Learn the English Phrases SPOKEN FOR and YOU'RE SPEAKING MY LANGUAGE

In this English lesson I wanted

to help you learn the English phrase, "spoken for."

If something is "spoken for,"

it means that someone has claimed it

or someone has said that they want it.

Here's a good example.

If I had two cookies on a plate,

and if my son said, "I would like the cookie on the left,

but I need to do some homework first

I'll come back and get it later."

And then if my daughter came and said,

"I want the cookie on the left," I would say,

"you can't have it."

It is spoken for.

What I mean by that is my son already said

he wanted it.

So he has claimed it or asked for it for himself.

So when something is spoken for,

it means that someone has said that they want it

and someone just can't take it at that point in time.

When we sell things at market,

sometimes someone is interested in a bouquet

and as they're looking for other things,

someone else wants it.

But we say, no, no, that one's spoken for.

Someone else has already said that they want it.

The other phrase I wanted to teach you today

is the phrase "speaking my language."

When you say that someone is "speaking your language,"

it means that they are agreeing with you,

or they're saying something you like.

It doesn't mean that

they're actually speaking your language.

I mean it can mean that.

If I hear someone speaking English,

I can say, hey, you're speaking my language.

But what we usually use this for

is if someone says something we agree with.

If someone says to me, "Bob, we should go have something

to eat, I'm hungry."

I could say, "ah, you're speaking my language."

If someone said, "Bob,

we should maybe go and visit Niagara Falls sometime,

and we should spend a good day there looking

at all of the sites."

I could say, "ah, you're speaking my language."

So in English,

when you say that someone is speaking your language,

or if you say you're speaking my language,

it means that you agree with them,

that they are saying something

that you are also excited about.

So to review, if something is spoken for,

it means that someone has claimed it.

Someone has already said that they want it.

And if you say that someone is, if you say, hey,

you're speaking my language.

It means that someone is saying something

that makes you excited and that you agree with.

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

This comment is from Jil or J-I-L

and Jil says, "does keep up refer exclusively

to physical speed?

I mean, could I use it to tell someone

to work as hard as I do or do as I do?"

And my response was this.

It can refer to other things as well.

If two people are doing the same job,

one can try to keep up with, with the other.

So that was from J-I-L.

Thank you so much for that comment.

And this was from the lesson on the phrase to keep up.

Again when you try to keep up with someone,

you try to go the same speed as them,

and it can apply to a whole bunch of things.

It can, of course apply to walking.

If I'm walking fast,

I can tell someone to try to keep up with me.

If I am working fast on a job, I could say to someone,

Hey, work a little bit faster.

Try to keep up with me.

If I am learning something like the English language

and my friend is learning it as well.

And my friend is going too slow.

I could say, hey, try to keep up.

We decided we were going to go the same speed

and now you're going slower.

So when you say that someone should keep up with you,

it can mean physical speed,

but it can also mean their progress on other things as well.

So anyways hopefully that made some sense to you.

I'm just sitting here thinking

that we have really strange weather in Canada.

This morning I went for a walk wearing just a t-shirt.

It's November 29th today.

I know you're watching this on November 30th.

It was just a really nice warm day.

When I got up, I said to Jen, "I'm gonna to go for a walk.

Have you checked the weather on the internet?

What should I wear?"

And she said,

"I think you can just go in a short sleeve shirt."

So I did.

I was a little bit cold at first, but as I walked,

I warmed up and it was actually quite comfortable.

So anyways, have a great day.

I'll see you tomorrow with another short English lesson.