Learn the English Phrases "more or less" and "less is more"

In this English lesson, I wanted to help

you learn the English phrase more or less.

In English, when we say more or

less, it means almost or sort of.

If you asked me if I was done cleaning

my house, I might say more or less.

That means I have most of the work done.

Maybe there's a couple little things here and there

that I still need to clean up, but I'm

kind of done cleaning the house, more or less.

Another example would be, if I was packing for a

trip, you could say, hey, are you done packing?

And I could say more or less.

This means that I got out my suitcases, and

I packed my clothes and some soap and a

toothbrush, and I'm pretty much done packing.

I'm close to being done packing.

I'm more or less done packing, but

I probably still want to check things.

So when you say more or less, it means

something is kind of done or sort of done.

I was going to say more or less done, but I

don't want to use the term to define the term.

The other phrase I wanted to teach you

today is the phrase less is more.

In English, when we say less is more, it

means that sometimes doing a few simple things is

better than doing a whole bunch of complex things.

A good example would be to wash your vehicle.

Sometimes just a little bit of water with

some soap in it is all you need.

You don't need a whole bunch of expensive products.

Sometimes less is more.

You can use this to describe a job as well.

Sometimes in teaching, if I try to do 20 or 30

things with a class, they might not remember all of it.

So sometimes less is more.

Sometimes it's better to do about two or three

things well, and then everyone remembers what you did.

So sometimes less is more.

So to review, more or less means almost or sort of.

So, are you almost done this video, Bob?

More or less?

Actually, less than more on that one,

that was probably a bad example.

If it was close to the end of

the video, I could say more or less.

And if you say less is more, it simply means

that sometimes doing two or three parts of a process

well is better than doing ten or 15 things badly.

Sometimes less is more.

Did I say more is less?

Less is more.

It's a little distracting out here, but, hey, let's

look at a comment from a previous video.

This comment is all crumpled up in my pocket.

Let me find it here.

This comment is from can't get the paper open.

See, I'm struggling here. Hello. How are you? Good.

How are you? Good.

How do I get to Service Ontario. I think I've driven past it.

How do you get to Service Ontario?

It's actually right over there, just on

the other side of the pharmacy. So I can park here?

You can actually, if you go out the

back of this parking lot and go around,

there's a little parking lot right there.

And then walk back to this road

and it's right on the corner. Thanks very much. Yep. You're welcome.

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

Sometimes you have to help

someone find Service Ontario.

That's where you renew your license.

This is from the.user-kun.

As always, the optimistic Bob, wonderful lesson.

Thumbs up for you.

And my response, you're welcome.

So, yes, optimism.

I am a fairly optimistic person.

I think I've mentioned this a lot on my live streams.

Sometimes people will say, Bob, you seem very positive.

You seem like a very optimistic person.

And my response is always this, as long as

I'm eating healthy food, as long as I'm getting

eight or 9 hours of sleep every night, and

as long as I'm getting some exercise, either walking

or shooting my bow and arrow, that's good exercise,

by the way, I'm usually fairly optimistic.

What makes me pessimistic or what makes me very negative,

less positive is when I don't get enough sleep or

when I'm not finding time to go for a walk

or to enjoy a little bit of exercise.

And then did I mention? What was the other one?

Oh, eating healthy.

Yeah, that's a big one.

I'm not sure how connected diet is to mood,

but I think there's a pretty strong connection.

I think if you eat

healthy food, you're probably healthier.

I know this for myself because if I

eat bad food, I don't sleep as well.

And then either the bad food or the lack

of sleep makes me a little bit cranky.

So did I go overtime?

Probably because I was helping

someone find Service Ontario.

I hope she found it.

It's just over there.

I hope my directions were good.

Anyways, thanks for watching. I'll see you in a couple

days with another short English lesson. Bye.