10 Essential Advanced English Phrases

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Are you ready to speak advanced English? Let's do it. It's a fact. The more advanced English vocabulary you know, the more you'll be able to understand advanced, normal, natural English conversations. And that's what I'd like to help you with today. Today, you're going to learn 10 essential advanced English phrases. These aren't phrases for only business English, but you can use some in professional situations. These aren't phrases that are just slang. These are phrases that you will hear and you can use in everyday conversation. I use these phrases all the time, and I have a feeling that you will be able to use them all the time too. All of these phrases that you're about to learn were in my course, The 30 Day English Listening Challenge, Pack 5, that came out on January 1st, 2021. Each daily lesson featured three new vocabulary words, so a total of 90 words over the 30 lessons. Make sure to check out the course up here. Well, as we practice these words today, I challenge you to speak out loud and try to imitate my sample sentences. This will help your speaking practice, it will help your pronunciation, and I hope it will also help your confidence to grow in English as well. All right, let's get started with the first essential advanced English phrase. Phrase number one, nothing wrong with that or nothing wrong with. Let's imagine that you're in school and a bully says, where'd you get your haircut? Did you trip and some scissors cut your hair? This is very rude, very mean, and so your friend might say to you, don't listen to those bullies. There is nothing wrong with your haircut. This is a comforting or consoling way to help someone feel better. There is nothing wrong with your haircut. Don't listen to that rude person. Or you might say, there's nothing wrong with not following every fashion trend. Maybe you like a classic style of clothing, something that will be in fashion forever, so you don't follow yearly fashion trends. Well, you might say, yeah, there's nothing wrong with not following every fashion trend. I dress the way that I want to dress. Advanced phrase number two is a man of few words. You might say, my grandfather is a man of few words, so when he speaks, I give him my full attention. Can you imagine what this means? I mean, someone who doesn't speak much, but when they speak, they have a lot of importance in their words. Maybe they are a person of action instead of a person of words. Now, in this phrase, it says a man of few words, and let's be honest, it is often men who are this type of person, but of course, we could use this for women as well. Let's take a look at this sentence. My boss is a man of few words, so when he gave me a compliment, I felt really proud. He doesn't say much. He is a man of few words, but he gave me a compliment. Wow. He said my presentation was really organized and helpful. This really was a high value to me. That meant a lot to me because he doesn't say much. So when he says things, it's so valuable. He is a man of few words. Essential phrase number three is the be all and end all. Take a look at this sentence and try to guess what you think it means. Some people think that money is the be all and end all, or we could say some people think that money is the be all and end all in life. What do you think this means? It means that this is the most absolutely important thing in life. Sometimes this phrase can be changed. There's a couple different ways to say this phrase. We might say money is the be all and end all. I don't exactly agree with that, but that's our sample statement here. Or we could say love is the be all and end all. Or we could say love is the end all and be all. So here we're switching those two phrases. Or we could take out the word and completely and say love is the end all, be all, or the be all, end all in life. So there's a couple different ways that you might hear this. My recommendation is our original expression. Love is the be all and end all in life. You can use that full phrase, but you might hear it in a couple different ways. Here's another sample sentence. I thought that the actor was the be all, end all until I realized that he was rude to his manager and then I stopped caring about him. So that means that I thought this actor was the best, the most amazing person, or the most amazing actor, celebrity, until I learned some bad news about his character or his personality. In the sentence, I just said he is the be all, end all. Great. But we could use any of those other variations too. I'm curious to know, what do you think is the be all and end all in life? Let me know in the comments. Essential phrase number four is to hit close to home. We're going to think about this in a figurative sense, and I'd like to explain how this phrase was used in the listening challenge course, and then you can get kind of a better picture for it. So in the listening challenge, we heard a clip from a speaker. Her name is Alicia, and she works in a fabric mill or in a fiber mill. This is a business that's close to my home, and I was talking with her, and this is where she works. She works with fiber or materials like wool every day. This is her business or her job. Well, she heard about a fabric or fiber mill collapse in Bangladesh. Maybe you remember this. I think it was back in 2011. It's called the Rana Plaza factory collapse, really tragic situation. And it was a similar business, but in Bangladesh. So it was a similar type of job that she has. Her job is a good job. It's safe. She loves this job, but the same type of job that was happening in Bangladesh ended in tragedy for these people. So for Alicia, when she heard about that factory collapse and over a thousand people died in that collapse, well, she