I've never jumped out of a plane before,
but here goes nothing.
That's actually an English phrase that we use sometimes
before we do something new or dangerous.
I got my helmet on, I got my parachute on,
here goes nothing.
By the way, I'll meet you on the ground
and I'll do a little lesson about phrases
with the word nothing in it.
Once again, here goes nothing.
(plane engine roaring)
(calm guitar music)
Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson
about phrases with the word, nothing in it.
Before we get started, though, if this is your first time here,
don't forget to click that red subscribe button
and give me a thumbs up if this video helps you learn
just a little bit more English.
The next English phrase, I wanted to teach you
with the word nothing in it is the phrase,
there's nothing to it.
When my kids were young,
I had to teach them how to tie their shoes.
You take the two laces. You make a simple knot.
You make a bow, you go around the bow,
you put your thumb through and you pull it tight.
There's nothing to it.
So there's nothing to it, is a phrase we use
when we're talking about something that's very easy to do,
or very easy to learn.
It does take a while to learn how to tie a shoe though.
Saying there's nothing to it
maybe isn't the nicest thing to say.
I know when I was a kid, it actually took me a long time.
Even though my mom kept showing me and kept saying,
there's nothing to it.
I was watching an old movie the other day
and the main character was put in prison
and they gave him dry bread and water,
which I guess is better than nothing.
The English phrase better than nothing means,
that whatever you have is better
than not having anything at all.
If I was really, really hungry and you gave me dry bread
and water, I would certainly think,
well, it's better than nothing.
It's better to have some bread
and to have a little drink of water
than to have nothing at all.
It's certainly better than nothing.
Ah, there's next to nothing left in this box.
Sometimes my kids eat all the cereal.
And then when I go to have a box of cereal,
there's next to nothing left in the box.
Next to nothing is a phrase we use in English
to talk about when there's some left,
there's some left in the box, but not as much as I wanted.
There's next to nothing left in the cereal box.
So that's kind of sad.
I'll have to maybe go to the store later and get another one
because I really like eating my Cheerios.
It's a little windy out here today.
Hey Bob, what are you doing this weekend?
Nothing much.
Nothing really.
When someone asks you what your plans are,
when someone asks you what you're going to be doing tomorrow
or on the weekend.
And if you're doing some things,
but they're not that important,
you might answer by using one of the two phrases
I just said.
You could say nothing really or nothing much.
These are very common phrases in English.
At work when heading out the door on a Friday,
a colleague might say,
"Hey, Bob, what are you doing this weekend?"
And probably my most common answer,
especially during this year of COVID
would be nothing much or nothing really.
It basically just means I'm doing some stuff,
but I'm not doing anything fun or exciting.
Oscar is a really good dog.
He hangs out with Jen when she's working
in the flower fields, he's very calm, but he does bark
if a stranger comes onto our property, he's a good dog.
Our last dog though, was kind of a good for nothing dog.
Good for nothing is a phrase we use in English
to describe someone or something that isn't very useful.
Our last dog just slept all the time. He never barked.
He just stayed by his dog house and he ate food
and he just wasn't very helpful.
He didn't really hang out with Jen.
He didn't bark when strangers came,
he was kind of a good for nothing dog.
This isn't a nice way to describe someone or something,
but it's just a way to describe someone or something
that doesn't really do anything.
In the flower bed behind me, there's nothing but flowers.
When you say nothing but in English,
it's just another way of saying only.
And in informal English, we often say sentences like this.
There's nothing but flowers in this flower bed.
We don't grow vegetables. We only grow flowers.
There's only flowers growing here.
There's nothing but flowers in the flower bed behind me.
When I was a teenager,
I worked for my uncle building houses.
But one summer he came to me and said,
"Bob, it's nothing personal,
but I can't give you a job this summer."
My uncle used the phrase, it's nothing personal
because it had nothing to do with me.
The reason he couldn't give me work
wasn't because I was a bad worker,
it wasn't because he didn't like me.
There simply wasn't enough work.
So the English phrase, it's nothing personal
is a phrase we use when we're about
to give someone information.
But we want them to be aware that it's not their fault.
It has nothing to do with something they've done.
It's nothing personal.
Another really common phrase in English
with the word nothing in it is the phrase.
It's nothing.
This is a phrase we use sometimes instead of saying,
you're welcome after someone thanks us for doing something.
Many of you in the comments below, will say,
thanks, Bob, for the English lesson.
And I could respond by saying, ah, it's nothing.
Basically what I'm saying is it wasn't that much work,
I enjoy doing it, it didn't cost me a lot
to make the English lesson,
and so I respond by saying, ah, it's nothing.
It's just another way of saying you're welcome.
Now if I wanted respond to people thanking me
for my English lessons in kind of a cocky, arrogant,
or boastful way I could use the phrase,
you ain't seen nothing yet.
So this is another English phrase
with the word nothing in it
that we use when we are telling people
that things are going to get better
and kind of in a cocky way,
like kind of like, whoa, you ain't seen nothing yet.
So if you like my English lessons now
just wait I have a lot of plans for this summer
to make them better and I could, boastfully say,
you ain't seen nothing yet.
So the best I think is yet to come.
A long time ago, I was working somewhere
and someone was stealing paper regularly.
So I made sure that my boss knew that I had nothing
to do with it.
I often worked late at that job
and I didn't want my boss to think
that I was the one stealing the paper.
I wanted to make sure that my boss knew
that I had nothing to do with it.
The English phrase, nothing to do with,
simply means that you didn't do it.
You're not associated with the person who is doing it.
You don't know who's doing it.
You had nothing to do with it.
Eventually they did catch the person
and that person got fired.
I guess that's what they deserved.
Sometimes people fall in love
and then sometimes they break up.
After they break up,
sometimes they might say something like this,
he means nothing to me or she means nothing to me now.
This is a phrase we use in English
to kind of indicate that we don't have feelings
for someone anymore.
So maybe there is someone in your past
that you really, really liked romantically,
but now they mean nothing to you.
You don't have those same strong feelings anymore.
And that's the phrase that you would use.
You would just say he means nothing to me now
or she means nothing to me now.
Sometimes sports teams are in an all or nothing situation.
Usually this happens towards the end
of their regular season.
They're in a situation where they need to win the game
if they want to move on.
If they lose the game, their season is over.
And in English, we would certainly call that
an all or nothing situation.
An all or nothing situation
is a time where either you do well
and you get the reward, or if you fail at something,
you don't get anything.
So thankfully learning English
is not an all or nothing situation.
It's not like being in a championship match,
you can just keep doing this, keep learning things
and keep doing well.
Well, thank you for watching this English lesson
about phrases with the word nothing in it.
It was pretty easy for me to make
because I had nothing at all to do today.
Nothing at all, is your last phrase
that I want to teach you in this lesson.
Nothing at all just means the same thing as nothing,
but we use at all to kind of emphasize it a bit.
So I had nothing at all to do today
so I thought it would be fun
to make this English lesson for you.
Thanks again for watching.
If you're new here,
don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there.
Give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn
just a little bit more English.
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