10 Expressions Anglaises à savoir!

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Hello and welcome back to English with Kathryn!

Today I've got a great video for you. Aujourd'hui j'ai une video géniale. 10 expressions anglaises pour booster votre anglais. Mais cette video va être en anglais. This video is going to be in English.

Mais bien sur il y a des sous titres en français si vous en avez besoin.

1. Okay let's get straight into our first expression. It's "if anything"

He's definitely not like his mother if anything he's more like his

father.

So this is used to express your opinion.

It's like a contrast to what you previously said and it's normally used in the second phrase either before the second phrase or just after the second phrase and it's normally used to suggest that the second part of the sentence is in contrast or is opposite to the first part of the sentence. No i don't think they should relax the Covid rules they should be stricter if anything.

We have too little food for the party people are going to starve!

Relax will you if anything we have too much food we're going to have plenty left over.

And you can also use in fact instead of if anything here because in fact is often used to introduce a contrasting statement.

1. Okay the second expression is "how are you holding up"

It's a great question to ask someone who's been through the mill. Okay I've just

introduced another expression in my explanation of that expression - to go through the mill

if someone is going through the mill or has gone through the mill it means that they're

going through a tough time a difficult time, a hard situation. So if someone is going through

a hard situation you would say to them - How are you holding up?

You know it could be if someone has died if someone has lost their job if someone has is going through a breakup. All of these things you can say How are you holding up?

Paul told me the bad news about your cancer diagnosis how are you holding up?

You can also use "How are you doing?" or "How

are you?" but the tone has to be just right. How are you doing? How are you?

1. 3rd expression "water off a duck's back"

They can criticize me all they want it's just like water off a duck's back to me.

So this means that negativity,negative comments, criticisms or insults do

not affect you they just slip off you like as if it was water off a duck's back.

Really what it means is they don't affect you they don't get you down they don't bring you down

the negativity doesn't affect you. We can also use this expression on its own and it's actually

quite powerful just on its own. For example,

How did you deal with all that criticism about the clothes you were wearing?

Water off a duck's back.

1. The 4th expression "half hoping" when you want something but you're not really sure

you want it or you want something but you're nearly afraid it's going to happen or you

don't know what to do when it happens. Let me give you some examples to make it a bit clearer.

I'm half hoping he won't ask me out because i've got nothing to wear.

I was half hoping it would rain today so I would have an excuse not to go running!

I was half hoping trump's farewell speech would have no lies in it whatsoever just to see how the media would react!

1. Expression number five, "fair share of something"

He's had his fair share of problems lately

Fair share means a lot or more than enough

The wallabies rugby team have had their fair share of off-field controversies in recent years

You can also say “more than your fair share" or “more than their fair share” For example

Brad pitt and Jennifer aniston have had more than their fair share of media attention since their breakup in 2005.

Now you will see fair share used in a more literal way like

Google needs to pay their fair share of tax.

This is much more literal in that they need to pay the correct amount or the just amount of tax - it's different to the meaning i expressed in the previous two examples.

Expression number six "different kettle of fish" -

She can stay for a few days but a few months now that's a different kettle of fish by saying different kettle of fish.

It means it's something very different to what you were talking about.

Playing for Manchester United is just a completely different kettle of fish than playing for Shamrock rovers.

Now don't ask me where this expression originated from but I know it's from a long time ago i think from the 1800s so if it's been around this long then maybe it's an expression you should have in your repertoire!

7. Expression number seven dying to do something…

"Have you been snowshoeing yet?

No but I'm dying to do it, I hear it's awesome!"

To be dying to do something is to really want something to happen.

"I'm dying to see that new netflix show everyone is talking about!"

Now dying obviously is a bit of an exaggeration but we love to use hyperbole in English. For

example "I'm starving" which means I'm going to die if I don't get anything to eat or "I'm

parched" which means I'm going to die if I don't have anything to drink, or "this bag weighs a ton" - does it really weigh a ton? And another example of dying is you can say it if you

have a bad hangover or that if you have a bad cold or something like that you could

say oh i'm dying but really you're not. Normally it's not a matter of life and death!

8. Expression number eight "to come out of left field"

I was walking in the park when out of left field this weirdo started shouting abuse at me for no reason i got out of there very fast.

This is an American expression which says whatever happened was surprising or unexpected. You can also use out of the blue or out of nowhere in place of "out of left field"..." so so you won

an oscar how does that feel oh well you know i mean i wasn't expecting it it's a bit out

of left field".

9. Expression number nine "out of curiosity"

Just out of curiosity I decided to do some research to trace all the origins of these strange english expressions

So this expression is exactly what it means it means that you are interested or curious about something we often use it when asking questions particularly questions that kind of come out of nowhere

or out of left field :)

Just out of curiosity what kind of music do you like to listen to?"

Out of curiosity why do you always sit at the very front of the cinema?"

10. Final expression, expression number 10 pain in the ass or pain in the bum…

Did you meet our new boss yeah it looks like he's gonna be a pain in the ass he's already got me working overtime

A pain in the ass is someone or something that is very annoying. Okay ass as you know refers

to our derriere part of our body it's a little vulgar and so you can make it a little less

vulgar you can tone it down by saying "a pain in the bum".

My car is being a real pain in the ass at the moment first the engine started leaking and then my gearbox broke.

Thank you so much guys for watching this video. Don't forget to look at my other videos for some more expressions and vocabulary to boost your english and if you really liked this video click a like and subscribe for more videos to come thanks and see you soon!

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