Learn 20 New Phrases for Speaking Confidently

Get ready to actually take a pretty deep dive into the way that English speakers actually speak today. We're going beyond just the basic idioms and definitely beyond the textbook idioms into phrases that are puzzling to even the most advanced English learners. In today's lesson, I'll teach you the phrases that can be confusing because they are the way that English speakers have come to actually speak in their everyday conversations. They're phrases that we start our sentences with. They're phrases that we use for questions. These phrases, again, they're super advanced, but once I clarify them for you, you'll be speaking English like a pro. If you want a copy of today's English study guide, make sure to use the link below and it will be emailed right to your inbox. Now, let's get started with today's lesson. Take this first phrase. I like the idea of it. Now, this phrase, it sounds like it would be a good thing. It sounds like it would be pretty positive that you actually like the idea of something, but this phrase, actually in American English, it's used to say that we politely don't like something, actually. It's a no thanks. In other language, if you said this, I like the idea of it, it would probably have a literal meaning. In English, it's just a softened way. It's classic American indirectness to say, yeah, I don't really like it, no thanks. So, let me tell you an example of how this phrase would play out at a dinner with your friends. Let's say you guys are ready to order some appetizers and you're really wanting chips and salsa, but someone at the table says, hey, let's order some calamari, some fried octopus for the table, and you say, well, I like the idea of that, but let's go with chips and salsa. This is a polite no thanks. I like the idea of calamari, but I don't actually want to eat calamari. If you like the idea of something, it's like saying, good idea, good try, but this is what I actually want in real life. This next phrase is so relevant in American conversations. The phrase is, it's one thing if. It's one thing if you like to go on vacation, and usually we connect the idea here. We say, it's another if you go into debt to pay for it. So, it's like saying, one thing is good, but if you do it in this way, it's bad. It's one thing to be late once in a while. It's another if you're late every day. So, it's like saying, it's okay. It's one minor thing if you're late once in a while. So, not every day, maybe once a month you're late to work or to school or to whatever it might be. It's another thing, meaning it's a bad thing. It's the opposite if you are late every day, and of course, chronic tardiness or being late every day is very bad, and it's very rude. This phrase, it's one thing, is used to compare different outcomes or different things that seem similar, but they're really not. You're saying one is good and one is bad, or you're often saying one thing is acceptable and one thing is unacceptable. You'll hear this phrase used all the time to say this exact same thing. It's one thing to do it this way. It's another to do it that way. Now, here's one phrase I think that everyone across the world, across different languages, has a way to say. The phrase is, it's all in my head. It's all in my head. So, it's a phrase that's used to say, like, you believe it one way in your head, or you're thinking about things one way that might not actually be the truth in real life. So, you could say, I thought I was gonna get fired, but it's all in my head. My boss wasn't even mad at me, or sometimes you might be self-conscious, and you might think, oh, everybody is staring at me. I look so bad today, but then you say, it's all in my head. Nobody's staring at me. No one is paying attention to what I look like. It's all in my head. That means it's only a problem because I'm thinking about it, and usually you're overthinking about it. So, this phrase is just really useful because, honestly, we're all self-conscious, and a lot of things are all in your head. Maybe you think you saw a ghost, and you'll say, oh, it's all in my head. It's not real. This next phrase, leave it to me. This phrase is very reflective of self-deprecating humor that Americans use all the time. It kind of disarms the situation if you make fun of yourself first. You know, it's like, I made this mistake, and I'm going to point it out and kind of laugh at it so that others don't actually criticize me for it. I recommend this strategy. I think being, you know, recognizing your own mistakes before others can criticize you, I think that's a good strategy to just feel better and, you know, deal with things better in life. So, you could say something like, leave it to me to lose my car keys again, and this is true. I have lost a couple pairs of car keys. I'm usually really organized, but for some reason, leave it to me to lose the car keys. This phrase is just used to say, like, I'm regretful about this mistake, but also it's predictable because it's a mistake that I would typically make. Maybe you're supposed to meet your friend to go to a movie, and you say, leave it to me to forget to buy the tickets. Of course, this is just a really minor mistake. Hopefully, you can still buy tickets at the movie theater, but you're just saying, like, I regret this mistake, and you're kind of admitting it and self-deprecating. Another phrase that's super similar to this is to say, ah, typical me, I forgot to buy the tickets. Leave it to me. Let's move on to a phrase that, honestly, it's just so reflective of Americans. Maybe your own culture values this as well, but we are just so nostalgic. We love talking about the past and reminiscing about the past, thinking about all the positive things that happened, and oftentimes, maybe you agree with this, people have rose-colored glasses on to think about the past. If you don't know this phrase, this isn't the one I meant to teach, but we're going to teach this one right now. Anyway, when someone is wearing rose-colored glasses, it means you're looking at everything positively. You can't see the bad or the negative that's going on, so when we think about the past, we think of it with rose-colored glasses, and I find this to be very true because, obviously, bad things happened in the past as well. People think, you know, the present and the future is so bad, and we're