might say, that factory collapse hit close to home for me. She doesn't live in Bangladesh. She doesn't know anyone who lives in Bangladesh. She doesn't know anyone who works at that factory, but because she feels connected to those people because they have the same job, well, that tragedy was kind of a deeper level of sadness for her. It hit close to home. Let's take a look at another example. The movie about a sick grandmother hit close to home for me because my grandmother recently passed away. In this situation, there's something similar to my personal life circumstance. A movie about a sick grandmother, well, maybe for other people, it's sad, but it's just a movie. But for me, that was very personal. It was another level in me because of something that happened in my personal life. So my grandmother passed away. And then when I watched this movie, it hit close to home. It reminded me of a personal situation in my life. So you can use this if something happens that is not really connected to you, but is kind of a sad situation or a tragic situation, but you feel like, oh, that could have been me. Or, oh, that reminds me of a sad time in my life. There is a connection to you from this event that's not necessarily part of your life. It hits close to home. All right, let's go to our next expression. Expression number five is to last. We might say to last a long time or that won't last. For example, we could say, you should eat some brownies now. They're so good, they won't last. This means that this dessert, these brownies, which are kind of like chocolate cake in a way, these brownies are so good that everyone is going to take them. And if you wait five minutes, there will be no brownies left. So we said, they won't last. They are not going to endure. They're not going to remain. They won't last. So get them while you can. Or we could say, I didn't expect the snow to last, but it hasn't melted yet. For me, where I live in the South of the US, when it snows, usually within two or three days, the sun is too hot and all of the snow melts. So it's not common to have snow for one week at a time. This is just typical of the South and the US where I live. So we might say, I didn't expect the snow to last. I didn't expect the snow to remain or to endure, but it hasn't melted yet. It's been a week. This is pretty unusual. I didn't expect the snow to last. We could say this also about a relationship. I didn't expect their relationship to last, but they've been dating for two years now. Or we could say, I hope that our relationship will last. I hope it will endure or remain for a long time. I hope our relationship will last. I hope your passion for English will last a long time. Essential advanced expression number six is what goes on? There's a couple of different ways that we can use this. We might use it in a question. What is going on here? Or we might use it in the past and say, what went on? Let me give you a couple examples. In the 30 day English listening challenge, the speaker, David, is a lawyer. And he explained that when you're a lawyer, there's some things that you can't see. There's some experiences that you are not allowed to be part of in the courtroom. In the US court situation, there is a jury. This is a complicated system to explain here in a YouTube video, but it's normal citizens. Maybe if you've watched some court dramas or court movies, you know about this. 12 people usually who are normal citizens, like me, I'm not a lawyer. And they are kind of like the judges of the case. So if there is a crime, the judge and the jury are trying to figure out if the crime is true or not, what's happening. But a lawyer cannot listen to what the jury is saying. So the jury has some private conversations together and the lawyer is not allowed to listen to that. It might affect the way that the lawyer talks or behaves. So in the listening challenge, David said this sentence, I want to see what goes on in the jury room, but lawyers aren't allowed in. So for him, he is very curious about what is happening or what goes on in the jury room. So here we can just exchange goes on for happening. What is happening in the jury room? What goes on? Let's take a look at another example. I asked my son, what is going on here? When I caught him playing instead of taking a nap. So we could exchange the word happening. What is happening here? When you're surprised about something, what's happening here? Or you could use this wonderful phrase and say, what's going on here? What's going on here? If we want to use this in the past tense, maybe you walk into your house and everything is a mess. You could use the present tense and say, what is going on here? Or we could use it in the past because something obviously happened in the past in your house to make it a mess. And you might say, oh no, what went on here? Something crazy must have happened. This is a great phrase to be able to integrate into your daily conversations. Advanced expression number seven is on either ends of the spectrum. There's a couple of different ways that we can modify this expression. In fact, it's a great way to advance your vocabulary if you know kind of a core expression and then some modifications, you're able to use all of them, even though you pretty much just learned one expression. So we can say on both ends of the spectrum, on opposite ends of the spectrum, on the other end of the spectrum, or our original expression on either ends of the spectrum. So here, the idea is that we have a scale. On one side, we have an item or an idea, and on the other side, it's the opposite. Let me give you a sample sentence. My husband's taste in movies is on the other side of the spectrum from mine. He likes sci-fi movies and I like historical dramas. So sci-fi, science fiction, is the opposite of historical dramas, give