Say MORE with LESS: 2-Word Expressions in English

My pleasure. Allow me. Well done! Upgrade your English conversation skills easily and quickly with two-word expressions like these, used by native speakers every day. Today I'll teach you ten short expressions that you can learn quickly. The best part is that they are easy, and can be used in any situation – formal or informal; business, social, or academic. You'll learn how to give compliments, make suggestions, give warnings, and show agreement with your friends, co-workers, and strangers. Improve your conversation skills by saying more with less!

Test your understanding with the quiz: http://www.engvid.com/say-more-with-less-2-word-expressions-in-english/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In the next few minutes you're going to learn 10 common expressions that you will hear native English speakers using at home, at school, at work, and in all kinds of social situations. These are actually very easy because they only have two words. Okay? Now, that means that you will not only be able to understand people when they use them, but that you, while watching this video, your goal should be to learn them and start using them yourself because they're really quite easy and they're very common. Okay? So, let's get started.

Now, before we begin, let me just tell you that there are only five of them here. I'm going to show you five more in a few minutes. And these are not the meanings. This is for a little bit later-okay?-when we're going to do a little quiz. So, just stay with me and listen to what I'm saying, and then you can follow. Now, some of these are compliments, some are offers, some are replies to what other people say, some are suggestions, some are warnings, and some are just comments on something that's happening. And just to remind you: What's a compliment? A compliment is when we say something nice to somebody. Okay? All right, so let's get started.

So the first one is: "Well done!" When do we say to somebody: "Well done"? We say: "Well done" when somebody does something really well, when we want to praise them. So it's a compliment. Right? We say: "Hey. Good job. Great work. Nice going." Things like that, all of these expressions mean: "Hey, you did a great job." So you could use it to tell your son or your daughter: "Hey, you did a good job on the exam, so, well done." Or you could say it to a colleague who did a successful presentation. You could just say to him or her: "Well done." Okay? So, that's the first one, when we're complimenting somebody or praising somebody on something they did well and successfully. Okay.

The next one, it's kind of close, it's: "Well said!" So, here, we are also complimenting someone, but this time we're complimenting them or praising them on something that they said. So we say: "Hey, you said that very well." Maybe it was just one comment, maybe it was a toast to somebody, maybe it was an entire speech, but what you're saying is: "I really like what you said, you said it very well and I agree with it." Okay? So when we say: "Well said", it means you did a really good job in what you said.

Next: "My pleasure." Okay? When do we say to somebody: "My pleasure"? Well, it's just like: "You're welcome", but it's a little more formal, it's a little more polite. It shows that I really enjoyed helping you. Okay? So, if somebody says: "Thank you", you can simply say to them: "My pleasure." Okay? And it's very elegant, it's very refined, it's very educated, and you will sound that way. Okay?

Next. The next one is: "Allow me." So, when do we say: "Allow me"? Okay? So imagine this situation: Two people are approaching a doorway, and both of them are about to reach out to open the door, and then one person says to the other person: "Allow me." That means: "Allow me to open the door" in this situation. Okay? It means: "Let me do this for you. Let me do this." Not always, but sometimes men do this for women, but women can do it for men or women can do it for other women, and men could do it for other men. It's just saying: "Let me help you. Let me open the door", let me do something that's a little bit awkward. Okay? That's a little bit difficult, maybe, for the other person. Okay, so: "Allow me." It's a nice gesture. It's just a suggestion, it's an offer to help. Okay.

The last one here is: "Help yourself." So, when do we say to somebody: "Help yourself"? Well, usually we say it most often probably when there's a lot of food and drinks on the table, and we say to somebody: "Hey, come on in. Help yourself." So what we're telling them is that nobody is going to serve you, you should please go around and help yourself, have as much as you like of the food, of the drink, of the desserts, or whatever. It doesn't have to be only food. It's often that. It could be other things, it could be materials. Maybe you went to a seminar and there's a lot of information on the table, and they just say: "We're not going to hand it to you, but you can help yourself."