Say This to Sound Like a Native Speaker | Advanced Vocabulary in English

hello guys and welcome back to my youtube channel  in this video i wanted to teach you some advanced  

expression in english the expressions that native  speakers use all the time what makes idioms so  

special is that they give you a whole new range  to express yourself and they allow you to develop  

new vocabulary for your learning this means  that you will have additional tools when  

speaking or writing and you'll be able to approach  a native speaker at a greater rate it's a win-win  

so to say and if you would like to get access  to a lot of these idioms and phrasal verbs in a  

printable worksheet you can check out my patreon  page because there i publish a lot of additional  

resources for you guys to learn english i  also give early access to my videos and also  

transcripts to every single one of my videos so  you could learn english faster and also again if  

you have any questions for me you can always ask  me on patreon so if you want to support me there  

and get a printable worksheet like this one make  sure to check out my memberships there and choose  

the one that works best for you so let's move  on to our first idiom a train wreck the little  

meaning of the train wreck is an accident in  which a train or trains are severely damaged  

but in slang this expression usually refers to a  person whose life is very chaotic and unsuccessful  

so their life is basically a total mess for  example a person who has such a chaotic and  

messy life might say i got fired from my last four  jobs and my boyfriend just broke up with me i'm a  

total train wreck and we can also use this idiom  to talk about a major failure or a disastrous  

situation coming back to the previous example we  can change it a little bit and say i got fire from  

my last four jobs my boyfriend just broke up with  me my life is a total train wreck again guys this  

expression this idiom train wreck is very informal  and i think it shows well how expressive americans  

like to be and how they like to exaggerate  things it's a bit of a train wreck joe  

let's go to the next expression a black sheep if  you describe a person as a black sheep they don't  

fit in with a specific group sheep are usually  white and there is one black sheep and the flock  

obviously is gonna stand out careful guys for  the word sheep in english we say one sheep but  

many sheep you don't have to add an s here sheep's  is wrong you just say sheep many sheep that's it  

also i just said that if there is one black sheep  and the flock a flock is a group of sheep also a  

very good word in english so let me give you an  example of how people might use this expression  

when i was growing up i felt like the black  sheep of the family i was very rebellious but  

my siblings were quiet and always listen to what  our parents told us to do so as you can see from  

this example i was the black sheep of the family  meaning i was the one who stood out because of  

my behavior and it's also interesting how people  translate this expression into different languages  

because my native language is russian and we have  a very similar expression but it goes like this  

a white crow which is pretty fun because crows are  usually black right so again if there is a white  

crow it's obviously going to stand out and  it would be very curious to know what you  

call this person in your native language is it a  black sheep is it a white crow let me know in the  

comments or maybe some other animal like a black  polar bear or something i'm a black sheep man  

the next expression is cold feet if you  have cold feet it means that you're nervous  

or anxious about doing something for  example i wanted to try skydiving  

when i was in vacation last week but i have a  huge fear of heights and got cold feet at the last  

moment so let's look at this expression again this  person got cold feet meaning they got very scared  

very anxious about skydiving and so they decided  not to skydive even though they've planned it but  

at the last moment they got cold feet they got too  nervous too scared and they decided to cancel and  

the funny story here is that native speakers very  often use this expression when they talk about  

marriages if you google cold feed marriage you'll  find so many interesting articles that give advice  

on what to do if you have cold feet before your  wedding this is pretty interesting to me and this  

is exactly how i like learning a foreign language  by using real life examples and as you can see i  

guess there are so many websites that give you  advice on what to do if you get cold feet and  

i think this is also the best way to actually  memorize this expression if you're interested in  

this you can read a bunch of articles and i'm sure  by the end of this process you will have memorized  

the expression sometimes men just get cold feed  idiom number four is collect dust if something is  

collecting dust it means that it's not being used  anymore this expression is pretty easy to memorize  

because imagine there is a book on the table and  we don't use it for a very long time so it's just  

sitting in there unused and untouched and it's  no surprise that it's gonna get covered in dust  

so it's gonna collect dust and this is where this  expression comes from and this is also how you can  

use this idiom in conversations this book has been  collecting dust on the table for many months you  

never even open it so again this book has been  collecting dust or has been unused for many months  

you never even open it and if we think about  things that people use or don't use a really fun  

word comes to mind in english hoarders so hoarders  are people who like to collect a lot of random  

things and it's very hard for them to throw them  away i personally hate clutter and it's very easy  

for me to part with things but again guys i  want you to know this great word in english  

hoarder and you can also say two hoard things so  you can use this word as a verb and naturally i  

have a question for you is it easy for you guys  to get rid of things or would you call yourself  

a hoarder let me know in the comments let's just  collect this expression number five is to move  

some things around this is an amazing expression  to use at the workplace or when consulting with  

your calendar if i move some things around it  means i make some adjustments to my schedule  

so that i could meet with some person at a better  time or at a time that works best for them i think  

to understand the expression a little bit better  you really need to look at the example let me see  

if i can move some things around in my schedule so  that i can come to your birthday party next week  

