voiceskills

  Spoken English is in a constant state of change. For this reason, you may find that idioms you learned in class are no longer used by most Brits in their everyday conversations. If you use outdated idioms, it can have funny and embarrassing results as locals may find you’re English rather strange or eccentric. Therefore, it is important to listen to as much modern English speech as possible and to get feedback from a British friend or teacher to find out what is “in” and what is “out”. Below are a couple of examples of traditional idioms and their modern conversational English equivalents: A piece of cake – As this now sounds like an old-fashioned cliché, most Brits would use the expression “No probs!” (No problem) instead. Note that the “-s” on the end must be used even though “No Problem!” uses the singular form of the noun. Cost an arm and a leg – Brits are more likely to use colloquial equivalents like: “Cost a bomb” (a lot of Money, too much) or “Rip-off” (not worth th