Learn the English Phrases BEATS ME and BEAT-UP

7,568 views ・ 2021-10-22

Bob's Short English Lessons


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

00:00
In this English lesson,
0
260
1070
00:01
I wanted to help you learn the English phrase beats me.
1
1330
3060
00:04
This is actually a really simple phrase.
2
4390
1790
00:06
It simply means I don't know.
3
6180
2300
00:08
I remember once I was at a school event,
4
8480
2760
00:11
and there was a car in the parking lot,
5
11240
1700
00:12
and the alarm was going off,
6
12940
1320
00:14
the car was going beep, beep, beep.
7
14260
2550
00:16
And my boss came to me, and said,
8
16810
1460
00:18
do you know whose car that is?
9
18270
1220
00:19
And I said, beats me.
10
19490
1590
00:21
Basically, all I was saying is, I don't know.
11
21080
2770
00:23
Sometimes I have this in class as well.
12
23850
2370
00:26
I'll say to a student, what's the answer to this question?
13
26220
2850
00:29
And the student might shrug,
14
29070
1290
00:30
and say, I don't know, beats me.
15
30360
1920
00:32
So they might say, I don't know, and beats me,
16
32280
2655
00:34
basically, those things mean the same,
17
34935
2105
00:37
those phrases mean the same thing,
18
37040
1770
00:38
but they might say both just to make sure
19
38810
1780
00:40
that I really know
20
40590
1130
00:41
that they don't know what I'm talking about.
21
41720
1800
00:43
They'll just say beats me.
22
43520
1910
00:45
Anyways, the other phrase I wanted to teach you today
23
45430
2830
00:48
is kind of more of a way of describing something.
24
48260
2620
00:50
It's beat up.
25
50880
1300
00:52
So you might be familiar with the phrasal verb to beat up,
26
52180
2723
00:54
which means to like beat someone up with your fists,
27
54903
2997
00:57
or to hit them, not a nice thing to do.
28
57900
2230
01:00
But when we say that something is beat up,
29
60130
3020
01:03
it means that it's not in good shape.
30
63150
2820
01:05
You can say this, my brother bought a car.
31
65970
2640
01:08
It's not a brand new car.
32
68610
1290
01:09
It's a used car, and it's a little bit beat up.
33
69900
2830
01:12
He bought a car that's a little bit beat up.
34
72730
2260
01:14
That would mean it has some dents in it.
35
74990
1670
01:16
It has some rust on it.
36
76660
1880
01:18
It's just not in perfect condition.
37
78540
2320
01:20
It's a little bit beat up.
38
80860
1570
01:22
A lot of the farm equipment that I buy
39
82430
2140
01:24
is older farm equipment.
40
84570
1920
01:26
And sometimes it's a little bit beat up,
41
86490
1880
01:28
and then I have to do a few repairs on it.
42
88370
2450
01:30
So to review, if someone says to you beats me,
43
90820
3510
01:34
it simply means they don't know the answer
44
94330
2250
01:36
to whatever question you are asking them.
45
96580
2370
01:38
And if you describe something as being beat up,
46
98950
3110
01:42
it means that it's getting old.
47
102060
1680
01:43
If it's a piece of equipment that can rust,
48
103740
2540
01:46
it might be a little rusty.
49
106280
1170
01:47
If it's a car,
50
107450
1910
01:49
I could even use it to describe my first camera,
51
109360
2570
01:51
the first camera I bought used,
52
111930
2130
01:54
and the camera was a little bit beat up.
53
114060
2120
01:56
It had some scuffs around the edges,
54
116180
1990
01:58
and it was definitely not in perfect condition,
55
118170
2670
02:00
but hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
56
120840
2720
02:03
This comment, if Google Translate serves me correctly,
57
123560
3720
02:07
this comment is from Roman.
58
127280
2130
02:09
The soil has already frozen to a depth
59
129410
2800
02:12
of one shovel in our location in Russia.
60
132210
2920
02:15
And my response, we're not quite there yet.
61
135130
2120
02:17
We'll probably have another month or so before that happens.
62
137250
3700
02:20
So for those of you that aren't aware
63
140950
2100
02:23
what the world is like in the winter.
64
143050
2700
02:25
I know some of you live in countries
65
145750
1510
02:27
where there is no winter.
66
147260
1940
02:29
When we have winter, eventually the ground freezes.
67
149200
3860
02:33
Here in Ontario, Canada,
68
153060
2220
02:35
the ground freezes to a depth of two or three feet,
69
155280
4710
02:39
almost a meter deep, the ground will freeze in the winter.
70
159990
3540
02:43
And that's why we put things like fence posts,
71
163530
4890
02:48
this fence post here.
72
168420
1820
02:50
If you can see it, hopefully that's in the frame.
73
170240
2900
02:53
I think it is.
74
173140
960
02:54
We put our fence posts over three feet in the ground.
75
174100
3960
02:58
Whenever we put things in the ground in Ontario, Canada,
76
178060
4670
03:02
we make sure they are at least three feet down.
77
182730
3480
03:06
Usually fence posts,
78
186210
1320
03:07
or even the telephone poles along the road,
79
187530
3520
03:11
what we call hydro poles,
80
191050
1620
03:12
everything is at least three feet or deeper,
81
192670
2570
03:15
because if you don't put things deep enough,
82
195240
2880
03:18
when the ground freezes,
83
198120
1350
03:19
it pushes them up slowly but surely out of the ground.
84
199470
4310
03:23
If you put a fence post like half a meter deep,
85
203780
3350
03:27
or a couple feet deep here in Ontario, Canada,
86
207130
2830
03:29
in about five or 10 years,
87
209960
1570
03:31
it would slowly come out of the ground.
88
211530
2270
03:33
The ground would freeze and thaw around it,
89
213800
1820
03:35
and eventually it would fall out.
90
215620
1390
03:37
So I know you came here to learn English,
91
217010
2260
03:39
but you just got a whole lesson
92
219270
2290
03:41
on how deep you should put your fence posts
93
221560
2350
03:43
if you build a fence.
94
223910
1730
03:45
You never know what you're gonna learn
95
225640
1630
03:47
on Bob's Short English Lesson channel.
96
227270
2710
03:49
Today, you learned a little bit about fencing.
97
229980
2450
03:52
Anyways, I hope you're having a good day.
98
232430
1750
03:54
I'll see you in a couple of days
99
234180
1070
03:55
with another short lesson, bye.
100
235250
1903
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7