TAKE YOUR ENGLISH TO THE NEXT LEVEL with These Daily Expressions! 🤓 💬🗣️

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back  to advanced English lessons with Harry,  

where we try to help you to get a better  understanding of the English language.  

Perhaps you're preparing for those proficiency  exams, or indeed you might be preparing for that  

all important job interview, or you might just  want to simply improve your business English,  

or your conversational English, whatever  it happens to be. We're here to help.

Okay, back to our lesson for today. What is  it about? Well, an advanced English lesson,  

advanced idioms. And these are advanced idioms  about trying or attempting, usually trying or  

attempting something new. And as always, I'm going  to go down through the list and we have 10 items  

on the list. I'll go through them, explain  them, and then give you an example of how you  

can use them. And if you have any questions,  or you need more examples, then I'll give you  

the address at the end of this particular  lesson. Okay, so we've got 10, as I said.

Let's go through them first, to take the plunge.  Well, when you when something plunges, it goes  

down very quickly, like falls, a rock will plunge  over the side of the bridge, if you drop it, okay,  

or a car that comes off a bridge would plunge into  the river. So we're down very, very fast. When you  

take the plunge, you do something very quickly,  sometimes, without thinking or that planning.  

You go on to the boss, and you hand in your  resignation. And he asked you what you're going  

to do, who you're going to go and work for? Well,  actually, nobody. I'm going to travel around the  

world for the next year or two years. Who knows?  I'll see you and I see you so you take the plunge  

hand in the resignation, pack your bag, and off  you go. We often use the expression to take the  

plunge. When somebody seems to be afraid to get  married. He's been gone out with that girl for  

it now 10 years, and he hasn't taken the plunge  yet he hasn't asked her to marry him sugar often  

should marry somebody else. He missed the boat.  Yeah. So take the plunge to do something quickly,  

often unplanned and unexpectedly take the  plunge. To feel a rush of something. Often,  

the complete idiom here is to feel a rush of  blood to the head and means something prompts  

you to do something and very quickly. I felt the  rush of blood and just decided to do it. I've  

been meaning to do something like this for ages.  Yeah, but running a marathon at your age. Well,  

why not? Start training tomorrow. I'll do a couple  of marathons next year, at least I'll try. Okay,  

so you had a rush of blood to the head and  you made a quick decision. So tomorrow,  

you start training for that all important first  marathon. Why not? Indeed, all you need is a bit  

of training, a bit of guts, determination,  and you'll get there. So to feel a rush of  

blood to the head. So sometimes when we make  sudden decisions, they might be good decisions,  

or they may indeed be bad decisions, because you  you just do them very quickly, because you had a  

sudden rush of blood to the head. To jump at the  chance. Well, when we jump at the chance, we would  

really welcome the opportunity to do something,  why don't you ask Mark to go, he would jump at  

the chance to go. So the boss is sick and tired  of travelling backwards and forwards to London  

backwards and forwards to Paris. So he's looking  for somebody to take some responsibility for that.  

So it's suggested that ask Mark, he would jump at  the chance he would really like the opportunity.  

So when you jump at the chance, you would really  really welcome the opportunity to do something  

that you've been hoping to do for a long, long  time. So to jump at the chance. You'd jump at  

the chance to travel. You'd jump at the chance  to take on more responsibility in your company.  

So anytime you want to do something that you've  been planning to do, and nobody's quite asked you,  

you can use that to jump at the chance or I jump  at the chance to do that I jump at the chance to  

get a bit more travelling, I jump at the chance  to do another degree. Okay, so something that  

you would like to do, all you need is somebody  to give you a gentle push on indeed just to ask  

you to jump at the chance to be on a roll. Well,  when we are on a roll, we've started something,  

we're getting successful at it and we continue.  Okay, so the sales guy, he's sold two cars already  

this week, and he's really feeling excited and  another customer comes in. And guess what, within  

a half an hour he's persuaded that customer to buy  the new cars, that's three this week. He's never  

had it so good. So he's on a roll and the boss is  really happy with them. They can see that they're  

going to reach their targets quite easily this  year. So to be on a roll is to be successful, like  

a ball when it starts to roll. It's hard to stop  it, okay, so it will continue to roll and roll and  

roll. So when you're on a roll, it means you're  successful things are looking good. You don't want  

them to stop. Don't stop him now, he's on a roll.  This is a good way to use it. Don't stop him now,  

he's on a roll. He's really, really doing  well. Okay? Or a comedian, a standup comedian,  

he gets up. And his first joke is an absolute  great hit. And the second joke is even better. And  

after 10 minutes, the audience are really really  rolling around the floor laughing So he's on a  

roll he knows is that the audience exactly where  he wants them in the palm of his hand. So to be on  

a roll. And remember, if you liked this lesson,  then please like the video, and if you can,  

please subscribe to the channel, because it really  really helps. Give it a whirl. Well, when we give  

something a whirl, it means we're going to give  it a chance. We don't know what to expect. We've  

never done it before. But guess what? Let's  ah... let's just give it a whirl. Let's give it  

a go. Okay, perhaps you want to take up ballroom  dancing, and your friends say, ballroom dancing.  

But you've got two left feet? Yeah. But you know,  you need to try something new every now and again.  

