Learn the English Phrases "to mess up" and "to mess around"

5,335 views ・ 2023-08-09

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 you
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learn the English phrase, "to mess up."
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When you mess up,
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it simply means that you've made a mistake.
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Sometimes I mess up when I'm driving.
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Just the other day,
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I was driving to see my brother-in-law
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and I messed up.
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I forgot to get off the highway at the proper exit.
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I messed up.
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I made a mistake.
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Sometimes people do this when they're at work.
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Sometimes the boss gives them a job and they do it wrong.
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They mess up and then the boss is really, really annoyed,
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especially if it made the company lose money.
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So when you mess up, it simply means to make a mistake.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today,
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is the phrase "to mess around."
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By the way, I hope you can hear me today.
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It's rather loud out here.
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When you mess around with something,
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now this has a number of different meanings,
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but when you mess around with something,
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it means you change the settings or you move things.
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Sometimes my kids mess around
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with the thermostat in my house.
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They think the house is too cold or too warm
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and so they mess around with the thermostat.
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I don't like it when they mess around with the thermostat.
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I like it when they just leave it where it is.
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(car honking) So to review, hello,
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to review, to mess up means to make a mistake.
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Sometimes when you're driving, you mess up,
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and hopefully you don't mess up too bad
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and cause an accident.
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And to mess around has a lot of meanings.
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The one I'm focusing on today,
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means to change something,
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touch something, like a camera.
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Sometimes my camera doesn't work right
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and I think, does someone mess around with this?
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It's not working the way it's supposed to.
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But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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This comment is from SG.
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"You two have taken the bored
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out of the learning journey
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with your wonderful teaching style."
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And my response, "That's the plan.
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Make lessons that are as entertaining
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as they are educational."
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So SG is referring to the fact
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that Brent was down for a few days
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and that was a wonderful time.
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I did really enjoy making videos
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with another English teacher.
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So Brent, if you're watching,
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thanks again for coming.
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It was a lot of fun.
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And thanks for helping me make so much content,
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it's pretty cool.
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Anyways, I'm out here by the highway.
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Hopefully the audio is okay today,
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because it's a little bit windy
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and that messes with the microphone.
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So sorry about that.
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I came out here because,
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I sometimes come here to remind myself
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that even though there are some things
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about living in the country that I don't like,
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like I don't like that I can't
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get pizza delivered to my house,
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there are things that make it wonderful.
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Like, my drive to work every day is about 11 minutes long.
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Whereas for some of these people,
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their drive to work might take forever,
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especially if there's a traffic jam
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or something else slowing them down.
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That's the second person.
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I don't know if you heard that,
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that was the second person honking
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and there's now another person honking.
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I think people enjoy it
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when they see someone videotaping,
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and they like to,
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or maybe they're trying to mess up my video by honking.
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I'm not a hundred percent sure.
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Anyways, it's always a good reminder
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that I live in a place where there is no traffic.
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So even though sometimes at night the power goes out,
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actually that doesn't happen very often.
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I'm having trouble thinking of good examples.
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There are down,
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oh, I'm trying, I can't even remember the right word.
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There are drawbacks to living in the country
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and when I come and see all of this traffic,
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it reminds me that living in the country
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isn't that bad at all.
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I have a nice view and a lot of peace and quiet.
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Anyways, thanks for watching.
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See you in a couple days
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with another short English lesson, bye.
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