Joker, you've never been anything but an empty suit. If you ever come to Gotham again, I'll
be all over you like a cheap suit.
Not my best Batman, but... Hi, welcome to engVid. I'm James, and this is Mr. E. Today's
lesson is on the word "suit". I'm wearing the bat suit, and I'm sure you've heard of
Batman. And if you haven't, when you're done this, go watch the Batman movie and then come
back, and this will be funny. All right? Anyway, welcome to engVid. James. Mr. E, and Mr. E.
Oh. "Censored", this means you're not allowed to look or you can't see it; there's something
wrong. So, why don't we talk about why I'm wearing a bat suit, why E is wearing a suit,
and why he's censored over here? Let's go to the board. [Laughs] Okay, anyway.
So, "suit" is what we're working with today. "Suit" is a word that could be either a verb
or a noun in English, and we usually use it with a lot of expressions. So, today, we're
going to work on the expressions that we use it for.
Let's start with the first one. I've divided the board into business and personal, or should
I say: "Personal and business", because I'm awake, and we're going to find out how "suit"
is used in the business world and in your personal life, so you can use this word outside,
you know, with your friends, joking around, having fun or actually when you go to work.
Ready? Let's go to the board.
"Birthday suit", you're naked, baby - no clothes whatsoever. And if you look very carefully,
E is censored, because he's in his birthday suit. He has no clothing. He looks a little
too happy, right? If you take a look, a little too happy for my liking.
Now, what about him wearing a suit here? We've got "birthday suit", to "suit up". There's
a program in North America called How I Met Your Mother, and there's a guy called Barney.
Barney's hilarious. And whenever he wants to go meet women... He's got a friend. I forget
his name. He always goes: "Let's suit up", and they go on and they put suits. That's
a suit and a tie, and they dress up. And as you can see here, Mr. E is suited up. He has
put on his shirt and his tie. He wants to look good. It means to look good and attractive.
Another meaning for "suit up" is this: in the military, they might say: "Suit up, boys!"
It means: get your weapons, get ready for battle or for action. Sometimes they say in
sports: "Suit up!" Get your uniform on. Get ready for action. So you could say it's for
putting on a suit, or: put on clothes for action, because you're ready to do something;
military, sports, any kind of activity. First two.
What's the other one? Well, this isn't a monkey suit, but it kind of feels like one right
now. A "monkey suit" is the informal word for tuxedo. Tuxedo, I'm sure you've seen it,
when people go and get married, they wear a fancy, special suit because on this suit
they have a bowtie. It's a tie that looks like this, usually used for weddings and formal
occasions; big parties. Yeah? So, they call it a monkey suit because... I'll explain.
Even though it's formal clothing, it's like a uniform because all the men wear the same
thing. They will usually wear a white shirt with a black jacket, a cummerbund, which is
this thing they put around their waist, here. Okay? And black pants and black shoes. And
all the men wear it, so that's why they call it a monkey suit, because they're all doing
the same thing. But we also sometimes call uniforms monkey suits. If someone works as
a cleaner, they might say: "This monkey suit", because it's not... I'm not... I don't feel
human; I feel like one of a group, just a uniform body of people. Okay? "Uniform" meaning
the same.
"Bathing suit". If you wear a bathing suit, it's not when you take a bath. I know, you
think shower, you think bath. A bathing suit is something different. When you go swimming,
that's when you wear your bathing suit. So when you go to the ocean and you're out there,
you're not in your birthday suit - no, you can't go naked. But you can put on a little
thing, it looks like little underwear. And some girls, their bathing suit is a "bikini",
that's a two-piece bathing suit, or it can be a one-piece bathing suit. All right?
So we've got personal. "Birthday suit", naked. "Suit up" to get dressed and put on a suit,
or put on clothing ready for action. "Monkey suit", a tuxedo. I know, funny, but it's a
form... An informal word of saying "tuxedo". We say it in a negative way because we don't
want to wear it, usually. Or it can be a uniform. And finally, "bathing suit", is what you wear
when you go swimming. Okay? All right.
So, what about business? We just talked about this suiting thing, so we're going to switch
ourselves over here, and go to the business. The thing about "suit" is this: when we talk
about it in business, it's usually quite negative. You'll notice over here, it's kind of fun.
Right? But if you talk about, for instance, somebody wearing... Someone is an "empty suit",
it means a person who is in management who is useless, basically. They're not real or
fake, or they have no effectiveness. "No effectiveness" means they can't do their job well, or when
they do something, it doesn't work at all. They're not effective. Right? They're an empty
suit. Imagine someone wearing a suit and a tie, but there's no hands, feet, and the face
and legs - that's what they're referring to. This person is useless, almost invisible.
An empty suit. A person who has done nothing to earn their possession, or they're not effective.
Okay?
What about "suits"? You go: "Well, James, I have two suits. Is this good for business?"
