Shadowing Practice: 20 Essential English Phrases for Daily Conversation - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi, I am Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa .com.

What should I say?

Let's talk about it.

Sometimes I'm surprised because my English students don't use expressions that I hear a lot around me in daily life.

Even some advanced English learners miss some of these expressions that we use commonly,

But today I want to help you learn some common English expressions for daily life.

Especially since the pandemic began, our interactions have been a lot different.

There have been more online meetings, Zoom calls,

these type of interactions where there might be some communication problems due to bad internet or wifi or some kind of misunderstanding.

So I hope that today's expressions will help you to have smoother interactions in these situations.

These 20 phrases fit into four categories, asking someone for information, making sure that you understand something,

politely interrupting a conversation, and finally, politely agreeing or disagreeing with someone.

Let's start with our first category.

When you're asking for information, yeah, you can say, what's that?

What's this?

But this is really basic and there are a lot of more common expressions that we use.

Do you happen to know what time the meeting is?

Beautiful.

Do you happen to know?

This is a little bit indirect, but it is beautiful.

Do you have any idea if Katie is coming to dinner tomorrow?

Do you have any idea?

This is simply asking, do you know if Katie is coming?

But we can use this word idea.

Do you have any idea if Katie's coming to dinner tomorrow?

I'd like to know if Katie is coming to dinner.

I'd like to know if...

This doesn't seem like a question, right?

There's not a question mark, but you're asking for more information without it being a direct question.

I'd like to know if Katie's coming tomorrow for dinner.

Maybe I'll have to send her a message.

I'd like to know if.

You might hear someone say, I'm wondering if those reports about the marketing plan are finished.

I'm wondering if those reports are finished.

If your boss says this, it means that he or she is trying to be indirect and asking, are they finished yet?

But instead of directly asking that, they kind of indirectly say, I'm wondering if they are finished.

It doesn't seem like a question, question, but it is, and they're asking for more information to know, are the reports done?

So if your boss says to you, hey, I'm wondering if those reports will be done by three o 'clock,

you can say, yes, they will be done by three o 'clock or maybe, nope, they won't.

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

The second category is checking for understanding, checking to see if someone else understands you or if you understand them correctly.

So when someone asks you these questions, you want to make sure that you respond accurately.

Whether you are giving directions or telling a complex story, you want to make sure that other people can understand

because you don't want to get to the end of the conversation and the other person or you says, huh?

It's quite disheartening.

So I want to make sure

that you can use these expressions to check along the way to make sure that you are being understood.

Do you know what I mean?

Especially if you're talking about something that is annoying you or close to your heart.

Let's imagine that your child is having problems going to bed at night and it's really frustrating for you.

So you're talking with your husband about it.

Maybe this is similar to my life.

And you say, oh yeah, it's so tough.

Why won't he just sleep?

I'm so annoyed.

You know what I mean?

And here I am asking to see if he understands how I feel.

Did you notice that I cut off the first question word, do?

The full question is, do you know what I mean?

But we often just say, you know what I mean?

And you want the other person ideally to say, yes, I understand what you mean.

I understand how you're feeling.

They might say, no, you know, I really don't.

And then you realize, okay, I need to explain in a different way, or we're just on different pages.

But this is a great question to ask.

You know what I mean?

Or you can ask, are you following?

Maybe if you're telling some complex sets of directions about how to fill in this paperwork to get a visa

and you're telling your friend, oh, first you got to do this,

and then you got to go over here and it's quite complex and their eyes start to look like this.

We say their eyes glaze over, you might say, are you following?

It means, are you following these directions?

And they might say, sorry, I lost you a long time ago.

Or maybe their eyes are not glazing over.

Instead, they're saying, yes, okay, okay, all right, all right.

But you know that your directions are pretty complicated, so maybe they should write things down, but they're not.

You might ask them, got it?

That means, do you understand?

Are you following my directions?

Are you getting it?

This is another meaning of the word get, which means to understand.

