10 Phrases Only Americans Use How American Are You
Hi.
I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishwithVanessa.com.
Are you American?
Let’s find out.
Today, you’re going to learn 10 very American
phrases.
These are phrases that Americans use in daily
conversation.
You will hear them in pop culture, TV shows,
movies, songs.
If you visit the U.S. you will hear them.
And also if you want to sound a little more
American, you are welcome to use them.
Some of them are a little regional meaning
that people in the North will use them, but
people in the South won’t use them.
Or people in the South will use that expression
and people in the North won’t.
So make sure you listen carefully for where
you’re going to hear these expressions.
Are you ready to get started with the first
one?
Listen carefully, because at the end, there
is a quiz to see if you are really American.
Let’s listen.
To table something.
Does this mean you put it on the table?
Actually, it means that you don’t discuss
something.
Let’s look at this example.
“Every time I mention adopting a new dog,
my husband tables the discussion.”
That means he does not want to adopt a dog,
or he does not want to talk about it ever
or right now.
So he tables the discussion.
This is something you can use in daily life.
Or you can use this in the office.
If there is a topic that you want to avoid
at the moment during a meeting, because it’s
not relevant, or you don’t have enough information,
you could say, “All right.
Let’s table this discussion and come back
to it tomorrow.”
Great.
You are kind of avoiding it until later.
Number two, to shoot the breeze.
Well, this is a kind way of saying the original
expression, which is to shoot the shit.
And it means just to have a casual conversation
with someone.
There’s not a plan.
You’re just kind of chit-chatting.
In the South where I live, it’s more common
to say shoot the shit.
But for me, I don’t in my personal life, I
don’t really swear that much.
So I just say shoot the breeze.
“Yeah, it was nice to get together with you
at the coffee shop today.
I’m so glad we got to just shoot the breeze
together.”
Spend some time chit-chatting.
Or if you’re describing a situation, you might
say “The old men meet at the diner every morning
to shoot the breeze before work.”
They’re just getting together casually and
enjoying talking together.
Number three is to plead the fifth,`` plead
the fifth.
This refers to the Fifth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution, which means that you have
the right to remain silent, to not say anything.
Let me give you this in a kind of legal context.
And then I’ll show you how you can use it
in daily life.
If you’ve ever watched legal or courtroom
TV dramas, you might have seen it used in
this type of situation.
When the officer pulled me over, I was driving.
The officer pulled me over and asked, “Do
you know what you were doing?”
I said, “I plead the fifth” because I didn’t
want to incriminate myself.
This fancy word, incriminate, means that if
I say “I was driving too fast” or “I just
did some drugs” or “Oh, I was drinking too
much,” something illegal.
Well, I am incriminating myself.
So why would I say that?
I need him to tell me because I don’t want
to go to jail.
I don’t want to pay a fine.
So I have the right to say nothing.
I could say “I plead the fifth” and it means
I don’t need to say anything.
Legally I don’t need to say anything until
there is a lawyer or some kind of legal situation
happening.
But this is usually more in a legal sense.
What about in daily life?
Check out this situation.
If your friend says to you, “You look hung
over.
Did you drink too much last night?”
You might say, “Oh, I plead the fifth.”
And that means, “Yes, I drank too much.
Yes, I am hungover.
But I don’t want to tell you.”
And in daily life, I just want to let you
know the implication here is that you don’t
want to say yes or no directly, but it’s almost
always you are right.
So when someone says, “Oh, you’ve gone on
so many dates with her.
And when you’re together, you’re just so happy.
Do you love her?”
You might say, “I plead the fifth.”
That means you don’t want to say, but you’re
right.
I do love her.
So usually in casual conversation, even though
you’re saying “I want to remain silent, I
don’t want to tell you”, there is a little
undertone here that, “Yeah, you’re right.
But I don’t want to say it out loud.
I don’t want to say out loud that I’m drunk
and hung over.
I don’t want to say out loud that I love her.
So I’m just going to use this clever expression,
say ‘I plead the fifth.'”
Our next very American expression is to duke
it out.
This is strange to me because dukes, as in
a king and an earl and a duke, this kind of
royalty term is more related to England, I
would imagine, than the U.S.
But in the U.S. we use this as a verb, actually
as a phrasal verb, to duke out something,
to duke it out.
Look at this sentence and try to guess what
it means.
The American football fans were ready to duke
it out when their rivals won the game.
Can you get from my gestures?
To duke it out, this means to fight.
Not always physically fight.
It could be verbally fight as well, but it
has that idea of aggression.
We’re going to duke it out.
We can use this in a less physical way to
talk about politics or an argument.
Take a look at this sentence.
Everyone tuned in to the TV to watch the politicians
duke it out during the debate.
The politicians are not physically fighting,
but they’re arguing with their words.
They’re duking it out on the stage with their
words.
They’re using that as an argument to try to
win.
All right.
Let’s go to our next very American expression,
to wait in line.
In the U.S. if you need to buy tickets for
something that’s really popular, what do you
need to do?
You need to wait in line.
In the U.K. in British English, they’re more
likely to say queue or to queue up.
