Meaning of UPHILL BATTLE and IT'S ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE - A Short English Lesson with Subtitles

5,670 views ・ 2020-04-06

Bob's Short English Lessons


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- So in English, an uphill battle is any situation
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that is really, really difficult.
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Of course, a real battle is when armies fight
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against each other, and when you run
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or walk uphill it's hard.
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But when we use these two words together,
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when we say that something is an uphill battle,
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it means that we are in a situation in life
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that is really, really difficult.
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Sometimes after you have surgery,
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after you have an operation, it can be an uphill battle
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to get back to full health.
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Sometimes when you lose your job
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and you no longer have any income,
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and you have very little money,
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it could be an uphill battle in your life
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in order to find a new job and to start
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to have some income again.
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So in English, when you say something
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is an uphill battle, it means that you feel
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like you're at the bottom of a hill
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and you feel like you need to fight your way
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to get to the top of the hill.
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I hope none of you are experiencing
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any uphill battles in your life right now.
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The flip side of that is, sometimes in English
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we say it's all downhill from here.
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This can have two meanings though.
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Sometimes when you say it's all downhill from here,
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you mean that things are going to get easier.
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Maybe at work you worked on a really big project
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and all of the hard parts are done,
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and because only the easy parts are left you could say,
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"Ah, it's all downhill from here."
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But this can also mean that things are going to get worse.
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So maybe your parents have figured out
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that your report card from school,
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that your grades from school are really low
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and you know that you're going to get grounded,
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that's when your parents don't let you out anymore,
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you could say that, "Oh my parents saw my report card
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"and now it's all downhill from here."
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So, hopefully you're not fighting uphill battles,
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hopefully if you use the phrase it's all downhill from here,
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it's because life is getting easier.
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Anyways, I'm Bob the Canadian, hope you're
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having a good day, I'll see ya tomorrow
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in the next video.
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