Learn the English Terms UNDERHANDED and HANDS DOWN

6,885 views ・ 2022-02-11

Bob's Short English Lessons


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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In this English lesson I wanted to help you
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learn the English term that's underhanded.
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This is a phrase we would use
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to describe something that's kind of sneaky,
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maybe even a little bit illegal.
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When something is underhanded,
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it means someone's doing something
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they're not supposed to do, in order to achieve something.
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Here's a great example.
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If a politician is in an election,
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if they are running for office,
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and if they were to pay people to vote for them,
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you would probably say that's underhanded.
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Basically, when you have an election,
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people are supposed to freely go out
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and vote for who they think is the best person for the job.
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And if someone pays everyone they know $5 to vote for them,
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we would say that's underhanded,
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meaning that it's deceitful, they're deceiving people,
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and it's also illegal.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today
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is the phrase hands down.
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When you say something is, well, here's the example.
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If I was to say, "These are the best cookies
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I've ever eaten, hands down," it means like decisively.
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It means like for sure.
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If you are a fan of a sports team,
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and they beat the other team hands down,
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the score, if it was football or something,
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was probably like 5 to 1, or 10 to 8.
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If it was basketball, it might be like 105 to 80.
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You would then say that that team won hands down.
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So it means like decisively, that there's a clear winner.
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It means that they for sure accomplished
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what they were trying to do.
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Anyways, let's review.
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When you describe something by saying "that's underhanded,"
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you're basically saying that's illegal or that's wrong,
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or someone isn't playing by the rules.
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I should do that phrase, shouldn't I? To play by the rules.
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I'll do that in a future video.
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And if you win something hands down,
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or if you say something is the best, hands down,
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it means decisively, it means for sure, it means absolutely.
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But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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It's always a mystery to me where these comments are,
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it almost fell out of my pocket.
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This comment is from Helinä.
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The comment is, "By the way, your hair looks awesome."
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And my reply, "Thanks, I feel like it's getting a bit long.
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I might get a haircut this weekend. I like it short."
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So I don't talk about my appearance very much,
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but I have mentioned to many of you in previous videos,
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that I do like my hair short.
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That when I was much younger, I had a motorcycle,
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and when I wore my helmet, when my hair was longer,
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it would look funny when I took my helmet off.
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So I ended up getting a really short haircut and I liked it,
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and I've just kept it that way ever since.
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For me, this feels like really long hair.
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I know it doesn't look long to you maybe,
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but for me, it's like, ah, I feel like my hair
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is starting to stick out on this side, there's kinda
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like this funny cowlick thing that happens here.
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By the way a cowlick
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is when your hair grows in a funny direction.
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If you look on this side of my head,
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sometimes you can see it,
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but the hair starts to grow straight out.
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I'm not gonna comment on my eyebrows or eyelashes,
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they're doing weird things too as I get older.
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But, yes, for me, this would be long.
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I've thought about growing my hair out.
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When you say in English
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that you're gonna grow your hair out,
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it means that you're gonna go from having shorter hair
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to having longer hair.
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But I just can't see myself doing it.
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I don't know if I could have this flowing mane of gray hair,
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I'm not sure I would like it.
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I'm not sure if Jen would like it.
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So I think I'll just ask Jen to cut my hair this weekend
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and I'll go with the short look for a while longer.
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Anyways, I'm gonna leave the beard and mustache on though.
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Ow, I just poked my nose. That hurt a little bit.
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Bob the Canadian out here making English lessons
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and poking his nose and hurting himself a little bit.
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(chuckles) I hope you enjoyed this lesson,
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and I'll see you in a few days with another one, bye.
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