Learn the English Phrases TOP DOG and SECOND BANANA / SECOND FIDDLE

4,657 views ・ 2021-04-19

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,
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I wanted to help you learn the English phrase top dog.
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If you are the top dog somewhere,
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it means you have the most power or you are the best.
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If you think about a sports team, for example,
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the person on the team who scores the most points
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every game and all season,
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we would call that person the top dog.
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If you look at something like the place where you work,
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your boss is the top dog,
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they are the person that has the most power
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in that organization.
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So when you refer to someone as the top dog,
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it means that they are the most powerful person,
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the person who has the most power,
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or the person who performs the best
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in some sort of situation,
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like a sports team or at a place where you work.
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Which is a little different than second banana.
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If you are second banana,
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it means there's one person
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who's a little bit better than you.
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We also sometimes use the phrase second fiddle.
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So maybe you have a sports team that you like to watch,
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and your favorite player was the top dog
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for many, many years,
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but now they've hired a new younger player
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who's much better,
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and now your favorite player
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has become second banana.
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They're not top dog anymore,
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now they're second banana or they're second fiddle,
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which probably isn't a good feeling.
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I think when you're really good at something,
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when you're the best on a team for a long time,
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when you're top dog for a very long time,
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it probably doesn't feel very good
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when some new younger person comes in
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and suddenly you are second banana or second fiddle,
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not the greatest feeling in the world.
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So to review, if you refer to someone as top dog,
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it means they are the best in an organization
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or maybe they have the most power in an organization.
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And when you say that someone
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is second banana or second fiddle,
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it means that they are now outclassed by one person.
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Sometimes we even say that they play second fiddle,
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but sorry, I was looking for the comment
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from the last video in my inside pocket,
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but it's actually in my side pocket.
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So let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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And this comment is from Judit,
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who is a long-time viewer of my channel,
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I really appreciate Judit,
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she has been around for a very long time
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and leaves really, really good comments.
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And the comment that Judit left is this.
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"Great explanation and I'm happy you helped Jen."
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And my response was this,
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"It's nice to help Jen,
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and to get out and do physical work as well.
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There's a saying in English,
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you can take the boy off the farm,
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but you can't take the farm out of the boy.
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This means that kids who grow up on farms
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usually remember it fondly."
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So thank you, Judit, for that comment.
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Judit, I think it's good that you appreciate
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that I helped Jen.
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I think that this flower farm
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is kind of, it's a job for two people,
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and I need to help out as much as I can
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because there's just things where,
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you know, many hands make light work,
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when two people do certain jobs,
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it just goes a lot better.
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And the phrase, yeah,
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it means that, a lot of times,
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kids who grow up on farms,
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when they move to the city, they miss living on the farm,
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not all children who grow up on farms are that way,
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but I certainly can identify with this phrase,
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you can take the boy off the farm,
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but you can't take the farm out of the boy,
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because I know when I lived in the city
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when I was in university,
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I found the city very loud.
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I think, someday, when I'm older,
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I could live in the city again,
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I did like certain aspects of the city.
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I liked that you could get pizza delivered,
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you can't get pizza delivered when you live way out here.
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But certainly when I lived in the city,
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I found the noise of traffic outside a little overwhelming,
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I was used to the peacefulness of the countryside.
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So now that I do live in the country again,
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it's just very, very enjoyable.
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I certainly like being somewhere
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where it's a little calm and peaceful,
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but I do miss the pizza delivery, see ya.
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