Can you speak advanced  English? Let's talk about it. 

Let's imagine this scene; you are visiting the  US and you're about to go eat sushi for dinner.  

You're walking along and you turn the corner,  and you see me walking on the sidewalk. You shout  

for joy and say, "Hey, Vanessa! Do you want  to join me for dinner? We're eating sushi." 

I walk over. I'm excited to meet you.  And then your face goes like this,  

"I think I saw in one of your videos that  you don't like sushi." And I say, "Oh,  

I do like sushi. In fact, I can eat quite a  few sushi rolls." You probably understand the  

general idea of what I'm trying to say,  but this sentence is advanced English. 

I said, "I do like sushi." Well, generally, in  English, we don't put "do" before "like." So why  

did I say this? Is this a grammatical mistake?  And what about this expression, "Quite a few  

sushi rolls?" Usually, few means a little. But why  did I say, "Quite a few?" Oh, this is an advanced  

English phrase I would love for you to learn. If you would like to speak advanced English  

like this and impress me when you meet me on the  sidewalk, well, never fear. Today, you are going  

to learn to speak advanced American English. And  like always, to help you never forget what you  

learn in today's lesson, I have created a free PDF  worksheet with all of today's advanced phrases,  

advanced verbs, advanced sentence structures,  to help you be able to speak advanced English.  

You can click on the link in the description  to download this free PDF worksheet today. 

In this lesson, you will see two of my most  popular advanced English lessons. So are  

you ready to level up your English? Let's go. It's a fact that the more vocabulary you know,  

the more you can understand natural, fast English  conversations and the more that you can express  

yourself. So today I'd like to help you learn  10 essential advanced English expressions.  

These aren't specifically for business  situations, but you could use them then.  

These aren't really just slang expressions, but  you could use them in casual situations too. 

These are phrases for daily life. They're  phrases that I use all the time. And I have  

a feeling that you're going to hear  them all the time. And hopefully,  

now you're going to be able to use them yourself. During today's lesson, try to say the sample  

sentences out loud with me. This is a great  chance to practice your pronunciation muscles,  

listen to your own voice speaking and using great  English grammar and vocabulary. And it's a good  

way to help you remember what you're learning. All right, let's start with the first expression.  

To take something seriously. Usually,  we use the word "take," this verb,  

when we're grabbing something or when  we're getting something. But instead,  

this expression uses "take" in a figurative sense.  This means you're accepting something sincerely. 

We often use this in a negative sense.  For example, let's look at this sentence,  

"When the teenager told her mom, 'I hate  you,' her mom didn't take it seriously."  

This is a negative situation, "Didn't  take it seriously." What is "it?"  

Are we using "it" to talk about her daughter?  No, we're talking about her daughter's words. 

So the mom is not feeling like this is a sincere  statement from her daughter. Because her daughter  

is a teenager, maybe she's going through some  hard times. So the mom is not going to get upset  

when her daughter says, "I hate you." She's  not going to take those words seriously. 

Or you might say, "I wish I had taken school  seriously." "Take school seriously" means to  

study hard, to be sincere in your efforts. I  wish I had taken school seriously, but I still  

graduated even though I didn't learn as much as I  could have. I wish I had taken school seriously. 

Let's go to the next expression; on top of. Are  we talking about physical placement here? No.  

Instead, take a look at this sentence  and try to guess what you think it means.  

"My dog ripped my school books, and  on top of that, he ate my homework." 

So we have a bad situation that has become  worse. So my dog ripped my school books,  

this is already a bad situation, but then  on top of that, he ate my homework. So we  

can use this wonderful expression "on top  of" just like we would "in addition to." 

Usually, it shows some kind of surprise. On top  of that, he ate my homework. I can't believe it.  

I'm surprised. In addition to what he already  did, he ate my homework. Or you might say,  

"This vocabulary lesson is great,  on top of that, it's free." 

So you could say, "In addition to that,  it's free." That's fine. But when you say,  

"On top of that," you're implying that you're  kind of surprised. I can't believe that  

Vanessa is giving us this lesson for free.  On top of that, it's free. Wonderful. 

Quite a few. If I said I ate quite a few cookies,  do you think this means a few, a little, or a lot?  

