.
This phrase means it's time to start something, but we use this when it's something serious or something we've been planning for for a long time.
For instance, maybe if you are in a theater production, you know you're about to put on a play or a musical and it's time to begin.
You say it's go time.
This means get excited, it's time to go.
Or if you are preparing for a presentation, you say, okay, it's go time in five minutes.
Just is a fun way to say it's time to begin.
All right, it's go time, it's go time.
This next phrase applies.
I didn't used to use it so much, but I've been hearing it a lot on podcasts and on television.
And my husband said he uses it a lot at work as well.
The phrase is to read the tea leaves.
So when you say read the tea leaves, it means you need to try to predict what's going to happen based on small amounts of evidence or just small little signs that you see.
So you'll hear this phrase, especially in podcasts. finance when people are saying you know you should think about investing in this stock or this company it's because of some small signs that's going to be successful so they're telling you you know kind of read between the lines it's not super obvious if you're saying read the tea leaves but it just means that you know you need to try to predict the future based on the small amount of evidence that you have i didn't know you read tea leaves oh yeah i've done it for years Phrase to read the tea leaves, think of it kind of as predict the future, but it's more of a metaphor and it's a really great idiom to use if you want to just sound natural and have something, you know, more creative to say than just try to predict the future or predict what's going to happen.
You know, reading tea leaves is not... This next English vocabulary word is...
It's so useful.
I definitely think you should add it to your vocabulary in your everyday English.
So if you say that a reaction was lukewarm, it means it's neither bad, but it's not good either.
They're not very excited.
For example, in my own life, I'm at home.
I'm with my kids all the time, and I'm always in charge of making dinner.
This is such a tough task honestly, especially with young kids, picky children, children that don't want to eat just anything.
They like kind of the same things over and over again.
So sometimes if I make something new, the reaction is kind of lukewarm.
They're definitely not excited about it, but they'll, you know, thanks mom, okay.
But if I make pizza or we order pizza, the reaction is definitely not lukewarm.
They're very excited.
They're very happy.
So lukewarm is...
Neither happy, neither disappointed.
Just, eh, okay.
It's lukewarm at best.
A lot of times in the workplace.
If you describe your client or your boss as having a lukewarm reaction, it's probably not positive.
You're expecting them to be happy about something or to accept it, but they weren't very happy.
So It's kind of in the middle, but it leans more towards a negative reaction, if you say someone was lukewarm.
Speaking of the workplace and making deals, the next phrase is super useful.
The phrase is to lock up a deal or you can lock up other things as well.
So if you are in sales or you're just working in a workplace that makes deals, you can say that we locked up the deal.
That means everything's finalized or maybe it's just about to be finalized.
It's pretty secure.
Now, if you say we haven't quite locked up the deal yet, that means whoever you're trying to negotiate with has not said yes for sure yet.
You're kind of waiting.
The way I use this phrase is oftentimes I sell my own things on Facebook Marketplace, because why not?
If it's just sitting in my house and I'm not using it, I might as well make some money.
So I will negotiate with people.
You know they'll try to ask for a lower price and I'll say no like how about this much?
I usually try to give them a good deal because it's just my old stuff.
And finally, when we agree, I say okay, I locked up the deal, come and pick it up, or whatever it is.
So it just means, you know, everything's kind of finalized.
Everyone agrees.
If you lock up a deal, you can also say we locked up the price.
That means the price is final.
We're not adjusting it anymore.
This next idiom, I think it's pretty universal.
I think a lot of languages use this, but the phrase is a bird in the hand.
So it comes from the proverb, common saying that a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.
This just means that something that you have is guaranteed, rather than trying to go out and get more.
Oftentimes you'll hear English speakers not use this full phrase.
You'll hear them just say, well, a bird in the hand.
And this just implies that something that is guaranteed that you have is better than something that you have to gamble and risk for if you're trying to get more or be kind of greedy.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
The next phrase is such a good one.
If you say to someone, that's a good problem to have.
It means that even though they have a problem, it indicates that they're actually successful.
So you're kind of saying like, don't worry, even though this is a problem, it's a good one.
And this implies like, for instance, if your friend is running a business and they're selling something let's say they're selling t-shirts and they're selling a ton of t-shirts
And finally they start to run out of t-shirts and they say, we are running out of t-shirts.
Like, I don't know what I'm going to do.
You could say, well, That's a good problem to have.
That means you're making a lot of money and you can solve that problem.
It's a good one to have.
Still, it's a good problem to have, right?
You might know someone that is very smart.
They're very qualified.
And when they're looking for jobs, they get multiple job offers and they just say oh, I'm so stressed out.
I can't decide which job I want to take.
You could say to them, well, that's a really good problem to have.
It's kind of sarcastic too, because you're saying like it's not really a problem, because it's a really good thing.
It indicates that you're being successful.
If you are in an intense situation, you might hear this next phrase.
If you are trying to weed things or people out, it means you're trying to get rid of things that aren't effective, they're not correct or people that are not cut out.
For whatever you're trying to get done,
Let me give you some examples and you'll understand this phrase very easily.
So in college, a lot of people go into college and say I want to be a doctor, like a medical doctor.
And in the United States this is very competitive to get into medical school and go on to be a doctor.
You pay a lot of money.
So There are a lot of people that say they want to be a doctor but they're not actually going to be cut out to take all the classes required.
They're very difficult.
They require a lot of memorization and learning.
So the first class you take in college that would kind of qualify you to then end up being a doctor is biology.
It's pretty difficult.
And if you don't get an A in it, you're probably not going to go to medical school.
So it kind of weeds people out. out that are not qualified to be doctors eventually.
So we say that they're weeding out people with this class, because if you don't get an A, you're not going to be going to medical school.
You're not going to be an effective doctor or student.
To weed out those she felt were undesired.
Our first phrase is so common in English.
Write this one down or pay attention.
The phrase is to hold something against someone.
What do you have against my family?
So often you dislike someone or you hold a grudge against them.
It's for a personal reason.
If you say you're holding something against someone, or you might say please don't hold this against me.
This means don't dislike me because of this thing that I've said.
That might be offensive, or it might be considered, you know, a weakness or whatever it might be.
If you feel like someone is unfairly judging you or criticizing you, you might say I feel like she's holding something against me.
I don't know why she doesn't like me.
So this means maybe you're in a professional context, like a job or a workplace, but someone is holding something against you that is personal.
Maybe they just don't like your personality.
Maybe one time you forgot their birthday or something.
Something that was a personal reason why they don't like you.
That you feel like is unfair.
It's unfair that they're judging you harshly because of it.
So tone is really important with this phrase.
You don't want to come off as offended or like offensive or too harsh when you're saying this phrase, like do you have something against me, instead of saying it's like you have something against me.
So obviously tone is really important here.
You can use this phrase in a calm way to get down to the issue with someone.
So a really polite way to say that you're not understanding someone not just their language maybe, just their idea is really complex.
You could say, I'm not following you.
This just prompts them that they need to explain what they've been saying a little bit more.
I'm just I'm not following or I'm not following you.
