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

8,052 views ・ 2023-12-29

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
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you learn the English phrase in a jiffy.
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This simply means that something
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happens very, very quickly.
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It's an older phrase.
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I don't actually use it that often anymore.
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But I did hear my mom use it the other day.
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She said she was going to be back in a jiffy.
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We were playing a board game and she went
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to get something out of her purse and she
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said, oh, I'll be back in a jiffy.
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So it is something that is
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still used, but maybe by older people.
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If you're watching an older movie or an older tv
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show, you might hear the phrase in a jiffy.
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When someone talks about doing
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something really, really quickly.
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The second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the
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phrase, before you know it, this means the same thing.
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To do something very, very quickly.
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The other day I was at the garage
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and I needed a new windshield wiper.
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And you know what?
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Before you know it, they're done installing that.
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They do it very, very quickly.
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I actually went to talk to the mechanic, and the
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other mechanic installed the wiper before I knew it.
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So I got to change the tense here a little bit.
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But he popped the old one off
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and he put the new one on.
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Sometimes I do it myself, but with my blue
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van, it's not as easy as you would think.
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So sometimes I just have the mechanic do that
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for me, even though it's an easy job.
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So to review, when you do something in a jiffy, it
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means you do it very, very quickly or almost instantly.
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And if someone does something before you
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know it, it means the same thing.
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When you're in a restaurant, sometimes you
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order food and before you know it,
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the server comes back with the food.
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That's always nice.
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A colleague of mine went to a restaurant a few
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days ago and waited 2 hours for his food.
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That's definitely not quick at all.
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But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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This comment is from Denis.
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I miss the old days when I could learn English
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with short lessons and then the little, few dots at
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the end and then my response, I'm back.
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Yeah, thanks, Denis, for that comment.
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It's been a while, hasn't it?
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It has been a while since I have
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made little short lessons on this channel.
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And many of you have told me before,
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don't apologize when you take a break.
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But I do feel a little bit bad.
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But it's nice to be back at it.
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It's nice to be doing it again.
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It's nice to come outside on a rainy December day.
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It's kind of strange.
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And to make a little lesson for you
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and teach you a couple of phrases.
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My plan is to keep going from now on.
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I think that I have started doing everything again.
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I've done live streams again.
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I've started walking quite regularly again.
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I'm caught up on all my schoolwork, and I think
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it's time for this channel to start rolling again.
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So you'll get a lesson today.
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It's Friday today that you're watching this.
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I'm making it on a Thursday, by the way.
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And as well, next week, Wednesday, and Friday.
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For the foreseeable future, you
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should be seeing lessons. Hey.
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Yeah, so no snow.
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If you've been watching my other videos, you've
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seen that we did get snow one day.
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That was kind of nice.
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But we're kind of in this zone right now.
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It's flooding.
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It's December 28 today, and the river is flooded.
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In fact, way over there, I have a nice field of wheat.
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And there were Canadian geese
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eating my wheat this morning. I didn't like that.
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I was about to go out there with
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Walter and Oscar to chase them away.
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But, yeah, it's just that kind of year.
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I can show you this direction as well.
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If you watch my videos a lot, you'll realize that the
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river is quite swollen and it has jumped its banks.
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And so we're looking at a little bit of flooding.
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Anyways, if you want to see Oscar, apparently
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I pushed the wrong button there 'cause I
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haven't done this for so long.
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If you want to see the dogs, come on, boys.
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Come on, pups.
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Come on. Come on.
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So there's Walter, and Oscar is
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like, I think he's running away.
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Hey, Oscar.
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Come on, pup.
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Oh, I just got a huge lick on
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my hand from this dog down here. Hi, Walter.
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How you doing?
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He's trying to lick...
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He tried to lick the camera there.
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Anyways, see you in a couple of
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days with another short English lesson. Bye.
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