- Hello lovely students and welcome back to English With Lucy.
You are going to learn the English that I use on a daily basis, and I'm going to teach
you in the most interesting way possible, through a real story.
As I go through this story, you're going to hear some English phrases that I use every
day and these are real world, English expressions and idioms that I use in my everyday speech.
And you're going to hear them in context which is very important.
And then after, I'll explain exactly what they mean.
Using these expressions will make you sound natural and more native when you speak in
English.
To make this even easier for you to digest and retain, there is of course a free PDF
that goes along with today's lesson.
It includes the full story, all of the notes and some exercises, so you can practise what
you've learned.
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Okay, are you ready to hear my story?
So this was a few years ago now, and as many of you might know, my husband Will used to
be a farmer.
We work together running English With Lucy now, but previously he was a farmer and because
his birthday is in June and clashes with the high season, the busy season in his particular
area of farming, he had never had a birthday party as an adult ever.
And this broke my heart.
It was going to be his 30th birthday so I wanted to arrange something really special
for him.
And so I settled on surprising him with a golf tournament with all of his friends but,
I wasn't quite sure how to get it off the ground.
So I turned to one of Will's good friends, Charlie, who first told me it was the best
idea ever, go me.
And then he gave me some advice.
He said, "If I were you, I'd call the club first then get a small group together to play
and invite the partners for dinner afterwards."
Okay, I'm gonna interrupt myself here and draw your attention to a few of those everyday
English phrases.
And the first was, to get something off the ground which means, to make something start
to happen or to succeed.
And this is such a common phrase among native speakers.
An example, I have so many ideas but I never seem able to get them off the ground.
The next phrase was the best idea ever.
And we use this structure with a superlative a lot in English to respond with enthusiasm.
And in speech we often emit the and just say, best idea ever, or worst film ever!
Hardest exam ever!
And the last one there was, if I were you I'd, and you might recognise this as the second
conditional, and this is such a common use of this structure because we love giving advice.
I don't like receiving it, but I love giving it.
An example if I were you, I wouldn't invite Jack to the party he always gets overexcited.
Okay I want to continue my story now.
So I went to the local golf club and I told them what I wanted and they were all what
a brilliant idea, blah, blah, blah.
And they told me that they had a special menu available around the time that I was planning
Will's get together.
The chef even popped out and said, "Ugh you are in for a treat."
Now, it looked a bit pricey but they assured me it was well worth the money.
Then they started recommending me some very expensive whiskey that I could have ready
for Will when he finished playing, I politely said, "Hmm I'm not sure about that, let me
have a think."
Alright, let me interrupt myself again for a moment.
The first phrase I want to draw your attention to is, they were all.
And I'm sure you understood that I meant, they all said, but native speakers used the
expression, he was all, or I was all et cetera, in spoken English, often to convey that someone
had strong feelings about something whether or not we think they're being sincere.
You might have heard something similar with they were like, or I was like, that's more
about just saying something.
They were all, I was all, implies that we dunno that they're being sincere.
An example, I invited Jerry to the party and she was all, "Awesome, I'll be there."
And then she didn't turn up.
The next phrase was, you are in for a treat.
You're in for a treat.
And we love using this phrase to say that something is a good idea.
We also sometimes use it sarcastically to say that something is going to be challenging
or just not very good.
For example, I signed up for a spinning class with Helen tomorrow.
Oh, you're in for a treat.
And the last phrase was one that we Britts use all the time because we hate saying no
or disagreeing directly.
I'm not sure about that, or I'm not so sure about that.
If you hear that phrase from a British person it nearly always means, no.
I think we should have a picnic for Olivia's birthday.
I'm not sure about that, it's going to rain.
I followed that up with the phrase, let me have a think, let me have a think.
And this is another really common expression that basically means no, but I don't wanna
say it right now.
Very British, sorry oh God I said sorry.
Okay, back to my story.
I got the ball rolling with the invitations by calling some of Will's closest friends.
I said, "Are you free on Saturday the 3rd of June?
Do you fancy coming down to celebrate Will's 30th?"
Okay, we've got three more great everyday English expressions in there.
