ENGLISH PHRASES FOR EVERYDAY: Avoid Sounding Like a Beginner!

Hi there. This is Harry. And welcome back  to Advanced English Lessons with Harry,  

where I try to help you to get a better  understanding of the English language,

helping you to improve business  English, conversational English,  

preparing for those proficiency exams, whatever  you need, whatever your weaknesses are, you've  

come to the right place and we will be here to try  and help you along and improve your performance.

Okay, so what is the advanced  English lesson about today? Well,  

today's advanced English lesson  is looking at certain ways and or  

idioms for criticising or talking about  bad experiences. So what we're looking at

various ways to

criticise or talk about bad experiences  by using idioms. So they're quite  

advanced. So we'll go through them.  As always I have ten I'll give you

meaning.

I'll give you an example and hopefully  you'll get a better understanding.

So as I said, we've got ten of these

idioms in total. I'm going to give them  to you then go through them one by one.

So the first one to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

This means that some experience you've had  wasn't enjoyable, didn't turn out right,  

and you really felt bad afterwards. Not  physically bad, but bad about the whole  

experience. It really left a bad taste in  my mouth. So let me give you an example.

I asked somebody to give me a quote  to paint the inside of my house  

because it didn't have time. So they  came along and they gave me a coat  

and I thought the guys were okay.  And I listened to them and they,

quoted me a price, which is a little bit on the  high side, but I wanted to get it done quickly.

And when I came home after two days. Oh my God, it  was a mess. There was paint all over the floors.  

They hadn't covered any of the furniture. It  was a disaster. It cost me a fortune. Of course,  

I sacked them immediately and I  did it myself. So my experience  

with those painters left a  very bad taste in my mouth.

I'll never use them again. I won't be recommending  them. And if I could find them on the internet,  

which I can't, I'd leave a bad review.  Okay, so it left on my experience with  

them left a very bad taste in my  mouth. Not really good experience.

Number two. Nothing to write home about. Well,  this means. Well, it's not really so important.  

I wouldn't get so excited about it. I wouldn't  waste my time telling anybody else. Yeah. So

The movie I went to see

last week. Somebody had recommended it  to me, but it was nothing to write home  

about. I was really disappointed. I was  keep waiting for something to happen,

during the movie, but nothing actually did. So I  

think I wasted my money and my time.  It was nothing to write home about.

Nothing spectacular, nothing so exciting, and  I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Isn't up to scratch? Well, when we  mean something isn't up to scratch,  

it's not up to the standard that you expect  or the standards that you you live up to. So

If one of your pupils is writing some  thesis for his end of term exams,  

and you've given them the opportunity to  submit a draft so you can comment on it,  

which is just as well, because when you get this  particular report, you're not overly impressed. So

you asked to see the student after  the lesson. So when it comes to you,  

you sit them down and say, well, not really

this effort.

It isn't up to scratch. It's not what I  had expected. You'd really need to do a  

bit more research. You haven't referenced  anything in this. You haven't mentioned  

where you got your research from. You  haven't drawn any conclusions. Basically,  

it's a poor effort. It isn't up to scratch,  and you're really going to have to improve  

this immensely if you're going to  get the marks that you expect to get.

So it isn't up to scratch. It's not  to the level that I expect it to be.

Now, the one I think everybody's heard  of, it's just not my cup of tea. Well,  

we can say this about anything that we  don't like. It might appeal to other people,  

but to you, it's not your cup of  tea. Yeah. So those horror movies...

Nah, not my cup of tea.

Those books about science fiction are not my  

cup of tea. Going and lying on the  beach with 2000 other people. No,

Thanks. Not my cup of tea. Not my idea of a  nice holiday. Give me the fresh air. Gave me  

the freedom. Give me the mountains. I  would like that now. That's my cup of  

tea. That's something that I really like.  So when something is not your cup of tea,  

it's not to your liking. It  might be to somebody else's.

Yeah, but it's not to your  liking. It's not. My cup of tea

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has seen better days. Well, a bit like  me. I've seen better days. When you get  

to a certain age. Yeah. You're not going to  improve much from here on in. Okay. So, you

you might have something really near and dear  to your heart that you've you've had for many,  

many years and you don't want to throw it out,  

but eventually it just stops working,  for example, a laptop or a mobile phone.

And you look at it, the screen on the mobile  phones got a crack down. It does a chip on  

the corner. Yeah, it doesn't look so presentable.  And when your wife sees it, she says, oh my God,  

that phone has seen better days. Would you  not just trade it in, like offering a great

deal on these new iPhones traded in,  

get some money for it and get  a nice new smart looking phone.

That phone has seen better  days, meaning it once was good,  

but unfortunately it doesn't look  the part. Now how can you take that  

out in the middle of a meeting? People  will laugh. It's has seen better days

past its sell by date. Well, when  something is past the sell by date,  

it's little bit long in the tooth, as we say,  or something that is a little bit out dated.

Now. Food, of course, when you buy it in a shop,  will have a sell by date, and if something is past  

its sell by date, they're supposed to remove  it from the supermarket shelves. So that's the  

literal meaning of it. Okay. But if something  that you have that again, you hold near and  

dear to your heart, if that is past the sell by  date, then it's about time that you changed it.

Okay, so you might just be reluctant to sell that  bicycle you've had for 20 years. Can you imagine  

it? You've had it for 20 years. You've replaced  the tires. You've replaced the saddle. In fact,  

if you looked at everything you'd done,  you've probably rebuilt the bike two times  

over. So you're looking at it and think,  I think this bike is past to sell by date.