as you can see a person wants to move some things  around because they want to attend a birthday  

party and by using this expression they mean that  they're going to change their schedule a little  

bit the idiom comes from the physical action of  moving your tasks around in your calendar for  

example if you have google calendar you can just  with a click of a mouse you can move your tasks  

around and rearrange your calendar so again guess  this is a very useful expression to use in the  

workplace to impress your colleagues and your boss  so make sure to use it as much as you can excuse  

the delay while we move things around and change  our costumes idiom number six is nothing to write  

home about i love this expression in english  because it perfectly describes the way you  

feel about something the expression means not very  exciting or extraordinary imagine you go to one of  

the top rated restaurants in your city and then  your friends ask you how you like the meal and  

you can say the meal at the restaurant was quite  good but it was nothing to write home about it  

simply wasn't as special as i thought it would be  so again instead of saying that the meal was okay  

you can use the school idiom and say it was  nothing to write home about it just wasn't special  

at all and the origin of the idiom is extremely  interesting as well it was mainly used by soldiers  

stationed overseas who referred to unremarkable  incidents that were not worth writing a letter  

home about i even found a book where a soldier was  describing his day and he used this idiom nothing  

to write home about it was a strange night and  i don't think i'll ever forget it though there  

is really nothing to tell nothing to write home  about as the men say so you guys as you can see  

this idiom has a very interesting origin and is  very often used when a person wants to say that  

something was not exciting was not special at all  it didn't really cause any great emotions within  

them nothing too serious and nothing to write  home about really the next expression is sell  

like hotcakes it's a very fun idiom with a very  interesting story if something sells like hotcakes  

it means that it sells very quickly for example  the copies of his new book sold like hotcakes  

they sold out the very first week so the book was  extremely popular and that's why it sold out so  

fast it's sold like hotcakes a hot cake is in  fact what we know today as a pancake the phrase  

refers to a cornmeal-based pancake which was a hot  item since the hot and the name especially when  

made and handed out after church on sundays the  belief is that the pancakes were considered hot  

because they would sell out faster than they were  made and so that's why we have this expression  

nowadays sell like hotcakes and as you guys know  i'm currently living in mexico city and hot cakes  

are very popular here it's a very popular street  food there are a lot of vendor stands selling  

hotcakes everywhere and one day i need to find a  vegan version to give it a try because i'm vegan  

and actually hot cakes here really remind me of  something we have back in russia we also have  

like a very traditional little pancake we make so  yeah one day i'll give it a try for sure the icon  

irony is that much in the way hot cakes no longer  sell like hotcakes if something is up in the air  

it means that it's not decided for certain yet  for example our plans for the vacation this year  

are pretty much up in the air there are so many  options and we just can't decide among them so  

here as you can see their plans are up in the  air meaning that they haven't really decided  

yet and for those who like watching movies and  tv shows there is an american comedy called  

up in the air was george clooney and anna  kendrick and they're also a really famous song  

by 30 seconds to mars called up in the air and  if you watched my previous video about learning  

english with songs make sure to check it out if  you haven't but if you have again guess learning  

english with songs is amazing especially when in  the name of the song we have a really useful idiom  

things are a little bit up in the air expression  number nine is you get what you pay for and it's  

very often used when we talk about something that  is low quality because it's cheap for example i  

know you're frustrated about the stitches coming  loose on your new top but you get what you pay  

for it was very cheap in this example sentence you  can also learn the word stitches here is a picture  

for you to understand what this word refers to  and if you buy something cheap the quality of  

the stitches are usually very poor and they come  loose very fast come loose means to become open  

or undone and in this example it means that the  stitches don't hold well together and they start  

looking like this so they become loose and  of course guys i understand that you can't  

always rely on the price to actually tell if the  product is good or not but we still do have this  

expression in english and people use it pretty  often if you buy something cheap and it turns out  

low quality you can always say you get what you  pay for what it is get what you pay for and the  

last expression i want to teach you guys is very  useful if you want to go to a restaurant with your  

english speaking friends or colleagues if you  offer to pick up the tab you pay for the meal  

and drinks that other people have ordered it's  a very nice gesture and people often decide to  

pick up the tab as a gift or a mere courtesy let's  look at this example together my friend is always  

very generous she always offers to pick up the tab  for both of us when we go out for something to eat  

which means that my friend always pays for me  she pays for herself and she also pays for me  

she picks up the tab for both of us the phrasal  verb pick up here means to pay and refers to the  

actual physical movement you know of picking  up the tab or the bill from the table when the  

waiter brings it well first of all she hates it  when guys like open doors for her or try to pick  

up a tab or pay for things and yeah guys i think  that's going to be it for this video again as a  

quick reminder make sure to check out my patreon  page and get access to amazing worksheets with  

informal and formal vocabulary in english with  idiom and phrasal verbs again all the links are  

gonna be in the description so thank you guys so  much for watching this video as usual make sure to  

subscribe to my channel and follow me on instagram  and i'll see you guys in my next video bye