It has nothing to do with business. When someone goes: "Hey, man, they are the suits." they're
referring to high-level management or sometimes the government. "We don't work for you, suits,
man. We don't work for you." And it's negative, because you're powerful and you're the corporation;
you're faceless. It's like Microsoft is good and you like Microsoft products, but the guys
who work in the office and sell the Microsoft products, they're the suits. They're not the
creative team who bring it to life. Right?
"Lawsuit". I'm probably going to get a lawsuit for this video, because I just made Batman
look really stupid. Okay? A lawsuit is when you go to court because you feel that somebody
has done something, and they've taken from you or you have lost something. We call it
"civil", because it's when two people say, maybe: "You hit my car." And I'll say: "I'm
going to sue you", there'll be a lawsuit. I'm losing wages from my job, means making
no money and time, so you should pay me. Or you make a product that's not very effective,
like: "This doesn't work. I'm going to sue you! There'll be a lawsuit." And what that
means is you owe me money because this doesn't work, and I want that money back. Okay?
Now, from all the talking I've done, you're going to see suit, suit, suit, suit, wearing
bat suit, he's wearing a suit, that person has no clothing suit, "James, what does 'suit'
mean?" I'm glad you asked. Mwahahaha. Okay. What "suit" means is this: a suit is something
that is right for you or makes you look good. This bat suit makes me look good because I
have a chest. I don't normally look this good, so it suits me. Okay? So, when you say to
somebody: "That suits you", it makes you look good. Right? Or it's right for you. "I think
that job is... That job suits you." It's right for you.
I'm going to introduce this one word, another word that's similar, a synonym to it, but
it's not exactly the same because in North America, you'll hear people say: "suit" and
"fit" and they will seem the same, but they're not, so you have to be careful. The word that
I want to show you is this: "fit". "Fit" is similar to "suit". There's a big difference,
though. "Fit" means the right size or shape. -"Does this bat suit fit me?" -"Yes. It's
a good fit." It's the right size or shape for me. If it were too big, you'd say: "It
doesn't fit you." You wouldn't say: "It doesn't suit you." Because maybe I do look like a
superhero and it suits me, but it's too big and it doesn't fit me, meaning the size or
shape is either too big or too small. Okay? So "fit" and "suit", just a little aside or
a little note for you to keep in your mind. When you hear North Americans saying it, you're
saying: "What do they mean?" Well, if they say: "Suit", it's the right thing for you
or it makes you look good. If it says: "Fit", like this cap fits this pen, it means it's
the right size or shape.
I hate this. English is a language made of many languages, so every rule I say - there's
an exception. And I know there's some of you guys right there, going: "Okay, I got him.
I got him. I know he's wrong. There's this one in English where they say," al-la-la-la.
I know. I can see you, this "la-la-la", salivating, and that means having water drip from their
mouth like a dog, ready to get James. You're always ready to get me, but I got you. [Laughs]
Got you. Okay?
There is one big exception in North America, usually in business people say something and
it's an expression that goes like this: "She is the right fit for our company.", "He wasn't
the right fit for our company." And in this case, "fit" doesn't mean size or a shape.
It means they were not right for the company. Right? Not the right person for the company,
that's what it means. And it's a big exception, because in business they will say this regularly.
They won't say: "He doesn't suit the company." They'll say this one first. Now, if you can
remember that one, you're good because 80% of the time, the other ones work [kisses hand]
perfectly. Anyway, we got some more work to do because I want to talk about common expressions
in English. I'm going to be right back...
In a flash. Okay, so... Was there a guy just here? Ears, you know? Just maybe it's just
me. I don't know. Okay, so anyway, we did some vocabulary and we talked about the difference
between "fit" and "suit", as you can see, and we talked about what "suit" means, and
some business ways of using it and some personal ways. But let's look at some expressions.
I mean, expressions are how we usually speak. We don't just say the word "suit", so why
don't we try to be like native speakers. Okay? Let's go to the board and take a look.
So the first one I want to start off with our popular expressions is "strong suit".
Think about "strong", which is like strong like Batman. Batman, anyway, I don't... Strong,
'muy fuerte'. Very strong. So, when we say something's your strong suit, it usually refers
to what a person is very good at, or an institution. When I mean an institution, you might say:
"A bank is very good at giving money to people." That's a strong suit. As a person, might be
a very good writer. That's their strong suit. It means the thing that they're best at, or
they're really, really good at. Okay? That's your strong suit. So, what's your strong suit?
Think about it. Your good looks, your charming voice, or the fact you can sleep all day long?
All right.
