English Vocabulary in 1 hour: advanced vocabulary lesson

Vanessa: Why do I  

want this job? Well, a month ago I had a...  What's the word? I had a light bulb moment,  

and I realized that this  would be the best job for me.

Has this ever happened to you? You're having an  English conversation, maybe an important one,  

like that job interview, and you just  lose the word that you want to say.  

You know that it's in there, but you  just can't find it at the right moment.

Well, I have some good news. You are not  alone. This happens to many English learners,  

and today I want to help you grow your  vocabulary skills so that you will have  

the words you want to say when you're having  an English conversation or an interview.

Hi, I'm Vanessa speakenglishwithvanessa.com.  And like always, I have created a wonderful  

PDF worksheet for you with all of today's 75  important English expressions that you will  

learn in the next hour. Incredible. You  can download that free PDF worksheet with  

all of these expressions, definitions, sample  sentences. And at the bottom of the worksheet,  

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 that free PDF worksheet today.

All right, let's get started  with our first category,  

which are daily life items plus an idiom that  goes with each of these items. That way you  

can connect these two expressions  and never forget them. Let's watch.

Let's get started with item number one  and idiom number one. Do you know what  

this item is? This is a hammer. And what  do you do with a hammer? You hammer in  

a nail. So I want to help you with a great  expression that we use to talk about hammers.

The other day, someone asked me, "Vanessa, what's  the point in learning a foreign language?" Well,  

as you can imagine, this is something I feel very  passionately about. So I started talking for like  

10 minutes about the benefits of learning a  foreign language. You might say I hammered  

my point home, and this is the expression, to  hammer your point home. And here point just  

means your ideas, your perspective. I really  wanted that other person to see my perspective,  

because I was so passionate about  it. I told them all the benefits,  

all the great things that can happen, all of the  excitement about learning a foreign language. So  

I wanted to hammer my point home. I didn't  want to just say something simple. Instead,  

I wanted to make sure they understood.  I wanted to hammer my point home.

Do you know what this item is? It's quite  useful. It's a broom. My broom has some  

problems. It's really bent. I guess we  were sweeping ferociously at some point,  

but there are two wonderful expressions that  I'd like to teach you related to sweeping. Now,  

notice that the verb is not to broom. You don't  broom the floor, you sweep the floor with a broom.

But what happens if you sweep something under  the rug? Well, what happens to that item that you  

sweep under the rug? Is it visible for everyone to  see? Nope. It is hidden. So if there's something  

in your life that you don't want to think about,  usually this is something kind of serious.

So let's imagine that your aunt and uncle have  announced that they are getting a divorce. And  

when you see your aunt the next time you want to  talk to her, you want to see if she's okay. You  

want to talk about this, but she's silent. Well,  you might say, "My aunt is deciding to sweep her  

divorce under the rug." That means she wants it  to stay hidden and unspoken. Maybe she's dealing  

with a hard time, probably is. Maybe she just  doesn't want to discuss it yet, or maybe she  

feels really uncomfortable discussing it. So she  is sweeping it under the rug to keep it hidden.

Now that expression is quite negative for sweeping  something serious under the rug. But what happens  

if you get swept off your feet? Well, when you're  sweeping the floor, usually you don't fall down,  

right? But this expression to be swept off  my feet has to do with love. You might say,  

"The first time that I saw him, I was  swept off my feet." Maybe he didn't  

literally pick you up and carry you away.  But this idea that I could hardly walk,  

I was just floating. He swept me off my feet  when he brought me roses, and chocolate,  

and said so many nice things. This means  you are in love. He swept me off my feet.

Here is my sink, and it's looking beautiful right  now. My husband Dan just did the dishes. So it is  

nicely cleaned. But do you know what this is  down here? This is the drain, and everything  

goes down the drain if it gets into that little  hole. So here, water is going down the drain.

Now what goes down the drain? Usually it's  something that you don't want to keep,  

hopefully. Hopefully not your rings or something  important. Usually it's just waste. So here,  

water is going down the drain. But we can  use this expression down the drain for other  

things that might be wasted. So you could say  buying expensive clothes for your children is  

just money down the drain, because your kids  are going to get them messy. They're going to  

rip them. It is not a good investment to  buy expensive clothes for your children.  

Buying expensive clothes for your children  is just money down the drain. It's wasted.

Do you know what this is called? This is  a window. And what happens if I decide to  

throw something out the window? First of  all, you might ask, "Why Vanessa would you  

throw something out the window?" That's a  good question. Well, this is the wonderful  

expression out the window. Not necessarily  with throw, but take a look at this sentence.

"Our plans for a beautiful picnic went out the  window when a thunderstorm rolled in." Okay,  

so our plans are out the window. Does  this mean that I have a piece of paper  

that I'm bawling up and really  just throwing out the window? No,  

this just means that our plans had to  change in kind of an unfortunate way,  

some way that I didn't want to have happen. So our  plans went out the window when the storm rolled  

in. We had to come up with plan B, because no one  wants to have a picnic in the pouring down rain.

What do you call this item? I actually don't  have this item, but there's a great expression  

I want to teach you with it. This is an iron.  Notice the pronunciation. Iron. Iron. Iron.  

This is an iron. And with an iron, you help  to get wrinkles out of your clothes. This is  

making something smoother and nicer. So let's  imagine an idiom that we can use with iron.

Let's imagine that you and your friends would  like to go on vacation to Venice. What a wonderful  

idea. But you've never gone on vacation with those  friends before, and it's quite a big trip for you.  

So you might say, "We need to iron out the details  before we book our trip." You want to make sure  

that all of the wrinkles are smoothed out. Where  are you going to stay? What kind of trip would you  

like to have? Is this going to be a nightclub trip  or is this going to be a sit in a coffee shop and  

look at the views type of trip? You want to iron  out the details before you actually book the trip.

Do you know what these are in English? These  are light bulbs. And what happens if you have  

a light bulb moment? Well, if you've ever  watched any cartoons or anything animated,  

whenever someone gets a good  idea or maybe just an idea,  

they often have a light bulb appear above their  heads. "Aha, I have a great idea." And that is  

referring to this wonderful expression,  which is to have a light bulb moment.

