Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Can you use these common slang expressions in
English? Let's talk about it. "I didn't get a fair shake." "Well, I guess that's just how it goes.
Can you use these slang expressions, " a fair shake, and that's just how it goes? Well, today
I have four pieces of good news for you. Good news number one. In today's lesson, you will learn 14
commonly used English slang or casual expressions that you can use in daily conversation.
Good news number two, these slang expressions are not just for teenagers or young people.
Anyone, including you, can use these expressions. Good news number three,
like always, I have created a free PDF worksheet with all of today's expressions,
slang, casual phrases, sample sentences, ideas. At the bottom of the worksheet,
you can answer Vanessa's challenge question so that you never forget what you are about to learn.
Make sure you click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today.
Good news number four, if you enjoy today's lesson and you would like to learn more real English for
daily conversations, all of these expressions from this lesson have come from my course, The
Fearless Fluency Club. Like course member Ilkiko Nemeth said, "I like the most that you teach us
real English." Gely said, "This is the best course I've ever had." Click on the link in
the description to join me and thousands of other motivated English learners from around the world
to speak real English in The Fearless Fluency Club. All right. Let's get started with our 14
slang, casual English expressions. A buck, can you guess what that means from this sample sentence?
When I was a waitress, I made 100 bucks each night. I felt pretty good about that, especially
when I was in high school and in college. That's a lot of money. Can you guess what it is?
It's a slang way to say $100. "I made 100 bucks last night at the restaurant," or we could say,
"Yeah, I can't believe it. I bought that book for just three bucks. That book was just three bucks."
Sometimes we use this expression "buck" to make something seem really cheap. For example, if I
said that I bought something for 100 bucks, you might think, "Well, that seems like a
lot of money, but what if I told you it was a new iPhone? All of a sudden it seems like deal, right?
So we could say, "I can't believe that iPhone was just 100 bucks. What a steal." This is a great
word to add to your vocabulary, sketchy, sketchy. We often use the word "to sketch" to talk about
drawing, but that's not what we're talking about here. Take a look at this sample sentence. Hitch
hiking has become a lot more sketchy in the last decade, at least in the U.S. I don't know
if it's common in your country, but what can you guess from this sentence? The word sketchy means
risky, untrustworthy, you feel quite uncertain about it. We can even use this
to talk about people. "That guy looks sketchy." "I think I'm going to walk on the other side of
the road. He looks risky. Untrustworthy. He looks sketchy," or you could say, "We just sided not to
cross the sketchy looking bridge." You could say, The old bridge," "The bridge that looked like it
was going to fall down." You could use other words or you could use the slang expression and say,
"That's a sketchy looking bridge. I don't trust it. I don't want to cross it.
Out there, what if I told you, "I don't wear that dress. It's too out there. It's not my style,"
out there. We can imagine that things that are on earth are lovely and understandable and
reasonable and things that are out there are a little bit weird. "So that dress, it's got
stripes, it's got polka dots, it's got feathers, it's a little out there. It's not my style."
We could use this for people. "Bob is pretty out there, but he has a kind heart."
You might think that Bob has some weird ideas, maybe he is a little bit awkward
or an unusual person, but he has a kind heart, so it's not always a bad thing.
I'd be careful maybe who you said it to make sure they could take it in the right way. But you could
say "Bob's a little out there, but you know what? He has a kind heart. I love hanging out with him."
To be cool with something, are we talking about cool and warm? Nope. We're talking about cool,
man. So you could say, "The teacher was cool with me using the classroom for some evening
study sessions." Can you guess what this means? It's another way of saying that she was okay with
it. She approved of it. "The teacher was cool with me using the classroom," or we could cut a
word from this and make it even more casual. You can cut the verb "are" and you could say, "You
still cool with me coming over this afternoon. You still cool with me coming over this afternoon."
It's okay to say, "Are you still cool with me coming over this afternoon?" But sometimes we
cut off that "be" verb and make it even more casual. "You still cool with me coming over this
afternoon?" "Yeah, I'm cool with it." Beautiful. All I know, take a look at this sentence. All I
knew as a child was my small town. I had never visited a big city. All I knew as a child,
we're talking about some limited knowledge here. Usually, we use the word all to talk about a lot,
but instead here, we're talking about something limited. All I knew as a child was my small town.
