Today, I am going to teach you some very American expressions that's coming up.
What's up everyone? Welcome to interactive English,
which is the place you want to be to practice and improve your English skills.
And the way we're going to do that today is I am going to teach you some
expressions that are very common in the US and these expressions may be used in
other English speaking countries as well,
but some of them are very specific to the US and as we go through them,
I will let you know which ones those are.
So let's begin with our first expression.
And that is it's, it's one of my favorite expressions. It's very easy.
It's just one word. And that is whatever. Now, as a pronoun,
we can use this word to mean well,
a lack of restriction or limitations.
And people might say something like, well, you can do whatever you want.
You can say whatever you want in those comments down below,
you can write whatever you want.
No, I mean you're in good shape and you can eat whatever you want.
Tell you what. You play whatever you want.
But we can also use this word as an informal exclamation to show a reluctance to
continue talking or to, to continue having a discussion.
And it kind of just shows a bit of indifference. Like,
you know, I don't care. It doesn't matter to me.
So when I think about the word being used like this,
I think about people having an emotional conversation,
maybe even an argument and one person just doesn't want to talk about it
anymore. They may just say, you know what, whatever I'm done talking, whatever,
Believe what would you want to believe? I don't even care. Whatever.
You want to mount it on the left or the right or the middle?
The next expression is one that I use a lot.
I like using this expression and it is informal and it's just my bad.
And when somebody says my bad,
they are acknowledging that that they made a mistake,
they did something wrong and it's not really a really,
really horrible mistake because then I think you want to be a little more
apologetic. But if it's just something small and you're know, oh, okay,
I did something wrong. My bad.
Often I think it's used quite frequently in sports.
When you're having a competition and you play on a team and somebody makes a
mistake and they'll just say, oh, okay, my bad. You will see this in basketball,
soccer, football, and any team sport, somebody makes a mistake. They may,
they may point to themselves and say, you know, Oh yeah, my bad.
Then we have an expression which,
which is more of an idiom and that is to lose touch with someone and when you
lose touch with somebody, it means that you just,
you stop communicating with them. And I think common,
it happens especially over a long period of time that we,
but then we lose touch as the years go on and on and on and you just,
you're just not communicating with people.
I hope that we never lose touch and that you are constantly writing to me and
communicating with me and, and we always stay in touch,
which would be the opposite. That means you keep communicating.
There's an extra one there for you,
but if you don't want to stay in touch with me, whatever, I'm just kidding.
My bad. I, I really, I don't want to lose touch with all of you.
You know, after high school you just kind of lose touch
Then we have an expression, which is, is definitely very American.
It's part of the United States and that is to plead the fifth.
Now when somebody says, you know, Oh, I plead the fifth,
then they may say it informally and you might hear this on TV and movies,
but what it really means is that it's talking about the Fifth Amendment and in
the u s constitution, the Fifth Amendment means that you,
you don't have to talk about something because you don't want to incriminate
Let me explain that in case it doesn't make sense that say that you are witness
but you yourself also did something a bit wrong and they call you to testify
against this other person. They say, oh, can I,
I want you to tell us what happened,
but you don't want to talk about it because you also did something a little
wrong. You might say, you know, I plead the fifth.
I don't want to talk about this situation because basically I'm going to be
admitting to a crime as well that I committed, so I'm going to plead the fifth.
That's a little civics lesson for you, but this expression,
it can also be used in situations outside of that context said,
even if you're talking to your husband or wife about something and you,
you don't want to be completely honest about a situation because maybe you did
something wrong. You can say, ah, you know, I, I plead the fifth.
Could I plead the fifth? The fifth is just used to protect yourself.
I'm pleading the fifth. Just try to keep your secrets. I dare you.
Please tell me that you haven't planned anything big tonight.
On your birthday. Sorry, but I plead the fifth.
Then we have an expression which is commonly confused.
And that expression is, I couldn't care less. So if somebody says, you know, I,
I couldn't care less. It just means that the,
the amount of concern that they have about something could not be less.
This is the least thing that they could possibly be concerned about.
I couldn't care less. Now often,
I think this is used in kind of the heat of the moment when you're,
you're talking about uh, something and you want to tell this person, look,
I don't care. I couldn't care less, but people will confuse it and they say,
well, I could care less. And that means kind of, you know,
there are many other things that you could care less about and that's not what
you want to say. So keep that in mind. Don't confuse it with, I could care less.
I couldn't care less. That's the one you want. Stick with that.
You just want more money for yourself. Don't you? Couldn't care less.
I couldn't care less about the commendation.
Amy, thank you for sticking up for me. Oh, I honestly couldn't care less.
I guess it's just one word and that is like,
now I want to, I'm putting this in there just for your,
your comprehension. Not for you to go out and use it.
This is something that you might hear young teenagers use and they use it as a
meaningless interjection when they're having a conversation just during their,
their informal speech. It just may be riddled with like, like, like,
like life and people get into these bad habits and it just takes time to grow out of them.
