Shadowing Practice: British Slang & Expressions - Part 2 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello!
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This is Elliot from ETJ English and welcome to another lesson.
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So about a month ago I made a video
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and I was teaching you some useful British English phrases
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and it had a really good reaction so I thought today why not do the same thing again.
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I'm going to give you some more, some more useful phrases which you will hear a lot.
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There's some slang terms in here and there's also some phrases.
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So here's five for you.
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We'll start with number one.
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So number one is peckish.
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Now this you might have heard before, we say it a lot in England, and it means to be slightly hungry.
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Not really hungry, just slightly hungry.
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So I could say to you, I'm feeling a little bit peckish.
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Do you have any chocolate, for example?
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And that just means I'm feeling a little bit hungry.
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Do you have some chocolate?
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Do you have you know anything any kind of food?
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So if you're a little bit hungry not starving but just hungry you can say that you're feeling peckish.
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Number two we've got fortnight.
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This is used a lot especially in business English.
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If I've ever got any business English students I will usually say this
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and teach them this word fortnight and it's a very common British slang term
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it is slang and but it is used in a professional manner a lot of the time
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and basically a fortnight is two weeks it's a period of two weeks
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so 14 days is a fortnight
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so let's say I'm going on a holiday for two weeks
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I could say I'm going on holiday for a fortnight or
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if I've taken some time off work I could say I'm
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taking leave from my work for a fortnight I have a fortnight off work
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so fortnight that's another one for you and that is a British phrase
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if you said
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that in America wouldn't be quite the same I don't think
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they'd really know what we're talking about number three we've got skint this is a good word.
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I enjoy hearing this word in England.
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It's not a good word.
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It's not something you want to be saying yourself if you're skint.
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It basically means if you're skint, you're without money.
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You don't have money or you don't have very much money.
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Let's say your friend has asked you out for dinner.
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You're going for a meal together or something.
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You could say, sorry, I can't make it.
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I can't come to dinner with you.
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I'm absolutely skint and that would just mean I haven't got enough money to come out with you.
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You could say I don't have enough money but
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if you want to sound more British use a bit more kind of British lingo then you could say I'm skint.
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So it's just one that I thought I would give you in case somebody says it to you.
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Number four we've got cheeky.
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I also like this word we use it a lot with kids
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but it's not just something we say for kids
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if you're cheeky then you're kind of doing something rude
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but not really rude it's kind of charming at the same time kind of interestingly intriguingly rude
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or naughty we might say so for example let's say let's say without a kid a kid is always cheeky.
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They might say a comment which is rude
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but is sweet at the same time
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but I'm gonna give you one in an adult situation let's say I've got a friend
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and this friend is very rich he's got lots of money I wish
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but he's got lots of money
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and I could say to him you've got loads of money
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it wouldn't hurt you just to give me maybe a few pounds and that's a cheeky comment that's me saying
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well you've got loads of money why can't you give me some it's just a cheeky comment
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and he might reply and say don't be so cheeky
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or he might just say that's cheeky
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and that's just how we would use the word cheeky it's
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quite a common one like I said especially with kids they're
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full of cheeky comments number five is fancy now there's a lot of different ways we use the word fancy
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when I was preparing this lesson and I thought about the word fancy.
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First thing I thought about was when you fancy someone.
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If you are a boy or a girl and you fancy someone, let's say you say to them I fancy you,
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that would mean that you find them attractive, maybe you like them.
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It's something used more by younger people but you might hear it in movies,
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you might hear it in different situations but I I wouldn't worry about using it in this way.
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But you could also use the word fancy by saying, fancy a drink?
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Let's say that I was inviting a friend out to go for a drink, maybe.
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For a beer, let's say.
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We're going to go to the pub and drink some beer.
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I could say, do you fancy a beer?
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And that's just like saying, do you want to come out with me and grab a beer?
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Have a beer to drink.
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Also, let's say we have a menu at our table we're
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having a meal together I could say what do you fancy
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or does anything take your fancy
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and this is like saying is there anything you want from
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the menu do you like the look of anything what are you going to buy what do you fancy
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so it's two different ways of using the word fancy
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and something can also be fancy and that means it's quite posh, quite cool.
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For example, let's say I was wearing a smart suit, a really nice suit, a nice watch, some rings.
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I was looking quite rich and quite powerful.
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Someone would say, oh you look fancy and that would mean you know you're looking smart, you're looking rich and posh.
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So that's three different ways of using the word fancy.
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So there you go, there's another five.
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It It was highly demanded by all of you that I made another video like this.
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And if you enjoyed it, please tell me in the comments section below and I'll make more.
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I'll keep making these British English videos if you are really enjoying them.
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Your comments create this channel.
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They make me decide what I put on here next.
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When I have the time, I try and reply to all of your comments.
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So that's it for today's video.
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If you enjoyed it, please give me a thumbs up.
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It really helps me out.
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So don't forget to subscribe and visit my Facebook page and give me a like if you haven't already.
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If you'd like to book a Skype English lesson with me
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and start learning some real British English or preparing for an IELTS test,
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the link will just be in the description below and it's easy to book your first trial lesson with me.
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Hopefully I will speak to some of you soon and I will see you all in the next lesson.
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Thank you for watching.
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What You'll Learn
This video builds practical speaking skills for real-world interactions, like describing mild hunger ("peckish") or time frames ("fortnight") in casual and professional settings. You'll also learn to convey financial constraints ("skint") and playful rudeness ("cheeky")—phrases native speakers use daily. Mastering these helps you sound more natural in conversations, a key goal for english speaking practice.
Listen For These Sounds
Notice how "peckish" is pronounced with a short "e" (like "peck") and soft "ish" (not "ishh"). In "fortnight," the "t" is often reduced, making it sound like "for-night" with a quick transition. "Skint" has a sharp "k" followed by a short "i" (rhymes with "lint"). These subtle sound patterns are crucial for improve english pronunciation—use a shadowing app to mimic them closely.
Say It Like a Native
Mirror the speaker's relaxed rhythm: stress the first syllable in "PECK-ish" and "FORT-night," and keep "skint" short and punchy. For "cheeky," emphasize the "chee" (like "cheese") and let the "ky" trail off. Practice with a shadowing site to match the natural flow—native speakers rarely over-enunciate these terms. Focus on blending words in phrases, like "I'm feeling a bit peckish," where "a bit" links smoothly to "peckish." This "shadowspeak" technique (mimicking tone and timing) will make your speech sound authentic.
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 | I've taken · has asked |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might have · might say · might reply |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | was teaching · was preparing · was inviting |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | enjoy hearing · keep making · start learning |
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.