Learn the English Phrases "in a jiffy" and "before you know it"

In this English lesson, I wanted to help

you learn the English phrase in a jiffy.

This simply means that something

happens very, very quickly.

It's an older phrase.

I don't actually use it that often anymore.

But I did hear my mom use it the other day.

She said she was going to be back in a jiffy.

We were playing a board game and she went

to get something out of her purse and she

said, oh, I'll be back in a jiffy.

So it is something that is

still used, but maybe by older people.

If you're watching an older movie or an older tv

show, you might hear the phrase in a jiffy.

When someone talks about doing

something really, really quickly.

The second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the

phrase, before you know it, this means the same thing.

To do something very, very quickly.

The other day I was at the garage

and I needed a new windshield wiper.

And you know what?

Before you know it, they're done installing that.

They do it very, very quickly.

I actually went to talk to the mechanic, and the

other mechanic installed the wiper before I knew it.

So I got to change the tense here a little bit.

But he popped the old one off

and he put the new one on.

Sometimes I do it myself, but with my blue

van, it's not as easy as you would think.

So sometimes I just have the mechanic do that

for me, even though it's an easy job.

So to review, when you do something in a jiffy, it

means you do it very, very quickly or almost instantly.

And if someone does something before you

know it, it means the same thing.

When you're in a restaurant, sometimes you

order food and before you know it,

the server comes back with the food.

That's always nice.

A colleague of mine went to a restaurant a few

days ago and waited 2 hours for his food.

That's definitely not quick at all.

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

This comment is from Denis.

I miss the old days when I could learn English

with short lessons and then the little, few dots at

the end and then my response, I'm back.

Yeah, thanks, Denis, for that comment.

It's been a while, hasn't it?

It has been a while since I have

made little short lessons on this channel.

And many of you have told me before,

don't apologize when you take a break.

But I do feel a little bit bad.

But it's nice to be back at it.

It's nice to be doing it again.

It's nice to come outside on a rainy December day.

It's kind of strange.

And to make a little lesson for you

and teach you a couple of phrases.

My plan is to keep going from now on.

I think that I have started doing everything again.

I've done live streams again.

I've started walking quite regularly again.

I'm caught up on all my schoolwork, and I think

it's time for this channel to start rolling again.

So you'll get a lesson today.

It's Friday today that you're watching this.

I'm making it on a Thursday, by the way.

And as well, next week, Wednesday, and Friday.

For the foreseeable future, you

should be seeing lessons. Hey.

Yeah, so no snow.

If you've been watching my other videos, you've

seen that we did get snow one day.

That was kind of nice.

But we're kind of in this zone right now.

It's flooding.

It's December 28 today, and the river is flooded.

In fact, way over there, I have a nice field of wheat.

And there were Canadian geese

eating my wheat this morning. I didn't like that.

I was about to go out there with

Walter and Oscar to chase them away.

But, yeah, it's just that kind of year.

I can show you this direction as well.

If you watch my videos a lot, you'll realize that the

river is quite swollen and it has jumped its banks.

And so we're looking at a little bit of flooding.

Anyways, if you want to see Oscar, apparently

I pushed the wrong button there 'cause I

haven't done this for so long.

If you want to see the dogs, come on, boys.

Come on, pups.

Come on. Come on.

So there's Walter, and Oscar is

like, I think he's running away.

Hey, Oscar.

Come on, pup.

Oh, I just got a huge lick on

my hand from this dog down here. Hi, Walter.

How you doing?

He's trying to lick...

He tried to lick the camera there.

Anyways, see you in a couple of

days with another short English lesson. Bye.