So for you in your English journey, perhaps you  have been learning English for a long time in  

the classroom, studying some textbooks, maybe  going to some local classes. And then one day,  

you had a light bulb moment and you realized,  "This method is not working for me. I have been  

doing this for years and years. Why aren't I  more fluent in English?" So you decided to go  

online and find some wonderful classes, maybe with  Vanessa. So here, you had a moment of inspiration,  

a light bulb moment, and now you're  here learning English. Thank you.

Do you know what these are? This is a nut,  the circular part, and this is a bolt. Now,  

we usually use these together. The nut  fits onto the bolt, and it screws onto  

the bolt. You can build pretty much  anything if you have a nut and a bolt.

So what does it mean to get down to  the nuts and bolts of something? Well,  

when you look at a chair or a table,  you don't really see the nuts and bolts.  

But are they important? Absolutely. And  whoever built that chair or table needed  

to know exactly where the nuts and bolts  went in order to build sturdy furniture.

So here we're talking about the details. Sometimes  these details aren't fun to plan out. Some people  

love planning the details of a project, but  maybe you're someone who doesn't like to get  

down to the nuts and bolts of a project. So  we might say, "She has a lot of ideas, but she  

doesn't like to get down to the nuts and bolts  of what will make the project actually work."

So it's fun to come up with ideas, but to  actually do the project in detail isn't  

always so exciting. There's always going to  be parts that will be difficult or less fun.  

So maybe you're someone who likes to get  down to the nuts and bolts of a project,  

or maybe you're someone who  likes to just have fun ideas.

Do you know what this is? This machine  here, this is a coffee maker. Well,  

there's a specific sound or verb that  we sometimes use to talk about coffee,  

and it is percolate. Percolate. Well, if you  have ever made coffee with a coffee maker,  

you hear that kind of bubbling, gurgling sound  as the steam rises and the water is heating and  

making the coffee. Well, it hasn't finished  making coffee yet, but it's in the process.  

There's also a lot of hot steam and hot  water involved in percolating coffee.

So what does it mean when something  else percolates? Take a look at this.  

You might say, "When the boss sent  the email to the entire company,  

he let it percolate before sending a  follow-up email." So he's kind of letting  

it steam and boil throughout the company  before he gives any kind of follow-up.

We get the idea that this email might  include some kind of surprising information,  

something maybe shocking. And he's  letting it grow and steam before he  

follows up with that message. So  he's letting his email percolate  

throughout the office before sending  a follow-up and explaining some more.

What is this? This is a cookie jar. Right  now, there are no cookies in this because  

actually we use this to put coffee beans in  and there are no more coffee beans. What a  

tragedy. But a great expression that  you can use about cookie jar is this:  

to be caught with your hand in the cookie jar.

Okay, well, this goes back  to the idea that as a child,  

you were probably not allowed to  eat an endless amount of cookies,  

right? So if you mom catches you with your hand  in the cookie jar, you're probably going to be in  

trouble. And that's the idea of this expression.  We could say, "The politician got caught with his  

hand in the cookie jar when it was found out  that he was stealing money from a company."

Okay, well, it's not a good idea.  It's not a good thing when someone  

gets their hand caught in the cookie jar,  because they've been doing something wrong.

Do you know what this is? Where am I sitting  very comfortably? This is an armchair. There's  

a lot of different expressions for what to call  this chair. But for the sake of this lesson,  

this is an armchair. Usually it has arms that you  can rest your arms on and rest your belly, very  

pregnant belly. But there's a wonderful expression  that we can also use to talk about an armchair.

What does it mean if someone says, "He is an  armchair critic"? Does it mean that he criticizes  

armchairs? "That's not a good armchair. That's  not a good armchair." No. Instead, we can imagine  

someone who doesn't have professional knowledge,  but they are still a critic nonetheless.

So we can imagine your Uncle John  sitting in his armchair saying,  

"Oh no, that policy by the government  wasn't good, blah, blah, blah. Oh no,  

I think that the neighborhood should  do this." Well, does he really know?  

Is he really a professional in those areas?  Nope. But he still has a lot of opinions.

So someone who is an armchair critic is  someone who doesn't have professional  

experience. They still have an opinion, and  maybe their opinion isn't the best opinion,  

but that's okay. Everyone is an armchair critic  about something, right? But you can also use  

this to talk about yourself if you want to let  someone know that you're not a professional.

So you might say, "When it comes to investments,  

I'm an armchair critic. I've read a lot of  articles and studied a little bit about it,  

but I have really not a great idea about how to  really be a good investor." So here I'm talking  

about myself. I'm acknowledging that I don't have  a whole lot of experience with this, so don't take  

my opinion too seriously. I'm an armchair critic  when it comes to investments, and I still want  

to talk about it, but I'm not a professional.  So this is a great way to use armchair critic.

Do you know what this is called? This is a  table. It's one of the first words that you  

probably learn in English, a table. But what  happens when something is on the table? Are we  

talking about a physical item being on the table?  Nope. Here, look at this sample sentence. "I told  

my boss that if the offer for a promotion is  still on the table, I would like to accept it."

So here we can substitute the expression.  "I told my boss that if the offer for the  

promotion is still available, well I would  like to accept it." So here we're talking  

about something that is available, and usually  it means something that's available to be  

discussed. There's a little nuance here that's  talking about discussion. It's on the table.

Now, the opposite of this is something that  is off the table. That means we do not discuss  

this. It is something that is completely  off the table. We are finished, it's done.

For example, if your family is talking about  planning a vacation and one family member says,  

"Hey, why don't we take a huge trip and go to  Indonesia?" Well, your family members might say,  

"I'm sorry, but that idea is off the  table. It will take too much money,  

and we don't have enough time to be able  to go that far away." So here we're talking  

about the availability for discussion is  pushed away. That idea is off the table.

