Learn Fun Expressions in English | Meaning, Rhythm & Intonation

19,072 views ・ 2022-07-19

Accent's Way English with Hadar


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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'Rise and shine, honey'.
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'We're gonna do this bigger and better'.
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'Don't drink and drive.
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It's dangerous'.
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'I can't stand all the hustle and bustle of the city'.
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'What can I tell you?
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You live and learn.
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You live and learn'.
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Hey everyone, it's Hadar.
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Thank you so much for joining me.
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Today I'm going to talk about a type of expression that exists
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in English, that is very common.
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And I promise I'm gonna make it short and sweet, so you
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don't get sick and tired of me.
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This expression is called a binomial pair.
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Binomial pairs are expressions that are comprised of two words or even
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two parts, and are connected with one word, generally the word 'and' or 'or'.
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Now, the thing about these expressions that they come together.
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So for example, if I'm talking about short and sweet, safe and sound, sick
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and tired, we're talking about pairs that the order of the words is irreversible.
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Meaning, if you change the order – 'I'm tired and sick of you', right?
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'I hope you get home sound and safe' – it's not gonna work out.
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So, these expressions are set expressions.
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And what we're gonna do today is we're gonna look at a few
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interesting things that happen when using these binomial pairs.
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For example, intonation, rhythm, stress, and also sounds, so that when you use
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them or when you hear them, you'll start recognizing them and use them more.
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So first, I'm gonna give you a few examples of binomial pairs.
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For example, 'wine and dine'.
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'Wine and dine' is an expression that says to entertain someone and to host
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someone, and to give them food and wine, and to really take good care of them.
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Another example is 'loud and clear'.
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I hear you loud and clear.
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You're very clear and it's easy for me to understand you.
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Loud and clear.
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Another one is 'neat and tidy'.
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'Neat and tidy' is very clean, very organized, very tidy.
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Neat and tidy.
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And again, you're not gonna hear people saying.
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'it's tidy and neat'.
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No. Neat and tidy.
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Neat and tidy.
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Let's look at a few more examples that I have found on YouGlish.
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"Heard you loud and clear".
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By the way, if you wanna find out the meaning and see some examples
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of the most common binomial pairs, check out my blog post.
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I collected a lot of different examples for you over there.
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I put the link in the description.
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Now, in terms of pronunciation, when we pronounce this pair, the interesting
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thing is that both words – both content words, the first and the second word
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– are somewhat stressed, while the word in the middle is totally reduced.
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So the rhythm of this phrase is usually 'TA-da-TA'.
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Sick and tired.
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By and large.
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Hustle and bustle.
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Neat and tidy.
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Back and forth.
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Right?
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So you stress the first word, then you reduce the middle word, right?
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the conjunction or the preposition, and then you stress the second
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word, whereas the second word is usually stressed a bit more.
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By and LARGE.
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Neat and TIDY.
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High and DRY.
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Up and DOWN.
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Highs and LOWS.
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Highs and LOWS.
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TA-da-DA.
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Right?
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So, both the rhythm here is pretty consistent, but also the intonation.
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Right?
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Because you raise the pitch for the first word, you reduce the pitch for
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the middle word, for the connecting word, and then you raise the pitch, and
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it's usually a little higher: by and LARGE, back and FORTH, odds and ENDS.
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Right?
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And usually the next word is going to be a little higher in
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pitch and a little longer, cuz it's a little bit more stressed.
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Generally in English, the latter word in such phrases is the word
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that gets most of the stress.
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Now, another interesting thing to look at is how it sounds.
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So, a lot of times these words are connected not just in the meaning,
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but also in the sound of the words.
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What do I mean by that?
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You'll notice that in a lot of cases, the two words begin in the same sound.
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For example: Black and Blue, Safe and Sound, Live and Learn, Mix and Match,
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Drink and Drive, Trick or Treat, right?
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Friend or Foe, Now or Never.
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Okay?
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And remember, we have the explanation of many of binomial pairs on the blog post.
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So check it out if you want to go a little deeper.
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Now, another thing to notice is that sometimes they simply rhyme.
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So they don't start in the same sound, but they simply rhyme.
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And that creates like this musical feel to the language when you add it.
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So it's a fun expression to start using.
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For example: hIGH and dRY, lOUD and prOUD, hUSTLE and bUSTLE, mAKE or bREAK.
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Right?
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So, when you use them, it adds that little edge to your speech.
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All right, that's it.
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Now tell me, which one of the ones that we discussed is your favorite binomial pair?
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And if you have a few more that you'd like to share with us, write them
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down right here in the comments below.
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I hope you enjoyed it.
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Go check out the blog post for more information about binomial
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pairs and a lot more examples.
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Thank you so much for being here.
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Take care, and I'll see you next week in the next video.
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