Level Up Your Vocabulary: Advanced English Lesson

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Are you ready to level up your English?

Let's do it.

Drum roll.

Come away with me and fly to amazing English land today.

Have you ever felt like you use the same English phrases again and again and again, or have

you ever watched an English movie or TV show and thought, "Man, I would love to speak English

like that."

Well, never fear.

Today, I'm going to help you level up your English by changing some common English phrases

into more advanced wonderful English idioms that native English speakers often use in

daily conversation, but I don't often hear English learners use.

So you will be able to use them in this lesson.

And to help you understand all of these expressions and continue to remember them so that you

can use them when you go out into the real world, I've created a free PDF worksheet for

you.

In this worksheet, you can learn the more common phrases changed into advanced beautiful

phrases and also some sample sentences.

And you can answer Vanessa's challenge question at the end of the worksheet.

You can click on the link in the description to download the free worksheet, put it under

your pillow as you sleep, and soak in English.

All right.

Are you ready to get started learning these wonderful English phrases, including one that

apparently I've been using wrong my whole life?

And I just found it out as I was making this lesson.

All right, let's get started.

The conversation was confusing.

The conversation was all over the map.

Oh, much better.

This idiom, "all over the map" means that there is no logic, no flow, it jumps from

one idea to the other.

It is all over the map.

It's pretty confusing and difficult to understand.

Man, that conversation was all over the map.

I'm learning about these English idioms.

I'm trying to get the hang of it.

Oh, much better.

This idiom, "to get the hang of it" means that you're learning something new and you're

trying to become more comfortable with it.

When you're going from beginner to intermediate to advanced, well, you are trying to get the

hang of English so that you can speak comfortably.

Excellent.

Get the hang of it.

Summer is almost over.

Before you know it, it will be fall.

Ooh.

Before you know it, this is an excellent English idiom and it means something will happen soon

or almost immediately.

Before you know it.

Oh, it's going to happen so soon that I won't even have time to think about it.

You know what?

Before you know it, you are going to be speaking English confidently.

One day you'll just keep practicing and practicing and then, "Oh, I didn't even realize it, but

my confidence has been growing."

Before you know it, you will be speaking English confidently.

Wow, they really like each other.

Wow, they are head over heels for each other.

This is a fun English idiom that means you are completely in love with someone.

To be head over heels.

We can imagine when you fall in love, your head and your heels are switching positions.

So they are head over heels for each other.

Completely in love.

What a wonderful phrase.

Let me know if your plans change.

Keep me posted.

Keep me in the loop.

All those are great phrases.

Keep me posted.

We can imagine a poster with some announcement on it or keep me in the loop.

Here we have a circle and there is some important information inside that circle, that's kind

of the literal meaning of this figurative idiom.

Can you imagine it means to get some updates about something, to make sure that I have

the most recent information.

We often use this for events, maybe for someone's health condition, if your friend just had

a baby and you say, "Hey, I'm going to bring you some food so that you have dinner tonight,

but keep me posted and let me know if you need anything else."

Okay.

Keep me posted.

They're not going to send you a poster, but it means they'll just text you with some updates.

"Hey, could you come over and hold my baby while I take a shower?"

Oh, this is great.

This is an update about what's going on or we could just exchange it with the other phrase.

"Hey, can you keep me in the loop?

Just keep me in the loop.

Let me know if you need anything and make sure I have some updates."

Excellent.

The students didn't get in trouble.

The teacher let them off the hook.

Ooh, this fun English idiom, "let someone off the hook," we can imagine a fish.

You caught a fish and it doesn't seem like good news for that fish, right?

He's about to be eaten.

But if you let him off the hook, if you take him off the hook and throw him back into the

water, he's free.

And this is the same idea here.

The students did something not so great and the teacher did not punish them.

Instead, the teacher let them off the hook.

Oh, what a wonderful English idiom that means you don't get in trouble.

The consequences are less than you thought.

Oh, I didn't think they would let me off the hook, but I'm free.

Excellent.

How are you doing?

I'm having a pretty good day today.

How are you doing today?

So far so good.

Oh, that's a great expression.

When someone asks you, "How are you doing?"

You can say, "So far so good."

This is a great way to respond to this common question.

And in fact, it's a little bit funny too, because it kind of implies that everything

is going well so far, but at any time something bad could happen.

So it's not a perfectly optimistic phrase.

It's kind of a realistic phrase with a little bit of humor.

How are you doing?

So far so good.

Great.

At any time something terrible could happen, but right now everything is great.

So far so good.

Excellent.

I hope you can use this in your daily conversations.

Oh, hey, I was just talking about you.

Speak of the devil.

Oh, much better.

This phrase, "speak of the devil" is used when you're talking about someone and then

they walk in the room.

Oh, speak of the devil.

Are you calling your friend the devil?

No, you are not implying that they are bad or evil.

This is just an idiom that shows we were talking about you and then there you are.

It's kind of like magic.

All of a sudden he appears.

So I would recommend using this in casual situations with friends.

And usually if you say this, they will wonder, "What were they saying about me?"

So if you are saying something secretive about that person, maybe don't use this phrase.

You don't want them to know that you were talking about them.

But if you say, "Oh, speak of the devil, there he is."

Well, you might need to explain, "Oh, we were talking about your birthday party last week

and how much fun it was."

You're going to need to explain a little bit what you were talking about.

But you know what?

Sometimes this phrase is said "speaking of the devil" and this phrase I found out is

technically wrong, but that's what I say.

I say "speaking of the devil" and actually that's what my son says too because that's

what I say.

So one time I heard my four year old son say, "Speaking of the devil," and I thought, "What?

How did he learn that phrase?"

And then I realized, "Oh, that's what I say."

So when I say this phrase, I add I-N-G, speaking of the devil.

