Daily phrases

[phrasemix]

Hi guys,
I'm going to use this thread to post some English phrases that I think could be helpful to everyone. Please ask me if you have any questions about any of these:

I'm going to grab a bite to eat
You are talking casually to someone and want to tell them that you're going to eat something. You want it to sound very quick and casual.

Let me jump in the shower and...
You're telling a friend or casual acquaintance that you're going to take a shower before going somewhere. You want it to sound quick and casual.

take someone out to eat
This describes going with someone to a restaurant to eat. It sometimes suggests that you are going to pay for the meal.

take in a movie
This describes going to a movie theater to watch a movie in a light, casual, unplanned way.

Shoot me an email
You are asking a friend or coworker to send an email message to you but want to express that it can be a very simple, quick message and not something formal or complicated.

[xpert]

Fantastic idea!

[phrasemix]

Thanks xpert!

Here are 5 more for today:

first thing's first,...
You are starting a discussion or meeting. You want to introduce the most important topic at the beginning.


at the end of the day,...
You're talking about an issue at work and have been discussing many aspects of the issue. You want to make a conclusion and introduce what you think is the most important point.


I touched on this topic earlier, but...
You are giving a presentation or explaining something. You want to introduce a topic that you talked about before, but now you want to give more detail about it.


That's a tough act to follow
Someone just gave a great, really exciting presentation, and you have to give the next presentation but don't think that yours will be as exciting.


we had a nice turnout
You are involved in planning or attending an event. You want to say that a lot of people came, and show that you're happy about that.

[phrasemix]

Monday's phrases:
We're making changes across the board

You are in a work situation and want to tell someone that you are making changes to every part of the business, not just to one area or department.


We have made a renewed commitment to ___

You are making an official announcement for your company and organization and want to tell people that the organization will support something more than you have in the past.


build on our core competencies

You are discussing a your company or business. You want to describe the business continuing to do what it does well. You want to say this in an intelligent, impressive-sounding way.


2008 saw their first decrease in sales

You are giving a formal report on a company and describing how a company lost money in 2008 for the first time.


We need to book the sales in the system

You are at work in a sales job. You want to suggest that you should enter the information about sales that have been made into the company's database or sales tracking system.

[phrasemix]

Don't freak out, but...

You are speaking informally to a friend, parent, or person you feel very comfortable with. You are going to tell them something that you are afraid will make them angry. You want to prepare them for the news and ask them to stay calm.


Chill out.

Someone you are very close to or don't want to be polite to is angry, scared, or upset. You want to tell that person to calm down.


She never saw it coming.

Something bad happened to someone. You want to describe that she totally didn't expect it, in a way that sounds like you might be a little happy about it.


Bring it on.

Someone or something is challenging you. You want to accept the challenge and show that you are confident in your strength and ability.



Hit me with your best shot.

Someone is challenging you and you want to accept the challenge. You want to show that you don't think the other person's ability is very high.

[Mad-ox]

These sound great. However, I have a humble requirement:when you post an idiom/phrase, could you also exemplify it in a sentence so as to have no doubt that the meaning of these phrases are understood by the readers.


thank you in advance

best,

Madox

[euncu]

could you also exemplify it in a sentence so as to have no doubt that the meaning of these phrases are understood by the readers.

The non-native speakers who frequently watch the American TV shows are already familiar with some of these daily phrases mentioned above. Maybe it would be a nice idea to find and post some dialogues that contains some of these phrases.

[phrasemix]

Hi Mad-ox,
That's definitely a good idea. I'll try to do that whenever I have the time to find examples. It is time-consuming to find good examples, though, so I don't know if I'll be able to do that every day.

I'm sure you already do this, but I find that Google is a great tool for finding examples of words and phrases. The longer the phrase, the easier it is to find examples of it in Google.

~phrasemix.

[phrasemix]

Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity.

You are trying to sell something to an audience (not one-on-one). You want to tell the audience to take your offer while making the offer sound great and making it sound like there's a danger of missing it.

DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY! THESE GREAT APARTMENTS WON'T LAST LONG!

Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity to hear from someone who has done extensive work on the front lines in places where physicians are desperately needed.

This will be a huge leap forward.

You are describing a new technology or system. You want to explain that you think it will be a great improvement over the previous system.

The next game in the award winning Halo franchise has been described by Geoff Keighley as being, ‘A huge leap forward’.

Google Chrome has just been launched for windows. Here is my list of top 10 reasons it’s a huge leap forward:

a spectacularly beautiful sunset

You are describing a beautiful sunset and want to express that it was extremely wonderful and emotionally moving.

Okay, I’m tired of beating around the bush. I’m a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I’m articulate and classy.

Canada is a spectacularly beautiful country.

That was hands-down the best performance I've ever seen.

You saw an amazing performance. You want to express that it is much, much better than any other performance you've seen.

This was hands down, the best breakfast I've had in years.

This is hands down the best way to make money online. It's easy, and it's free.

There's nothing like the smell of fresh-cooked bacon.

You smell some bacon, and you love how it smells. You want to express how happy you are with it.

There's nothing like homemade dinner rolls.

There's nothing like putting on this uniform, being proud of it ... it's the best job in the world and I will continue to do the job my Soldiers deserve up until the day I retire from the Army.

[phrasemix]

OK, like Mad0Ox suggested, I added a couple of example sentences to my last set of phrases.

Also, I noticed that it would be a little better to say "Don't miss out on..." instead of "Don't lose sight of..." for the first phrase, so I changed that.

This took me about 15 minutes to pull together, so I'll try to add the examples when I can, but probably not every day.