But I'd like to give you another  expression talking about table,  

little bonus. What does it mean when something is  under the table? When something's under the table,  

is it visible? Nope. Instead, it's  something that's hidden. So usually  

we use this expression under the table to  talk about paying someone or getting paid,  

doing some kind of transaction, not necessarily  legally. It doesn't have to be extremely illegal.

For example, when I was in high school, I  was a babysitter for a couple neighborhood  

families. So we could say I got paid under the  table. It doesn't mean that they really gave  

me money under the table. It just means that  I wasn't signed up by the government to have  

a business as a babysitter. No, they just gave  me some cash and said, "Thanks for watching our  

kids," and I didn't really report that  money. Government don't listen to me.

But this is pretty typical. If you walk  someone's dog and they give you some money,  

okay, that might be under the table. They're just  

doing the transaction hidden. Usually it's  socially acceptable. But this is the idea,  

that it's not in the books. It's not your legal  job. It's just something that's under the table.

But of course, in some ways, this  expression can be negative. Because  

if there is a legitimate business and they  are doing something under the table, well,  

it really gives that business a bad reputation.

So for example, my father-in-law does a  lot of international travel for his job,  

and he told me that in some countries, it's  quite normal to bribe another company under  

the table in order to do a business deal with  them. So this is not something that's written out  

officially. They're just saying, "Hey, we'll give  you some extra money if you choose our company to  

do business with." Not very legal. At least  in the US, this is considered unacceptable.  

But in other cultures, in other countries,  this is something that's quite normal to do  

a deal under the table. So depending on where  you're from, this might be okay or not okay.

What's this? What's this? This is a tea kettle and  this is a pot. For the sake of this fun expression  

that I'm about to teach you, let's imagine  that this pot is black. It's actually silver,  

but the wonderful expression is the  pot calling the kettle black. Well,  

if both of these are the same color, it would  be a little bit strange for the pot to say,  

"Hey kettle, you're black." And the kettle  would say, "Yeah pot, but you're black too."

So this idea here is when we're talking  about someone pointing out a negative quality  

that really they also have. So this is also  called hypocrisy. Let me give you an example.

Let's imagine that I went to my friend Sarah's  birthday party and I arrived 30 minutes late.  

She might say to me, "Vanessa, why are you  always so late?" I might think in my head, "Hey,  

this is the pot calling the kettle black." Sarah's  the one who's always late. So I'm wondering,  

why is she upset at me for being late? Because  really, she's the one who's chronically late.  

She's calling me the same color as her,  the same problem that she really has,  

and the nuance here is that she doesn't realize  it. She doesn't realize the irony or the hypocrisy  

of her statement. "Hey, that's the pot calling the  kettle black." "I was late one time. You were the  

one who's late all the time." Now it wouldn't  be very nice for me to say that to her at her  

birthday party, but that's the essence of the  expression, the pot calling the kettle black.

What are these items? These are tools. Here's  a screwdriver and a wrench. And what is this?  

It's a knife. But the expression that  we use includes both of these. They  

can be interchanged in a way. You might say,  "He's not the sharpest tool in the shed," or,  

"He is not the sharpest knife in the drawer."  What does this mean? Is this nice? Absolutely  

not. This means someone's not very smart.  That's basically the nuts and bolts of it,  

is that it means you're not the sharpest tool  in the shed. There are a lot of people in the  

figurative shed who are smarter than you.  You're not the sharpest knife in the drawer,  

well there are other people in the  figurative drawer who are sharper than you.

So my recommendation is do not  tell someone this. Do not say,  

"Oh, you're not the sharpest knife in the  drawer." Not nice. But it is still a useful  

expression to know. You might hear this in a  movie or TV show, and maybe, just maybe when  

that person is not around, you might want  to use that expression. So now you know.

I hope that lesson hit the nail on  the head. Let's go to our next set  

of important vocabulary expressions,  which are expressions dealing with the  

seasons. Join me for an entire year as  we talk about 20 important expressions  

for the seasons. Let's go. Let's get  started with vocabulary from spring.

Expression number one about springtime.  Spring has sprung. The word spring has  

two different meanings. The first one is the  season. This is springtime. You can see the  

flowers behind me. But also, spring is a  verb, to spring. To spring means to jump.

So we might say, "The change from winter to spring  is pretty shocking sometimes." It's cold. It might  

be a little bit dark, and then all of a sudden  the sky's blue, flowers are blooming. Spring has  

sprung. So this is the past tense of the word  to spring of this verb. So when spring happens,  

you can say, "Spring has finally sprung.  What a beautiful time of the year."

Spring expression number two is  not a cloud in the sky. This is  

talking about the beautiful weather of  spring. Yes, there is a lot of rain,  

which we'll talk about in just a minute. But  if you open the window, and you look outside,  

and there are no clouds, you could say, "What a  beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. Lovely."

Well, let's imagine that it is raining because it  rains a lot in the springtime. You might need to  

cancel or change your plans based on the weather.  So if it's raining, you might need to change your  

plans. We can use this as an idiom no matter the  weather. You could say, "I'm sorry, I need to take  

a rain check. I got really sick, and I just can't  come to the dinner party tonight." It doesn't mean  

that it's actually raining outside. It just means  that you want to reschedule or delay something  

because something happened. You got sick and you  don't want to go to the dinner party when you're  

sick. So you might tell your friend, "Can I take  a rain check? Maybe we could do this dinner party  

in two weeks when I'm feeling better." What  a lovely expression. Let's take a rain check.

Spring expression number four is a fun  one. Let me show you this flower. Well,  

it's not exactly a flower yet,  but it will become a flower. Well,  

what if I do this? Will this ever become a  flower? Nope, I just killed it. It's gone.

So we could say, "I broke off or I took off  that bud." That is the little piece of the  

flower that hasn't opened yet. We can use this  to talk about behavior as well. We call that  

nipping it in the bud. When you nip something in  the bud, it means you stop something bad before  

it becomes worse. Obviously, a flower is not  bad, but that's just the imagery that we use.