I get you.

This means I understand you.

I understand how you're feeling.

And an answer to this, if someone says, got it, you might say, got it.

So you could just respond with the same phrase.

If someone's telling you something complicated at the end, they say, did you understand?

Or they say, got it?

You can say, Yep.

Got it.

Let's go back to my previous example about my son having difficulties falling asleep.

Well, when I'm talking to my husband about it,

I might say, well, we need to make some changes in his nighttime routine to help him sleep better,

or maybe changes in our daily routine to help him wind down and feel more tired at the end of the day.

I could ask him, are we on the same page? page.

We're not reading something, but this just means, do we have the same ideas?

Do you agree with me that we need to change something so that he can sleep?

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Are we on the same page?

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This is very important for relationships.

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You absolutely need to be on the same page as your partner for a lot of stuff,

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but you can even use this at work if you're talking about a project that you're working on.

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You want to make sure that everyone in the team is on the same page, understands the same thing.

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So you might say, all right, everyone, are we on the same page?

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Everyone understands what we're doing now.

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Are we on the same page?

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All right, let's do it.

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Our next category are polite interruptions.

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This could be in real daily life conversations where you need to interrupt someone,

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or it could be on a Zoom call when someone's internet cuts out and you need to tell them something,

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but you want to tell them it politely, or maybe they say something and they got some information wrong about your marketing meeting,

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so you need to interrupt them before they continue.

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You want to do that politely.

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What can you say?

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Here's some ideas.

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You might say, excuse me, may I have a word?

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Excuse me.

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Great way to introduce this.

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May I have a word?

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This is not just one word.

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This means, That means, can I say something?

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Can I interrupt you and say something?

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So you might say, excuse me, may I have a word?

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You can use this when you knock on your boss's door and you want to tell him something, knock, knock, knock.

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Excuse me, may I have a word?

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Great.

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That means you got to tell him something, usually something brief and short.

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Do you mind if I jump in here?

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Jump in means interrupting.

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You're not literally jumping, but we can imagine that idea

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that someone else is talking and And you are jumping or cutting or interrupting in the middle of what they're saying.

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But this is very polite.

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Do you mind if I jump in there?

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Do you mind if I jump in here?

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I want to say something that is important right now.

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Do you mind if I jump in here?

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Sorry, I didn't catch that.

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Is it possible to repeat that last point?

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This is especially if it's something organized where someone is giving a presentation

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or they're trying to tell you some steps and you missed the last thing they said, you could use this whole phrase,

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sorry, I didn't catch that.

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It means I didn't understand that.

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Can you repeat that last point?

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Or you can shorten this even further and just say, I'm sorry.

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Notice my head here.

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It's tilting.

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I'm sorry.

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That means I didn't get it.

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But this is really polite because you're

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You're apologizing for not understanding and you can just say this, I'm sorry, and they'll be able to repeat what they said.

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And finally, our more direct question you can say is, do you mind if I interrupt you?

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You're still using this polite expression, do you mind if, but you're using a clear word, interrupt, if someone is speaking, speaking, speaking.

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Do you mind if I interrupt you?

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I want to share something that's relevant to this exact point before we move on to something else.

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Do you mind if I interrupt you?

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Great.

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Our final category of common daily phrases for daily conversation are different ways to agree or disagree with someone.

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Let's start with agreeing.

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For one word responses, strong agreement, you can say totally, absolutely, right.

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Great.

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You strongly agree.

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English is the most fun language to learn.

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You might say totally, Absolutely, absolutely right.

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For partly agreeing with someone, you can use these slightly longer phrases.

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I see your point, but this means, yeah, okay, I understand where you're coming from.

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I understand your point of view, but I disagree.

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So if someone says, skiing is the best sport in the world, you might say, well, I see your point,

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but I really would rather play basketball.

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It's warm outside.

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You can be on a team.

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Okay.

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You're agreeing with them.

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That's polite, but you're also showing your point of view.

