Level Up Your Vocabulary Advanced English Lesson
Vanessa:
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to level up your English?
Let’s do it.
Drum roll.
Come away with me and fly to amazing English
land today.
Have you ever felt like you use the same English
phrases again and again and again, or have
you ever watched an English movie or TV show
and thought, “Man, I would love to speak English
like that.”
Well, never fear.
Today, I’m going to help you level up your
English by changing some common English phrases
into more advanced wonderful English idioms
that native English speakers often use in
daily conversation, but I don’t often hear
English learners use.
So you will be able to use them in this lesson.
And to help you understand all of these expressions
and continue to remember them so that you
can use them when you go out into the real
world, I’ve created a free PDF worksheet for
you.
In this worksheet, you can learn the more
common phrases changed into advanced beautiful
phrases and also some sample sentences.
And you can answer Vanessa’s challenge question
at the end of the worksheet.
You can click on the link in the description
to download the free worksheet, put it under
your pillow as you sleep, and soak in English.
All right.
Are you ready to get started learning these
wonderful English phrases, including one that
apparently I’ve been using wrong my whole
life?
And I just found it out as I was making this
lesson.
All right, let’s get started.
The conversation was confusing.
The conversation was all over the map.
Oh, much better.
This idiom, “all over the map” means that
there is no logic, no flow, it jumps from
one idea to the other.
It is all over the map.
It’s pretty confusing and difficult to understand.
Man, that conversation was all over the map.
I’m learning about these English idioms.
I’m trying to get the hang of it.
Oh, much better.
This idiom, “to get the hang of it” means
that you’re learning something new and you’re
trying to become more comfortable with it.
When you’re going from beginner to intermediate
to advanced, well, you are trying to get the
hang of English so that you can speak comfortably.
Excellent.
Get the hang of it.
Summer is almost over.
Before you know it, it will be fall.
Ooh.
Before you know it, this is an excellent English
idiom and it means something will happen soon
or almost immediately.
Before you know it.
Oh, it’s going to happen so soon that I won’t
even have time to think about it.
You know what?
Before you know it, you are going to be speaking
English confidently.
One day you’ll just keep practicing and practicing
and then, “Oh, I didn’t even realize it, but
my confidence has been growing.”
Before you know it, you will be speaking English
confidently.
Wow, they really like each other.
Wow, they are head over heels for each other.
This is a fun English idiom that means you
are completely in love with someone.
To be head over heels.
We can imagine when you fall in love, your
head and your heels are switching positions.
So they are head over heels for each other.
Completely in love.
What a wonderful phrase.
Let me know if your plans change.
Keep me posted.
Keep me in the loop.
All those are great phrases.
Keep me posted.
We can imagine a poster with some announcement
on it or keep me in the loop.
Here we have a circle and there is some important
information inside that circle, that’s kind
of the literal meaning of this figurative
idiom.
Can you imagine it means to get some updates
about something, to make sure that I have
the most recent information.
We often use this for events, maybe for someone’s
health condition, if your friend just had
a baby and you say, “Hey, I’m going to bring
you some food so that you have dinner tonight,
but keep me posted and let me know if you
need anything else.”
Okay.
Keep me posted.
They’re not going to send you a poster, but
it means they’ll just text you with some updates.
“Hey, could you come over and hold my baby
while I take a shower?”
Oh, this is great.
This is an update about what’s going on or
we could just exchange it with the other phrase.
“Hey, can you keep me in the loop?
Just keep me in the loop.
Let me know if you need anything and make
sure I have some updates.”
Excellent.
The students didn’t get in trouble.
The teacher let them off the hook.
Ooh, this fun English idiom, “let someone
off the hook,” we can imagine a fish.
You caught a fish and it doesn’t seem like
good news for that fish, right?
He’s about to be eaten.
But if you let him off the hook, if you take
him off the hook and throw him back into the
water, he’s free.
And this is the same idea here.
The students did something not so great and
the teacher did not punish them.
Instead, the teacher let them off the hook.
Oh, what a wonderful English idiom that means
you don’t get in trouble.
The consequences are less than you thought.
Oh, I didn’t think they would let me off the
hook, but I’m free.
Excellent.
