Speak ADVANCED English in 30 minutes: American English Lesson

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  

Can you speak advanced  English? Let's talk about it. 

Let's imagine this scene; you are visiting the  US and you're about to go eat sushi for dinner.  

You're walking along and you turn the corner,  and you see me walking on the sidewalk. You shout  

for joy and say, "Hey, Vanessa! Do you want  to join me for dinner? We're eating sushi." 

I walk over. I'm excited to meet you.  And then your face goes like this,  

"I think I saw in one of your videos that  you don't like sushi." And I say, "Oh,  

I do like sushi. In fact, I can eat quite a  few sushi rolls." You probably understand the  

general idea of what I'm trying to say,  but this sentence is advanced English. 

I said, "I do like sushi." Well, generally, in  English, we don't put "do" before "like." So why  

did I say this? Is this a grammatical mistake?  And what about this expression, "Quite a few  

sushi rolls?" Usually, few means a little. But why  did I say, "Quite a few?" Oh, this is an advanced  

English phrase I would love for you to learn. If you would like to speak advanced English  

like this and impress me when you meet me on the  sidewalk, well, never fear. Today, you are going  

to learn to speak advanced American English. And  like always, to help you never forget what you  

learn in today's lesson, I have created a free PDF  worksheet with all of today's advanced phrases,  

advanced verbs, advanced sentence structures,  to help you be able to speak advanced English.  

You can click on the link in the description  to download this free PDF worksheet today. 

In this lesson, you will see two of my most  popular advanced English lessons. So are  

you ready to level up your English? Let's go. It's a fact that the more vocabulary you know,  

the more you can understand natural, fast English  conversations and the more that you can express  

yourself. So today I'd like to help you learn  10 essential advanced English expressions.  

These aren't specifically for business  situations, but you could use them then.  

These aren't really just slang expressions, but  you could use them in casual situations too. 

These are phrases for daily life. They're  phrases that I use all the time. And I have  

a feeling that you're going to hear  them all the time. And hopefully,  

now you're going to be able to use them yourself. During today's lesson, try to say the sample  

sentences out loud with me. This is a great  chance to practice your pronunciation muscles,  

listen to your own voice speaking and using great  English grammar and vocabulary. And it's a good  

way to help you remember what you're learning. All right, let's start with the first expression.  

To take something seriously. Usually,  we use the word "take," this verb,  

when we're grabbing something or when  we're getting something. But instead,  

this expression uses "take" in a figurative sense.  This means you're accepting something sincerely. 

We often use this in a negative sense.  For example, let's look at this sentence,  

"When the teenager told her mom, 'I hate  you,' her mom didn't take it seriously."  

This is a negative situation, "Didn't  take it seriously." What is "it?"  

Are we using "it" to talk about her daughter?  No, we're talking about her daughter's words. 

So the mom is not feeling like this is a sincere  statement from her daughter. Because her daughter  

is a teenager, maybe she's going through some  hard times. So the mom is not going to get upset  

when her daughter says, "I hate you." She's  not going to take those words seriously. 

Or you might say, "I wish I had taken school  seriously." "Take school seriously" means to  

study hard, to be sincere in your efforts. I  wish I had taken school seriously, but I still  

graduated even though I didn't learn as much as I  could have. I wish I had taken school seriously. 

Let's go to the next expression; on top of. Are  we talking about physical placement here? No.  

Instead, take a look at this sentence  and try to guess what you think it means.  

"My dog ripped my school books, and  on top of that, he ate my homework." 

So we have a bad situation that has become  worse. So my dog ripped my school books,  

this is already a bad situation, but then  on top of that, he ate my homework. So we  

can use this wonderful expression "on top  of" just like we would "in addition to." 

Usually, it shows some kind of surprise. On top  of that, he ate my homework. I can't believe it.  

I'm surprised. In addition to what he already  did, he ate my homework. Or you might say,  

"This vocabulary lesson is great,  on top of that, it's free." 

So you could say, "In addition to that,  it's free." That's fine. But when you say,  

"On top of that," you're implying that you're  kind of surprised. I can't believe that  

Vanessa is giving us this lesson for free.  On top of that, it's free. Wonderful. 

Quite a few. If I said I ate quite a few cookies,  do you think this means a few, a little, or a lot?  

