English Idiom Practice Up In The Air

oh hello welcome to today’s live English

lesson here on the speak English with

Vanessa YouTube channel I’m so glad that

you’re here to enjoy English to practice

and use English if you’re here live make

sure that you’re writing comments I’ll

try to give some feedback as best as I

can if you’re not watching live feel

free to write a comment using today’s

idiom if you would like to join me live

we have live lessons every Tuesday and

Thursday at 9 a.m. est est is the New

York Standard Time and the best way to

get a notification is to subscribe to my

youtube channel and there’s a little

bell icon and when you click the bell

you’ll get a notification that says ring

Vanessa has a live English lesson right

now and that way you never miss it you

can come and join me I think it will be

a great time today we’re going to talk

about a useful idiom that I used last

week so I hope that for you you’ll be

able to use this idiom by the end of our

lesson and you’ll feel more comfortable

understanding when other people use it

as well thanks everyone who’s here live

Vivian in Canada Jorge in Brazil hello

Sully welcome welcome

Franz glad you’re here ELISA in Spain

totally Algeria wonderful voluntary in

Qatar in Vietnam Wow you guys are

awesome are you ready to learn a new

idiom today maybe you have an idea what

it already means maybe you don’t I want

to ask you a question first of all hmm

let’s see what are you gonna do this

weekend this is a basic question simple

question it’s Thursday today so maybe

you already have plans for the weekend

maybe you don’t what

are you gonna do this weekend for me I

have no idea what I’m gonna do this

weekend

my plans are up in the air so I want to

know for you what are you gonna do this

weekend maybe you already know maybe you

don’t know maybe you have no plans yet

or you think I’ll just do whatever I

want to do when the weekend comes what

are you gonna do ah Diana says I’m gonna

work

zuly Rica says I have no idea who shell

says I have no idea - oh yes

so if you have no idea what you’re gonna

do this weekend we can use today’s idiom

let’s say my plans are up in the air up

in the air this means I don’t know

there’s not a decision yet it is

undecided so let’s imagine let’s imagine

gravity gravity helps things to go down

to the earth it doesn’t usually keep

things up in the air so if something is

up in the air it’s it’s not certain it’s

not fixed it’s floating kind of like a

balloon it’s floating around it’s not

decided so it is up in the air we can

say all right this year my plans are up

in the air let’s imagine like a balloon

here whoo my plans are up in the air it

doesn’t mean that I actually plan to go

up in the air

I’m gonna go in a hot-air balloon or I’m

to go in an airplane now it doesn’t mean

that it means I don’t know it’s

undecided yet it’s undecided which thing

I’m gonna do this weekend a lot of you

have plans that are already decided oh

yes so row says I’m playing in a drama

production at my church this weekend or

Martin Martin hello Martin says I’m

gonna visit my family for Easter uh-huh

Federica - Arika says i’m gonna go to my

sister’s for a family get-together so a

lot of you already have a plan so let’s

make this negative how can we make this

sentence negative hmm because a lot of

you know what you’re gonna do your plans

are not up in the air simple right we

just add the word not my plans are not

up in the air hmm how can we use this

for English

onam has a great sentence that he’s

written here it is my plans for learning

English are always up in the air

oh so this means you don’t have a clear

path for how you’re gonna learn English

you’re always trying something and

trying something else it’s not decided

you’ve got a lot of ideas my plans are

always up in the air my plans for

learning English are always up in the

air so you can definitely say that for

for English for any kind of plan my

plans are up in the air

well can we use this for things that are

not plans can we use today’s idiom up in

the air up in the earth can we use this

in other situations I think the most

common is to talk about plans my weekend

plans are up in the air my dinner play

hands are up in the air I have no idea

what I’m gonna do it’s up in the air

well let’s talk about how we can use it

in situations that are not specifically

talking about plans ooh how about if we

used it for a relationship oh I think

that the like Ora and and I were on the

same wavelength here he says our

relationship is up in the air I was also

thinking about relationships we’re

thinking the same thing

we can use this for other uncertain

things so let’s imagine let’s imagine

that you and your boyfriend or your

girlfriend you’re talking and it’s not

going so well your relationship hasn’t

been so steady and when your friend asks

you oh how are things going with your

boyfriend you could say well our

relationship is kind of up in the air

right now we are not certain if we’re

going to stay together we’re not certain

if it’s a steady relationship it’s up in

the air so we can imagine this idea of a

balloon it’s floating it’s not fixed in

