Learn the English Phrases IT'S NOT SET IN STONE and STICKS AND STONES...

6,536 views ・ 2021-08-09

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 I wanted to help you learn
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the English phrase, it's not set in stone.
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If something isn't set in stone,
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it means it might not happen.
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Maybe you're making plans for something,
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but all the details aren't in yet.
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So you're not even sure you're going to do the thing
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that you are planning.
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You would tell people that it's not set in stone.
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We also sometimes say,
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it's not written in stone or it's not etched in stone.
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And we almost always use this phrase in the negative.
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I can't think of any time where I've said
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something is set in stone.
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I almost always say something is not set in stone.
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So maybe you're thinking of having a party,
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but you're not 100% sure you want to have one.
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You might say to your friends,
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hey, I'm thinking of having a party this weekend,
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but it's not set in stone.
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That means it might happen, it might not happen.
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It's not permanent.
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The decision hasn't been made yet
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as to whether it happens or not.
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The second phrase I wanted to teach you today
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is the phrase, sticks and stones.
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And this is a shorter version of a phrase that kids say,
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which is sticks and stones may break my bones,
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but words will never hurt me.
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This is a phrase I used the other day because someone said,
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do you ever get negative comments on your YouTube channel?
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And I was like, wow, you know, sticks and stones.
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And what that means is that people do sometimes leave
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negative comments, believe it or not,
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sometimes I get really negative comments
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and I just delete them.
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I always, I think to myself,
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sticks and stones and then the whole rest
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of the little nursery rhyme.
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Words, negative comments do hurt a little bit,
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but I'm glad I'm older.
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I'm glad I'm an older YouTuber.
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I think I have a thick skin at this point in my life.
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Anyways, to review, when you say it's not set in stone,
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or it's not written in stone, or it's not etched in stone,
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it means that the plan is just an idea
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and it's not permanent at this point.
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And when you say sticks and stones,
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you're basically saying yes,
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sometimes people say negative things,
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people say mean things, but you don't let them affect you.
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Words do hurt sometimes though.
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I think when you're younger,
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it's a lot more challenging, right?
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But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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This is from Franco The Tutor and Franco says,
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first comment, i'm a teacher from Peru,
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thanks for being an inspiration to me.
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And then a little smiley face.
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And my response was, hey, it's no problem, Franco,
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I love doing it,
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I hope your teaching is going well, have a great day.
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So that's an example of a really nice comment.
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I mostly get really nice comments on my videos
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and I appreciate them.
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But going back to the sticks and stones thing,
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I was a little surprised when I first started doing YouTube,
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I almost tripped there,
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how many people would leave negative comments.
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And I think this is my opinion of negative comments.
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I feel bad for the person who's leaving the comment.
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I feel like that person is not having a good day
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and they're having such a bad day that they just wanted to leave
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mean comments on someone's YouTube channel.
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I don't know why people do that.
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It doesn't really help the world
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to leave mean negative comments.
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Now, sometimes people leave comments
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to correct something I've said,
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I have no problem with that, I make mistakes.
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It's good to have people point them out once in a while.
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But yeah, every once in a while,
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people will say something extremely mean,
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and that doesn't really make me sad for me,
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it doesn't make me sad,
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it makes me kind of sad for them.
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Anyways, you know what really makes me sad?
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When things like this happen.
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I'm sad when my tractor breaks.
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So this tractor, the tire went flat the other day,
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I was driving, doing some work,
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and all of a sudden I heard, pff,
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and all the air went out of the tire.
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So the tire, I have taken it off
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and it's at the tire repair shop now.
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So hopefully I get that back on Monday or Tuesday
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or today or tomorrow.
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'Cause I really need this tractor.
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Anyways, thanks for watching.
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See you in a couple of days
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with another short English lesson, bye.
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