doomed, but truthfully, we've been through bad times in history as well, so the phrase that I wanted to teach after saying all this is back in the day, and I find myself saying this phrase so often now that I'm getting older, and especially that I have children, and I like to say, oh, back in the day, we had to go to Blockbuster to rent a movie instead of just turning on Netflix, so you're just reflecting on a time period long ago and what you used to do. Back in the day is super vague, too. You'll hear Americans just kind of use this to refer to their childhood, or often the times they'll say, oh, back in the day, I had to walk to school. My parents didn't drive me, so you're saying, you know, I used to work so hard. You have it so easy. Brenda, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for cheating back in the day when we was kids. If you watched the Olympics last summer, you might know that Simone Biles is just one of the best athletes of all time and definitely the best gymnast of all time. It would be so hard to top what she did at those Olympics. The phrase is it would be hard to top that. The phrase means that it would be really, really incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for someone to do a better job than what she did at the Olympics last year. We use this phrase in our everyday English to say that it's just difficult to do a better job, and we're complimenting someone's work or someone's skill. A lot of times in competition, the judge will say, you know, you did a great job. It's going to be hard to top that, and in this case, if it's a competition, they might, you know, leave the possibility open, but they are complimenting the performance. You can also use the phrase it would be hard to beat that, either top that or beat that. Let's move on to a couple phrases that might be more useful in a professional setting, but definitely, again, can be used in day-to-day English. When you're kind of brainstorming or thinking about ideas or trying to figure out how to get something to work, you'll use the phrase it looks like we have something here. So this phrase is implying that you have something positive. You have a great idea or some sort of solution, and someone's just kind of introducing the idea to everybody, and you're saying, okay, keep going. Let's think about this idea more. Let's head down this path of thought more because it sounds like it could be promising. It looks like we have something here, and oftentimes, you'll say it looks like we have something promising here, something that seems like it will work or be successful. This phrase is very similar to saying this idea has potential. It could potentially be successful or it could potentially work. There are only so many hours in the day. This phrase is a classic. It's used to recognize that we can only be so productive. We can only get so much done in one single day. So even if you're working very hard, you can say, well, there's only so many hours in the day. I can't do everything. I think in today's day and age, this phrase is definitely relevant because we have access to so many people with just our smartphone or our technology on our computer making a Zoom call or an email that it feels like we need to do all these things and talk to so many people, but if we remind ourselves there's only so many hours in one day, it just tells us like we need to have that balance. There's only so much you can do even though you have access to all these people. You're just one person and you also need to balance out your life and have time to enjoy things and just leisure time as well. When you're feeling overwhelmed, you might think to yourself, I wish I could finish everything, but there's only so many hours in the day. And here this phrase just means, you know, as hard as you can work, you are limited by the hours or the limited amount of time. There's only so many hours in the day. I guess you're right. So let's move on to two phrases that start with for the sake of. So speaking of time, for the sake of time. This phrase is used to say that even if, you know, you want to talk about a subject, it's going to take up too much time and you only want to focus on what's important. So maybe you're giving a presentation and you might say, for the sake of time, I'm not going to allow questions right now. If you want to stay after the meeting, you can ask me questions. So this just means you have so many important topics to cover that for the sake of time, meaning to save the time, you're going to wait to do questions. Or maybe your favorite book has been turned into a movie. Now, oftentimes movies have to leave out certain parts from books just for the sake of time. So this means to save time because a book would be so long to act out every single part. They only keep in the important parts for the sake of time. You know, for the sake of time, I'm going to agree with that insane point and say, yeah, you do great with women. Now, another phrase we use that sounds similar is for the sake of argument. When you use this phrase, you're meaning that even though you don't believe in an idea, you're just going to say it just so you can have a discussion. Usually it's not a heated discussion. It's not aggressive or mean. You're just trying to figure out, you know, if this idea would even be possible or, you know, if it has any positive aspects to it. So for the sake of argument, I will say this. Using the phrase for the sake of argument is kind of like saying, let's imagine. Let's imagine this is happening. So it's not something that's in reality or that you really believe, but let's just imagine it to, you know, discuss the idea. Now let's just say for the sake of argument. One really common phrase that you can use in your everyday conversations to empathize with someone or to kind of agree with them is to say, I wouldn't blame you. You usually follow this up with, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to do this or I wouldn't blame you if you did this. So you're expressing that even though it's a difficult choice that someone has to make or maybe even a selfish choice, if you were in the same situation, you would make the exact same choice. You might say to someone, I wouldn't blame you if you want to leave early. I know you have a baby and you're very tired. In this case, you're just saying, you know, I understand what it's