Common “Out of” Expressions in Everyday English [577]

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In this episode, we look at natural phrases like out of luck, out of touch, out of reach, and similar expressions you will hear in everyday English.

These phrases are common in conversations, news, films, and workplace situations, but the meaning is not always obvious. If you translate them word for word, they often do not make sense.

In this lesson, you’ll learn what these expressions really mean, how they are used in real situations, and how to use them correctly yourself.

After listening, you will:

• understand these phrases instantly when you hear them
 • use them naturally in conversation
 • avoid common mistakes
 • feel more confident speaking English in real situations

If you want your English to sound more natural and less textbook, this episode will help.

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Transcript

0:09

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language. So anything that you need, you know where to contact me, www.englishlessonviaskype.com. I'm always very, very happy to hear from you. So in today's Advanced English Lesson, well in fact today I think it's more to do with intermediate to advanced so it's not so difficult. We're going to take a look at useful phrases using out of. So every expression, every phrase will start with out of. So there are 40. I'll go through them one by one and I'll give you an example when you can use these. Okay number one, out of breath. Well when we are out of breath we've probably been exercising over extended period of time. So if you're running hard or for a long distance you will be out of breath. If you're cycling a long distance or even some people as they get a little bit older walking up the stairs they end up being out of breath and you have to take what we call a breather a small break until you get your breath back okay so to be out of breath means to be panting or tired or you've worked really really hard in the garden on that run on that walk whatever it might be oh wait for me I'm out of breath and of course people who smoke heavily you know even walking short distances they can get out of breath so a very good reason why you should never never smoke so to be out of breath number two out of order well this is a sign we see in many many places on the lift or escalator or elevator out of order when they used to have old telephone boxes in the streets out of order or the announcement from the train that the the railway station is out of order something that's not working the coffee machine out of order so when something is broken and it needs some fixing or servicing or replacement then we have out of order assigned those three specific words next out of control well lots of things can be out of control a car can be out of control if you're driving along the street and it's icy and you put your foot too heavily on the brake then the car may skid out of control you can't control it and the car is going to go in many different directions the kids can be out of control if they've got no parental supervision I wish somebody could supervise those kids they run amok they're always out of control the parents should take more and pay more heed to what they need so though the kids are completely out of control so anytime something is running loose like the car that hits the ice or the horse that has no rider on it or indeed the kids running around screaming and shouting then we can generally describe it as a situation where something someone somebody is out of control out of practice well when we're out of practice it just means we haven't done something for a long period of time so indeed if you haven't driven on the continent and you come from england or ireland and you haven't driven on the continent for many years then you're out of practice you're not used to driving on the opposite side of the road or if you're invited by your friend to play a game of tennis and it's 10 years or more since you played it you said oh i'll play with you but really i'm a little bit out of practice because i haven't played from oh i can't remember maybe 10 years or more so out of practice is when we haven't done something for a long period of time and it takes us a little while to get used to it okay so to be out of practice you'll have to bear with me for a few minutes you'll have to make some allowances for me because i'm out of practice i haven't done this for a long time out of date well we often see this sign in the supermarket on a food label out of date so if the food has gone past its sell-by date it's out of date you they tell you you shouldn't buy it but in many cases it if the food is fine and they give it to charities or places and if you cook it immediately then there's nothing wrong with it but you will see this on the label out of date by such and such a thing or indeed you have to be really careful if somebody gives you a gift voucher or some sort of present and you know if you don't use it within three months or three weeks or four months or four weeks whatever the time scale might be you might find that it is out of date and when you come to use it they tell you oh yeah but it says on the ticket that this expires on you know the 5th of january or the 5th of february or the 5th of march and now it's much later than that so unfortunately you won't get any value for it because it is out of date okay so something that is out of date it's past its best it's past its limit and you won't be able to to use it it could be a passcard for the bus it could be your bank card it could be lots of things that are date related and you have to renew them and if you forgot to renew them and they