15 Advanced English Vocabulary Phrases you NEED to know

346,389 views ・ 2022-09-09

Speak English With Vanessa


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Vanessa: Hi, I am Vanessa  
0
0
1860
00:01
from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Can you read  the news in English? Well, let's talk about it. 
1
1860
6720
00:11
Let's imagine this scene. You are in  Asheville, North Carolina visiting me,  
2
11940
6540
00:18
and we are about to meet at a cafe. While you're  sitting at the cafe waiting for me, you notice a  
3
18480
5940
00:24
newspaper sitting on the table. Yes, real physical  newspapers still exist. You pick up the newspaper,  
4
24420
6120
00:30
and you see an article and think, "Oh, this is  so interesting." But then you start to read it  
5
30540
6060
00:36
and think, "Ugh, I don't know half of the words  in this. I get the general idea, but goodness,  
6
36600
6300
00:42
there's so much in this that I don't understand." Well, never fear. Today, I'm here to help you.  
7
42900
5520
00:48
In this lesson, we are going to go over this  article from a real newspaper here in my city,  
8
48420
6180
00:54
Asheville, North Carolina. I will help you to  break down some of the key advanced phrases and  
9
54600
6060
01:00
vocabulary that are used in this article and  that are often used in the news, so that you  
10
60660
5040
01:05
can read other news articles with no problem. And like always, I have created a free PDF  
11
65700
5700
01:11
worksheet to help you remember everything that  you are about to learn, all of the vocabulary,  
12
71400
4860
01:16
definitions, sample sentences, and I will  include a link to this original article,  
13
76260
5340
01:21
so that you can see it in its entirety and  you could read other articles on this news  
14
81600
4500
01:26
website if you would like to test your skills.  You can click on the link in the description  
15
86100
4560
01:30
to download the free PDF worksheet today. All right. Let's get started by reading this  
16
90660
5220
01:35
article that has to do with helping the homeless  population here in Asheville. Let me read the  
17
95880
7020
01:42
beginning to you. "As Asheville City Council  ponders the idea of purchasing a hotel to provide  
18
102900
6420
01:49
housing for the homeless, the company that owns  the neighboring shopping center prepares for a  
19
109320
6540
01:55
legal fight." You heard this verb, to ponder. The  Asheville City Council ponders an idea. Can you  
20
115860
8760
02:04
guess what this might mean? It's a deeper meaning  of wondering, thinking deeply about something.  
21
124620
6480
02:11
Have you ever pondered what it might be like to  be a fluent English speaker? This verb, to ponder,  
22
131100
7200
02:18
is more often used in formal situations, and  it's a great example of a word that would be  
23
138300
5520
02:23
used in the news, this advanced vocabulary,  compared to just a regular old TV show. 
24
143820
6060
02:29
You also saw this word, the homeless. This  is talking about the general population of  
25
149880
6480
02:36
people who don't have somewhere to live.  They might be living on the streets. They  
26
156360
4860
02:41
might be living in a shelter provided by the  government, but they don't have a home. You  
27
161220
6480
02:47
can use it like this. Several organizations  give coats to the homeless during the winter. 
28
167700
5340
02:53
And now we have our drama, this word legal  fight. We can imagine that the local company  
29
173040
7500
03:00
who owns the neighboring shopping center is  not happy because they are going to get into a  
30
180540
6660
03:07
legal fight. This is not a fist fight. Instead,  they're taking legal action to push against the  
31
187200
8520
03:15
initiative to give housing to the homeless in a  local hotel. You can use this phrase like this.  
32
195720
5100
03:20
The court case will be dropped because the costs  involved in the legal fight are just too high. 
33
200820
6300
03:27
All right. Let's read the next part of the  article. "The city is looking at a Ramada  
34
207120
4320
03:31
near River Ridge Marketplace, which is home to 26  businesses, including Best Bride Prom & Tux. Owner  
35
211440
8400
03:39
Dennis Knapp feels a homeless shelter and a retail  area would be anything but an ideal marriage. She  
36
219840
7380
03:47
says Horne Properties, which owns River Ridge, is  ready for a legal fight." You just saw this word,  
37
227220
6720
03:53
a homeless shelter. This is a temporary place  where people can live if they don't have a  
38
233940
5400
03:59
home. You could say he stayed at the homeless  shelter until he found a job and could afford  
39
239340
5640
04:04
an apartment. A retail area is another term for  a shopping center, so you might say shopping is  
40
244980
7620
04:12
a lot more convenient now that there's a new  retail area in our neighborhood. This is a  
41
252600
5400
04:18
formal term that you're more likely to see in a  news article than to use in real conversation. 
42
258000
5460
04:23
And next we have this lovely expression, anything  but, and then we have added on an ideal marriage.  