This phrase is very natural to say.
I'm not quite understanding.
You could say I'm not following you.
Can you go into more detail about this part?
So you're offering, you know, a way that they can clarify their ideas or their plan to you.
I'm not following you.
Native speakers definitely use this phrase to politely say that they don't understand.
And you can even offer an apology before this phrase like, I'm so sorry, I'm not following you here.
This just means you know what you're saying.
I either missed something or there's just not enough context to understand.
Another supernatural phrase is at a glance.
At a glance means you're looking at something quickly without deeply looking at the details and reading it very precisely.
So for instance, someone might say, hey, did you catch my report?
Maybe they turned in a report to you or they copied you on an email or something.
And you'll say, yes, at a glance, it looks good.
I'll just have to look at the numbers very carefully. later.
So that just means, you know, you took a first look at it.
You didn't actually read it very thoroughly.
You're just letting them know that you've just glanced or looked at it quickly.
Now, a literal glance would be like a second looking at something.
But when we use this phrase, at a glance it just means you weren't super careful about looking at anything.
You were might have looked at it for a minute rather than just a second, but you just weren't careful when you examined it.
First glance, everything looked fine, but.
So native speakers often use this phrase at a glance.
If they want to sound confident like they looked at it quickly and from what they can tell it looks good.
It's like at a glance, it looked good.
And they often just use this to say like, it's my first impression.
It didn't have a deep analysis of this thing.
The next phrase on our lesson is at the end of the day.
At the end of the day.
This phrase is used to signal in your speaking and your conversation that you're going to kind of summarize or give a final opinion or conclusion about something.
You'll hear this a lot when people are speaking in a podcast.
I think that's where I heard this phrase recently.
And it's just like at the end of the day, it's like after everything, hearing everything, after thinking about it.
Here's my conclusion.
Someone might say something like maybe you're talking about a lot of issues you're having in life stress, whatever it might be and the person might respond by saying at the end of the day, all that matters is your health.
That means, even though there's all these issues, my summary, my conclusion is you need to worry about your health.
You often make a good point when you use this phrase.
At the end of the day, we should focus on the positive things in life.
This phrase is really great for giving advice to someone, like I just did.
Like, at the end of the day, focus on this.
This next phrase is a bit like the phrase at a glance.
The phrase is as far as I know.
It's used a little bit differently.
Let me explain.
So when someone asks you a question and you're not sure that you are 100 right, or you don't definitely know, but you have a pretty good guess or idea, you can say as far as I know, as far as I know, and then you give your answer.
As far as I know, yes.
Someone might say hey, is the meeting still scheduled for tomorrow?
And you haven't checked your email and you haven't talked to you.
Know whoever's leading the meeting?
You might say well, as far as I know, we're still having the meeting.
This means, even though I'm not checking my email actively, you're just going off what you know.
You haven't heard any other information.
So it just gives your answer, you know, and it just shows that you're not 100 certain.
But you have a pretty good idea when we use this phrase, as far as I know.
So there's other phrases that are used really similarly to this.
One phrase is to the best of my knowledge.
So it's like saying I'm not completely confident, but here is my answer.
I've limited knowledge.
Another phrase is off the top of my head.
So this means someone's asking you a question and you're not looking at exactly what they're asking you about.
But you know it pretty well.
Like say, off the top of my head.
And this again just clarifies that you're not 100 sure, but you're a little bit confident in your answer.
And then finally, we often use the phrase, don't quote me on that.
That means, you know, don't tell other people what I just told you, because I'm not 100 sure, but that is my knowledge for now.
Like, go look it up on your own.
Don't quote me on that.
That's kind of a joking phrase as well.
If you tell someone something and you're not 100% sure about it.
Don't quote me on this.
So a lot of these phrases in this lesson do kind of soften your speech, make it more polite and natural.
And this next one is exactly like that.
The phrase is, it's not set in stone.
So it means that something is not official or permanent.
Like, A statue would be set in stone.
It's permanent unless you break it somehow.
Oftentimes, when we schedule something or you know, we have an agenda or a schedule and it's kind of flexible, it could change.
We could say, well, it's not set in stone.
This is probably the most common way to use this phrase.
Or maybe you'll say, hey, we should meet for coffee next week.
Maybe Tuesday.
I have to look at my schedule.
I'm not set in stone yet, but We can probably do that.
It means it's not official yet.
Nothing's set in stone.
A really natural phrase that native English speakers use is to get the hang of something.
This phrase just means that you are gaining the skill or you're getting good at something with practice.
And this is true for just anything in life.
The more you practice, the more you get the hang of it.
You get the hang of it.
When I first started posting English lessons online, I looked very robotic and I always sounded like I was out of breath because I just wasn't used to speaking to a camera.
It didn't come naturally to me.
But after making a lot of videos, I kind of got the hang of it.
I hope you agree because I feel like I've been doing this for a while.
So when we just practice something or do it a lot and it becomes natural or we come good at it, we say we have got the hang of it.
If you work in healthcare, if you're like a nurse or a doctor, or you just have one of those jobs that requires you to work at night.
Working the night shift, as we call it, can take a toll on your body.
And overworking can take a toll on your mental health.
The phrase here is to take a toll.
It's taking an emotional toll.
When we use this phrase, we're talking about something that gradually causes you stress or some sort of damage, like damage to your health or damage even to your mental health.
In the United States, if you're driving on a road, certain states and certain cities have tolls that you have to pay.
And the idea is the toll is the amount of money every car has to pay to help maintain the road.
So that's just another way that we actually use this word toll.
But this phrase is very common to say that something is kind of starting to stress you out very gradually.
So like overworking, or maybe you just have something really difficult going on and you You're trying to stay strong, but it's just kind of taking a toll on you.
One really fun phrase in English that we can mean to mean that something is going to be disappointing to someone.
The phrase is fun, but the meaning behind it is not is to burst somebody's bubble.
Maybe you've heard this before.
When you burst someone's bubble, the person starts out as super happy.
Like happy-go-lucky, positive.
Maybe they're really excited about something, or excited about something that's going on that day.
And then you say something that kind of ruins it for them.
We call that bursting someone's bubble.
I'm sorry to burst your bubble.
The classic example that I always use is if somebody is excited to go outside and they're saying we're going to have a picnic today.
It's going to be so fun.
I can't wait.
And you might say, I hate to burst your bubble, but It's actually raining right now, so we can't go.
So you're disappointing this person that was so happy and exciting about something.
Now, we use this phrase typically, I hate to burst your bubble.
This just means I hate to give you bad news.
Let's move on to some phrases that are talking about your understanding and your misunderstanding of certain things.
The first phrase is to connect the dots.
If you like, watching shows or reading books about detectives.
Oftentimes, detectives are very good at solving crimes by connecting the dots.
So that means they link different pieces of evidence together to solve the mystery or to solve a puzzle of some sort.
Are we starting to connect the dots?
Maybe you suspect that someone in your life is lying, but you have no evidence to prove it.
So you go ask other people, you know, about what you think they're lying about.
And then you kind of, you know, connect the dots and you're like they are totally lying about a lot of stuff.
