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  • Hi. My name is Rebecca -- from www.engvid.com. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to use

  • six idioms about talking. Now, the general rule if you're learning English

  • -- and when it comes to idioms -- is to learn the idioms in order to understand what people

  • are saying or what you're reading, for example. But in general, it's better not to try to

  • use idioms unless you really know how to use them because otherwise you can end up sounding

  • a little bit foolish, and you don't want to do that. So make sure you learn them so you'll

  • understand, but only use them when you're really sure. So let's have a look at these

  • six common idioms that refer to the act of talking.

  • The first one is "to shoot the breeze". "To shoot the breeze" means to chat in a relaxed

  • way about something. Afterwards, I'll give you example sentences with each of them. For

  • now, I just want to give you the meaning. Second one, "to speak the same language" doesn't

  • actually mean to speak the same language. It means to agree or to think alike, all right?

  • Next one: "To talk a mile a minute". That one probably suggests what it means. It means

  • to speak very fast. "To spill the beans": Again, nothing to do

  • with beans. "To spill" means, like, to drop so that something falls, but it doesn't have

  • anything to do with anything falling or anything to do with beans. It means to confess.

  • What does it mean to confess? "To confess" means to tell the truth about something that

  • you were hiding previously. Next one -- well, these two are related: "to

  • talk someone into something", and "to talk someone out of something". So "to talk someone

  • into something" means to convince them, to persuade them, to get them to agree to do

  • something. And the opposite one, "to talk someone out of something", means to dissuade

  • them. The word "dissuade" is the opposite of "persuade". "To dissuade" someone from

  • doing something means to talk them out of it, to get them to not do something, all right?

  • So these are the six expressions, and now I'm going to show you how we use them in sentences.

  • I've written some examples for you. The first one: Someone says, "What are you

  • doing?", and the answer: "Nothing. Just sitting on the back porch and shooting the breeze.

  • Why don't you join us?" Okay, so when they said "shooting the breeze", we're just talking

  • in a relaxed way. We're sitting on the back porch, and we're talking in a relaxed way.

  • We're "shooting the breeze". Next example: -"How was your date with Richard?"

  • -"Great. I really like him. We speak the same language", which means that we think in the

  • same way about things. We share the same perspective about things. We "speak the same language".

  • Next one: -"What did the doctor say?" -"I'm not sure. He spoke a mile a minute, and I

  • didn't catch everything he said." You know how sometimes doctors or lawyers or professionals

  • speak very fast, and we kind of get lost. We don't understand what they're saying. Even

  • English speakers it happens to us when someone speaks "a mile a minute". Or it seems like

  • they're speaking "a mile a minute" because we don't always understand all of the technical

  • vocabulary that they're using. So "to speak a mile a minute" means to speak very fast.

  • Next one: "What happened?" "Well, after five hours, the suspect finally spilled the beans

  • to the police." So what did the suspect do? The suspect, the person that they thought

  • committed a crime or did something wrong, he "spilled the beans", as in, "he told the

  • truth". He confessed. He admitted what really happened to the police.

  • And the last one, we're using both of the expressions: "My girlfriends talked me out

  • of staying at home crying over my old boyfriend, and they talked me into going out with them

  • to the party." So they told me not to do something, and they told me to do something, and I did

  • what they suggested. So if you'd like to do a quiz on this subject,

  • please visit our website at www.engvid.com. And if you found this lesson helpful, please

  • subscribe to my channel on YouTube. Good luck with your English. Bye for now.

Hi. My name is Rebecca -- from www.engvid.com. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to use

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