Learn the English Phrases GRASPING AT STRAWS and THE LAST STRAW

In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn

the English phrase, grasping at straws.

When you are grasping at straws,

you want something to be true

or you want something to be right but you know

you have very little chance of proving it or getting it.

Here's a great example.

Let's say you answered a question on a math test

and the answer was eight and you wrote six instead of eight.

If you went to the teacher and said,

sir, I wrote six instead of eight

but if you look at the six,

it's sort of looks like an eight

or if the student said, you know sir, I wrote six

but I meant to write eight.

Now that I know the answer was eight,

I really meant to write eight.

We would say that that student is grasping at straws,

they're trying to find ways to prove something was right

and they have very little evidence and it just isn't true.

So when you are grasping at straws,

you are trying to make something seem like it was correct

when it wasn't.

The second phrase I want to teach you today

is the phrase, the last straw.

The last straw, I guess the best way to look at this is

if you have an argument or fight with someone,

you usually have it right after the last straw,

something was the last straw.

Maybe you have a friend who constantly says things

about you that bother you a little bit.

And they say things all the time

and you never really mentioned it,

they kind of maybe like yesterday,

I said they make fun of your hair

or they say unkind things about you

and then one day you just it's the last straw,

they do that one last thing that really upsets you

and you just yell at them or have an argument with them,

we would say that that is the last straw.

So to review, when you are grasping at straws,

you are trying to desperately prove that something

is true when probably even in your own heart you know

it's not true.

So you're using any argument you can to try

and prove it's true.

And when something is the last straw,

it's like that last thing that happens

before you get angry or before you have an argument,

it's the last straw.

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

This comment is from Vladimir and Vladimir says this,

"Hi, Bob, how are you doing?

"I would be grateful if you could explain

"the difference between the words bald and bold.

"How do you pronounce them?

"These words have similar pronunciation

"but various meanings, thanks for answering

"and have a great weekend."

And I said, I will do this at the end of my next video.

So this was from yesterday's video.

I thought this was a great one to talk about.

So first of all bald, bald,

I'm not bald, you can see right here though.

I'm not sure what's happening here.

I think this is just gray hair but it could be the beginning

of my hair falling out, maybe in a few years

when you're watching Bob The Canadian, I might be bald.

I don't think that's happening yet.

But a bald person is a man that has no hair.

Generally women don't lose their hair.

Actually I don't much about men and women who go bald

so let's just stick with the fact that I can tell you this.

My grandfather, on my dad's side of the family was bald.

My grandfather on my mom's side of the family had

a full head of hair

right up to the day he died.

So I hope that I have inherited the genes

from my mom's side of the family so far so good

but yeah, I do if you look whenever I get a hair cut,

I'm not sure what this is, there's a little white line.

I think maybe it's just gray hair.

Anyways, that's bald, B-A-L-D, bald.

Bold is when you have a lot of courage so B-O-L-D.

If someone is a bold person,

they are not afraid to do things,

they are not afraid to say things,

they are very bold.

I hope someday that I can say that I am a bold person,

sometimes I'm afraid to say things

but mostly I just say whatever's on my mind,

anyways there's the difference, bald and bold.