So it just means that you put small pieces of information together to see the bigger picture.
So we use this phrase to connect the dots.
When we're talking about putting something together, that's a big realization or it's a big discovery phrase that you feel like you should have made a long time ago.
But now that you've connected the dots, or just put all the small pieces of information together, you can see the bigger picture or the bigger mystery better.
This phrase is a especially useful if you are going to be in an argument.
Ever, the phrase is don't put words into somebody's mouth, or just to put words into someone's mouth.
So the most common way we use this phrase is if someone says yeah, Kayla said this, and you're like that is not true.
I did not say that.
Maybe they misunderstood me, but I did not say that you might reprimand the person.
So you're, you're pretty angry.
You say don't put words in my mouth.
I never said that.
This just means like Don't say things that I didn't say.
Don't falsely quote me.
That doesn't sound like you.
That's Monica talking.
She's putting words in your mouth.
Don't you put words in people's mouths.
You put turkey in people's mouths.
And sometimes this is just used not in a total argument, but like just you need to clarify what you said.
Maybe your friend says, oh, you told me you hated my outfit today.
You may say, I never said I hated your outfit.
I just said, you know, maybe you're a bit overdressed for the event.
And to overdress means to be too dressed up or to be dressed in a fancy way for something that doesn't need to be dressed up for.
So you're saying like, hey, don't take offense to what I said.
Just understand what I'm trying to tell you.
Don't put words into my mouth.
This is the most common way we use this phrase to put words into someone's mouth.
Okay, let's go back to another phrase that talks about someone misunderstanding something.
So the phrase is to blow something out of proportion.
So this just means that somebody takes something that's minor and it's not meant to be offensive or maybe it's not even meant to be very serious and they take it very seriously and they're very offended by it and they're very exaggerating about the effects of this thing.
Let me give you a couple of examples.
Let's say you're five minutes late to work and your boss says it seems like you don't even care about this job.
You could say, well, you're really kind of blowing this out of proportion.
I actually just hit traffic this morning or I lost my keys before I was leaving.
It's not that I don't care about this job.
Please don't blow this out of proportion.
So they're making a bigger deal of something that is very minor.
Another example in the media.
As you can imagine, anywhere in the world, especially here in the United States, it seems like the media, or like the news, likes to blow things out of proportion.
Maybe there is a small protest about something.
So, you know, a few people with signs standing outside of a government building.
The media might take that and say, there was an all out riot outside of the government building.
So clearly it wasn't a riot.
It was just a small protest, but they blow it out of proportion, meaning it's just very exaggerated and it's a bigger deal than it needed to be.
Let's not blow this out of proportion.
Let's move on to some different phrases.
Now, the first phrase is to fly under the radar.
I've definitely taught you this phrase before, but it's very important and it's used all of the time.
So I'm going to teach it again.
To fly under the radar.
It just means that you don't want to be noticed, maybe because you feel like you're doing something you're not supposed to be doing, or maybe you just don't like a lot of attention and you're just trying to do what you need to do and go home without talking to a lot of people or making a scene or things like that.
So if you're trying to fly under the radar, you're just trying to go unnoticed and maybe even not have a lot of conversations with people as long as they fly under the radar.
I used to have a job in an office space and i really just like to fly under the radar.
I would show up, do my work at my computer, not talk to a lot of people, because you know, i was just very busy and i wanted to go home and not be involved in anyone's drama.
And i was so quiet that one day my boss didn't even know i was at work and in the middle of the day said oh, you're here.
I thought you were gone today.
And I was like nope, I've just been working for the last four hours at my desk not talking to anyone.
So this just means I flew very far under the radar.
I was very unnoticed.
A lot of businesses.
After the pandemic they asked people to come back to the office or they said you cannot work for us anymore because honestly, they were trying to weed people out.
They needed to make some cuts in their amount of employees, maybe they were cutting costs.
And by saying you have to come to the office rather than work from home, it started to weed people out.
It got the people who are not effective at the job out of the job, or people who just didn't desire to work at the company.
They didn't desire it enough to actually do the work and go to the office.
So this is an interesting phrase to weed things or people out.
So when you use this phrase to weed things out, you can imagine that you're actually gardening and you're trying to get the things that are unnecessary out of your garden the weeds.
You don't want those in there because they will eventually, you know, hurt your garden.
Your garden will not be as productive.
So this phrase, it's like a metaphor and it's used very, very commonly in everyday English.
I hope that maybe you've heard of this next phrase because it is so common to use, but it's kind of a funky English word.
The word is divvy.
So to divvy something up.
This is a really informal way to say we're going to split up something or we're going to share responsibility or cost of something.
So for instance, maybe you guys have a big project at work.
And instead of just one person doing most of the work, you say, let's divvy it up to everybody.
Let's let's divvy up the cost of dinner.
This means everybody's gonna divide the bill.
Divvy, divide, you might be getting it now.
This is a fun word to say and it's a really common English phrase, to divvy something up.
You can just start divvying up the jewelry.
In English, oftentimes we use our plate to mean the amount of responsibilities or jobs we have going on.
There are a lot of different phrases that go along with this imaginary plate.
So you can say, I need to get something off my plate.
This means I need to give a responsibility to someone else.
Or you can say, let me take something off your plate.
This means let me take a responsibility or a job from you because you're very busy.
This would be very polite to offer.
I'm gonna take something off your plate.
Or if you want to just comment on the amount of responsibilities and jobs that someone has maybe they're going to school, maybe they have kids, maybe they are working two jobs or they're just very, very busy.
You could say you have a lot on your plate right now.
This means you have a lot of responsibility and you're just very busy in general.
I just need to get some things off my plate.
Oftentimes when I have tasks or jobs that I have to do, when I finally get them done, it feels nice to get something off my plate.
This just means it's nice to check something off my to-do list or a task that was, you know kind of work intensive for myself.
This next phrase is one that I commonly use for advice to myself, to my friends, to my family and even to you, my student.
So the phrase is, how do you eat an elephant?
Have you heard this?
Have you heard this African proverb?
Again, it's just a common saying.
It's pretty universal.
I love to say this to people when they feel overwhelmed or I say it to myself all the time.
Just because you have something that seems impossible or it seems like it's going to take a long time to do.
Let's say your dream is to write a book and you say, I'll just never have time to write a book.
I'll never be able to do it.
I might say to you, well, how do you eat an elephant?
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
Sometimes we just say the beginning of this phrase, how do you eat an elephant?
Because it's implied that the person might already know the answer.
So how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time?
How do you write a book one page at a time or one day at a time?
You don't have to write it all at the same time.
You should break it up into smaller tasks.
And this is definitely a good advice to someone just saying like, don't give up.
Even if you're just accomplishing little by little, you don't have to do all at one time.
Do you have a rainy day fund?
A rainy day fund is what we call money that somebody saves for unexpected problems.
So instead of just saving like... an emergency fund, they call it their rainy day fund.
It's really the same thing.
It just means that every time you get paid or make money, you set aside a little bit, not for a vacation, not for anything fun, just in case you have a car problem or something breaks in your house or a medical expense.