How are you doing?
I’m having a pretty good day today.
How are you doing today?
So far so good.
Oh, that’s a great expression.
When someone asks you, “How are you doing?”
You can say, “So far so good.”
This is a great way to respond to this common
question.
And in fact, it’s a little bit funny too,
because it kind of implies that everything
is going well so far, but at any time something
bad could happen.
So it’s not a perfectly optimistic phrase.
It’s kind of a realistic phrase with a little
bit of humor.
How are you doing?
So far so good.
Great.
At any time something terrible could happen,
but right now everything is great.
So far so good.
Excellent.
I hope you can use this in your daily conversations.
Oh, hey, I was just talking about you.
Speak of the devil.
Oh, much better.
This phrase, “speak of the devil” is used
when you’re talking about someone and then
they walk in the room.
Oh, speak of the devil.
Are you calling your friend the devil?
No, you are not implying that they are bad
or evil.
This is just an idiom that shows we were talking
about you and then there you are.
It’s kind of like magic.
All of a sudden he appears.
So I would recommend using this in casual
situations with friends.
And usually if you say this, they will wonder,
“What were they saying about me?”
So if you are saying something secretive about
that person, maybe don’t use this phrase.
You don’t want them to know that you were
talking about them.
But if you say, “Oh, speak of the devil, there
he is.”
Well, you might need to explain, “Oh, we were
talking about your birthday party last week
and how much fun it was.”
You’re going to need to explain a little bit
what you were talking about.
But you know what?
Sometimes this phrase is said “speaking of
the devil” and this phrase I found out is
technically wrong, but that’s what I say.
I say “speaking of the devil” and actually
that’s what my son says too because that’s
what I say.
So one time I heard my four year old son say,
“Speaking of the devil,” and I thought, “What?
How did he learn that phrase?”
And then I realized, “Oh, that’s what I say.”
So when I say this phrase, I add I-N-G, speaking
of the devil.
But as I was doing a little bit of research
about this, I realized I’m wrong.
So instead it should be “speak of the devil”,
but you will hear people say, “speaking of
the devil”.
Technically it’s incorrect, but you will hear
people say that like me and you know what?
It’s okay.
We get the same meaning and you know what?
Let’s just roll with it.
Speak of the devil.
Speaking of the devil, there he is.
That’s true, I agree.
You could say that again.
Oh, what a great phrase.
You could say say that again.
This is a rhetorical statement.
You’re not actually asking someone to repeat
themselves.
Instead, you are emphasizing that you absolutely
agree with them.
Maybe if someone says, “Oh, it is so hot today.”
You could say, “You could say that again.”
Or if someone says, “Oh, this cake is amazing”.
What can you say?
“You could say that again.”
That means I absolutely agree with you.
It’s so hot today.
This cake is amazing.
You could say that again.
And they don’t need to repeat it, but it just
means, I definitely agree with you.
This lesson is so helpful.
You could say that again.
I hope so.
I can’t believe it.
I can’t understand it.
I can’t wrap my head around it.
I can’t wrap my brain around it.
Oh, what a lovely expression.
The idea of wrapping your head or your brain
around something just means to understand
something.
But we often use this English idiom for tragic
events or something that is really difficult
to comprehend.
So for example, recently there were some bad
floods in Europe and in China and for these
tragic events, especially when you’re watching
it on the news, sometimes it’s hard to comprehend.
I’m not there.
I’m not experiencing that in person, so we
could use this type of phrase.
It’s really hard to wrap your brain around
the kind of tragedy and the kind of damage
that’s happening because of the floods.
It’s hard to wrap your head around something
because you seem removed from it.
It’s too tragic to handle.
So we can use this expression, “I just can’t
wrap my brain around it”, but we can also
use it for simple things too, like if you
are looking at a math problem and it’s extremely
complicated.
You can say, “Oh, I just can’t wrap my brain
around this problem.
I don’t think I’m ever going to solve it.”
So we can use it for these big events or for
simple problems.
On the other hand, it’s not hard to figure
out.
It’s not rocket science.
Oh, much better.
We’re not actually talking about becoming
a rocket scientist.
Instead, we’re talking about something that’s
not complicated and we almost always use this
idiom with the word not.
