#75- 15 Words for Talking about Hopes, Dreams and Predictions in 2026!

The new year is usually full of excitement, motivation, and big goals, but 2026 feels different for many Americans. In episode #75 of The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast, you’ll learn how Americans actually talk about the new year, even when things feel uncertain, heavy, or unpredictable. 

Using real current events and real emotions, I’ll be teaching you 15 essential phrasal verbs, idioms, and expressions that native speakers use to talk about motivation, dreams and predictions-even during difficult times. This episode goes beyond textbook optimism and shows you how English reflects culture, mindset, and reality in the United States right now.

You’ll hear these expressions used naturally in context and then broken down clearly, so you can start using them confidently in your own conversations.

Some of the vocabulary you’ll learn includes:

• build toward (making steady progress over time)
  
  
• fall into place (when things finally start to make sense)
  
  
• step into (beginning a new role or phase of life)
  
  
• push forward (continuing despite fear or difficulty)
  
  

 Don’t forget to download the episode study guide! It includes:

• All 15 vocabulary words with clear definitions
• Example sentences
• The full story from the episode
• Practice activities to help you remember and actually use the language
  
  

To get the Study Guide, click >> HERE <<

If you want to sound more natural, understand American conversations better, and talk about the future with confidence—even when it’s complicated—this episode is for you.

Plus, BIG news! English Through Media is officially LIVE! This brand-new mini course helps you understand fast English through 40+ PDF lessons by building real vocabulary, building confidence and finally stop relying on subtitles. 

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Transcript

[00:00:00] On this episode of The Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 15 phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms for talking about hopes, dreams, and predictions for 2026. You'll be learning vocabulary like build toward, step into, push forward, fall into place, and more. Let's get to it.

Hey there. Welcome to The Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.

Are you ready to improve your English skills? Let's jump right in.

Hey, hey, hey. Welcome back to The Real Life English with Gabby podcast, episode number [00:01:00] 75. Greetings from New York City. It's been a while. For those of you who are listening to this in the future, you won't even realize that there's a gap between episodes. But for those of you who are listening live and usually tune in weekly or biweekly, you've been waiting.

Thank you so much for the messages. A lot of you sent just to check in. Gabby, how you doing? Where are you? I really appreciate it. Honestly, I just needed a mental and physical break, and I just needed to catch up with life. Firstly, you know, it's been sick season here in the US. I know in many of your countries it is also sick season, flu, or influenza as it's commonly called, and lots of other sicknesses, viruses mainly, are going around [00:02:00] currently.

My kids and I were sick over the New Year's week. Right after Christmas, the week after Christmas, like the week of the new year, we all got sick. My husband was actually the only one who was spared, which is not usually what happens. And thankfully, it wasn't serious. It was just a random virus.

We all had fevers for five to seven days. It was so frustrating. Even the baby was sick as well. More than this, though, I really needed a mental break.

Being an American is honestly so stressful these days. If I'm being completely honest with you, this episode is gonna be a little bit heavy because I'm gonna be talking about a lot of the chaos that's been happening here in the US. Honestly, everything you're seeing in the media is real, and we are gonna talk [00:03:00] about it today, and I'm going to use it to teach you some really great vocabulary.

You probably know from previous episodes, where we've talked about American culture, that Americans love goal setting. We have goals. We have schedules. We have five-year plans, ten-year plans. We plan vacations and events a year ahead of time or more. We set a million goals, and we stress ourselves out in order to achieve those goals.

The new year and the month of January are really, really important in our culture because we often see them as a fresh start. So every year around this time, Americans are typically full of hope and energy, motivation. We love the idea [00:04:00] of a reset. January is supposed to feel hopeful because we've got new goals, fresh energy, resolutions that convince us that this is gonna be our year. We say that a lot. 2026 is my year. I'm gonna make things happen.

