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cover of episode Ask Alisha: Your English Questions Answered #229 - Most Common English Expressions Explained | English Grammar for Beginners

Ask Alisha: Your English Questions Answered #229 - Most Common English Expressions Explained | English Grammar for Beginners

2025/6/27
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Alisha:在庆祝场合,例如生日或周年纪念日,我们经常使用“Here's to”这个表达方式。它通常后面跟着一个名词短语,例如“Here's to a good year”或“Here's to a happy marriage”。这种表达方式听起来很礼貌和正式,但同时也非常友善和真诚。当朋友在我的生日派对上对我说“Here's to a good year for you”时,我会感到非常高兴。通常在重要的生活里程碑中使用,例如新工作,你可以说“Here's to a great position at this new company”。

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This chapter explains the usage of the English expression "here's to", which is typically used in celebratory or congratulatory situations, often involving life milestones or special occasions. It's followed by a noun phrase specifying what's being celebrated and sounds polite yet formal.
  • The expression "here's to" is used in celebratory or congratulatory situations.
  • It's usually followed by a noun phrase (e.g., a good year, a happy marriage).
  • It's considered polite and slightly formal.

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中文

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Ask Alicia, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them. Maybe. Let's get to your first question this week. First question this week comes from Brando Calderon Puente. Hi, Brando. Brando asks, Hi, Alicia. How do we use the expression here's to? For example, here's to a good year. Ah,

Ah, okay. Interesting question. We usually use this "here's to" in like congratulations situations, like congratulatory situations, or maybe like an anniversary situations, kind of special occasions, maybe like a birthday. So the theme here with all

of these is like you're usually celebrating something. And there's usually a noun phrase that comes at the end of this expression. So you might hear expressions like, "Here's to a good year." Or, "Here's to a healthy and happy relationship." Or, "Here's to a healthy and happy marriage for you." Or, "Here's to a great year for you. Happy birthday." So we use these expressions when we're celebrating someone else. So they're usually an important like life milestones. Maybe it's a new job.

You might say, here's to a great position at this new company, or here's hoping you might also hear that as well. So these kinds of expressions are usually used in these very limited, like congratulatory situations. And they tend to sound a little bit formal, but also very nice. So like if my friend said to me, like, here's to a good year for you at my birthday party, I would feel that that was very nice. It's a little bit polite, a little bit formal, but I would feel happy about that.

It's a very nice expression. So it is more on the polite side, but it's also very appreciated because these are kind of special occasions for each of us. So here's to plus a congratulatory noun phrase like a good year or

happy and healthy marriage or a great new position or something like that if it's a new job. So follow it with a noun phrase like that and you're good to go. So you can now congratulate very, very fluently, surely. Okay, thanks very much for this interesting question. Okay, great. So let's move on to question two. Question two today comes from Douglas Oliveira. Hi, Douglas. Douglas asks, Hi, Alicia. How are you? I am great.

Douglas says, I have a question. Let's say there are two people arguing about soccer. Eventually person B says to person A, okay, have your way. What does that mean? Okay. So I'm guessing maybe this could be the expression, have it your way, which might sound like have your way as well at very fast speed. So when we use the expression, have it your way, like at the end of an argument or the end of an intense discussion, it means I don't want to talk about this anymore. That's your

method or that's your approach to the situation, fine. You do that. It's like you're accepting, number one, the other person is not going to change their opinion or is not going to change their behavior. Two, you are saying, I don't want to talk about this anymore.

Three, you're saying, "I disagree with you." And four, honestly, it sounds kind of immature and kind of childish. This is an expression that usually younger kids would say if they're losing an argument or somebody young or immature might use this expression. Like, "Fine, have it your way." It's like saying, "Okay, I don't want to fight with you anymore. I disagree with you. I don't want to discuss. Let's go. Fine, you do things in the way that you think is best."

So this is maybe what the expression that you're talking about here. So you wrote have your way in this question, but I'm guessing this is probably the have it your way expression. Have your way would probably be used in the same way. If somebody were to use that expression, I would imagine it's used in the same way as have it your way in this case. Great. So I hope that this helps you understand what the

meaning of have it your way is and when you might use it. So thanks very much for sending this interesting question along. Okay, let's move on to our last question for today. Last question comes from Haliba Yakubu. Hi, Haliba. Haliba asked, what is the meaning of euphemism, please? Okay, really interesting. One euphemism has a really interesting spelling and pronunciation you can see here on the screen. But a euphemism is

is a word that we use in substitute of another word. Okay? So we use euphemisms when the word we would like to use is maybe very intense, or it's maybe offensive, or it could hurt somebody in some way. So instead of this very like intense or maybe sensitive word, we choose to use a euphemism which has the same meaning, but it's maybe less direct. It's less intense. It's not as sensitive of a word.

So, for example, if we want to say that somebody died, this can be a very sensitive word. We might not want to be very direct and say your mother died or your father died or your pet died. It's very direct and very intense to say that. This is an example of a word that might be very sensitive. Instead, we use an expression like passive.

When someone passes away, it's a less intense and a less direct and less sensitive way to talk about a very sensitive topic. So we might say instead of, "I'm sorry to hear your mother died," which sounds very intense and very direct, and it might be hurtful for the person that's very upset at that time, you might instead use a euphemism,

"I'm sorry to hear that your mother passed away." This sounds much softer. So this is one example of a euphemism, a word that is used or a phrase that is used instead of a more direct one. So let's take a look at one very common example that's related to body image.

So for some people, the word fat is very offensive. It's very offensive to call somebody fat. Instead of this very offensive or potentially sensitive word, some people might use euphemisms for this. For example, some people prefer to be called fluffy or big boned, or perhaps in some situations, it's appropriate to say curvy. So there are lots and lots of different ways that people might talk about having a bigger body.

body. Some people might feel very offended by the word fat and choose to use different ways to express that. So this is one example of some euphemisms that we might use to talk about body image. Okay, so let's take a look at one more really common example situation in which we might choose to use euphemisms. So in this situation, let's imagine the experience of being fired from your job. So one day you go to work and your boss tells you, you don't work here anymore. You don't have a job here anymore.

It might feel very, very difficult to hear someone say, "Oh, I'm sorry you got fired." To say fired, to hear that about yourself might feel very difficult. It might be a very sensitive word for you. So instead, people might choose to use other expressions.

For example, instead of saying fired, which is sensitive, we might instead say let go. I was let go from my job. Or we might also say I lost my job. These are less intense words than I was fired. Another situation related to employment might be when we don't have a job.

It might feel a little bit strange to say that we are unemployed. Instead, people might choose to use the euphemism, I'm between jobs right now, which means my previous job ended, I don't have a job now, and my next job, well, I'm not sure about that. But we might just assume that the next job is going to be at some point in the future. So people might choose to use the euphemism, I'm between jobs at the moment. So these are

all just very common examples of very common euphemisms. So euphemisms are words and expressions that we use in place of other words that might be a little too direct or maybe a little bit too sensitive or perhaps even offensive. So there are lots and lots of euphemisms and very interestingly we

like to create euphemisms all the time. So you might hear people ask the question, is that a euphemism? Which means, are you using that word to mean something else? And sometimes the answer is yes. So we can create our own euphemisms as well in our conversations. So I hope that this answers your question about what a euphemism is and how we can use it. So thanks very much for sending this interesting question along. All right. That is everything that I have for this week.

Thanks as always for sending me your questions. Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alisha, and I will see you again next time. Bye!