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Vanessa:
Sorry, I can't help you. I'm off the clock. If I
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said this to you, would you know what I was saying
or would your heart start to pound, your palms
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get a little sweaty, and you think, I don't know
how to respond to that. Well, never fear. Today,
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I'm going to help you learn 10 phrases that I use
every day, and you can too. Hi, I'm Vanessa from
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SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Like always, I have
created a free PDF worksheet with all of today's
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important everyday vocabulary definitions and
sample sentences. Plus, at the bottom of the free
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worksheet, you can answer Vanessa's challenge
question so that you never forget what you've
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learned. All right, are you ready to get started?
Let's get started with phrase number one that I
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use every day, and you can too. Phrase number one
is I just need more minutes. All of these phrases
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are phrases that I use at the end of
the day or near the end of the day.
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So what do you think that this one means?
When would I use this? Take a look at the
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sample sentence. I just need a few more
minutes until I start making dinner. Well,
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making dinner takes energy and effort, so
do you get the feeling that I'm tired? Yes.
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I want to rest for a few more minutes. So
often when my husband comes home from work,
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at the end of the day he says this. I just
need five minutes of quiet before I help with
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the kids in the house. Well, this is a very
reasonable request. He's had a busy day and
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he needs a five-minute time slot just to have
some quiet before he jumps into the next job,
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which is helping with the kids and the house. I
just need five more minutes please. Phrase number
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two that I use every day at the end of the day,
and you can too, is this one. To wrap things up.
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Do you think I'm wrapping a birthday present?
Nope. Take a look at this sentence. Give me a
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minute to wrap things up with work and then
I can help with dinner. To wrap things up
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with work. Here, we're talking about simply
finishing a task. I need to finish this task
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and then I can go on to the next thing, helping
with the kids. I use the word things here because
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in English we often use the word things just as
a stand-in for a general concept. I didn't tell
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you the details of the project I'm working
on. I just said I need to wrap things up,
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and this is a great fixed phrase
that you can use. In my daily life,
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I try to wrap things up with work before
my kids get home from school. This way I'm
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not scrambling and trying to wrap up the project
for work and help the kids transition back home.
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That's too complicated, right? If you've ever
been in that situation, you know. So I try to wrap
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things up with work before they come home from
school. I try to finish my work projects before
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they come home from school. Phrase number three
that I often use at the end of the day is to call
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it a day. Am I calling a day? Hello, day? Where
are you? No, I'm not calling a day. Instead, when
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we call it a day, make sure you have all the words
in this phrase, we're simply talking about, I'm
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done with work. I'm going to shut off my computer.
So you might say that exactly. In fact, I'm going
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to call it a day and turn off my computer. It
just means my work brain is turned off and now
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the evening can begin. This is actually a
phrase that's often used in the workplace.
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If you're having a meeting or everyone seems
to be working hard, but it's really close to
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the end of the day, your manager or someone else
might say, "Hey everyone, let's just call it a day
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and start again tomorrow," is the words you love
to hear, right? It means let's finish what we're
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working on and start again tomorrow. Let's just
call it a day. We've been working so hard. Phrase
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number four that I use every day at the end of
the day, and you can too, is to be off the clock.
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Take a look at this sample sentence. I'm off
the clock, so I'm not checking my email again
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until tomorrow morning. Your work brain has
turned off and now it's time to start the
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rest of your evening. I'm off the clock. Now,
I know that this is kind of a cultural concept.
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Some countries expect you to be able to respond
to an email or a message from work at any time,
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but in other countries, if you are off the clock,
well, you're not going to respond to anything for
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work until the next day, and it's healthy to have
a good work life balance, right? It's important.
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Every day English phrase number five that Dan, my
husband uses and he wishes that he could use it
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every day is this one. To kick off my shoes
or to kick back and relax. Take a look at
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this sample sentence. When Dan gets home from
work, he would like to kick off his shoes and
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just kick back and relax. Well, because I used
the verb would like to, do you think that this
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happens? Nope. If you are a parent, you know that
your work never ends until the kids go to bed,
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and we have some phrases for that at the end of
this lesson. So we could say, after I finish work,
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I kick off my shoes and it has the idea that
you kind of do it quickly. You're so excited
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about relaxing, being comfortable, I kick off
my shoes, and then you kick back and relax.
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I imagine you laying on the couch just with
nothing to do. Isn't that such a great feeling?
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And then all your kids jump on you. If you're
a parent, you don't really get to kick back and
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relax very often, but this is the idea that at
the end of the day, a new phase starts and you
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can try to kick back and relax. The next everyday
English phrase is one for busy people. It's this,
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to do a turnaround. Sometimes we add a word
here, to do a quick turnaround. Take a look
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at this sentence. After I finish work, I have to
do a quick turnaround to get ready for my tennis
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game. You can get the sense here that there's not
a lot of time in between work and the tennis game,
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so I need to come home, do a quick turnaround.