This expression can be a little bit tricky because  even though it uses a few, which usually means a  

small amount, this expression really means a lot. The word "a few" means a little, but when we add  

"quite," we're making this an indirect way  to say a lot. Quite a few cookies, maybe  

20 cookies. This is a lot of cookies for one  person to eat, so you might say, "I ate quite  

a few cookies." You're being indirect about how  many cookies you ate, but we know it was a lot. 

Or you could say, "Quite a few students  participated in the 30-day listening challenge."  

This means a lot of students participated  in the 30-day listening challenge. 

If I want to be a little more indirect,  then this is a great statement. I could say,  

"A lot of students participated." But  to be a little indirect, we could say,  

"Quite a few students participated in  the course, and I hope you can too." 

Little to no. What is happening here? Little  to no. "I invited 20 people to my party, but  

little to no people responded." Let's think about  this phrase as a scale. Little is on one side,  

so a few people, a couple of people, and  then no people are on the other side.  

So little to no. "A lot of people"  is not even on the scale. So we have  

a little to no. Little to no people responded. You can also think about this like one  

to 10. If we use this same idea with the  word "to," we're talking about a scale.  

One to 10 people responded. Okay, this is the  same idea. It's a scale. But you will also hear  

little to no people responded. What about this sentence?  

"Last week, he had little to no time to cook.  He was so busy." So here we're talking about  

little time, maybe 20 minutes, to no time to cook.  He was so busy. He had little to no time to cook. 

To be a roller coaster. This is a figurative  expression. We're not talking about actually  

sitting on a rollercoaster, which is the ride at  an amusement park. Instead, we're going to use  

this figuratively. And you could say, "Last year  was such a rollercoaster. I got married, and then  

I got fired from my job, and then I moved to New  York." So there's a lot of positive and negative  

things that are happening. It's a rollercoaster. I got married, and then I got fired, and then I  

moved to New York. So we're talking about the  ups and downs of life. It's a rollercoaster.  

We often use this word with "emotional." It's an  emotional rollercoaster. The relationship was an  

emotional rollercoaster for six months. If one of your friends is dating someone  

and the relationship just isn't very  smooth, they don't get along too well,  

they don't really communicate that well, you might  say, "Yeah, that relationship was an emotional  

rollercoaster." Sometimes they loved each other,  sometimes they were so angry, then they loved  

each other. Not a very healthy relationship. It  was an emotional rollercoaster for six months. 

What about this expression? "I'm talking." Does  it mean I'm speaking out loud? No. Instead, this  

is often used to give more information about a  specific point. It's kind of a casual expression.  

So let's imagine the situation, you're  sitting in a classroom and the teacher says,  

"This semester, we will be studying historical  figures. I'm talking, Winston Churchill,  

Genghis Khan, Aristotle." She's giving more information about  

who are historical figures. So she could have just  said, "We will be studying historical figures."  

Okay. But she wanted to give more clarification  about this point, historical figures. So she said,  

"I'm talking Genghis Khan, Winston Churchill,  Aristotle." This is a wide spectrum of people,  

so that's why she used this  expression, "I'm talking." 

Let's look at another example. "The restaurant  was so fancy. I'm talking, suit and tie,  

a local weekly menu, a live cello player." Oh,  you're giving more clarification about fancy. What  

does fancy mean? What is a fancy restaurant? Oh,  well, you're going to give us some more details  

about this point. You're going to talk about a  suit and tie. Maybe you had to wear a suit and  

tie. Maybe the servers wore a suit and ties. There's a local weekly menu that changes every  

week, and there was a live cello player. That's  pretty fancy if you ask me. So you're clarifying.  

I'm talking, this, this, and this. Great. The next expression is "at all." At all.  

This means completely. And it is only used  in negative situations. "I haven't studied  

for my test at all." "I haven't," that's our  negative part. "I haven't studied at all." 

Or you could say, "I haven't studied completely,"  but "at all" is much more natural. So we can add  

this always to the end of the sentence. "I  haven't studied at all." Or you could say,  

"I thought my cats would be annoyed about having  a new baby at home, but they don't care at all."  

"They don't," so we're using that negative  word. "They don't care at all." Do they have  

any care about the new baby? No.  None at all. Notice how this is  

always used at the end of the sentence. Six figures. Are we talking about six people?  

No. What if I said this sentence? "He wants to be  a doctor because he wants a six-figure salary."  

