Let’s relax and learn some English vocabulary & expressions!

Oh, hello. My name is Emma. You might be wondering

why I'm wearing sunglasses. Well, it's because

today I am relaxing. Being an English teacher

can be hard work, but today I want to relax.

Well, let's relax together, and let's also learn

something today. So, today we are going to learn

some expressions about relaxing. I'm going to

teach you 10 new expressions you can use to

talk about relaxing. So, get ready, sit back, relax, and let's learn together.

The first word I want us to talk about is the

word I just used, relax. So, when we relax,

it means we're not stressed out, we're not worried,

we are enjoying ourselves, and we're resting.

So, for example, how do I relax? Well, I relax

by listening to music. I relax by watching TV.

I relax by taking walks in my neighborhood. How do you relax?

Well, we can also use... So, I just used relax

as a verb. Remember, a verb is an action word.

We can also use relax as an adjective. An

adjective is a word that describes something.

So, relax as an adjective, we have two forms,

relaxing with -ing and relaxed with -ed.

Many learners find -ing and -ed adjectives really

confusing, but let's look at this word for a

moment and talk about it. So, relaxing with -ing

describes something. It describes a situation

or an object. So, for example, I can say, "The

music is relaxing." "Taking a walk is relaxing."

"Reading a book is relaxing." "Swimming is relaxing."

So, notice all of these things are either

situations or, you know, objects that I used

relaxing with. Well, when we use -ed and we say

relaxed, what that means is it means we're talking

about our feelings, how we feel. So, for example,

I am relaxed right now. I feel relaxed. So, this

means I don't feel stressed, I feel calm. So, this

is the difference between relaxing, which is for

situations or objects, versus relaxed. I am

relaxed, which is for describing our feelings.

So, now let's look at some other examples of

words we can use to relax. Okay, so another common

expression we use to talk about relaxing is the

expression "take it easy." This expression is

common in music. There's a great Eagles song

called "Take It Easy" where you can listen to

this expression. So, what does it mean, "take

it easy"? Well, one meaning is it means to relax

and to avoid hard work, to do very little. So, when I take it easy, I don't do much.

I relax, I rest. That's what I do when I take

it easy. So, let's look at an example of this

in a sentence. This weekend, I'm taking it easy.

So, again, that means I'm not going to do hard work.

I'm just going to rest and relax. There's another

meaning for "take it easy." We can also use it to

mean goodbye. Some people in English will say,

"Take it easy," and they mean goodbye. So, you know,

"See you later. Take it easy." It's a common way

to say goodbye. Another meaning of "take it easy"

is something you need to be careful of.

"Take it easy," depending on how you say it,

can also be a command for someone to calm down.

So, if someone is really angry and you say,

"Oh, take it easy," you're telling them to calm

down, which might work, but a lot of the times,

people, when they're angry, they don't want to hear "take it easy."

So, "take it easy" can mean the same thing as, "Calm

down. Take it easy." So, again, your voice matters.

We often use "take it easy" when people are

sick. So, imagine Fred is sick this weekend.

We might say, "Oh, Fred, I heard you're sick. Take

it easy this weekend," meaning rest. Don't do hard

work. Take it easy. And here, I've used the same

example, "I hear you're sick. Take it easy." So,

this is a great expression to learn, and it's very

common in English, so it's a good one to remember.

Okay, the next expression that also means relax is "unwind," and I want you to pay

careful attention to pronunciation here because

many students pronounce this as "unwind,"

but the pronunciation is "wind," "unwind." So,

what does it mean to unwind? Well, like I said,

it's relax. So, let's look at some examples.

"How do I unwind? How do I relax?" Well,

I'm watching TV to unwind. I listen to music to unwind. I go for a walk to unwind.

You might ask somebody else this question, "What

do you do to unwind?" So, what do you do to relax?

Here's another example of the word "unwind."

"She unwinds." So, it's a verb. "She unwinds

by drinking wine." I like this last sentence

because I think it can help you remember the

pronunciation. When people drink wine, they unwind.

"Wine" and "wind" have a similar pronunciation,

so maybe that can help you remember how to pronounce this word.

And "unwind" is common, again, in English

conversation. You know, "What did you do this

weekend?" "Oh, I spent the weekend unwinding."

You might hear people say that. Let's look at

some other examples of relaxation expressions.

All right. So, the next word, "chill,"

is very popular with younger people. This is

not the kind of word my parents or grandparents

will use. It's often used by teenagers or people in their 20s or maybe even 30s.

