STOP Sounding Like a Beginner: Advanced English Vocabulary Lesson

Get ready to level up your English vocabulary skills with these 20 important common English idioms. There are thousands of idioms or expressions in English. So which ones are commonly used? Well, I am here today to help present to you 10 intermediate level expressions and 10 advanced level expressions. So hang on tight because I want to see if you can understand and use all 20 of these expressions at the end of this lesson. Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com, and like always, I have created a free PDF worksheet with all 20 of these idioms, sample sentences, definitions, 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 this free PDF worksheet today. Let's get started with the first common English idiom that is the intermediate level, and that is hands down. Hands down? Am I really putting my hands down? Nope. This is a figurative expression or a figurative idiom. Let me give you a sample sentence. This is hands down the best burger restaurant I have ever been to. Do you think that burger restaurant is just okay? No way. That is the best, absolutely, without a doubt, the best burger restaurant I've ever been to. And that's what this expression means, hands down. It means definitely, absolutely the best place I have ever been. Important common idiom number two is right off the bat. If you have ever watched baseball, you know that they hit with a bat. Take a look at this example sentence. When you move to a new city, you cannot expect to make friends right off the bat. Yep. People don't just come to you and say, oh, I saw you were new. Can you be my friend? Do you want to come over this weekend? No, it takes time to get to know people, especially in a new city or a big city. So this expression right off the bat means immediately. You cannot expect to make new friends immediately. Common intermediate idiom number three is in a rush. Take a look at this sample sentence. It's better to leave your house early so that you're not in a rush on your way to work. Have you ever been late to work? I have, and it's so embarrassing, so frustrating, you feel so bad, everyone else is kind of annoyed at you depending on your workplace. So it's better to leave early so that you're not in a rush. This expression simply means in a hurry, and we can interchange those two. But in my personal experience, I use in a rush more than in a hurry, but really they both mean the same thing. Common English idiom number four is at the last minute. I found my plane tickets at the last minute. Have you ever gone to the airport? You've gone through security, you've dropped off your bags, you're waiting in line to get on the plane and they ask for your tickets and, oh, you can't find them? And then you find them just at the last minute. This expression is similar to saying just in time. They almost didn't let me on the plane. I found them at the last minute, but I successfully got on the plane and I could rest easy. Common intermediate English idiom number five is in over my head. Take a look at this sentence. I realized that I was in over my head when I bought the old house that had too many issues. Have you ever done this? You started a project and you were excited and then you got into it and realized, oh no, this is way harder than I expected. Well, if you bought an old house that had too many things to fix up, you would definitely be in over your head. And that just means overwhelmed with too much to do. You kind of feel almost out of control. Notice here, quick grammar notes, that the possessive pronoun can change depending on who it's referring to. So I said I was in over my head. If you start a project, you might be in over your head. He is in over his head. You can change that possessive pronoun depending on who you're talking about. Common idiom number six is back in the day. Take a look at this sentence. Back in the day, I couldn't look things up on the internet because the internet didn't exist. This fun expression simply means a time that feels like a long time ago in the past. Well, in reality, the internet has been around for a short period of time, but it feels like a long time because it is important. It is indispensable to most of our daily lives nowadays. So it feels like so long ago. It feels like another world when we didn't have the internet. So I can use this expression. Back in the day, we didn't have the internet. But you could also use this expression for an extremely long time ago. So take a look at this sentence. Back in the day, there was no agriculture. Humans were hunter-gatherers. This is absolutely a long time ago. What, more than 10,000 years ago? But you can still use this expression because the idea is that it feels like a long time ago. And both those things are true. It feels like a long time ago that there was no internet. And it definitely feels like a long time ago that humans were hunter-gatherers. Common intermediate English idiom number seven is all year round. Not around, all year round. Take a look at this. My mother likes to buy Christmas presents for her grandchildren all year round. I think this is the same for every grandmother, right? If she sees a Christmas present that my kids will like, she'll buy it and she'll save it to give to them at Christmas. So she likes to buy presents all year round. This simply means throughout the entire year. So make sure when you use this expression, you don't say all year around, simply all year round. I like to study English all year round. I hope that's true. Expression number eight is to steer clear. Take