What can you guess? What do you think that  this expression means: six-figure salary? 

Well, we're talking about numbers that have  six figures, so this means $100,000 and up.  

100,000, 200,000, 300,000. When you're a doctor,  at least in the US, usually, you make a lot of  

money, so you have a six-figure salary. The term  six-figure just denotes money above 100,000.  

Or you could say, "They earned six figures last  year." That talks about how much money they made. 

I had a student in the 30-day listening  challenge ask, "Can you say five figures?"  

For example, "I have a five-figure salary.  He makes five figures." Not really.  

We really only use this with six figures. And I think it's just because five figures  

could be $10,000, which, in the US, is not  a high salary, or it could be $90,000, which  

is a lot of money. So it doesn't  really have the same implication. 

But when you say six figures, this is always  a lot of money. So even if you make 100,000  

compared to 900,000, it's still a lot of money.  So we only use this when we're talking about six  

figures in a salary. To go through something. We're not  

talking about going through a tunnel. Instead,  this is a figurative phrasal verb expression.  

And it's talking about experiencing a lot of  negative things, a lot of negative experiences. 

You might say, "Last month I went through  a lot. My grandmother was in the hospital,  

my car broke down, and I had a terrible cold."  So you experienced a lot of negative things. I  

went through a lot. You can use this in a  more vague situation. You could just say,  

"You're going through a lot right now. Please take  care of yourself." You're going through a lot. 

You can use it to talk about your friend.  Let's say that you're having a dinner  

party and your friend doesn't come and someone  says, "Hey, why didn't he come?" You might say,  

"He's going through a lot right now. He needs some  quiet time by himself." He's going through a lot.  

And this implies he's having a lot of difficult  experiences right now, so let's take it easy. 

Our final expression is to make it. Does this  mean create something, to make something? Nope.  

Instead, to make it means to be successful. You  might say, "He's moving to LA to become a movie  

star. I hope he makes it." You can substitute in  this sentence and say, "I hope he's successful."  

I hope he makes it. And "it" here is just  his goal. I hope he makes it. But we always  

keep this expression together, "Makes it." Or we could talk about being successful in a  

more vague way. You might say, "He  drove to the concert through the rain,  

the snow, the hail; and finally, he made it."  He was successfully at his destination. He  

successfully arrived at his destination; the  concert. He made it. So it implies struggle,  

but he was successful in the end. This isn't talking about his career,  

like going to LA, becoming a movie star. You  made it. No. Instead, he just successfully  

arrived at his destination. "Whew. After all  of that rain, snow, hail, I made it, great." 

Excellent work with these 10 new phrases.  You opened your mind to these new phrases,  

so I hope that you'll be able  to hear them all around you now. 

Today, your mind is about to expand, maybe even  explode. You might think that you know how to use  

these three simple verbs, but do you really know  how to use them? Sometimes English learners think  

that to speak advanced English, you need to use  advanced verbs, but that's not always the case.  

Sometimes you need to use simple verbs in  an advanced way. Are you curious? Good. 

Today, I'm going to help you use "tell," "do,"  and "bet" in a more advanced, natural way. Are  

you ready to get started with the first one? Let's  start with the verb "tell." The first meaning of  

the word "tell" you probably know. "I'm going to  tell you a secret." "Do you know what she told  

me yesterday?" This just means simply to talk. But this is the simple way to use "tell." Let's  

take it to the next level. Let's take a look at  this sentence. "I couldn't tell if he was a boy  

or a girl." Does this mean I couldn't talk about  if he was a boy or a girl? No. We're using "tell"  

in an advanced way here. This means I didn't  know if he was a boy or a girl. I couldn't tell. 

Let's look at a few other sentences that use  "tell" in an advanced way that means to understand  

or to know something. "It was hard to tell."  This means it was hard to know. "I couldn't tell  

by looking at his face." I couldn't know if  he was a boy or a girl by looking at his face. 

You might notice that we often use the word "tell"  in this advanced way with the verb "can." Let's  

take a look at another scenario. "Can you  usually tell when someone's lying to you?"  

This means do you easily know when someone's lying  to you? Can you easily understand when someone's  

lying compared to telling the truth? You might also say, "I couldn't tell  

that he was lying." This doesn't mean I  couldn't talk about the fact that he was lying.  

