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Hi, there. My name is Valen, and this
is a lesson on very common English
expressions. We're going to go through
ten really, really common English
expressions that you'll hear
in everyday conversation.
Okay, so in no particular order, we're
going to start with one that you'll
hear a lot. This expression is
"twenty-four seven."
Okay. When someone says
"twenty-four seven,"
what they mean is, because
there are 24 hours in a day
and 7 days a week, is they mean every
minute of every day. So an example is
"You can access our website 24/7."
I wrote it down, just because sometimes
you'll see it written this way,
"twenty-four seven" or numerically
like this, "24/7". What it means is,
"You can access our website any minute
of any day, all the time." So if
someone says, "Oh, I work 24/7," they're
probably exaggerating, and what
they mean is they feel like they work every
minute of every day, 24/7.
Okay. So our next expression
is "get the ball rolling."
Now what this
expression means is to start something. So
if you were going to start a project
and someone said, "Let's get the ball
rolling," what they mean is,
"Let's start now." This is a pretty simple
one, pretty straightforward. So, "Let's
get the ball rolling. Let's start now."
"Get the ball rolling."
Our next expression
is "take it easy."
"Take it easy."
So if someone says
to you, "I don't have any plans
this weekend. I think I'll take it easy,"
what they mean is "relax."
This is a simple one too.
"I'm going to take it easy."
"I'm going to relax."
So "take it easy."
Okay. The next one,
"sleep on it".
If someone says,
"I'll sleep on it,"
what they mean is, "I'm going to take some
time to think about a decision."
So if someone says, "I'll
get back to you tomorrow.
I'm going to sleep on it,"
(I'll write that down.)
"I'll get back to you tomorrow.
I have to sleep on it,"
what they mean is, "I'm going to think
about my decision and
talk to you tomorrow."
"Sleep on it," -- think about my decision
and get back to you.
"I'm broke," a really common one. So "I'm
broke" doesn't actually mean
you're broken. It means you have no money.
"I'm broke. I have no money."
This is a really common expression
that you'll hear all the time.
"Sharp." Okay. Someone says to you,
"The meeting is at 7 o'clock sharp!"
What they mean is, "The meeting is at
exactly 7 o'clock." When someone says
"sharp," what they mean is, "Don't be late.
The meeting will start at
exactly 7 o'clock." So the expression here
is "sharp." "The meeting is at 7
o'clock sharp!" If someone says that
to you, it means, "Be on time. It will
start exactly at 7 o'clock."
"Like the back of my hand." So, what
this means is the back of your hand is
something that's very familiar to you. You
know it well. You see it all the
time. So if I said, "I know this city like
the back of my hand," it means,
"I know this city very well. I am
very familiar with it." Very common
expression, "Like the back of my hand." You
could also say, "He knows this
city like the back of his hand," same idea.
You know something very, very
well. It's very familiar to you.
"Like the back of my hand."
Okay. So here's another one that uses the
word "hand." If you say,
"Give me a hand." So if someone says to
you, "Do you want to give me a hand," it
means, "Do you want to help me?" So,
for example, if somebody is carrying
something and they say, "Oh, would you give
me a hand," they don't want you
to put out your hand. They want you to help
them. "Would you give me a
hand? Would you help me?" "Give me a hand."
"In ages." Let's do an
example for this one.
"I haven't seen him in ages."
So, what this means is "in ages, for
a long time." So "I haven't seen
him in ages. I haven't seen him for a long
time." So "in ages" means "for a
long time."
Okay, our last one.
"Sick and tired."
Okay, so "sick and tired" means
"I don't like," or "I hate."
So, for example, if you
said, "I'm sick and tired
of doing homework," that means you
don't want to do homework anymore.
You don't like it.
So "sick and tired."
So those are ten really common English
expressions: "sick and tired,"
"broke," "in ages," "give me a hand," know
something like "the back of your
hand," "sharp" - so "be there at 7 o'clock
sharp," "sleep on it," "take it
easy," "get the ball rolling," and "24/7."
Those are ten common expressions
you'll hear in everyday
English conversation.
So take the quiz below and test your
knowledge of English expressions, and
visit us at www.engvid.com.