We call that a rainy day fund for something that happens, that's unexpected, that's bad or a problem.
Gotcha, but how's our emergency rainy day fund?
So when we think of this phrase a rainy day fund think about bad weather, meaning bad problems that you need to spend money on.
And hopefully you do have an emergency fund, or rainy day fund as we like to call it, because it's so important.
You never know what's going to happen when you'll need to have money.
This next phrase is definitely very important in English.
The phrase is calling something a slippery slope.
We use this idiom to talk about something small that could end up having really big consequences down the road.
So let's go over a few examples.
It's really important to understand this idiom.
If you're a parent, you know that giving your kid something fun, like let's say candy.
Like I gave my kid a piece of candy one time.
It kind of gets to be a slippery slope, because then every day they think they can have candy before dinner.
And really, it's supposed to be a treat.
It's supposed to be maybe even a dessert.
So it's a slippery slope to do it one time, because it can lead to more times and just not eating as healthy.
I bet you it's a slippery slope.
Another example that's very common here in the United States is using your credit card to pay for something that you can't afford because it's a slippery slope.
Eventually you'll accumulate a lot of debt.
If you start feeling comfortable, i'll pay for it later.
I'll worry about it later, like you need to stay on budget, otherwise it's a slippery slope.
You'll end up with a lot of debt on your credit card.
For some people, when they want to have a good habit like going to the gym, if they skip one day, they say ah, it's fine, i go to the gym all the time, i'll skip today.
It kind of gets to be a slippery slope because they feel like the same the next day.
And then eventually they're like, well, I keep skipping.
So what's the point?
It's a slippery slope that having a bad habit can lead to it, you know, being permanent.
So we use this phrase mainly to warn someone of something that seems kind of small and insignificant being important and having bad consequences in the future.
It's a warning phrase, a slippery slope.
Finally, when we talk about setting goals, boundaries either personal professional, or boundaries with our kids, whatever it might be, we use this phrase to draw the line.
So if you are at your workplace and your boss asks you to do a lot of work over the weekend, you could say sorry, I have to draw the line.
I can't work on the weekends.
It's really important for me to spend time with my family.
I ain't drawing no line.
Maybe someone's charging you a lot of money for something.
And finally, you say, I'm sorry, I have to draw the line.
I can't spend any more money on this.
A lot of times this just means like this is my permanent boundary.
I'm not going to cross this line.
One thing that is frustrating again with the media, with the news, is that sometimes they cherry pick examples or they cherry pick examples data, just to support what they're trying to tell you.
So when we use the phrase to cherry pick something, it means we're picking out parts that we like or that are very convenient either for our argument or for the story that we're trying to tell.
There might be evidence or data that does not support what we're saying, but we're kind of leaving those out.
We're only cherry picking the data or the ideas that support what we want to say.
So when we're cherry picking, things we're talking about, you know, in the news we're talking about in politics, any sort of data that you're looking at, where you're only choosing the data that supports your point.
We call that cherry picking.
So it's seen as a pretty negative thing because it's If you are trying to support your argument, you should say that all of the data supports your argument, not just a few different studies or a few different pieces.
Here are a few phrases that are going to give you warnings about things.
If something is a slippery slope, it means it starts out as something minor and then becomes more and more of a problem.
Or for instance, a lot of habits, especially bad habits, are slippery slopes.
When you go to college or the university in the United States, you can skip class one time.
And sometimes for people it seems like if they skip class just because they're feeling lazy or they want to sleep longer, it becomes a slippery slope and they start skipping all of their classes.
Now, obviously we pay a lot of money to go to college or universities here in the United States.
So this is a big problem.
And typically, if you're doing this, you're not going to be successful in your classes and you probably just don't care much about getting your degree or achieving good grades here.
This is the slippery slope.
The next phrase is to make a blanket statement.
This idiom can definitely be really confusing the first time you hear a blanket statement.
What are we talking about here?
But once you know what it means, this idiom makes total sense.
So to make a blanket statement, this means that you are making a really, really broad generalization that probably isn't true.
People might say, young people are just lazy.
This is such a blanket statement because I
Obviously, you can't categorize a whole group of people as lazy, especially a group so large as young people, because there are young people who are building companies.
There are young people who are raising families.
That would not be considered lazy.
So to make such a generalization would be considered a blanket statement.
Have you ever met someone that is just so tone deaf?
This just means that whatever they say is just really insensitive to language, people's realities, or they're just kind of ignorant to what's actually going on.
For instance, in the United States there's a really big problem that childcare.
So parents that work who have to send their kids to a daycare or a babysitter, it's really hard to come by affordable and reliable childcare.
And a lot of politicians will say well, maybe they should just have their grandparents watch the kids, which obviously would be ideal.
It would be great.
But a lot of people, maybe their parents are still working, so they can't watch their kids.
Or maybe they're not even alive, so they can't watch their kids.
So it comes off as pretty tone deaf to just suggest this as an easy solution to everyone.
I don't know.
I'm pretty tone deaf.
So if you want to say that what a politician or just any person is saying just doesn't make sense, it's not very sensitive to the people that they're talking to, you can call them tone deaf.
Let's talk about ways to describe people's perspectives.
The first phrase that I'm going to teach you is to expand your horizons.
So if you want to tell someone that they need to learn more about different things, they need to experience maybe cultures or lifestyles that are not like their own, you can say you just need to expand your horizons.
Maybe we should travel more.
Expand our horizons.
For a lot of people, traveling around the world really expands their horizons because they're able to see how other people live in the world and it's quite different from what they have grown used to.
So it's seen as a really positive thing if you say I really have expanded my horizons and tried new things this year.
Someone who is not expanding their horizons is definitely stuck in the past.
We say that somebody is stuck in the past when they are really obsessed over old ideas or old cultural norms.
For instance, some people might say that if you think Every woman should stay at home with their kids while the man goes to work,
That's kind of an idea that's stuck in the past because a lot of times women now have careers and they need to make money to support their family as well.
There are a lot of ideas that are just stuck in the past or sometimes we say rooted in the past, that are not very relevant today or they're not really realistic.
So it's definitely a negative thing to be stuck in the past.
No, he's kind of stuck in the past.
A really nice bold phrase to use in English is when someone is exactly correct or they describe something that you've been having trouble finding words to describe correctly.
You can say, you hit the nail on the head.
This is a nice bold, dramatic phrase, just to compliment someone's explanation or someone's knowledge.
You hit the nail right on the head.
Maybe you're talking to a friend, you're kind of confiding in them and you say I've been really stressed and anxious lately.
And your friend says, well, there's a lot of uncertainty going on right now.
That's probably why you're stressed.
And, you know, you think about it and that makes a lot of sense.
You might say, you hit the nail on the head.
That is totally right.
So this is a really nice phrase to use to kind of compliment someone and just say you know, you're exactly correct.
Good thinking.
Another great phrase that goes right along with this last one is to go the extra mile.
It's a really positive phrase.
It kind of compliments someone's work or someone's effort.