a look at this. There's a lot of traffic today. I would steer clear of the downtown area. Well, yes, you are steering your car, but it really doesn't have to do with driving. This just means avoid because there's some kind of problem. In this case, traffic. I would steer clear of the downtown area, but you know what? You can also use this to talk about people, but be careful. You could say steer clear of the boss today. He's in a bad mood. You don't want to say that in front of him, right? He's in a bad mood. We need to steer clear of him. He would probably not be happy about that, but you can use that for anything that you want to avoid because there's a problem. Steer clear of it. The ninth intermediate idiom is out of the blue. Well, what is the biggest blue thing that we see every day? It is the sky. So if something comes out of the blue, take a look at this sentence. In some cultures, it's acceptable to drop by your family's house out of the blue. Can you guess what this means? It means unannounced, without any planning. You just knock on their door and say, Hey, I'm here. Is this common in your culture? In the US, it is not common for most people. We don't just arrive out of the blue at someone's house. Usually we'll call or text first. That's considered polite. And our final 10 intermediate English idiom before we level up to advanced idioms is on their side. We're not talking about physically being beside someone. We're talking more figuratively, idiomatically here. Take a look at this. I thought you were on my side. Are you on their side? I thought you were supporting me. Here we're talking about agreeing with someone. To be on your side means to agree with someone. So if you said, Are you on their side? I thought you were supporting me. Means are you agreeing with them? I thought you agreed with me. Please be on my side. I need some support. Notice here too that the grammar, that possessive pronoun changes depending on who you're talking about. Are you on their side? Are you on my side? I'm on your side. Depending on what you're talking about, you can change that word. All right. Are you ready to level up to 10 advanced English idioms that we use all the time in daily conversation? Advanced idiom number one is why not something? So take a look at this. If you want to make money playing music, why not set up a stand on the side of the road and start playing? Well, here I am offering a suggestion. Why not play music on the side of the road? Why not study English online? You're presenting a suggestion to someone else using why not? You should try this the next time that you make a suggestion. Advanced idiom number two is it turns out that, take a look at this. He planned to go to college, but it turns out that his application was rejected. Here we're talking about the result of something. He applied and he got rejected. He wanted to go to college, but it turns out, so here we're having an expectation and then going around the corner, we're turning around the corner. It turns out that his application was actually rejected. So maybe he'll apply to a different college. I don't know. Advanced idiom number three is to have a hand in. You can kind of get the idea here of what this might figuratively mean. Take a look at this expression. She had a hand in naming the new restaurant. Do you think it was completely her decision by herself? No, but she was participating. Her hands were figuratively in it. And that's what this means. You're just participating. You are helping in a process. She had a hand in naming the new restaurant. Advanced idiom number four is to have an eye for. So we just talked about to have a hand in. Here we're talking about to have an eye for. Take a look at this sample sentence. Everyone asks her fashion advice because she has an eye for beautiful clothes. This means that she is good at noticing something, a quality of beautiful clothes. So if you want to dress fashionably, you can get her advice because she has an eye for beautiful clothes. She has an eye for what will look good on you, for good fashion. In my opinion, this is an excellent way to learn prepositions. So when you learn to have a hand in as a fixed expression, you're learning that in goes with that expression. And when you're learning to have an eye for, you are linking the word for to that expression. You're not having to remember a rule. You're just remembering the full phrase. You're not thinking in is for this, for is for this. Nope. You're just memorizing that full phrase. So I hope by repeating these in this lesson today, you'll be able to do that. Advanced idiom number five is off the beaten path. Take a look at this sentence. Whenever I visit a new city, I like to visit places that are off the beaten path. Well, when there is a beaten path, we have beaten it a lot with our feet. It is a well-traveled road, a common place. It is a main tourist destination. But off the beaten path, you might find a little dive bar. You might find a tiny garden that's beautiful. You might find some hidden places that are wonderful and enjoyable. Those places are off the beaten path. Quick note about the American English pronunciation of the word beaten. You've heard me say this a few times in this explanation. Feel your throat when you try to say this. I want you to kind of swallow that T sound. This is called a glottal T and we say beaten, beaten. I'm not saying beaten with a T sound. Instead, I'm swallowing that T sound. It's in my throat almost. Beaten, off the beaten path. You can feel a lot of vibrations here. All right, let's go to our next phrase. Advanced