It means I just didn't know that he was  lying. I couldn't tell that he was lying. 

Let's go to the second simple verb  that we can make more advanced.  

What do you think about this sentence? "I do like  seafood." Listen to which word is emphasized here.  

I do like seafood. I do like seafood. There are  two verbs, "do" and "like," but one of them is  

emphasized. I do like seafood. It's the verb "do." Native speakers often use the verb "do"  

to show emphasis, especially to emphasize the  truth. Let's take a look at some examples. If  

you say to me, "Vanessa, do you want to go  to an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet for my  

birthday?" And then you hesitate and say, "Oh, I  forgot that you don't like seafood. I'm sorry." 

But really, I love seafood. So I want to politely  tell you, you're wrong, I like seafood. How can I  

say that in a polite way? Well, I can simply say,  "I do like seafood." So I'm emphasizing that I  

like it, but I'm also emphasizing that this is the  truth. You had an opinion that wasn't the truth,  

and now I'm sharing the truth with you. Oh, that's  not true. I do like seafood. I want to come. I  

want to go to the all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. Let's look at another example. A couple of weeks  

ago, my husband Dan and I met some new  friends and they invited us over to their  

house to have dinner. It was really nice of  them. But on the morning of that dinner, Dan  

woke up really sick. Dan is my husband. He only  gets sick maybe once a year, but that was the day.  

It was not a good day for him. He was on the  couch all day. It happens to all of us, right? 

Well, so I needed to call our new friends and  say, "Dan really does want to come to dinner,  

but he's too sick." I wanted to emphasize that he  does want to come. He wants to come to your house,  

but he's too sick. I ended up going to the dinner by myself  

and it was a lovely time, but it was a sad time  for Dan because he was just at home, on the couch.  

Why did I choose to add "do" to this sentence?  What kind of truth am I trying to reveal to them? 

Well, I was a little bit worried that, because we  didn't know them, we didn't know them very well at  

least, I was worried that they would think Dan was  just making an excuse, that he didn't want to go,  

and I was calling to make an excuse  for him. But that wasn't the truth.  

He was actually really sick. And it was a  good idea that he didn't go to the dinner. 

So I wanted to let them know, this is his true  feelings. He really does want to go to your house,  

but he's too sick. We often use this advanced form of  

"do" with the word "but," because we're telling  the truth, and then we're showing an excuse.  

Let's take a look at a couple of sentences.  "I really do want to study English every day,  

but I usually forget." So you're  showing your true feelings, "I really  

do want to study English." And then you have  the excuse, "But I usually forget." Oh no. 

"My manager does want to speak with you, but she's  busy right now." If you get a call from someone  

from another branch and you're trying to let them  know your manager is busy; it's not an excuse,  

it's true that your manager is busy; you could  use this verb to let them know this is the truth. 

"My manager does want to speak with you, but she's  too busy right now." You're letting that person  

know on the phone, maybe some representative  from another branch, you're letting them know,  

this isn't just an excuse. "It's true,  my manager does want to speak with you."  

And then you have an excuse, "But she's just  busy right now. She'll call you back later."  

My manager does want to speak with you. Or you could say, "She does have a car,  

but she just rides her bike everywhere instead."  If you always see your friend riding her bike,  

you might wonder, does she not have a car?  Why is she always riding her bike? And then  

you could say, "She does have a car." You're  emphasizing this truth. "She does have a car,  

but she just chooses to ride her bike instead." Let's go to the third verb that we can make more  

advanced. I use this one all the time. So I'm  so glad to share it with you because you'll  

be able to understand it when I use it and when  other people use it. It's the word "bet." "Have  

you ever bet some money that your team would  win?" This is the simple way to use "bet." 

It means you think your team will win, so you put  some money on the table. If your team wins, you  

get more money. If your team loses, you lose all  your money. This is the simple way to use "bet." 

Let's make it more advanced though. "I bet that  you want to be a fluent English speaker." I don't  

know this 100%, but I'm 99% certain that you want  to be a fluent English speaker. So I can say, "I  

bet that you want to be a fluent English speaker."  I'm just guessing your opinion. This more advanced  

way to use "bet" means I'm almost certain.  I'm not 100% certain, but I'm almost certain. 

