Learn 14 English expressions for body language

[Whistling] Hey, E. What's - oh, did you see the new Avengers movie?

And there were eye-popping special effects?

That good, huh?

Damn.

Hi, James from www.engvid.com . Just having a conversation with Mr. E about the Avengers

movie.

He said the special effects - which are when you see big explosions or superpowers or the

Incredible Hulk, they're special effects.

They're done for visual and they're done to make a movie visually seem very great or stunning

or amazing.

And he said they're eye-popping.

Now, some of you might say, "What does that mean?"

Well, today, I'm going to teach you - well, what this video, why we're doing this video

is to help you express something that ordinary emotional words won't say.

It's one thing to say that something is nice or big or really good, but to say something

is eye-popping gives you a greater power.

You're able to give people a deeper understanding of what you're really feeling.

Ready?

Now, you're excited about it.

Me too, so let's go to the board and take a look.

Now, how I'm going to do that today is we're going to introduce to you some vocabulary

you may not know.

Some of you may know it.

And we're going to give you - or I'm going to give you - sometimes, you know, what is

going on in the person's head or the best situation.

And that way, I can get you to be able to express yourself properly using these particular

phrases.

Now, just for a little aside, and that means a little note, you might see a hyphen in some

of these, and some of them you don't see it.

Today, I'm actually using the Oxford model, and that means the Oxford dictionary.

But these are things that you would say.

You would never really write them.

So, some of you grammar heads are going, "Oh my gosh, there's a hyphen, or there's no hyphen!"

Don't worry about it, you're not going to be writing this down.

And if you do write it down, just look at the country you're in.

If you're in England or America, the rules might be slightly different in those dictionaries.

Follow those rules, okay?

Good.

So, let's get to the board.

Nail-biting.

What do we mean by nail-biting?

If you're like this - I don't mean typing on our nails, but - it's causing you stress

or anxiety.

When you're really nervous, you see some people - they're not eating dinner.

They're nervous or they have a lot of tension.

But you know what?

Sorry, I made a small mistake.

I want to go back.

I will go back to this, but I want to go to the vocabulary first.

Forgive me, okay?

Because if you get the vocabulary as I go through all of this, it'll be much easier

to understand, okay?

So, let's do the quick vocabulary.

Jaw - this is the lower part of your mouth, your jaw is here.

Alright, it opens up.

That's your jaw.

A jerk is a quick, sharp movement.

So, somebody jerks you or the best example is when you're on the bus and you do that,

you got jerked.

It's a quick, sudden movement.

Maybe the bus stopped suddenly.

Or if someone's jerking you around, they're pulling you around.

Pop - it's like a small explosion.

For some of you, palomitas if you're Spanish, it is a, you know, popcorn.

Popcorn goes - they pop.

Slap - bah!

There's a great song called "The Boasty" Boasty with Idris Elba.

It goes "Get a slap on the chin", right?

It's to use the open palm and hit something with the open palm.

That's a slap, okay?

So, hit something with the palm of the hand.

And clench, he clenched his fist, is to hold tightly or to make your hand and fingers come

into this position.

clench a fist, now it's in a fist.

Hold tightly or strongly.

Now that I've got this vocabulary out, you'll see how it applies to the phrases I'm about

to go through, okay?

So, if you have any problem, just quickly look over here, and that will help you clear

up the other ones.

First off: nail-biting.

As I said, when you've got a lot of tension or you're very nervous.

You'll be nail-biting.

You do that when you're worried about something.

If somebody's in an accident and you do, "I hope they're okay".

Or maybe you're scared of something happening, like, "Will I lose my job?"

There you go.

Jaw-clenching.

Remember, I said "clench" is to hold tightly?

And remember I said this is your jaw?

If you see someone clenching their jaw, usually they are very determined - we will survive!

Or, very angry.

Sometimes, we will say, "to restrain", which means when you hold yourself from doing something.

