#81-20 Words for Risks and Taking Chances

Welcome to Episode 81: 20 Words for Risk & Taking Chances

Are you ready to sound more natural when talking about bold decisions and big life moves? In this episode, you’ll learn 20 real-life phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang expressions that Americans use when discussing risk, opportunity, and stepping outside your comfort zone. 

In this episode you'll learn vocabulary like

• Fall back on
• Throw caution to the wind
• Roll the dice

and more!

If you want to actually remember and use this vocabulary in real conversations, grab the Study Guide for clear definitions, natural examples, a full story using all 20 expressions, and practice activities designed to help you build confidence and start speaking right away. There's even a speaking challenge to help you confidently use the vocabulary in your speaking.

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Transcript

 [00:00:00] On this episode of The Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 20 phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang about risk and taking chances. You'll be learning vocabulary like on a whim, sink or swim, wing it, shoot your shot, 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 podcast. Greetings from New York City. How are you all doing today? [00:01:00] Here in the USA, things continue to be crazy. Now we're at war. Guys, to be an American, it's truly a crazy, crazy thing. I think, what can I even say at this point? You guys know how I feel about everything. But, you know, things are crazy. There's really no other way to explain it. The price of gasoline, or what some of you call petrol, has skyrocketed. Prices soar. We continue to look around and just wonder what the heck is happening here. 8 million people did get together for a No Kings protest two weekends ago, and it was extremely encouraging. So yeah, I mean, we continue to push and hope that [00:02:00] things change. Some Americans are optimistic that things will change, and some are saying that the new American dream is to leave. Maybe we'll talk about that in a future episode. I hope that you're doing okay wherever you are in the world.

So back to the episode. This is episode number 81, and we're talking all about risk and taking chances. You know, in American culture, there's a really strong belief in being bold and brave, trying new things, going after what you want. Even if there are no guarantees that you'll be successful, we still have to do these things. For us, it's not so much about success. It's more about taking a chance, and people who don't take chances, they're seen as being not ambitious [00:03:00] or seen as being cowards, in a sense. You'll see this mindset everywhere, like in business, where people start companies from scratch, or in relationships, where people are encouraged to be direct

and take initiative and leave if you're not happy. We even see this in basic everyday decisions or major everyday decisions, like changing careers or moving to a new city. You know, here in the United States, we say it's never too late to change your life, and so we've got 80-year-olds who go back to school or someone who's 50 changing their career, someone who's 40 dropping everything and moving to a different country.

It's never too late here to restart your life, to learn something new, and you'll see that everywhere in American culture. At the same time, though, there is a balance, and [00:04:00] people here often struggle between staying comfortable and safe or stepping into the unknown and taking a risk. That tension between security and risk is why this topic shows up so often in everyday conversations.

People know that risk-taking is good, but they can't take risks all the time. And so, kind of weighing your options and talking to friends and acquaintances and family about which risks to take is very popular. This is why it's very important for you to know this vocabulary, because this topic is something that you're going to be exposed to in every area of life, whether you hear this on an episode of Friends, The Big Bang Theory, or Gossip Girl, or whether you hear this in real life when someone's asking for your advice about taking a risk. Native speakers don't typically say, “I'm taking [00:05:00] a risk.” That's too obvious, right? Instead, we use colorful, expressive language that reflects our personality.

They reflect our emotion, they reflect our attitude. These types of expressions, they show confidence, they show fear, they show impulsiveness, and they can even show regret. If you don't understand the language that surrounds risk and taking chances, you might miss out on the real meaning behind what someone is saying.

And that's the heart of this podcast, right? To help you understand people and help people understand you. In this episode, we are going to explore 20 phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that people use when they talk about taking chances. This is also for people who like to be a little bit impulsive, a little spontaneous, and people who like to make bold choices.

This is the kind of vocabulary [00:06:00] that will help you sound more natural. It'll help you express yourself clearly, and it'll help you in real conversation.

Before we continue with the rest of the episode, I wanna remind you that there's a study guide waiting for you that will help you remember everything that you learned in this episode. It's got all of the words, definitions, examples, the story, and best of all, it's got practice activities so that you can quiz yourself on what you learned.

In order to get the study guide, just click the link in the episode description. One other thing: if you are on my email list, if you get my emails, I sent out an email this past week about all of the cool changes that are coming to English with Gabby. I've been working a lot behind the scenes since the year began, listening to feedback and [00:07:00] just trying to think about the best way to serve all of you, the best way to help all of you meet your English goals. And so I have a few different ideas for the year, and we'll see which ideas are popular, and that will determine what happens in 2027. Let me give you a little overview.