The brakes are not working and the gears  are not really good enough. I think I need  

to trade it in and get one of those new super  duper mountain bikes. What do you think? Oh,  

that's a great idea. That bike has been  past the sell by date for years. Yeah,  

I'm surprised you still have it. Okay, so  something that is past its sell by date

on its last legs.

Okay, well, you've got a television.  Well, sort of a television, and it's a,  

you know, not so big. And when you look at  the neighbors and they've got these massive,  

massive screens on their walls and surround  sounds, but your TV, you've had it again for  

12 or 15 years and the flashes every now  and again. And the colour is not specific.

And your friends come around and say, so you  know this. How can you watch the football with  

that? I mean, the the colors don't even look  the same. My team plays in black and white,  

but this looks as if they're playing in  green. Your TV is on its last legs. I  

think you need to change it before it  blows up and set your house on fire.

So when something is on its last legs, it's  really about to shut down. it's clapped out.  

It's just gone to give up one day and you  won't be able to use it at all, and then  

you'll be sorry. So again, dump it, get rid of  it by yourself. And you won on its last legs

I let down.

Well, lots of things can be a letdown,  okay? People can be a bit of a letdown.  

The holiday can be a bit of a letdown. A  letdown is something that literally let  

you down or disappoint you in some way. Or  that holiday was a complete letdown. I mean,  

I've been looking forward to it. You know  how long I've been planning that holiday  

and everything planned to the nth degree  I really, really was looking forward to.

But when we got to the hotel, it was  shabby, it was dirty, the food was crap.  

It was a complete letdown. I really felt like  coming home Monday, the walks and everything,  

they were great, but having to go back to  that hotel night after night now it was a  

letdown. I don't know why I listened to  that guy who gave me the recommendation.

That hotel was probably great 60 years  ago, but unfortunately not today. Yeah,  

it was a letdown. It let me down. It means  a complete disaster or a big disappointment.

Not going to set the world on fire.

Saw a shot. The world on fire.

Well, how many times have I heard that expression?

You could use it to refer to  anything when something is not  

going to set the world on fire. It's not going to.

Make people sit up and take notice. It's not  going to be something that's going to be in  

the headlines the next day. It's not going to  be something that's going to make people go,  

wow, look at that. Yeah. So it's very ordinary  and very ineffective. It's not going to set the  

world on fire. A football team that is  struggling to stay in the Premiership,  

you know, they they don't have the money to buy

the players of 70, 80, 100 million.

So they buy average players from average  teams. And when you look at that,  

the players they brought in at  the beginning of the season,  

who set foot well, that team isn't going to set  the world on fire. We'd be lucky to stay up,  

would be fighting against relegation the same as  we've done every year for the past five years.

There's no way that team will do anything.  They're not going to set the world on fire,

Okay. Somebody who is,

building a

new shed in his garden and but he's really,  really slow. But the pace he's going at,  

he's not going to set the world on fire. He's  taking its time. And he might have finished by  

this time next year. But the way he's going, he'll  never finish it. Okay, so just a bit slow and,

overly methodical.

He's not going to set the world on fire.  Now, we can use it when we're talking  

about people in the office, but we don't  need 100 people that are going to set the  

world on fire. Sometimes we need people  in our offices that just do the ordinary,  

mundane things. Because guess what? That's what  has to be done. The ordinary, mundane things.

So yeah, you need the rising stars. You need the  great sales guy. But occasionally in the back  

office or some other office, you need somebody  who just does what you ask him to do. Yeah,  

he doesn't set the world on fire. But you  know what you see every morning? First thing,  

he's the last one to leave  and he gets his work done.

He doesn't set the world on  fire. But it's good for me.

And then finally, like, watching paint dry. Well,  have you ever sat there and watched paint dry?  

The most boring and excruciating thing that  you can do. So when something is very boring,  

very painful to watch, very uninteresting,  we would use the expression. It's like

watching paint dry. So there could be some  

sports that you just don't see how  people get so excited about them.

Some people go crazy for some sports, but you  say for I mean, it's like watching paint dry,

watching the game of chess. Okay, might be a nice  game to play, but watching it is like watching  

paint dry. It's slow, there's no action.  Nothing happens. Nobody gets excited. Yeah,  

okay. It's like watching paint dry.  So there are lots of activities,  

sporting activities or other  activities that won't be so exciting.

And you can use that expression. That's like  watching paint dry. Okay, so it could be a boring  

TV program. You know, there's no excitement in  it. It could just be a discussion about philosophy  

or psychology or somebody talking about local  council rules. Something really that you could

spend your time doing other things so well,  

listening to that and watching that is like  watching paint dry, boring and uninteresting.

Okay, so there we have our ten idioms  and they're ten idioms that we use for

criticising or talking about some bad experience  that we don't want to go through again.

So what you need to do is practice them,  

see how you can introduce them into your  speech, and if you need any more examples,  

well, you know where we are and we can help  you with any more examples that you need.

Okay, so go through them. As I said, the first  one leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Nothing to  

write home about isn't up to scratch.  Not my cup of tea. Has seen better days

past its south. Sell by date on its  last legs a let down. Not going to  

set the world on fire. And then  finally, like watching paint dry.

So try them, practise them. Come back  to me if you need any further help. I

really appreciate it when  you watch and you listen,  

I've got any ideas to send in to  me www.englishlessonviaskype.com  

and I'll join you again for the next  lesson. This is Harry saying goodbye.