Shadowing Practice: 19 Phrases Native English Speakers Use Every Day - Learn English Speaking with Video

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I'm just gonna throw it out there.

It's good timing that you clicked on this video.

I think it's going to do the trick.

Are you confused?

Do you want to learn advanced phrases just like these ones?

In today's lesson, I'm going to teach you how to use these advanced phrases.

I'm going to give you really good examples to help you understand them.

And I promise native speakers like myself actually use these in our everyday English.

If you want to learn more with me and have me be your English teacher, make sure to visit English with Kayla .com.

Now let's get started with the lesson.

One phrase that you'll hear native speakers used all the time.

It's very positive.

Uplifting phrase is good timing.

Good timing.

This can be used so many different ways.

It's very versatile.

Maybe you've heard it before.

Let's say that you bring someone coffee and they'll say, oh, good timing.

I am exhausted.

That's just kind of complimenting like the way that you brought the coffee right when they needed it.

Or you might say, oh, I'm so sorry I'm late.

And they might say, no, good timing.

We're just getting started.

this is perfect you have good timing or

if something comes again like the coffee just

when you need it you say oh good timing i was just needing

that so again phrase is very versatile just to mean

that something happened at the most helpful

or the most perfect moment i am someone

that i like to fix things myself if i can especially nowadays

when you can just use ai or go on youtube

and look up directions but i don't always have the perfect tool but sometimes if i go in my garage tools, I can find something that will do the trick.

Does this do the trick?

So we use this phrase, it will do the trick, or you can say this will do the trick.

If it's something that will work, and it will help you solve a problem or a situation.

Again, it doesn't have to be a perfect solution to a problem.

Let's say you're at your friend's house and you say, I'm really cold, do you have a sweater?

And they might say, I don't have any extra sweaters, but I have this sweatshirt.

And you might say, oh yeah, that will do the trick.

Thank you.

So it's not the exact thing that you solve the problem of you being cold.

So again, when we think about tools or ingredients for food, something that might not be the perfect match or exactly what you were looking for,

but it's going to do the job that you need it to do.

It will do the trick is what we say.

A great way to casually suggest something when you're not trying to be super serious or forceful, or you just don't feel like you wanna be bossy,

is you might say, "I'm just gonna throw something out there." - I'm just gonna throw something out there.

a friend group or maybe you're at work

and you don't want to be too assertive or assumptive

and think that everyone wants to listen to you

but you have an idea maybe just casually say I'm just

going to throw it out there could we try this maybe at work you're suggesting a solution

and you're not being so you know assertive where everyone might be annoyed with you

or maybe someone will say well that wouldn't work or oh let's try it since you just threw it out there

with your friends, maybe everyone's trying to decide where they want to go for the evening, for dinner or an activity.

And you might say, I'm just going to throw it out there.

Could we go to this restaurant?

Just a suggestion.

It's a really nice casual way of suggesting something without being too assertive to throw something out there.

When you are trying to decide between two options,

you might use the phrase I'm leaning towards something or one of the options leaning towards or decided for sure yet,

but this is the one that I'm starting to like or preferring.

For instance, you might be trying to figure out a color to paint a room in your house.

Maybe you are deciding between a gray or a brown and you say, "Well, I'm actually leaning towards the gray." This means you're thinking about going with the gray

and you probably will if you're leaning towards it, but you could still have your mind changed or you could still think about it a little bit more.

recently and we were all deciding what food we wanted to order

and I asked everyone what are you ordering and someone said I'm leaning towards this option

and they didn't say that they're thinking about another option

but they just weren't sure yet

so they were kind of thinking that's what they wanted to do

but they still hadn't decided so you can have this phrase

when you're deciding between many things or two options in particular

when i have an appointment or an activity or a meeting something like

that i always like to be very certain of what time it starts

because i am someone who if i don't look at it before i leave i could If I'm not mistaken, this is where I would use this.

- If I'm not mistaken.

- So someone says, "Hey, are you going to the meeting at 12 o 'clock?" And I might say, "If I'm not mistaken, it's at two o 'clock,

but I'll double check." This means I'll check again to be sure.

So in this case, I'm correcting them, but I'm not a hundred percent sure because, you know, now that they said 12 o 'clock, I'm doubting myself a little bit.

So I'm gonna double check.

If I'm not mistaken, it's at two.

Or if someone again asks me, "Hey, what time is the meeting?"

if i'm not certain 100 i could use this phrase

if i'm not mistaken it's at two o 'clock

so you can use this just for your own assurance

that you're going to double check it and you're going to make sure

that it's correct before the person totally trusts you

or you can use it as a really soft way to correct someone saying like oh

if i'm not mistaken that's not totally correct like let's double check this

so again this phrase very versatile you'll hear it all the time in your just like this one.