So let's imagine that your son lies to you.  Well, you certainly don't want him to lie to  

you continually, so you need to nip that  behavior in the bud. You need to nip it  

in the bud. You might tell him, "Hey, you  know what you just did is lying and that's  

not something good. I'd rather you tell me  the truth." You are nipping that behavior  

in the bud. You're stopping it before it  becomes something worse. Unfortunately,  

it's just a beautiful flower. All right,  let's go to our fifth spring expression.

Our final spring expression is to  be a fair weather friend. If I said,  

"You're a fair weather friend," would that be  something positive or negative? It would be  

definitely negative. You do not want to be a fair  weather friend. Let's break this expression down.

What is fair weather? Well, fair  is good. Springtime has a lot of  

great weather. A lot of people think  that spring is their favorite season,  

because it's not too hot, it's not too cold.  The flowers are blooming. It's just so nice.

So if you are a fair weather friend,  what do you think happens when there's  

bad weather? Or we can take this a little more  figuratively, when bad things happen in life.  

That means you're not a good friend. When  something bad happens, you just abandon your  

friend. You're not helpful to that friend,  because you are only a fair weather friend.

So please don't be a fair weather friend. Instead,  we could say, "Stick with your friends through  

thick and thin." This is a wonderful thing to  be. It means you're loyal, you care about your  

friends, and no matter what happens, you'll be  there for them. So I hope that this is true for  

you. I hope that you stick with your friends  and family through thick and thin. All right,  

let's go on to our five summer expressions.  But right now, it is springtime for me,  

so I will see you in a couple months when I can  record the summer expressions in the summertime.

Welcome to summer. During the summer, we  love to go swimming to cool off. So here  

are five common useful daily life  expressions for the summertime.

The first expression is actually kind of a  special deal, four for one. It's how to talk  

about how hot it is. First you can say, "It's  boiling, it's blistering." Sometimes we say,  

"It's blistering hot," or, "It's a scorcher,"  or, "It's a hot one." All of these are beautiful  

expressions that you'll hear in daily  life to talk about the summertime heat.

Summer expression number two is a heat wave.  Yes, there are beautiful waves on the beach,  

but this is not a beautiful wave like that.  This means there's some unseasonably hot  

weather. Summer's already hot, but when  you have even hotter weather, you can say,  

"Here in the South of the US we are experiencing  a heat wave and it is blistering hot." To go  

on vacation. "I cannot wait to finally go on  vacation and take some great time to relax."

A similar expression that goes with that  is to be off on vacation. So you might say,  

"I'm not going to work on any new  projects, because next week I'm off  

on vacation." You're not going to be in  the office, you're going to be enjoying  

the sun. Hopefully it's not boiling  hot, and you will be off on vacation.

To head to the beach. As soon as I finish this  video, I'm going to head straight to the beach.  

Maybe it's the beach with the ocean, or  maybe it's a beach by a creek or a lake.

To chill out. Because summer is so hot, doesn't  it feel great to just chill out? You could say,  

"This summer, I have no plans. I'm just going  to chill out by the pool and catch up on some  

reading." This is going to be so relaxing. All  right, I'll see you in a couple months in fall.

Welcome to fall. This is a beautiful  season here where I live in the South  

of the US. You can see the beautiful  red maple trees behind me. We're going  

to talk about five expressions about fall,  but there's kind of a bonus because it's  

really 10 expressions. The first five are  ways to describe this beautiful weather.

The weather is brisk. "It's pretty brisk here in  the mornings. I think fall is on the way." Brisk  

means chilly or cool. And when the weather is  brisk, what do you want to do? You want to get  

cozy. "I just love to get cozy, sit under a  blanket, and read a good book in the fall."

Similar to brisk is crisp. Usually we talk  about the word crisp to talk about something  

that's crunchy, but instead we can use  it to talk about the cool weather. "I  

just love those crisp mornings, where I can  sit on my deck and drink a hot cup of tea."

Oftentimes in the fall, it's blustery.  Blustery is a fun way to say windy,  

extremely windy. Here when it's blustery, all  the leaves blow around and it's so beautiful.

Talking about leaves, when you walk in  the leaves, you can hear the rustling  

of leaves. This is the sound when you hear the  crunch, crunch, crunch of leaves as you walk,  

or maybe as they fall from the trees. This sound  of rustling leaves is very typical in the fall.

Fall expression number two kind of, is  carving pumpkins. Have you ever done this  

before? This is a huge tradition in the US.  Carving pumpkins has quickly become my son's  

favorite fall activity. We do it two or three  times each fall, because it's just so much fun.

Take a look at this fun fall phrasal verb,  to squirrel away something. Here in the US  

there are so many squirrels, and right now in the  fall, squirrels are everywhere. They're extremely  

active, because what are they doing? They're  hiding acorns and other nuts so that they can  

eat during the winter. We call this squirreling  away. And even if you are not a squirrel, you  

can squirrel away something by hiding it. Take a  look at this. "Guess what? I just found $20 in my  

coat pocket. I must have squirreled it away last  winter and forgotten about it. What a surprise."

In the US, picking apples is a common fall  tradition. So check out this apple idiom.  

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." This  is when a child is similar to their parent. So for  

me, in the fall, I loved when my dad would rake  up the leaves and put them at the bottom of the  

slide, and my sister and I would slide down  the slide and crash into the pile of leaves.

And guess who likes to do this too?  My kids. The apple doesn't fall far  

from the tree. They also love to crash into  a pile of leaves at the bottom of the slide.

Unfortunately, sometimes bad things also happen  In the fall time The weather gets cooler, and our  

immune system sometimes are not prepared and we  get a cold. So it's really common to say, "Sorry,  

I'm under the weather." This doesn't mean that you  are under the sky, even though we always are. This  

just means you're not feeling that great. It's  not super serious, but maybe you have a sniffle.  

Maybe you have a sore throat, you have a seasonal  cold or allergies. You're just not feeling so hot,  

you're feeling under the weather. All right,  I'll see you in a couple months in the winter.

