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Hi, I need a little help actually. My friend just sent me a message. I'll read it to you.
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She says, I'm going to back out of today's plan and I really don't know what this means,
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could you tell me what it means to back out of something? To back out of the plan, does
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she mean she's going to attend the party or not attend it? Do you also ask these kinds
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of questions sometimes? Well, if you do, then you are at the right place because today,
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Sonia that's me, I'm going to take you through some casual everyday English phrases which
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will be very helpful for you in your day to day conversation. So let's get started.
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The very first one that I just discussed with
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you was to back out of something. To back out means to fail to keep a promise or to
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withdraw from something. So how do you use it in a situation? just like the one I just
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explained, if you are going to plan a party, a surprise party for someone may be, what
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you can do is, you can tell your friends, make sure that you don't back out of the plan
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because I've really worked hard for this party and I want everyone to attend it.
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The next one here is to come across. What does it mean to come across? This means to
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find something accidentally. Okay, so mostly when you're looking for something, it's intentional
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right? By intention, you look for something if you've lost something. However, if you
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mean to say that, you come across it means that you find something by chance or by accident.
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so in a situation or may be in a sentence, you could say something like, I'm going shopping
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tomorrow and if I come across a good shoe store, I'll definitely let you know. That
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means you're talking about finding something by chance or finding something accidentally.
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The next one that I have for you is, to come down with. Now, what do I mean to say when
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I say, to come down with something? To come down means it's mostly used when you're
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talking about some kind of an illness. You know sometimes, when you already have these
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symptoms of cold or flu, you tend to get a headache, you feel a little itchy in your
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throat and you know that you're going to fall sick. It happens with us sometimes. So
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when you are in a situation like that and may be you are at work. You know it's already
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half day at work but you know that you can't really pull through the entire day. so you
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could go to your boss and you could say, well I think, that I'm going to come down with
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a fever so can I just go home right away instead of waiting till the end of the day? Okay,
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so to come down with is mostly used like you're going to become ill. To become sick or become
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ill. So it's a more casual way of saying, you know, I feel sick. Instead, you can say,
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I think I'm going to come down with something, with flu or a fever or a cold may be.
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Now the next one is to get around. What do I mean when I say, to get around something?
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Now, this is an interesting one. This means to avoid or to evade something. Both the words
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mean the same thing. Imagine a situation, alright may be there's a relative's wedding
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over the weekend and you know that you're gonna meet these cousins of yours whom you
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don't really like, okay. I know we all have some relatives whom we don't really, we can't
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really relate to much. We don't like some of them, okay and if you want to avoid them
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or evade the situation of having to meet them at the wedding, that's when you can use this
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in a sentence. So maybe you can tell your friend, that hey you know what, I'm going
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for this wedding over the weekend and I really want to be able to get around my cousins.
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Can you help me? Can you give me some kind of an excuse or a solution to avoid the wedding?
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Or to get around the wedding? Okay, that's how you can use it, to get around means to
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avoid a situation.
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The next phrase I have here is to hear of something. Now to hear of means to learn about
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something. So it's a very casual way to say, that you're going to learn about something.
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So for example, if you know you've heard of some restaurants which are there in the
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southern part of town. You've just may be heard from someone or you read about the restaurant
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somewhere. That's the way you can put it in a sentence, you could say something like,
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well I want to go for dinner tonight and I've heard of some fabulous restaurants in the
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southern part of town, so let's go there tonight. To hear of means to learn about something
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or some place.
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The next one I have for you is, very casual, it's very commonly used and this is something
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that you should definitely know of and use it in your conversation whenever possible.
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It is, hang around. What does it mean to hang around? To hang around means to stay in a
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place without any specific purpose, alright. Let me write that down for you. To stay in
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a place without a specific purpose. I know we all have these you know favourite places
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that we like to be at. You know for long times also sometimes without any reason at all.
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For example, I love the beach, play I love beaches. So I can just stay you know at a
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beach for a length of time without any specific reason. So if you are someone like that, you
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could say, well I love going to the beach, okay I can just hang around at a beach all
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day long. Which means you can stay at a beach without any specific purpose.
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The last one on the board that I have here is, to go over. Okay, what does it mean to
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go over something? To go over simply means to review something. Okay so review sounds
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more formal alright and to go over is a casual way of saying the same thing. So maybe you
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know you're a businessman and there are some plans that you've made. Some kind of a proposal
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for your marketing. So in a sentence, you could say something like well I need to go
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over these marketing plans in order to ensure that they will be effective. So to go over
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something means to review.
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So these are the 7 phrases that I have for you. Alright out of these 7, I'm sure you
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can use something like, hang around or to come across, to hear of something. These are
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phrases that are very common and make sure that you use them in your everyday conversation
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whenever possible. This brings me to the end of the lesson. I hope that you enjoyed watching
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the video today. Please make sure that you practise, watch the videos and improve your
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conversation on a day to day basis. I'll be back soon with something new, till then you take care, bye.