We have New Year's resolutions. As you just heard me talk about, resolutions are goals and promises that people make about what we're going to achieve in the new year. Even when we have a hard year, like if 2025 was really hard for someone, they're gonna go into the new year with hope, thinking that, okay, something's gonna be different. There's typically a lot of optimism. We are taught to believe that the new year is what we call a clean slate. It's like erasing the board. It's an empty page.

Even if we have repeatedly [00:05:00] failed at something. So let's say that for the past five years you've said, I'm gonna get healthy, I'm gonna go to the gym, I'm gonna work out, and you never do, but you promise every single year. We will still promise every single year, even if we've failed for five years. That is the impact of the new year. So typically things are very optimistic, but unfortunately, this year feels different.

When I was planning this episode, this is not how I planned on making the episode. I planned on just making it very optimistic, but then I didn't wanna ignore what's happening and what the feeling is in the US. Because this year, instead of excitement, there's just this heaviness. A lot of people are entering 2026, or have entered 2026, feeling [00:06:00] uneasy, feeling scared, anxious, somber. The word somber just means dark, sad, negative.

Political tension is everywhere. Talks of immigration and ICE, which we're going to talk about, they're at the center. The idea of war, something that usually feels really far away, right now, it's super close. So for most Americans, it's hard to focus on our personal goals when the world feels so unstable.

I know for me, it's really difficult right now because New Year's optimism is so ingrained in our culture. We are the dream big people. Anything is possible. The American dream. So when that confidence is shaken and when the future feels unclear instead of exciting, we don't really know how to handle [00:07:00] that.

I mean, honestly, things are chaotic often in the U.S., but not quite like this. So in today's episode, I wanna talk about that shift, about how our language reflects uncertainty, fear, cautious hope more than the usual we-can-do-it optimism. Because even in years like this, people still talk about moving forward, holding on, believing in something better, but it's just different. And I want you to understand that language helps us understand not just English, but the emotional reality of life right now in the United States.

So let's get into a little bit of detail. Recently, there has been a lot of attention on ICE, and specifically ICE in the state of Minnesota. ICE, if you don't know, is the [00:08:00] US government agency that enforces immigration laws: Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In the past few weeks, ICE has carried out large operations in the Minnesota area. The state of Minnesota is in the middle of the country in the north. It borders Canada. And it is a blue state, meaning it is not President Trump's party. And those are the states that typically are sanctuary cities for immigration. Those are the states that typically are richer, and they have more social programs, things like that.

New York is one. California is one. During these ICE raids, we call them, ICE agents have stopped people in public places who look Latino. So [00:09:00] basically Black and brown people, Asian people, anyone who looks anything other than white. President Trump has given permission to stop them on the street because they look suspicious.

So if I'm walking down the street, I think most of you know what I look like. If I'm walking down the street and an ICE agent sees me, he has the right to come and ask me, are you an American citizen? Show me your ID. That is what's happening right now in the US.

So those of you who know history, hmm, does this sound familiar to you? Now I want you to listen, though. What's crazy is that ICE has permission to go into schools, into hospitals, and into churches. Those were not allowed, and then President Trump changed them last year early in his term.

So you have people going into homes, going everywhere, and taking immigrants. And American [00:10:00] citizens have also been taken because ICE has immunity, meaning that they can do anything and they cannot be held liable in court. Many people in the immigrant communities, and just many people who are not white, even Americans, they are scared. Many families are afraid to go to work, send their kids to school, even leave their homes. Now I just wanna make sure that you understand something.

Originally, President Trump promised that he would only target immigrants who committed crimes. And this is something that most Americans did not have a problem with. People said, sure, take the criminals. They're not contributing to our society. They're dangerous. Take them. However, that was not what happened.

And as of right now, less than 10% of the immigrants that ICE has taken have committed crimes. That's it. And [00:11:00] where are most of these people being held? They're being held in detention centers with terrible conditions, cannot contact their families. Basically, they're in prison. Children as well, separated from their families. And we are paying for it, and it's already millions of dollars are being spent on housing these undocumented people.