So the next few months, there's gonna be a lot of opportunities for you to improve your English, but improve your English in a community setting. So let me give you some examples and some things to patiently wait for. So starting May 1st, for the whole month of May, we're gonna do a 30-day idioms challenge. I'm so excited for this one. You guys know how passionate I am about phrasal verbs and idioms and slang, real-life English. And so I've begun to focus more on that with English with Gabby.

And [00:08:00] about three years ago, I wrote a book and I structured it like a workbook, and it was about idioms. I don't really promote it much anymore because I wanted to update it, and so I decided to turn that idioms book into a challenge.

And so basically, it's real American idioms, and it's over 250 idioms that Americans actually use. We'll talk about that closer to the date, but in May, we're doing an idioms challenge together with a community. That's gonna be fun. Stay tuned for that. In June, we're gonna start doing something called Fluent in Real Life.

And these are live classes where you'll get to practice real-life situations, get feedback, and the goal is to help you speak with confidence. These will be small group classes. Then in July and August, I'll be offering my signature course, which is Real Life English [00:09:00] from Classroom to Conversation.

This is an eight-week course that includes optional live classes and a big community. This is my favorite course. Got lots of students who we still keep in touch with. We still have a Telegram group. It's a lot of fun. In September, we're gonna do another Fluent in Real Life group of small group classes. And then in October, something I've been wanting to do for so long: a live grammar challenge. So, just to give you a little snippet of this, I love grammar, and I talk about this often. I love grammar, but, you know, this podcast is mainly real-life English with vocabulary. But I love grammar.

I love teaching grammar, love talking about it. I still do some grammar on Instagram, and I will be doing some grammar on YouTube. And so throughout my years of being a teacher, which is, at this point, [00:10:00] what, 15 years now that I've been teaching English, I made a running list of common mistakes that I hear learners making all the time.

You know, in my 15 years, I've mostly taught higher-level classes, so, I've taught B two for 15 years. But in addition to B two, I taught some high levels, some intermediate. I taught elementary level for two years. I've taught all levels, and one thing I noticed was that students make the same grammar mistakes, whether they're in A one or C two.

Now yes, students who are in the lower levels, they make more errors. But even when I would talk to students who were B two, C one, C two, they would still make specific mistakes. And I also noticed that students from different countries tended to make similar mistakes. And so, if I have a student, for example, from Japan or from Italy [00:11:00] or from Colombia, I can predict what grammar mistakes they're going to make based on their mother tongue, their L one first language.

And so I made a running list through the years, and I wanna turn that list into a challenge and a little course that can really help students take their grammar to the next level. I will tell you more about this 'cause that's coming in October. And all of these things that I mentioned will have communities because I really wanna be able to connect people together.

I don't wanna just have followers or students. I wanna have communities. And if by the end of the year, most of you tell me that you want, like, a monthly community, we'll do that. So let's see what happens. Stay tuned for detail. If you're not on my email list, definitely get on it. You can do that by requesting [00:12:00] the study guide or just sending me an email.

Gabby@englishwithgabby.com. So yeah, I'm really excited and lots to look forward to in the next few months. It's a busy schedule, but I really wanna get back to building community. You know, when I started English with Gabby, it was 2020, it was COVID, and the world was shut down, and I would do live classes.

It was a lot of my former students who were in those classes, but it was new students as well. And the world really needed community at that time. And I think we're getting to that place again where community is so important. You know, money is very tight all around the world. Economies are suffering.

People are really feeling the pull. We have war. We have so much [00:13:00] division, and I would love to have a community where people from all over the world just come together and speak English with each other, and I would really love that. And so that's what I'm gonna be working on for 2026, inviting you to come along.

And I want things to be affordable. I want prices to be good, so you can trust that I will keep things affordable because I know how the world is right now. So yeah, stay tuned. In three weeks, we'll be doing the idioms challenge, and I will be giving you more information about that very soon.

So stay tuned for that.

All right, so now let me share with you all of the vocabulary that you'll be learning in this episode: to play it safe, on a whim, branch out, throw caution to the wind, to put yourself out [00:14:00] there, YOLO, go out on a limb, take the plunge, pull the trigger, playing with fire, go big or go home, roll the dice, wing it, step into the unknown, push the envelope, shoot your shot, to go all in, live life on the edge, fall back on, sink or swim.

