Top 14 American Slang: English vocabulary lesson

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  Can you use these common slang expressions in  

English? Let's talk about it. "I didn't get a fair  shake." "Well, I guess that's just how it goes.  

Can you use these slang expressions, " a fair  shake, and that's just how it goes? Well, today  

I have four pieces of good news for you. Good news  number one. In today's lesson, you will learn 14  

commonly used English slang or casual expressions  that you can use in daily conversation.  

Good news number two, these slang expressions  are not just for teenagers or young people.  

Anyone, including you, can use these  expressions. Good news number three,  

like always, I have created a free PDF  worksheet with all of today's expressions,  

slang, casual phrases, sample sentences,  ideas. At the bottom of the worksheet,  

you can answer Vanessa's challenge question so  that you never forget what you are about to learn.  

Make sure you click on the link in the description  to download that free PDF worksheet today. 

Good news number four, if you enjoy today's lesson  and you would like to learn more real English for  

daily conversations, all of these expressions  from this lesson have come from my course, The  

Fearless Fluency Club. Like course member Ilkiko  Nemeth said, "I like the most that you teach us  

real English." Gely said, "This is the best  course I've ever had." Click on the link in  

the description to join me and thousands of other  motivated English learners from around the world  

to speak real English in The Fearless Fluency  Club. All right. Let's get started with our 14  

slang, casual English expressions. A buck, can you  guess what that means from this sample sentence?  

When I was a waitress, I made 100 bucks each  night. I felt pretty good about that, especially  

when I was in high school and in college.  That's a lot of money. Can you guess what it is?  

It's a slang way to say $100. "I made 100 bucks  last night at the restaurant," or we could say,  

"Yeah, I can't believe it. I bought that book for  just three bucks. That book was just three bucks." 

Sometimes we use this expression "buck" to make  something seem really cheap. For example, if I  

said that I bought something for 100 bucks,  you might think, "Well, that seems like a  

lot of money, but what if I told you it was a new  iPhone? All of a sudden it seems like deal, right?  

So we could say, "I can't believe that iPhone was  just 100 bucks. What a steal." This is a great  

word to add to your vocabulary, sketchy, sketchy.  We often use the word "to sketch" to talk about  

drawing, but that's not what we're talking about  here. Take a look at this sample sentence. Hitch  

hiking has become a lot more sketchy in the  last decade, at least in the U.S. I don't know  

if it's common in your country, but what can you  guess from this sentence? The word sketchy means  

risky, untrustworthy, you feel quite  uncertain about it. We can even use this  

to talk about people. "That guy looks sketchy." "I think I'm going to walk on the other side of  

the road. He looks risky. Untrustworthy. He looks  sketchy," or you could say, "We just sided not to  

cross the sketchy looking bridge." You could say,  The old bridge," "The bridge that looked like it  

was going to fall down." You could use other words  or you could use the slang expression and say,  

"That's a sketchy looking bridge. I  don't trust it. I don't want to cross it.  

Out there, what if I told you, "I don't wear that  dress. It's too out there. It's not my style,"  

out there. We can imagine that things that  are on earth are lovely and understandable and  

reasonable and things that are out there are  a little bit weird. "So that dress, it's got  

stripes, it's got polka dots, it's got feathers,  it's a little out there. It's not my style."  

We could use this for people. "Bob is  pretty out there, but he has a kind heart." 

You might think that Bob has some weird  ideas, maybe he is a little bit awkward  

or an unusual person, but he has a kind  heart, so it's not always a bad thing.  

I'd be careful maybe who you said it to make sure  they could take it in the right way. But you could  

say "Bob's a little out there, but you know what?  He has a kind heart. I love hanging out with him."  

To be cool with something, are we talking about  cool and warm? Nope. We're talking about cool,  

man. So you could say, "The teacher was cool  with me using the classroom for some evening  

study sessions." Can you guess what this means?  It's another way of saying that she was okay with  

it. She approved of it. "The teacher was cool  with me using the classroom," or we could cut a  

word from this and make it even more casual. You  can cut the verb "are" and you could say, "You  

still cool with me coming over this afternoon. You  still cool with me coming over this afternoon." 

It's okay to say, "Are you still cool with me  coming over this afternoon?" But sometimes we  

cut off that "be" verb and make it even more  casual. "You still cool with me coming over this  

afternoon?" "Yeah, I'm cool with it." Beautiful.  All I know, take a look at this sentence. All I  

knew as a child was my small town. I had never  visited a big city. All I knew as a child,  

we're talking about some limited knowledge here.  Usually, we use the word all to talk about a lot,  

but instead here, we're talking about something  limited. All I knew as a child was my small town.  

