Advanced English Vocabulary Native Speakers Use — Spring Cleaning

Hey, it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

This is exactly where you want to be every week to get the confidence you want

for your life and work in English.

One of my favorite things to do with Speak Confident English is to help all my

students and you sound more natural in English and have interesting

conversations that feel easy.

One of the best ways to do that is to learn and use the same language that

native speakers use. When you do that,

you definitely sound more natural in your own communication and it's easier to

understand what native speakers are saying or asking. In conversations.

Last month in one of our courses,

our students focused on an advanced form of language called figurative language.

Figurative language is creative language that we use to be more effective,

persuasive, and impactful. Plus,

it definitely helps us sound more interesting in conversations and when we tell

stories or share ideas,

you already use some forms of figurative language if you've ever used an idiom

in English, that's a perfect example of figurative language.

It's creative and more interesting.

Other forms of figurative language that you may have learned in the past include

metaphors and similes and in this Confident English lesson today we're going to

focus on advanced vocabulary,

specifically examples of figurative language that we can use to talk about

spring cleaning.

It's that time of year when we start to get itchy for a fresh start and to get

everything organized.

So let's focus on how you can sound more natural and have interesting

conversations on this topic when you're communicating in English.

Now, before we dive in today, if you love this topic,

then I definitely recommend watching another video that I did last year on the

topic of how to simplify your life.

If you're into simple living mindfulness and Marie Kondo's book,

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, that lesson is perfect for you,

but now let's get started with the advanced figurative language you can use for

all things related to the topic of spring cleaning and reorganizing your life.

We're going to start with three examples of figurative language that we use when

we talk about the feeling we get when we want to start some spring cleaning.

Do you remember in the introduction I said,

we get that itchy feeling for a fresh start.

When you hear the word itch, you probably think of something like this,

something that itches. For example, if you get a mosquito bite,

but in the figurative sense, if you have an itch for something,

you have this restless desire to do something.

Let's pause here for a moment and focus on that word restless because it's

another fantastic word to know. When you're restless,

you're unable to rest or relax because of anxiety or boredom.

If you have kids, think about how they begin to behave.

If it's the middle of summer and it rains for a full week,

it's raining so much that they don't really spend any time outside.

They just have long days inside the house.

How do they begin to behave toward the end of the week when they start feeling

bored or anxious to go outside, they're restless.

They can't rest, relax, or calm down.

So if you get an itch to start doing some spring cleaning,

you have that restless,

anxious desire that won't let you relax until you take action and begin doing

that spring cleaning.

A very similar way to say this is to feel twitchy for a fresh start.

If you look up the word to Twitch in the dictionary,

you'll find that it means to move quickly or to pull quickly with a jerking

motion.

It can also be used to talk about some kind of unconscious muscle spasm.

For example, has this ever happened to you?

You're super stressed at work and at night you're not able to sleep.

You stay up all night thinking about these problems at work,

and this happens for several days and after three or four days of little sleep

and a lot of stress, maybe your eye begins to Twitch.

Your eyelid begins to move without you controlling it.

That is to Twitch. Now,

when we use this word in the figurative sense in a more creative way,

again,

it means this anxious energy that pushes you or urges you to do something.

Now we've got one more expression that we often use when we talk about this

feeling that we get in spring.

So why exactly do you feel this desire to do some spring cleaning and get a

fresh start?

You might feel that the many months of winter darkness are weighing you down.

When something weighs you down, it depresses you.

To feel weighed down by something is a great example of figurative language to

use anytime you feel depressed. For example,

if you have a lot of stress at work and you don't see an end to that stress,

you might say that your work is weighing you down. Now,

once that itch for spring cleaning appears,

it's time to focus on what you want to accomplish and here are a few ways to

talk about that with figurative language in English.

First you need to get in the right frame of mind.

Your frame of mind is your mental outlook or your mental mood and when you get

into the right frame of mind,

it means organizing all of your thoughts and creating an action plan that helps

you know how to move forward.

That might mean setting specific goals for cleaning your house,

organizing a closet, decluttering your life or your computer.

I talked about that word declutter a lot in that video I mentioned earlier on

how to simplify your life and once you have that goal,

you want to stick to that goal.

When you stick to a routine, a plan, or a goal,

it means that you stay consistent in doing it.

And a third way to talk about getting your focus is to get down to brass tacks.

This is one of my favorite idioms from today.

To get down to brass tacks or similarly to get down to business means to focus

on the essentials or the basics, only the details that matter.

You remove all the distractions and the things that aren't important.

Now that you've got your plan, it's time to take action.

And here are two verbs you can use to do that figuratively. Number one,

to tackle a mess.

The verb to tackle is most often used by Americans when they're talking about

American football. This is what it looks like to tackle someone.

So imagine that you're going to tackle your mess.

What do you think that looks like or what does it mean?

It definitely means to attack your mess.

It means to be ruthless,

to get rid of everything you truly don't need and you don't stop until you're

done. Now that you know how to talk about the feeling of wanting to do spring

cleaning,

how to talk about creating a plan and the action steps you might take,

it's time for the fun part.

How does it feel after you started that process?

Here are four examples of advanced figurative language in English that we use to

talk about it. After a thorough cleaning,

your house might be spic and span.

If your house is spic and span,

it means that it is spotlessly clean or it's so clean that you could eat off the

floor. Now, I know that sounds a little bit strange.

Nobody really wants to eat off the floor,

but imagine your house is so clean that you could eat off the floor.

That's another common expression that we use,

and when your house or your life or your computer is clear of clutter,

it's all organized.

It definitely feels like a breath of fresh air.

Think about how you feel when you walk outside on the first perfect and

beautiful spring day. After a long winter, you probably step outside,

pause for a moment,

take a deep breath and enjoy that fresh air and the feeling of sunshine on your

face.

That is definitely how I feel when my life and my house are totally organized.

And now for our final example of advanced figurative language to talk about

spring cleaning today, just like the snow at the end of winter,

after you get that fresh start going and get your life or your home organized,

all of the stress,

the pressure and the chaos begin to melt away,

it means that they slowly begin to disappear and that feels pretty amazing.

Now, before we finish today, I want to hear from you. I'm curious,

are you a spring cleaner? Are you starting to get that itch for a fresh start?

I'd love to hear your favorite example of figurative language from today's

lesson.

Share with me your favorite in the comments below and try using it in your own

example sentence.

It's the best way to remember new vocabulary that you've learned.

So go ahead and share with me in the comments. If you enjoyed this lesson,

be sure to let me know and you can tell me in three simple ways. Number one,

give this lesson a thumbs up on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to this channel

so you never miss one of my Confident English lessons. Number two,

you can share it on Facebook.

And if you know someone in your life who's getting that spring cleaning itch,

share this lesson with them so they can add this advanced English vocabulary to

their daily conversations as well. Thank you so much for joining me.

Have a wonderful week and I'll see you next time for your Confident English

lesson.