But as I was doing a little bit of research about this, I realized I'm wrong.

So instead it should be "speak of the devil", but you will hear people say, "speaking of

the devil".

Technically it's incorrect, but you will hear people say that like me and you know what?

It's okay.

We get the same meaning and you know what?

Let's just roll with it.

Speak of the devil.

Speaking of the devil, there he is.

That's true, I agree.

You could say that again.

Oh, what a great phrase.

You could say say that again.

This is a rhetorical statement.

You're not actually asking someone to repeat themselves.

Instead, you are emphasizing that you absolutely agree with them.

Maybe if someone says, "Oh, it is so hot today."

You could say, "You could say that again."

Or if someone says, "Oh, this cake is amazing".

What can you say?

"You could say that again."

That means I absolutely agree with you.

It's so hot today.

This cake is amazing.

You could say that again.

And they don't need to repeat it, but it just means, I definitely agree with you.

This lesson is so helpful.

You could say that again.

I hope so.

I can't believe it.

I can't understand it.

I can't wrap my head around it.

I can't wrap my brain around it.

Oh, what a lovely expression.

The idea of wrapping your head or your brain around something just means to understand

something.

But we often use this English idiom for tragic events or something that is really difficult

to comprehend.

So for example, recently there were some bad floods in Europe and in China and for these

tragic events, especially when you're watching it on the news, sometimes it's hard to comprehend.

I'm not there.

I'm not experiencing that in person, so we could use this type of phrase.

It's really hard to wrap your brain around the kind of tragedy and the kind of damage

that's happening because of the floods.

It's hard to wrap your head around something because you seem removed from it.

It's too tragic to handle.

So we can use this expression, "I just can't wrap my brain around it", but we can also

use it for simple things too, like if you are looking at a math problem and it's extremely

complicated.

You can say, "Oh, I just can't wrap my brain around this problem.

I don't think I'm ever going to solve it."

So we can use it for these big events or for simple problems.

On the other hand, it's not hard to figure out.

It's not rocket science.

Oh, much better.

We're not actually talking about becoming a rocket scientist.

Instead, we're talking about something that's not complicated and we almost always use this

idiom with the word not.

It's not rocket science.

Let me give you a couple of examples because sometimes this can be used to encourage and

sometimes this can be used to make fun of someone.

So I want to make sure that you use it and you understand how it's being used in that

correct way.

Last week when the gate on my deck broke, my mom was with me and I said, "We can fix

it.

It isn't rocket science, right?"

"Yeah, let's figure out how to fix this."

So here I'm just trying to encourage myself and encourage my mom that this project is

not too complicated.

It isn't rocket science, right?

We can do this.

It seems like it might be challenging, but no, it's not rocket science.

We got this.

We can do it.

So that's kind of an encouraging way to use this, but we can also use this to make fun

of someone too.

Let's imagine that my mom was trying to fix the gate and she said, "Oh, I just can't figure

out how to fix the gate."

What if I said to her, "It isn't rocket science.

You can do it."

Can you tell by the tone in my voice, I'm kind of making fun of the fact that she can't

figure out that simple thing?

It isn't rocket science.

You can do it.

So here be careful using this in those types of situations where you're not participating.

If you're just telling someone, "You can do it, it's not rocket science."

You're kind of saying, "Hey, why can't you figure that out?

Are you dumb?

Because it's not rocket science.

It's a really simple thing."

But if you're participating in the activity and you're encouraging yourself too, "All

right, we can do this.

It's not rocket science.

We got this."

That's no problem, but make sure that you don't just tell this to someone with that

kind of sneer.

It's not rocket science.

You can do it.

Make sure that you don't say it like that unless you really want to express yourself

in that way.

All right, let's go to our next phrase.

I'm finished with work.

Let's call it a day.

Oh, excellent.

Let's call it a day or I'm going to call it a day just means I'm finished with work and

I'm going to go home or I'm going to finish.

This is an extremely common phrase in the office or in a work culture.

We often say, "Let's call it a day.

Let's call it a day.

It's been so long.

I'm going to call it a day.

I'm done with this project for now."

Excellent.

To call it a day means I'm all done.

I'm finished and I'll start working again another time.

Excellent.

Let's call it a day.

That is so irritating.

That is so annoying.

That ruffles my feathers.

Oh, what a lovely expression.

We can imagine a bird.

When a bird is angry, it's feathers kind of puff up a little bit.

That's kind of ruffling its feathers.

It's getting irritated and annoyed about something.

Well, we can imagine you are like that bird.

You're irritated and annoyed.

One time I went to a fireworks show and we were waiting for the fireworks to start, waiting

for the sun to set a little bit.

And there was a mother with a couple children and the mother kept telling her kids, "Sit

still.

Stop fidgeting.

Be quiet."

And then she just looked at her phone.

She is doing something to pass the time until the fireworks start, but she's not letting

her kids do something to pass the time, like moving around and fidgeting.

This type of unfairness, especially to children really ruffles my feathers.

Having more equal standards or understanding the situation of children is a nice thing

to do.

So when there is unfairness towards children, that really ruffles my feathers.

That makes me feel irritated and annoyed.

Well, what did you think of these common English idioms that will help you to level up your

vocabulary?

I hope they didn't ruffle your feathers and I hope this lesson wasn't all over the map.

So don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet for this lesson.

I've included all of the first normal phrases, then the leveled up idioms, some sample sentences,

and also at the end of the free worksheet, you can answer Vanessa's challenge question

and use what you've learned.

Don't forget to download that PDF in the link in the description below this so that you

can continue to immerse yourself in English and speak confidently.

And now I have a question for you.

Are you still trying to wrap your head around these phrases or are you starting to get the

hang of it?

Let me know in the comments below.

Try to use one of these wonderful idioms and 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.