one location so we could say our

relationship is kind of and here we can

just add this to make it a little more

uncertain kind of up in the air at the

moment hmm

it means you’re not certain and it’s a

difficult place to be in so I hope that

your relationship is not up in the air

if it’s up in the air talk about it

define your relationship decide what is

happening it makes it easier easier for

your mind easier for them as well

Eduardo asks can we

use sort of up in the air great question

and the answer is definitely yes you can

use that so here we use kind of but kind

of and sort of are the exact same thing

so you can use kind of up in the air and

if you if you use this for your plans

maybe this weekend you have a plan to

visit your family but your husband’s

family calls and says oh do you want to

visit us instead or do you want to visit

us too you could say well my weekend

plans are sort of up in the air I told

my family I could come but maybe I could

see you instead it’s uncertain so you

can add any kind of word like this

definitely certainly sort of kind of not

you can add these kind of qualifiers to

your expression to make it strong or not

so strong egor says my weekend plans

aren’t up in the air I’m gonna study

English a lot beautiful you’ve got plans

for this weekend

excellent um we have a question about

other types of words that we can add in

front of here we have a question about

my health is up in the air my trip is up

in the air our dinner is up in the air

hmm so in this situation you’re talking

about let’s talk about health first of

all my health is up in the air this this

is a more general general concept my

health is up in the air we could say

this it’s possible and it’s

understandable maybe it’s not the most

common but it’s certainly not wrong to

say my health is up in the air it means

you’re not sure if you’re healthy you’re

not sure if you’re not healthy it’s

undecide

and let’s imagine that you have some

kind of a problem maybe something more

serious

like you have your arm hurts and the

doctor this happened to me in high

school I hurt my arm and the doctor said

you didn’t break your arm you pulled a

muscle

well after three months of going to the

doctor another doctor said oh yeah you

just broke your arm you need to cast and

when I got a cast a cast is the hard

thing after I got a cast I felt better

it was perfectly fine so the first

doctor was wrong but at the beginning

when I had the wrong diagnosis I had

some wrist therapy because the doctor

thought that it was a muscle problem not

a bone problem well thank you volleyball

volleyball helped me to break my wrist

in high school don’t worry not now but I

can use this expression because we could

say the diagnosis was up in the air and

this means the doctors can’t decide they

don’t know the diagnosis is up in the

air maybe I maybe I broke my arm

maybe I sprained my arm maybe I pulled a

muscle they’re not certain so we could

say the diagnosis the diagnosis is up in

the air if we’re going to talk about

dinner I recommend using dinner plans

instead my dinner plans are up in the

air I don’t know what I’m gonna do

tonight I don’t know what I’m gonna cook

maybe I’ll visit friends maybe I’ll just

eat a piece of toast my dinner plans are

up in the air

I agree Eduardo Eduardo has a good point

that this expression is better used for

thoughts or

ideas yes something that’s not so

physical or concrete and I think that

dinner is a good example for this

because if we add my dinner plans are up

in the air that’s great

no problem my decision is up in the air

no problem my trip is up in the air this

is not a physical thing but if we say my

dinner is up in the air then someone

might look oh really

oh is it possible someone might actually

look up in the air if it’s a physical

thing so let’s keep this I agree with

your point let’s keep this to ideas

something that’s not quite so concrete

your plans your trip trip is okay my

trip to Turkey is up in the air Oh

cleaning my plan to clean my house is up

in the air my plan to visit you is not

in the air my career plan is still up in

the air oh that’s a great word to add

here let’s add another word still I

guess I’ll use another marker let’s add

still ooh when we add still it shows

that you’re trying to make a plan my

career plan is still up in the air I

have been trying to plan my career for

the last two years and it’s still up in

the air I still have no idea what what

I’m gonna do with my life

oh we have some excellent sentences here

my Christmas dinner plans are up in the

air my plan for Easter is actually still

up in the air thank you for sharing

these sentences my exam results are up

in the air ooh

yes that’s similar to the diagnosis

they’re not certain they don’t know

what the result is actually going to be

it’s up an ear and often let me give you

a final a final tip for this expression

often we use this just as a response to

a question if someone says what are you

doing this weekend you could say I don’t

know it’s up in the air what are you

doing this weekend I don’t know it’s up

in the air so you can use this just by