43
263460
9480
04:32
So we were just talking about a store that sells  clothing for brides, for weddings, so it's a  
44
272940
7560
04:40
little bit clever to use this ideal marriage. Of  course, a marriage is when two people get married,  
45
280500
6060
04:46
but we can also talk about two things that go  well together is an ideal marriage. For example,  
46
286560
6120
04:52
ketchup and french fries is an ideal marriage.  It goes together really well. But what about  
47
292680
5940
04:58
the beginning part of this expression? Because  that's really what takes it to the next level. 
48
298620
3840
05:02
Anything but an ideal marriage. This is the  opposite. It is not an ideal marriage. Take  
49
302460
8340
05:10
a look at this sentence. Keeping our cat and  dog inside in our small apartment is anything  
50
310800
6300
05:17
but an ideal marriage. Our cat and dog don't get  along very well, and to stay inside in that small  
51
317880
6600
05:24
apartment, it's not a good idea. It's anything but  an ideal marriage. And in the article, the author  
52
324480
6120
05:30
said that having a homeless shelter and a retail  area in the same spot is anything but an ideal  
53
330600
8400
05:39
marriage. It's not a good idea, in her opinion. Let's go on to the next part of the article.  
54
339000
4500
05:43
"Folks at Beauty Bar Asheville say The  homeless population has already caused  
55
343500
5880
05:49
concerns about safety and trash. So if the city  moves forward with the project at River Ridge,  
56
349380
6660
05:56
the fear is that things could get even worse."  This section used this lovely expression, to move  
57
356040
7260
06:03
forward. We're not talking about physically moving  forward. The cars moved forward in traffic slowly.  
58
363300
6480
06:09
That's physically moving forward, but this article  is using it in a more advanced way, a little bit  
59
369780
5040
06:14
more figurative. They said if the city moves  forward with the project. This means they're  
60
374820
7200
06:22
progressing or they start to do the project. Well,  they think there's going to be some problems. 
61
382020
5820
06:27
Let's take a look at how you could use this  expression in another sentence. We won't be  
62
387840
4020
06:31
able to move forward with the loan until  you get approved. This is a very advanced,  
63
391860
6240
06:38
very formal expression that you will often hear,  for example, at the bank when you're trying to  
64
398100
4740
06:42
get a loan. I'm sorry, we can't move forward with  the loan. That means we can't approve of the loan  
65
402840
4980
06:47
or make progress on it. Or you might hear this  in news articles like you just saw, to progress 
66
407820
5760
06:53
All right. Let's read the next part. "'I'm  not happy about it at all,' says stylist  
67
413580
5400
06:58
Susan Shepherd. 'It's been an influx the past few  months of trash in our parking lot.'" Susan uses a  
68
418980
7140
07:06
wonderful advanced word, influx. She's concerned  about there being an increase in trash in the  
69
426120
8160
07:14
parking lot and in that area. And then if they  add a homeless shelter to that same retail area,  
70
434280
5700
07:19
well, she fears that it might get even worse.  Let's take a look at this sentence. "With this  
71
439980
5220
07:25
sudden influx in rain, our crops are growing  rapidly." This is quite formal, quite advanced,  
72
445200
6360
07:31
and a great thing to use is in a news article. Let's read the next section. "The need for such  
73
451560
4920
07:36
housing for the homeless heightened recently. Last  week, 50 homeless people moved out of the Red Roof  
74
456480
6780
07:43
Inn on Smoky Park Highway. The city partnered with  the chain to give them temporary refuge during the  
75
463260
6660
07:49
pandemic." You just heard this expression, to  partner with a chain. Okay, so when you partner  
76
469920
6660
07:56
with someone, you're working together, but to  partner with a chain, are we talking about this  
77
476580
5580
08:02
metal linking device? No. This is just another way  to talk about similar restaurants or hotels that  
78
482160
7740
08:09
exist globally or at least all over your country. So for example, McDonald's and Starbucks are  
79
489900
6240
08:16
popular chains. Or we could say they are  popular chain restaurants, or Starbucks  
80
496140
6060
08:22
is a popular chain coffee shop. So let's use  both of these expressions together. You could  
81
502200
5220
08:27
say our local charity is partnering with the  McDonald's down the street to raise some funds  
82
507420
6720
08:34
for their project. That means McDonald's is giving  a percentage of their money from that day to the  
83
514140
7680
08:41
local charity. They're partnering together. All right. Let's read the next part of the  
84
521820
3780
08:45
article. "The nonprofit Homeward Bound will  soon close on the purchase of the Days Inn  
85
525600
6960
08:52
to help address the need, but the executive  director tells News 13 that space may not  
86
532560
5400
08:57
be available for residents until late 2022." The  term nonprofit is used for a business or company  
87
537960
8100
09:06
that earns money for helping a social cause.  They're legally a different type of business,  
88
546060
6480
09:12
and this business, Homeward Bound, helps  homeless people to move forward with their  
89
552540
6960
09:19
lives, to use that expression, and to be  able to not be homeless anymore. It helps  
90
559500
5820
09:25
them to have a job and find somewhere to live. You also heard this wonderful advanced expression,  
91
565320
6480
09:31
to close on something. Yes, you can close the  door, but this is a little more metaphorical.  
