What are some of your goals in English? I'm guessing for most of you it's to sound a little
bit more confident, to be able to respond quickly, confidently when you're chatting with particularly
a native speaker it's knowing what to say when you need to say it and ultimately you want to
feel like you are in control of the conversation that you can actually respond in a way that shows
you do know the language that you have a great grasp of the English language this
really is a little bit more of a fun lesson do be careful with some of these expressions because
with the wrong intonation or maybe if it's the right intonation you'll sound rather sarcastic and
well borderline rude so be careful i'll try and give some examples of where you would say it in a
funny witty conversational way and sometimes when you might use it for a real purpose when someone
is being a bit of an idiot or being rude to you so 10 fun expressions use them carefully use them
wisely and hopefully your conversation will be a little bit wittier meaning you'll be adding banter
humor to the conversation and you will definitely sound more native
now before i share these 10 smart sassy expressions with you
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lessons waiting there just for you so let's get started with one that can sound rather rude but
it's kind of fun as well if someone is stating the obvious they're saying something telling
you something that really of course you know and sometimes it can sound a little bit condescending
patronizing to be telling you something you could say for example if someone said to you
eating too much cake you know you're going to put on a bit of weight you could respond by saying
really sherlock or indeed you could use the slightly stronger version of this and
i am going to swear now so turn away or put your fingers in your ears if you don't want to hear it
no sherlock no sherlock okay i'm not going to say that word again just twice is enough
but essentially that is alliteration there so obviously the sh for brother and for sherlock
kind of works quite nicely together but the more polite version would be really sherlock now if
you haven't guessed already this obviously comes from sherlock holmes yes the fictional detective
very famous lots of different versions of it on netflix and different television programs and
films but essentially the very famous fictional british detective so you're essentially saying
that someone is well really kind of stupid it's insulting them by saying they're sherlock because
you're being sarcastic yes very sarcastic you don't actually think they're a smart detective
you think they're stating something that's obvious and that really is pointless telling anybody about
now if you want to learn english you really should be studying harder yeah no sherlock
now number two could be used in the wrong way with the wrong person if you're not careful
is the pope catholic now obviously if you are using this expression with someone that is perhaps
more religious they may find this insulting they may think it's blaspheming blasphemous um
so be careful but it can just be funny it doesn't have to be rude so if someone asks you a question
like leila do you like chocolate i could respond by saying is the pope catholic meaning yes
obviously of course i like chocolate so it is when you are responding in a way that is kind of saying
yes that's a silly thing to ask me of course the answer is yes the pope is definitely catholic and
so you are saying my answer is definitely yes for example if i were to say to you
do you enjoy our lessons guys is the pope catholic of course you do that's a silly thing to ask you
number three rather insulting so be careful how you use this but again if it's a friend if it's
someone that you are quite familiar with then this could be a nice funny expression to use don't give
up your day job don't give up yeah hear how i'm saying it your day job don't give up your day job
essentially whatever that person has done they've done it badly and basically they shouldn't do this
thing as a career for example if your boyfriend cooks you a lovely lovely meal and really it's
terrible and it tastes really bad you might go sweetie that was a lovely attempt but you know
don't give up your day job don't think that what you're doing is particularly good you're not good
at it so be careful again how you use it um if for example you were to say to me and say bro you
know you're an english teacher really hmm don't give up your day job you're basically insulting
us and saying we are crap at what we do um be careful it's usually when someone is i don't know
playing a game of football but they're not a professional football player you might say don't
give up your day job if they didn't score any goals so it's an insult to what someone has done
badly and you're saying they shouldn't choose it as a career so again it's sarcastic but it's a
great expression and one that you can definitely use regularly number four using a comparison to
insult someone these are quite rude actually uh if stupid could fly you would be a jet so clearly
a jet is a very big plane that definitely flies and you're saying someone is really really stupid
again intonation is key here it is so important if you don't want to sound rude but you just want to
sound like you're being funny witty you could say if stupid could fly you'd be a jet but if you say
if stupid could fly you would be a jet then you can see there's a big difference in your attitude
your intonation with that expression one the first that i gave you the example is kind of insulting
someone but in a joking way you're saying that being a bit silly the second that i gave you the
example is just saying someone is plain stupid and obviously you don't want to be doing that in
the wrong situation with the wrong person number five very sarcastic when something you think isn't
particularly important but perhaps your friend your family member might be behaving in such
a way that it's really important oh sally and bob got back together again ooh alert the media
alert the media so obviously if you're telling the media you're saying it's a big news story
but this is sarcastic it's not if you've got friends that are always on again off again
breaking up getting back together then it gets a bit boring a bit tedious and saying oh alert the
media it's like what's the big deal they're always breaking up they're always getting