But here's the other crazy part. They're also not even taking just undocumented immigrants. They're taking people who had a legal status. They have a lot of people who did the right thing. They followed the process. They were just waiting for their green card appointments in court. So ICE is actually showing up in courthouses. People are going to courthouses to see the judge to get their paperwork approved, [00:12:00] and then the second they come out, ICE is taking them.

It's very crazy. ICE is showing up everywhere. It is a very scary situation because ICE agents are not following the Constitution. They don't care about human rights. They're just taking people and beating them, using force, using weapons, putting them into terrible conditions, and it's honestly awful.

The reason why this year started out completely crazy and why everything is going crazy in Minnesota is because ICE killed a woman. But here's the thing. They just killed a blonde, white American citizen who was unarmed, no weapons, and it's been chaos since then.

The president on social media, all of President Trump's party came out and immediately started [00:13:00] to demonize her and vilify her. These are two words that mean you make someone seem like they're the bad guy. She was in a car trying to get away from the protest. She wasn't even at the protest, and she backed up from the police and the ICE agent, and they shot her two times in the face in her car.

Her dog was in the car. Someone else was in the car with her. You can actually see the video all over social media. There were doctors standing by, like just people watching. Two were medical professionals. They asked if they could go check on her, and ICE said no. And so she died, and the ICE officer who did it will not get in trouble.

The government will not apologize. They are just justifying it, excusing what the agent did, saying that she was trying to hit [00:14:00] the officer. But she was unarmed, meaning she had no weapons. And according to our law, you are not allowed to shoot someone in a car who's trying to escape. It is illegal. But because President Trump gave ICE full immunity from the law, they cannot be punished or held accountable.

They consider her now a domestic terrorist. And yeah, if you can believe that, it's very crazy. This is why there are so many protests in Minnesota, so many videos coming out of them, just going into schools, taking people, slamming people to the floor. People are trying to say, hey, I'm an American citizen, and they don't care. They're just swiping up people who they think look like undocumented immigrants.

In addition to all of this chaos, we are very close to war. As you know, [00:15:00] President Trump removed Maduro. Now he wants to take Greenland, and you know, honestly, as an American, I just—I don’t wanna be here. I don’t wanna raise my children in this country. I am so ashamed of my country.

To all of you listening, some of you maybe understand if your countries have done terrible things. But I’m super ashamed of my country. I cannot believe that we are treating humans like this, and we have a president who thinks that he can take over the entire world, and he is probably going to try.

It is just chaos. I’ve been telling my students since Trump first became president, I’ve been saying like, “Hey, don’t be surprised if I end up moving to one of your countries.” And honestly, that’s such a great thing about being an English teacher. I can go anywhere and teach, [00:16:00] that is, as long as your countries will accept us. Goodness. And you know what’s so crazy is that we are hosting the World Cup and we’re hosting the Olympics. It’s like, ooh, terrible timing. We don’t deserve it.

But anyway, I just wanted to give you some background information as to why Americans just feel very heavy going into 2026. Our economy is horrible. There is chaos in so many cities, and war is looming—meaning war is something that is more than likely coming. And so we just, we don’t know what’s gonna happen next. And every time we look at the media, every time I open up Instagram, I see more stories of just pathetic things that my government is doing. So it’s—it can definitely be a lot.

So, as I said, I wanted to talk about this. The episodes in the past where I’ve used current events, I’ve gotten really good feedback, and a lot of you mentioned that you would love for me to talk about current events, especially those of you who live in the United States, those of you who work with Americans. You’ve gotta know how to talk about current events. So in this episode, you’ll learn how to talk about the new year, goals, things to look forward to, but it’ll have a slightly more serious tone than normal. So let’s take a look at the vocabulary that you are going to learn. In this episode, we have: look forward to, aim for, set out to, work toward or build toward, move in the right direction, take off, pay off, fall into place, line up, turn out well, level up, step into, push forward, break through, and bet on.