I think it would be great fun. Anyway, I gonna  give it a whirl. If it works, it works. Great. If  

it doesn't, so what? At least I've tried, okay.  So when you give something a whirl, you have no  

idea what to expect. You have no idea whether  you'll be successful, or it will be a failure,  

but you know what, you're going to try it. And  yet you're going to give it a whirl. So like  

learning English, who knows, give it a whirl. If  you want to do some exams, IELTS or something,  

why not, give it a whirl. Give something your best  shot. Now, again, you might not be successful,  

but you know, you're going to try your absolute  best. So your best shot is your best kick,  

the goal, your best shot would be your best throw  of a dart, you know. So these are the literal  

meanings of it. But when you say that you're going  to give something your best shot, you're going to  

try your damnedest or you're going to try as well  as you can to make it successful. Okay, so you've  

got a really important exam coming up, in fact, at  your final exam, and your parents said, you Well,  

look, you've done your study, you've done all the  work, you've submitted all the essays that you had  

to do. So just go into the exam, give it your  best shot, and whatever happens happens, okay,  

so at least you've tried, you've studied you're  prepared, so there should be no reason to feel  

apprehensive, just go and give it your best shot  shot, do as well as you can. Okay, to give it your  

best shot. To square the circle, this is quite  strange. To square the circle means to finish  

something off, usually something difficult, you  can't make a circle out of a square, and you can't  

make a square out of a circle. But when you want  to square the circle, you want to try and complete  

whatever you were working because really, you  don't like loose ends yet you don't like something  

unfinished. So somebody has to square the circle.  So perhaps there's some detailed or difficult  

negotiations going on. And you're getting close  to the end and say, okay, look, I'll just stick  

with this for another half an hour or hour, I  want to square the circle. I want to complete it  

and see it's over. It's finished. It's finalised,  and let's move on to the next thing. Okay, so to  

square the circle, try your hand at something.  Well, when we try our hand at something,  

it means to try and do something that we haven't  done before. In my case, it could be ice skating,

I'm hopeless. Every time I stand on the ice  skates, I fall over and I end up with a soul  

bomb. Okay, so to try your hand at something means  to try and do something that you're perhaps not so  

gifted at. You know, we don't get a lot of snow  and ice in this country. So there's not a lot of  

opportunity to ice skate. But I did try my hand  at it. It didn't work out. And it didn't try it  

again. When I was about 50 I tried my hand at  skiing, I went on a skiing holiday. And yeah,  

it wasn't the best I'm not going to win any  downhill Alpine medals but I was able to do it.  

So I tried my hand at something. So to attempt  to do something that you haven't done before,  

to adapt attempt to something that you might  feel you could do, but you might fail but at  

least you try. So to try your hand at something.  Kids should try their hand at lots of different  

sports until they find something that they  really enjoy doing that suits them Okay,  

so to try your hand and we often use the  expression ah He's great, you know, he'll  

try his hand at anything, okay? So if you want  tiles, put him in the bathroom, he's your man,  

if you want some plumbing done, he's your man.  Even if you want some electrical wires installed,  

he's your man he will try his hand at anything  is a real DIY enthusiast. So to try your hand  

at anything, or something to do, or to try your  utmost, well, this is a little bit formal, okay.  

To do your utmost is like doing your best your  very, very best. I'll do my utmost to close the  

deal. I know what it needs. But you know, these  guys are going to be tough negotiators. So I'll  

do my utmost you can rely on me to try, we might  not be successful, but we'll do our best we'll try  

our utmost. We asked our kids to try their best at  an exam, do your utmost to listen to the teacher,  

do your utmost to carry out the instructions, do  your utmost to follow and copy, and then you'll  

understand how to do it the next time to do your  utmost. And then finally just go for it. Yeah,  

we have this expression all the time. What are you  going to do are just going to go for it, you know,  

just this is this is the one chance i i have I'm  going to go in there and they're going to ask him,  

Why am I not gonna get promoted? Am I gonna  get promoted this time? If not, well, you know,  

there are other jobs out there. So just go for  it. Okay. Or I really, really liked this girl  

and think she likes me. So I'm going to ask  her out on a date. What do you think? Wow,  

why not go for it? What you're going to  say the worst you can say is no. Yeah,  

so who knows you might be successful. So just  go for it. So when you want to do something,  

you want to grab it with both hands? Then just go  for it. You've got the idea. You've got the wind  

in your sails as they say, so you can just  go for it. And who knows nothing ventured,  

nothing gained. Yeah, okay, you just have to go  for it. Okay, so there are all advanced idioms  

about trying or attempting to take the plunge,  take the plunge. Feel a rush of something, usually  

a rush of blood to the head is how we explain it  to feel a rush of blood to the head, jump at the  

chance to be on a roll to be on a roll to give it  a whirl and look out for the spelling of that to  

give it a whirl. To give something your best shot,  give it your best shot. To square the circle,  

quite strange to square the circle. Try your hand  at something to try your hand at something to do  

or to try your utmost a little bit more formal to  try your utmost. And then finally go for it to go  

for it. A lot of the time is about doing something  that you've never done before. And that's the  

whole idea of trying or attempting because  you're attempting new things, dangerous things,  

risky things. Who knows what they are, but if you  don't try, you won't win. Yeah, like everything  

else. If you don't buy a ticket, you can't  win the lotto. Okay, so trying and attempting.  

So why don't you try and attempt some of these  particular idioms see, do they work for you see,  

do you understand them. And as I said earlier, if  you want some extra examples, and you can contact  

me and www.englishlessonviaskype.com You know,  I'm always happy to hear from you. Always happy  

to help you out. So if you need anything else,  you just have to ask. Okay, well, this is Harry  

saying goodbye. Thanks for listening, and thanks  for watching, and join me for the next lesson.