Learn the English Phrases "to back off" and "to go back on"

In this English lesson,

I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to back off.

Now, when you back off,

it means you stop arguing with someone.

It means you stop trying to convince them

that you are right.

Let's say that Jen and I are having an argument.

At a certain point, I might back off

because I might be starting to say things

that are a little bit mean.

Maybe we're trying to decide what to have for supper

and I really want pizza, and Jen really wants hamburgers

and I just keep saying things like, "We should have pizza.

We never have pizza.

Pizza is the best thing in the world."

Eventually, Jen might get a little bit tired

of my behavior and it might be important for me to back off.

When you're arguing with someone, if you don't back off

or if the other person doesn't back off, sometimes,

you can start to have hard feelings for each other.

You can start to be annoyed with each other.

So, sometimes it's just good to back off.

The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is

to go back on.

Now we usually use this phrase when talking about a promise.

Sometimes, you can go back on something that you've said

and it means, you don't do it anymore.

Let's say I promised Jen that I'm going to put gas

in the van today and then when I get home,

I say to Jen, "You know what?

I promised to put gas in the van, but I didn't.

She could say, Hey, you went back on your promise.

Notice I had to go to the past tense here.

You went back on your promise.

That's not fair."

When people go back on their word

or go back on their promise, it's not a nice thing.

If you promise to do something, you should do it, I think.

I think that's always the best thing to do.

Anyways, to review, to back off means to stop arguing

or stop fighting with someone.

Sometimes, it's important for you to back off so that

your relationship is good and to go back on something,

to go back on your word or to go back on a promise

simply means to not keep it.

It means that you say you're going to do something

and then you don't.

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

This comment is from Lorenzo.

"Hi, teacher Bob, still no snow in Canada

and my response just a tiny bit now, hopefully more

in the weeks ahead."

So yes, thanks, Lorenzo.

What's happening here is at night, it goes below zero.

So every night, the temperature goes down

to minus four or minus five, and sometimes it snows.

But if you look around me, you'll see

that there isn't any snow on the ground at all.

There is no snow to speak of, we might say in English.

So, yeah.

Oh wait, I think I found some.

Let's look.

If you look the back of this bench down here,

you could see a little bit of snow,

so we do not sure what my lens is doing.

It's going crazy now.

Let me see if I can get it to, there we go, my ca-

Apparently my camera's not used

to making English lessons either, but yes,

so there's a little bit of snow on our vehicles

in the morning.

There's a little bit of snow on the ground sometimes

but then by midday, it's plus three or plus four

and most of it has melted, so just kind of sad.

Hey, you know what I was gonna talk

about for the end of this video?

This is something I mentioned every, every December I think.

I can't wait for school to be done.

I have over a week and a half left of school

and I can't wait for Christmas break.

It is one of my favorite times of year.

I get to slow down a bit.

Obviously, I don't have to work, but I should stay focused.

I should stay focused, do my job well,

and eventually, it will be next week, Friday

and I will be on break.

So, I'll just try to be patient.

Anyways, thanks for watching.

Thanks for hanging out and learning a little bit of English.

I hope you have a good week.

I'll see you in a couple days

with another short English lesson.

Bye.