It's I'll speak for myself.

I'll speak for myself.

So this phrase is just used when you don't want everyone to think that your opinion represents a group of people.

Or a lot of times husbands and wives will use this phrase to answer a question, like to give an opinion and say, you know, this is just my opinion.

My wife or my husband might feel differently from me.

So I'll only speak for myself.

I don't want to speak for everyone is another

two phrases really kind of go hand in hand

and together someone will say i'll speak for myself i don't want to speak for everyone here

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but you could use either of these phrases on their own a lot of times me

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and my husband we differ on what kind of movies

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that we like so

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if someone says oh did you like do you guys like

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the movie i'll say well i'll speak for myself i liked the movie

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but my husband thought it was okay i hate to admit it but i really like this song

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I hate to admit it, but you might hear this phrase.

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I hate to admit it in a lot of different ways.

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The first way is if we want to admit someone was right and we were wrong.

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You know, it's kind of playful.

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It's not such a serious phrase like I hate to admit it, but that restaurant was really good.

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You're right.

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Maybe you said like, I don't like that restaurant.

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It's not going to be good.

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I've heard bad things about it, but your friend says we have to go.

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It's the best.

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I've had it before.

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You might say I hate to admit it, but you were right.

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something embarrassing.

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So again, maybe you like an embarrassing song, like it maybe you think like, it's more for kids or like, it's not a serious song,

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but you say I hate to admit it, but I love this song.

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Or something embarrassing might be like you're procrastinating on a project and you hate to admit it, but you're procrastinating, you're just saying it, but you're kind of ashamed of it.

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So you're kind of using this phrase to soften what you're saying.

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If you're embarrassed about something or you're kind of slightly annoyed that someone's correct and you were wrong.

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In English, when we say we're going to wing something, it means we're going to do something without any preparation.

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I'll wing something.

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Some really specific ways that you would use this phrase is one, if you're doing a presentation without preparing at all, you might say, I just have to wing it.

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I didn't have time to practice.

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Or if you are cooking in the kitchen and you don't have a recipe, you might say, oh, I just winged it.

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I just winged this recipe.

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I didn't actually know what I was making.

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And maybe people are saying, oh, it's

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so good like what's your recipe like i don't know i

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just i just winged it i just started adding things together

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this means again no preparation you just used what you had

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in the kitchen already some people like to plan out their trip

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when they're traveling and some people like to be spontaneous

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and just wing it this means again they don't think about

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what they're going to do they just kind of wake up

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go see things walk around see where the day takes them enjoy their trip without having a

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scenario like a job interview or something that you have prepared for but maybe something unexpected

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happens or they ask you an unexpected question

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and you have to just wing it and answer it the best

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that you can because even without preparation you can come up with something

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so again winging it isn't always a bad thing it's just

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a way to describe a scenario where you don't expect things

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or you don't feel like planning things a really useful phrase at work and in exercise is to pace yourself myself.

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A pace is the speed that you're going to and it's the speed that you're going to work at, and it's also the speed that you're going to finish something at.

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So when we talk about a pace, when we're racing in a running race,

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we're talking about the time that we're going to finish the race or the time that we're completing each kilometer or mile.

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So if you say I'm going to run a half marathon at a two hour pace, this means that you're going to try to complete it at that pace.

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Or you could say I'm trying to run a half marathon at a 10 minute per mile pace.

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So you can use either of these measurements to describe pace.

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Now, if you're at work, you might say, I'm going to pace myself today.

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This means you're going to kind of try to work at the same speed all day

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so that you don't burn out or run out of energy completely.

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If you have a job where you work really long days, this is important not to just work so hard and then tire yourself out.

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If you know you're going to eat a big meal at home or at a restaurant, you might say, I'm kind of pacing myself here, meaning you don't want to eat all the food at the beginning

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and then not save enough room for the other courses or for dessert.

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You're kind of trying to eat at a slow and steady pace.

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It's really important in life to give it your all.

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Give it your all.

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This phrase means to completely try your best, to give all your efforts.

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So in sports, this phrase obviously comes up a lot.

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Maybe you're saying our team really needs to give it our all today, meaning you need to give your best effort.

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Or if you want to work towards goal, you could say, I'm going to give it my all towards this goal.

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I'm going to give it my all to study for this exam.

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Even when someone fails, you can say, you did a good job, you gave it your all, even though you failed or you didn't complete your goal entirely.

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It's just kind of an encouraging phrase in this situation.

