Learn the English Phrases RUFFLE A FEW FEATHERS and LIGHT AS A FEATHER

In this English lesson,

I wanted to help you learn the English phrase

ruffle a few feathers.

We also sometimes say, "Ruffle some feathers."

When you ruffle a few feathers,

it means you're going to do something or say something

that's probably going to upset some people or bother them.

If my boss at work said that everyone was getting a pay cut,

that we were all going to get paid less,

that would definitely ruffle a few feathers.

A lot of my coworkers, and myself included,

would be very upset if my boss suddenly said

that everyone was getting a pay cut,

everyone's getting paid less after today,

that would certainly ruffle a few feathers,

it would certainly upset quite a few people.

It would probably upset everyone,

I think everyone would be upset

if my boss said that.

The second phrase I wanted to teach you today

is just the phrase light as a feather.

I thought I'd use the word feather again

for the second phrase.

This is the most common way

to describe something or someone that's really light,

we say they're light as a feather.

Maybe there's a big bag of groceries in your car,

and you go to pick it up

and it actually isn't very heavy at all,

you would describe it as saying,

"Wow, that's actually light as a feather,"

because feathers, of course, I should've explained this,

feathers come from birds,

like birds and chickens

and those kinds of animals have feathers,

and they're very, very light,

so we often use the word feather

when we're talking about something that is very, very light.

Usually when it's unexpected,

when you think something's heavy and you pick it up,

you could say, "Oh, wow, it's light as a feather."

And we do describe people sometimes like this,

we could say, "Wow,"

you could pick up a small child, right,

maybe your nephew or one of your kids,

and you're like, "Wow, you're light as a feather,"

basically saying they don't weigh very much.

Hey, to review, when you ruffle a few feathers,

it means you say or do something

that upsets a lot of people,

and I think the example I gave was a really good one.

If your boss said that everyone

is getting paid less starting next week,

that would ruffle a few feathers.

And when you describe something or someone

as being light as a feather,

it means that they don't weigh very much,

it means they're very, very light,

and we often describe a person or thing then

as being light as a feather.

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

Let me get the comment out here.

This comment, ah, I don't know how to pronounce the name,

I should've looked this up, but I didn't.

I will do this later and I will put it on the screen,

but thank you for the comment anyways.

The question, or the comment is this,

"I have one question for you today,

"do you especially make your videos' durations four minute?"

Sorry, "Do you especially make

"your videos' duration four minute and seven seconds?

"Vast majority of your last videos have such a duration."

And my response was, "Yes,

"I actually make them exactly four minutes long

"and then add the ending slides.

"I do this because I want the lesson

"to be just the right size for quick viewing,

"but also giving a good amount of English learning."

So yes, I like these videos to be exactly four minutes long.

In fact, sometimes, a little secret here,

if I go over by one second or half a second,

I actually speed the video up a bit

so that it fits in the four-minute mark.

And I do that specifically because this channel

is for people who want a short, brief English lesson,

it has four parts, it's four minutes long,

I teach one phrase, I teach another phrase,

I respond to a comment

and then I just talk about something randomly

at the end about my life,

and that's all it's meant to be.

And so I don't want it to be five,

or six, or seven, or eight minutes,

because I know a few of you,

you watch it quickly on the way home,

maybe on the subway or on the train,

some of you just watch it quick

when you have a spare moment.

So I want these lessons

to be exactly about four minutes long

because I think that's just the right size,

it's a bite size amount of English,

a bite-sized lesson.

See you in a couple days with another one.