Learn the English Phrases GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD and IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD

In this English lesson

I wanted to help you learn the English phrase:

get it through your head.

If I say to someone, you need to get it through your head,

it means I want them to understand me

and I want them to agree with me.

As a parent, I often use this phrase.

My kids eat bread.

They make sandwiches from bread.

And sometimes there's one or two slices of bread

left in the loaf,

and they'll open a new loaf of fresh bread

instead of finishing the last two slices.

You will then hear me as a dad say something like this

to one of my children:

You need to get it through your head

that you need to eat the last two old slices of bread

before you can open up a fresh new loaf of bread.

So when you tell someone

they need to get it through their head

or if you say, you need to get it through your head,

it means you want them to understand you

and you want them to agree with you.

The second phrase I wanted to teach you today

is the phrase: it's all in your head.

We use this phrase to talk about things

that people are imagining and that aren't real.

Maybe your brother thinks that your cousin doesn't like him.

Maybe your brother says, "Well, my cousin,

our cousin hasn't phoned me in a week

when I borrowed his car,

and when I brought it back and said, thank you,

he didn't say you're welcome.

I think our cousin doesn't like me anymore."

And you could say: You know what?

It's all in your head.

That would mean that you think they're imagining it.

You would think that your cousin likes them just fine

and that it's not a problem.

So when you say it's all in your head,

you're basically saying, I think you're imagining that.

So to review, if you say to someone,

you need to get it through your head,

you're basically saying

you need to understand what I'm saying

and you need to agree with me.

And if you say to someone: it's all in your head,

you're basically saying,

I think you're imagining what you think is true.

Anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video.

This comment is from Julia, and Julia says this:

"Hi, dear teacher! Happy Monday, everyone."

This is from yesterday, by the way,

when it was Monday.

It's definitely better to be asleep at the wheel

while doing a job than while literally driving.

Let me reread that.

"It's definitely better to be asleep at the wheel

while doing a job than while literally driving."

And my response was this:

"Yes, for sure.

It is really dangerous

to literally fall asleep at the wheel while driving.

You'll end up in the ditch,"

that's if you go off the road, "or hitting someone.

It's always better to pull over at a rest stop

and buy a cup of coffee."

So thanks, Julia, for that comment.

By the way, I absolutely agree with you

that if you are asleep at the wheel at work,

it's less dangerous,

oh, it could be dangerous,

but if you are literally asleep at the wheel in a car,

that is really, really dangerous.

So definitely a good time to pull over,

stop and maybe get a cup of coffee.

I just wanted to explain the word literally.

When we use the word literally

when talking about English phrases,

we mean what it actually means

if you took every word at its actual meaning.

So when you fall asleep at the wheel driving,

it means that you're in a vehicle

and you fall asleep while driving.

When you fall asleep at the wheel at work,

it's kind of a figurative example.

You're not actually driving a vehicle.

And then I wanted to talk a little bit about rest stops.

On highways in Canada and in the United States,

there are rest stops along the way.

We call them rest stops here in Canada.

When you pull over in a rest stop,

you can buy gas, you can get food,

you can go to the washroom, you can use bathroom,

the word bathroom, if you are learning American English.

In Canada we say washroom.

But definitely when we go on a trip,

we always plan to pull over at a rest stop along the way.

And then we usually go to Tim Hortons.

The kids all use the washrooms

and usually I put some gas in the van while we're there.

So that's a pretty typical thing to do

when you're driving on a highway in North America,

is to pull over at a rest stop and get a little bit of food,

go to the washroom and get a little bit of gas.