Shadowing Practice: Sound More British · Everyday Expressions explained in the City - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Today you're coming with me around the city so
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that you can learn 20 everyday really useful English expressions like this
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and this helps us remember the expression make a splash
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and idioms like this this big fella behind me leads us to our next expression the lion's share and even this
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so you would probably say he's naked or you could use this next expression he's starkers hi i'm steve
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now this city is unusual
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because it's got two cathedrals this is what's commonly known as the old one
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and this one which as you can see is a lot more modern
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and you could say these two cathedrals are like chalk and cheese, which is our next expression.
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Chalk and cheese.
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This is used when two things are very different, like this.
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One of my kids likes riding their bike, but the other prefers reading.
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They're like chalk and cheese.
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If you look behind me, you can see lots of rope on this boat,
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which leads us nicely to our next expression, money but old rope.
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This means money that's easy to come by.
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You can get it without much effort.
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Use it like this.
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She's a television reviewer.
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Her job is money for old rope.
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Behind me is the only natural spring in the whole of this city.
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And it leads into this tiny little pond.
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And this helps us remember the expression, make a splash.
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To make a splash means to attract attention.
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Do something that makes you stand out.
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He really made a splash at the party by wearing a fancy jacket.
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Now behind me is grass.
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And that takes us to our next expression.
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The other man's grass is always greener.
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This means that other people always seem to be in a better situation than you are.
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It's used like this.
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He said that he wanted to change his job, but I warned him that the other man's grass is always greener.
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These stones that I'm walking on are called cobbles, and that should help us with the phrase cobble together.
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This means to make or build something quickly, using whatever you already have.
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Chews like this.
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They cobbled together a meal from what was already in the fridge.
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And now I'm in the underground to bring you the next English expression. On the right track.
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To be on the right track means to be acting or thinking in a way that's likely to lead to success.
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She checked her notes again and realised she was on the right track for the test.
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Now we're inside the railway station, and behind me you can see a train.
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This leads us to our next expression, lose your train of thought.
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This means to forget what you were talking about, or thinking, because of an interruption.
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The loud noise made me lose my train of thought.
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Now this used to be a small prison and to say that someone's actually in prison, we use the expression behind bars.
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This means to be in prison.
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Use it like this.
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The gang of car thieves are all behind bars.
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Behind me are headstones.
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These belong on a grave.
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And that gives us our next English expression, pushing up daisies.
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This English expression means to be dead and buried.
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He was warned that he'll be pushing up daisies if he keeps driving so fast.
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As we look around the city, you can see that there's one building that's a lot taller than all the others.
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It's that tower behind me.
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So we could use the expression, it's head and shoulders above the rest.
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This means to be much bigger or better than everyone or everything else.
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She is head and shoulders above the rest of the applicants for the job.
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This statue behind me is really famous in this city and as you can see he's not wearing any clothes at all.
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So you would probably say he's naked or you could use this next expression, he's Stalkers.
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Stalkers means to be completely naked.
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Use it like this.
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He came out of the bathroom stalkers because he forgot to take his towel.
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In the UK, we usually don't say call a cab, we say hail a cab.
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Use it like this.
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In English we say we're going to hail a cab, basically it means to wave your hand to stop a taxi in the street.
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They stepped out into the rain and put their hand up to hail a cab.
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I've been walking for over an hour now making this video.
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So I could say I was tired, or I could use the expression, I'm pooped.
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If you're pooped, you're extremely tired or exhausted.
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So you might say...
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After working all day, I was far too pooped to go out for dinner.
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Now this statue is a member of the royal family riding a horse.
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And that leads us to our next expression.
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Straight from the horse's mouth.
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This expression means to get information directly from the person who knows all about it.
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She knew the shop was closing because she heard it straight from the horse's mouth when the owner told her.
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This big fella behind me leads us to our next expression.
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The lion's share.
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The lion's share means the largest portion or the majority of something.