This one: "All over s/b like a cheap suit." S/b means somebody. Just it's a short way
of writing it, make it faster. So if you see that again, you'll know what it means. When
you're all over somebody like a cheap suit... Let's think about a cheap suit. Now, this
suit is not cheap. It fits me well. It's not expensive either. But a cheap suit is usually
something that's not well-made; it's badly made. So sometimes it's tight, you know, tight,
tight, tight, tight. Very tight. So close to the body. Right? So, a cheap suit are bad-fitting
or ill-fitting, and they're too tight in all the wrong places. So they're tight on the
chest, or you know, they're really, really loose; the opposite of tight. So when we say
someone's all over you like a cheap suit, we mean they're too close. They're touching
you too much. They're too close to you, and you want them to get away from you. You're
like: "Get off of me. You're like... You're like me on... You're like all over me like
a cheap suit." I don't like the way it fits or the way it feels. Right? So we can talk
about that. Somebody at a bar, trying to pick you up, like: "Hey, baby, why don't you come
back to my place?" They put their arm on you and start touching your arm. You're like:
"Man, get off of me. You're like a cheap suit. You're not fitting right. Ugh." Okay?
How about "suit yourself"? Suit yourself. "Yourself" is a reflexive pronoun, "suit"
is what he's wearing. I'm confused. Let me enlighten you. "Enlighten" means to give you
knowledge. [Laughs] Okay, "suit yourself" means... First, "suit", a person wears a suit.
Correct? So you put it on yourself. "Suit yourself" means put the suit on yourself.
Think about it. Basically, it means: "Do what you want. I don't care." We say it sarcastically,
because we're saying you made a decision we don't think is correct, we're not going to
stop you, it's not my business, I don't care anymore, so do what you like. But instead
of saying: "Do what you like. I don't care", we're like: "Suit yourself." Remember? You
put a suit on, you're like: "Suit yourself. Do what you want. I don't care. Me not care
no more." Okay? Sorry.
"Suits me". Now, you're going to go: "James, they're the same. Right? Suit yourself", no.
No, no, no, no, no. In this case, you're telling somebody: "Do what you like. I don't care."
When somebody says: "Suits me", it's: "Yeah, that's the right fit. That's great or correct
for me. Suits me just fine. I like it." You know? "This house, beautiful. Look at the
trees, the water, the lake, the monster in the lake - it suits me just fine. I like it.
It's good for me." Not the same. Exact opposite. This one, they don't care; and this one, you
do like. It's good for you.
And the last one, this is sort of similar, but when we talk about this, we want to talk
about companies or other things or other places. Right? "That suits them. That works for them."
So if you go: "Oh, them having children right now, that suits them just fine. That's good
for them." You can use it for companies. Right? "He suits that company." The right image or
the right person for the company or event. "This suits the house well." Right? "Or it
suits the party." It's the right thing. So we're not talking about yourself; you're talking
about a thing, things. Okay? Something external.
Now, I like to be very thorough, means I like doing a good job, and I think we've done a
good job here, so just to make sure, I'm going to give you three little questions, a little
quiz you might say, because you know at engVid we have more... You know, a lot of quizzes
for you, but we'll give you a short quiz right now to take a look at, and let's see how well
you learned your lesson. Are you ready? All right.
"When Mr. E saw Marian at the party, he was all over her like a __________."
What? A birthday suit? Would you say: "All over her like suit yourself"? Hmm. I'm going
to give you a couple of seconds to think about that. 5, 4, 3... Ah! I'll just tell you. He
was all over her like a cheap suit. So you can imagine Mr. E putting his arm around a
girl, if only he had arms, and he's holding her, going: "I love you, baby." She's like:
"Oh no, E, let me go. Let me go." He was all over her like a cheap suit.
Number two, okay? What's number two? "Josh was so drunk he came to the party in
only his __________." Bat suit? No. His bathing suit? That would
be funny, but if he was really drunk, I think he would come in his... 5, 4, 3 [snaps], ah
I don't want to get to 1.
His birthday suit. Wan, wan, wan. Naked. No clothes. Drunk.
And number three: "After the argument Mr. E told James he would
prefer to be alone."-I want to be alone. And-"James said __________."
I'm going to give you a hint. It's on the board. That's your strong suit, being alone?
No. "You're all over it like a cheap suit." I don't think so. "Suit yourself"?
Yeah, you're smart. See? I know you're smart. I knew you would... I knew you knew the answer. I just
wanted to play with you a bit. Yeah, he told him: "Suit yourself. You want to be alone?
Suit yourself. I don't care. I'm out of here."
Speaking of which, I am actually out of here. I hope you enjoyed the lesson. Okay, "suit",
you can use it now for business, personal. You know the difference between "fit" and
"suit". You know popular expressions, and you passed the mini test. But I know you,
I know you will, you're going to go to the website... What website could this be? www,
what? "eng" as English, "vid" as in video-o-o-o.com, (www.engvid.com) where I have other videos,
and so do other teachers, and we love to have you visit us. But more importantly, do the
quiz, see how well you did. And as always, I want to say: you know what? Thank you for
being a good engVid watcher. All right? We'll see you again soon. Chow.
I swear to god that guy was wearing a bat suit. He's a freak man. Freak.
Or at least he suited himself up.