Learn the English Phrases "by weight" and "dead weight"

3,088 views ・ 2023-03-31

Bob's Short English Lessons


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

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In this English lesson,
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I'd like to help you learn the English phrase "by weight."
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When you buy something, you can either buy it by weight.
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You pay a certain amount per pound or per kilogram,
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or I think the opposite is by volume.
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When I buy gas, I pay per liter.
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But when something is sold by weight,
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you pay for a certain number of pounds or kilograms
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or whatever other measure of weight they are using.
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When we sell bouquets, we sell by quantity.
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You buy 12, sorry, you buy 12 flowers in a bouquet,
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so you're buying I guess by volume
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but I would say by quantity.
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When I buy gas, it's by volume,
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and when I buy things like bulk food at the grocery store,
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where you scoop it yourself and put it in a bag,
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often you pay by weight.
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We actually have a store called Bulk Barn in Canada
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where you can buy everything by weight, candies, chocolate.
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I like buying chocolate by weight, although the scoop I make
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usually ends up costing more than I'm expecting.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today
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is the phrase "dead weight."
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This refers to anyone who isn't doing their job.
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We also would say they're not pulling their weight.
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If you watch a sports game, if you watch a football game
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and one person isn't running very fast
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and they don't play very good defense
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and they never score a goal,
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you might say that they're dead weight.
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You would describe that person as being dead weight.
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Not a very nice way to be described,
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but if you're dead weight,
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it means you're not really doing anything.
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So to review, when you buy something by weight,
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you're paying by the pound or by the kilogram
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depending on how you measure things in your country.
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And when someone is dead weight,
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it means that they're not contributing the way they should
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to a team or at work or someone else.
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But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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This comment is from Axmed.
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"Hello teacher Bob the Canadian.
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"Is this phrase correct?
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"'I met the President, or I met with the President'?"
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My response, both are correct,
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but with slightly different meanings,
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so I'm glad you brought this up.
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"I met the President."
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This means you saw him or her once briefly,
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maybe shook his or her hand
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and maybe got your picture taken.
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"I met with the President,"
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this means you probably sat down for a bit of time
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and talked with the President.
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So thanks for that comment by the way, Axmed.
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Yes, you can see from my response,
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slightly different meanings.
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The first one simply means that maybe you were somewhere
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and the President was there and you said "hi"
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and got a selfie taken with the President,
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and then the second one
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would mean you actually had a meeting.
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You actually sat down and you talked about things.
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You probably must be a very important person
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if you had an actual meeting with the President,
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although everyday people sometimes can meet the President
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or Prime Minister.
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Someone I work with actually met the Prime Minister
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and got his picture taken.
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I was surprised.
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He didn't meet with the Prime Minister.
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He met the Prime Minister at like a meet and greet
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in a park I think that's where it was.
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So I was a little bit jealous.
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I thought, Bob the Canadian
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should someday get a picture with the Prime Minister.
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That would be really, really cool, of Canada.
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By the way, did you know that's one of my dreams,
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which will probably never happen?
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I would love it if the Canadian Tourism Board
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hired me as an ambassador for Canada
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promoting this beautiful country.
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I thought, wouldn't it be cool
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if when I retire from teaching,
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if the Canadian government sent me
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all over Canada making English lessons to show off
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this beautiful, beautiful country that I live in?
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I don't think that'll ever happen,
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(vehicle roars)
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but it's worth dreaming about, isn't it?
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Maybe I should meet
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with the Prime Minister someday to talk about it.
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Maybe I should see if I can schedule a meeting
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and convince him to give me that job.
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Bob the Canadian,
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Tourist Ambassador for the country of Canada.
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That would be a lot of fun.
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Anyways, thanks for watching
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and I'll see you in a few days
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with another short English lesson.
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Bye.
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