Let's look at some ways that you can use  this naturally. The phrase "I bet" is often  

used to show empathy or caring when someone's  going through a situation. So you might say,  

"I bet that you were sad when your dog died." This  means I'm not 100% certain, but I'm letting you  

know that I can imagine your feelings. I'm almost  certain that you were sad when your dog died,  

and I want you to know that I understand you were  sad. I bet you were really sad when your dog died. 

Do you see the tone of my voice and  the look on my face? It shows caring  

and empathy. "I bet you were really sad." Let's look at another example. "I bet that  

you were annoyed when your boss didn't give  you a raise." I'm not 100% certain, but I'm  

mostly certain that you were annoyed when your  boss didn't give you a raise. This is a really  

kind and thoughtful and polite  expression to use when someone you  

know is having a difficult time in their life. If your friend was expecting a raise and then  

you see them and they look pretty sad and  they tell you, "I didn't get the raise,"  

you could use this expression. "I bet you  were annoyed when your boss didn't give you  

that raise." "I bet you were really disappointed  when your boss didn't give you that raise." You're  

sharing feelings with them. You're empathizing. You can use "I bet" for those negative situations  

like, "I bet that was really hard." "I bet that  situation was really hard for you." But you can  

also use it in positive situations. "I bet you're  glad that your exams are over." The word "glad"  

is not a negative thing, it's a positive  thing. But you're letting them know,  

I understand your feelings. "I bet you're glad  the exams are over. Now you can finally relax." 

We just talked about how you can  use "I bet" to show someone that  

you are understanding and caring about their  feelings. This is kind of a deep friendship  

type of expression. But there's a lighter way  that we can use it as well; it's simply when  

you're predicting what might happen in the future. You could simply say, "I bet that it will rain  

today." "I bet that it's going to rain." "There's  dark clouds. The air is a little bit moist. I bet  

it's going to rain." You're just predicting.  You're almost certain. You're not 100% certain,  

but you're almost certain that it's going to rain. Or if you've never been skiing, like me,  

you might say, "I bet that I'm going to break my  leg when I go skiing." This is a prediction for  

the future. I hope whenever I go skiing for the  first time, this doesn't happen. But you can use  

this expression to say, this is my prediction.  It will probably happen, not 100%, but there  

is a high possibility that it might happen. I bet  I'll break my leg or I bet that I'll break my leg. 

Notice that in all of these sentences, we  use the pronoun "I." I bet. This is because  

I'm certain. I don't know your certainty, but  I know my certainty. I bet it's going to rain.  

I bet you were sad. I bet that was a hard  time. I'm talking about my own certainty. 

It's not so common to hear this with other  pronouns. You bet that this will happen. He  

bets that this will happen. It's most likely  that you're going to hear this with "I bet."  

So I want you to be able to use that too. Before we go, let's do a little review. I  

want you to say these sentences out loud, exercise  your pronunciation muscles, and speak. It's going  

to help you to remember these three simple verbs  used in an advanced way. Are you ready? Let's go. 

"I couldn't tell if he was a boy or a girl." "It  was hard to tell." "Can you usually tell when  

someone is lying to you?" "I can't tell."  "I forgot that you don't like seafood."  

"No, I do like seafood." "I really do want to  study English every day, but I always forget." 

"She does have a car, but she  always rides her bike instead."  

"I bet that you want to be a fluent English  speaker." "I bet that you were annoyed when  

your boss didn't give you a raise." "I  bet you're glad that the exams are over."  

"I bet that it's going to rain today." How did you do? Did you get some pronunciation  

practice? I hope so. Now I have a question  for you. In the comments, I want to know what  

is something that you really do want to do but  you just don't do. For example, you might say,  

"I really do want to go to bed earlier, but the  night just passes so quickly. And before I know  

it, it's 2:00 AM." Or, "I really do want to see  my parents more, but I'm just too busy." Let  

me know in the comments. What is something that  you really do want to do, but you just don't do? 

Congratulations on leveling up your English  skills. Don't forget to download the free PDF  

worksheet for today's lesson with all of these  expressions, verbs, sample sentences, grammatical  

structures, all of the ideas from this lesson  so that you can speak advanced American English. 

You can click on the link, download the  PDF, print it out if you would like,  

put it under your pillow as you sleep, and  dream about speaking advanced American English.  

You can do it. Click on the link in the  description to download the PDF worksheet today. 

Well, 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.