So, what does it mean to say "chill"? Well,

"chill" is slang for "relax." So, for example,

someone might say, "This weekend, I'm chilling." "Let's chill this weekend."

"I like to chill on the weekend." This means

relax. And again, it's not used by older people;

it tends to be used by younger people. We can also

use "chill," depending on our tone or our voice,

to mean "calm down." Just like "take it easy," if

we say "chill," that means we're telling someone

to calm down. And they might not take it in a

good way. "Chill, man. Calm down." Or "Chill.

Take it easy." It means, you know, relax because

a person probably is mad or angry or upset.

"Chill out." You might also hear someone say,

"You need to chill." That means you need to relax.

Again, it's all about the way you say things. So,

now let's look at our next word that has to do

with relaxation, "are" and "are." So, if you hear

someone say "are" and "are," one of the meanings

of this can be "rest and relaxation" or "rest and

recreation" or "rest and recuperation." It doesn't

really matter what the second "are" is. The point

of "are" and "are" is it means relaxing in your

free time. So, when we talk about "are" and "are,"

we're talking about our free time we use to enjoy

life and to relax. So, how might we use this in

a sentence? Well, "are" and "are" is a noun. So,

I'll give some examples. I might say, "Oh, summer

is great. It's a great time for are and are."

This means summer is a good time to relax. As

simple as that. I can also say, "Oh, I'm getting

a lot of are and are this week." This means I'm

relaxing and resting this week. So, this, again,

it's slang, but you might hear someone talk about

"are" and "are," and that's what this means.

Okay, so the next word or expression I want to

look at is "take a break" or "take a breather."

"Take a break" and "take a breather" mean to

take a short pause or to stop doing something

for a short time in order to relax or to de-stress. So, for example,

we can also say you take a break to stop doing

something for a short time. When we use "breather,"

it's usually more about stress. "Take a

breather" usually means someone is stressed out,

and if they take a breather, it means

they're resting so they don't feel stressed.

"Take a break" is more common. We use it more in

our everyday English. If you say, "Oh, it's time

for a break. Let's take a break." That means let's

stop doing what we're doing. Let's take a moment

to rest and relax. Now, I just wanted to point

this out. The verb we use with "break" in English

is "take." "Take a break." In other languages, it

might be "do a break" or "make a break," but in

English, we always use the word "take a break."

All right, let's look at a few more expressions

to do with relaxation. All right, so we have three more expressions to go.

The next expression is "sit back" or "kick back."

We can use either of these expressions. They mean

the same thing. When you sit back or you kick

back, it means you relax and you don't do much

of anything. You rest. So, for example, "I'm going

to kick back," or if I want, I can say, "I'm going

to kick back and relax." We use both of these. I

can also say, "I'm going to sit back and relax."

That's possible, too. "Let's kick back this

weekend. Let's sit back and enjoy the show."

So, again, this means to just relax and to not do much of anything.

The next expression is "put my feet up." So,

when you put your feet up, it's an expression in

English, and it means to sit and relax. English

has many expressions for relaxation. You're

probably noticing that right now. When we say, "put

my feet up," let's look at some examples of this.

We can say, "Put your feet up. It's the weekend."

So, that means relax. Don't do anything. It's the

weekend. "After work, I put my feet up and watch

reality TV." So, this means after work, I sit and I

relax and I watch reality TV. All right, so our

next expression, our final expression, is an

important one, "recharge." "Recharge" or "recharge

our batteries" is what we do when we rest in order

to get energy back. So, every day, we have lots

going on. Maybe we have children or work or school,

and at the end of the day, it's important to

recharge our batteries. This means it's important

to rest and relax to get more energy. So, this is

how I would use this. "Every year, I go on vacation

to recharge" or "Every year, I go on vacation to

recharge my batteries." So, thank you for watching

this video. We've talked a lot about relaxation.

I'm going to tell you something that's not so

relaxing for a moment, and then we'll go back to

relaxing. You can take our test at www.engvid.com

to practice the words you learned here. It's not

relaxing. I hope you take it easy after the test

and relax after you do that because, remember,

the best way to remember something is actually

to test ourselves. You can also subscribe to my

YouTube channel. I have many different videos

on all sorts of different topics from pronunciation

to grammar to writing and vocabulary and so much

more. So, thank you for watching. I am now going

to unwind. I'm going to take it easy. I'm going

to recharge my batteries, kick back, relax, sit

back, enjoy myself. So, thank you for watching,

and I hope you get some relaxation too. Until next time, take care.