Learn the English Phrases KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES and THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER

7,307 views ・ 2020-10-16

Bob's Short English Lessons


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In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn
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the English phrase "keeping up with the Joneses."
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When we say that someone is keeping up with the Joneses
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or when we say they're trying to keep up with the Joneses,
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it means they're trying to buy all the same things
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that their neighbors have.
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Let's use this as an example,
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imagine you live in a neighborhood
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and everyone buys a brand new car
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and then because you see that everyone has a brand new car,
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you go out and buy a brand new car.
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We would say that you are keeping up with the Joneses
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or you're trying to keep up with the Joneses.
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It's an older phrase.
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I didn't think it was used very much anymore
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but I actually heard it used today.
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By the way, Jones is a very common North American name
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a very common American name, actually.
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So it's just the name we use for this phrase.
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So when you say that you are keeping up with the Joneses,
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it means you're buying all the same stuff
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that your neighbors are buying
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or all of the people around you are buying.
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The other English phrase I wanted to teach you today
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is the phrase "the grass is always greener."
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You probably know this phrase
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and I did already teach it in an earlier lesson.
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When you say the grass is always greener
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or the grass is always greener
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on the other side of the fence,
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it means that everything your neighbor has
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looks better than what you have.
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So when you look at your neighbor's house, you think
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oh, their house is so much nicer than mine.
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Maybe they have beautiful well behaved children,
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and they just have an awesome spouse
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and they have beautiful cars,
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expensive cars in the driveway.
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When you look at your neighbors things, belongings,
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and the people in their family
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and you think everything's better than what you have,
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we say that you're just thinking
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that the grass is always greener
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on the other side of the fence,
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because you don't really know what it's like.
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Maybe their marriage isn't so good.
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Maybe they fight all the time.
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Maybe the kids look really nice
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but they're actually not very well behaved.
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Maybe the fancy cars belong to the bank
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or they have a huge loan.
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So when you say the grass is always greener,
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it's kind of a cautionary thing saying
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things might look really good from far away,
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but you don't really know what they're like.
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So once again
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when you say that you are keeping up with the Joneses
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it means you're trying to have the same stuff
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as all your neighbors or friends or family.
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And when you say the grass is always greener,
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it's just a phrase we use to talk about how
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things might look better from far away
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but it doesn't always mean that they are.
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Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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This comment is from A A and A A says,
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"Excuse me, I would like to ask a question,
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when someone says that is awfully nice of him,
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does this have a good or bad meaning?"
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Well, this has a good meaning.
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And that was actually my response.
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It is a good thing.
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So we have the words awful and awfully
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and awful sounds bad,
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but we sometimes use it to talk about something good.
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So I can say this is awfully good ice cream
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or that was awfully nice of him.
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Those are positive statements.
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If I eat some really yummy tasty ice cream
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and I say,
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"Oh, this is awfully good."
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It's a good thing.
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It means that I really like it.
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If someone does something really nice and I say,
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"Oh that was awfully nice of them."
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It means that they did a good thing.
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So A A, thank you for the comment.
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When you use awfully in a sentence like that,
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it's definitely a positive thing.
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It's definitely a nice thing.
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Hey, let's back up and talk a little bit about
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keeping up with the Joneses.
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I think one of the problems
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that we have in the world right now
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is that people want to have all the same stuff
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that everybody else has.
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And I've learned a lot in life.
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I'm not that old, but I've lived long enough to know this.
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The most important things in life are your health,
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your relationships with your friends and family.
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And I think when you go to start talking about,
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when you start talking about material things,
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they aren't as important as everyone thinks.
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I think that the most important thing in life
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is your family, your friends, and your health.
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