How To Speak English Like A Native Speaker | Master These 7 American Word Pairs
Today we'll be looking at some advanced English expressions
These are very commonly used in day-to-day English
and they're very very commonly misunderstood
so it's important that you learn them
and the best way to learn them is by you
creating examples - your own examples of these expressions
write them on a piece of paper or put them in the comments and I'll see them
okay for many many years people have told me
"Oh my god, you haven't read Harry Potter but you've seen the movies?!
Don't you know there is so much in the books it's not in the movies
you really have to read the books
"Yeah I know, I'm just rubbish. One day I'll read them"
and for years I have had the intention of reading Harry Potter
finally today I'm happy to announce I bought the first book!
So when you have the intention of doing something and then you finally do it
we have an expression for that
I had the intention for a very long time to read Harry Potter
I will say "I'm finally getting round/around to reading Harry Potter"
notice the grammar "ReadING" so that verb
whatever you do must have the "ING" form
Is this always in present continuous? no Do you need the "finally"? no
just a standard past tense sentence
"I got around to reading Harry Potter"
you know what I had some time last weekend
and I got round to reading Harry Potter
okay how about a negative sentence?
If you're like me, I buy a book and then for months I don't read it
so maybe after a few months someone asks me
"Oh my god have you finished the Harry Potter books yet?!
The bit where the thing happens
and the guy comes in and then deliver then-
"I haven't got around to starting it yet! No spoilers! No!"
so we can see in a negative sentence
I haven't got round (or "around", both are fine) to starting
remember to put the ING with the verb and you're good
when you're making your own examples of these expressions
it really helps with memorisation
if your example is funny, scary, or emotional in some way
so make your example more memorable
when your friend comes to you and they're crying
"Oh my god I just broke up with my boyfriend everything is terrible"
As a good friend you might ask this question
These two words seem very unrelated
but together, what do you think they mean?
look at the context that's the best way
of course it means "Why did that happen? or "How did that happen?"
It's Friday night, it's about 10:30 you're out with your friends
and you're thinking "This is so boring I really want to go home"
So you tell your friends "I'm going home"
"Oh my god it's 10:30, how come you're leaving?"
"Because I'm sleepy, and drinks are expensive"
This is me every time I go out
"How come" means How or Why did this happen?
or How or Why is this happening?
when we talk about going somewhere
it is super common for us to say it in this way:
now we add a preposition after this
so let's have a look at different examples
"I'm heading OFF" to head off means to leave or go home usually
This guy is simply leaving the house
so he will say "I'm heading OUT"
Where are you going? To the shop, to the cinema, it doesn't matter
outside your house, you're heading out
we can expand this to be more specific
"I'm heading out to see a friend" very common expression
This guy wants to enter the Cool Club
guess the preposition you probably know it
so just remember, it's the verb head with a preposition
the preposition determines whether you're entering a place
You're just going home or you're leaving in general
when you have an opportunity to do something
or when you are finally able to do something
then we have an expression for that
for example it's been a difficult week
you've worked a lot this week you've been super busy
you got no sleep you're very tired
but this weekend I have the opportunity to sleep
"I can sleep! I'm finally able to sleep!"
"This weekend I get to sleep lots
I have no responsibilities, my work is finished"
So this expression: "Get to do something"
You have that opportunity to do the thing
Grammatically: "Get to" + Infinitive
so that verb that won't change
let's look at another example of this
She's saying "Last year I went to Spain with my class"
that's fine that's a good sentence
but she wants to add emphasis to this special event
that she had the opportunity for
"Last year I got to go to Spain with my class"
She's adding emphasis saying that this is not the usual case
I had a special opportunity, I was able to go to Spain with my class, it was special
You can talk about special opportunities that you have, or that you had in your life
In London I get to meet lots of different people from lots of different places
in other cities that's not possible
so again it's this contrasting idea of what usually happens with this special opportunity
how does this expression work as a question or in a negative sentence?
For example your friend is talking about a trip that they had
"Oh my god last year I went to London, just for two days though"
"Whoa! Did you get to see Camden?"
"Get to" - She's asking did you have the opportunity to see Camden
and his reply is a negative sentence
"No I didn't get to see anything fun"
I didn't have the opportunity, I didn't have time, for example
"Manage to" is our last expression
and in some cases it has a very similar feeling to "Get to"
in some context it means the same thing
Something is very difficult but you're successful in doing it
I bought this today, I'm a very slow reader
It takes me a long time to finish a book because my attention span is
So for example if I finish this in one day
that's very unusual and for me, kind of difficult
I managed to finish the book in one day
Look at the verb here we've got infinitive again
it's quite common after "to", to have an infinitive verb
Just remember that won't change
it was difficult or unusual to happen but I did it. I was successful
How do we use this in a negative?
Let's imagine that this guy he really wants to see Beyonce in concert
so he tries to buy tickets but of course Beyoncé tickets are very popular
and he was too late to get a ticket
"I didn't manage to get a ticket to see Beyonce"
Again he says "MANAGE TO" to put that emphasis to say it's difficult
It's difficult and I did do it
it's difficult and I did not do it
So I hope you MANAGED TO learn all of today's expressions
One day you will GET ROUND TO learning them, remembering them
and one day you'll even GET TO use them in conversation
and when that day comes make sure you HEAD TO London
So I can ask you HOW COME you're so awesome?!
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