Cpe Phrases To Learn

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20 Useful Proficiency phrases

BY DAVID PUGH · PUBLISHED 16TH FEBRUARY 2019 · UPDATED 17TH OCTOBER 2019


Here is a selection of commonly found phrases, particularly in the Use of English
parts of the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English
(CPE) exam. 
1. Do wonders – To have a beneficial effect: This medicine will do
wonders for you. 
2. Do your utmost – to try as hard as you can: I’ll do my utmost to be
there for your wedding. 
3. Be in stitches – To not be able to stop laughing: When he told me the
joke I was in stitches. 
4. Put paid to something – to bring something to an end: Last night’s
defeat put paid to United’s chances of winning the league. 
5. Prey on your mind – If something preys on your mind it worries you
over a period of time so that you can’t forget it: I made a big mistake at work
and it’s been preying on my mind all weekend. 
6. Come at the expense of something or someone – To happen
while causing damage to another thing: His financial success came at the
expense of others. 
7. Be out of the question – This is used to say that something is not
allowed or impossible: Taking a two-week holiday in October is simply out
of the question. 
8. Bide your time – To wait for the right opportunity to do something: Ben
is just biding his time until the right job comes along. 
9. Take note of something – To pay attention to or take notice of
something: People were beginning to take note of his gift for drawing. 
10. Do something behind someone’s back – To do something
secretly so that they do not know about it, because they would not approve
of it: Nathan was upset that the decision was made behind his
back. 
11. Be thin on the ground – this means there is not much of something
or less of it than is desirable: Such experienced teachers are thin on the
ground. 
12. Lie in store for someone – refers to what is going to happen to
someone in the future: I wonder what lies in store for us when we move
to the UK. 
13. Admit defeat – To accept that you cannot succeed in doing something
and stop trying to do it: The government was forced to admit defeat and
hold new elections. 
14. Spare a thought for someone – To think about someone who is in
a difficult situation: Spare a thought for those who are less fortunate
than us. 
15. Keep your head down – To try to avoid being noticed or getting
involved in something: My advice for you is to keep your head
down until the situation improves. 
16. Get your act together – To organise yourself and your work in a
more effective way: I wasn’t taking my career seriously so I got my act
together and got a steady job. 
17. Vote with your feet – To show what you think about a place or an
organisation by leaving it or not going there in the first place: Thousands of
people are voting with their feet and abandoning the country. 
18. Be touch and go – To be uncertain, with an element of risk that
something bad could happen (often followed by ‘whether’): It’s touch and
go whether the player will be fit enough for Saturday’s match. 
19. Take its toll – To have a gradual negative effect on someone or
something: The illness has taken its toll on her. 
20. To say the least – used to say that something could have been
expressed in a much stronger way: He’s not a very pleasant person to say
the least.  

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