6 phrases in English using IT'S

"Colors of Cambodia."

Hi. James from EngVid.

You know, today it was rather touch and go if I'd be here.

I had a rather hairy situation before I came to teach.

It has to do with my trip. I was trying to book a trip to a foreign country and

you know, the early bird catches the worm. I thought if I got on top of it now, that what would happen is

that by the time I was ready to fly, I'd be ready. Anyway, when I got on

the website to talk to, you know, or try and book my trip, it took forever.

So I had to call somebody. And I was waiting for like 20 minutes. And when I finally spoke to one,

I said, "It's about time. I've been trying to book this trip for two days. I did the computer.

I did, you know, the website. I tried to talk to somebody and nothing happened.

I might miss my flight." And the company told me it's going to be on the house

because it was such a hassle for me, it would be on the house. I was so happy.

Now, if you notice, I've used some of these phrases or idioms that are on the board to tell you a little

story about my trip to Cambodia, which I'm not going on the trip, actually. Mr. E is going

on the trip. So what I'm going to do is explain the story again, but this time,

well, actually, I'll explain the idioms and you can see how it fits in the story. So when you're done, what you'll do is you'll go back through the

video and then check for each one I used, okay, from the beginning. So, first thing

we want to talk about is "it's." Because we say "it is," right? "It is this, it is that."

"It's," okay, is "something," right? And "is" means, well, we use it as the

verb "to be" to say something is the case, it's true, or to describe something, okay?

So in this case, what we're saying "it is" and we're saying "something is the case," "something

is true." In this case, if you say "it's touch and go,"

when we say "it's touch and go," it means there's, how do I explain?

It's a little bit, it's a difficult or a sticky situation, difficult situation. We

don't know how it will turn out. So if I go "it's touch and go," if I,

perfect example, let's say there's an operation. Okay, the doctor comes out,

"Your husband had a heart attack. It's touch and go whether he'll survive."

What they're saying is we don't know, it's a very difficult situation right now. Could go

this way, could go that way. Now, in this case, I said "it's touch and go, I was going to make it."

Meaning, I didn't know if I was going to come, it was a difficult situation. Maybe traffic

was bad, the weather, because Canadian weather can be horrible. But the weather was

bad, and I didn't know if I could make it. Now, hairy. You'll notice Mr. E

has got, he's sporting, and when we say "I'm sporting a new scarf" or a new shirt, it

means I'm wearing, okay? He's wearing a new hairpiece, look, see that? He's got a rug,

fake hair. Alright, hairy situation. If it's "it's", and we're using "it's", right?

Remember? Situation. It's a hairy situation. Think of your hair, when you're scared,

it stands up, okay? Because it's scary. So when we say it's a hairy

situation, it means there's a lot of difficulty. It's similar to the first one. But this one, touch and go,

means we don't know the outcome. A hairy situation means it could be a scary situation.

Similar, but not exactly the same. Do you remember what I said? Hairy situation in the story. Go back.

Next, if you go to number three, I said "early bird gets the worm". Well, in

North America, or Canada, even Britain for that matter, and probably Australia, when we say the early bird gets

the worm, and there is Mr. E saying "help", right? The bird

has caught him. It means if you get started early on something, you will get a

reward, right? The early bird gets the worm. It gets up early, or the worms are sleeping, and grabs

them. So it gets a reward, and a reward is something good. In this case, I wanted to go on my trip,

so I tried to book it early. Just like if you want to come to my country, which is Canada,

you want to book it now, because it gets expensive in the summer. If you go and say "I want a

trip now", what will happen is, it's cheaper. If you want to make money, get up early and

look for a job. Don't wait until twelve, because the jobs are all gone, right? Remember, I said

"early bird gets the worm". Now let's go over to this one over here.

It's about time. When people say it's about time, right,

the situation is, something should have been done earlier.