So someone in life that goes the extra mile always does more than what is expected.
This idiom is so common to use.
And I always say, I'm a friend that is always trying to go the extra mile.
I'm trying to help out my friends do more than what's expected.
I go the extra mile.
This can also be used in really professional contexts as well.
If you're describing yourself as an employee, you can say I'm always willing to go the extra mile for my clients or for my coworkers.
This means you're trying to do a really good job.
And again, what is more than what is expected of you if you're going the extra mile.
And if you want to compliment someone's work and just tell them it's outstanding, it's really great, it was better than what you expected, of course, just tell them thank you so much for going the extra mile on this.
And while teaching this phrase, I just had a funny thought.
In the UK, in Canada, I wonder if they say Go the extra kilometer.
Maybe.
I hope that you're using this next phrase because it is so common.
It's so natural.
If you just want to say that you are going to keep someone informed, you're going to give them the up-to-date information about something that involves them, you can say I'm going to keep you in the loop.
To keep someone in the loop.
Or if you're emailing someone and you just want to let them know like please give me the latest information as it comes available.
You could say just keep me in the loop on this.
It's professional.
Yet it is a casual phrase to say keep me in the loop or I'll keep you in the loop.
I'm off.
Keep you in the loop.
Recently I was invited to a barbecue by a friend of a friend, and they said oh, I'll keep you in the loop on what time we're going to leave.
So they just mean that they're gonna text me and let me know like what time they're going, so that we can go at the same time.
They're keeping me informed.
A nice natural phrase that we use in English to say that we are going to deal with a problem Only if it actually happens.
We're not going to think of it ahead of time.
It's to say we're going to cross that bridge when we come to it.
Or we can often say we can cross that bridge if it happens.
To cross the bridge just means to deal with a problem if it happens when we come to it.
We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
This is a really practical phrase, just to say that you're not going to waste your mental efforts on thinking about problems that haven't actually happened yet or they might actually not happen in the future.
Oftentimes my children.
You know they're thinking about these crazy scenarios like that probably won't happen.
And oftentimes I don't have an answer to, you know, what would we do if this happened?
I'll just say we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
This just gives them the promise that we will deal with this problem if it actually happens.
But oftentimes you use this phrase if you suspect that you won't actually have a problem or issue with something.
One phrase that I really love to teach to English learners is easier said than done.
Easier said than done is such a natural thing that English speakers like myself say all of the time to mean that something is actually harder to execute than it sounds.
Although it may look easy to do something, you can say it's easier said than done.
It's easier to say you're going to do it than actually do it.
Sometimes we use this phrase too, if somebody has a responsibility and they say I promise, I'll promise, I'll do it.
You could say, well, It's easier said than done.
You know, I just need you to take this seriously.
An example of this would be you know, if your kids really want a new pet, like a new puppy, and they'll say we promise we'll take care of them.
We'll do all the work.
We'll clean up after the dog.
We'll feed them.
They'll say, well, that's easier said than done.
This just means that even though you're saying this, it's hard to follow up on your promises here.
Easier said than done. you ever use this next phrase, let's call it a day.
So when you have, you know, reached a point in your work, or maybe you're trying to build something or work on something in your house and you're just kind of done with it, you're either tired or you feel like you're at a good stopping point.
You might say let's call it a day.
Let's call it a day right here.
Let's just call it a day.
This phrase is great for if you're working or studying and you're you just come to a good point where you just want to stop and you're very like I want to stop.
I'm absolutely done.
I'm going to call it a day right here.
You're telling someone that you're done without saying like, I'm done.
I'm quitting.
It's a more positive phrase, but it tells exactly what you want to say.
And another really great casual phrase that you should be using in your everyday English if you want to tell someone that you agree with them or you're having the same understanding, you feel like you're in a good spot with your plan, or whatever it might be.
You could say we are totally on the same page or we are on the same page.
Or if you disagree with someone or if you feel like they're understanding what's happening in differently than you, you can say we are not on the same page.
Here we on the same page.
A great way to start talking about an issue or a problem with your co-workers or with your friends is to say let's make sure we're all on the same page.
This means let's make sure we're all agreeing, we're all working together.
It's a positive thing to be on the same page.
A really cool phrase we have in English that describes a small action as having a really big consequence is a ripple effect.
So something can have a ripple effect.
You can say something has a ripple effect on your own life.
To give an example, maybe somebody posts a video on TikTok of themselves singing their favorite song.
And this video gains tons of attention because, you know, everyone says oh, you're so good at singing.
And then you get a record deal, which means you get paid to make a record and sing famous on TV.
You know, just a small video that you posted, that you didn't think would have big consequences, has a huge ripple effect on your life.
This is a really fun imaginary situation.
A more serious situation that happens all the time is, I think, acts of kindness.
A small act of kindness can have a really big ripple effect on your community or just on somebody's life in general.
I think of paying for somebody's coffee when you're in the drive-thru line and they say, oh wow, that was so nice.
Now I need to make a kind act as well.
Maybe they pay for another person's coffee or maybe they buy a coffee for a homeless person.
So your one small act can have a ripple effect on other people.
We have one other phrase that's kind of similar to this one.
It's called a butterfly effect.
And it basically just means that something really small in your life that doesn't seem like it would be a big decision will actually cause a lot of different things to happen in your life.
So it's the idea that when a butterfly flaps its wings, a small action can change a lot of things in a big way.
And the ripple effect.
To go back to the origin of this phrase, you might already know it's if you drop a small pebble of into water, a small rock into water, the ripples will become very big in the water and will have a great effect on the water.
One phrase that somebody used recently that I had to write down in order to teach you is to get or to give a green light.
It might be easy to guess what this phrase means, but I'm going to show you exactly how to use it.
So if you get green light, it means you get permission or the okay to do something.
Or if you give the green light, it means you give permission.
I had a babysitter at my house and she said if you give me the green light, i'll take the kids down to the park.
This means just if you give me the okay or if you give me permission.
I will do this.
A lot of times people are making movies or television shows.
We say that a studio gave them the green light to make the show.
This means they approved it.
Just give us the green light.
If you are a fast eater, you might have heard this phrase before.
The phrase is to scarf something down.
Be careful how you use this phrase, because you wouldn't want to offend someone by saying wow, you're really scarfing down that pizza.
But if you notice that someone was really hungry and they're eating really fast and You could definitely use this phrase or you could say oh, I'm so hungry.
I could scarf down all this food.
It's just a slang or fun phrase used to mean to eat really fast.
And it's used typically when someone was really hungry.
I have been reading this book recently.
I'm pretty far into it.
It's called The Woman.
It's about...
Female Nurses in the Vietnamese American War.
It's a great historical fiction book if you're looking for a recommendation, but this book gave me a range of emotions.
This phrase a range of emotions.
It means it gives you many different feelings about almost at the same time, or one after another.
So this book, at first it was surprising.
Then it was, you know, sad and then it was exciting.
And then there was some comedy in it.
So this book, it just had a range of emotions.
I went through a wide range of emotions.
Sometimes people say you know death causes a range of emotions, because you feel so many different feelings when it comes to grief and sadness.