Welcome to winter. Let's talk about five  expressions that have to do with the cold  

and winter. The first one is a rather strange  one. It is the dead of winter. Let's imagine  

that you come up to me and say, "Vanessa,  do you want to go swimming?" I might say,  

"It's the dead of winter and you want to go  swimming? Are you crazy?" The dead of winter  

is the coldest part of winter. You definitely  don't want to go swimming outside. I mean,  

I guess some people like to take an ice  plunge. But for me, this is not the time  

when I want to go swimming. I don't  want to swim in the dead of winter.

Winter expression number two is the cold  shoulder. Take a look at this sentence and  

guess what it means. "When I tried to talk to my  sister last night, she gave me the cold shoulder.  

I guess she's still upset about our fight." The  cold shoulder is no fun, and it is when someone  

intentionally, which means on purpose, shows  you unfriendliness. Usually they ignore you.

Sometimes being ignored can hurt deeper than  mean words. So, "My sister showed me the cold  

shoulder." That means she didn't talk to me  because she was still upset about our fight.

Winter expression number three is cabin fever. "I  have cabin fever. I've been inside for two weeks."  

Oh my goodness, this is a terrible feeling. It's  when it's cold outside or maybe you're sick. Maybe  

there's a pandemic. There's a lot of reasons why  you might be stuck inside. Maybe for a day or two  

it's okay. And then after that, you start to go a  little bit crazy. You start to feel anxious, maybe  

nervous, restless, maybe irritable and angry,  and that's because you have cabin fever. You need  

to get out. Just bundle up. Try to take a walk.  Brave the elements. Try to get rid of cabin fever.

Winter expression number four is a  verb, to snowball. You might know  

what a snowball is. It's this. That's  the noun. But we're talking about it  

as a verb. Take a look at this sentence. "I  went to the grocery store when I was hungry,  

so I bought a couple snacks. And then  it's snowballed, and I ended up with a  

cart full of junk food." Not a good idea to  go to the grocery store when you're hungry.

So here, we get the sense of it started  small. I just got a couple snacks,  

and then by the time I left the  grocery store, my cart was full  

of snacks. It snowballed. Here it's the idea of  something starting small, and getting bigger,  

and bigger, and bigger. Usually it's something  negative. Here I'm talking about junk food,  

so it's something negative. But  let's look at another situation.

"Lies tend to snowball." They start  off small, then they get bigger,  

and more complex, and sometimes more  dangerous. So just don't start off by lying.

And finally, winter expression number  five is the tip of the iceberg. When  

someone asks what I do for work and  I say that I'm an English teacher,  

really that's just the tip of the iceberg.  The tip of the iceberg refers to the small  

or maybe a visible part of something. If  you know what a regular iceberg looks like,  

you can see the top, but under the  water is the main part of the iceberg.

So yes, I am an English teacher. That's  what you see. But I am also a video maker,  

a marketer, an entrepreneur who wears  many hats. Being an English teacher is  

just the tip of the iceberg. A little  note that we often use the word just  

with this expression. Being an English  teacher is just the tip of the iceberg.

Well, that lesson was just the tip of the iceberg.  Let's go on to our next lesson with 15 important  

phrases that children say. Even if you don't  have children and you don't work with children,  

you will absolutely hear children say  these phrases in movies and TV shows.  

So make sure that you can understand them  and know what they really mean. Let's watch.

All right, let's get started with the first  common phrase that children say. And who  

better to teach you children's English  vocabulary than children? Let's watch.

Children: Look mom, look dad. Look mom, look dad.

Vanessa: Kids always  

want their parents or other adults to see  what they're doing. So this is a really  

common phrase. "Look mom, I'm going down the  slide. Look mom, a really big spider. Look,  

dad." So this phrase is maybe the one that  I hear the most, but then again, my children  

are really young. So it's extremely common for  young children to say, "Look mom, look dad."

Children: I'm hungry. Is it  

snack time yet? I'm hungry. Is it snack time yet?

Vanessa: Kids always seem to be hungry,  

right? So when a child says, "I'm hungry, is it  snack time yet?" What would the adult say to this  

situation? Well, they could say, "No, it's dinner  time soon. Don't spoil your appetite." That's what  

my mom said a lot. "Don't spoil your appetite."  Which means if you eat now, you're not going to  

eat dinner later. Don't spoil your appetite. Or  you might say, "Yeah, you can go grab an apple  

from the fridge." Cool. This is two different ways  to respond to, "Is it snack time yet? I'm hungry."

Children: Why, why, why? Why, why, why?

Vanessa: I think all young children around the world,  

no matter your native language or background, they  all go through a why phase. Where the question,  

the response to everything is, "Why?" If you say,  "Let's eat breakfast," what are they going to  

say? "Why?" If you say, "I'm going to drink my  tea before we go to the park," they might say,  

"Why?" In fact, for my son Freddy, when he  was two years old, he asked why so much. And  

sometimes in those situations, it made zero sense.  For example, let me tell you a little silly story.

Sometimes he would ask why with something  he said himself. So sometimes he would say,  

"Mom, let's go play Legos." And I  would say, "Okay." And then he said,  

"Why?" How am I supposed to respond to that?  But this is the essence of the why question.  

It's just kind of a reflex that kids ask  why. They're so curious about the world.

Children: That's not fair. That's not fair.

Vanessa: It's true that  

children have a really strong sense of what is  just and what is injust. Their sense of injustice  

is really strong. So they might use this phrase,  "It's not fair," or, "That's not fair." When they  

sense that something is not just. So if they  said, "You got more cake than me. That's not  

fair." They sense that there is an imbalance here.  And they might use this phrase, "It's not fair."

Children: I'm bored. I'm bored.

Vanessa: When kids aren't playing with something or someone  

else, they might say, "I'm bored." And there's  two different ways that you can respond to this.  

There's probably a lot of ways you can respond.  But if a child says, "Mom, I'm bored." Well,  

you could offer an activity. "Hey, why don't you  go get your new book and we can read it together?"  

Okay, you're providing a suggestion. Sometimes in  my house, this doesn't work because they just say,  

"No, I don't want to." Sometimes it works though,  but you can also play it off as a little joke.