are out of date well then you'll have to apply for a new card for the library for the bus for the bank whatever it might be out of date and for those of you and your friends or family who want one-to-one lessons well you know what to do just get in touch www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson and we'll be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you out of the question is the next one out of the question well this is a an expression my mother used to use a lot so when you ask her for something no i'm sorry that's out of the question can i borrow some money no i'm sorry that's out of the question can i go to the disco no i'm sorry that's out of the question so i heard that a lot when i was young so when something is out of the question it means no unfortunately we're not going to be able to do it you go into your boss and you say i really could do with a salary increase you know i've got an extra child on the way and cost of living is really really expensive yes i know i understand everybody has the same problem but at this time at the moment a salary raise is guess what out of the question yeah so when something is out of the question it's not possible now or perhaps in the near future so you have to try again at some other stage so out of the question means it's when somebody you know isn't going to help you isn't going to allow you to do what you want to do or what you have requested to do it's out of the question even asking the teacher could i have an extension for the time in which i have to submit my project i have been a little bit sick recently and you know i didn't get so much time to do it i'm sorry extensions are out of the question i'd have to give them to everybody i have to be fair to everyone in the class out of the question out of doors okay so when you're out of doors now you can also use here outdoors okay so the both of them are acceptable out of doors means not inside and it's activities that you do outside so for example in australia lots of their activities are out of doors because the weather is good they they have barbecues in the back garden frequently that lots of them have swimming pools they go to parks all the time and they spend a lot of time out of doors because the weather is really really good out of doors and as i said you can also say outdoors or outdoor activities is another way of expressing it outdoor activities out of doors or outdoors okay number eight when something is out of reach well literally when it's out of reach it means we can't get it the book on on the top shelf of a very high bookcase is out of reach okay so you have to stand on a chair stand on a box stand on a ladder to get it okay it's out of reach or somebody that when we weren't able to contact by mobile or telephone i'm afraid he's out of reach at the moment he's traveling he's on his way to another city perhaps he's already left there at the airport or the plane has taken off so he's at the moment out of reach you'll have to leave a message and he'll call you later on so if somebody's traveling long distance they're going to be out of reach for some particular time meaning they're traveling and they'll pick up the message when they get to the other side wherever they're going to land and then when they get an opportunity they'll pick up the message and they'll call you back but at the moment he or she is out of reach or something that you particularly want not necessarily sitting on a shelf but perhaps the new house or the expensive car or the expensive holiday they may be out of reach at the moment because you don't have the salary to support purchasing the house you don't have the time to go on the luxurious holiday or you don't have the money or the bank won't give you a loan to get that luxurious car that you're eyeing up in the sales room so at the moment unfortunately it's out of reach but you never know work a little bit harder you you might have some good fortune and it will come your way so to be out of reach out of luck when you're out of luck it means everything is going against you okay so you buy the lotto tickets week in week out but you never win you're out of luck you buy a ticket in the local football club drawer because there's going to be a smaller pool of people buying the tickets and you think you should have a better chance of winning but you don't so you're out of luck okay now you can also be out of luck when you go to a shop and you want to buy some bread or some milk and it's late in the evening and you run in and there's nothing on the shelf and the shopkeeper says look you're out of luck I just sold the last loaf of bread or the last bottle of milk only 10 minutes ago and we're about to close I'm really really sorry so to be out of luck means to be unfortunate where what you're expecting to get didn't happen you're out of luck you didn't get the promotion or the salary rise so when something goes against you when something you would hope for and doesn't happen you can use the expression I'm out of luck number 10 out of sight okay well you can use this in in a few ways okay so put this out of sight so that nobody can see it we're expecting visitors and you know what your grandmother or grandfather like they like to have a tidy home so put all those boxes out of sight and I'll put them away later on so that's one way of using it or again as my mother used to say I wish you would get out of my sight I I am sick of the sight of you so during the summer holidays when it was wet and rainy and we were hanging around the house and we didn't have many things to do my mother used to get a little bit annoyed and said oh my god I wish you would get out of my sight because you know really really you're under my