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To make the most of something.

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- Make the most of it.

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- So when you make the most of something, you try to enjoy something as much as possible.

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And you can take this phrase in a bad situation, and let's say you're having bad weather, even though you had a vacation planned,

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you might say, even though it was bad weather, we made the most of our situation, meaning you still tried to have fun or come up with an alternative plan.

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Or you can use this phrase in a good situation as well.

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For instance, if you are in a nice place as a vacation, for only a short amount of time, you're going to want to make the most of it.

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So you're just going to want to enjoy it and do the most activities in that short amount of time.

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Even though I live in the United States, my students overseas always think that I I live in New York or Los Angeles, just because that's what they're so familiar with.

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But I don't.

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And I've been to Los Angeles twice.

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And I've only been to New York City once.

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And I just made the most of it because I was only there for one day.

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And I'll tell you, I made the most of it.

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But I was absolutely exhausted after that day because I did so much walking, finding subway stations, seeing all the things.

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It was great.

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I made the most of it.

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This just means I had the maximum amount of enjoyment for such a short time.

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Maybe you're talking about a time in your life where you didn't have much money, but you're kind of looking back at that time and saying, you know, even though we didn't have much money, we made the most of it.

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Meaning we still, you know, valued our family and had fun and tried to just enjoy our lives without much money.

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One phrase that I heard recently that is really useful is to pile in.

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And make yourself a pile in the process.

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piling, piling.

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So it just means everyone can get in quickly and like squish together.

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Basically, if you have, you know, five friends sitting in a car, it's going to be like you piling and squish together.

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If you've ever sat in a booth with a lot of people at a restaurant, you could say we all just piled into the booth, meaning like we squish together.

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It's a really casual and fun phrase to use.

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A lot of times children, you know, they pile into a school bus or they pile into a van or and watch a movie,

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whatever it is, just means that a lot of people

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or a decent amount of people are squished together in a short, small space.

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Okay, you might have heard somebody in English describe someone as being green.

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Going to have an employee green ambassador to promote sustainability efforts within the store.

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We're not talking about aliens here.

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This phrase means that someone is new at something.

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So when you look back at when you first started I was doing like I didn't have any real skill.

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You might say I was really green when I started.

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This just means you were really new and unfamiliar.

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Another phrase that I heard recently on a podcast, but I have said it, and I've noticed that my friends and family say it too,

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is They were some random.

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They were some random.

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I'm not traumatized by some random comment from some random woman.

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Oh, he was just some random.

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Sounds really funny if English is not your first language.

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This phrase, it's kind of shortened as they were some random person.

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And here we just mean that they were a stranger

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or they weren't a significant person in our life that we need to, you know, go into detail about.

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For instance, maybe you see a movie and there's an actor that you've never seen before, and you don't think that they're very famous, or they haven't been in very movies,

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very many movies, you might say, yeah, there was some random in the movie, but it was a pretty good movie, or there was some random, but they did really good acting.

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Meaning you don't know who they are, again, but you're just kind of complimenting their acting in the movie here.

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So maybe you are in a grocery store, and someone comes up to you that you've never met before, and has a conversation, and you walk away,

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and then you find your husband or your wife later, the store and they say who are you talking to

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and you say oh just some random

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so again it's just short for some random person this is kind of a slang phrase

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because it's really shortened and it's really casual

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and informal this next phrase it's kind of funny

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and you need to be careful of how you use it

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because the phrase has kind of evolved over time so

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if you're a big sports fan

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and you're watching american sports you might hear the announcers or the commentators say that that

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be an unkind thing to call someone a dog.

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Maybe you were commenting on their looks or their bad behavior.

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But in this scenario, I hear this phrase used now to comment on how hard working someone is

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or how relentless they are in a sport.

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For instance, you might hear an announcer say like, they are a dog on defense in basketball, meaning they work really hard, they're relentless, they're really good.

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Or just kind of commenting on someone's work ethic, you might say they are absolute dog they never give up

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so if you hear this in sports specifically you're commenting on someone's mental toughness their hard work

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and their relentless play in the sport a lot of times

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when you reflect on the past in english you can use this phrase looking back on it

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looking back on it and now looking back on it sometimes we say looking back on it

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and we can say also looking back at it they really have the same meaning here

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and it's just dependent on your preference which one you use

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so you might think about a stressful time in your life

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and you can say looking back at it it didn't really matter

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that much i should have been way more relaxed

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so you're kind of reflecting on the amount of stress you had and wishing that you were less

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back at it and you think wow

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that was really a red flag like I should have known this person was not going to be nice

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or was going to be hurtful to me

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because they did this you know looking back at it

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that was a huge red flag

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so again this phrase is just really good for reflection thinking about things

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that have happened in your past thinking about regrets

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that you have as well a really common phrase you'll hear people use when they're talking about understanding the

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power or how serious

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or impactful something was is you say I felt the magnitude of something to deal with something of this magnitude

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so to feel the magnitude of something is like to feel the size

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or the impact that something has there's a lot of historical events

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that you know you feel the magnitude of later on

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or there's just small life events like becoming a parent or getting

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steps that you're taking but later you're like wow I really feel the magnitude of how much that affected my life.