Some people say, you know, parenting is a range of emotions because you can be so tired.
You can be so happy.
You can feel so loved.
You can feel so sad to see your kids sad.
So there's a range of emotions here.
We use this phrase a lot when we're describing just this feeling of having so many different emotions almost at the same time or in the same time frame.
I find that it's a little bit difficult sometimes for English learners to express emotions, irony or an ironic situation.
So let me give you a phrase to help you out here.
If you want to say, you know, something's ironic, you can use the phrase, here's the kicker.
So you're going to use this phrase when you're introducing something that's kind of surprising or unexpected?
So let me give you two kind of similar examples here.
You could say, he was afraid of getting beat up.
Here's the kicker.
He's a professional fighter.
So it's ironic that a professional fighter would be afraid of getting beat up, you know, at a bar or just wherever on the street.
Another example is she forgot what she was going to say.
And here's the kicker.
She's a professional speaker.
So obviously, if you're a professional speaker, it would be ironic or unexpected that you would forget what to say.
So this phrase is really useful when it comes to introducing some sort of twist or something just like crazy, unexpected that happened.
If you are starting out in your career, you may want to make a name for yourself.
This phrase.
It just means that you want to show people what you can do.
You want to be well respected and well known for something.
Everybody is just trying to make a name for themselves, so it's not seen as a negative thing to try to do this.
It just means you're hard working, you're trying to be honest and you're trying to be well known for what you do the best.
A lot of times singers, actors or athletes will try to make a name for themselves, but people in their everyday jobs can use this phrase as well to just mean you wanna be well known for doing good work or being the best at what you do.
You're making a real name for yourself.
Let's talk about making a reservation.
Making a reservation means scheduling or, what we naturally say in English, booking a table in advance.
So this is more important.
When you go to more formal or fancy restaurants restaurants where the food costs a lot of money you typically need a reservation.
But you can call and actually ask and say, do I need a reservation?
Or do you usually have availability?
One phrase that you definitely need to know for making the reservation is do you have availability?
Do you have availability at 7 p.m.?
Just asking you if maybe you have any tables available.
This is the most polite and professional way to ask for a reservation.
Do you have any availability at this time?
Again, this is for formal restaurants.
You definitely don't need this at a walk-in restaurant where there are no reservations or any casual dining experience.
If you're at a more informal dining place, I picture like Applebee's or Chili's.
These are like really common places, casual restaurants in the United States.
A lot of times they are quite busy.
You can't really make a reservation there, but you walk in.
They typically have a list and they'll say how many.
You can say, you can put me down for four, or can you put me down for four people?
And they'll usually ask your name as well.
If you're making a reservation, you'll need to say the time and you need to say how many people.
And we say that by saying, can you put me down for four?
Again, a lot of times in English we turn our statement into a question just to make it sound more polite, to make it sound like more of a suggestion rather than a command.
So instead of saying, put me down for four, you can say, could you put me down for four, please?
Or however many people you'll be eating with.
Could you possibly do me a table for two for tonight?
And then if you want to note anything special about your reservation.
Maybe you want a table by a window, or maybe you prefer to have a table that someone with a wheelchair can access.
You need to make sure to mention that when you make a reservation as well.
Can I book a table by the window?
Can I book a table for somebody who is handicapped and use a wheelchair?
Make sure you note these special things when you book the table.
We have a beautiful table for you right by the window.
So let's pretend you're arriving at your restaurant.
You're ready to eat your dinner and you go up to the host or the hostess.
This is the person, you know, that usually brings you to your table at a restaurant.
And you think, what should I say?
If you have a reservation, you can say I have a reservation under Kayla, or I have a reservation under whatever the name is may be.
And sometimes in the United States, we book reservations under our last names.
We have a reservation under the name Chandler Bing.
So if it's not a reservation restaurant, I want you to know the phrase hi, we'd like a table for How many do you need a table for?
We'd like a table for two, please.
Hi, we'd like a table for two, please.
And sometimes the person will say, how many?
They just will greet you and say, hello, welcome in, how many?
And you'll say, We'd like a table for two, please.
Could we have a table for three, please?
If you walk up and it's a really busy situation, which in restaurants it can be kind of chaotic you can just simply say how long's the wait.
How long's the wait?
This will help you know if you need to put your name on the list or if you're gonna have to wait too long, so you'll probably go somewhere else.
And my restaurant tip, especially here in the United States I don't think it's the same everywhere else in the world is if there's a wait, usually at a restaurant, they obviously overestimate how long it's gonna take, because they don't want you to be disappointed or complain.
Excuse me, how long is the wait for a table for two?
In the United States In customer service, you know if you're working at a restaurant or whatever.
We have a phrase the customer is always right.
So we're not trying to make people angry or have any sort of confrontation.
If you get to your table at a restaurant and maybe you don't want to sit in a spot that's so busy or so loud, or maybe you just wanted a table with booths instead of chairs, you could say is there any way we could get a different table?
Is there any way we could get a different table?
This phrase is there any way.
It's used to make a request and to make it a bit more polite and a bit less forceful.
So again, in English, we're less direct when we want to be polite.
So is there any way that we could get a different table?
Is the best way to request a different table when you're eating at a restaurant in English?
Let's talk about ordering some food now.
Now I'm not just gonna give you the simple beginner English phrases, because if you're watching this video you probably know those, but I'm gonna help you sound a bit more natural when you're ordering what you want to get at a restaurant.
So in the United States typically how a menu works is we have appetizers And we have our main dish or our entree.
And sometimes even if you're at a very formal restaurant, they'll give you soup and salad before your entree as well.
So you'll have to specify that when you order.
So if you want to get an appetizer or a soup or salad before your main dish comes out, you'll use the phrase.
I'll start with.
I'll start with a salad first.
And then for my main dish, I'll get blank.
So try out that phrase I'll start with.
It will be really helpful when you want to sound more natural while ordering food.
If you are unsure about the options at a restaurant maybe it's a really fancy restaurant, or maybe you've just never had the type of food before you can always ask the server for a friendly recommendation.
Or if it's a really fancy restaurant.
A common thing to ask is what pairs well with this wine, if you're drinking wine,
Or what goes well with this dish?
If you want to ask for a recommendation, you could just say, what do you recommend?
Or what's a popular dish that people order?
So ask for a recommendation by saying, what do you recommend or what's popular?
What do you recommend besides a steak?
To step out of line.
So if somebody steps out of line, we usually use this phrase to mean that they're breaking the rules or they're not following the expected behavior.
Please step out of line.
Oftentimes parents, teachers or any other authority type boss person will use this phrase, especially if they're giving someone a warning.
Like if you step out of line, I'm going to call the principal and get you kicked out of class.
That's something a teacher might say here in the United States.
It just means if you don't start following the expectations or stop, you know, acting so unruly or rebellious, then you are going to be in trouble.
Sometimes adults will say, well, I'll make sure not to step out of line.
This is kind of a joking way to say like I'm going to try to follow the rules and not bend or break the rules.
It's kind of a joke, especially in situations where the rules aren't so strict.
