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

In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn

the English phrase "keeping up with the Joneses."

When we say that someone is keeping up with the Joneses

or when we say they're trying to keep up with the Joneses,

it means they're trying to buy all the same things

that their neighbors have.

Let's use this as an example,

imagine you live in a neighborhood

and everyone buys a brand new car

and then because you see that everyone has a brand new car,

you go out and buy a brand new car.

We would say that you are keeping up with the Joneses

or you're trying to keep up with the Joneses.

It's an older phrase.

I didn't think it was used very much anymore

but I actually heard it used today.

By the way, Jones is a very common North American name

a very common American name, actually.

So it's just the name we use for this phrase.

So when you say that you are keeping up with the Joneses,

it means you're buying all the same stuff

that your neighbors are buying

or all of the people around you are buying.

The other English phrase I wanted to teach you today

is the phrase "the grass is always greener."

You probably know this phrase

and I did already teach it in an earlier lesson.

When you say the grass is always greener

or the grass is always greener

on the other side of the fence,

it means that everything your neighbor has

looks better than what you have.

So when you look at your neighbor's house, you think

oh, their house is so much nicer than mine.

Maybe they have beautiful well behaved children,

and they just have an awesome spouse

and they have beautiful cars,

expensive cars in the driveway.

When you look at your neighbors things, belongings,

and the people in their family

and you think everything's better than what you have,

we say that you're just thinking

that the grass is always greener

on the other side of the fence,

because you don't really know what it's like.

Maybe their marriage isn't so good.

Maybe they fight all the time.

Maybe the kids look really nice

but they're actually not very well behaved.

Maybe the fancy cars belong to the bank

or they have a huge loan.

So when you say the grass is always greener,

it's kind of a cautionary thing saying

things might look really good from far away,

but you don't really know what they're like.

So once again

when you say that you are keeping up with the Joneses

it means you're trying to have the same stuff

as all your neighbors or friends or family.

And when you say the grass is always greener,

it's just a phrase we use to talk about how

things might look better from far away

but it doesn't always mean that they are.

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

This comment is from A A and A A says,

"Excuse me, I would like to ask a question,

when someone says that is awfully nice of him,

does this have a good or bad meaning?"

Well, this has a good meaning.

And that was actually my response.

It is a good thing.

So we have the words awful and awfully

and awful sounds bad,

but we sometimes use it to talk about something good.

So I can say this is awfully good ice cream

or that was awfully nice of him.

Those are positive statements.

If I eat some really yummy tasty ice cream

and I say,

"Oh, this is awfully good."

It's a good thing.

It means that I really like it.

If someone does something really nice and I say,

"Oh that was awfully nice of them."

It means that they did a good thing.

So A A, thank you for the comment.

When you use awfully in a sentence like that,

it's definitely a positive thing.

It's definitely a nice thing.

Hey, let's back up and talk a little bit about

keeping up with the Joneses.

I think one of the problems

that we have in the world right now

is that people want to have all the same stuff

that everybody else has.

And I've learned a lot in life.

I'm not that old, but I've lived long enough to know this.

The most important things in life are your health,

your relationships with your friends and family.

And I think when you go to start talking about,

when you start talking about material things,

they aren't as important as everyone thinks.

I think that the most important thing in life

is your family, your friends, and your health.