But we don’t use that in the U.S. at least
nowhere that I’ve lived.
Is that more common than saying to wait in
line, go get in line.
I was in line for five hours.
You might say “I had to wait in line at the
grocery store because there was only one cashier
working.”
You had to wait in line at the grocery store.
Our next expression is to be pissed.
In the U.S., this means that you are really
angry.
We have a lot of variations of this, to be
pissed off, to be pissed at someone, or just
to be pissed.
But they all involve anger.
This is different than the British English
version of the word pissed.
And that means that you’re drunk.
You drank a lot of alcohol, and now you’re
pissed.
I remember the first time that I heard that
in British English.
I was talking to a guy from Ireland and he
was showing me something that he wrote.
And he said, “Oh yeah.
I’m sorry if there’s some bad spelling.
I wrote it when I was pissed.”
And I thought, “What?
When you’re angry, you can’t spell things,
right?
I don’t get it.”
And I asked him that and he said, “Huh?
No, I was drunk.
I had too much alcohol and I can’t spell.”
And I thought, “Oh.”
I was probably 21 years old at the time.
And I had never heard that before.
So I want to introduce that to you, that in
the U.S. when we say I’m pissed or he’s pissed
or he’s pissed off, it means angry.
Let’s look at some examples.
I was pissed when I realized that my vacation
plans were canceled.
The fans were pissed at the referee for the
bad call that cost them the game.
I don’t know if this needs to be said, but
I might as well say this.
This is an English lesson.
This is a casual expression.
You do not want to use this in a business
setting.
When you’re giving a presentation and you
say, “Oh, our clients canceled their contract
with us.
I’m really pissed.”
No.
You only want to use this in a casual situation
with friends or with family, not in a business
situation.
A Hail Mary.
Do you think this has to do with being Catholic?
Nope.
Instead, this has to do with American football.
So in American football, just like in regular
football or soccer, you try to get the ball
at the end of the field.
Whether it’s just at the end of the field
or in the net, like in soccer, you try to
get it to the other side.
But if it’s the end of the game, the score
is not looking too good for your team.
You, in American football, are going to throw
a Hail Mary pass.
That means that the quarterback, that’s the
guy that throws the ball, is just going to
throw the ball as far as he can and hope “Please,
somebody catch it.”
It’s not a very strategic move.
It’s desperation.
“We have 10 seconds left.
We’re going to lose the game.
What can I do?”
The only thing he can do is throw a Hail Mary
pass.
So we use this American football expression
in daily life to talk about doing something
desperate, something that is probably going
to fail, but you’re doing just because you’re
desperate.
So let’s take a look at some examples.
The shy guy threw a Hail Mary and asked the
pretty girl on a date.
Guess what?
She accepted.
Well, in this situation, this shy guy is desperate.
He thinks she’s going to say no, but he has
nothing to lose.
So he asks her on a date and guess what?
She says, yes.
It’s shocking.
You don’t actually need to use the word throw
every time you use a Hail Mary.
Let’s take that same example.
The guy asked the pretty girl on a date.
In this situation, his friend might say, “Hey,
why’d you ask her on a date?
That was kind of surprising.”
He might say, “Yeah.
It was just a Hail Mary.
I wanted to give it a try.
It was just a Hail Mary.”
This means final, desperate attempt that’s
probably going to fail, but we’ll try it again.
Bless your heart.
I love this one.
It is only in the South of the U.S. and that’s
where I live.
So sometimes I hear other people saying this.
It seems like it should be positive.
You’re blessing someone, encouraging them,
but don’t be fooled.
This is a sly or sneaky way of saying “You’re
so stupid.
You’re not so smart.”
There are a couple different tones that are
used with this expression.
One might be pity like, “Oh, bless your heart.”
But if you want to be a little sharper or
cutting a little bit more, we might say, “Well,
bless your heart.”
You can tell from the tone of my voice and
my eyes that I think you’re really stupid.
“Well, bless your heart.”
This is one of the 10 very American expressions
that I recommend you not using.
Only people who live in the South of the U.S.
can use this.
Even for me, I was born in the North.
I have lived in the South almost my entire
life, but even I don’t use this expression.
But it is essential to understand.
So that’s why I wanted to share it with you
today because if someone says this to you
or in the situation that you’re in, you need
to know what it means.
Or if you see it in a TV show or a movie,
you need to know that they’re not saying something
kind.
They’re really saying something else.
Let me give you some examples.
“Look at your outfit.
Bless your heart.
Did you get dressed in the dark today?”
That means your clothes are not matching.
Maybe they’re inside out.
She’s not saying…
And usually this is women who say this.
She’s not saying, “Oh, your clothes are not
matching.
They look awful.”
Instead she says, “Well, bless your heart.
Did you get dressed in the dark today?”
Very indirect.
Right?
But now you know what it means?
Let’s look at this example, “Oh, you brought
those vegan brownies again.
Bless your heart.”
This implies that that person does not like
the vegan brownies.
Something about them is not good to her.
So she’s saying, “Oh, that’s such a silly
thing to do.
Bless your heart.
You brought those vegan brownies again.”