Before we continue, I just wanna remind you that there is a study guide waiting for you that will help you practice everything that you learned in this episode. It has all of the words and definitions, example sentences, the story, and it has practice activities where you can test your knowledge. If you wanna get that study guide, just click the link in the episode description. You’ll have access to the folder that has every single study guide from all 75 episodes, including some bonus lessons.

I also wanna tell you that my new mini course, English Through Media, has been live for a little bit over a month now, and it has been going really well. I’ve been getting really positive [00:19:00] feedback on the course. English Through Media is a PDF course where you get lessons that are connected to YouTube videos, and we break down these YouTube videos. We get some vocabulary, listening, grammar. You get a lot of different ways to improve your English by watching some of your favorite TV shows, movie clips, celebrity interviews. It is a lot of fun, and it’s one of my favorite things to teach. For more information, if you wanna learn more about the course, just click the link in the episode description.

All right, let’s get to the story. Today, the story that I wrote with all of the vocabulary is not a typical story about a character. Normally, I create a story that’s about a character, and it uses all of the new vocabulary in context. Today, it’s more talking about the situation that is currently happening in the United States and [00:20:00] how Americans are feeling.

It’s very similar to the introduction that I gave you at the beginning of the episode. I kind of modeled it that way. It’s gonna show you how to use the vocabulary to talk about current events and to talk about the future. So as I read the story, listen to the context of the words and see if you can guess the meanings.

And then afterward, we will go through what all of these words mean, and I’ll give you some new examples. All right, here we go.

It is January of a new year, but something is different. Typically, at this time of year, Americans look forward to a fresh start. We look back at the previous year with both regret from things we didn’t do successfully and pride for things that we did. [00:21:00] Even after a rough 12 months, there’s usually some optimism, like people saying, “This year will be better. This is going to be my year.” But this year feels different.

As January begins, many Americans are aiming for hope, but struggling when the daily headlines feel heavier than ever. Everywhere we look—from Instagram to TikTok to YouTube and Facebook—terrible things flood our social media feeds and bring stress to our minds and our hearts.

Political tensions are rising. Conversations about war dominate the news, and instead of excitement, there’s quiet anxiety. Still, people set [00:22:00] out to do what they always do: make plans, show up to work, and try to live their lives. Families build toward some sense of stability, even when it feels impossible.

Everyone wants to believe things might eventually move in the right direction, but fewer and fewer people are confident about this. Some parts of the country feel like they’re about to take off economically, while others feel left behind. For some Americans, years of effort and hard work are finally starting to pay off, but for others, it seems like nothing is falling into place, no matter how hard they try. And that’s the hardest part—the unpredictability.

One day, it looks like things might finally start lining up, [00:23:00] but then the next day, another announcement, another law, another global threat makes people wonder how 2026 will turn out. So many Americans know that they’ll have to level up in every way just to survive.

That might mean learning new skills, getting yet another job, protecting their families more carefully, or mentally preparing to step into roles they never wanted—like advocating, protecting, and surviving. Even so, the instinct that we feel to push forward hasn’t fully disappeared. People keep going, hoping to break through the fear, the division, and that constant sense of chaos. Because deep down, even in a year like this, many Americans still want to bet on the future—not because [00:24:00] we feel confident, but because giving up hope has never really been part of our culture.

This year may not start with fireworks and excitement, and instead starts with caution, tension, and questions. But we’ve learned through our short history that optimism—it isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s just keep going and keep on trying to make it through the day. The end.

Now let’s talk about what all of this vocabulary means.

First up, we have the three-word phrasal verb look forward to. Remember that phrasal verbs can have two words or three, so typically it’ll be a verb plus one particle or two. Look forward to is a very popular phrasal verb, probably finding itself on the list of top 100 most popular phrasal verbs. It means to feel excited or pleased about something that’s going to happen in the future. We can also say anticipating. Anticipating is the more formal, higher-level version of look forward to. For example: I am really looking forward to attending the concert next weekend.

