AEP 2 – Advanced English Expressions

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Alright, hello and welcome to the Phrase Builder lesson!

I’m excited to see you again, and you, and, as you can see behind me, I’ve got a lovely new backdrop.

I’m actually at a friend of mine’s house right now.

But, enough about that.

Alright, the first phrase we’ll go over is “two for the price of one.”

You will see this regularly, almost every day, if you go shopping somewhere in, uh, an English speaking country, like America.

“Two for the price of one.”

Or, you could have three for the price of one.

Or, four for the price of one.

So, if you buy two things of yogurt,

it’s, kind of, like, buy one, get one free.

Buy one, get one free.

There are lots of ways to say this same thing,

but the, uh, kind of, joke that I make at the beginning of the conversation lesson is:

two for the price of one.

Now, listen carefully to how it blends:

two fir the pri su one

two fir the pri su one

The “of” becomes more of “uh.”

two fir the pri su one

two fir the pri su one

Next up is “four-letter words.”

four-letter words

Now, four-letter words, the

uh, what we usually describe as a four-letter words is a curse word, like “damn,” “shit,” “fuck.”

But, in front of children, or other people (we call this polite company).

In front of polite company, you don’t want to say “shit,” “fuck,” “damn,” you know, all of these other words.

They all happen to have four letters,

so we call them four-letter words.

So, uh, you can just use it, uh, the pronunciation is quite simple:

four-letter words

four led er words

four led er words

Next up, “on cue.”

on cue

When you cue someone, that’s when you tell them to begin doing something.

Let’s say I am making a movie.

So, yesterday I was making a movie and on cue, the actor has say, “How are you doing today?”

So, I’d give him a cue,

and he says, “How are you doing today?”

This is to do something “on cue.”

When we talk about children, just like we were talking about kids in the conversation lesson,

we were trying to make, uh, Dustin’s son say things.

I would say, “Say ‘What’s your name.

How are you?

Pink!

Pig!

Purple.”

Just getting him to say things.

And with kids, kids, especially very, very small kids,

they do things when they want to do them.

So, even if you try to make them do something on cue, usually they will not.

So, I say, “Say Hello!”

and he just looks at me.

He doesn’t want to do it one cue.

on cue.

Next, “get to know.”

get to know

To get to know something is another way of saying “become familiar,” or to,

uh, kind of, get closer, or have a better relationship with someone.

Yesterday, uh, I, uh, met some people at a park.

I was just walking around and I saw some people,

uh, and I was asking what are they doing?

And by asking, kind of, small questions, I was getting to know them.

I was learning about them.

get to know

get to know

or, getting to know

getting to know

Again, we have the “TT” sound: geT To know,

and it becomes ge-to know

ge-to know

ge-to know

It’s still, kind of a “T” sound, but if you have the,

uh, “getting,” it becomes more of a “D.”

ged ding to know

ged ding to know

There’s actually a famous song that’s like “Getting to know you…”

I don’t remember how it goes, exactly, but I’m sure you can find it on YouTube.

Next, “one way or the other.”

one way or the other

In this sentence, uh, or this phrase, you will do something in this way or a different way.

Now, you often see this in movies.

Almost every year there is some movie, and there is a,

uh, good person, or a bad person in the movie

that says, “One way or the other, we will figure this out.”

“One way or the other, we will stop him!”

It’s all basically the same thing.

So, it just means, either we will do something one way,

or we will do something another.

But, you don’t have to say exactly what you’re doing.

It just means you WILL figure out some way to do it.

So, one way or the other, you will figure out a way to get fluent.

One way or the other.

Either you will read books, or you will listen to videos, or watch movies, or do many other things like that,

but you will get fluent.

Next, “grease the wheels.”

grease the wheels

Now, this is one of my favorite phrases, uh, and Dustin was using this to describe his relationship with his wife’s parents.

To “grease the wheels,” it could be many different things that you do.

You could be giving money,

uh, you could be trying to be nice, or extra helpful to people,

but, uh, a regular wheel, like, uh, a physical wheel on your tire, or, like a bicycle, or a car,

you have to put grease – a lubricant – to make it run smoothly.

So, sometimes the wheels will get dry if they don’t have any oil.

The oil is the grease, or the lubricant that makes it run smoothly.

So, for social relationships,

uh, we talk about greasing the wheels of things in order to make them run more smoothly.

So, it’s exactly the same idea,

uh, but you could be giving money. Like, let’s say, uh, I want to open up a company here in Japan,

uh, and I talk to the government officials, and it’s taking a really long time, so the wheels are not moving very slowly.

So, I talk to one of the guys there and I say, “Hey, I’ll give you

some money, uh, if you, you know, maybe, uh, if you help us move this along a little bit faster.”

So, I am greasing the wheels a little bit.

To “grease the wheels.”

The next expression is, “I can’t say ‘Thank you’ enough.”

I can’t say “Thank you” enough.

This is an excellent phrase that you can use when you’re speaking with people in regular conversations, or, especially at work.

If somebody does something for you, or somebody works really hard, and is helpful, um, you can say, “I can’t say ‘Thank you’ enough.”