This next English phrase is really important because it applies to so many English words learners that I have taught before.
So to be in a bubble, we use this phrase, and it has nothing to do with soap or water.
It just means that you're very isolated.
You only stick to your community or you're not experiencing a lot of different cultures or traveling a lot.
A lot of people in the United States.
If they live in small towns, they tend to stay in their own bubble.
This just means they don't go outside of their community.
Very often they don't travel and they don't even talk to a lot of people that don't look exactly like them.
You live in a bubble or something?
So it's often seen as very negative to be like inside your own bubble.
But sometimes, you know, it's not seen as so negative as just the reality.
A lot of immigrants that come to United States, they tend to stay in their own bubble.
Perhaps they live in a neighborhood with a other people from their same country or from their same culture because they feel comfortable speaking the language and knowing exactly what to do, which sometimes my students.
If they don't get out of their bubble, they have a hard time practicing their english or learning new english phrases, And it can be uncomfortable at first to get outside of your bubble, but it's very, very important to do so.
So now you know, if somebody says that they need to get out of their bubble or somebody is in a bubble, it has nothing to do with soap and water and just everything to do with their comfort zone or their community.
A side effect.
So a side effect is...
The literal definition is unintended consequences or reactions.
And oftentimes this is used in a really medical sense.
So when we talk about taking a medication known as ibuprofen or Advil, here in the United States it's the standard anti-inflammatory pain reliever.
The side effect.
The negative side effect can be that it can cause stomach ulcers, like huge pains in your stomach.
So that would be a negative reaction or side effect.
Sometimes we can use the word side effect in a cultural sense as well, to mean, you know, an unintended consequence.
So maybe someone really wants to be famous or they want to go viral on the internet.
And you can say one side effect of going viral or becoming famous is that you lose your privacy.
People want to know everything about you and they'll do all sorts of detective work to figure out you know who's in your family, who is your friends, how much money you make where you live, and it can feel bad not to have the privacy that you would normally have if you're famous or if you go viral online.
Have there been any side effects?
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But let's talk about this phrase, the bane of my existence.
The way I'm saying this is very dramatic, because this is definitely a phrase that we use in kind of a dramatic or humorous way in English to say that something really annoys us or we really dislike doing it.
For me, the bane of my existence is laundry and dishes.
I would rather be doing just about anything else especially chores wise than these two things.
I would love to go work in my garden or mow my lawn or vacuum, but I hate folding laundry and I hate doing dishes.
So I call them the bane of my existence.
Can you think of something that really annoys you that you could call the bane of your existence?
Let me know.
It's a really fun dramatic phrase to use when you want to talk about something so annoying.
She's the bane of my existence.
To have a vice.
So a vice is something that we call a bad habit or a weakness.
We can use vice to talk about something very serious.
For instance, shopping or gambling or some sort of addiction.
But we also sometimes say like, oh, my vice is chocolate.
I just love chocolate so much.
It's something that you'll always be weak for.
Like if you see chocolate, you just have to have it because it's your vice.
Or...
In a more joking way, rather than an actual money spending or shopping addiction, you can say oh, shoes are my vice.
I just love buying and shopping for shoes so much.
So we use it in a more joking, a lighter way sometimes, but it can be a very serious phrase as well.
If you call something a vice, it just means you have a bad habit or an addiction.
We have other vices.
Now I have some interesting phrases that you need to learn when it comes to talking about responsibility and cause and effect.
The first phrase is so important.
I always see it in books and on movies and television or even in the news.
So the phrase is to be a scapegoat.
So if you call something a scapegoat, it means it's being blamed or unfairly for a really big problem in sports we always say you know if somebody gets blamed for the team's entire loss they're the scapegoat so we're blaming them you know somebody gets the blame for the loss in soccer or in football it's always the goalie you know they should have saved the ball if only they would have saved that shot and the other team wouldn't have scored then we would have won in this case the goalie is the scapegoat they're being blamed very unfairly for the team's entire loss because obviously it is a team effort to win a game you know the offense should have been scoring the defense should have stopped the ball before it got to the goalie they are the scapegoat in dysfunctional families one kid in the family oftentimes becomes the scapegoat for the entire family's problems and maybe the kid wants to be the scapegoat you know they don't want everyone else to be mad each other so they say oh it's my fault like don't blame him i'll take the blame like it's it's my fault they're being blamed unfairly because they're not actually causing every single problem we need a scapegoat oh a scapegoat these next two phrases are pretty similar but they're used very versatile and they're really common.
So the first one is a breeding ground to be a breeding ground for something.
The first thing that comes to my mind when it comes to being a breeding ground for germs and sickness is a indoor playground for children.
So I have three young children and In the winter we get cooped up in the house and we need to go out and burn some energy, but it's too cold to go play.
So sometimes we pay to go play inside of an indoor playground and I almost don't want to ever go anymore, because every single time we go we get some sort of stomach sickness.
We get a cold.
We get the flu.
It's terrible.
It's a breeding ground for germs just because there are so many children there.
And it's really hard to keep the playground clean from sicknesses and germs.
So this is a quite literal example of this phrase.
The indoor playground is a breeding ground for for germs, because so many sicknesses and viruses live and grow there.
But you can use this phrase in a less literal way as well to just say like there is a place or a situation where very negative things can happen very easily.
So, for instance, a lot of people say the internet is a breeding ground for bullying.
People get bullied so frequently on social media and it's so easy to you know, make a negative comment when you're not actually face to face with a person.
You're just behind your phone or behind your keyboard.
So it is a breeding ground for bullying and just negative speaking.
The internet is a breeding ground for freaks.
The next phrase is really similar.
When we want to call something a hotspot, it's a place known for something.
Or we can say, you know, the indoor playground is a hotspot for germs.
Everyone knows that if you go to the indoor playground, you're probably going to get sick.
Or if you want to talk about a place that's dangerous, you could say it is a hotspot for crime.
Or you can use it in a more positive way as well.
I'll give you an example.
So many years ago I was in Los Angeles on a vacation and a hotspot for celebrities to go because they want to get paparazzi'd.
You know they want people to take their picture is Sunset Boulevard.
And I was eating breakfast at a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard one morning and I did get to see one celebrity.
I did have one celebrity sighting in this celebrity hotspot.
It was the actor, the kid... from Stranger Things.
And I don't know his name, but he is definitely very recognizable.
And he and paparazzi taking his pictures as well.
We're going to hit the hotspots.
There is one other way that we use hotspot as well.
When we want to say that there is a location that has Wi-Fi maybe an airport, or if you have a device that can provide Wi-Fi, we call it a Wi-Fi hotspot.
So an interesting phrase that we have to mean that somebody has to pay for something even though they did not buy it really or they didn't cause you know the cost is.
We say they have to foot the bill.
So the first example here that comes to my mind is when very privileged people, young adults, children go to a university or college and their parents pay the entire cost.
They foot the bill and the kid, you know, doesn't go to class and they party all the time.
Their parents might say, why am I footing the bill for this?
You're not even taking it seriously.