The first was to get the ball rolling and this means to make something start to happen
very similar to, to get it off the ground, get something off the ground to get the ball
rolling or to start the ball rolling.
An example, it looks like no one wants to speak first so I'll get the ball rolling.
Next, we had are you free on?
Are you free on?
And this is one of the most common ways to ask someone to attend an event that you are
planning.
Are you free on Sunday?
We're thinking of going out for a pub lunch.
And the last one was, do you fancy?
Do you fancy?
Which is another way to ask if someone wants to do something.
Do you fancy going out for a bite to eat?
Would you like to?
Does this interest you?
Before I get back to my story there's one extra thing I want to mention.
I said, Will's 30th, not Will's 30th birthday.
It's very common to shorten significant birthdays like this.
Lucy's 18th, Pete's 60th.
You can do it for less significant birthdays.
My 25th on my 24th for my 58th.
Okay, here's the final part of my story and this is where it gets good.
The forecast said it was going to rain on the day but I decided to play it by ear and
didn't make any other plans.
It turned out to be gorgeous weather and Will was over the moon when I told him what was
happening.
When we got to the golf club, it turned out that I had been told the wrong prices and
instead of 60 pound a head, it was 100 pounds a head on Saturdays, I literally trembled
as I handed over my credit card.
He and his mates played a round of golf and had a tipple between holes.
We finally sat down to eat and Will who was feeling very happy, slightly tipsy and very
generous, accidentally said, "Ah, don't worry guys we got this."
He accidentally offered to pay for everyone's meal.
Now, bear in mind that the golf club had already put their prices up so it was going to be
incredibly expensive but we were also in the middle of a mortgage application so cash was
a bit tight.
At the time when I had to pay for all of those rounds of golf and a meal for I think about
14 people.
But what could we do?
Everyone had an amazing time and they said the food was out of this world.
We finally called it night at about midnight.
I needed a little lie down when I saw the bill but it was Will's first birthday party
in about 10 years, so no regrets.
So that's my story, I would love to know has anything similar ever happened to you?
Have you ever ended up spending a lot more than you originally planned?
I'll remind you to write about it in the comments at the end of this lesson but right now we
have to look at the final set of English expressions that I use virtually every day.
And the first one is to play it by ear, which means to deal with the situation as it develops
rather than making plans.
An example, I dunno how many people are coming.
We'll have to play it by ear.
The next is to be over the moon, to be over the moon which is how Will felt, when I told
him about my plan.
This means to be very happy and we use this idiom a lot.
My sister was over the moon when I offered to babysit her children for the night.
We also have the phrase, we've got this or we got this.
If you say, I've got this or I got this, it means I'll pay for this.
Don't worry, I got this.
I got this as very slang.
I've got, this is slightly less slang because it's more grammatically correct.
Don't worry about lunch today, I've got this, I owe you one.
Next was, to bear in mind.
To bear in mind.
And this is such a common expression that we use to say to remember or to consider a
piece of information.
Bear in mind that I only cooked for 10 people but over 30 turned up.
The next one was out of this world which is a way to emphasise how fantastic something
is.
The decorations were outta this world.
The second to last phrase is to call it a night, to call it a night.
We normally say to call it a night when something's finishing quite late and to call it a day
when it's finishing at normal work time, but they are used interchangeably.
An example, at 10:00 PM I decided to call it a night and finish up in the morning.
And finally my final English word that I use every day is a lie-down or as part of a phrase
to have or to need a lie-down.
Now, we often use this literally when we're feeling sleepy, but we also use it metaphorically
to say that something shocked us so much that we needed to lie down.
After seeing the price tag on the dress, I needed a lie down.
Alright, that's everything from me today.
Don't forget to share any similar situations that you've experienced in the comment section,
extra points if you use some of the vocabulary I taught you today.
Also, remember to download the PDF that goes with this lesson.
The link is down below.
We've got all of the phrases, the full story and exercises so you can test your understanding.
If you want to take an English course with me we have just released are B1, B2 and C1
programmes, and they are fantastic.
They are each 12 week programmes.
You can take them at your own pace.
There's lots of learning and context similar concepts to this lesson, but in much more
detail.
If you're interested, visit Englishwithlucy.com.
I'll see you soon for another lesson.