English Idiomatic Expression: “Couldn’t Put My Finger On It”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD5vuw0kXKU Hello my fellow foreign English speaker! Today’s English idiomatic expression is a real idiom which means you actually have to know what it means or else you won’t know how to use it and you’ll have a hard time understanding what another English speaker means when they say things like “Yes, there’s something weird about the place but I can’t really put my finger on it…” Well… It’s not that it would be impossible to infer the meaning of this expression out of the context alone – in fact, I’ve always been encouraging you guys to acquire new vocabulary and phraseology contextually. It’s just that this particular expression is figurative speech and you have to imagine performing the actual activity – putting your finger onto something – in order to fully understand why this phrase is used. (more…)
Just a Handful of English Phrases Will Enable You to Speak so Much More Fluently (Article #2)!
English Idiomatic Expression: “To be more specific”
English Idiomatic Expression: “You better make sure to”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-18QQiPQtI There are many ways to let the other person know that you want them to follow a certain course of action: You have to… You should… You must… Today’s English idiomatic expression “You better make sure to” carries pretty much the same meaning and is also used when you want the other person to do something and you also want to stress the fact that if they don’t do as suggested, there will be consequences. This expression actually contains a hidden warning message in it – “You better make sure to (or else…)”, so you’d most likely use this phrase when speaking with someone who won’t mind to be spoken to in a slightly condescending tone – your child or your subordinate at work, for example. (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “There’s one thing I can say for sure”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRdQGseq6Fc Using the expression “There’s one thing I can say for sure” is a very handy and convenient way of letting your conversation partner know that you’re about to say something they don’t have a reason to disbelieve. There’s a couple of similar expressions you can use to convey pretty much the same message: There’s no doubt about… I know for a fact that… If you learn this particular expression, however – “There’s one thing I can say for sure” – you’ll have another English phrase added onto your active English vocabulary and you’ll have more phrases to choose from! (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “For a good while”
English Idiomatic Expression: “Due to the risks involved”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xhog6__z44 There are plenty of activities that can result in a serious bodily harm if proper care and precaution isn’t observed – starting from extreme sports and ending with jobs where you are required to operate machinery with sharp and moving parts. Now, can you tell me what all those activities have in common? You have to seriously consider getting involved in them DUE TO THE RISKS INVOLVED! You have to weigh all the pros and cons (positives and negatives) of the activity in question so that you can make a well informed decision on whether to go in for base-jumping, car racing, rock-climbing or free running or stay safe and enjoy a more relaxed and safer lifestyle. (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “I wouldn’t be wrong in saying that…”
English Idiomatic Expression: “It’s Not to Be Taken Lightly”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP4yAPs3vkA Hello my dear followers! I hope you’ve been putting my advice to good use and you’ve been incorporating various English idiomatic expressions into your daily English conversations! So, how’s it been? Have you been taking action? Well, try being totally honest with yourself and admit if you’ve been a bit lazy – recognition is the first step on the road to recovery - that’s what they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, if I’m not mistaken … Of course, addiction such as alcoholism is not to be taken lightly, and I’m not trying to make a fun of it. All I’m trying to do here is draw parallels between being addicted to a substance and being addicted to procrastination which is sometimes JUST AS harmful to our development as substance abuse :!: (more…)
Funny English Phrases: Driving Related Idioms
English Idiomatic Expressions: “Correct Me if I’m Wrong” & “If I’m not Mistaken”
English Idiomatic Expression: “It Goes Without Saying”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYrY39G9Gag Today’s idiomatic expression is ‘it goes without saying’, and here’s a typical way of using this phrase: It goes without saying that you can function so much more effectively in an English speaking society if you use various idiomatic expressions in your daily conversations! Basically you can use this phrase whenever you want to EMPHASIZE the fact that you’re going to mention something you consider a known fact, something that cannot be disputed. If you’ve been following my online activities for a while, you’ll know that I feel strongly about English idiomatic expressions, collocations, other informal means of expression and their importance when it comes to developing a foreigner’s ability to speak fluently. That’s why ‘it goes without saying’ is the ideal phrase to use whenever I’m touching upon the subject of English fluency development. Application of this phrase isn’t limited to a person’s personal beliefs and convictions however; you can also use it pretty much in all situations when you mention something that is a proven fact. (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “Come in Handy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoOdmAEccVQ Hello everybody! This is the first blog post in this blog called EasyIdioms.com, and it’s going to be run by me - Robby Kukurs from EnglishHarmony.com! :grin: I made the decision to start a new blog dedicated to the English Idiomatic Expressions exclusively since my English Harmony blog started getting a bit cluttered up with all sorts of blog posts and videos. I had to choose between ditching the idiomatic expression videos altogether or finding a new platform to feature them, and it goes without saying I went for the latter. After all, judging by my visitors’ comments, all these videos come in handy for those foreign English speakers out there who are working on their fluency, and I also have to admit that I’m kind of used to creating these videos on a regular basis. (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “To be honest with you”