So if you're watching a a TV show or movie that is about high school,
then you might hear it a bit more so it's more for your comprehension,
not for you to try and just go out and use and start using this.
It's just for you to be aware of it. So let me try to give you an example.
So I like wanted to go to the movies this weekend with my friend,
I can't because I have to do my homework and we can like hang out that night,
which meant I didn't do anything, which was like totally boring. Okay.
All right. That, that sounded ridiculous, especially hearing me say that.
But I'm going to say it again and now I'm just going to take out all of those
likes and you tell me if you think it makes more sense.
So I wanted to go to the movies this weekend with my friend,
but she said she can't because she had to do homework and we couldn't hang out
that night, which meant that I didn't do anything, which was very boring.
So as you can see, I think it's much easier to understand when we,
when we take those likes out. But again,
if you are listening to a teenager talk in the United States,
especially, I think if you're in places like California,
then you may hear this word used quite often in China on this deck.
Chandler let it slip that process in love with Rachel. He was like, oh my God,
The next expression is to give someone props.
And this is actually a bit of slang.
It may be more regional and it depends on your age that that you might say this
or maybe you might hear this expression,
but to give someone props means that you are recognizing them.
You are acknowledging them for for some reason something that they did. Again,
it's very informal so think of it maybe in the [inaudible] just to give you an
example at at work you're like, yeah my,
my boss really gave me props for all the hard work I did.
I want to give all of you guys props for watching our video lessons.
You guys are like the best. It's just,
it just sounds awkward and unnatural. When I say like, like, like, like, like,
Some people give you props for challenging the ghoulies to a race and beating them.
I had to pop a cop because he wasn't giving me my props in Oaktown.
You and your friends have accomplished the impossible. For that.
Then we have John Hancock. This is another one.
It's very American. It's really just used in the United States.
And you would talk about it in the context of, well,
I need to get your John Hancock,
or I need you to give me your John Hancock.
And when they're talking about your John Hancock,
they're talking about your signature. So if somebody were to say, hey, you know,
I just need to get your John Hancock right here. They're telling you, well,
you need to sign right there. So where does this come from? Well,
John Hancock supposedly was the first person to sign the declaration of
independence, and when he signed his name,
he signed it abnormally large.
It's the largest signature on the Declaration of Independence.
And people say that the reason that he did this is because the king didn't have
very good eyesight and he wanted to make sure that,
that he could see John Hancock's signature.
So now that name has now become a reference to somebody's signature.
I need to get your John Hancock.
Mr. Callahan, I need your John Hancock on these reports.
If I could just get your John Hancock. Oh sergeant.
So we'll just need your John Hancock right here.
is it's also an idiom and that is to get ahead of oneself.
And this just means that you are planning prematurely or maybe you're being a
bit overconfident. So for example, if you are going to take a trip,
but that trip is a long ways off.
You don't really need to start planning now, but if you do plan now,
somebody might say, look, okay, wait, you're getting ahead of yourself.
We don't need to start planning for this now.
Or as far as overconfidence goes,
perhaps you have an idea and you start thinking of this idea and all of the
amazing things that can come out of it and you're like, oh,
I'm going to do this and then we can do this.
And then you start thinking about it and you're like, oh,
maybe I'm starting to get ahead of myself and I just need to take it one step at
a time. So if you're planning prematurely, if you're a bit over confident,
then you might be getting ahead of yourself.
Well, I told you that would learn better if I had a study buddy.
Maybe I'll call him pappy. Look at me. I'm getting ahead of myself.
Might be a cause for celebration. Wow. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
The next expression is another one of my favorites.
It's a very short, very simple three words. It's all good.
And if somebody says, hey, it's all good,
it just means that everything is fine.
Often I think people might say it kind of in the context of,
of telling somebody else to relax. All right, don't worry about this. Relax.
Perhaps somebody who's trying to plan prematurely and they're really getting
ahead of themselves and they're like, oh, well, well you need to do this,
you need to do that. And you would just tell him, hey, it's all good.
Don't worry about it. I got it taken care of. It's all good.
So what I want you to do now because I don't want to lose touch,
is I want you to join our community and subscribe to our email list because we
will send you some useful and free resources.
We will give you access to the secret fluency lesson.
All you've got to do is write your email and give us your John Hancock.
So check out the link in the description. If you don't want to, it's all good,
don't worry about it. You can just write to me in the comments,
we can communicate there and I will give you some prompts. I will recognize you,
I will acknowledge you and I will just keep using as many of these expressions
so that you have a better understanding of them and that you are more likely to
remember. Thank you guys so much for watching.
I hope you enjoyed this lesson. If you did hit that like button,
like, like really hit it, hit, hit it like hit it really hard.
All right and okay, enough of that. I will see you next time.
So I like one [inaudible] so I like wanting to go to the front.
So I like wanting to go to the movies with my friend, and he was like, well,
So I had to like stay home and it was like so boring and I can't even,