10 English Expressions with meanings you can’t guess!

Hi, everybody.

Welcome to www.engvid.com.

I'm Adam.

In today's video, I want to teach you some expressions that are very cultural.

So, if you're a non-native English speaker and you've never lived in an English-speaking

country, these expressions might be very difficult for you to guess.

Even in context, a lot of these will not make any sense because you don't know what they're

referring to, right?

So, these expressions I'm going to teach you.

You have... somebody has to basically teach you what they mean.

You can't really guess them, and some of them you won't even be able to look up in a dictionary

as far as I know.

So, we're going to start with this one, for example, "Bob's your uncle".

Now, people use this expression quite often.

It doesn't actually mean anything.

"Bob's your uncle" is just a person who's your mother's brother or father's brother,

etc.

What it means is "that's it".

So, you're going to do A, B, C, and then "Bob's your uncle".

It means that's the end of the story, it's as simple as that, that's it, finished.

Now, I hope everybody understood where I made the stop there.

Somebody explains something to you, how to do something or what the situation is, and

then they say, "Okay", and "Bob's your uncle".

So, do this, do this, do that, and "Bob's your uncle" means you're done, it's finished,

that's it.

That's what this expression means.

Why this expression exists, I don't know.

Why do people use it, I really don't know, but they do.

And if you're going to hear it and you're going to go, "Bob's not my uncle, my uncle

is Jack.

Who's Bob?"

Right? Like, you're thinking it's a little bit strange.

I'm sure he's not Jack, either, but you know what I mean.

Bite the bullet.

We're going to go to the next one.

Bite the bullet.

So, a bullet is the thing that you put into a gun to shoot things or shoot people.

To bite, bite the bullet means basically take the pain, take the responsibility, take the

negative of whatever situation.

So, in the old days, in the army, before they had all these drugs to help you numb the pain,

when they wanted to, like, fix you, you got an injury in battle, they put a bullet in

your mouth and you bit down on it while they fixed it, so all the pain was concentrated

here.

So, that's what it means now.

Bite the bullet, even if you don't want to do something or even if you think something

will be unpleasant, just bite the bullet, do it, get it over with, and then you'll forget

about it.

Right?

So, going to the dentist.

I don't want to go to the dentist, but I have a cavity, so I'll just bite the bullet, get

it fixed, and go on from there.

My boss wants me to work on the weekend.

I don't want to do it, but I know that if I will go on the weekend, my boss will be

happy, and maybe I will get a promotion next year.

So, I will bite the bullet, I will give up my cottage meeting with my friends, and I

will go to work and get some reward out of it.

So, that's bite the bullet, accept something.

If you twist someone's arm, right, or if somebody's trying to twist your arm, they're trying to

convince you or persuade you very aggressively, right?

They're not physically twisting your arm, like, basically, we mean, like, twist your

arm behind your back and you're paying, okay, okay, okay, I'll do whatever you want.

It's just a metaphor, like an idea.

They're doing something in a way that you can't really say no.

Often people say, okay, here, twist my arm.

They ask you if you want to do something, you really, really want to do it, and you

go, okay, okay, you're twisting my arm, I'll do it.

You're being a little bit sarcastic.

It's like they forced you to do it, but really, you wanted to do it.

So, it could be negative and positive.

If somebody's twisting your arm, they're not giving you much choice, or somebody's offering

you to do something you really want, and just for sarcasm or a joke, you say, okay, here,

twist my arm, okay, I'll go.

So you don't...

You're not jumping to say yes for it.

I hope that's a little bit clear, that one.

Pay the piper.

I think most cultures know the story about...

There was an old story.

There was a little village that had a lot of rats, and there was a guy who could play

the flute, and the rats would follow him.

So, he went to the village people, and he said, if you pay me, I will get rid of all

your rats.

And, of course, the village people are very happy because it was becoming a problem, so

he plays his flute, and he walks to another place, and all the rats come after him, and

he leaves them there.

He comes back to the village, and says, okay, now pay me, and they say, no, we don't want

to pay you.

So, then he plays his flute, and all the children of the village leave the village, and he puts

them away, and he comes back, and he says, if you want your children, pay me what you

owe me, plus a little bit more.