Now I'm going to read you a story that has all 20 of these phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms used in real-life context. Listen as I read and see if you can figure out the meanings without a dictionary, Google, or AI.

After the story, I'm going to give you examples and definitions so that we can learn these together. Alright, here we go. Miguel was the [00:15:00] type of guy who always played it safe. He had a stable job, a nice apartment, and a very predictable routine. He thought out everything carefully and never did anything on a whim.

He never liked to branch out in fear that something would go wrong, but as his 40th birthday approached and he watched all of his friends do exciting things with their lives, he started feeling like he needed a change. The whole month before his birthday, he took time to think about what he really wanted to accomplish in life and what changes he needed to make.

On the day of his 40th birthday, he woke up knowing exactly what he was gonna do. It was time to throw caution to the wind and do the one thing he had always wanted to do but never could: travel the world.

Thankfully, he had saved up enough money through the years and would be able to take [00:16:00] time off from work and travel.

He decided to spend six months traveling, and in the process, he would put himself out there and start his own travel vlog. It was risky because he had no experience with creating content, but he felt he needed to take a shot at something new. He had his doubts, of course, but he said YOLO and decided he was gonna go that night. At his birthday celebration, he told his friends about his plan.

Most of them were skeptical because they knew he wasn't a risk taker. But some of them were supportive and proud of him for going out on a limb and doing something adventurous. Some of his friends even told him that they would travel to see him at some point on his journey so that they could join in on his adventures.

The next day at work, he went in to speak to his manager about taking a six-month leave of absence. By the end of the week, he got permission. It was time to take the [00:17:00] plunge and do something risky. Miguel then pulled the trigger and bought suitcases, a camera, and all of the equipment he would need for his vlog.

He set up a small studio in his apartment and started filming his first videos, explaining to the world what he was about to do. He knew he was playing with fire because what if no one watched his videos? And even worse, what if they watched his videos but didn't like them? What if, at the end of the six months, his life was still boring?

What if he had a terrible time? Despite all of these fears, he knew it was time to be brave and go big or go home. So Miguel decided to be brave and roll the dice.

He pulled out the globe and made a list of all the countries he would travel to. He loved to plan ahead, but he also knew that in certain places he would just have to wing it. He had decided that he was gonna visit four continents, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He had never been to [00:18:00] any of those places, and he was excited. On his day of departure, he made his way to the airport to head out to his first destination, Colombia. Within his first few days there, he knew that he had made the right choice by traveling the world. He was meeting new people, trying delicious new food, connecting with kind locals, and learning about new cultures. Miguel's YouTube channel was slow at first, but it started to grow slowly. He realized that stepping into the unknown was worth it. Each time he pushed the envelope, tried new locations or daring activities, he learned more about himself, and his audience grew even more. They enjoyed watching him risk things because it encouraged them to risk things too. After four months, he had the idea to try and get a sponsorship deal with a huge travel company. He knew he probably wouldn't get it because he was so new in the industry, but he [00:19:00] decided to shoot his shot. Anyway, they offered him a collaboration, and it went really well. It opened the door to other collaborations as well. By the end of the six-month period, instead of going back home, Miguel decided to go all in and quit his job completely. He was making enough money from his videos and collaborations to travel for another six months. He had loved living life on the edge for the past six months and hoped that the next six months would be the same as well. He knew that without his job to fall back on, it was sink or swim. Looking back, Miguel couldn't believe that playing it safe almost made him miss out on this opportunity. Life was unpredictable, but now he knew that he could handle it. Sometimes you just have to take a big chance and see where it leads. The end.

This story is kind of a dream. I would love, love, love to just drop everything and travel the world. So let's see if I can make that [00:20:00] happen. As I've said many times, I might end up in your country someday soon.

All right. Now let's talk about the definitions and examples. First up, we have Play It Safe. So, in the story, we learned that Miguel loved to play it safe. This means to avoid risk whenever possible and choose the safest or most predictable option. You just want something guaranteed: low risk, low failure chance. For example, I wanted to invest in something new, but I decided to play it safe and keep my money in savings.

Next up, we have on a whim. Typically, we say to do something on a whim. This is when something is done suddenly, without planning, without much thought. Typically, it's a spontaneous thing. It is a decision that you make in the moment and, like it says, without planning. For example, she booked a trip to [00:21:00] Italy on a whim after seeing how cheap the flights were. So play it safe and on a whim—those were both idioms.

Next, we have branch out. Branch out is a phrasal verb. This is a high-level phrasal verb, and this means to try something new or expand into a different area. It's like a tree, and then the tree has branches, and they're going into new areas. For example, after years of teaching, he decided to branch out and start his own business.

