Hi friends my name is Sonia and welcome to today's lesson.
So what are we going to do today?
Well, I thought of doing something interesting and simple, alright.
So we are going to talk about interesting everyday phrases.
When I say everyday, I mean to say phrases that you can use in your day to day conversation.
You know with your friends, people who you are familiar with, etc.
So I have about 7 phrases for you and trust me these are extremely simple, so I'm sure
you'll be able to grasp them really soon.
The very first one is, just one word, it says, broke.
So what's broke?
Okay someone comes up to you and tells you, I'm broke.
Okay like a long time ago when someone walked up to me and said, I'm broke and I asked him
what happened?
Is it your arm?
Is it your leg?
Were you in an accident?
Because some time ago, as per my understanding, I only knew broke as the past tense of break.
I didn’t know what it could also mean otherwise.
So broke actually means to have no money, okay.
That another meaning of the word broke.
so when you have no money or you have very little money and you can't manage your day
to day expenses, you're really struggling, that's when you can use this word, broke.
So maybe in a sentence, you could say something like, I'm broke and hence I need to borrow
some money from my dad.
Let me write that down for you.
I’m broke so I need to borrow some money.
so if you realize this word broke is a simple, casual way of just stating something which
is not really a good thing, to have very little money and not being able to manage your expenses
but you can use it.
The next one is, to drop someone a line.
To drop someone a line, what does it mean?
It means to send someone a quick message, alright or maybe an email.
So say for example, if you know you have a friend who travels a lot for work purposes
possibly and you're not really sure when they are in town and when they are out of town
but you want to keep in touch with this friend of yours.
so in a situation like this, you could you know make a sentence like, hey you know what,
please drop me a line the next time you’re in town, so we can catch up.
So to drop someone a line means to send a message or maybe an email to someone.
That’s what it means; when it says drop someone a line, just a quick short message
or an email.
The next one is to know something like the back of your hand.
Now, this is a very lengthy phrase firstly but it's really useful and extremely useful.
To know something like the back of your hand, of course, you are always going to be familiar
with your hand.
I mean you know this is your hand, you're familiar with it.
So when you use it in a phrase like this, you try to say or you mean to say, that you
know something extremely well.
okay, so for instance, if you have a friend who's travelling to your city and you want
to show off and say, well I know everything about my city and I can take your around,
I can show you around and you want to put that across in a very nice, casual way.
So what you could say is, hey you know what, let me guide for this city because I know
my city like the back of my hand.
So here you’re trying to tell your friend that you know your city or you know certain
places extremely well.
You are very familiar with them.
Okay, so it means to say, to know something extremely well.
Alright so for example, you could even use it in a sentence when you’re talking about
some kind of art or maybe there’s you know some kind of a dance which you know extremely
well, you could say, something like, I know this art or I know this particular dance like
the back of my hand.
I'm extremely good at it.
I'm extremely familiar with it.
The next example here okay, is very interesting.
It says to bite off more than one can chew.
To bite off more than one can chew.
Now, what could this mean?
Okay, what do you mean by, do you just bite something?
You know for example, like when you're eating food which you really like, okay.
So you stuff food into your mouth and you've eaten so much that you can't really chew it
well, you can't really eat your food properly.
No, that's not what I’m trying to say.
Don’t take it literally, but what this means is say for example, if you are a person who
just can't say no. you can't say no to your boss at work.
So whatever work he gives you, you just say I'll do it, I will do it; I will definitely
do this for you.
So what happens then?
You’ve taken up too many responsibilities, too many things to do and you simply can’t
manage them.
You don't have the time.
You’re spending too much time at work and maybe you're not giving the desired results.
So what has happened?
You’ve taken up too many responsibilities, you can't manage them.
So you’ve bitten off, you've eaten more than you can chew.
That’s what it means to bite off more than you can chew.
Okay so maybe in a sentence, you could say something like, you know this person, John,
he just can’t say no to his boss and I feel that he has bitten off more than he can chew
this time.
Okay so what this really means is, I'll write the meaning for you, is that, to take up more
work or responsibilities than you can actually manage.
Alright, now the next one here that I have for you is, also a very common and very interesting
one, it says, fill in for someone.
What do I mean to say when I say to fill in for someone?
This is a phrase that you will use when you want to say that, you are doing someone’s
work when they are away.
Okay, let me write that down for you.
To do someone’s work when they are away.
alright, so for example, if at work alright, you have a colleague who really needs to take
an important leave for approximately say, ten days and you have your existing work to
do but this colleague has asked you to do their work while you know they are on a holiday
or while they are on leave.
So what are you doing?
You are going to do that person's work when they are away or when they are not going to
be available at work.
So basically you're filling in for someone.
Alright, that's what it actually means.
The next example that I have for you is, in ages.
In ages, what does this mean?
You know if you meet someone, you know may be a childhood friend whom you have not met
in a very long time, how do you react?
You say, oh my God, I can't believe it, I haven’t seen you in ages.
Yes, in ages means for a very long time.
Okay, so it's a nice phrase that you can use in place of just saying, oh I haven’t seen
you in such a long time.
If you want to be more dramatic, you want to really show your emotion, you can say,
I haven't seen you in ages.
I missed you, where have you been?
Alright, it immediately changes the effectiveness of your sentence.
And then finally, we have cut it out, okay.
What does cut it out mean?
Hmm... now, this is used for something which is really annoying you.
Something which is really irritating you.
Okay like for example, if you have you know a friend who constantly sings this song which
is really annoying and you don't like it at all, what can you tell them?
You can say, cut it out, that's really disturbing me now, stop doing that right away.
Okay, so to cut it out means to stop doing something bad or something annoying or irritating.
okay so just like I used in a sentence just now, you could tell your friend, if they're
making too much of noise or they're singing a song or doing something that's irritating
you, you could say, cut it out, I need to study or cut it out, you're annoying me, alright.
So, these are the few phrases that I have for you, alright which you can use in your
day to day conversation, they are just 7 of them but they are extremely useful.
Every phrase is unique in their own way and I do hope that you practise these phrases
and use them in your conversation every day.
That’s it for today; I'll see you soon, till then take care and goodbye.