I had never been to a big city, so that was something completely foreign to me.
Let's take a look at another sentence for a slightly more nuanced way to use it.
Let's imagine that you just meet someone named Sarah and she invites you to go play tennis
with her. Cool. That's a good first activity to do with someone. You might tell your husband,
"Well, I don't really know Sarah for all. I know she could be a tennis champion."
This is talking about your limited knowledge about her, and it's a little bit of an exaggeration,
probably. If she was a tennis champion, she would've told you and not invited you,
a normal person, to go play tennis with her, but we can use this expression for all I know,
to talk about an exaggeration. For all I know, maybe she's a tennis champion. For all I know,
maybe she's a terrible person. For all I know, and you can use an exaggeration because you're
emphasizing, "I have limited knowledge about her, so maybe this extreme thing could be true."
Chit chat. Chit chat. Chit chat. "It was nice to run into her at the store. We got to chit chat
a bit." Do you think we had a deep, meaningful conversation? No. The word chit chat just means
simple, inconsequential, not-so-important conversation topics, but this is part of
talking with someone. You have a little bit of chit chat, and then maybe you talk about deeper
things, or if you just see someone in the grocery store, us have a little chit chat together.
A common expression that teachers say in the classroom is this, "The teacher told us to
cut the chit chat and get back to studying." This expression, "To cut the chit chat," you
can imagine cut it out. Stop chit chatting. You're talking with your friends and you're not studying,
so the teacher say, "Hey guys, cut the chit chat. Let's get back to studying,"
very common in the classroom. All sorts of, often, this is said, "all sorts of." We do all sorts of
stuff when we go to the beach. All sorts of, like can you get a feeling for this? Do we just do one
thing? "No, we do all sorts of stuff when we go to the beach. We built sand castles. We swim in the
waves. Maybe we go play mini-golf. We do all sorts of stuff when we go to the beach." This is just
a casual way to talk about a lot of things. "We do all sorts of stuff when we go to the beach."
Let's take a look at this sentence. "I love all sort sorts of movies, drama,
romance, horror. I love all sorts of movies, of various kinds of movies." This is not
really true for me, not a big movie fan, but maybe for you this is true. You might say,
"I love all sorts of movies. It doesn't matter what kind as long as it's a decent movie, I'll
watch it. For me, this maybe is true for books. I love all sorts of books. To come in handy,
take a look at this. Meditation techniques come in handy when you're feeling stressed. They come in
handy. This means that they're useful. Meditation techniques, maybe taking a couple of deep breaths,
clearing your mind, trying to not focus on the stressful thing that can come in handy. It can be
useful when you're feeling stressed, or what about this? "I figured my pocket knife would come I'm in
handy during my travels. It was very true. "When I travel abroad, sometimes I buy a little pocket
knife because you always need to cut things." I've been so surprised, cut an apple, cut a
package, cut something, and it's nice to have a little pocket knife with you. A pocket knife comes
in handy when you're traveling. If you're make sure that you leave your pocket knife at home.
The airport will not be so happy about that. I have experienced this before,
forgotten that I had my pocket knife on my key chain like I usually do, and I had to leave it at
the airport. What a shame. But if you're traveling domestically or you're not flying, it is useful to
have pocket knife. It can come in handy. The last something, take a look at this sentence. The last
place I expected to meet my future husband was at a bar. This was a sentence that one of my guests
in The Fearless Fluency Club said. She was telling me that when she went to Hungary, she was at a bar
with her friends, and guess who she met at the bar? Her future husband. They ended up having
a wonderful relationship, getting married. They moved to the U.S. It's a beautiful romantic story.
She said, "The last place that I expected to meet my future husband was at a bar." This means it was
a very unlikely occurrence. She was not expecting this, the last place, but we can use other words
after the last as well. "The last person that we expected to score a goal was Sam," poor Sam,
maybe he's no good at soccer or football and everyone and says, "Oh, he's got the ball,
but there's no way that he's going to score a goal." He's the last person we would expect
to score a goal, and then boom, he scores a goal. This might be the phrase that you say,
"The last person we expected to score a goal was Sam, but he did it. That's amazing."