Next up, we have aim for. To aim for something is to have a specific goal and try to achieve that goal. So the verb aim is when you try to hit a specific mark. So imagine if you’re trying to shoot a goal in soccer—you’re aiming for the goal. You’re trying to achieve something. For example, this year she’s aiming for a better work-life [00:26:00] balance.

Next, we have another three-word phrasal verb, set out to. Remember, with phrasal verbs, one phrasal verb can have multiple meanings. So you may have heard set out as starting a journey or beginning something new. Set out to is similar, but it’s beginning to do something with a clear intention, a clear plan. So you can say, “She’s setting out on her journey,” right? She’s starting a trip. But set out to is when you’re starting something very specific. This year, I set out to earn more money at my job. She set out to get promoted.

Next up, we have two phrasal verbs: work toward and build toward. Now let’s talk about the word toward. The official way to say this word is toward, but many Americans say towards. So like for me, being from New York City, we say towards. So I would say work toward, build toward. But you may hear many Americans say towards, ’cause that’s really how you’re supposed to say it.

So work toward and build toward mean to make consistent or steady efforts to achieve something over time. I want you to think of building something. You’re going to do it one step at a time. So when you’re working toward something, it means that you’re taking small steps to get to your goal. You are trying to accomplish something, but it’s going slowly.

So a lot of people, when they start at a job, they start in what we call an entry-level position. This is starting at the bottom, but they wanna work toward [00:28:00] becoming a manager or a CEO. And so it’s something that is a goal, but you’re taking small steps—consistent, steady effort—into achieving it over time. You know that this is something that is not going to happen suddenly. For example, they are working toward financial stability and building toward a more secure future.

Next up, we have the expression to move in the right direction. Literally, you can say, “Oh yeah, she’s moving in the right direction. She’ll be there soon.” But typically, this is not how we use it. We usually say someone is moving in the right direction when they’re starting to make progress, when they’re finally improving.

So I might tell my student, “Your grades aren’t high yet, but you’re moving in the right direction.” You are making progress. You are improving. [00:29:00] You’re not there yet, but you are on your way. For example, even small changes can help you move in the right direction in school.

Next up, we have take off. Now, take off is one of those phrasal verbs—I can think of, right now, in my head, like eight different ways that we use take off. I’m gonna teach you one, but I wanna mention two, probably the most common.

The most common definition of take off is to remove. “Hey, can you take off your shoes when you enter my apartment?” Also, take off means to leave or depart. “Her plane took off two hours ago.” And then you can also say take off to have a vacation day from work. “Hey, I’m going to take off two days next week.”

So right there, that’s three meanings of take off. Isn’t that crazy? This is why English is a little bit crazy, and this is why you always have to listen for context, [00:30:00] because if you’re not listening for context, you’re gonna give the wrong meaning. This is also why I tell my students not to Google phrasal verbs, because who knows which definition will come up first.

The definition that we’re talking about in this context is when something grows or becomes successful very quickly. This is a really common business and work phrasal verb. For example, her business really took off after her Instagram video went viral. This means that her business started growing or became successful very, very quickly. We would say, “Wow, it took off.” His athletic career took off.

Next up, we have another phrasal verb, which is pay off. In this context, pay off means to bring good results or to bring success [00:31:00] after some kind of effort or time or even risk. We often say, “Keep going, it will pay off,” or “Your hard work will pay off.” Your hard work will eventually bring good results. For example, all of those late nights studying finally paid off.

Next up, we have to fall into place. This is an expression, and this is when things start to make sense, when things start to work well after there was some kind of confusion or difficulty. We often use this when there was a period of chaos. So imagine that you lost your job, and it affected a lot of different parts of your life. Maybe you had to move, you had to downgrade, [00:32:00] downsize. You had to live a simpler life. You couldn’t go on vacation. Then maybe after six months, you get a new job, and your friends say, “Hey, how are you doing?”

