Learn the English Phrases FORGIVE AND FORGET and LET BYGONES BE BYGONES

5,507 views ・ 2020-09-15

Bob's Short English Lessons


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- In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn
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the English phrase, forgive and forget.
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When you forgive someone, it means that
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they did something you didn't like,
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they apologized and then you forgive them.
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Basically, if they say, I'm sorry, you say something like,
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hey, it's no big deal or hey, don't worry about it.
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So when you forgive someone, it means that you no longer
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are annoyed with them for doing something wrong.
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When you forget something it means you simply
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don't remember it anymore.
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So we have this phrase in English that we say to people,
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it's always best to forgive and forget
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or it's good to forgive and forget.
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That means if someone does something to you that's annoying,
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it's probably best just to forgive them
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and then just forget about it,
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it's not easy to do.
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Sometimes it's easy to forgive but it's not easy to forget,
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sometimes it's easy to forget
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and then you kind of don't forgive
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because you're not thinking about it anymore
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but usually if you can forgive and forget,
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it's the best way to go.
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The second phrase I wanted to talk about is
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let bygones be bygones.
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This is an older phrase but it's still used in English,
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you'll hear it from time to time.
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If you say to someone, let bygones be bygones,
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it means that if something happened to them
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that they didn't like, maybe it happened a long time ago,
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they should just try not to think about it
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and they should just forgive the person
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who did that to them.
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This is a tricky one because if it's something simple like
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if you stole my lunch when I was in elementary school,
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one or two times, I would probably if I met you today
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and we're both the same age and we're old now,
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I would probably say, hey let bygones be bygones.
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I'm not even worried about the fact that you used
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to steal my lunch in school.
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So again, if you say forgive and forget,
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it means that it's probably best if you can
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to forgive somebody for wrong doing
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and then try to forget about it
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and then when you say, let bygones be bygones,
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it means that you just want to let something
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that happened in the past be forgotten
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and to not worry about it anymore.
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Hey, let's look at a comment that we got
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and this comment actually has the phrase
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let bygones be bygones in it.
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This comment is from Jacques Vernier and Jacques says,
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"Hi Bob, I'm French and I'm addicted to your lessons.
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"Thanks to you, I learned that I'd been a class clown
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"in my youth.
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"I used to throw pieces of chalk at the board behind
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"my teacher's back."
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I shouldn't be laughing at this, should I?
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"But let bygones be bygones,
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"it was 60 years ago."
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And my response to Jacques was,
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well, you must have a great memory to remember so far back.
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I agree though, let bygones be bygones
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as it was so long ago.
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So there is a great example of how to use the phrase,
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let bygones be bygones.
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But I do want to talk a little bit more
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about forgiveness and forgetting.
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Phrases like forgive and forget can seem so simple.
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Like, oh, just forgive and forget.
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And I know there are small things in life
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that happened where it's really easy to forgive and forget
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but I'm also aware that people
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can be extremely mean to each other.
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And I don't want to teach a phrase
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like forgive and forget or let bygones be bygones
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without recognizing the fact that sometimes things happen
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to us in life, sometimes people do things to us
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that's just wrong and it's very, very difficult to forgive
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and it's extremely difficult to forget.
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So again these phrases I think you can use
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when you're talking about lighter moments in life
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but certainly if something has happened to you in the past,
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that was very traumatic,
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that means something really bad happened to you,
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maybe a crime or maybe something
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that just wasn't very nice for you in life
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to have someone say, just forgive and forget
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or let bygones be bygones can make you feel kind of sad.
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So I hope nothing like that has ever happened
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to you in life and if it has, I hope that you can work
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your way through it in a peaceful way
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where you just feel right about
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how you live your life now.
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