English Idiomatic Expression: “It goes to show”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EHDvmpY7Vg Today’s English phrase “It goes to show” provides a very handy way of drawing a conclusion during a conversation; basically it links the two parts of your statement together – the first part where you’re explaining the nature of the problem, and the second part where you’re revealing the subsequent conclusion. This phrase can take many forms – depending on context: “It goes to show” “It just goes to show” “It simply goes to show” “Which goes to show” (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “It’s been dealt with”
English Idiomatic Expression: “There’s no doubt about that”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9TNHKbkedg If you want to speak in English without much thinking and planning your speech in your head before actually speaking out loud, you should definitely look into learning various idiomatic expressions. I’m not saying that purposeful acquisition of these expressions is going to make ALL the difference between your ability to speak fluently and not being able to speak at all. Sure enough, you can speak the very same way I would have been speaking a few years ago: by sticking individual words together; thinking in my native language & translating in my mind; constantly trying to think of the right words to say. If you learn idiomatic expressions, on the other hand, your brain gets wired with naturally occurring speech patterns, and it enables you to speak without much thinking, it happens automatically and instinctively. So, starting from today – if you haven’t already been doing it – make sure to learn at least one or two idiomatic expressions a day, and you’ll improve your spoken English much faster than you ever thought possible, there’s no doubt about that! (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “If you’re anything serious about”
English Idiomatic Expression & Phrasal Verb: “Come up With”
English Idiomatic Expression: “Bear in mind”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANLgimJ8j6k Another day – another English idiomatic expression from Robby! Today’s phrase is used in just about any situation whenever someone tells you something important and they want you to pay particular attention to a specific detail. “Please, bear in mind that…” is the typical way you’ll be told that you shouldn't forget what follows this phrase, and if you want to find out more specific examples of this phrase in action – please watch the video above! Sample sentences I’m coming up with are sometimes funny because I’m always improvising in these videos, and I think it’s worth watching the above video even for that reason alone. Not that I consider myself being some sort of a comedian or anything, it’s just that I sometimes laugh at myself while editing my own videos and I would imagine I’m not the only one feeling that way! Chat soon, Robby ;-)
English Idiomatic Expression (Conditional Sentence Type 3) – Had I (p. participle), I would have (p. participle)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KajCntRAkcE Probably your mind started racing upon seeing today’s English idiomatic expression headline. Conditional Sentence Type 3. Advanced grammar. “What is wrong with you Robby, why are you giving me this confusing advanced English grammar stuff, aren’t you the one who keeps telling me all the time – forget about grammar, focus on speaking instead?!” Don’t worry my dear fellow foreign English speaker! ;-) I’m not going to start stuffing all these fancy grammar terms like Past Participle and Conditional Type II into your head. You must have been exposed to all that theoretical knowledge plenty of times throughout the years spent on studying English grammar, and the simple fact is that if you keep focusing on the grammar aspect of it, you will actually find it hard to use such and similar grammar constructs in real life. The way I see it is much simpler. (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “In question”
English Idiomatic Expression: “It slipped my mind”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xRidfH-VfY Hello guys and gals, I’m back with another English idiomatic expression video, and this time around it is… Hold on, I knew what it was going to be, but it just suddenly slipped my mind! He-he, I’m just messing with you guys! “It slipped my mind” IS the idiomatic expression I’m looking at in today’s video – but there’s more to this video than just that! ;-) If you’ve been watching my previous videos you’ll know that I’m always talking about some completely random stuff; it’s just that I’m always getting carried away with recording these videos and I just can’t stop my train of thought! (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “Over the years”
English idiomatic expression: “Come to think of it”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsSK9cW_e54 It’s been a few days now since I published my latest English idiomatic expression video, so I’d better not wait any longer because I know how eager you guys are to watch my videos and see what new English phrase I’ve prepared for you! ;-) This time around it’s the following: “Come to think of it” – and you can use it whenever you’re reminded of something during a conversation, and then you want to share that memory with your conversation partner. Also, you don’t necessarily need to use this phrase DURING a conversation. (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “Easier said than done”
English Idiomatic Expression: “In This Day and Age”
Just a Handful of English Phrases Will Enable You to Speak so Much More Fluently!
