Learn the English Phrases TOY WITH and LIKE A KID WITH A NEW TOY

In this English lesson,

I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "toy with."

When you toy with something,

it means you are thinking about it.

Sometimes I toy with the idea of not working.

I toy with the idea of maybe learning a new language.

When you toy with an idea,

it means you kind of play around

in your mind with that idea.

You think about, what would life be like

if I spoke three or four languages?

What would life be like if I had a different job?

So you toy around with the idea in your mind.

I think that's why we have the word toy in this phrase,

because you're playing around with the idea.

Maybe some of you toy with a lot of different ideas.

Maybe you toy with the idea of working somewhere else.

Maybe you toy with the idea

of maybe starting a business someday,

or you toy with the idea of maybe speaking

more than two or three languages.

The next phrase I wanted to teach you is the phrase

"like a kid with a new toy."

When you say that someone is like a kid with a new toy,

it means that they've bought something,

and they're so excited about it,

they're like a little kid.

The best example I can give is this.

There are many people in my area that drive pickup trucks.

They like to drive pickup trucks.

And when they get a new pickup truck,

even if they are 30 or 40 or 50 years old,

they are like a kid with a new toy.

So even though they've spent

60 or $70,000 on their pickup truck,

they're so excited,

they're like a kid with a new toy.

They're just, they talk about it,

they drive it everywhere,

again, they can't stop talking about it.

They're like a kid with a new toy.

So to review, when you toy with an idea,

it means you're thinking about it

and playing around with it in your mind,

and when you describe someone

as being like a kid with a new toy,

you're describing an adult who has just bought something,

and they are so excited,

they seem like they're a child again.

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

This comment is from the video where I talked

about the phrase "nowhere to be found,"

and this comment is from Jacques.

And Jacques has a great comment,

he says, "Hi, Bob,

your keys were nowhere to be found.

Did you look in every nook and cranny?

Did you search high and low?

Best regards."

And my response was,

"Yes, when my kids are nowhere to be found,

I search high and low,

I look in every nook and cranny.

Great phrases, Jacques.

Thanks for sharing them."

So yes, thank you very much, Jacques,

for sharing those phrases.

I don't think I've talked about the phrase "high and low."

When you look for something,

sometimes in English we say that we,

like, I looked high and low.

I looked in all the high places,

and I looked in all the low places.

Sometimes we say when we are looking

for something that we looked high and low.

I think I might have talked about

the phrases "nook and cranny" before.

If I did, I'll put a link up there.

It's probably a short lesson from a year or two ago,

but definitely, when you are looking for something,

you look in every nook and cranny,

and you definitely search high and low for it.

Yeah, yesterday was kind of a funny video

because I talked about losing things,

and then today,

I lost my banana.

(laughs)

I know that's a funny thing to lose,

but I had a busy day at work,

I didn't get a chance to eat lunch,

and I had a banana,

and so I put my banana somewhere,

and then I couldn't find it.

And we were driving home,

and then when I got home,

I found my banana in my jacket pocket.

For some reason I put my banana in my jacket pocket.

Not a great place to put a banana.

I do not recommend that you keep a banana

in your jacket pocket because it could get squished.

But it didn't,

and I just finished eating it about 10 minutes ago,

and it was delicious.