like to have a baby. You're not getting much sleep. I understand. I wouldn't blame you. I wouldn't call you a bad person or a bad friend in this situation. We use the phrase truth be told to reveal kind of an uncomfortable or maybe even just slightly offensive truth about something. Well, truth be told. So maybe you agree to go get some Indian cuisine with your friend because it's your friend's favorite food. And, you know, maybe during the meal, you would say, well, truth be told, I actually don't like spicy food, but I just knew you were excited about eating here. So it's kind of an uncomfortable truth. You're finally telling them this thing that you're revealing and it might make the meal, you know, not really good for you. Hopefully you can get an Indian food meal that's not so spicy. To use the phrase at a certain point means that there is a limit, usually a time limit when we use this phrase. At a certain point, when two people are dating, they need to decide if they want to continue the relationship and get married or if the relationship is just not something that they see working long term. So we're saying that after a long time or, you know, the certain amount of time, it's important to make a decision at that point. Otherwise, you could just be wasting time. So again, this phrase, it really just goes along culturally with how Americans think. We think, you know, usually you have to get married after dating for so long. And of course, you can use this phrase at a certain point to, you know, say in other situations, you know, at this point you should make a decision or at this point you should do this step. At a certain point, you really need to clean your room and clean your house if it gets really messy. But honestly, at a certain point... This next phrase is used to express a certain disappointment with something that has become a regular occurrence to you. The phrase is, I'm all too familiar with. So maybe you feel like a lot of people in your life are disappointing you, not supporting you, letting you down. You could say, I'm all too familiar with disappointment these days. I'm sorry if this is the case. So this phrase is just used to express, you know, a feeling that is negative that seems to keep happening to us or some sort of situation that keeps happening that is disappointing to you. Maybe someone says, I am just so exhausted. I feel like I am just working around the clock. That means all of the time. You could say, I'm all too familiar with that feeling. Meaning you empathize with them and you feel like you also are working all of the time. It's a negative feeling that you are familiar with because you've experienced it many times. I'm all too familiar with my misguided words. Something that you'll hear Americans say while speaking English, and if you're not familiar with these phrases, it's almost like a code. You're like, what are they saying? People will, you know, list off many things or many steps and they'll say an X, Y, Z. Or they'll say an et cetera, et cetera. Or they'll say an yada, yada, yada. You might even hear someone say and so on and so forth. These are all kinds of filler phrases, but they do have a purpose in the way that we're speaking. We're just saying that there's a lot more details or steps that we could list off, but you know, we're not going to spend the time because they're not that important, but we're just letting you know that there's more to what we're saying. Let me give you an example. Someone might ask you, is there anything else that you need to do before you go on your trip? And you might say, yes, I have to get my plane tickets, I have to get a visa, I have to pack this and that and yada, yada, yada, so on and so forth, et cetera, et cetera, and X, Y, Z. Okay, so obviously you wouldn't use all of these phrases at one time, but pick one of these just to say, like, I could list off a ton more things, but I'm not going to bore you with all of these things that I have to do. An interesting phrase that can be used at the moment when you are able to figure out a difficult problem, whether it be like an academic math problem or just a life social problem, there's usually a moment when things just make sense, and you can say the moment that things clicked. We use this phrase, things click, to mean that they make sense, they are in line, in order, things are going well now. So sometimes when you start out in a math class, it seems so confusing, but your teacher explains something finally in a way where it clicks in your brain, meaning it makes sense to you, and you feel confident doing that math again. Or maybe you start working with a new co-worker, and at first things are a little rocky, a little shaky, you don't quite understand the way that they do things, you don't get along very well, but maybe once you get to know them a little bit better, things click, and now you are the best of friends, and you work together very well and are very productive. The moment that things clicked refers to the time that you start working well and getting to be successful together. Okay, one phrase that I hear all of the time in TV, podcasts, whatever it might be, or maybe even in a meeting, is when someone says, stick around after this. So this means that when everything's done, you should remain in this place because there's going to be more information or more entertainment. So maybe you're at a play, and you know someone comes out to address the audience, they'll say stick around until after this intermission to find out what happens. This means just, you know, don't leave, this isn't the end, there's more important things coming. Maybe your friend is having some sort of birthday party, and they'll say, hey you guys should stick around a little longer because even though people are leaving, I want to hang out with you some more. So this just means, you know, hang around, stay here, don't leave yet, don't leave early. Speaking of sticking around, I know that you guys are very eager to learn more phrases just like the ones in this video. If you want to download the PDF study guide, make sure to use the link below, and I'm going to put two more videos on screen that will help you advance your English even more with these types of phrases. So stick around, click on one, or visit englishwithkayla.com. Thank you so much for watching this lesson. I'll see you in the next one. Goodbye!