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Or if someone again says, skiing is the best sport in the world, you might say, I'm not so sure about that.

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Here you're just kind of partly agreeing, not 100%.

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100%, say, well, I'm not so sure.

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If you see this kind of indirect language, I'm not so sure.

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You could say, I'm sure about it.

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100%, I'm sure.

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But here they say, I'm not so sure about that.

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I would really rather play basketball.

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I'm not so sure about it.

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Very polite way of partially agreeing.

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Our final three phrases are for disagreeing.

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Let's imagine that you really do like basketball more than skiing.

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You could say, that's not always true.

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Skiing is dangerous.

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Skiing is really cold.

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Yeah, that's not always true.

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Or you might say, I don't agree.

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I don't think so.

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This is pretty clear, but you know what?

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Sometimes you just got to get your point across.

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I don't agree.

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Basketball is better.

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I don't think so.

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Basketball is better.

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This is my opinion.

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I disagree.

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And that's just the way it is.

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I hope that your daily English vocabulary has improved

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and these phrases will be more understandable to you as you're listening to conversations

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and also as you're participating in them in daily life or in meetings on Zoom or online.

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I hope these will be helpful to you.

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I know that 20 expressions is a lot to learn.

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You know what I mean?

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But I hope you got it.

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Got it?

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Got it.

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And now I'm wondering if you can use any of these expressions in the comments below this video.

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Let me know which one of these you would like to use.

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And thank you so much for learning English with me.

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I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

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Bye.

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Bye.

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The next step is to download my free ebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.

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You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

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Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

219

Thanks so much.

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Bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “20 Essential English Phrases for Daily Conversation”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: word, expression, asking, daily. This video has 31 sentences and 2094 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:38. The speaker talks at a natural 166 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 43 of its 31 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
interrupt verb	/ˌɪntəˈɹʌpt/	To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly, especially by speaking.
phrase noun	/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/	A short written or spoken expression.
polite adjective	/pəˈlaɪt/	Well-mannered, civilized.
ski noun	/skiː/	One of a pair of long flat runners designed for gliding over snow or water.
disagree verb	/dɪsəˈɡɹi/	To fail to agree; to have a different opinion or belief.
knock verb	/nɑk/	To rap one's knuckles against something, especially wood.
interaction noun	/ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/	The situation or occurrence in which two or more things act upon one another to produce an effect; the effect resulting from such a situation or occurrence.
indirect adjective	/ˌɪn.daɪˈɹɛkt/	Not direct
complicated adjective	/ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/	Difficult or convoluted.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
routine noun	/ɹuˈtin/	A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure.
partly adverb	/ˈpɑɹtli/	In part, or to some degree, but not completely.
strongly adverb	/ˈstɹɔŋli/	In a strong or powerful manner.
helpful adjective	/ˈhɛlp.fl̩/	Furnishing help; giving aid; useful.
participate verb	/pɑːˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/	To join in, to take part, to involve oneself (in something).

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
cut off verb	/ˌkʌt ˈɔf/ [ˌkɐɾ ˈɔf]	To remove by cutting.
cut out verb		To refrain from (doing something, using something etc.), to stop or cease (doing something).
go back to verb		To stem from; to originate in.
go over verb		To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze.
wind down verb	/waɪnd ˈdaʊn/	To lower by winding, as with a crank or windlass.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Do you happen to know?
Do you have any idea?
Do you know what I mean?
Are you following my directions?
Do you understand what I'm saying?

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have been · has improved
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	will be done · being understood
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain	might be · might hear · might say
Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group	the most fun · the best

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 72 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, partially /ˈpɑɹʃəli/, interruption /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/, shorten /ˈʃɔɹtn̩/
Long words — get the stress right: interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, participate /pɑːˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, apologize /əˈpɑləˌd͡ʒaɪz/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like interrupt, phrase, polite.

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: 20 Essential English Phrases for Daily Conversation - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?

2 Tips For Improving Your Listening Skills