Learn the English Phrases "a little something" and "a little off"

In this

English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “a little something”.

This is a phrase

we use to describe something when we don't quite know how to describe it.

If you watch this English lesson to the end, I added a little bit of music.

I thought that my videos needed just a little something.

I didn't know quite what it was, but I thought,

you know, I need a little something at the end.

And then I finally decided the answer was to put a little bit of music there.

It's music that I used earlier this summer, I think, with the video...

I forget...

When Brent was here I think I used that music

in one of those videos, but I thought, you know what?

It just needed a little something.

Sometimes when you eat something, that's how you might describe it as well.

You might say, Mmm, this cookie tastes good,

but it needs a little something and maybe that something is salt or sugar.

I don't know.

The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is “a little off”.

When you describe someone or something as being a little off,

it means that they're not behaving normally, if it's a person,

or it's different or strange if you're talking about a thing.

A few weeks ago I visited a friend and my friend seemed a little off.

And so I said to him, You know, what's wrong?

And he shared with me something that was happening in his life.

So if a person seems a little off, it means they're not as happy as they

normally are or they're not behaving the way they normally do.

The other day I ate a cookie.

I bought a cookie from Tim Hortons and something was a little off.

It didn't taste very good at all.

The cookie tasted old and stale.

There was definitely something a little off.

So to review a little something,

this is how we describe when we know that something needs something or...

or we want to put something somewhere, but we don't know quite what it is.

We just say, Oh,

it needs a little something or I'm going to put a little something there.

And when you say something is a little off or a person is a little off,

it just means that

it's different than normal or the person is acting different than normal.

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

Here is a comment from Know-that: Your lawn looks nice, tidy

and freshly cut Bob, just like your new haircut.

It's back to school time, so I had to get it cut.

By the way, as always, it looks great on you. And I believe you.

I can imagine that it's not that easy or possible to have a big channel

and on the other hand, respond to all the comments you get

even if you wanted to, because YouTube

is not the only thing in your life you have to take care of.

You have your job, your farm and your family,

and they all need the same care and attention.

On that note, thank you for spending some of this time with and for us.

I appreciate that you always try to reply to all our comments...

all of our comments. I wish you a wonderful day, sir.

You know, you're awesome.

So I did read the whole thing.

Wow. And then my response:

I firmly believe that YouTube is meant to be just that YOUTube.

I capitalized you.

If you want success here, you have to put a little bit of yourself into it.

I do that in the comments.

It's fun to connect,

and I think it makes the experience much more real for me and the viewers.

And I do firmly believe that.

I believe that sometimes people

try to be successful on YouTube, but they forget that part

of this whole thing is you have to share a little bit of yourself.

I mean, you have to be personable.

You have to be friendly.

You have to be willing to tell people a few things

about your life so that they enjoy the experience.

So I know mostly I teach English here, so I'm not a true YouTuber in the sense

of, you know, I'm not vlogging every day or trying to entertain you.

But I still think if you're going to put videos on YouTube,

no matter what they're for cooking or English lessons, or even if you're

just vlogging, you do have to share a little bit of yourself.

And Jen and I often talk about what parts of our life

are we willing to share with all of you and some things we keep private

because that's just normal.

But some things I'm quite willing to share, like the fact that this is

the last day that you'll probably see me in my blue champion t shirt for a while.

I'll be wearing collared shirts.

Let me check the time here.

Oh, I should wrap this up in a bit.

I'll be wearing collared teaching shirts for quite a while

in these videos going forward, but I am looking forward to that.

But just one more relaxing day at home.

You're watching this on a Wednesday, but it's actually Monday right now.

I go back to work tomorrow, which is yesterday for you.

Anyways, I'm rambling on.

Thanks for watching.

I do enjoy responding to the comments.

We'll see how good I am at it during the school year,

but I'll see you in a couple of days with another short English lesson. Bye.