Hello, hey can I call you back? I am extremely busy write now, yeah I will do that ..bye..
Hi friends..Niharika..Welcome back. You know these days we all lead such a busy
life and and it just seems that will never be able to get off that treadmill. We don't
have time to rest, we hardly get any time to spend with friends and family so how do
you really describe being busy? In English we have lot of expressions and slang terms
that can be used to talk about being busy and that's what we are gonna learn in today's
lesson. So let's get started. Now firstly we are gonna learn how to use
the word busy. Many at times when people ask you - hey what you doing? and you end up saying,
I am busy cleaning or I am busy working. So how you end up using the word busy? It's very
simple - If you are talking about being busy in the past then you are gonna say -I was
busy and then followed by the verb in the -’ing’ form, so like "Hey what were you
doing last evening"? Oh, I was busy working or I was busy cleaning. Okay, so this sentence
will only be used to talk about being busy in the past. And if you are busy right now,
that's in present, so how do you use the word busy? Well it's simple -I am busy cleaning
or I am busy working. Al right, so that's how you would end up using the word in the
present form. Al right, that's simple. Now let's get to see some expressions that
you use to talk about being busy. The very first one that I have for you is
-Busy as a beaver. So what's a beaver? Beaver is an animal, who is known to be very hard
working and is extremely industrious. So if you end up using the expression busy as a
beaver it means that you are extremely busy just like the animal beaver. So it’s like
you are comparing yourself with the animal beaver. Now beaver as I said is known for
their hard work and it is extremely industrious and they are known to build their own habitat.
So when you end up saying, like someone will ask you Hey Niharika how you been? and I would
say I am busy as a beaver. So why am I saying that, because maybe I have too much of work,
I have been working late nights, too much of overtime, so it means that I am working
hard, probably I am working on a project and I am spending a lot of time doing that. So
I have no extra time, hence I am very busy and therefore I am using the phrase I am busy
as a beaver. Okay, so when you are extremely busy, you can use this phrase.
Let’s get to the next phrase here -A lot of on one’s plate. Now here we are not talking
about our dinner plate where we have too much of food. now it's just talking about being
busy. SO again, when you are extremely busy, when you have too much of work, you probably
multitasking it means that you have a lot on your plate. So my colleague comes to me
and says -hey Niharika, could you please help me with this? And, I am like - ahh, I don't
think so because I already have too much of work to do. Therefore, rather than just saying
I am very busy - I am sorry I can't help you with this, I would use this phrase. I am sorry
pal, I have a lot on my plate right now, so I would be unable to help you out. Okay, that
sounds better, Isn't it? So a lot of on one's plate it means that you are very busy. It
means that you have too much of work to do already, right!
Let’s have a look at another term here which is slammed. Now slammed is a slang term so
please you it only with your friends and family, do not use it with your boss or your clients.
Now slammed is again, well it has two meanings, have you heard , she slammed the door at me.
So it means that she shut the door on me. Shut it very hard. But here, I am slammed
with too much of work so it means that i am very busy. Again you can use it with your
colleagues if you want, so you are upset about so much of work to do, you are discussing
it with your colleagues and you end up saying, don't ask i am slammed with work so no weekend
for me. SO it means that you are gonna be very busy this weekend because you have too
much of work to do. So that's how you can use this slang term. Or for example your mom
says, hey could you please get some groceries from the market and you are like oh no mom,
I am slammed with too much of work, I can't get the groceries right now. Okay, so these
are few examples about how you can use these terms.
Another one - Biz. well apparently she is biz so she's not answering my call. Well what
does this term really mean? Well again it's a slang term
used for being busy. Well the word busy itself is such a short word but hey a shorter word
than the word busy is biz. So it's nice to use, it sounds really nice - so you can say,
John has really been biz with his work these days so it just means that he's been very
busy these days. Okay!
Let’s have a look at another term here which is to be snowed under. Now imagine that you
are maybe in a park and it starts snowing and you just get snowed under. There is snow
on top of you. it means you are snowed under. Right? But then what's the point of using
this phrase if you busy. Well, here actually it means that you are snowed under with work
.SO you are so busy and that's because you have too much of workload on you. So when
you are....So if you are overloaded with work it means that you are snowed under a lot of
work. For example -again it can be used in the corporate world because yes, as I said,
at work these days we are so busy because there's too much of work to do so you can
use it with your colleagues like this project is coming up and we have to meet our targets
as well so it means that I am extremely busy, so use this phrase rather than saying I am
extremely busy you can say "OH I am snowed under this project" So which means that you
have lot of things to do and you have no free time.
Now let's have a look at the last word over here - again swamped which is a slang term
and it is used similarly as the word slammed. So this is swamped and this is slammed, they
are pretty easy words. So swamped is again when you are very busy. That's simple right?
SO when you are swamped with work or probably let’s say that you don't want to attend
a party and someone is inviting you over and is pestering you that hey you should come
to the party and you want to nicely say a no. So you wanna show that you are busy with
work hence you can use this term. Oh you know what, I am afraid I won't be able to make
it to the party because I am swamped with too much of work or I am swamped with too
much of office work. So that's how you can use this term. So these are very simple terms
that you can use for your daily conversations because as I said that these days we all lead
a very busy life. So rather than just saying I am busy use these expressions. And also
we learned how to use the word busy, when you use it in the past you say I was busy
plus the verb in the ‘ing’ form and if you are using it in the present then you will
say I am busy followed by the verb in the ‘ing’ form. Alright? I will be back with
a new lesson till then you take care.