or take. So here, we're talking about the other side of the spectrum. Or we could use one of the other expressions and say, we are on either side of the spectrum. We are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Or we might say, my friend loves going to loud parties, but I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum because I like to stay home and read a good book. We have a scale here, loud parties and staying home and reading a book. These are quite opposites, right? So we might say, you are on the opposite side of the spectrum, or you are on the other side of the spectrum. What a beautiful phrase. Essential advanced phrase number eight is to perfect something. Perfect something. Notice this pronunciation, perfect. The final part of this phrase is what we're going to emphasize. Perfect. Can you say that with me? Perfect. Perfect. Let me give you a sample sentence. My dad is always perfecting his apple pie recipe. That means he's always trying to make it better. Does this word look like another word to you? Does it look like the word perfect? Yes, this is the same spelling and it's kind of a similar idea, but when we use this as a verb to perfect something, there's a different emphasis in pronunciation. So let's practice this. My dad is perfecting his apple pie recipe. The emphasis is on the end of this word. But if you say, I want to speak perfect English. Well, the emphasis is on the beginning of that word. Perfect. I want to speak perfect English. Emphasis is at the beginning. So make sure that that emphasis is correct in order to say this word accurately. All right, let's look at another sentence. My son learned a new song and he is trying to perfect it. So he sings it all the time. He's trying to make his singing better and memorizing the lyrics, all of this. He's trying to perfect it. Perfect it. In my opinion, this is a better verb to use with English than saying, I want to speak perfect English. I would rather you say, I am trying to perfect my English. That means you're just trying to make it better. You don't have the unrealistic expectation that someday your English will be absolutely perfect. This is kind of overwhelming and stressful to think that. But instead, if you have the mindset that I'm just going to improve my English. Well, great. You can perfect your English every day. That is a journey that continues. Do you think you can say that sentence with me? I want to perfect my English. I want to perfect my English. And congratulations, that's what you're doing here in this video today. Let's go to the next expression. Phrase number nine is to see if. We use this all the time. So, I want to make sure that you can use it correctly. We might say, I wanted to see if the roads were cleared of snow. So, I slowly drove through my neighborhood. Okay. You're just checking something. You're verifying something. I wanted to see if the roads were safe to drive on, if they were clear of snow. So, I did a little tiny drive around my neighborhood. We can also use this to kind of investigate or ask a question. You might say, yeah, I wanted to see if you were interested in ordering pizza. I wanted to see if you wanted to order pizza. You're kind of asking, hey, do you want to order pizza? I wanted to see if you wanted to order pizza. So, I use this commonly when I'm texting or calling someone. I might say, hey, yeah, I'm calling because I wanted to see if you could come to my house today. I wanted to see if you're done with that project. I wanted to see if you're checking or verifying something. Our final 10th essential advanced English phrase that we're going to learn today is, there's no such thing. There's no such thing. The most common phrase with this is, there's no such thing as a free lunch. This phrase is not only talking about free food, a free lunch. Instead, we use this expression in general to talk about if something is free, usually there's a hidden cost. Maybe you need to pay later, or maybe they'll send you an advertisement, or there's something hidden that's happening. So, if a company comes up to you and says, hey, yeah, we're doing some free estimates to see if your windows are secure and they're insulated well, you might think, hmm, they're doing a free estimate, but there's no such thing as a free lunch. So, probably I'll get a lot of phone calls from them asking if they can fix my windows. So, really, it's not possible to have only something for free. Or we could say, I used to think that there's no such thing as a sea monster, but then I saw some pretty scary looking animals that live deep down in the ocean. There's no such thing as a sea monster. This doesn't exist. Well, unless you've seen some of those very strange animals that live at the bottom of the ocean. Great work learning these 10 new phrases so that you can understand fast English and express yourself clearly. You need to expand your vocabulary. And that's what you did today. Great work. Would you like to continue learning essential advanced vocabulary like this and challenging your listening skills? Well, I recommend joining the 30-Day English Listening Challenge Pack 5. Every day, you will learn three new phrases and improve your listening skills so that you can hear and understand fast English. Join thousands of other English learners to see if you can build some language skills that will last a lifetime. To find out more about what goes on in this course, you can click on the link up here or in the description, and it is my pleasure to be your teacher. Well, now I have a question for you. What is something that you are trying to perfect? Let me know in the comments what you're trying to perfect, and I will look forward to reading your answers. Thank you so much for learning English with me, and 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.