Learn the English Phrases TO BRING SOMETHING TO THE TABLE and TO PUT YOUR CARDS ON THE TABLE

In this English lesson,

I wanted to help you learn the English phrase

"to bring something to the table."

If you say that someone brings something to the table,

it means they have an ability

that makes a team better or makes a group of people better.

At work, if I was working with some other teachers,

and we were working on a project

that required someone to make a video, I could say,

"Hey, that's something I can bring to the table,"

because I'm really good now at making videos

because I think I've made about 700 of them.

That's a lot of videos, isn't it?

You can also use this when talking about a sports team.

You can say that your favorite player

brings something to the table.

Maybe they're a really fast runner.

Maybe they're really good at scoring goals.

And that would be something that they bring to the table

on the team.

The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase

"to put your cards on the table."

When you put your cards on the table,

it means you reveal something that was a secret.

Maybe you were planning something,

but you weren't really telling people

what you were planning.

If you were to put your cards on the table,

we also say, "to lay your cards on the table,"

it means that you would then reveal

what your plan was all along.

Maybe you're planning a party

and the party is to celebrate something,

but you also want to have a party

because you want to give everyone in your family

a whole bunch of money.

That would be your real plan.

So if someone said to you,

"So is this just a party,

or is there something else going on?"

you could say, "I guess it's time for me

to put my cards on the table.

The real plan is that I'm going to give everyone

lots of money."

I've never actually been to a party like that.

That would be a really fun party to go to, wouldn't it,

a party where someone just gives everyone lots of money?

Those don't happen very often, I don't think.

Anyways, to review,

to bring something to the table

means that you have an ability or a talent

that helps the team or group of people you're working with

do their job better.

And to put your cards on the table

or to lay your cards on the table means

to reveal a secret or to reveal something

that other people didn't know,

maybe a motive or a plan that you had.

Sorry that the camera's moving around a little bit today.

It's a little windy out here.

I'm just trying to get this video done before I blow away.

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

This comment is from Judit,

and this is Judit's second comment.

And so she's continuing here by saying,

"And I'll share a joke with you.

Why did the scarecrow win an award?

He was out standing in his field.

Why couldn't the bicycle stand up by itself?

It was two-tired.

I guess you knew these."

And my response was,

"I had heard them before, but they still made me smile."

So I'm not going to try and explain the jokes.

When you try to explain a joke, it's not as funny.

But thank you, Judit, for those jokes.

They did make me smile. They are good ones.

The only thing I will say is

that when you are out standing somewhere,

that means you're outside and you're standing up.

But when you're outstanding,

when it's one word,

it means you're really good at what you do.

So great jokes. I really like the bicycle one.

I heard that one for the first time a couple of years ago,

and it really made me laugh.

It's actually one of my favorite little jokes now.

It's considered a Dad joke in English.

A Dad joke is a really, really lame joke,

a joke that's just a little bit funny

that's usually told by dads.

I'll tell you another one real quick.

A man went into a store to buy some bees and he said,

"I need 12 bees."

And the store owner gave him 13 bees.

And he said, "Oh, you gave me one extra bee."

And the store owner said, "That's okay.

That 13th one is a freebie."

Hopefully that made some sense to you.

Hey, I want to address something serious with you guys.

It's not really serious.

But many of you in the comments say,

"Don't make videos outside in the winter. It's cold.

You're gonna get sick.

Why do you make videos outside in the winter?

You should be in the house where it's warm."

Well, you might not believe this,

but people like me actually like cold weather.

I don't actually mind being outside.

I really, really enjoy it.

I know that might seem strange,

but there's a whole country of Canadians

that feel the same way.