back together again so a great example of a nice simple expression that we commonly use in english
when we are being sarcastic when we think the news we've been told is not really big news
at all number six on the same theme when used in a sarcastic way you're essentially saying
is this really important i'm not sure you really need to tell me i'm not sure i care to be honest
what else is new what else is new now in fact this can be used in quite normal conversations so
what else is new what have you been doing genuine sincere sarcastic sarcasm
what else is new sarah turned up late for work today what else is new she's always late for work
so again you're saying this is something that really isn't news to me
it's something that i expected to hear and to be honest i don't care very much what else is new
number seven this is my favorite and for sure i use this regularly if brains were dynamite
now this is actually part of a conditional sentence in fact the full expression would
probably be if brains were dynamite you'd blow yourself up so if your brains were dynamite
now i think all of you are probably scratching your head if anyone's gotten a similar expression
or if you have this expression in your language do let me know i'm very curious as to whether it's
specifically a weird english expression but essentially you're calling someone stupid if
brains were dynamite you would blow yourself up we don't usually use the second part of the
conditional just the first clearly your brains are not dynamite so it's very hypothetical second
conditional but you're calling someone stupid sometimes i might even just put it in an emoji
with a brain emoji and a dynamite the tnt emoji like this and basically you're saying someone is
stupid whether it's the person you're talking to or talking about more likely then yeah it's just
a really fun creative it's actually idiomatic obviously expression so for example i might say
to my husband if he's doing something particularly stupid like i mean he's not stupid he's quite
clever most of the time um for example if he bought nappies for our baby that were too small i
would be like if brains were dynamite you know you are a bit stupid why did you buy a smaller size
i think all my examples are going to be baby related these days that's all on the brain is just
baby baby baby stuff but you get the idea think of someone that has done or said something stupid and
write it an example tell me about what they did or said and then add dot dot if brains were dynamite
okay have you got a partner uh maybe a son or daughter who wakes up and they're really grumpy
or they just generally can be in quite a grumpy temperamental mood in a bad mood you could say
someone woke up the wrong side of the bed today someone woke up the wrong side of the bed today
and essentially you're saying there is no right or wrong side really is that but you're saying
well if there is a wrong side they woke up on it and that's why they're in a bad mood i can use
my husband for this example because he frequently wakes up on the wrong side of the bed um in fact
maybe we should swap sides now i'm joking um but yes if someone is quite temperamental and grumpy
like me when i'm hungry perhaps or if i haven't had enough chocolate that day you could say oh
leila i think she's woken up on the wrong side of the bed today so she's in a bad mood again the way
you say this to someone you don't want to irritate them annoy them any further than you need to but
sometimes it's a nice way to say come on you don't need to have this attitude come on did you wake up
on the wrong side of the bed today get it together get your act together make sure that you kind of
come out of this bad mood so it can be quite functional and useful to use number nine funny
sarcastic and if you've got a friend or a family member that maybe tells you what to do too often
or they're generally just a little bit nosy they're interested in your business all the time
in what's going on in your life and you don't want them to be you could say i'm returning your nose i
found it in my business i'm returning your nose i found it in my business you could always play with
some of these expressions like this one you could say is this your nose i found it in my business
so again it's the sarcasm and we would use it in a way as to say look i really appreciate
your input but that's enough i don't need you telling me what to do or interfering
anymore again having that confidence that assertiveness to basically tell people to shut up
okay this is a great one and very much connected to well technology things that are going on at the
moment so anyone that regularly uses a computer which is most of us maybe not my grandmother will
understand this expression when you are so busy your brain is a bit kind of frazzled it's tired
you've been doing so many things you could say my brain has too many tabs open my brain has too
many tabs open okay so basically you're managing so many different things this is kind of like
having lots of balls up in the air juggling lots of balls up in the air that's a common expression
to say we've got so much going on we're trying to do 101 different things another expression that
has the same meaning to do 101 things um but yeah you're just like sorry look i meant to call you
my brain has just got too many tabs open at the moment so you're basically not able to focus on
one specific thing you're doing lots of different things because you have to because you're busy and
there we have it 10 witty fun smart sarcastic expressions that i hope you'll be able to use
carefully in conversation with people try using some of these expressions with good friends
and just explain you're using some of these expressions and testing them out if they think
you've sounded too rude too offensive then get them to tell you how to kind of adapt
your intonation remember intonation is key with most of these expressions if you want to sound
really harsh really strong really rude then having that attitude that intonation behind it
will be effective if on the other hand you want to be funny witty and just to have a little bit
of fun banter then use a more jolly friendly intonation and there we have it guys i hope that
you enjoyed those expressions do comment below and add one of your own if you can think of one
and that's it i'm gonna go now i really do feel like my brain has got too many tabs open