Learn the English Phrases TO PUT INTO MOTION and TO GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS

In this English lesson,

I wanted to help you learn the English phrase,

to put into motion.

In English, when you say that you are

going to put something into motion,

it means you're going to start doing it.

Usually it means that you have some new plans,

or new ideas that you're going to start to do.

A good example would be this.

When the school year starts,

I have a lot of ideas that I want to put into motion.

I have a lot of planning to do.

I have a lot of things that I want to get started on.

So I think about those new things over the summer.

What do I wanna do in my classes this year?

And then when the end of August comes,

the beginning of September,

I put into motion all of those new ideas.

The other phrase I wanted to teach you today

is the phrase to go through the motions.

When we say that someone

is going through the motions in English,

it means they're just basically doing the bare minimum,

maybe at work, or in a relationship.

If I was to describe a colleague

who was going through the motions,

they would come to work, they would do their job.

They wouldn't do a good job,

they wouldn't do a really bad job, but they would be there.

And then at the end of the day, they would go home.

They would just be going through the motions.

In a relationship, sometimes a husband and wife

don't get along anymore,

but instead of getting separated or divorced,

they just go through the motions.

So they still live together, they still eat together.

Maybe they just don't do anything fun anymore.

And that's kind of sad,

but they just go through the motions.

So to review, when you put something into motion,

it means that you get it started.

Sometimes the government will decide on

new things that they want to do.

Here in Canada, we don't have to show a vaccine passport

to go to a restaurant anymore.

So, the government has put into motion

the plan to ease the restrictions, so that's kind of cool.

And to go through the motions

means to just kind of do the basic actions at work,

to not do a good job, but not do a bad job,

or in a relationship to just kind of stay together,

but there isn't really anything there anymore.

It's kind of sad, isn't it?

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

This comment is from Alaa.

Hello, Mr. Bob, thanks for the lesson.

You said that your hayfield is covered by water.

Do you grow hay by certain type of seeds,

or it grows by itself?

And my response was it is a hayfield,

so it grows back every spring by itself.

And I picked this comment,

because that answer isn't 100% correct.

It's mostly correct.

When we plant a hayfield,

when I plant a hayfield, I do plant it using seeds.

And then that hayfield,

not sure if you can see it way in the distance over there,

that hayfield will grow back every year

for about five or 10 years.

But it's usually a good idea

after about four or five years to work up the ground again,

and to plant the hayfield again.

So yeah, that hay field down there,

I planted it about five or six years ago.

It's probably still good for another year or two.

And then what I'll have to do

is I'll have to get out my tractor and my equipment,

and I'll have to work up the soil.

I'll have to plow the field, and disc the field,

and then I'll have to plant a new hayfield.

If you let a hayfield go too long,

eventually it just doesn't grow back really well.

There's a lot of weeds in it.

Some of the varieties of hay that you have planted in it

don't last a really long time.

So they grow about five or six years,

and then they start to,

the field gets a bit thin we would say, starts to thin out.

So anyways, talking about seeds,

I'm excited for spring to come, and for things to grow.

Hopefully that happens sooner than later.

Again, I'm talking about the weather a lot.

I must really be looking forward to spring.

Anyways, I'll see you in a couple days

with another short English lesson, bye.