I use these words every day: English Vocabulary Lesson

Vanessa: Sorry, I can't help you. I'm off the clock. If I  

said this to you, would you know what I was saying  or would your heart start to pound, your palms  

get a little sweaty, and you think, I don't know  how to respond to that. Well, never fear. Today,  

I'm going to help you learn 10 phrases that I use  every day, and you can too. Hi, I'm Vanessa from  

SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Like always, I have  created a free PDF worksheet with all of today's  

important everyday vocabulary definitions and  sample sentences. Plus, at the bottom of the free  

worksheet, you can answer Vanessa's challenge  question so that you never forget what you've  

learned. All right, are you ready to get started?  Let's get started with phrase number one that I  

use every day, and you can too. Phrase number one  is I just need more minutes. All of these phrases  

are phrases that I use at the end of  the day or near the end of the day.

So what do you think that this one means?  When would I use this? Take a look at the  

sample sentence. I just need a few more  minutes until I start making dinner. Well,  

making dinner takes energy and effort, so  do you get the feeling that I'm tired? Yes.  

I want to rest for a few more minutes. So  often when my husband comes home from work,  

at the end of the day he says this. I just  need five minutes of quiet before I help with  

the kids in the house. Well, this is a very  reasonable request. He's had a busy day and  

he needs a five-minute time slot just to have  some quiet before he jumps into the next job,  

which is helping with the kids and the house. I  just need five more minutes please. Phrase number  

two that I use every day at the end of the day,  and you can too, is this one. To wrap things up.

Do you think I'm wrapping a birthday present?  Nope. Take a look at this sentence. Give me a  

minute to wrap things up with work and then  I can help with dinner. To wrap things up  

with work. Here, we're talking about simply  finishing a task. I need to finish this task  

and then I can go on to the next thing, helping  with the kids. I use the word things here because  

in English we often use the word things just as  a stand-in for a general concept. I didn't tell  

you the details of the project I'm working  on. I just said I need to wrap things up,  

and this is a great fixed phrase  that you can use. In my daily life,  

I try to wrap things up with work before  my kids get home from school. This way I'm  

not scrambling and trying to wrap up the project  for work and help the kids transition back home.

That's too complicated, right? If you've ever  been in that situation, you know. So I try to wrap  

things up with work before they come home from  school. I try to finish my work projects before  

they come home from school. Phrase number three  that I often use at the end of the day is to call  

it a day. Am I calling a day? Hello, day? Where  are you? No, I'm not calling a day. Instead, when  

we call it a day, make sure you have all the words  in this phrase, we're simply talking about, I'm  

done with work. I'm going to shut off my computer.  So you might say that exactly. In fact, I'm going  

to call it a day and turn off my computer. It  just means my work brain is turned off and now  

the evening can begin. This is actually a  phrase that's often used in the workplace.

If you're having a meeting or everyone seems  to be working hard, but it's really close to  

the end of the day, your manager or someone else  might say, "Hey everyone, let's just call it a day  

and start again tomorrow," is the words you love  to hear, right? It means let's finish what we're  

working on and start again tomorrow. Let's just  call it a day. We've been working so hard. Phrase  

number four that I use every day at the end of  the day, and you can too, is to be off the clock.

Take a look at this sample sentence. I'm off  the clock, so I'm not checking my email again  

until tomorrow morning. Your work brain has  turned off and now it's time to start the  

rest of your evening. I'm off the clock. Now,  I know that this is kind of a cultural concept.  

Some countries expect you to be able to respond  to an email or a message from work at any time,  

but in other countries, if you are off the clock,  well, you're not going to respond to anything for  

work until the next day, and it's healthy to have  a good work life balance, right? It's important.

Every day English phrase number five that Dan, my  husband uses and he wishes that he could use it  

every day is this one. To kick off my shoes  or to kick back and relax. Take a look at  

this sample sentence. When Dan gets home from  work, he would like to kick off his shoes and  

just kick back and relax. Well, because I used  the verb would like to, do you think that this  

happens? Nope. If you are a parent, you know that  your work never ends until the kids go to bed,  

and we have some phrases for that at the end of  this lesson. So we could say, after I finish work,  

I kick off my shoes and it has the idea that  you kind of do it quickly. You're so excited  

about relaxing, being comfortable, I kick off  my shoes, and then you kick back and relax.

I imagine you laying on the couch just with  nothing to do. Isn't that such a great feeling?  

And then all your kids jump on you. If you're  a parent, you don't really get to kick back and  

relax very often, but this is the idea that at  the end of the day, a new phase starts and you  

can try to kick back and relax. The next everyday  English phrase is one for busy people. It's this,  

to do a turnaround. Sometimes we add a word  here, to do a quick turnaround. Take a look  

at this sentence. After I finish work, I have to  do a quick turnaround to get ready for my tennis  

game. You can get the sense here that there's not  a lot of time in between work and the tennis game,  

so I need to come home, do a quick turnaround.  I'm probably not really spinning in circles,  

but it's that idea. You feel busy. You have  to change your clothes. You have to get in  

the mindset for tennis. I have to do a quick  turnaround to get ready for my tennis game.