Next up, we have the idiom to throw caution to the wind. Throwing caution to the wind is when we act without worrying about risks or consequences. It's like you take all of the care and concern you have and you throw it, and you don't care about it anymore. So, you know what? I'm gonna do this, and I'm not gonna worry about consequences. I'm not gonna worry about the risky things. For example, they threw caution to the wind and quit their jobs to travel the world.

Next up, [00:22:00] we have to put oneself out there, or the most common thing is to put yourself out there, put herself, himself, put ourselves out there. To put yourself out there means to take some kind of social or emotional risk, especially by being vulnerable. So we use this a lot when it comes to romantic relationships. When you have romantic feelings for someone and you're about to tell them, typically people say, “I have to put myself out there. I have to be vulnerable emotionally.”

So, for content creators, you know, people making vlogs, things like that, you're putting yourself out there. You're taking a risk because you're being vulnerable. You're exposing yourself. For example, she put herself out there and applied for the job even though she felt unqualified.

Next up, we have a slang expression, YOLO. This is an acronym, meaning that each letter of YOLO represents a word. So we have [00:23:00] Y—you, O—only, L—live, O—once: you only live once. This expression is used to justify taking a risk. YOLO. Like, we only have one life. We gotta maximize it. We can't play it safe. For example, I wasn't sure about skydiving, but I thought, “YOLO,” and decided to do it anyway. So typically, we'll use YOLO as a one-word response, like, “Oh my gosh, you're going skydiving,” and then I would tell my friend, “YOLO.”

Next up, we have to go out on a limb. Go out on a limb means to take a risk and express an opinion that might not be so popular. So a lot of people might say, “I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest blah, blah, blah,” and whatever they're saying, it's gonna be risky and something that maybe no one else has thought of. For example, he went out on a limb and suggested a completely new strategy.

Next up, we have the idiom to take the [00:24:00] plunge. A plunge is when something gets deeper or lower very quickly. So imagine that you're jumping off a cliff into the water. It's when you decide to do something really risky. You do something very important. There is some hesitation where you don't think that you can do this, and then you decide to do it. You are taking the plunge. Typically, we use this in three ways. We use this for marriage, like, “Oh, I'm taking the plunge. I'm getting into a committed relationship.” We also use this for businesses. If you decide to quit your job and start a business, you're taking the plunge. And then we also use it for situations like this. Someone is quitting their job to travel. You're doing something that is extremely risky. You hesitated for a while, and there's no guarantee of success, for example.

After months of hesitation, she finally took the plunge and started her own company.

Next up, we have the idiom pull the trigger. This is to make a [00:25:00] final decision to take action. Remember that when you have a gun, the part that releases the bullet is the trigger. For example, he hesitated for weeks before finally pulling the trigger and buying his house. So pulling the trigger is when you are taking action, and that's what we mean here.

Next up, we have the idiom playing with fire. This is doing something risky that could lead to trouble. It's literally like you're playing with fire. That fire can get bigger and destroy many things. So if you take a risk sometimes, if things fail, it's not too much trouble, right? But with playing with fire, it's typically much more serious than that. For example, driving that fast in the rain is playing with fire. There could be serious consequences.

Next up, we have a really popular idiom here in American English: Go big or go home. We say this all the time. We say this with [00:26:00] anything—with sports, with adventure, with work. This means take a big risk. Go big or don't try at all. Go big, or go home. So if you're not gonna take a big risk right now, just go home. Don't try at all. If you're not gonna give it your maximum effort, don't play it safe—go home. For example, if we're gonna launch this product, let's go big or go home.

Next up, we have to roll the dice. This is a gambling-themed idiom. A die is a small square that has numbers on it, and you roll the dice when you're playing a game. Rolling the dice is when you take a chance and it has uncertain outcomes. Like imagine you're playing a game, and the game involves dice or cards. Both of those times, you don't know what the outcome's gonna be. You can lose a lot of money. You can win a lot of money. You don't know what's gonna happen. For example, they rolled the dice and invested all their savings [00:27:00] in their startup company.

Next up, we have to wing it. This is a really common expression, and it means to do something without preparation. So some people, like me, for example, when I teach a class, I prepare a lot for that class. I go in there, and I have my photocopies, my slides, whatever I need to teach the class. But then I have some friends and coworkers who just like to wing it. They have a general plan or maybe no plan at all, and they just go in there. And I prefer to have a plan. Some of you may prefer to wing it. Winging it is definitely the riskier of the two options. So to wing it is to do something without any preparation. You're like, “You know what? I'm gonna be fine.”