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So you'll hear this phrase just to be like, this event was really

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impacting my life a lot or you're reflecting again

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and thinking about how powerful something was

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and what a force it had on everyone

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or just on your own life in general another really reflective

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phrase is the glory days the glory days glory days thank you football

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A lot of people refer to their high school experience as the glory days.

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It's just a time where they're really carefree

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or maybe they're a really successful athlete or things were just going well in their life.

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And so they think of them as the glory days, things that times that were easy for them.

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So a lot of people use this phrase when they talk about their career.

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athletic career in college or in high school.

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Sometimes we use this phrase to kind of joke about how we're getting older.

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So for me, I think about the times in my life where I used to stay up really late watching TV and movies, or I would stay up and go to the bars with my friends.

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And now I just could not stay up that late.

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So I'm like, oh, those were the glory days when I would stay up and have fun.

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So it's kind of a joking phrase as well.

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If you want to tell someone that everyone is kind of spotlight of an event, or you're just saying, you know,

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a lot of people are paying attention to what you're doing.

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You can use this phrase, all eyes are on you.

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All eyes are going to be on you.

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I really felt like all eyes were on me when I was, you know, giving this presentation, meaning I feel like people were really paying attention and noting what I was doing.

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So this phrase can be used if you're kind of self -conscious, like, oh, I feel like all eyes are on me right now.

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Everyone's paying attention.

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Or you can just give this phrase as a warning, you know, all eyes are going to be You're going to feel like you have a lot of attention.

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So it's a really common phrase to say that everyone is paying attention to you or to someone else.

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What did you guys think of this lesson?

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Are you ready to use these advanced phrases in your real life?

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If you are, make sure to join me with Englishwithkayla .com, where you can join my membership.

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And each week, I'll give you a new lesson.

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I'll give you the PDF, a quiz, and you can ask questions to me as well there in my community.

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So I can help you learn these phrases and go beyond just your basic English.

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thank you guys again for watching and i'll see you guys in the next lesson goodbye

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About This Lesson

In this lesson, you will practice advanced phrases commonly used by native English speakers. The goal is to enhance your English speaking skills and improve your pronunciation by integrating these expressions into your daily conversations. By the end of this session, you will not only expand your vocabulary but also understand the context in which these phrases are utilized, allowing you to sound more fluent and natural in your speech. This exercise is perfect for anyone seeking to enhance their English speaking practice, especially through learning English with YouTube.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

Good timing: Used to describe a situation when something happens at the most appropriate moment.
Do the trick: An expression indicating that something will solve a problem or meet a need, even if it’s not a perfect solution.
Throw it out there: A casual way of suggesting an idea without being too assertive, useful in group discussions or informal settings.
I'm exhausted: A common phrase to express tiredness; it’s a great way to communicate how you feel.
I was just needing that: A phrase to show appreciation for something that arrived at the perfect time.
Perfect moment: Used to refer to an ideal situation when something beneficial occurs.
Very versatile: Describes something that can be used in many different situations, enhancing its usefulness.
Casually suggest: The act of proposing an idea in a relaxed and informal manner.

Practice Tips

To effectively practice these phrases, try shadow speaking along with the video. The pace may be fast, so use a shadowing app to slow it down if necessary. Focus on mimicking not just the words but also the intonation and emotion in the speaker's voice. This technique will significantly help improve English pronunciation. Begin by repeating each phrase out loud after hearing it, then gradually try to use these expressions in your own sentences during conversations.

Additionally, consider recording yourself to evaluate your pronunciation against the original phrases. This reflection will aid in identifying areas for improvement. Remember, practice makes perfect! Regularly incorporate these phrases into your everyday interactions to build familiarity and confidence, making your English speaking practice not just effective but also enjoyable.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	If it's something that will work
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've heard · I've heard · I've had
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	might be annoyed · are squished
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain	might say · might not be · might be

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: 19 Phrases Native English Speakers Use Every Day - Learn English Speaking with Video

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About This Lesson

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

Practice Tips

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?