Phrase number seven that I use every day, at  the end of the day, it is to get someone set  

up. Take a look at the sample sentence. As soon  as I get the kids set up with their homework,  

I'll start dinner. We get the idea that I'm  helping them to get started with their homework,  

and that's really the concept of this phrasal  verb. To get someone set up is to get someone  

started. And this is often the case with kids,  right? If they have some homework, maybe they need  

to read a couple chapters in a book, or maybe they  need to practice some writing. Well, most kids  

aren't going to come home from school, sit at the  table, open their book and just do their homework.

They need a little bit of help from parents,  right? So you might help them open their backpack,  

ask what their homework is, get them a snack.  You're getting them prepared to begin their  

homework. You get the kids set up with their  homework. I also use this around dinner time.  

I say I need to get my baby set up in her high  chair before I bring the food to the table. My  

baby is at an age where she is running everywhere,  grabbing everything, a little bit of a destructive  

stage, and it's hard to get dinner on the table  in a neat way if she's running around. So I will  

get my baby set up in her high chair. I'll put  her in the high chair, clip her in, lock her in,  

and then I can bring something hot to the table  safely, so I will get my baby set up at the table.

Vocabulary phrase number eight that I use every  day in the evenings, and I hope happens almost  

every day is to spend some quality time. Take  a look at this. My family tries to spend some  

quality time together each evening before we go  to bed. Sometimes this is just a simple act of  

sitting on the stairs of our deck and watching  the sunset together. It's quite simple, but it's  

effective. We're all together. We're physically  together, and we're emotionally together. This  

is spending quality time together. You can use  this in a negative sense as well. You might say,  

we had such a busy week. I felt like we were going  from activity to activity to activity. We never  

really got to spend quality time together.  I hope that this weekend will be different.

Vocabulary phrase number nine that I use every day  at the end of the day is to unwind. Take a look at  

this. Here I have a string and I am unwinding  it. What do you think this means figuratively,  

to talk about us and our bodies at the end  of the day. We could say this. Before bed,  

I like to unwind by reading a book and journaling.  We get the sense that during the day, my body and  

my mind are feeling tight, intense, and then at  the end of the day when I read a book or journal,  

my body feels relaxed. I can unwind. You  might unwind by doing these kind of more  

passive activities like reading or you might  unwind by doing what my husband, Dan, does.

Take a look at this. When he gets home from  work, Dan likes to unwind by going for a run.  

Sometimes these physical activities can really  help your mind and body feel less stressed,  

so you can unwind by reading or by being more  physical and going for a run. Sometimes he pushes  

our baby in the stroller, and that's the ultimate  physical activity, right? You're using your arms,  

your whole body muscles, and you can unwind at  the end of the day and she has a great time too.

And our final 10th English phrase that I use every  day at the end of the day, the very end of the  

day, and you can too, is downtime. Take a look at  this sentence. Finally, after the kids have gone  

to bed, Dan and I can enjoy some true downtime.  What do you think this means? It means we have  

no responsibilities. The house is quiet. We can  truly sit and relax our bodies and our minds. So  

usually for downtime, we might read, we might do a  puzzle, we might watch TV, we might chat together.  

We might just move around the house, cleaning up,  doing some little things, but it feels relaxing.

It's important to have a little  bit of downtime each day,  

and I think this is true for adults and for  children. If your children lead busy lives,  

they go to school and then they have  an activity, then another activity,  

then another activity, and then dinner and  then homework, and they go to bed, where's  

the room to breathe? They need some downtime as  well. So make sure that everyone in your family  

gets at least 15 to 20 minutes of downtime  doing absolutely nothing. It feels so great.

Well, thank you so much for learning these 10  everyday English phrases that I use every day, and  

now you can too. I have a question for you that  I would like you to answer in the comments. What  

do you like to do for your downtime. When you have  no responsibilities, nothing else that you need to  

do, what do you do to help your mind unwind during  your downtime? Let me know in the comments. I  

can't wait to see what you have to say. And don't  forget to download the free PDF worksheet with all  

of today's important everyday expressions,  definitions, sample sentences, and you can  

answer Vanessa's challenge question so that you  never forget what you've learned. You can click  

on the link in the description to download this  free PDF worksheet today. It is my gift to you.

Well, thank you so much for learning English  with me, and I'll see you again next Friday  

for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.  Bye. But wait, do you want more? I recommend  

watching this video next where you  will learn a phrase that everyone does,  

but we should not do. What is it? Well,  I'll see you in that video to find out.