See, similar here. In this case, you did it earlier, you got the reward. Here, what we're saying is

you didn't do it earlier, so you should do it now. Because now maybe it's late, now there are problems,

or the change should have happened a long time ago. So when someone says to you "it's about time

you got a new boyfriend", it means the last boyfriend was bad, you stayed with him way too long.

Right? Alright. So that's why it's about time. So you can say "it's about time the government did something".

Change should have happened before. It's about time I got a raise. I should have got the money before.

Right? Now this one. This is one you want

to remember. This is a very good one. There are two ways this one can be said.

Number one is, as you know, he's got money. If somebody says to you "it's",

once again, we've got the "it's" again, "it's on me". Well,

nothing is on me, so what is on me? You might notice

the money. I mean "it" refers to the bill. The bill is on me.

I will pay for it. Very good, yes?

So if I say "hey, this book, it's on me, don't worry about it. I'm going to pay, it's free for you".

What's another one? "It's on the house".

This is even better. That means if Ezekiel and I, or let's say

Sylvester the snake, Ezekiel the worm, Mr. E, are going for dinner and then

I don't know, Sylvester goes "I'm going to have the steak". He's eating away and he goes

"I'll have three bottles of wine, blah blah blah blah". And Ezekiel, he's looking at his watch going "dude,

I said it's on me, but it's costing a lot of money". Luckily, the manager of the building

comes over and goes "hey, it's on the house". It means he doesn't have to pay

and he doesn't have to pay. It's free. So it's on the house, the company

or business that provides the service will pay for it. This is

really good in case if you're in Canada and you have bad cable service or something. Well actually, let's make it a restaurant,

that's much more realistic. You're in a restaurant, they bring you your food, it's not quite great, it's a little bit bad.

And you say "you know what, I love the food, I love coming here and it's the first time I've had bad service,

yadda yadda yadda". Yadda yadda means blah blah blah, which means

unnecessary talk, blah blah blah. So when someone says blah blah blah,

it means I don't care what you're saying. Anyway, so you go yadda yadda yadda, the manager might go "you know what, we're so sorry about

what's happened, we're sorry about that, it's on the house. Finish eating your meal, it's on the house.

They might even kick in some pie or cheese or coffee for you. No, it's all on the house. It means

it's free for you, free for me. In fact, this whole website is on the house.

So you should be saying thank you. Please stand up right now, bow and go "thank you very much, Envid.

We thank you for your patronage". Patronage is when people come back again and again. We appreciate it, okay?

But it's on the house, right? This is good, right? Or you could say "no no James, it is on you.

I no pay, it is on you. You pay for us, okay?" And I go "no, it's on the house because I don't want paying

either, okay? But I'm glad you appreciate the service. So let's go quickly through it. I've actually forgotten

the story because I've talked so much, but let's try and see if I can remember. It was touch and go

if I was going to make it. It was a hairy situation on the highway when I was driving. Almost got killed, right?

I was trying to get here early because I figured if I get here early, but the weather was bad, right? And I figured the early bird

gets the worm, I'm going to leave early. But I told you about the hairy situation, right? Anyway, when I got

here, Ezekiel was like "it's about time you got here. I've been waiting here for four hours."

Right? I said "don't worry. Let me get some coffee. It's on me." Now if you remember the definitions,

go back through them. You'll go through what I explained for each one, and even though

this is the second story, you'll go "I understand. This makes sense now." And it's all using

"it's" and how we use "it's" in phrases and idioms to convey an idea to say one thing is related

to another, right? "It" is the thing we're talking about and how it's related. Cool, you like that?

Great. Anyway, it's about time I go. Sorry about that.

You know, if you do come back, of course it'll be on us. It's on the house because, you know, it's free.

Free, engVid. But where is it free? Let me see.

Good thing you're here because the early bird gets the worm because if you weren't here, you know, the website gets busy,

you know. Make sure you're early. Then you'll have to wait in line like the other people. But come to

www.eng, as in English,

vid, as in video, dot com.

Alright? No hairy situations there. And we're happy to teach you. Anyway, like I said, it's about

time I go. Have a good day. See you soon.