It’s not rocket science.
Let me give you a couple of examples because
sometimes this can be used to encourage and
sometimes this can be used to make fun of
someone.
So I want to make sure that you use it and
you understand how it’s being used in that
correct way.
Last week when the gate on my deck broke,
my mom was with me and I said, “We can fix
it.
It isn’t rocket science, right?”
“Yeah, let’s figure out how to fix this.”
So here I’m just trying to encourage myself
and encourage my mom that this project is
not too complicated.
It isn’t rocket science, right?
We can do this.
It seems like it might be challenging, but
no, it’s not rocket science.
We got this.
We can do it.
So that’s kind of an encouraging way to use
this, but we can also use this to make fun
of someone too.
Let’s imagine that my mom was trying to fix
the gate and she said, “Oh, I just can’t figure
out how to fix the gate.”
What if I said to her, “It isn’t rocket science.
You can do it.”
Can you tell by the tone in my voice, I’m
kind of making fun of the fact that she can’t
figure out that simple thing?
It isn’t rocket science.
You can do it.
So here be careful using this in those types
of situations where you’re not participating.
If you’re just telling someone, “You can do
it, it’s not rocket science.”
You’re kind of saying, “Hey, why can’t you
figure that out?
Are you dumb?
Because it’s not rocket science.
It’s a really simple thing.”
But if you’re participating in the activity
and you’re encouraging yourself too, “All
right, we can do this.
It’s not rocket science.
We got this.”
That’s no problem, but make sure that you
don’t just tell this to someone with that
kind of sneer.
It’s not rocket science.
You can do it.
Make sure that you don’t say it like that
unless you really want to express yourself
in that way.
All right, let’s go to our next phrase.
I’m finished with work.
Let’s call it a day.
Oh, excellent.
Let’s call it a day or I’m going to call it
a day just means I’m finished with work and
I’m going to go home or I’m going to finish.
This is an extremely common phrase in the
office or in a work culture.
We often say, “Let’s call it a day.
Let’s call it a day.
It’s been so long.
I’m going to call it a day.
I’m done with this project for now.”
Excellent.
To call it a day means I’m all done.
I’m finished and I’ll start working again
another time.
Excellent.
Let’s call it a day.
That is so irritating.
That is so annoying.
That ruffles my feathers.
Oh, what a lovely expression.
We can imagine a bird.
When a bird is angry, it’s feathers kind of
puff up a little bit.
That’s kind of ruffling its feathers.
It’s getting irritated and annoyed about something.
Well, we can imagine you are like that bird.
You’re irritated and annoyed.
One time I went to a fireworks show and we
were waiting for the fireworks to start, waiting
for the sun to set a little bit.
And there was a mother with a couple children
and the mother kept telling her kids, “Sit
still.
Stop fidgeting.
Be quiet.”
And then she just looked at her phone.
She is doing something to pass the time until
the fireworks start, but she’s not letting
her kids do something to pass the time, like
moving around and fidgeting.
This type of unfairness, especially to children
really ruffles my feathers.
Having more equal standards or understanding
the situation of children is a nice thing
to do.
So when there is unfairness towards children,
that really ruffles my feathers.
That makes me feel irritated and annoyed.
Well, what did you think of these common English
idioms that will help you to level up your
vocabulary?
I hope they didn’t ruffle your feathers and
I hope this lesson wasn’t all over the map.
So don’t forget to download the free PDF worksheet
for this lesson.
I’ve included all of the first normal phrases,
then the leveled up idioms, some sample sentences,
and also at the end of the free worksheet,
you can answer Vanessa’s challenge question
and use what you’ve learned.
Don’t forget to download that PDF in the link
in the description below this so that you
can continue to immerse yourself in English
and speak confidently.
And now I have a question for you.
Are you still trying to wrap your head around
these phrases or are you starting to get the
hang of it?
Let me know in the comments below.
Try to use one of these wonderful idioms and
I will see you again next Friday for a new
lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
The next step is to download the free PDF
worksheet for this lesson.
With this free PDF you will master today’s
lesson and never forget what you have learned.
You can be a confident English speaker.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for a free English lesson every Friday.
Bye.