Learn the English Phrases UP TO ME and UP IN ARMS - A Short English Lesson with Subtitles

In this English lesson

I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, up to me.

If something is up to me, it means that I get to decide it.

If something is up to you, it means you get to decide it.

Right now, if I wanted to go eat in a restaurant,

it's not up to me.

The government has said that we're not allowed to.

Another thing about the phrase, up to me,

is when our children have a birthday,

it is up to them to decide what we have for supper.

So my son is having a birthday this month,

and he gets to decide

what we eat for supper on his birthday.

It is up to him.

So, if something is up to me, it means I get to decide it.

If something is up to you,

it means that you get to decide it.

The other phrase I wanted to look at today

is the phrase, up in arms.

When you are up in arms about something,

sorry, I'm trying something new with my papers today.

When you are up in arms about something,

it means you are really, really upset about it.

Right now, still in the United States,

many people are up in arms

about the results of the election.

They are very upset about the results.

I think if I told my son on his birthday

that he wasn't allowed to decide

what we have for supper,

he would probably be up in arms about it,

he would be very, very upset

that he didn't get to decide what we got to eat.

So, to review once again.

If you say something is up to me, it means I get to decide.

So, sometimes things aren't up to me though.

But if something was up to me, it means I get to decide.

If something was up to you, it means you get to decide,

but sometimes it's up to the government to decide,

or it's up to your boss to decide.

That's not always the most enjoyable,

but I think overall rules and laws are good.

The other phrase, again, was the phrase, up in arms.

When you are up in arms about something

it means you are really, really upset about it.

By the way, I'm not up in arms about the weather today.

I'm actually kinda happy about it.

It's one of the first little snow falls,

here in Ontario, Canada.

Let's look, though, at a comment from a previous video,

this comment is from Alex,

and Alex says, "Hello, teacher Bob.

"I had noticed the kitten behind your back

as I was watching the video.

"It looked nice, is it yours?"

And my reply was, "Yes, technically it is mine,

"but it really is my daughter's.

"She's the one who spends time with it.

"I'm the one that buys the cat food."

I think you probably understand what I'm saying there.

Technically, I own the cat,

but I'm not the one that plays with the cats every day.

So, I'm the one who buys the food,

I'm the one who buys things to take care of the cats,

but it's really my daughter who plays with the cats.

So in the cat's mind, my daughter is their owner

because the cats don't really like me that much.

By the way, that was from a previous video.

Thanks Alex, for that comment.

Yes, in the previous video at the beginning,

there's a kitten that walks past,

and then it walks past again just a little while later.

And I think that kitten's name is Pumpkin.

So there are actually two kittens

that look exactly alike,

they are both kind of that orange color.

So my daughter, I asked her earlier,

I said, "What are the names of those two little kittens?"

And she said, "One's name is Pumpkin,

"the other one's name is Apricot."

So, she named the kittens after two things

that have that similar orange color.

So, she's pretty sure that that was Pumpkin

that walked behind me, and not Apricot.

So, those are their names.

So again, the kittens are technically mine,

but I didn't name them.

It wasn't up to me to name the kittens,

it was up to my daughter to do that.

Do you see what I did there?

I just used the phrase from the beginning of the lesson.

So it was up to her,

she's the one who goes out every day

and plays with the kittens.

She's the one that feeds them.

I'm just the one that spends the money

so that we have kittens.

It's kinda how it works when you're a parent.

Anyways, have a great day.

I'll see you in the next small English lesson.