Learn the English Phrases "up and around" and "to go around in circles"

In this English lesson,

I wanted to help you learn the English phrase up and around.

This is a phrase that we use

after someone has maybe been sick or in the hospital,

maybe they've had surgery,

and when they are starting to feel better,

eventually, they will be up and around.

So you might say to someone,

"Oh, so Uncle Joe was in the hospital.

How long before he'll be up and around?"

It's similar to saying, "When will he be back on his feet?"

That's another English phrase.

So if you know someone who was in the hospital

or someone who was just sick for a while,

you could inquire and say,

"When will they be up and around?"

When will they be feeling better enough

to walk around and start to do things?

The other phrase I wanted to teach you today

is the phrase to go around in circles.

Now, there's many variations on this.

You can run around in circles, you can go around in circles

but it basically means that you're talking about something

and you're never reaching a conclusion.

You're just going around in circles.

So maybe someone at work suggests

that you do something a different way

and someone else disagrees

and everyone talks about it for an hour.

Eventually you might say,

"Hey, we need to stop going around in circles.

We're not solving anything here.

We need to come up with a solution as soon as possible."

So to review, up and around means to be feeling better.

It's similar to being back on your feet.

If you're sick, then eventually,

you will be up and around and feeling better.

And to go around in circles

means to discuss something meaninglessly for a long time

and to get a little bit frustrated.

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

This comment is in my pocket.

By the way, I'm using a different microphone

so I can back way up here

and you should be able to still hear me

as easily as if I was standing right up here by my phone.

We'll see when I go back in whether that worked.

This comment is from Ünsal.

"Hi, in one part of the video, you say,

'Jen and I hope that our van lasts a long time.'

What other verb or verbs can be used

instead of the verb last in this sentence?

Thank you so much. You're welcome."

My reply, that's the only way I can think of saying it.

Often when you buy something, you hope it lasts a long time.

So yeah, I bought a new microphone.

Part of it is here. The other part is stuck to my phone.

I can't show you that part

but I hope this microphone lasts a long time.

Thanks Ünsal for the comment by the way.

I hope that this microphone lasts a long time.

I hope that my van lasts a long time.

This is a 2008 Uplander, I think it is.

I hope it lasts a long time, but we'll see.

It's not on its last legs yet.

It still seems to be working quite well.

And then my red van over there, it's a 2012 Dodge Caravan.

I hope it lasts a long time too. We'll see though.

You can see I lost another hubcap.

I'm a little annoyed by that, that I lost that hubcap.

Sorry, I'm not sure where I was going there.

Oh, I was going to walk this way.

It rained last night. It rained a lot.

So we've gotten, let's see, 10 centimeters of rain,

four inches of rain over the last two days.

That's a lot of rain. That's way too much rain.

There's water everywhere

but I wanted to show you the problem we have

because of this guy.

Walter decided

that the rain gauge

would be a great thing to chew on.

So our rain gauge only goes up to 2.5 inches

or six centimeters now.

So we had to ask the neighbor how much rain they got

so that we could know how much we got.

And we're trying to make sure Walter...

Hey, Walter. (whistles)

We're trying to make sure Walter

doesn't use the next rain gauge we buy as a toy.

We hope the next one lasts longer than that one did.

Anyways, thanks for watching.

See you in a couple days with another short English lesson.

Bye.