Meaning of ALL YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW - A Short English Lesson with Subtitles

5,229 views ・ 2020-01-23

Bob's Short English Lessons


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

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So in English, when you say
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that you have all your ducks in a row,
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it means that you are organized and ready for something.
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Let's imagine that you're having a party.
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I always seem to be talking about parties,
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(laughs) but let's imagine
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that you are planning a party.
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You would want to buy some snacks,
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you would want to invite people to the party,
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you would want to make sure
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you have everything that you need
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so that the party goes well.
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You would want to have all your ducks in a row.
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You would want to be really organized and well prepared.
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I do the same thing whenever I make a video.
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I write a script for the video,
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I make sure that my camera batteries are charged,
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I do a lot of things to make sure that
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when I go to make my video,
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I have all my ducks in a row
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so that it goes really, really well.
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00:50
So once again, if you have all your ducks in a row,
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it means that you are very organized
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and you are ready to do something.
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I hope you always have all your ducks in a row.
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Because if you don't,
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you need to get your act together.
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I think we looked at this phrase a few months ago.
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In English, if I say to someone
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that they need to get their act together,
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or if I was to tell you
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that you need to get your act together,
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it means that you need to get yourself organized.
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It means that you need to be better prepared for something.
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So I hope that when it comes to learning English,
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you have all your ducks in a row,
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and I hope that when it comes to learning English,
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you don't need to get your act together.
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Anyways, Bob the Canadian here.
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Always talking about parties but,
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actually, I don't really have that many parties. (laughs)
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But, it's always a good example.
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And I just lost my train of thought.
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You're learning English with me.
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I'm Bob the Canadian,
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I hope you're having a good day.
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For a second there, I didn't have all my ducks in a row.
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For a moment there, I needed to get my act together.
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Anyways, bye.
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