Learn the English Phrases CAUGHT OFF GUARD and CAUGHT IN THE ACT

In this English lesson,

I wanted to help you learn the English phrase

caught off guard.

Have you ever been caught off guard?

When you're caught off guard,

it means something happens and you haven't planned for it.

Here's a great example.

Maybe the weather forecast says

it's supposed to be a beautiful day,

and you decide to go for a two-hour walk,

and in the middle of your walk, it starts to rain.

We would say that you were caught off guard.

You thought it was going to be a nice day.

You didn't bring your umbrella,

because the weather forecast said

it was going to be beautiful,

but you were caught off guard when it started to rain.

So when you're caught off guard,

it just means something happens

and it's something that you didn't know was going to happen.

The second phrase I wanted to teach you today

is the phrase caught in the act.

When you're caught in the act,

it means you're caught doing something

while you're doing it.

Usually we use this phrase

to talk about people who are committing a crime.

When someone is stealing a boat, maybe.

You can notice behind me, there's a nice river.

When someone's stealing a boat,

and as they are stealing the boat, the police pull up.

We would say that they are caught in the act.

I know once when I was a kid, I was taking cookies.

I often stole cookies as a child,

and one time, I was caught in the act by my mom.

I literally had my hand in the cookie jar

and was stealing a cookie.

So to review, when you are caught off guard,

it means that you didn't plan for something to happen,

and then it happened.

Sometimes students at my school

will go to their first track and field meet,

and then they don't wear suntan lotion

and they're caught off guard.

They think it's going to be a cloudy day.

They don't wear suntan lotion,

and they're caught off guard

and they get a really, really bad sunburn.

The other phrase, to review,

caught in the act simply means

for someone to catch you while you're doing something,

usually something that you're not supposed to be doing.

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

This comment is from May.

"Hi, Teacher Bob.

I'm from Myanmar.

I was not good at using phrasal verbs,

but after watching your videos, I don't have to think a lot,

and I can use them naturally without thinking.

Thank you so much."

And my response, "You're welcome, May.

I'm glad I can help."

And yes, I am glad that I can help.

You know, part of what I'm trying to do here

with these lessons

is I'm trying to create a lot of content

for people to listen to,

so that even if you're not actively trying to learn,

the fact that you can listen to my videos

a couple times a week,

and listen to my longer videos on my other channel,

hopefully everything starts to sink in.

In English, when we say that stuff sinks in,

it means that after being exposed to something

for a long time,

your brain just naturally learns how to use it.

So hopefully as you listen to me talk,

a lot of things will sink in.

Hey, I'm out here in a local town.

My daughter actually needed to be dropped off this morning.

She has what's called driver's ed.

She's learning how to be a good driver.

It's school for new drivers.

And so I thought I should come out here,

and this is actually a river.

I know, let me turn around and give you a nice view.

So I know this might look like a lake.

It is gigantic, but it is actually a river.

It's called the Grand River, and it flows into Lake Erie.

So what you're looking at is actually,

I almost said is actually a lake.

Is actually a river.

It's a beautiful town right here on the Grand River,

and I think one of the cool things is

is people come here and they do a lot of boating

and they do a lot of fishing,

and it's actually a little bit cooler out here.

I know you can't see the lake,

Lake Erie is far in the distance,

but it actually creates kind of a micro-climate here.

This town is usually a couple degrees cooler

than it is at my house.

Anyways, thanks for watching.

I hope you're having a good day,

and I'll see you in a few days

with another short English lesson.

Bye.