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

3,951 views ・ 2022-12-14

Bob's Short English Lessons


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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In this English lesson,
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I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to back off.
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Now, when you back off,
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it means you stop arguing with someone.
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It means you stop trying to convince them
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that you are right.
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Let's say that Jen and I are having an argument.
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At a certain point, I might back off
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because I might be starting to say things
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that are a little bit mean.
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Maybe we're trying to decide what to have for supper
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and I really want pizza, and Jen really wants hamburgers
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and I just keep saying things like, "We should have pizza.
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We never have pizza.
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Pizza is the best thing in the world."
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Eventually, Jen might get a little bit tired
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of my behavior and it might be important for me to back off.
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When you're arguing with someone, if you don't back off
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or if the other person doesn't back off, sometimes,
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you can start to have hard feelings for each other.
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You can start to be annoyed with each other.
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So, sometimes it's just good to back off.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is
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to go back on.
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Now we usually use this phrase when talking about a promise.
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Sometimes, you can go back on something that you've said
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and it means, you don't do it anymore.
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Let's say I promised Jen that I'm going to put gas
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in the van today and then when I get home,
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I say to Jen, "You know what?
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I promised to put gas in the van, but I didn't.
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She could say, Hey, you went back on your promise.
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Notice I had to go to the past tense here.
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You went back on your promise.
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That's not fair."
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When people go back on their word
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or go back on their promise, it's not a nice thing.
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If you promise to do something, you should do it, I think.
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I think that's always the best thing to do.
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Anyways, to review, to back off means to stop arguing
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or stop fighting with someone.
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Sometimes, it's important for you to back off so that
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your relationship is good and to go back on something,
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to go back on your word or to go back on a promise
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simply means to not keep it.
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It means that you say you're going to do something
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and then you don't.
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Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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This comment is from Lorenzo.
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"Hi, teacher Bob, still no snow in Canada
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and my response just a tiny bit now, hopefully more
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in the weeks ahead."
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So yes, thanks, Lorenzo.
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What's happening here is at night, it goes below zero.
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So every night, the temperature goes down
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to minus four or minus five, and sometimes it snows.
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But if you look around me, you'll see
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that there isn't any snow on the ground at all.
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There is no snow to speak of, we might say in English.
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So, yeah.
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Oh wait, I think I found some.
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Let's look.
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If you look the back of this bench down here,
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you could see a little bit of snow,
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so we do not sure what my lens is doing.
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It's going crazy now.
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Let me see if I can get it to, there we go, my ca-
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Apparently my camera's not used
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to making English lessons either, but yes,
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so there's a little bit of snow on our vehicles
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in the morning.
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There's a little bit of snow on the ground sometimes
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but then by midday, it's plus three or plus four
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and most of it has melted, so just kind of sad.
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Hey, you know what I was gonna talk
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about for the end of this video?
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This is something I mentioned every, every December I think.
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I can't wait for school to be done.
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I have over a week and a half left of school
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and I can't wait for Christmas break.
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It is one of my favorite times of year.
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I get to slow down a bit.
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Obviously, I don't have to work, but I should stay focused.
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I should stay focused, do my job well,
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and eventually, it will be next week, Friday
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and I will be on break.
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So, I'll just try to be patient.
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Anyways, thanks for watching.
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Thanks for hanging out and learning a little bit of English.
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I hope you have a good week.
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I'll see you in a couple days
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with another short English lesson.
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Bye.
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