- Are you sick and tired of boring English lessons?
I am gonna teach you some very very fun expressions.
More or less.
What's up, everyone?
My name's Wes, this is Interactive English,
which is where you want to be
to practice and improve your English skills.
In today's lesson, I am going to teach you
about binomial pairs.
Now, you might be thinking,
what the heck are binomial pairs,
and that is a great question.
A binomial pair is an expression
with two words that's combined with a conjunction,
and most of the time, the conjunction
that combines these words is either
the word and or the word or, and, or, and, or.
These are expressions that you will often hear
in everyday English, everyday conversation.
We like to throw out these expressions,
especially when speaking, because they're a great way
to express how we feel and really give that
extra little bit of information
that can really capture a situation.
As we go through these expressions, these binomials,
I'll give you the meaning,
and I'll throw in some video clips,
so that you can see
how these expressions are used in context.
Let's begin.
The first binomial that I have for you is pros and cons.
When we use pros and cons, we're talking about a situation,
and the pros would be the advantages,
and the cons are just the disadvantages.
A lot of times when people are trying to
make a decision and decide what to do,
they might make a list,
or they might just think about what,
what are the pros and cons,
what are the good things, what are the bad things,
and that can help us make a decision.
Pros and con.
- I think there are pros and cons to every candidate.
- Let's look at the pros and cons.
- Pro, we can fill in the pit and build a park.
- Con, we might be filling it in with dirty money.
- There's pros and cons.
- Yeah yeah, I know,
this would be good, but it would be the same,
go someplace else, it would be different,
but it might not be as good.
- For example, what are the pros and cons
of watching Interactive English?
The pros would be that you're learning
so much about the English language,
you're getting to practice and improve your skills,
and the cons,
you know, there are no cons.
The next one is sick and tired.
You're sick and tired of something, or some situation.
If you're sick and tired of something,
it means that you are really annoyed,
and you've kinda hit your breaking point
to where you are about to get really angry,
you're about to lose your patience.
You're talking about a bad situation,
something that you don't like,
because it's something that you find annoying.
You are sick and tired of, something.
Like at the beginning, I asked you if you
were sick and tired of watching boring English lessons,
which is not what we do here.
Not boring.
- I'm sick and tired of having nobody.
- I am sick and tired of talking about yo-yo's.
♪ I was sick and tired of everything ♪
- Some examples with sick and tired,
people might be like, I'm sick and tired of the rain,
or, I'm sick and tired of having to stay late after work,
or, I'm sick and tired of
eating the same thing all the time.
You get tired and fed up with something,
you're sick and tired of it.
Another great binomial, give or take.
This means approximately.
If you're talking to somebody,
and you give them a number, you say a number,
but it's not exact, it may be more, it may be less,
you could say the number and then give or take.
For example, if somebody asks,
what's the distance from here to there,
and you might say, it's 100 kilometers give or take.
That's just an estimate, you're not exactly sure,
but it's somewhere around there, give or take.
Maybe a little more, maybe a little less,
but it's approximately that distance, give or take.
- Two weeks, give or take.
- Eight days, 11 hours, give or take.
- In which case, $49, give or take.
- How many people live here?
- A million, give or take.
- You're up 38 pins, give or take.
- Then, we have short and sweet.
This means that something
is done
very quickly, right to the point, you don't waste any time.
It's short and sweet.
For example, maybe you're going to
give a presentation at work,
and you say the information, you get right to the point,
you don't waste any time, and it's short and sweet.
- When they interrogate us, which they like to do,
all your answers, short and sweet.
- Okay, guys, let's keep it short and sweet today.
Anybody got anything new?
- Thank you, Butters, very nice, short and sweet.
- If something is to the point, it's direct,
doesn't waste time, it's short and sweet.
For example,
I am not making this explanation short and sweet,
I'm dragging this out, and now I'm talking slower.
It's not short and sweet,
even though you're probably ready
to move on to the next one,
so we'll move on to the next one.
Then, we have, and this is a good one, odds and ends.
If you say odds and ends, then you're talking about
something that is unimportant,
something that might be inexpensive.
Often, the way I would use it, when people ask,
oh, what are you doing today, I'd be like,
well, I have some odds and ends to tie up around the house.