I had never been to a big city, so that  was something completely foreign to me.  

Let's take a look at another sentence for  a slightly more nuanced way to use it.  

Let's imagine that you just meet someone named  Sarah and she invites you to go play tennis  

with her. Cool. That's a good first activity to  do with someone. You might tell your husband,  

"Well, I don't really know Sarah for all.  I know she could be a tennis champion." 

This is talking about your limited knowledge about  her, and it's a little bit of an exaggeration,  

probably. If she was a tennis champion,  she would've told you and not invited you,  

a normal person, to go play tennis with her,  but we can use this expression for all I know,  

to talk about an exaggeration. For all I know,  maybe she's a tennis champion. For all I know,  

maybe she's a terrible person. For all I know,  and you can use an exaggeration because you're  

emphasizing, "I have limited knowledge about  her, so maybe this extreme thing could be true."  

Chit chat. Chit chat. Chit chat. "It was nice to  run into her at the store. We got to chit chat  

a bit." Do you think we had a deep, meaningful  conversation? No. The word chit chat just means  

simple, inconsequential, not-so-important  conversation topics, but this is part of  

talking with someone. You have a little bit of  chit chat, and then maybe you talk about deeper  

things, or if you just see someone in the grocery  store, us have a little chit chat together. 

A common expression that teachers say in the  classroom is this, "The teacher told us to  

cut the chit chat and get back to studying."  This expression, "To cut the chit chat," you  

can imagine cut it out. Stop chit chatting. You're  talking with your friends and you're not studying,  

so the teacher say, "Hey guys, cut the  chit chat. Let's get back to studying,"  

very common in the classroom. All sorts of, often,  this is said, "all sorts of." We do all sorts of  

stuff when we go to the beach. All sorts of, like  can you get a feeling for this? Do we just do one  

thing? "No, we do all sorts of stuff when we go to  the beach. We built sand castles. We swim in the  

waves. Maybe we go play mini-golf. We do all sorts  of stuff when we go to the beach." This is just  

a casual way to talk about a lot of things. "We  do all sorts of stuff when we go to the beach." 

Let's take a look at this sentence. "I  love all sort sorts of movies, drama,  

romance, horror. I love all sorts of movies,  of various kinds of movies." This is not  

really true for me, not a big movie fan, but  maybe for you this is true. You might say,  

"I love all sorts of movies. It doesn't matter  what kind as long as it's a decent movie, I'll  

watch it. For me, this maybe is true for books.  I love all sorts of books. To come in handy,  

take a look at this. Meditation techniques come in  handy when you're feeling stressed. They come in  

handy. This means that they're useful. Meditation  techniques, maybe taking a couple of deep breaths,  

clearing your mind, trying to not focus on the  stressful thing that can come in handy. It can be  

useful when you're feeling stressed, or what about  this? "I figured my pocket knife would come I'm in  

handy during my travels. It was very true. "When  I travel abroad, sometimes I buy a little pocket  

knife because you always need to cut things." I've been so surprised, cut an apple, cut a  

package, cut something, and it's nice to have a  little pocket knife with you. A pocket knife comes  

in handy when you're traveling. If you're make  sure that you leave your pocket knife at home.  

The airport will not be so happy about  that. I have experienced this before,  

forgotten that I had my pocket knife on my key  chain like I usually do, and I had to leave it at  

the airport. What a shame. But if you're traveling  domestically or you're not flying, it is useful to  

have pocket knife. It can come in handy. The last  something, take a look at this sentence. The last  

place I expected to meet my future husband was at  a bar. This was a sentence that one of my guests  

in The Fearless Fluency Club said. She was telling  me that when she went to Hungary, she was at a bar  

with her friends, and guess who she met at the  bar? Her future husband. They ended up having  

a wonderful relationship, getting married. They  moved to the U.S. It's a beautiful romantic story. 

She said, "The last place that I expected to meet  my future husband was at a bar." This means it was  

a very unlikely occurrence. She was not expecting  this, the last place, but we can use other words  

after the last as well. "The last person that  we expected to score a goal was Sam," poor Sam,  

maybe he's no good at soccer or football and  everyone and says, "Oh, he's got the ball,  

but there's no way that he's going to score  a goal." He's the last person we would expect  

to score a goal, and then boom, he scores a  goal. This might be the phrase that you say,  

"The last person we expected to score a goal  was Sam, but he did it. That's amazing."  