I'm probably not really spinning in circles,
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but it's that idea. You feel busy. You have
to change your clothes. You have to get in
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the mindset for tennis. I have to do a quick
turnaround to get ready for my tennis game.
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Phrase number seven that I use every day, at
the end of the day, it is to get someone set
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up. Take a look at the sample sentence. As soon
as I get the kids set up with their homework,
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I'll start dinner. We get the idea that I'm
helping them to get started with their homework,
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and that's really the concept of this phrasal
verb. To get someone set up is to get someone
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started. And this is often the case with kids,
right? If they have some homework, maybe they need
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to read a couple chapters in a book, or maybe they
need to practice some writing. Well, most kids
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aren't going to come home from school, sit at the
table, open their book and just do their homework.
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They need a little bit of help from parents,
right? So you might help them open their backpack,
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ask what their homework is, get them a snack.
You're getting them prepared to begin their
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homework. You get the kids set up with their
homework. I also use this around dinner time.
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I say I need to get my baby set up in her high
chair before I bring the food to the table. My
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baby is at an age where she is running everywhere,
grabbing everything, a little bit of a destructive
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stage, and it's hard to get dinner on the table
in a neat way if she's running around. So I will
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get my baby set up in her high chair. I'll put
her in the high chair, clip her in, lock her in,
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and then I can bring something hot to the table
safely, so I will get my baby set up at the table.
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Vocabulary phrase number eight that I use every
day in the evenings, and I hope happens almost
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every day is to spend some quality time. Take
a look at this. My family tries to spend some
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quality time together each evening before we go
to bed. Sometimes this is just a simple act of
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sitting on the stairs of our deck and watching
the sunset together. It's quite simple, but it's
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effective. We're all together. We're physically
together, and we're emotionally together. This
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is spending quality time together. You can use
this in a negative sense as well. You might say,
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we had such a busy week. I felt like we were going
from activity to activity to activity. We never
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really got to spend quality time together.
I hope that this weekend will be different.
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Vocabulary phrase number nine that I use every day
at the end of the day is to unwind. Take a look at
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this. Here I have a string and I am unwinding
it. What do you think this means figuratively,
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to talk about us and our bodies at the end
of the day. We could say this. Before bed,
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I like to unwind by reading a book and journaling.
We get the sense that during the day, my body and
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my mind are feeling tight, intense, and then at
the end of the day when I read a book or journal,
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my body feels relaxed. I can unwind. You
might unwind by doing these kind of more
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passive activities like reading or you might
unwind by doing what my husband, Dan, does.
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Take a look at this. When he gets home from
work, Dan likes to unwind by going for a run.
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Sometimes these physical activities can really
help your mind and body feel less stressed,
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so you can unwind by reading or by being more
physical and going for a run. Sometimes he pushes
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our baby in the stroller, and that's the ultimate
physical activity, right? You're using your arms,
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your whole body muscles, and you can unwind at
the end of the day and she has a great time too.
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And our final 10th English phrase that I use every
day at the end of the day, the very end of the
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day, and you can too, is downtime. Take a look at
this sentence. Finally, after the kids have gone
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to bed, Dan and I can enjoy some true downtime.
What do you think this means? It means we have
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no responsibilities. The house is quiet. We can
truly sit and relax our bodies and our minds. So
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usually for downtime, we might read, we might do a
puzzle, we might watch TV, we might chat together.
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We might just move around the house, cleaning up,
doing some little things, but it feels relaxing.
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It's important to have a little
bit of downtime each day,
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and I think this is true for adults and for
children. If your children lead busy lives,
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they go to school and then they have
an activity, then another activity,
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then another activity, and then dinner and
then homework, and they go to bed, where's
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the room to breathe? They need some downtime as
well. So make sure that everyone in your family
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gets at least 15 to 20 minutes of downtime
doing absolutely nothing. It feels so great.
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Well, thank you so much for learning these 10
everyday English phrases that I use every day, and
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now you can too. I have a question for you that
I would like you to answer in the comments. What
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do you like to do for your downtime. When you have
no responsibilities, nothing else that you need to
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do, what do you do to help your mind unwind during
your downtime? Let me know in the comments. I
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can't wait to see what you have to say. And don't
forget to download the free PDF worksheet with all
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of today's important everyday expressions,
definitions, sample sentences, and you can
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answer Vanessa's challenge question so that you
never forget what you've learned. You can click
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on the link in the description to download this
free PDF worksheet today. It is my gift to you.
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Well, thank you so much for learning English
with me, and I'll see you again next Friday
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for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye. But wait, do you want more? I recommend
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watching this video next where you
will learn a phrase that everyone does,
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but we should not do. What is it? Well,
I'll see you in that video to find out.
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