I hope you can understand this tone underneath
this.
All right.
Let’s go to our next expression, out the wazoo.
Wazoo here is kind of an indirect or a little
more kind way of saying your butt.
But it is much more common to say wazoo, out
the wazoo.
And it’s not really even rude to say this.
If you said butt, it might be a little more
rude.
But let’s take a look at a couple of examples
so that you can see how to use out the wazoo.
It means there is an over abundance of something,
so much of something.
Let’s look.
There were kids out the wazoo at the park.
It was finally a beautiful day and there was
no school.
So there were kids out the wazoo at the park.
They were everywhere.
Or you can say “When I was sick, friends and
family came over to give me food.
Now I have cans of soup out the wazoo.”
Everyone brought me a can of soup.
So now I have cans of soup out the wazoo.
My whole closet is filled with cans of soup.
I’m going to be eating soup for months.
Out the wazoo.
Expression number 10 is a buck.
A buck.
A buck could be a male deer, this kind of
animal that has big antlers.
But in this situation, we’re going to be talking
about it as a dollar.
It’s a casual way to talk about money.
Let’s look at these examples.
“Can you believe that they’re charging 20
bucks for a hamburger?
That’s so expensive.”
20 bucks?
You didn’t say 20 dollars.
You could say that, but it’s just a casual
way to talk about money.
“I paid five bucks for a coffee that I accidentally
spilled on myself.”
You wasted your money.
You spent five bucks, pretty expensive for
a cup of coffee, at least in the U.S.
And then you spilled it on yourself.
There is a little bit of an underlying tone
with the word buck.
It can be used in two opposite ways.
So you saw in these examples that something
was expensive.
20 bucks for a hamburger.
The coffee was five bucks.
That means it’s expensive.
But we could also use the word buck to make
something seem cheaper.
Let’s take a look at this example.
“For only 35 bucks a month, you can have my
English course delivered to you each month.”
Wow.
This means that I’m trying to make the price
of my course seem not too expensive.
When I say for only 35 bucks, we might say,
“Oh wow. 35 dollars is so expensive.
35 bucks.
That’s outrageous.
That’s so much money.”
Or maybe for you, you might say, “35 bucks.
That’s nothing.”
So it just depends on your tone of voice.
We can use the word buck to talk about something
that is expensive, you think is expensive.
Or something that’s cheap.
You’re trying to make it seem like it’s not
much money.
So this is true.
My course, the Fearless Fluency Club, is 35
dollars per month.
If you use the coupon code new on the checkout
page, it’s only five bucks for the first month.
It’s kind of like the trial price.
If you like it, you can stay and then it’s
35 bucks per month.
But if you want to cancel, no problem, just
five bucks.
This is a way of making customers feel like,
“It’s not too expensive.
Just five bucks.
That’s nothing.
I got five bucks.
Let’s try it.”
So we can either make something seem expensive
or seem not expensive, depending on the tone
of voice that you use.
Before we go on to our quiz, let’s talk about
a bonus phrase that is very American.
And it is to talk trash or trash talking.
Can you imagine what this means?
Trash.
It’s probably not a good thing to be trash
talking.
Look at this sentence.
The other team’s fans were trash talking until
we pulled ahead and beat them.
So the other team’s fans were trash talking.
They were saying, “Your team’s awful.
Do you even know what a ball is?
What are you doing?”
You are saying rude or mean things.
You’re trying to put the other person down.
This means you’re trying to make them feel
less.
You are trash talking.
Usually this is kind of a light-hearted thing
like with sports, but if somebody is feeling
serious about it, well, it could also be hurtful
to trash talk.
Like in this situation, you could say, “It’s
unprofessional to trash talk your last boss.
Who knows?
Someone might know him at your current workplace.
Or you might need to use him as a reference
for a new job.”
It’s unprofessional to trash talk your boss.
That means if you say, “Oh yeah.
My last boss, he was so unorganized.
He just always came to work late.”
This is trash talking.
Maybe it’s true things, but it’s not professional
to trash talk your boss in any situation.
All right, let’s go on to a little quiz where
I’m going to see how many of these expressions
you understand.
How American are you?
Let’s listen to these sentences and try to
guess what it means.
My friend and I were sitting in a bar, shooting
the breeze and watching the football game
on TV.
There was a guy waiting in line for a beer
and he was cheering for the other team.
He wanted to duke it out over whose team was
better.
But I proposed a bet instead.
Five bucks that my team would win.
He agreed and thought he was going to win
until my team threw a Hail Mary with seconds
left on the clock and won the game.
He was pissed.
I gave him a pat on the back and said “bless
your heart” while I accepted his five bucks.
Did you get it?
I hope that this little story was understandable
for you.
You’re welcome to go back and repeat this
story.
Try to understand it.
I hope you enjoyed all of these very American
phrases as you travel and as you were exposed
to American media.
Now they will become clear to you.
So I have a question for you.
Who do you like to shoot the breeze with?
Let me know in the comments.
Try to use this American expression.
I look forward to seeing your sentences.
And thank you so much for learning English
with me.
I’ll see you again next Friday for a new lesson
here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free ebook,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.