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

In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn

a particular use of the English phrase "for good."

In general terms, you can do things for good or for evil,

but that's not the meaning I want to talk about today.

We also use the English phrase "for good"

to talk about something that's permanent.

Here are a few examples.

If someone said, "Does your brother still live with you?"

You could respond and say, "No, he moved out for good."

That means he moved out and he's not coming back.

You could also say to someone,

"Oh, are you still dating that girl?"

And the person could respond and say,

"No, we actually broke up,

"and we broke up for good."

That means that they have broken up and it's permanent.

So in English, when you use the phrase "for good,"

it can mean a situation that is permanent.

"Did Joe move to France?"

"Yep, he moved there for good."

That means he's not comin' back.

The other phrase I wanted to help you learn today

is the phrase "as good as it gets."

This describes a situation

that isn't going to get any better,

and probably isn't going to get any worse.

It's as good as it can get.

So let's say, ah, let me think about this for a sec.

The road that I live on, they fix it every once in a while.

I would love it if they would fix it

to be way better than it is,

but this is about as good as it gets.

This is about all I can expect

from the town that fixes my road.

The road right now is as good as it gets.

That means it's not gonna get any better.

It's pretty much gonna be the same old road all the time

with a few holes here and there.

That's about as good as it gets.

So it's not describing something as being amazing,

it's not describing something being really bad,

but it's about as good as it gets,

as good as you could hope for.

So to review, if something is "for good,"

it can mean a permanent situation.

You could say, "He moved to France for good."

That means that he has moved to that country permanently.

And when you describe something

as being "as good as it gets,"

it simply means that it is in a situation or state,

and it's not gonna get any better.

It's kind of risen to the point

where it's just not gonna get any better than what it is.

I'm not explaining this one very well,

but hopefully you understood it.

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

This comment is from Julia, and Julia says,

"I hope I will still be really with it when I am 97.

"Age is not kind,

"but they say that learning a language is really helpful

"if you want to be with it for a long time."

And my response was, "One of my fears in life

"is that when I'm really old, I won't be very with it.

"I hope aging is kind to me."

So thank you, Julia, for that comment.

I only used the first part of your comment.

Thank you though, for leaving the comment yesterday.

It was, and it was on the English lesson

about the phrase "with it."

I'm a little afraid that as I get older,

I won't be as with it as I am now.

You know, life is kind of funny.

When you're young, you are very healthy.

You are physically healthy and your brain works really good,

but you're maybe not very wise.

As you get older, you get wiser,

but physically you're not in as good a shape,

and mentally, sometimes you can,

things can deteriorate as well.

When something deteriorates, it gets worse.

So my biggest fear in life,

because I am a teacher and I use my brain so much,

is that I will later in life not be very with it.

I hope that aging is kind to me,

as I said in the reply to the comment.

I hope aging is kind to all of you as well.

I do find life to be very interesting

and curious that way,

that as you get older, as you get to the point in life

where you are ready to enjoy life a lot more

because you have less responsibilities,

you also get a little bit physically weaker

and mentally weaker.

It doesn't seem fair, does it?

Anyways, I'll see you in a couple of days

with another short English lesson.