Hello, welcome to the English we speak, where we explain phrases used by fluent English speakers

so you can use them too. I'm Fay Faye and I'm joined by Georgie.

Hi Faye, how are you doing? I'm joined by Georgie. Hi Fay Fay, how are you doing?

I'm actually feeling really rested after the weekend, Georgie.

I treat it myself to a spa day with a friend.

We spent time in the sauna, had a massage, got our nails done, the works!

Fay Fay, that sounds so relaxing, I'm so jealous. So you use the phrase, the works, which is our expression in this program. Can you explain why you used it?

Sure so when I said the works I meant everything or all the possible extras or items you might expect from a situation.

You can go to a spa and just relax in the steam room for example,

but me, I did all the activities and used all the facilities, the works.

We can use the works in lots of different contexts, can't we?

Georgia, can you give us another example?

Yes, sure.

So my weekend plan involved a picnic in the park.

Lots of people came which meant there was a lot of food to share.

We had sandwiches, salad, olives, crisps, sausages, fruit and even chocolate. The works.

Wow that sounds like a lot of food. Let's see some and it had the works games

loads of food we had a band everything. This car is absolutely filthy.

You're going to have to vacuum the insides, clean all the windows, polish everything, the works.

I need to relax, so I've booked an all-inclusive holiday.

I get access to the pools, breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, the works.

Wow, so as we've heard we can use this in lots of different contexts,

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