So we use this phrase to foot the bill.
It means to pay the cost for something for someone else that like we didn't even want to pay that bad or we're not getting benefit from paying.
You might be at a restaurant and you know someone might say who's footing the bill for this, meaning like i don't want to pay for this, who is actually paying for this?
It's seen as a negative thing if someone has to foot the bill and they'll foot you with the bill.
Another situation i can see this phrase being used, you know, more in a casual way.
You wouldn't want to offend somebody with this phrase is if you're at a wedding and it seems really expensive, You might whisper to a friend you know who's footing the bill for this.
This is so fancy or nice or expensive.
So it just means, you know, who has to pay for this wedding?
Because you might assume that the bride and groom are not paying for their own wedding.
In this situation,
In the United States, if you order steak, you're going to have to specify how much you would like it cooked.
There's rare, there's medium, and there's well done.
And sometimes if we want our steak cooked medium, that means some pink in the middle.
We can specify.
We want it medium or medium rare, which would be a little less cooked, or medium hot.
Well, even some restaurants just do rare, medium and well done.
And typically the most common way to order a steak in the united states is medium, unless you like it just barely cooked or if you like it really cooked.
And i would say at a fancier restaurant people are more likely to order a steak rare than if you just go to like your local applebee's, again like a very casual dining establishment.
So a very common thing even at fancy restaurants or at casual restaurants here is for your main dish, so usually the meat.
You know if you get a burger or a steak or you get seafood to come with sides is what we call them in the United States here.
So a common side in the United States, the most typical one, is vegetables. french fries.
So if you don't want french fries, sometimes you can say can I substitute the french fries or can I substitute the potatoes.
Whatever the side is, if you don't like it, a restaurant will often let you trade it out with something else.
Or sometimes the restaurant just gives you an option of which side you want.
And if you don't know what the options are, you can say to the server.
They say what side do you want?
You can say, what are the options?
Or can you tell me the options for sides?
So when you come to this question in the ordering process, it can get a little confusing.
But if you know these phrases, you'll be just fine.
And finally, if you don't want something in your dish in the United States, make sure to speak up and say it.
It is so common here.
Or if you have an allergy, make sure to speak up as well.
One way that is super common to say you don't want something made in your dish or in your meal is you say can you hold?
Can you hold the onions, please?
Can you hold the hot peppers, please?
Or if you don't want something you know drizzled over your food or in your food, you could say could you put, let's say it's salad dressing?
Could you put the dressing on the side?
Or could you put the tomatoes on the side?
There are tons of things that restaurants will do like this if you just ask.
Here are some really common questions that you can ask when you're ordering food as well, that you'll also hear other English speakers ask all the time.
So again, going back to those allergies or those dietary, you know things that you need.
You can say are there any vegetarian options or are there any gluten-free options?
And with gluten-free in the United States.
So people who have celiacs There are, you know, menus that are, you know, gluten friendly, that might have a little bit of gluten.
And then there are menus that are absolutely gluten free.
You want to ask if you have an allergy, if they're following gluten friendly or gluten free here.
Do you have any vegetarian options?
You can also ask, is there a special at Target? fancier restaurants, there are definitely specials.
Or at more casual restaurants, instead of saying specials, you could say, are there any deals?
Or you could say, is there a happy hour?
A happy hour is a time in the day where it's typically less busy.
So usually about three o'clock to six o'clock in the evening where you can have a discount on alcoholic beverages or maybe some appetizers.
So that would be happy hour as we call it in the United States.
And one thing to know about happy hour is if you're in a workplace, it's common to go to happy hour with your coworkers after work.
So that would be like going directly to a restaurant with your coworkers just to get a drink or a small bite of food before you're done for the day.
Happy hour.
Happy hour.
Happy hour.
So the awkward part of being at a restaurant is if there is a mistake with your order.
How are you going to address this?
And we don't want to be super direct and you know, super conflict, but we have some polite ways to make sure that we get what we want, because we're paying good money to go out to a restaurant.
So don't be afraid to use these next phrases.
If you see a mistake with your order or you get the wrong thing, you can say I think there's been a mistake.
I think there's been a mistake.
Could you look?
So you're not saying for sure, oh, you messed up.
This is messed up.
My order's wrong.
This often just brings up conflict.
And let's be real.
You don't want someone to spit in your food in the kitchen.
So be as polite as you can and say, I think there's been a mistake.
And usually your server is In the United States, they get tips at the end of, you know, the meal.
You usually tip your server.
They want to get a good tip, so they'll try their best to get you what you want.
Excuse me, sir.
I think there's been a mistake.
If you think that your food is not cooked enough, you could say, this looks undercooked.
And oftentimes, if it's a steak, they can put it on the grill for longer.
Or if it's something else, you could say, these are a bit cold.
Could I get them fresh?
You can apologize.
I'm so sorry to be a hassle.
These are polite ways to get exactly what you want when you're ordering at a restaurant.
So you can say, you know, sorry to be a hassle or sorry to be trouble here.
Sorry for the hassle, but now you'll be able to see Alpha.
So sometimes, when you're eating and you need to get your server's attention in the United States, we don't wave our hands and we don't like to call out.
I know that's popular in other countries and it's completely acceptable, but here people do not like to make a big scene or a big deal when they're done eating or if they need something.
So you might just make eye contact and maybe give just a little wave, but nothing too big.
That's just how the culture is here.
So perhaps you need some more water.
You might, you know, kind of wave to your server and you might say, when you get a chance, could we get some more water?
So this is, you know, being respectful to their time.
You know, you understand that they're busy and you're just politely asking for more water.
When you get a chance, could we get some more drinks?
Or when you get a chance, can we order this?
Whatever it might be.
And if you're ready to pay.
Typically the server brings the check to your table in the United States and you put your credit card on there and they run it.
That's how it works here.
You could say, when you get a moment, could we get the check, please?
Honey, could you get us the check, please?
A lot of times in the United States the server will ask you how everything was and you can say it was great.
Thank you.
We're ready for our bill.
Or you could say it was delicious.
We're ready for our bill.
Or you could say, you've been fantastic.
Thank you so much.
I always like to express my gratitude to the server, especially if they have done a good job to make my dining experience super pleasant, because when I was in college, I was a server and it's a very difficult, demanding job.
And finally, when you're paying, if you need the bill to be divided amongst you and another person in your group or between everyone, you can say can we split the bills?
Or if you want everyone to pay for their thing that they ordered, you might want to say at the beginning of the meal can we have separate checks?
You can either say that at the end or at the beginning.
I think it's easier for servers if you specify at the beginning, can we have separate checks?
But you can also just split the bill, which means to take the cost and divide it in half.
Johnny, we were always going to split the bill.
So one thing that's important to know if you have food that you want to bring home in the United States from a restaurant, you need to ask for a box.
Or if you're at a very fancy restaurant, typically the server will take your food and put it in a box for you.
So you can either say, could we get a box or could we get a couple of boxes?
And if you're at a fancy restaurant, you could say, could you box this up, please?
So this is the way that we ask to take food home.
Can you pretty please box this up for us?
