hi guys and welcome back to love English
I'm Layla and today's lesson is going to
help you be more polite the British way
today we're going to look at idioms to
help you become more polite and
expressions idiomatic expressions that
you might very well hear English native
people using when they speak or of
course in films television shows these
idioms are incredibly common and they
are all connected with good manners and
being polite so before we get started do
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down in the comments box below use it as
a homework section practice these
idiomatic expressions to make sure that
you and people you know are more polite
now we all know how important good
manners and politeness is in the UK
always using please and thank you is
vital if you want to have good manners
but on occasion we all sorry pardon my
french idiom number one is very commonly
used when English people swear now if
you are French I hope you're not
offended by this idiomatic expression it
really is a joke it's apologizing for
using a swear word bad language cursing
if you will and basically it's
suggesting that you didn't swear but you
used a foreign word and France being the
closest neighbor to England has become
part of the joke so when you say a bad
word when you swear by accident in front
of someone that you shouldn't and you
want to apologize we often very often
say pardon my french or excuse my french
so you realize that you shouldn't have
used that language and you're
apologizing for it
in a joking kind of way so hopefully you
guys don't swear and won't need to use
this idiom but if you do in front of
your teacher in front of someone's
parents try not to do it in front of
children then you can save pardon my
french excuse my French
idiomatic expression number two and I
would say that I hear this less
frequently it's probably an older
idiomatic expression and it is to bow
and scrape now in this case bowing like
this scraping I suppose is showing that
you are showing lots of respect and
bowing very deeply because to scrape is
is this action it's to touch the floor
and and or an object and go right to the
bottom it's very difficult to explain
scrape it's it's going right to the
bottom so when you're talking about
bowing and scraping it means people are
being excessively
polite and careful with their manners
too much really that perhaps it doesn't
seem genuine or over-the-top more than
it needs to be so for example when the
boss arrived there was a lot of bowing
and scraping people were excessively
polite too much
number three is a nice simple idiomatic
expression to say something is the done
thing an action is the done thing in
this case we're saying it's the correct
way to behave in a particular situation
so for example it's the done thing to
get the boss a coffee in the morning
it's the done thing around here it's the
polite way the correct way to be doing
things in a certain situation for
example at reception it's the done thing
to greet people with a smile idiomatic
expression number four rather than you
saying I'm using bad language this is if
somebody else speaks in a way that you
are not happy with so for example if
someone swears what you could say is
mind your language
you wouldn't say don't swear well you
could but it's more common for us to use
the idiom mind your language
remember idiomatic expressions are
sometimes a way of softening your
language of not being too direct or or
aggressive so mind your language could
you mind your language please don't
swear idiomatic expression number five I
actually did a little bit of research
here because the origins of this
expression are mixed a lot of people are
saying different things
the expression is to mind your P's and
Q's so for example when you meet the
Queen you need to mind your P's and Q's
now P and Q I thought it stood for
something however the research that I
did suggested that it could be from the
printing press when we initially first
started using the printing press P's and
Q's
you could get confused because they look
very similar when they're printed but if
they're the wrong way around then
they'll look like a pea or vice versa or
it could come from when children are
being taught to write and again P and Q
when you get it the wrong way around
completely different meaning
so to mind your P's and Q's refers to
when you are asking somebody to be
careful to pay attention to how they are
behaving so it is often something that
you might say to your children
to younger generations you need to mind
your P's and Q's in front of the teacher
you need to mind your P's and Q's when
we visit their house it's advising them
to be careful of how they behave rather
than being too aggressive and strong
behaved be good you can say mind your
P's and Q's make sure that you behave in
the correct way and you're polite number
six this expression is if somebody is
not polite if you think somebody has
behaved in an unfair or upsetting way
their behavior has upset somebody has
even offended somebody you would say to
them you've overstepped the mark let's
imagine this is the line where behavior
is acceptable and if you go over this
line you've overstepped the mark so you
have behaved in a way that is not
acceptable that could be insulting or
offensive to somebody and your behavior
was not correct in the same way we could
say that you crossed a line you crossed
a line this is a little bit stronger I
would say if you tell someone they've
crossed a line their behavior really has
affected you very negatively and you
think they've been exceptionally rude or
badly behaved so again this is a nice
way of telling somebody you are not
happy with their behavior you've
overstepped the mark or you've crossed a
line so two examples to overstep the
mark or to cross the line the boss was
really angry you overstep the mark when
you told him he was wrong in front of
everyone stronger ruder you really
crossed a line when you told her she'd
Tom wait bad behavior offending somebody
upsetting somebody because of what
you've said or how you've behaved right
so that was six and seven now eight very
very similar but this is specifically
referring to something you would have
said that again was not correct in that
situation it was not polite and probably
quite rude to speak out of turn so so
when someone speaks out of turn they
usually speak at an inappropriate time
an incorrect time and they say something
tactless and inappropriate basically
tactless means they don't consider how
they are saying something so for example
she spoke out of turn when she told her
mother she didn't care she spoke out of
turn when she told her mother she didn't
care so it's often connected to timing
and appropriateness how well you phrased
something and tell somebody something
you might even be afraid of speaking out
of turn in the meeting I was afraid to
speak out of turn I was afraid to say
something in the wrong way at the wrong
time in case I caused offense okay
idiomatic expression number nine is
quite nice it is to put your foot in it
so when you put your foot in it you say
something by accident it's not
intentional you don't mean to be rude
but you say something that could upset
or embarrass somebody so for example I
asked her when the baby was due but she
wasn't pregnant
I really put my foot in it all I asked
Sarah what her father's name was at the
party but it wasn't her father it was
her husband I really put my foot in it
now number ten is very simple and it is
a great way to potentially tell someone
off to reprimand them to tell them when
their behavior is wrong and this goes
for behavior and anything that might
have been said so the original idiom is
to be out of order you're out of order
your behavior was out of order what you
said
was out of order in this case you're
saying they were wrong they behaved in a
very bad inappropriate wrong way or you
can strengthen this by adding an
intensifier you can say and this is a
little bit slang
bang out of order that was bang out of
order that was completely wrong
completely inappropriate and very very
rude so those were ten expressions to
correct not only your own behavior or
language but also other people's
remember that idiomatic expressions are
a great way to remain polite and to make
sure other people are polite so why
don't you try using some of those
idiomatic expressions in the comments
box below they are slightly more
advanced so you do need to be careful
and check that you are using them
correctly and with the correct strength
you don't want to be too strong
depending on the situation all right
guys thank you very much for watching I
hope this lesson was enjoyable and that
you will mind your P's and Q's