Now, can I go into a classroom and wing it? I can because I have enough experience, but that is definitely not what I prefer. For example, I didn't have time to prepare, so I just had to wing it during the presentation.

Next up, we [00:28:00] have the expression to step into the unknown. So step into is a phrasal verb—the unknown, things you don't know. So to step into the unknown is to enter a situation that is unfamiliar to you. There's uncertainty. You don't know it. For example, moving into a new country felt like stepping into the unknown.

Next up, we have an idiom: to push the envelope. This is to go beyond the usual limits and take risks. So for any situation, you're gonna have limits, right? But if you push the envelope, it's like you're pushing against these limits and you're taking a risk. For example, the company is known for pushing the envelope with its innovative designs.

Next up, we have the slang expression shoot your shot. So, as you know, a shot is a chance, right? So we say, “Oh, take a shot”—that's take a chance. [00:29:00] Shoot your shot is a slang expression for taking a chance, especially when you're asking for something you want. So in the story, he's shooting his shot by pitching the company for a brand deal, for a collaboration, for a sponsorship deal. We also use shoot your shot when you're asking someone to start a romantic relationship with you, like asking someone on a date. So if you're romantically interested in someone and you ask them to go on a date with you, that's shooting your shot. For example, he decided to shoot his shot and ask her out on a date.

Next up, we have to go all in. To go all in is to fully commit to something despite the risks and give it 100%. Even though you don't know what's gonna happen, you're fully committing. She went all in on her business idea and invested everything she had.

Next up, we have to live life on the edge. Live life on the [00:30:00] edge is to regularly take risks and seek excitement. Think of someone who's climbing a mountain, someone who's on the edge of a mountain looking down—they're on the edge. You're looking for excitement, that adrenaline rush. You love taking risks. For example, she loves extreme sports and living life on the edge.

Next up, we have a three-word phrasal verb: fall back on. This is a really great three-word phrasal verb, very high level. I've never seen this in any textbook—very, very good for you to learn. And this means to rely on something as a backup plan. Someone might say they're going to quit their job. So let's think of the story: he's quitting his job to travel. He has nothing to fall back on, meaning he doesn't have a backup plan. So anytime you do something and you don't have a backup plan, you have nothing to fall back on. For example, if the business fails, he can fall back on his teaching [00:31:00] career.

Now, I don't know about in your culture, but oftentimes in American culture, if you tell your parents that you wanna be an artist or musician, they're gonna tell you that in school you should major in something like business or education so that if your art career or your music career doesn't work out, you have something to fall back on. You have a backup plan. For example, if the business fails, he can fall back on his teaching career.

And lastly, we have the expression sink or swim. This is a situation where you have to either succeed or fail on your own. No one can help you. So I want you to think about if someone pushes you into the water—you have two choices. You can sink to the bottom, or you can swim. Imagine that there's no one around you, no one to help you, no lifeguard to save you. This is what this means. So oftentimes, when you start a business [00:32:00], it's either sink or swim. You either succeed or you fail, but it all has to be done on your own. No one's able to help you. For example, starting his job with no training was a sink-or-swim experience.

Well, guess what? You just learned 20 new idioms, phrasal verbs, and slang words popularly used by Americans. I love this vocabulary because it's very popular in culture. We talk about these things a lot. You're gonna notice these now when you watch TV shows, when you watch movies, when you listen to podcasts.

So I have a challenge for you. I have some homework for you. First step, of course, is downloading the study guide if you haven't done so already. But step two is to pick seven to 10 vocabulary words and expressions from this episode and use them today, right now, or in the next few hours.

There are a lot of options. You can audio record yourself [00:33:00] using them in sentences. You can send an email to a friend. But you know what my favorite method is, which I tell my students all the time? It is to teach a friend. If you have a friend who wants to learn English or maybe who's learning English, I want you to teach them the words that you learned because when you teach something, you become a true professional. I wasn't good at grammar until I started teaching it. Now I'm amazing with grammar. And so when you teach someone else, it reinforces that in your brain. So go and teach someone seven to 10 words that you've learned.

And you know what? If you don't have any friends who wanna learn English, or if maybe you're in a situation where you don't have time to teach someone, why don't you pretend to teach? Pull out your camera and record yourself pretending to teach it to someone else, or an audio file. This is one of the coolest ways to practice what you learn.

Well, that's a wrap for [00:34:00] 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 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.