That's just how it goes. You remember the story I told you about where my guest married
a Hungarian man? Well, she also told me this sentence. "My husband is a qualified doctor,
but it's not recognized in this country. I guess that's just how it goes." Oh, so her husband was
a certified doctor in Hungary, but when he moved to the U.S., they didn't accept his certification.
He would need to go through many more years of schooling in order to be certified as a doctor
in the U.S. That's such a shame. I think we miss out on a lot of good, talented people because of
these types of restrictions. So she said, "That's just how it goes." Here, we can imagine her
acceptance of something that's probably not very fair. "That's just how it goes." Maybe
this has happened to you. "My co-worker called in sick, so I had to do all of her extra work.
I guess that's just how it goes. "Well, it's not fair. Your co-worker is sick. It's not her fault,
but you have to do the extra work. That's not very fair, but I guess that's just how it goes. You're
accepting an unfair situation. Talking about being fair, a fair shake. If you are the oldest sibling,
maybe you have experienced this. "My mom never gave me a fair shake. She always blamed me
instead of my little sister." This wasn't exactly true, but I think as an older sibling,
we often feel that, right? "It's not fair. You should blame her. Not me."
Can you imagine what this means? This is talking about fair treatment, "I never got a fair shake,
so I'm receiving that fair treatment." "I never got a fair shake," or if you are the parent or
the authority, "She never gave me a fair shake." Let's take a look at another sentence. I feel like
I didn't get a fair shake with my volleyball team. They didn't let me play as much as I thought I
should be allowed to play. It wasn't fair treatment. I didn't get a fair shake from
the volleyball team. Our next expression is a very fun one, fighting the man, or just the man.
So in The Fearless Fluency Club, one of my guests was a lawyer named David.
He said that all of his co-workers wore suits and ties, but he wore a tee-shirt and jeans. It was
allowed, and this was his way of fighting the man. What could this possibly mean to fight the man?
We can imagine the man is authority, so it's your way of rebelling against authority,
doing something that's against what the authority wants. "I'm fighting the man."
So for teenagers, they might say, "When we sprayed graffiti on that wall,
my friends and I thought that we were fighting the man, but really we were just being dumb."
So the teenagers thought that they were doing something to tell the authorities,
"You don't have control over us. We're fighting the man," but in reality, they were just
doing something dumb. They thought they were fighting the man, when in reality, they weren't.
Our last slang casual expression today is solid, solid. We could use this in a very literal way.
That piece of wood is solid. It's not hollow. But I want to show you this in a more figurative way.
What if I said to you, "A Honda Civic is a good, solid car." It's not hollow? No. In this case,
we're talking about reliable. It's not fancy. It's not shiny. It doesn't have lots of cool stuff,
it's just a reliable car. It is a solid car. You could use this for place of work. Let's imagine
that you're a barista at Starbucks. You might say, "Starbucks is a solid company to work for.
They treat you well, you get a free bag of coffee every week, not too bad. Starbucks is a solid,
reliable company to work for." Well, I hope that this was a solid lesson and you learned all sorts
of useful stuff. Don't forget to click on the link in the description to download the free
PDF worksheet with all of these slang expressions, sample sentences and ideas. You can answer
Vanessa's challenge question at the bottom of the worksheet so that you never forget what you've
learned. If you want to continue learning real English with me and join a community of thousands
of motivated English learners from around the world, I invite you to join me in The Fearless
Fluency Club. You'll have access to a community of passionate English learners from around the world
who practice speaking together to grow their confidence and their English skills. Course
member, Tatiana said, "I was afraid to speak with other course members because of my low level of
English, but everyone is very friendly kind and patient with me. Now, I like these meetings."
This is a beautiful transformation, going from feeling afraid and worried to enjoying speaking
English and connecting with some wonderful friends around the world. A lot of members speak together
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Now, I have a question for you. I want you to think about travel, something beautiful that
I know a lot of you enjoy. What is something that comes in handy when you travel? Is it a suitcase?
Is it a map? Is it a smartphone? What is something that comes in handy when you travel? Maybe it's a
good level of English. Let me know in the comments and thank you so much for learning English with
me. I will see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next
step is to download the free PDF worksheet for this lesson. With this free PDF, you will master
today's lesson and never forget what you have learned. You can be a confident English speaker.
Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.