A general rule of thumb: study English every single day and you master it!
A rule of thumb? Do you have any clue what this idiom means? If you don't this video is for you.
Hello my dear friends and welcome to English Mania. My name is Antonia Romaker
and today we'll study another amazing idiom in English: a rule of thumb.
So what does it mean, a rule of thumb? It is a practical and approximate way
of doing something or measuring something.
So it is not exact, it is not precise, it is quite practical, general.
You do not talk about something in particular,
you sum up, make a conclusion and it is based on your experience,
on some experiments, on some practical data.
So once again a rule of thumb is a practical and approximate way
of doing something or measuring something.
So, in other words, it is a way of judging a situation or a condition
which is not exact and is based on experience. Well... you're not quite sureб
you just want to give somebody a general idea, general principle,
which works in all cases but mostly it does. A rule of thumb, practical, not exact.
As a rule of thumb a cup of filter coffee contains about 80 milligrams of caffeine.
So it's not exact but according to my experience, it is something like that.
A good rule of thumb is that a broker must generate sales of ten time his salary.
So he should generate this amount of money, approximately, it can be more can be less,
but about ten times his salary, it is a rule of thumb.
A simple rule of thumb: sit down when you eat. So it's a little tip I give you.
You should sit down when you eat, a simple rule of thumb.
It's practical, it's not proved by some scientific research,
but it's... it works, it's practical. A simple rule of thumb: sit down when you eat.
Then you eat less. Actually, this tip was given by my yoga instructor.
Then she says eating on the go is really a fast track way of eating too much or eating garbage.
So simple rule of thumb: sit down when you eat.
By the way here you can skip the article, most native speakers do.
They just don't say 'a simple rule of thumb', they say 'simple rule of thumb', general rule of thumb'.
No article! But according to grammar, of course, you're supposed to use an article here,
but you can skip it if you are casual.
Now an example from the TV show Game of Thrones.
General rule of thumb Stark men don't fare well when they travel south.
So they don't have friends there, they have problems, they don't succeed, they fail.
General rule of thumb Stark men don't fare well when they travel south.
Now one rule of thumb given by Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory.
You know Italian housewives have a rule of thumb a handful of dry pasta
about an inch in diameter is sufficient for each person as it doubles in volume when cooked.
So it's a practical rule the principle which is quite rough, not precise.
This phrase was originated in the 17th century when while trading people would measure quantities
by the lengths or width of a thumb. It was approximate, not exact, not precise, approximate, practical.
That's at about this wonderful expression. I hope that you enjoyed learning it with me today.
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And I hope to see you soon! Happy English and Russian practice! Bye!