Learn the English Phrases "take a stand" and "have a stance"

In this English lesson,

I wanted to help you learn the English phrase

to take a stand.

When you take a stand on something,

it means you say your opinion out loud and publicly.

Maybe in your town, they're going to build a new bridge,

and you don't like where they're going to put the bridge,

so you might take a stand.

You might go to a city council meeting

and read a list of reasons

why they shouldn't build a bridge there.

You're going to take a stand.

You're going to express your opinion publicly

so that people know what you think.

When you take a stand,

it usually has to do with something

that's happening in the world,

some sort of issue or some sort of something that's going on

that you oppose or you agree with,

and then you take a stand if you disagree with it,

which is different than the phrase

to have a stance, slightly.

When you take a stand, you have a stance.

Let me clarify.

Someone could say to you,

"What's your stance on this new bridge they're gonna build?"

and you could say, "You know what?

I don't like it, and I'm going to take a stand."

So I'm kind of confusing you a bit here.

You have a stance on something.

What's your stance on the new bridge they want to build?

You know what?

I don't like it.

That's my stance on the new bridge, and you know what?

I think I'm going to go to a meeting

and oppose the new bridge.

I'm going to have a stance,

and my stance is that I'm against it

and I'm going to take a stand by expressing that.

But hey, to review, when you take a stand,

sorry, I got distracted,

because there's a vehicle coming towards me.

I'm not on the road.

But to review, when you take a stand,

it means that you have an opinion on something

and you express it to people,

and when you have a stance,

it simply means that you have an opinion on something.

So I picked this road

because I thought it would be very quiet and different

from my previous videos where I'm in town,

but yep, there's still people out here.

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

This is from Dhiraj.

"Teacher Bob, recently I came across this phrase,

take a stance,

but there is also another phrase, take a stand.

They both sound alike to me.

Would you mind making a video on this, too?

I'm eagerly looking forward to it."

So yes, and my reply, "I'll do it in the next video."

So you can see there's a slight correction there, Dhiraj.

You would have a stance on something,

but you would take a stand on something.

That would be the difference between the two.

So yes, slight difference.

And by the way,

for those of you that sometimes submit comments

asking me to do lessons,

you can do that,

and I will usually try to make a lesson about it

if it's a good suggestion.

So Dhiraj, that was a great suggestion.

So yes, I'm out here in the middle of nowhere.

I'm out here by the woods.

We might call this a forest,

but I would just call it the woods.

We might actually just call it the bush in Canadian English.

I thought I would come out here

so that there would be a bit of a juxtaposition

between my previous video and this one.

A juxtaposition is when something is completely different.

So the last few videos I made in town,

and I do plan to do more of those,

and this video I'm making out here in the middle of nowhere.

In fact, it's kind of funny,

because even though I'm in the middle of nowhere,

one of my neighbors is way there in the distance,

walking towards me.

I was trying to make a video where no one would see me,

where I could say,

look at this wilderness that I live close to.

By the way,

I'm just a few kilometers from my house right now,

but certainly that's...

Just totally lost my train of thought.

Has that ever happened in a video before,

where I've totally stopped talking?

Anyways, we're out here looking at the beautiful trees.

This is what Canada looks like in the winter

when it doesn't snow,

but in the next couple days,

it's supposed to snow like crazy,

so I'm really looking forward to that.

Anyways, I'm gonna flip you around and say hello,

and then I'll say bye.

Bye!