[Music] hello everyone and welcome back to
English with Lucy today we are going to look at the phrases
good luck and congratulations and i'm going to show you lots of better
more interesting alternatives to further help you with your studies
and understanding i have created a free pdf worksheet that
goes with this lesson if you would like to download that just
click on the link in the description box enter your first name and your email
address you sign up to my mailing list and i
will send the pdf directly to your inbox very exciting
it also includes a quiz i know you will love quizzes first let's take a
look at good luck this is a very good phrase
but it's boring if we repeat it over and
over again
the first alternative is all the best or i wish you all the best and this is
not a direct translation of good luck we usually use
this phrase when we are saying goodbye to somebody
or we are parting ways especially at the end of a letter or email all the
best or i wish you all the best means i hope
you succeed good luck
number two is break a leg break a leg i wonder if you've heard of
this one before it's very popular because it sounds
so strange and almost a little rude where does that come from
it is supposed that it was said to actors
before they went on stage because it was considered
unlucky to wish them luck so if you wish somebody bad luck like
breaking a leg supposedly the opposite will occur
they'll have good luck and their legs will remain
intact [Music]
number three is a phrase that i use a lot
in a different context i'll explain it to you it is
blow them away blow them away now if somebody is blown away it means
they are shocked normally in a positive way
i was blown away by all of your lovely messages for example
so if your friend is going to an interview or an audition
and you want to wish them luck you can say blow them away and that means
shock and surprise them in a positive way
like most things it all depends on tone of voice so if i say i was
blown away by the amount of litter in the park
obviously i'm shocked in a negative way i'm not impressed
number four we have knock him dead and you have to do the fist movement it is
obligatory knock him dead um in this case
is them knock them dead knock him dead the meaning is very
similar to that of blow them away to knock
somebody dead is to really impress them again it depends on the context if you
hit someone with a car and you knock them dead well
that's not very good at all
number five is a very common phrase that i think also exists in many other
languages it is fingers crossed fingers crossed
i've crossed my fingers for you i'm hoping for the best
so when we cross our fingers it means we are wishing luck for either
ourselves or other people is that the same in your language or is it something
different please let me know in the comments i love
knowing about the little quirks of all your languages
number six just a very slight variation on good luck we have
best of luck best of luck and this is a shortened version of i wish you the best
of luck but in casual speech we just go straight
in for best of luck
another very similar one is number seven which is
wishing you the best or i wish you the best
number eight another similar one all the best to you
all the best to you i wish you the best
number nine is possibly my favorite go get em tiger the uh the rare
hands are optional but recommended this is very informal very slang and it
just means go and do it i know you can go and
impress them
and the last one number 10 you got this now it should be
you've got this but sometimes we remove the
at the end of you and just say you got this
you got this obviously if you're writing it
down put you've got this so there we have it 10 very nice
alternatives for good luck let's move on to alternatives
better alternatives for congratulations there are a few more of this one there
are many alternatives i have 19 for you and i'm going to check your
understanding in the quiz in the pdf so make sure you
pay attention
number one is my respects and if you offer somebody your respects
in a positive way it means that they have impressed you
now if you say my respects to you in a solemn
or serious voice it could mean that something bad has happened to that
person and you are offering them your condolences but in a positive tone
of voice my respect is wow you've impressed me
number two is hats off hats off to you this comes from taking your hat off to
somebody and if you take your hat off to somebody
it means that you are impressed with them and you respect them
so if somebody has achieved something amazing you can say hats off to you
that's fantastic
number three is a word just one word but i absolutely love it it is
sensational amazing sensational we have a very very
posh friend and he got completely addicted to the
word sensational you know when you have a
word a new word in your head and you find yourself using it
at every opportunity or his word was sensational sensational sensational
today was sensational but used in the right context
sensational can mean congratulations
number four is one that my mother uses quite a lot
it is get in there often shortened down to get in
you have to do the fist okay yes you can use it to congratulate other people or
also yourself if you hear that you've won a prize you
can say get in there get in yes
very very informal
number five is more of an american phrase we don't use it
as much in british english and i will show you why
it is you rock and that means you are awesome and in american english
it sounds so cool i grew up watching american tv shows all
the time they always used to say you rock but in
british english in my accent it doesn't sound cool at all you rock
there are so many phrases that i i just think they sound ridiculous when i say
them go get em tiger
the next one however is very british very british and it's it's rising again
people are starting to use it more and with good reason i love it
it is good show or jolly good show it's quite posh jolly
the word jolly means kind of very or extremely jolly on
its own means happy or cheerful but we can use it instead of
very or really jolly good show means really well done well done you
congratulations
number seven feels slightly more american to me it's nice going
nice going it translates to you've done well
very well
number eight is good for you or good on you be careful with your tone of
voice here because if you say oh good for you
that can sound extremely sarcastic so if somebody has something
that you want and you say oh good for you it's kind of saying
you get everything i want that but if you say it with real
meaning and heart good for you well done it means i'm really really happy for you
number nine is very similar it is well done you
well done you you've probably heard well done
on its own but for extra emphasis well done you that's really really great
number 10 beautifully casual nice one nice one well done nice one that
translates to good job yeah nice one
number 11 is so simple but i love it it is you did it
you did it congratulations i think that's what my mother said to me when
she found out that i had got a high score for my university degree
she said you did it it's a really nice way of saying
congratulations
number 12 is lovely if somebody does something
really clever really intelligent you can say
you're a genius you are a genius
number 13 is way to go way to go now this is another one that sounds
slightly more american to me i'm not sure about australia and canada
and places like that if you're watching please let me know we
don't say as much in the uk but it's still a really nice
one way to go very well done
number 14 is great for self-congratulation
as well as congratulating others it is pat on the back it's quite popular
nowadays if you yourself do something well
then you can say oh well done me pat on the back if you pat someone on
the back it means well done
15 is a really nice one quite casual oh you made that look easy
if somebody's done a performance or has been in an interview and has performed
really well you can say well you made that look easy
that was amazing congratulations
number 16 is one that i use all the time especially with my students if i see
that they've been performing really really well
then i say keep up the good work it means you've done
so well until now continue to do well because you're on track for success
number 17 is nothing can stop you now you are on a roll to be on a roll means
to have a continued period of success or good luck
number 18 is a relatively new one it is you're
on fire you are on fire if i speak to a fellow youtuber
and i say your channel is on fire at the moment it means it's doing so well
congratulations or you're on fire you're doing so well
again context and tone of voice is everything
if i tell someone you're on fire it means that they should
seek water asap as soon as possible
i've saved the best one till last it is number 19
and it is congratu expletive latiance so we insert a swear word
or an expletive between congratu and lations for example congratulations
that's amazing god that's so fun to say congratulations
now i don't teach swear words on my channel so you're going to have to
search those up for yourself google is your friend
right that is it for today's lesson i hope you enjoyed it and i hope you
learned something do not forget to complete the quiz i've
got the pdf worksheet with everything we've discussed today and
this quiz all you've got to do if you want to
download it is click on the link in the description box
enter your name and email address you sign up to my mailing list and i send
the pdf directly to your inbox if you would like
to do further listening practice i have my personal vlog
channel where i upload videos of my daily life and they are all
fully subtitled so you can pick up loads of vocabulary
and practice your listening skills don't forget to connect with me on all of my
social media i've got my facebook my instagram and my website
englishwithlucy.co.uk it's got a really awesome pronunciation tool on there that
i built for you i will see you soon for another lesson
my respect to you i find that really hard to say one second
my respects my respects to you
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