A, kind of, typical, um, way of expressing yourself, you can just say, “Thank you!” to someone.

Uh, “Thank you” is, kind of, at this level here.

There’s, uh, “Thanks!”

“Thank you!”

“Thank you very much!”

and “I can’t say ‘Thank you’ enough!”

Now, you can use this for many different words.

I can’t, um, I can’t be helpful enough.

I can’t, uh, recommend this enough.

So, maybe if you are, uh, like, a waiter at a restaurant.

I go to, uh, a restaurant and the waiter says to me,

uh, “What are you interested in?” and I ask, “Uh, well, what are the specials?”

or “What do you recommend?”

And he says, “Ah! I can’t recommend this enough!”

It just means “I REALLY recommend something.”

Next, “get off on the right foot.”

get off on the right foot

To “get off on the right foot” means to begin a relationship with someone in the right way.

You’ll really hear this a lot, um, for,

uh, businesses, especially if you are on sales, and you are going and meeting new people at different companies.

You want to begin a relationship in the right way,

and this is an expression for that:

to “get off on the right foot.”

It just means to begin a relationship in the right way.

Yesterday, uh, I was actually meeting somebody for lunch,

uh, and it was a person I’d never met before, but I was introduced to them by another friend of mine.

Uh, and I really wanted to get off on the right foot with them.

So, I, uh, I prepared, uh, like, a little speech, and I had to, kinda, practice it a little bit.

Uh, so, to get off on the right foot, I was able to introduce mywe, introduce myself well,

uh, and begin having a relationship with them in a good way.

So, be sure to get off on the right foot.

Listen carefully to how the pronunciation changes as you blend it together,

and remember to practice everything as one smooth unit the way I do.

ge daw fon the right foot

ge daw fon the right foot

ge daw fon the right foot

ge daw fon the right foot

ge daw fon the right foot

Next, and this is one of my favorites.

I know I always say I have a lot of favorite expression that I use, but this one in particular, “I stand corrected.”

I stand corrected

I stand corrected

It just means that I accept that I have been corrected about something.

So, let’s say I am having an argument with a friend of mine

and he says, “Frogs are green.”

And I say, “No, no, no, no!

Frogs are pink!

Everybody knows frogs are pink!”

And he says, “No, no, no! There are NO pink frogs.

There are no pink frogs.”

And, so, he and I are arguing.

He says frogs are green, or other colors, and I say frogs are pink.

And, maybe there are no pink frogs, I don’t know.

But, uh, so we go search online because we want to find out the answer.

So, he thinks he is correct, and I think I am correct.

So, we go search online: “Are there any pink frogs?”

And, actually, there ARE some pink frogs!

If you didn’t know, there are!

So, there are some pink frogs,

uh, and, so, my friend, uh, he’s looking online and he says, “Wow! I stand corrected.”

It just means, “I admit I was wrong about something like that.”

So, this is a great way, if you’re in an argument, or a discussion with something,

uh, it’s a great way to be humble.

So, you don’t have to keep fighting if you really want the truth of something, that’s the most important thing.

Next, “fatherly advice.”

fatherly advice

You’ll get something like this from your mother also, but, really,

fatherly advice is the big, kind of, cultural thing

where we’re getting advice and information from our dad about “you should do this, or you shouldn’t do that.”

So, for many years as I was growing up, and even now,

my father will give me some advice about something.

I’ll say, “Dad, uh, how do you do this?”

Or “What should I do for, for business, or for relationships, or other things?”

And he will give me fatherly advice.

You can call it just regular advice, but, “fatherly advice” is, kind of, a very,

uh, specific type of advice where a son, uh, or a daughter, but usually a son receives information from his father about something.

So, “fatherly advice.”

So, in the conversation, I was talking with Dustin and saying,

“Can you, uh, give me some fatherly advice, or give some fatherly advice to your son?”

So, if you are a father, or you are getting information from your father,

uh, or you are asking, uh, specifically for, maybe, some help from somebody else that’s an English speaker,

you can say, “Would you give me some fatherly advice about something?”

The last one is, “take the initiative.”

take the initiative

To take the initiative means you need to be the one to start something, or you need to be the leader.

So, right now, I am taking the initiative and teaching you something.

Or, let’s say you have a group of people, uh, it’s, maybe, you’ve seen this before in movies.

You have, maybe, a group of, uh, young men and young woman, uh, young women,

and they are kind of nervous about dancing with each other at a party.

But one young man, he takes the initiative and walks over and tries to find one to dance with.

So, to “take the initiative” means to something, you become the leader.

You take the challenge and you do something first.

So, take the initiative!

When you have an opportunity to speak, or use your English at work,

or wherever, wherever else you are, take the initiative.

Don’t wait!

Don’t sit back!

Don’t relax!

Take the initiative and go out and get what you want.

The opportunities are usually there, but you have to take the initiative.

take the initiative

take the initiative

i ni shi a tive

i ni shi a tive

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson.

Listen carefully.

Go back and review these many, many times.

Practice using them in you conversations at work,

uh, in your personal life, in your writing online.

And then listen carefully for them as they appear, as they come up in the conversation lesson in the Master Class video.

Have an excellent day and I will see you next time!

Bye bye!