That's just how it goes. You remember the  story I told you about where my guest married  

a Hungarian man? Well, she also told me this  sentence. "My husband is a qualified doctor,  

but it's not recognized in this country. I guess  that's just how it goes." Oh, so her husband was  

a certified doctor in Hungary, but when he moved  to the U.S., they didn't accept his certification. 

He would need to go through many more years of  schooling in order to be certified as a doctor  

in the U.S. That's such a shame. I think we miss  out on a lot of good, talented people because of  

these types of restrictions. So she said, "That's  just how it goes." Here, we can imagine her  

acceptance of something that's probably not  very fair. "That's just how it goes." Maybe  

this has happened to you. "My co-worker called  in sick, so I had to do all of her extra work.  

I guess that's just how it goes. "Well, it's not  fair. Your co-worker is sick. It's not her fault,  

but you have to do the extra work. That's not very  fair, but I guess that's just how it goes. You're  

accepting an unfair situation. Talking about being  fair, a fair shake. If you are the oldest sibling,  

maybe you have experienced this. "My mom never  gave me a fair shake. She always blamed me  

instead of my little sister." This wasn't  exactly true, but I think as an older sibling,  

we often feel that, right? "It's not  fair. You should blame her. Not me." 

Can you imagine what this means? This is talking  about fair treatment, "I never got a fair shake,  

so I'm receiving that fair treatment." "I never  got a fair shake," or if you are the parent or  

the authority, "She never gave me a fair shake."  Let's take a look at another sentence. I feel like  

I didn't get a fair shake with my volleyball team.  They didn't let me play as much as I thought I  

should be allowed to play. It wasn't fair  treatment. I didn't get a fair shake from  

the volleyball team. Our next expression is a  very fun one, fighting the man, or just the man.  

So in The Fearless Fluency Club, one  of my guests was a lawyer named David.  

He said that all of his co-workers wore suits and  ties, but he wore a tee-shirt and jeans. It was  

allowed, and this was his way of fighting the man.  What could this possibly mean to fight the man?  

We can imagine the man is authority, so it's  your way of rebelling against authority,  

doing something that's against what the  authority wants. "I'm fighting the man." 

So for teenagers, they might say,  "When we sprayed graffiti on that wall,  

my friends and I thought that we were fighting  the man, but really we were just being dumb."  

So the teenagers thought that they were  doing something to tell the authorities,  

"You don't have control over us. We're fighting  the man," but in reality, they were just  

doing something dumb. They thought they were  fighting the man, when in reality, they weren't.  

Our last slang casual expression today is solid,  solid. We could use this in a very literal way.  

That piece of wood is solid. It's not hollow. But  I want to show you this in a more figurative way.  

What if I said to you, "A Honda Civic is a good,  solid car." It's not hollow? No. In this case,  

we're talking about reliable. It's not fancy. It's  not shiny. It doesn't have lots of cool stuff,  

it's just a reliable car. It is a solid car. You  could use this for place of work. Let's imagine  

that you're a barista at Starbucks. You might  say, "Starbucks is a solid company to work for. 

They treat you well, you get a free bag of coffee  every week, not too bad. Starbucks is a solid,  

reliable company to work for." Well, I hope that  this was a solid lesson and you learned all sorts  

of useful stuff. Don't forget to click on the  link in the description to download the free  

PDF worksheet with all of these slang expressions,  sample sentences and ideas. You can answer  

Vanessa's challenge question at the bottom of the  worksheet so that you never forget what you've  

learned. If you want to continue learning real  English with me and join a community of thousands  

of motivated English learners from around the  world, I invite you to join me in The Fearless  

Fluency Club. You'll have access to a community of  passionate English learners from around the world  

who practice speaking together to grow their  confidence and their English skills. Course  

member, Tatiana said, "I was afraid to speak with  other course members because of my low level of  

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This is a beautiful transformation, going from  feeling afraid and worried to enjoying speaking  

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this video to join me in The Fearless Fluency  Club and start speaking real English today.  

Now, I have a question for you. I want you to  think about travel, something beautiful that  

I know a lot of you enjoy. What is something that  comes in handy when you travel? Is it a suitcase?  

Is it a map? Is it a smartphone? What is something  that comes in handy when you travel? Maybe it's a  

good level of English. Let me know in the comments  and thank you so much for learning English with  

me. I will see you again next Friday for a new  lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next  

step is to download the free PDF worksheet for  this lesson. With this free PDF, you will master  

today's lesson and never forget what you have  learned. You can be a confident English speaker.  

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel  for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.