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She was like this.
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He spent the lion's share of his Saturday morning tidying the house before his guests arrived.
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and the next expression is it's fishy
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if something is fishy it means it's suspicious
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or you don't trust it something about his sudden decision to
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sell the business felt fishy the coffee shop behind me is one of my favorites
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because it gives all its profits to homeless people However, it's quite tricky to find.
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And that's because it's off the beaten track.
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Off the beaten track means located far away from busy roads or popular places where most people go.
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Often it's quite hard to find.
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We found a brilliant little seafood place off the beaten track.
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Now we're in one of the main shopping streets, which lets us use our next expression, to shop around, which is what these people are doing.
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This means to compare prices and quality at different places before you buy it.
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It's worth shopping around instead of buying the first thing, you see.
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This city has two football teams.
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Liverpool, who play in red and Everton, who play in blue.
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That reminds me of two really useful English phrases.
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out of the blue.
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Out of the blue means unexpectedly or without any warning.
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It was out of the blue when he asked her to marry him. And into the red.
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This means to spend more money than you really have.
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Paying for the roof to be fixed pushed their bank account into the red.
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If you like this way of learning English then just click the bus to subscribe
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and then click here and I'll see you there.
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Take care!
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Sound More British · Everyday Expressions explained in the City”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: expression, English, lead, track. This video has 104 sentences and 1167 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:16. The speaker talks at a steady 114 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| splash verb | /splæʃ/ | To hit or agitate liquid so that part of it separates from the principal liquid mass. |
| cobble verb | /ˈkɑ.bəl/ | To make shoes (what a cobbler does). |
| stalker noun | /ˈstɔːkə(ɹ)/ | A person who engages in stalking, i.e., quietly approaching animals to be hunted; a tracker or guide in hunting game. |
| poop noun | /ˈpuːp/ | The sound of a steam engine's whistle, typically low-pitched. |
| chalk noun | /t͡ʃɔk/ | A soft, white, powdery limestone (calcium carbonate, CaCO₃). |
| hail noun | /heɪl/ | Balls or pieces of ice falling as precipitation, often in connection with a thunderstorm. |
| rope noun | /ɹoʊp/ | Thick strings, yarn, monofilaments, metal wires, or strands of other cordage that are twisted together to form a stronger line. |
| fella noun | /fɛ.lə/ | Used as a general intensifier; a pfella. |
| daisy noun | /ˈdeɪ.zi/ | A wild flowering plant of species Bellis perennis of the family Asteraceae, with a yellow head and white petals |
| cathedral noun | /kəˈθiːdɹəl/ | The principal church serving as the office (and some as place of residence) of an archdiocese's/a diocese's archbishop/bishop which is symbolized by an… |
| warn verb | /woɹn/ | To make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc. |
| statue noun | /ˈstæt͡ʃu/ | A three-dimensional work of art, usually representing a person or animal, usually created by sculpting, carving, molding, or casting. |
| phrase noun | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | A short written or spoken expression. |
| headstone noun | /ˈhɛdstoʊn/ | A gravestone, a grave marker: a monument traditionally made of stone placed at the head of a grave. |
| interruption noun | /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/ | The act of interrupting, or the state of being interrupted. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| push up verb | To make (something) higher; to increase. |
| look around verb | To inspect a building or area. |
| stand out verb | To jut out, protrude (from a surface etc.). |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are called · was warned · be fixed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | cheese, which is · person who knows · around, which is |
| Comparatives -er than / more … than — comparing two things | taller than · better than · more money than |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | were talking · was closing |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 16 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we're, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: cathedral /kəˈθiːdɹəl/, thief /ˈθiːf/, cloth /klɒθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: splash /splæʃ/, interruption /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/, suspicious /səˈspɪʃ.əs/
- Long words — get the stress right: interruption /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/, unexpectedly /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪdli/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like splash, cobble, stalker.
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.