92
571800
7020
09:38
For example, when we bought this house, we had to  close on the house. It didn't mean that we closed  
93
578820
7020
09:45
the door. It meant that we had to sign a ton of  papers to make it official. So you can close on  
94
585840
6540
09:52
a house. You can close on a purchase. You can  use a sentence like this. After the inspections  
95
592380
5160
09:57
were complete, we closed on the purchase  immediately. We were so excited to live there. 
96
597540
5160
10:02
All right. Let's read the next part of the  article. "Folks we spoke to at River Ridge  
97
602700
4200
10:06
say the city's project would create more  problems than it solves. We don't want that  
98
606900
6060
10:12
in our community. 'We don't want that in our  backyard. I know that our city council doesn't  
99
612960
5100
10:18
want it in their backyard,' Knapp said." Here's  where it gets controversial. So the people who  
100
618060
6360
10:24
work in that retail area are saying, "This is not  going to be good for business." And the people  
101
624420
6480
10:30
who are making this project, well, they're  not the ones who have their business here,  
102
630900
5340
10:36
and if it came down to it, they would not want  a homeless shelter by their business. They use  
103
636240
7200
10:43
a great term in our backyard, in their backyard. In the US, this is the term that we use to talk  
104
643440
6840
10:50
about the land behind your house. Usually this  is an area where you can play. You have a garden.  
105
650280
6480
10:56
This is the backyard. It's something very private  and intimate. It's just for your family. It's  
106
656760
6180
11:02
your own property. But they were using this a  little bit more figuratively. They were using  
107
662940
5160
11:08
it to mean the area close to their business, but  it implies a certain level of intimacy or privacy,  
108
668100
6900
11:15
like this is our area, and you don't have our  permission to create a homeless shelter here. It  
109
675000
5730
11:20
will actually cause more problems than it will  solve. Quite controversial. Very interesting. 
110
680730
5670
11:26
All right. Let's read the next part of the  article. "'It's hard to conduct a business  
111
686400
3720
11:30
and keep a good reputation when that's in your  parking lot every day coming in,' Shepherd said.  
112
690120
5700
11:35
The sale of the Ramada property has not  yet been finalized. We reached out to the  
113
695820
5220
11:41
City of Asheville for an interview about the  matter, but the city declined our request." 
114
701040
4440
11:45
The businesses in this area are worried about  keeping a good reputation or keeping up a good  
115
705480
7320
11:52
reputation. This means they want customers to  feel comfortable and confident going to their  
116
712800
7140
11:59
businesses. But if there are homeless people  all over the parking lots, maybe drug needles,  
117
719940
5700
12:05
these types of problems, then they're not  going to go to those businesses. But what are  
118
725640
5880
12:11
those homeless people supposed to do? How can we  really help them? Is this helping them? Is there  
119
731520
5280
12:16
another solution? It's quite controversial. Let's take a look at how we can use to keep  
120
736800
5160
12:21
up a good reputation. You might say, "Well, if  that business owner keeps yelling at customers,  
121
741960
6420
12:28
he is not going to be able to keep up a good  reputation and his business might close." It's  
122
748380
6480
12:34
not a good idea to yell at your customers. Congratulations on reading through this  
123
754860
4740
12:39
entire news article with me and learning some key  advanced English expressions along the way. Now,  
124
759600
6360
12:45
I have a question for you. What's your opinion  about this news article? It's quite controversial.  
125
765960
6600
12:52
Should they put the homeless shelter in the same  area as the retail businesses? Should they do  
126
772560
6240
12:58
something else? What's your opinion? Let me know  in the comments, and don't forget to download the  
127
778800
5580
13:04
free PDF worksheet for today's lesson. You will  get the entire article plus a link to the new  
128
784380
5640
13:10
site where you can find it, all of the vocabulary,  sample sentences, definitions, and you can answer  
129
790020
5640
13:15
Vanessa's challenge question at the bottom of  the worksheet. You can click on the link in the  
130
795660
4980
13:20
description to download that worksheet today. Well, thank you so much for learning English  
131
800640
4380
13:25
with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for  a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The  
132
805020
6240
13:31
next step is to download the free PDF worksheet  for this lesson. With this free pdf, you will  
133
811260
7140
13:38
master today's lesson and never forget what you  have learned. You can be a confident English  
134
818400
6300
13:44
speaker. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube  channel for a free English lesson every Friday.
135
824700
5880
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7