So, when it's time to pay the piper, it means it's time to pay for the things that have

helped you, for the people who have helped you, or for the good things you had that come

at a cost.

Now, it doesn't have to be an actual debt, like a financial debt.

Anybody who helped you, eventually you will have to help them somehow.

Or if you've done things a certain way, against tradition or non-standard, eventually there's

a price to pay.

Right? So, if you didn't go to school, and you didn't study, and you didn't work, and you just went

backpacking around the world, eventually you're going to come back to society, and that's

when it's time to pay the piper.

Then you're going to have to get a job, entry-level job, maybe you're in your 30s or 40s, but

you didn't do it the proper way before, now you have to pay the piper.

Now you have to pay your debt or pay for the price of what the choices you've made, essentially.

It's a long explanation, but I hope it's a little bit clear.

If somebody tells you don't give up your day job, it means the thing you're trying to do

is not very good, you're not very talented at something.

So, if you go to a karaoke club, and you get up to the stage and you start singing, and

somebody tells you don't quit your day job, it means you're not a good singer.

Right? It's a little bit rude, but it's a very common expression.

People say it as a joke, but it means you're not very talented at something.

To quit cold turkey means to just suddenly stop.

This is especially used for, like, alcohol, or cigarettes, or coffee.

Some people, when they want to quit smoking, they say, "Okay, I'll smoke a little bit less,

less, less until I get to nothing."

Doesn't usually work.

The best way to quit smoking is to quit cold turkey, just stop.

One day, decide no more, and just stop, and go on with your life without smoking, or drinking,

or having coffee, etc.

"Elvis has left the building."

Now, this is a very strange expression.

"Elvis" refers to Elvis Presley, who was a very famous musician, I guess, rock star in

the 50s and 60s, I think, and his concerts were so popular and the fans were so crazy

that even after the concert ended, the fans would not leave the building.

They wanted to see him again.

So, finally, the concert organizers would have to come onto the stage and say to the

crowd, "Elvis has left the building", meaning he's not even here.

There's no reason for you to stay, leave.

So, when we say, "Elvis has left the building", it means something is finished completely.

There's no more of anything coming, so go on with your life, move on with your life.

"Elvis has left the building."

So, yeah, everybody calm down.

"Go belly up".

Belly up.

If some...

Again, if we're talking about a company, but it could be individuals as well, if a company

goes belly up, it means it's gone bankrupt.

It has failed, it has no more money, it can't continue working anymore, and it's going to

close and go bankrupt, and probably owe many people money.

"Go postal".

This is a bit of a slang expression.

There was a time, especially in the States, where people would go a little bit crazy for

whatever reason, and they would take a machine gun and they would go to the post office and

kill everybody there.

Now, it happened a lot with postal workers.

Like a mailman who carries the mail, maybe lost his job, and he went a little bit crazy

and he went to his post office where he worked, and he just shot a lot of people and killed

them.

So, this became a very common expression to say somebody's going crazy.

If somebody's yelling and shouting and just doing crazy things, we say, "Oh, he's going

postal."

Or, if somebody works in an office, if I don't get a new job, I'm going to go postal.

It means I'm going to go crazy.

It doesn't mean shoot people, it just means go crazy.

Maybe do something a little crazy, too.

"Bury the hatchet".

A hatchet is a type of knife, basically.

If you bury the hatchet, it means you and a person you have been fighting with made

up, decided to become friends again, or at least not hate each other anymore.

So, you put your knives in the ground, there's no more knives, there's no more fighting.

You might not necessarily be friends, but you're not enemies anymore.

You forgot all the issues of the past, and you move on with your lives, and everything

is forgotten.

Okay?

So, there you go.

A few expressions that if somebody doesn't explain to you, very, very difficult to guess.

So, I hope they were clear a little bit, especially "pay the piper", that was a bit of a long

one.

Sorry about that.

But, it's okay.

It's good for you.

Anyway.

So, if you have any questions about any of these expressions, you can go to www.engvid.com

and ask me in the comments section.

There's also a quiz where you can try to test your knowledge of these expressions.

And that's it.

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See you then.

Bye-bye.