feet so that's not such a nice way to tell you to go away okay so to be out of sight and we have an expression out of sight out of mind so if you can't see something you forget about it very quickly out of sight out of mind okay so out of sight means it's not visible yeah okay so you know you could be standing in the high street and you're looking for the new shop that you were told had opened but at the moment it's a little bit out of sight because it's at the other end of the town and you'll have to walk a few minutes before you get there okay so to be out of sight and then number 11 out of your mind okay so I said there's an expression out of sight out of mind so that has one particular meaning but if we use the expression you or he or she are out of your mind it means a little bit crazy so we would use it in the following way what are you out of your mind you're gonna climb that hill now but it's minus three degrees we will freeze yeah I'm not gonna do it let's do it when it's a little bit warmer yeah are you out of your mind you're gonna resign your job where are you gonna go you don't have another job you know the the employment market at the moment is really difficult so when we use the expression out of your mind we're really challenging somebody as to why are they doing something because it sounds a little bit crazy so we don't mean they've literally gone mad but it sounds like it resign your job are you out of your mind climb that hill are you out of your mind yeah yeah tell your boss you're not going to work uh late woo i wouldn't do it i think you're a little bit out of your mind so we just challenge somebody as to whether they are really correct in the way they're going to approach something out of your mind number 12 something is out of tune so two things can be out of tune you can be out of tune when you're not able to sing so oh please please don't sing you always sing out of tune why don't you just listen or hum or let somebody sing who can actually sing that's one way to use it or if you have a piano in the living room the old piano that every home used to have and after a period of time during because of the the weather the change in atmosphere the piano needs to be tuned ah don't worry about the piano it's out of tune at the moment but the guy is coming to tune the piano next week it'll be available for people to play then so at the moment it's out of tune okay number 13 two to go number 13 out of necessity well when we do something out of necessity it means we have to do it we may not want to do it but we have to do it so out of necessity means you really don't have a choice okay so the boss tells you that you've got four or five days of holidays remaining you must take them before the end of the year so out of necessity you have to take a week in december you didn't really want to because where are you going to go the weather is terrible you know there's there's no point flying because there's just nowhere to to fly to that you really want to go to but you have to take the the holidays out of necessity okay so when something is done out of necessity it is an obligation that you have and you probably have no other choice so to do something out of necessity okay so you might have to go and visit clients that you didn't really want to visit but they need a call and somebody has to do it so out of necessity you have to do it okay number 14 out of touch sometimes my wife tells me i'm a little bit out of touch with reality i have a certain picture in my mind of how the world should be but it's not really that way so i'm a little bit out of touch the bit of a dinosaur about me okay so when you're out of touch you can be out of touch with reality meaning you're you've got your head in the cloud you don't really see the way the world really is or you can be out of touch with people oh i haven't spoken to those people for years we've been out of touch for such a long time i'd be embarrassed to call them now don't worry just give them a call tell them you'll meet up and you know people will soon forget so to be out of touch with somebody for a long time means you haven't contacted them you haven't met them you haven't been speaking to them for a long long time so out of touch so out of touch with reality out of touch with your friends uh out of touch with the real people yeah what real people need yeah okay so people in the ivory towers are out of touch with the common ordinary people okay so there we've got 14 useful phrases using out of i'll go through them one more time out of breath out of order not working out of control the car you can't control the car out of practice you haven't done it for a long time out of date the date is gone by you can't use it out of the question sorry no way you can do that out of the question out of doors the opposite to inside out of doors out of reach you just can't get it out of reach out of luck well somebody else won you didn't you're out of luck this time out of sight you can't see it it's not visible anyway out of your mind you must be crazy you must be out of your mind out of tune can't sing can't hold a note you're out of tune out of necessity you have no choice you have to do it and then finally out of touch lost touch with reality with the real thing okay well hopefully you're still in touch with me you understand all the expressions try to practice them they're not so advanced they're between intermediate and advanced take a few of them practice them as i always tell you you know the drill write them in some sentences use some different examples than i've used if you need anything you know where to get me www.englishlessonvyskype.com happy to hear from you happy to have your comments as always join me again soon