And you say, “You know, everything is really falling into place. Things are going pretty well right now.” This means that things are finally starting to work well. Things are making sense. There’s less confusion or difficulty.

For example, once he got a new job, everything else began to fall into place.

Next up, we have another phrasal verb, line up. Line up in this context means that things start to happen in a way that is very well organized, that is positive, that is favorable, that is good. Imagine that you found a new job in another country, but there are a lot of things that have to work out before it happens. You tell your friends, “Well, if [00:33:00] everything lines up, we’ll be moving by the summer.” If everything gets organized, if everything is favorable, we’ll move by summer.

Next up, we have turn out, specifically in this context, turn out well. This is a phrasal verb that means when something ends in a positive or successful way. The phrasal verb turn out usually means to result in something. So result can be a verb, and that’s what we see here. In this context, we’re saying turn out well, and this is when something ends in a positive or successful way. So the final result was great. For example, the situation was stressful, but it turned out well in the end.

Next up, we have the phrasal verb level up. Level up means to go to the next level, improve your skills, improve your status, improve your situation. For example, [00:34:00] she decided to level up by learning new professional skills.

Next up, we have another phrasal verb, step into. Step into means to begin something new. You have a new opportunity, and you start to live your life in that new situation. So we typically say, “I wanna step into a new role. I wanna step into a new phase. I wanna step into a new version of myself.” This means you’re beginning a new role. In this context, that means a new professional role. I’m gonna step into a new phase of my life. I’m stepping into a new version of myself.

Next up, we have the phrasal verb to push forward. Push forward—it’s a very motivational type of phrasal verb because it means to continue despite difficulty or [00:35:00] fear. It means not quitting. So we say, “I know it’s hard, but push forward as much as you can. You’re gonna get there, so don’t quit. Keep going.” For example, even when things got hard, they pushed forward together.

Next up, we have break through. To break through—this is a phrasal verb. This can also be a noun. We say, “He had a breakthrough.” To break through means to overcome a barrier, to make sudden progress. There was something that was trying to stop you, something to block you. We say barrier or obstacle, and you were able to succeed. You were able to overcome. So again, something was gonna stop you, but you succeeded. You did not allow those things to stop you. For example, after months of struggling, she finally [00:36:00] broke through and quit smoking.

And lastly, we have the phrasal verb bet on. To bet on something means to believe in something and take a risk on something. So there is an opportunity that’s new. There’s an opportunity where the result is not certain, but you want to bet on it. You want to believe in that. You wanna take a risk, and you decide to support it even though you don’t know what’s going to happen.

For example, this year, he decided to bet on himself and apply for new jobs.

Well, there you have it. You just learned 15 awesome new phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms that you can use to talk about predictions, dreams, and hopes [00:37:00] for 2026. Thank you for sticking with me. I know that this episode was a little bit more serious than the others, but I hope that you learned something—not just about the language, but about the culture, because oftentimes those two go hand in hand.

Now, before we finish the episode, I just wanna give you some homework. Pick five of the vocabulary words and expressions from today’s episode and use them today, right after you listen to this episode. First, go download the study guide. Maybe do the practice activities in there, but I really want you to try and use five words today.

Normally, I say this week, but today we have a super challenge to start the year: use five words today. How can you use these words? Well, one of my favorite ways to tell my students is to record [00:38:00] yourself talking about these words, using them in sentences, telling stories with these words. Pretend that you’re talking to someone. Record yourself in an audio file and then listen back later.

You can also have a journal or write these words down, write an email to a friend, or—one of my favorite ways for students to practice new vocabulary—is to teach someone else. When you teach someone else these words, it reinforces it in your head, and it helps you remember them more. Whatever way you decide to practice, just make sure that you do it, because that is the best way to learn these words so that you can become a confident English speaker.

Well, that’s a wrap for today’s episode of The Real Life English with Gabby podcast. Be sure to download today’s study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary [00:39:00] confidently. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English learning. Also, I’d love to hear from you, so please leave me a review.

Thanks so much for tuning in.