This short article is a hard proof that English phrases really help structuring our speech! Here’s the thing guys – when it comes to your ability to speak fluently, you may want to focus on building your phraseology (phrases) instead of vocabulary (individual words)! Don’t get me wrong - it’s not that I’m having something against vocabulary as such, it’s just that phraseology acquisition is way more effective! It mightn’t have crossed your mind before, but at the end of the day we all use pretty much the same English expressions and phrases all the time! It’s only when you analyze English around you that you realize that such and similar phrases make up a large part of people’s daily conversations. Having said this, I don’t deny the importance of specific vocabulary – nothing could be further from the truth! If you don’t know how this or that particular thing or abstract concept is called, it’s kind of hard to get your message across to your chat partner because you simply wouldn’t be able to describe simple concepts in the first place. Sometimes you would even run the risk of sending the wrong message to the other person, and that’s when successful communication gets slightly problematic, to say the least. When your basic vocabulary is decent, however, you can drastically improve your English fluency within a matter of weeks by learning common English phrases in order to get your speech going, you know what I mean? Even if you only learn phrases from this short article by clicking on the links, watching the respective videos, and then doing some self-practice, your spoken English will be much better down the line, there’s no doubt about that! Chat soon, Robby ;-)
English Idiomatic Expression: “Run the Risk of…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6URoB2eVnY If you’ve been ignoring the power of English idiomatic expressions, you’re running the risk of not being able to express yourself in a native-like way! Today’s expression is “to run the risk of”, and I’m sure you noticed that I used this phrase in the previous sentence, didn’t you? ;-) When you learn this idiomatic expression, don’t try to analyze it too much, don’t try to make mental notes of this phrase being yet another one of those featuring the verb ‘to run’ (similar to “to run off” or “to run out of something”) and definitely don’t try to put all those idiomatic expressions containing the verb ‘to run’ under the same category! If you’re anything serious about your English fluency, you must look at every new phrase and expression individually, so this one – “to run the risk of” – is ONLY EVER to associate with words that it would go with in a natural conversation: (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “Having Said This”
English Idiomatic Expression: “To Cross One’s Mind”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEyblFfdt5U I got up today and it crossed my mind that I hadn’t made any English idiomatic expression videos lately! So, I edited this one and as you can see it’s about the expression I used in the previous sentence – “To cross one’s mind”. This idiomatic expression is just another way of saying that you’ve just got an idea, that you’ve just thought of something. “What’s the difference then?” – you may ask. “Don’t ask unnecessary questions; just accept English as it is!” – is my answer (read more about it HERE). I strongly believe that there’s no need to try to figure out what EXACTLY is the difference between this or that particular English expression. I would say that “It just crossed my mind” and “I just thought of something” is almost the same, and I don’t need to delve deeper into the intricacies of the English language for everyday conversation purposes. (more…)