Let me tell you a typical dad joke as we  call them. This is because they are corny,  

not extremely funny. Usually, you just  roll your eyes whenever you hear one.

But sometimes, when I said, "I'm bored,"  to my dad, how did he respond? "Hi bored,  

nice to meet you. I'm dad." How does a child  respond to this except just roll their eyes?  

Dad. But it's just a funny way to respond.  Maybe in your country too, there are dad jokes,  

or parents respond with these kinds of  silly responses to daily situations,  

because you just got to try  to push through sometimes.

Children: Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Vanessa: So you heard this phrase  

at the beginning of today's lesson, but what is  the most common phrase you hear in the car? "Are  

we there yet? Are we there yet?" Sometimes only 30  minutes into a long road trip, kids start asking,  

"Are we there yet?" And it's tough because  kids don't really have a sense of time,  

and maybe they're not in control of the  trip, so they don't know you've got eight  

hours left in the car. So they ask, "Are  we there yet? Are we there yet?" Or you can  

try to distract your children from asking,  "Are we there yet?" By playing some games.

In our house, we like to play 20 questions. We  don't often count the 20 questions. Sometimes  

we call it, I'm thinking of an animal. This  works really well with young children. You  

can make it much more complicated for older  children where one person thinks of an animal,  

and each person in our family takes a  turn. So if you're thinking of a tiger,  

other people have to ask yes or no questions. Is  it a mammal? Is it bigger than a rabbit? Does it  

eat plants? Does it eat meat? And you try to  guess what that animal is. This is the most  

common car game in our family. I'm thinking of  an animal. But you could change this to anything  

and have it be completely so that you can avoid  the annoying question of, "Are we there yet?"

Children: It wasn't  

me. I didn't do it. It wasn't me. I didn't do it.

Vanessa: When something bad happens,  

what is the common phrase you're going to hear?  "It wasn't me. I didn't do it." I think it's kind  

of human nature that humans try to push away  the blame from themselves and blame someone  

else. And maybe it really wasn't that child's  fault, but they don't want to get in trouble.  

So what do they say? "It wasn't me. I didn't  do it." If you hear a really loud crash in the  

other room and you run over to see what it was,  well, I guarantee one of the children will say,  

"I didn't do it. It wasn't me." And maybe  it wasn't their fault, or maybe it was.

Children: I'm telling mom,  

I'm telling dad. I'm telling mom, I'm telling dad

Vanessa: Often when  

siblings can't get along and solve a problem,  this is what you hear. "I'm telling mom,  

I'm telling dad." And they're trying to take their  problem to a higher authority in hopes of justice.  

So this phrase is coming up more and more often in  my house as my sons Theo and Freddy play together  

and argue together. They're saying this more  and more, and it's my goal as a parent to try  

to help them work out their problems together. But  sometimes, they need to come to us. And so I hear  

this phrase. "Stop hitting me. I'm telling mom."  And you know what? I'm there to try to help them,  

but I do want them to try to help each other  and figure it out together at the same time.

Children: I don't like that. I don't like that.

Vanessa: Unfortunately, it's pretty common that  

kids are picky eaters. Thankfully my children eat  everything. They are not picky at all. In fact,  

we might even say they eat us out of house  and home, which means they eat so much food.

But it is also common that children don't like  unfamiliar foods or they feel uncomfortable trying  

unfamiliar foods. So they might say, "I don't like  that," or, "I don't like," whatever the food is.  

"I don't like chicken. I don't like tomatoes."  And what can you say to this? Well, I think in  

our house, the way we respond is, "Well, you don't  have to eat it." It doesn't mean I'm going to make  

you something different, but you don't have to  eat it. I'm not going to force you to eat that.  

And maybe that's worked because they're not picky.  They eat everything. But we just say, "Well, you  

don't have to eat it. I'm not going to make you  a separate dinner. But you don't have to eat it."

Sometimes parents respond when their children say,  "No, I don't like that." Sometimes parents say,  

"How do you know you don't like it? You haven't  even tried it yet." Or they might say, "Well,  

you only need to try two bites." This is a common  cultural thing in the US, where parents ask their  

children to eat two bites. This is just trying  it. And you know a little secret? In my family,  

we tell our children, "You know what? Last time  that we had salmon, you didn't like it. But that  

was a month ago. And our taste buds change all  the time. So maybe this time you'll like it."

And it is true. Our cells are  always regenerating and changing,  

and we do change the foods that we like.  When I was a kid, I did not like salmon.  

I did not like sweet potatoes. Those were the  two things I did not like. And now I love them.

So it is true that our taste buds change,  but I think it's important to tell kids that,  

"Maybe the last time you didn't like it,  but this time your taste buds might have  

changed. Why don't you give it a try and  see if your taste buds have changed?" And  

oftentimes this works. They'll try it and  say, "Oh yeah, I like it now." Or maybe you  

prepared that food in a different way and now  they like it. Because I think it's important  

that children enjoy the eating experience  with their family, and it can be a lot of  

tension if they don't like a lot of foods. So  this is a little trick that has worked for us.

Children: Actually. Actually.

Vanessa: Kids love to correct someone. And  

what's really funny to me when my son Freddy, I  think when he was two years old, he started to use  

actually, and it was one of his first big words.  This word is complicated because you're looking at  

a reality. Well, you like pancakes. And he might  say, "Actually, I like waffles better." So it's  

kind of a complicated concept, and it's a great  big word for a child to start using. So when your  

kids want to correct someone else, they might say,  "Actually, I like waffles better." And when my son  

was two and he said this, he couldn't pronounce  it correctly, he said something like ack-wee. And  

then it became more and more correct. And he said,  "Actually, actually," and it became a little bit  

clearer as time went on, but this is a fun way  to correct someone. And kids love doing that.

Children: I never want  

to play with you again! I never  want to play with you again!

Vanessa: Like we talked about  

with the previous phrase, kids love to correct  someone. This has to do with a sense of power.  