idiom number six is when it comes to, take a look at this. When it comes to baking bread, she always asks her neighbor for help. Well, we're talking about the subject of baking bread. Do you think her neighbor knows how to bake bread? Yes, maybe her neighbor is an expert at baking bread. So, when it comes to this topic, baking bread, she always asks her neighbor for help. This phrase, when it comes to, is just for introducing a topic. You could say, she always asks her neighbor for help about baking bread. Okay, but that's not very advanced. So, I want you to be able to use this phrase to introduce a new topic. Let's take a look at one more example. I always ask my husband for help when it comes to fixing things around the house. I always ask my husband for help. What's the topic? When it comes to fixing things around the house. This is a great way to introduce that new topic. Advanced idiom number seven is up the ante. Notice the pronunciation here. That T is really just cut out, ante, ante. This is in American English pronunciation. What does it mean to up the ante? Take a look at this. The coach decided to up the ante and add two extra exercise days each week. All right. Well, probably the team is exercising a lot already. To add two extra days is a lot. So, here we're kind of leveling up. We're making things more difficult. And that's what to up the ante is talking about. This term originates in betting. When you bet a certain amount of money, if you want to bet more money, you are upping the ante. You're increasing something. And that's kind of how we use it as an idiomatic expression as well. Advanced idiom number eight is under his breath. Take a look at this sentence. After his mother yelled at him, he mumbled something under his breath. Do you think he said something nice and kind under his breath? No. He probably just went, I'm so angry right now. And that's exactly what under his breath means. He's saying something that really no one else can understand, usually because you're angry. That's usually when we use this. When you say something under your breath, it's because you have some building anger and you need to say something, but you know you shouldn't say it loudly. So you say it under your breath. Notice again that the possessive pronoun can change depending on the situation. He mumbled under his breath. I said something under my breath. Did you say something under your breath there? You can change that depending on the situation. Advanced idiom number nine is to shoot the breeze. Take a look at this. Every Friday we have our neighbors over to play a game and just shoot the breeze. Well, I know this is the US and people have guns, but are we shooting things with guns? No. To shoot the breeze just means to chit chat, to have a casual conversation. You're not getting deep. You're not super serious. You're just shooting the breeze. And our final 10th advanced English idiom is to have a say. Don't forget the word a here. It is very important. To have a say. Take a look at this sentence. I have a say in every important decision that happens in my house. This means that I'm involved and I can have an opinion equal weight in the decisions that happen in my house. I have a say. Now, we can also use this negatively. Let's say that one day my family decides to go visit my grandparents. Maybe my kids are not very excited about that. They say, oh, mom, we wanted to go play with our friends instead. I might say, well, you know what? This time you don't have a say. We are going to visit your great grandparents, my grandparents, and we'll try to make it an enjoyable time. Yes, they're slower. Yes, they don't really play with you much. Yes, their house is not quite as fun, but it's still something that we need to do. And you don't have a say in the decision. And the good news is you have a say in how you learn English. Right now you are learning English on YouTube, online. You are taking charge of your own education, and that is a beautiful thing. So the next step is to not forget to download the free PDF worksheet with all 20 of these important daily life English idioms. In the worksheet, you will find each idiom, all the definitions, the nuances, the ideas, the sample sentences, and you can answer Vanessa's challenge question using these idioms 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. If you enjoyed today's vocabulary lesson, I invite you to join me in the 30-Day Vocabulary Challenge. Right now there is a huge discount on the 30-Day Vocabulary Challenge because we are going to be starting soon. If you join before the deadline, you can get this $99 course for only $60 plus two special bonuses, including two live stream lessons with me and free access to a bonus course, the English Worksheet Library. I have never offered this as a free bonus before, and I'm very excited to share it with you. So if you would like to continue leveling up your vocabulary so that you can express yourself completely, I would like to invite you to join me in the 30-Day Vocabulary Challenge. To join this course and to get the discount, you can click on the link in the description to learn more. I would love to help guide you, hold your hand over the next 30 days so that you can really and finally express yourself the way that you'd like to. 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, where you will learn some important advanced vocabulary phrases, including how to use breakthrough. I hope you have a breakthrough with this lesson, and I'll see you in that lesson to find out how to use that correctly in daily conversation. See you there.