Learn the English Phrases FOR GOOD and AS GOOD AS IT GETS

5,532 views ・ 2021-01-15

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 learn
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a particular use of the English phrase "for good."
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In general terms, you can do things for good or for evil,
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but that's not the meaning I want to talk about today.
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We also use the English phrase "for good"
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to talk about something that's permanent.
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Here are a few examples.
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If someone said, "Does your brother still live with you?"
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You could respond and say, "No, he moved out for good."
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That means he moved out and he's not coming back.
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You could also say to someone,
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"Oh, are you still dating that girl?"
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And the person could respond and say,
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"No, we actually broke up,
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"and we broke up for good."
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That means that they have broken up and it's permanent.
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So in English, when you use the phrase "for good,"
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it can mean a situation that is permanent.
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"Did Joe move to France?"
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"Yep, he moved there for good."
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That means he's not comin' back.
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The other phrase I wanted to help you learn today
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is the phrase "as good as it gets."
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This describes a situation
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that isn't going to get any better,
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and probably isn't going to get any worse.
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It's as good as it can get.
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So let's say, ah, let me think about this for a sec.
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The road that I live on, they fix it every once in a while.
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I would love it if they would fix it
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to be way better than it is,
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but this is about as good as it gets.
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This is about all I can expect
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from the town that fixes my road.
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The road right now is as good as it gets.
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That means it's not gonna get any better.
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It's pretty much gonna be the same old road all the time
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with a few holes here and there.
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That's about as good as it gets.
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So it's not describing something as being amazing,
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it's not describing something being really bad,
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but it's about as good as it gets,
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as good as you could hope for.
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So to review, if something is "for good,"
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it can mean a permanent situation.
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You could say, "He moved to France for good."
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That means that he has moved to that country permanently.
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And when you describe something
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as being "as good as it gets,"
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it simply means that it is in a situation or state,
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and it's not gonna get any better.
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It's kind of risen to the point
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where it's just not gonna get any better than what it is.
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I'm not explaining this one very well,
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but hopefully you understood it.
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Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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This comment is from Julia, and Julia says,
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"I hope I will still be really with it when I am 97.
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"Age is not kind,
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"but they say that learning a language is really helpful
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"if you want to be with it for a long time."
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And my response was, "One of my fears in life
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"is that when I'm really old, I won't be very with it.
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"I hope aging is kind to me."
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So thank you, Julia, for that comment.
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I only used the first part of your comment.
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Thank you though, for leaving the comment yesterday.
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It was, and it was on the English lesson
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about the phrase "with it."
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I'm a little afraid that as I get older,
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I won't be as with it as I am now.
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You know, life is kind of funny.
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When you're young, you are very healthy.
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You are physically healthy and your brain works really good,
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but you're maybe not very wise.
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As you get older, you get wiser,
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but physically you're not in as good a shape,
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and mentally, sometimes you can,
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things can deteriorate as well.
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When something deteriorates, it gets worse.
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So my biggest fear in life,
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because I am a teacher and I use my brain so much,
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is that I will later in life not be very with it.
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I hope that aging is kind to me,
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as I said in the reply to the comment.
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I hope aging is kind to all of you as well.
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I do find life to be very interesting
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and curious that way,
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that as you get older, as you get to the point in life
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where you are ready to enjoy life a lot more
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because you have less responsibilities,
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you also get a little bit physically weaker
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and mentally weaker.
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It doesn't seem fair, does it?
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Anyways, I'll see you in a couple of days
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with another short English lesson.
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