I have some things that I have to do,
they're not super important, but I should still do 'em,
these are just some odds and ends
that I have to take care of.
We all have odds and ends that we have to do.
It's just part of life.
- Just tying up a few odds and ends.
- I know you have things to do.
- What do you mean?
- Packing last minute odds and ends.
- [Character] What did you do back then?
- Odds and ends.
- The next binomial, and it's another great one,
hustle and bustle.
This means
to work very hard, to be very active,
and to do something with a lot of effort
and a lot of energy.
You are hustling and bustling.
Oftentimes, I think you hear it in the continuous tense.
If you're describing a person and say,
you know, he or she has really been
hustling and bustling lately.
They've been really working hard and getting a lot done.
Hustle and bustle.
- [Character] I've never seen this.
I hear there's so much hustle and bustle.
- Ask me, Reverend, how can you live in such a small town,
so far away from the hustle and bustle
of the 20th century?
- Do you like to hustle and bustle?
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't,
sometimes I get sick and tired of hustling and bustling.
The next expression, and this is a really common one,
back and forth, and it means moving
in one direction and then moving back in the other.
You're moving back and forth, back and forth.
We often use this to describe some situation that we see,
or something that's happening that is
actually moving from one direction to another,
it's moving back and forth.
- A mother held her new baby and very slowly rocked him
back and forth, back and forth.
- [Buck] I hung on to that sucker,
and I swung back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
- You can also use it in other contexts,
like, such as, people having a back and forth exchange,
they're having a conversation, they're having a discussion,
and it's back and forth.
- We started texting back and forth.
- The next binomial is by and large.
This is an expression that means
the same thing as saying, in general.
It would just replace those two words.
By and large, overall is another way of saying it.
You'd often find it maybe at the beginning of a sentence,
because you could say, by and large,
this neighborhood, it's a really safe area.
By and large, in general.
- Yeah, by and large, they are still made of steel
and plastic, and that consumes a huge amount of energy.
- It was, by and large, a pleasant assignment,
except for one thing.
- By and large, there are many great channels
to learn English, but again,
nobody has the hustle and bustle like Interactive English.
We keep our lessons short and sweet.
There are many pros, and very few cons,
about learning with us, and ya see,
I like to keep using 'em again,
so that you can try to remember.
Another great binomial, more or less.
It means, approximately, mostly, almost,
you know, more or less.
More or less is a little bit similar to give or take.
The only thing is, I think give or take
is often used with a quantity,
it's often used with a number;
whereas, more or less, you would hear it
often with things that are a little more abstract,
so if somebody said, oh, did you have fun at the party?
You're like, yeah, you know, I had fun, more or less,
or maybe, oh, was he telling the truth?
Yeah, he told the truth, more or less.
- Did you find what you were looking for, Logan?
- More or less.
- Are we hit?
- More or less.
- A boys home, like a reform school?
- Yeah, more or less.
- And I can sound like I'm speaking Italian,
so it's more or less the same thing.
- Then, we have loud and clear.
This is talking about something that is
easy to understand, easy to follow,
confirming that, yes, you understand.
You understand the directions loud and clear.
You understand the instructions loud and clear.
It can even be an answer, if somebody asks you,
do you understand, you say, loud and clear.
That's just a simple response.
Yes, I understand exactly what you're telling me
loud and clear.
- Do you read me, Vice President Jetson?
- Loud and clear, sir, loud and clear.
- You guys said that prison was better than this place,
and I heard ya, loud and clear.
- This isn't over yet, buster, do you read me?
- Loud and clear, Mister Peterson.
- I hope you learned some new expressions,
because, again, binomials, they're fun to learn.
We use them often when we're speaking informally.
If you understood all of these binomials,
let me know in the comments.
I want you to write loud and clear.
Did you understand this lesson?
If you did, loud and clear.
That way, I know that, okay, this person,
this person gets it.
Right now, I gotta head out.
I have some odds and ends to do before tomorrow.
It's gonna be a very busy day tomorrow.
I'm gonna be hustling and bustling
and making new lessons for you guys
to make this channel the best, because, by and large, I do.
I think it's the best place out there to learn English.
If you think so, too,
please hit that like button down below.
As always, thanks so much for watching,
and we'll see ya next time.