English Learner vs Native Speaker: Real Phrases for Everyday Conversations

Let's see if you know these native phrases. English learners and native English speakers

use different vocabulary because they learn different vocabulary. In classroom, English

learners are usually learning more formal, textbook English, but native speakers are

learning the casual conversational speech that you really find in movies and TV shows.

So let's take a look at some things that learners say and compare these to what natives actually

say in conversations. The first one is, "I agree." Now, this is

perfectly fine to use in a conversation, but if you want to sound much more natural and

expressive, you can say, "You can say that again." You can say that again. So we're agreeing

with someone, but we're saying we agree so much that we want that person to actually

repeat themselves. So as an example, I might be in a room with a friend of mine and he

says, "Wow, it's really hot in here." I could say, "Yes, I agree." Or he says, "Wow, it's

really hot in here." I say, "You could say that again." You could say that again. Here's

some other native examples. This place was in the time of Jesus. Brother,

you can say that again, Dennis! The RNA World Hypothesis is extremely unlikely.

Yeah, you can say that again! She’s a witch. A real with, isn’t she?

Yeah, you can say that again. Next, an English learner might say something

like, "I have one more to do," and this is something you would use in a situation where

you're building something, making something, have a project where you're doing a few things.

As an example, maybe you are making doors in your house, so you have to make five doors,

and you have already made four, and you have one more left to make. But a very simple way

that natives use, and we can use this in slightly different ways depending on the numbers, is,

"One down, one to go." As an example with the doors, maybe I have four down, one to

go. So when you finish something, you have some kind of project or you're building many

of the same thing. If I'm making shirts in my office, I might say, "Four shirts down,

one to go." So down, meaning you finished that thing. So one down, one to go. One down,

one finished, and one left to do. Here's some more native examples.

OK. One down, one to go. One dream down, one to go.

Two down, one to go. One down, a couple thousand to go.

Next, a non-native might say that's rare, unusual, weird or surprising, but a more interesting

native way of saying this is, "That's something you don't see every day." That's something

you don't see every day. Now, you'll hear this as "That's something you don't see every

day" or, "There's something you don't see every day." So if I see a horse walking down

the street on just two legs and he goes into a coffee store, I'm very surprised by that.

I say, "Wow, that's something you don't see every day." That's something you don't see

every day. Now, you will hear this used sarcastically

by natives as well. So, as an example, if my child usually doesn't clean up their room

and one day they do clean it up, I might say, "Oh, well, that's something you don't see

every day." So I'm being a little bit sarcastic. I'm actually happy that my child cleaned up

their room. But again, it's something we say when it's rare or surprising. Here are some

more native examples. It goes without saying that this is something

you don’t see every day. It’s real interesting to see. It’s something

you don’t see every day. Even footage from his PhD viva, which is something

you don’t see every day. Now there’s something you don’t see every

day. This next one is really interesting, and this

is when you were talking about something that you are known for or that you are proud of,

usually something that you make. In the English way of describing this is, "This is my famous

such-and-such," so whatever that is. So you'll hear this often used with food. If I'm going

to a party and I meet other people there, and each person is bringing some special food

that they make, where they're known for, I can say, "This is my famous potato salad,"

or, "This is my mom's famous bread something." So whatever that thing happens to be, you'll

see a lot of examples. I'll share some with you now, but the point is instead of saying

something like this is a dish that my mother made when I was growing up. So something that's

a little bit longer and more difficult to say, you can more easily express yourself

if you just say, "This is my famous something," or "This is my mother's famous, or my friend's

famous something." Let's look at a few examples. We're right on schedule for my famous party

trick. And, of course, my famous 1982 book Negotiating

the Curriculum. This is my famous Egyptian-inspired table

here. Next, you could say help, like if you are

going to help someone, but a more native and conversational way to say this, especially

if you're talking about a group of people is, "to pitch in." Now this is a phrasal verb

that just means to help, but we're just saying it in a more expressive and natural way. So

if I'm working with a group of people, maybe we are all cleaning up the neighborhood, some

people come over and I say, "Hey, can you pitch in for a little bit?"

Pitch in can also be used for talking about money. So if you have a group of people who

want to buy a birthday gift for someone, "We all pitched in to buy this for you." So each

one of us put in a little bit of money to purchase something, to pitch in. Here are

some examples. We pitch in and we help out.

America only succeeds when we all pitch in and pull together.

People were very willing to pitch in and help each other out. They were very proud of what

they were about to establish. Next, here is a very common situation. A non-native

might say something like, "Now I will try something difficult." And an example might

be, you are learning a magic trick or some other difficult thing like how to play basketball.

Someone is teaching you how to do this and then it's your turn to try it. Now, people

usually say something like, "Okay, I'm going to try this now," or "Wish me luck," or something

like that, because we usually know we're not going to do it well. So, as a way of protecting

yourself and just making it seem that you're not so embarrassed to make a mistake as you're

doing something, you might say instead, this is what an English speaker would say, "Here

goes nothing!" Here goes nothing. Here goes nothing. So this means, I'm going to try something

right now and I will probably fail. But it's kind of my way of protecting myself and again

saving myself from a little embarrassment. I know I'm not going to do that thing very

well, but I'm going to try it anywhere. Here goes nothing. Here goes nothing. Let's look

at some more examples. All right! Here goes nothing!

So, here goes nothing! All right! Here goes nothing! Oh! Jesus Christ!

All right! Here goes nothing! 3, 2, 1… And the last one, this is a very simple thing,

and you will hear the word "hi" from native speakers, but often, in much more casual situations

and even some professional situations, people will greet each other with, "Hey." So a non-native

speaker is usually using more something like hi or hello, a little bit more formal English,

but very casually, even in professional situations you'll hear native saying, "Hey." Hey, Hey.

Here are a few great examples. Hey, Stephen. Hey. How's it going? Good.

Hey! It's good to see you! Hey, Marie. I'm at the stage in my life and

career where networking is super important. Hey, Larry!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this lesson. I just wanted to share a few of these, and if you

like, I can make some more. So do let me know. Post a comment down below this video and let

me know which one of these you didn't know and which of these you enjoyed the most.

If you didn't know some of these, it's because most English lessons don't teach spoken English.

They don't teach the way natives really speak. And this is why many learners often struggle

to understand the casual vocabulary and the fast speech and accents of natives in movies,

TV shows and conversations. So if you want to learn real, spoken English

and become a fluent speaker, click on the link in the upper right of this video or on

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It will teach you over 2000 useful words, phrases, phrasal verbs, slang, idioms, proverbs,

expressions, and much more, and help you learn them step by step, so you learn to use them

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