Kids don't have much power or control in their  lives. So what do they have control over? Well,  

they have control over their birthday generally  and who they play with generally. So you might  

hear these two phrases when a child is  angry, and they're trying to have some  

power or control. "You're not invited to my  birthday party," or, "I'm never playing with  

you ever again." I've actually heard my kids,  actually, to use that phrase, I've actually heard  

my kids say this to each other a few times.  But do you know what? Within five minutes,  

they're playing with each other again. So really  it's just a facade of power, a facade of anger.  

What is the strongest thing that they can  think of to say, "I'm never going to play  

with you ever again"? Sounds so strong. And then  they're playing together a couple minutes later.

Children: You're not the  

boss of me! You're not the boss of me!

Vanessa: To continue with the  

idea of power and control, sometimes kids will  say this to each other. Hopefully they don't  

say this to an adult, but it is possible. If they  say, "You are not the boss of me." It feels like,  

"I'm the boss of myself. I'm in control of  myself, and you can't tell me what to do."

So you might hear this if an older sibling  is talking to a younger sibling and the older  

sibling says, "Clean up those toys," the younger  sibling might say, "You're not the boss of me."  

They're the one that's in control. Yeah, maybe  it's their mess, maybe it's their toys. But  

they want to have that sense of control. So  they might say, "You're not the boss of me."

Children: I'm not a baby. I'm not a baby.

Vanessa: Most kids don't  

want to be babied. To be babied means that you  are treating someone like a baby. For babies,  

you have to take care of them completely  because they're not capable of doing  

anything. So as kids get older, they feel  more sensitive about those types of things.

So for example, when I bring out  the container of yogurt and I start  

to put it in my three-year-old's  bowl, he might use this phrase,  

"I'm not a baby. I can do it myself." This  idea that I'm old enough, I'm big enough.  

Isn't it ironic? Kids are always wanting to  be bigger and not a baby. And then as adults,  

we think, "Wouldn't it be nice to have  just the carefree feelings of childhood  

again?" No one's satisfied where they are. So  oftentimes kids will say, "I'm not a baby."

Or it's possible for example, if you are going  to watch a movie or a show and your child says,  

"No, I don't want to watch that, that's  for babies." It's that same idea that,  

"No, I'm too old to do that  now. That's for babies."

Children: Seriously, seriously? Seriously, seriously?

Vanessa: Now,  

this phrase and our final phrase are  ones that are used by older children.  

My children don't really use these yet on  a daily basis, but this one means they're  

surprised. "Really? Are you serious?" And you  just shorten this to one word. "Seriously?"

So I remember at birthday parties when I  was a child, when someone gave me a present,  

I would just rip open the package  and my mom would say, "Wait Vanessa,  

you need to open the card first." But  there's nothing harder for a child than  

opening the card, reading the message,  before you open the exciting present.

So when my mom said, "Vanessa, you need to open  the card first before you open the present." I  

could say this. "Seriously? I just want to open  the present." But really, it's polite to open the  

card before the present, read the nice message,  see who the present's from, and then open the  

present. But a child might not be very happy  with that. And they might say, "Seriously?"

Children: Jinx. Jinx.

Vanessa: This phrase is a fun one. It's  

not one that my kids say regularly yet. It's for  older children. It's not a bad word, but it's just  

something that they haven't learned yet. And it  is jinx. It's quite fun, because you say this when  

you say the exact same thing as someone else at  the exact same time. So when both kids say at the  

exact same time something, they will say, "Jinx,"  and try to say the word jinx first. Does this kind  

of game exist in your country? And sometimes we  even add something onto this. Sometimes we just  

say jinx to acknowledge in kind of a fun way  that we said something at the exact same time.

But sometimes, at least when  I was younger, we would say,  

"Jinx, you owe me a pop." And pop is the  Northern word. In the South where I live now,  

people say Coke. But it's a soft drink,  a soda like Coca-Cola. And we would say,  

"You owe me a pop," which means you need to  give me something special, like a special drink  

or something. But you can often just keep this at  jinx. But when you're watching a movie or TV show,  

you might hear people add something onto that,  especially kids if they're having fun. "Jinx,  

you owe me," something. I don't know. You owe me a  pop. You owe me some candy, you owe me something,  

because we said it at the same time and  I said jinx first. A fun little game.

Well, I hope that you didn't say, "I'm  bored," because we have one more important  

lesson which will help you to grow your  daily life vocabulary and express yourself  

completely. You're going to learn some  important phrases that I use all the time,  

but often I hear my English students not  using these correctly. So let's dive in.

The first expression that I use often, but  my English students don't really know how to  

use is to see someone off. We're not talking  about seeing them walk off a cliff. Instead,  

take a look at the sample sentence. "When my  sister was visiting me from California, I took her  

to the airport and saw her off." Saw her off? This  is just another way to say that I saw her leave. I  

saw her go through security, and then she probably  got on her flight and went home. I saw her off.

The second expression that I use often, but  my English students don't use, and you should,  

is to be floored. Does this mean that you are  stuck to the floor? Not at all. You might say,  

"When I found out that I won a free  trip to Japan, I was floored." This  

is talking about being ultimately surprised.  "I couldn't believe my luck. I was floored."

Expression number three that you should use is,  "I found myself," doing something. You could say,  

"I went to a great concert. And I found  myself tapping my foot, and bobbing my head,  

and moving my body." Do you get the sense  here that I'm not really choosing to do  

those things? It's kind of just coming over  me. It's happening unintentionally. "I found  

myself tapping my foot." You might even say  this about my English lessons. You might say,  

"I decided to watch one of Vanessa's English  lessons and I found myself smiling the whole  

time. It was wonderful." I hope that that's true.

The next expression that I  use often, and you should too,  

is to pull it off. Are we talking about  pulling something off physically? No. Instead,  

we're talking about this in a more figurative way.

So you might say, "I studied day and  night for my difficult geometry exam,  

and you know what? I pulled it off. I got an  A." So you were not expecting to get an A,  

so you studied really hard. This was a  difficult test. There was a difficult task,  

and you succeeded. And that is pulling  something off. "You know what? I pulled it off."