This expression can be a little bit tricky because  even though it uses a few, which usually means a  

small amount, this expression really means a lot. The word "a few" means a little, but when we add  

"quite," we're making this an indirect way  to say a lot. Quite a few cookies, maybe  

20 cookies. This is a lot of cookies for one  person to eat, so you might say, "I ate quite  

a few cookies." You're being indirect about how  many cookies you ate, but we know it was a lot. 

Or you could say, "Quite a few students  participated in the 30-day listening challenge."  

This means a lot of students participated  in the 30-day listening challenge. 

If I want to be a little more indirect,  then this is a great statement. I could say,  

"A lot of students participated." But  to be a little indirect, we could say,  

"Quite a few students participated in  the course, and I hope you can too." 

Little to no. What is happening here? Little  to no. "I invited 20 people to my party, but  

little to no people responded." Let's think about  this phrase as a scale. Little is on one side,  

so a few people, a couple of people, and  then no people are on the other side.  

So little to no. "A lot of people"  is not even on the scale. So we have  

a little to no. Little to no people responded. You can also think about this like one  

to 10. If we use this same idea with the  word "to," we're talking about a scale.  

One to 10 people responded. Okay, this is the  same idea. It's a scale. But you will also hear  

little to no people responded. What about this sentence?  

"Last week, he had little to no time to cook.  He was so busy." So here we're talking about  

little time, maybe 20 minutes, to no time to cook.  He was so busy. He had little to no time to cook. 

To be a roller coaster. This is a figurative  expression. We're not talking about actually  

sitting on a rollercoaster, which is the ride at  an amusement park. Instead, we're going to use  

this figuratively. And you could say, "Last year  was such a rollercoaster. I got married, and then  

I got fired from my job, and then I moved to New  York." So there's a lot of positive and negative  

things that are happening. It's a rollercoaster. I got married, and then I got fired, and then I  

moved to New York. So we're talking about the  ups and downs of life. It's a rollercoaster.  

We often use this word with "emotional." It's an  emotional rollercoaster. The relationship was an  

emotional rollercoaster for six months. If one of your friends is dating someone  

and the relationship just isn't very  smooth, they don't get along too well,  

they don't really communicate that well, you might  say, "Yeah, that relationship was an emotional  

rollercoaster." Sometimes they loved each other,  sometimes they were so angry, then they loved  

each other. Not a very healthy relationship. It  was an emotional rollercoaster for six months. 

What about this expression? "I'm talking." Does  it mean I'm speaking out loud? No. Instead, this  

is often used to give more information about a  specific point. It's kind of a casual expression.  

So let's imagine the situation, you're  sitting in a classroom and the teacher says,  

"This semester, we will be studying historical  figures. I'm talking, Winston Churchill,  

Genghis Khan, Aristotle." She's giving more information about  

who are historical figures. So she could have just  said, "We will be studying historical figures."  

Okay. But she wanted to give more clarification  about this point, historical figures. So she said,  

"I'm talking Genghis Khan, Winston Churchill,  Aristotle." This is a wide spectrum of people,  

so that's why she used this  expression, "I'm talking." 

Let's look at another example. "The restaurant  was so fancy. I'm talking, suit and tie,  

a local weekly menu, a live cello player." Oh,  you're giving more clarification about fancy. What  

does fancy mean? What is a fancy restaurant? Oh,  well, you're going to give us some more details  

about this point. You're going to talk about a  suit and tie. Maybe you had to wear a suit and  

tie. Maybe the servers wore a suit and ties. There's a local weekly menu that changes every  

week, and there was a live cello player. That's  pretty fancy if you ask me. So you're clarifying.  

I'm talking, this, this, and this. Great. The next expression is "at all." At all.  

This means completely. And it is only used  in negative situations. "I haven't studied  

for my test at all." "I haven't," that's our  negative part. "I haven't studied at all." 

Or you could say, "I haven't studied completely,"  but "at all" is much more natural. So we can add  

this always to the end of the sentence. "I  haven't studied at all." Or you could say,  

"I thought my cats would be annoyed about having  a new baby at home, but they don't care at all."  

