Learn the English Terms ELBOW GREASE and ELBOW ROOM

7,447 views ・ 2021-09-22

Bob's Short English Lessons


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In this English lesson,
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I wanted to help you learn the English term, elbow grease.
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Now, this is your elbow
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and grease is a lubricant
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that you put on machinery
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so that when metal moves against metal,
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it's nice and slippery.
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But elbow grease,
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the term elbow grease simply means
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hard work that you do by hand.
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Maybe you've bought an old car
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and it's a little bit rusty,
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and you wanna kind of sand all the rust out
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with sandpaper and paint it.
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You could say,
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oh, it just needs a little bit of elbow grease.
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Maybe you've bought something that needs to be fixed up.
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Maybe you bought an old machine from someone
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and it just needs a new belt or a new pulley
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or a little bit of electrical work.
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You could say, it just needs a little bit of elbow grease
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and it will be working again.
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So again, there's no such thing as grease
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that you put on your elbows.
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It's simply a term that means to work hard on something,
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usually with your hands.
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The other term I wanted to teach you today
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is the term elbow room.
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So elbow room is simply the amount of room.
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that you have around you.
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We almost always use this in the negative.
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We say things like, oh, I was on an airplane the other day,
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and it was really squishy,
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there wasn't very much elbow room.
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Or I went to the mall to do some shopping
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and there were so many people there.
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There wasn't hardly any elbow room.
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So elbow room is simply the room that you have around you.
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I guess because you can't move your elbows,
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you don't have a lot of elbow room.
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So to review, elbow grease is simply hard work.
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If you just work hard on some things,
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you can get them working again,
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or they can just do better than what they're doing before
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with just a little bit of elbow grease.
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We even use this for cleaning.
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If your dishes are really dirty,
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with a little bit of elbow grease,
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you can get them clean again.
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With a little bit of hard physical labor.
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And elbow room is simply the amount of room
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you have around you.
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Usually used in the negative. (chuckles)
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If you wonder why it seems like I'm speaking fast,
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it started raining, for some reason.
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So I will try to slow down.
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Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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Is that too slow?
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This comment is from Andres Padrón.
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And the comment is, thank you, Mr. Bob.
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I like the introduction.
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That's upside down, isn't it?
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Yeah, in the previous lesson,
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I had my little paper upside down.
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I was wondering,
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what happens at the farm when the winter arrives?
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Does the winter stop the growing
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of all kinds of flowers and wheat?
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Or is there still something that the farm can produce
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in the heavy Canadian winter?
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And my response is winter is a time to relax
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and watch the snow fly on the farm.
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It is a nice change of pace.
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So yes.
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Yes or no, I don't know how to say this.
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No, we do not grow anything on the farm in the summer.
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I guess I could say,
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no, I'll stick with no.
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No, we don't grow anything on the farm in the summer.
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In the summer, in the winter.
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Now I'm speaking so quickly
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I'm not even answering the question properly.
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No, we don't grow anything on the farm in the winter.
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The winter is definitely a time
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where we take a little bit of time to relax.
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Now I still go to work, I still teach every day.
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I still make YouTube videos,
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but definitely winter is a time where the farm is at rest.
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And Jen gets to rest a little bit as well.
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Jen actually puts in really long hours right now.
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The month of August and the month of September
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are very, very busy months on the flower farm.
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I should have done this video out in the flower field.
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But I think you've seen enough of it.
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She's very busy.
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So she looks forward
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to about the middle of October, end of October,
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when she can relax a little bit
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and just kind of watch the snow fly outside
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as winter begins.
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It makes it a little challenging for me though,
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to make YouTube videos in the winter.
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There are days where it's simply too windy,
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simply too snowy.
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Sometimes there's a blizzard.
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It's just really hard to get outside.
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And I actually, every once in a while,
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wonder why I do that.
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Why I make videos outside?
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And then I see everyone's comments
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about how much they like it,
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and I do like going outside, too.
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Anyways, thanks for watching this little English lesson.
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I'll see you in a couple of days with another one, bye.
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