So if you see someone walking in your city who  looks a little bit lost and you think, "Oh no,  

this is my chance. I should speak to them in  English, I should help them. But I'm so worried  

about it. Can I pull it off?" And then you walk  up to them and you say, "Excuse me, can I help  

you?" And they say, "Oh, yes. Can you help point  me in the direction of the train station?" And you  

help them. After that, you might say, "I pulled it  off." You succeeded in a difficult task. Success.

The next expression that I use often, and you  should too is, "I'm drawing a blank." Okay,  

well when you draw something, you're not drawing a  blank piece of paper. That's impossible. But here,  

we're using this in a figurative way to talk  about our minds. So if someone asks you,  

"Do you remember the name of your  kindergarten teacher?" You might say,  

"I'm drawing a blank." That means that your  mind is completely wiped fresh. It is wiped  

clean of any memory of your kindergarten  teacher's name. Maybe it's there somewhere,  

but you can use this great expression and say,  "Sorry, I'm drawing a blank. Do you know?"

The next expression that I use often,  and you should too, is to take a stab  

at something. Seems kind of violent, doesn't it?  But this is not a violent expression. Instead,  

it's talking about trying something  that might seem a little bit difficult.

So when I was growing up, my dad helped me  with my math homework. And guess who helped  

my little sister with her math homework? Well,  for a couple years it was me. And then after it  

got too difficult, it was my dad. But we could  say, "I took a stab at helping my little sister  

with her math homework." Sometimes it worked,  sometimes it didn't. So here I'm trying something  

that is a little bit difficult. I took a stab  at trying to help her, and I hope it was okay.

The next expression that I  use often, and you should too,  

is a fun one. Something is calling my  name. "Vanessa. Vanessa." What's calling  

my name? That seven layer chocolate cake is  calling my name. "Vanessa, eat me, Vanessa."

So of course the chocolate cake is not actually  calling my name, but it's the idea here that  

it's something you cannot resist. "That cake  is calling my name. I have to try a bite."

We often use this expression when it's  something that you're tempted by. It's  

usually not something that's perfectly  good. Eating an entire chocolate cake  

is certainly not a good idea. Maybe you're  at a store, and there's a really expensive,  

exciting shirt that you really want to buy.  You might say, "It's calling my name. It's  

tempting me. I have to get it." So here, it  is something that's not necessarily good,  

but not necessarily bad. It's just tempting you.  It's calling your name. "Buy me. Buy me." The next  

expression that I use all the time, and you should  too, is it has your name written all over it.

Does this mean that I took a marker and I wrote  your name all over that thing? Well, not exactly,  

but it feels like that. You might say, "I bought  you this sweater because it's your favorite color,  

and I just thought it would look perfect on you.  It had your name written all over it." Well,  

it would be pretty strange if a sweater  actually had your name written all over  

it. Kind of unusual. So here we're talking  about something that's the perfect fit.

Talking about something that's the perfect fit  is our next expression that I use all the time,  

and you should too. And that is,  "I couldn't help myself." That  

doesn't mean that I'm asking you for help  because I can't help myself. No. Instead,  

this is something you cannot resist. That  seven layer chocolate cake, I just took a bite,  

and then another bite, and then another  one, because I couldn't help myself. Here  

we can substitute the word help for stop. I  couldn't stop myself. I just kept eating it.

But really in daily conversation, we use  this expression, "I couldn't help myself,"  

more often than, "I couldn't stop myself." So  if you're taking a walk in your neighborhood  

and you see a cute little puppy, you might ask the  owner, "Can I pet it?" And if the owner says yes,  

you reach down, and you pick it up and you snuggle  it all over, and you're so excited. And then you  

say, "Oh, sorry, I couldn't help myself." You  couldn't resist how cute that little puppy was.

Our final expression before our bonus  expression that I use all the time,  

and you should too, is kind of an introductory  expression. It is talk about. We're going to be  

using this for emphasis. Take a look at this  sentence. "I watched a documentary the other  

day about the world's richest people,  and they often own multiple mansions in  

multiple countries. Sometimes they own their  own private islands. Talk about wealthy."

So here I am emphasizing, yes, all of those  things I listed show that they have a lot of  

money. But at the end, boom, I'm adding this  expression, "Talk about wealthy." I'm really  

emphasizing the fact that they're  wealthy, they have a lot of money.

You might even use this to talk about English  lessons. You could say, "I can't believe that  

Vanessa gives us a free English lesson here  on YouTube every Friday. Talk about generous."  

Okay. I'm tooting my own horn a little  bit here. But if you're really grateful  

to have free English lessons every Friday,  you could use this to emphasize the point,  

"I feel so grateful. Talk about  generous. What a wonderful thing."

All right, I want to give  you one bonus expression,  

and it is to wing it. What in the world?  Well, unfortunately, I use this a lot in  

my life. Can you imagine what to wing  it means? Well, take a look at this.

"I didn't prepare a speech for my friend's  wedding, so I think I'm just going to wing  

it." This means it is not planned. I'm  just going to make it up as I go. "I  

think I'm just going to wing it." Or we  can use this in the negative and say,  

"I never just wing these YouTube videos."  I always try to plan out a good topic,  

some good expressions, some great sample  sentences for you, so that you can learn as  

much as possible. I don't wing it because  I want to be a better teacher for you.

Well, congratulations on the leveling up your  vocabulary so that you have the words you want  

to use when you speak. Don't forget to download  the free PDF worksheet, which includes all of  

today's important vocabulary expressions.  I think there's 75 or over 75 expressions,  

definitions, sample sentences. And you can  answer Vanessa's challenge question at the  

bottom of that free worksheet. You can  click on the link in the description to  

download that free PDF worksheet today.  It's my gift to you to help you level up  

your English skills. 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,  

an hour of vocabulary, one more hour,  where you'll learn how to describe  

people in your life. Are they even keeled?  Are they uptight? You'll learn how to use  

this and many other wonderful English  vocabulary words. I'll see you there.