"They don't," so we're using that negative  word. "They don't care at all." Do they have  

any care about the new baby? No.  None at all. Notice how this is  

always used at the end of the sentence. Six figures. Are we talking about six people?  

No. What if I said this sentence? "He wants to be  a doctor because he wants a six-figure salary."  

What can you guess? What do you think that  this expression means: six-figure salary? 

Well, we're talking about numbers that have  six figures, so this means $100,000 and up.  

100,000, 200,000, 300,000. When you're a doctor,  at least in the US, usually, you make a lot of  

money, so you have a six-figure salary. The term  six-figure just denotes money above 100,000.  

Or you could say, "They earned six figures last  year." That talks about how much money they made. 

I had a student in the 30-day listening  challenge ask, "Can you say five figures?"  

For example, "I have a five-figure salary.  He makes five figures." Not really.  

We really only use this with six figures. And I think it's just because five figures  

could be $10,000, which, in the US, is not  a high salary, or it could be $90,000, which  

is a lot of money. So it doesn't  really have the same implication. 

But when you say six figures, this is always  a lot of money. So even if you make 100,000  

compared to 900,000, it's still a lot of money.  So we only use this when we're talking about six  

figures in a salary. To go through something. We're not  

talking about going through a tunnel. Instead,  this is a figurative phrasal verb expression.  

And it's talking about experiencing a lot of  negative things, a lot of negative experiences. 

You might say, "Last month I went through  a lot. My grandmother was in the hospital,  

my car broke down, and I had a terrible cold."  So you experienced a lot of negative things. I  

went through a lot. You can use this in a  more vague situation. You could just say,  

"You're going through a lot right now. Please take  care of yourself." You're going through a lot. 

You can use it to talk about your friend.  Let's say that you're having a dinner  

party and your friend doesn't come and someone  says, "Hey, why didn't he come?" You might say,  

"He's going through a lot right now. He needs some  quiet time by himself." He's going through a lot.  

And this implies he's having a lot of difficult  experiences right now, so let's take it easy. 

Our final expression is to make it. Does this  mean create something, to make something? Nope.  

Instead, to make it means to be successful. You  might say, "He's moving to LA to become a movie  

star. I hope he makes it." You can substitute in  this sentence and say, "I hope he's successful."  

I hope he makes it. And "it" here is just  his goal. I hope he makes it. But we always  

keep this expression together, "Makes it." Or we could talk about being successful in a  

more vague way. You might say, "He  drove to the concert through the rain,  

the snow, the hail; and finally, he made it."  He was successfully at his destination. He  

successfully arrived at his destination; the  concert. He made it. So it implies struggle,  

but he was successful in the end. This isn't talking about his career,  

like going to LA, becoming a movie star. You  made it. No. Instead, he just successfully  

arrived at his destination. "Whew. After all  of that rain, snow, hail, I made it, great." 

Excellent work with these 10 new phrases.  You opened your mind to these new phrases,  

so I hope that you'll be able  to hear them all around you now. 

Today, your mind is about to expand, maybe even  explode. You might think that you know how to use  

these three simple verbs, but do you really know  how to use them? Sometimes English learners think  

that to speak advanced English, you need to use  advanced verbs, but that's not always the case.  

Sometimes you need to use simple verbs in  an advanced way. Are you curious? Good. 

Today, I'm going to help you use "tell," "do,"  and "bet" in a more advanced, natural way. Are  

you ready to get started with the first one? Let's  start with the verb "tell." The first meaning of  

the word "tell" you probably know. "I'm going to  tell you a secret." "Do you know what she told  

me yesterday?" This just means simply to talk. But this is the simple way to use "tell." Let's  

take it to the next level. Let's take a look at  this sentence. "I couldn't tell if he was a boy  

or a girl." Does this mean I couldn't talk about  if he was a boy or a girl? No. We're using "tell"  

in an advanced way here. This means I didn't  know if he was a boy or a girl. I couldn't tell. 

Let's look at a few other sentences that use  "tell" in an advanced way that means to understand  

or to know something. "It was hard to tell."  This means it was hard to know. "I couldn't tell  

by looking at his face." I couldn't know if  he was a boy or a girl by looking at his face. 

You might notice that we often use the word "tell"  in this advanced way with the verb "can." Let's