itself and I think this is pretty common

in fact this is how this is how I used

it uh last last week maybe two weeks ago

because I went to New York I already

talked about this I think a couple weeks

ago I went to New York at the beginning

of April and a lot of people asked me

what are you doing in New York what are

you gonna do what’s your daily plan and

I only had one plan visit my sister

everything else was up in the air so

when someone asked me what are you gonna

do in New York I said it’s up in the air

and it doesn’t mean my plan is up in the

air I actually did go up in the air up

into the one World Trade Center tower is

beautiful great view so ice

I physically went up in the air but I’m

not sure if our internet connection cut

off or something but we’re back okay I

went up in the air but my plan in New

York was up in the air so I just said

it’s up in the air what am I gonna do it

is up in the air I have no idea it’s up

in the air so I have a final sentence

that I’d like to say with you to help

you use this because there’s quite a few

words in this idiom it’s up in the air

or just up in the air I want to help you

say this and use it together so let’s

say a sentence about English let’s say

something together how about my plans

for study in English are not up in the

air my plans for studying English are

not up in the air this is a good

dictation practice try to write exactly

what I’m saying

try to write this exact sentence my

plans for studying English are not up in

the air up in the air and notice we’re

not saying the air we’re saying the air

I’ve said that a lot during this lesson

so I hope that it feels comfortable to

you my plans for studying English are

not up in the air Thank You Gabriela you

are the winner the first person to write

this sentence my plans for studying

English are not up in the air and that

means I know what I’m gonna do I’m gonna

follow Vanessa’s live lessons Tuesday

and Thursday at 9 a.m.

wonderful and maybe you have a podcast

that you love listening to great you

have a plan every day when I Drive to

work I’m gonna listen to that podcast or

maybe you have a speaking partner every

Saturday I’m gonna talk with that

speaking partner your plans are not

undecided your plans are decided they’re

certain my plans

for studying English are not up in the

air so let’s say this slowly I want you

to repeat with me repeat each word try

to follow my pronunciation and let’s say

it together are you ready my plans for

studying English are not up in the air

my plans for studying English are not up

in the air my plans for studying English

are not up in the air really fast my

plans for study in English are not up in

the air whoo all right I hope you had

some pronunciation muscle and speaking

exercise today my recommendation is to

go back and try to read and say out loud

each sentence that uses today’s idiom

that I use during our lesson this is

going to give you a broad context some

ideas for how to use this and I hope

that for you you can integrate up in the

air this idiom I hope you can integrate

it into your conversations so instead of

saying I don’t know you could say it’s

up in the air if you want to say I

haven’t decided yet you could say I

don’t know it’s up in the air if there

are really a lot of situations where you

can use that which dentist are you gonna

go - I don’t know it’s up in the air

what are you gonna do this weekend I

don’t know it’s up in the air what are

you gonna eat for dinner I don’t know

it’s up in the air so I hope you can use

this and integrate it into your

conversations and the next time that you

hear it in a movie or TV show or if I

use it you’ll realize

aha I know what that means because I

studied it so thanks for learning with

me thanks for taking time to improve

your English and if you would like to

continue to learn with me the good news

is every Tuesday and Thursday there’s a

live lesson so please subscribe click

the subscribe button and

Bell and that way you’ll get a

notification whenever we have a live

lesson you can learn new idioms phrasal

verbs or tips and ideas if you have any

suggestions or questions feel free to

write them in the comments I’ll try my

best to give you some feedback and if

you would like to get my free email

lessons and my free ebook it’s called

five steps to becoming a confident

English speaker thousands of English

learners have enjoyed this free ebook

and learn the five steps the five things

that you can do to help you feel more

confident because learning vocabulary

learning idioms those are great things

but if you don’t have the confidence to

use them it’s not gonna help much if you

know everything you have to have

confidence to use it so I hope that this

ebook will help you to have confidence

help you start to know what you can do

to gain more confidence that’s my goal

for you I hope you feel confident using

up in the air today I hope your

confidence is not up in the air so feel

free to to join me for our next live

lesson or to read my ebook I’ll put the

link on the screen and in the

description below thank you everyone for

joining me I’ll see you again the next

time bye