Maybe somebody is saying something to you and you don't like it, and you find - I don't

know if you can see this.

Let me get closer, closer, closer - they're like - they're holding themselves back.

I actually had a boss - a guy who employed me.

It was quite funny, because whenever I said something he didn't like, he would go - and

I didn't realize he was clenching his jaw, because I was upsetting him.

So I kept talking.

Hmm, I wonder if I still work there.

Anyway.

Okay, so someone's very angry.

They may clench their jaw.

Or very determined, okay?

Head-shaking.

Now, here's the funny thing.

We all know this means "no".

When you're like, tsk tsk tsk tsk.

That's head-shaking.

It means I disagree or, "Do you like this" "No" "Do you like this one?"

It's not just no, it's I'm rejecting something.

Or, you don't agree with somebody.

They're saying something and you're like "Nuh-uh".

So, yes, it's the "no", but it's a little bit more than "no".

It's disagreement of what you're saying or rejection of what you're offering.

Just say no.

Head-scratching.

I'm sure you've seen someone go like this.

If you've been to Ikea and you have to put something together from Ikea, you know this

one, and you're like, "The A part goes with the B part that goes with the C, add on the

Z, what the hell and tarnation?

And I have 15 parts left!"

Why am I so confused?

When you're scratching your head, it's because you're confused or puzzled.

Interesting fact: Scientists say that we scratch our head because it relieves the tension.

So, when we're puzzled or confused, we scratch and it's like Mom going, "Massage, relax."

So, you can relax your brain.

You didn't know that, did you?

Now you do.

So, head-scratching.

Knee-slapping.

This is a funny one.

Heh, funny.

It is a funny one, because knee-slapping is if someone tells a joke and you're like, "Hahahaha!",

it's knee-slapping.

You slap - palm of your hand - your knee.

It's funny.

But you can also do it like this, "Hahaha", it's not funny, it's not funny at all.

Because you're being sarcastic.

So, people will also slap their knee and go, "Hahahaha", what a joke.

It's not a good joke.

So, you actually have to pay attention, if they're laughing and falling over, that knee-slapping

is real.

Or, "Hahaha, funny joke, pal".

Not funny.

Okay?

Now, remember when I said the interesting thing about each of these is you have an emotion,

but it actually takes it to another level.

So, in the case of knee-slapping, when someone's doing this, it's so funny it almost hurts.

You have to hit your legs to control yourself.

And when you're "Hahaha", it's not that I don't even find it funny, I don't find you

funny.

I don't find your face funny, I don't find your mother funny, I don't find anything funny

about you.

Hmm, okay?

Now, if you notice, I've gone from anxious to angry to disagree - and we're kind of going

up, see?

We're kind of going up here.

Heart-warming.

*Thump-thump* and warm, like a blanket, when you're eating toast, hmm.

Sorry, I just went crazy there.

Heart-warming.

Heart-warming makes you feel good.

You can feel your heart getting warm and your chest getting warm because it's a lovely situation.

Watching a mother with her baby for the first time smiling and the baby's smiling back.

It's - you know what I'm saying?

Okay.

Tear-jerking is, on the other hand, it's the exact opposite.

It's like somebody remember, I said "jerk" is to suddenly pull?

It's like you're happy and someone pulls the water - tears - from your eyes and makes it

into a real tear-jerker.

Tear-jerking is something sentimental, it makes you think about the importance of something

to you.

Like a watch your granddaddy gave you.

Maybe before your granddad died, across the seas, he gave you his old watch.

And you've kept it in your family for seventy-five years.

And if that watch gets lost in the seas on a storm, it's going to make you cry because,

"The grandfather brought it from a country far away, years ago, blah blah blah", okay?

Or heart-ache, tear-jerking.

"The man and the woman finally got together in the movie and then he dies from cancer?"

It's a real tear-jerker, seriously.

I'm not joking.

Not heart-warming, it's the exact opposite.

Now, how about mouth-watering?

Well, have you ever gone - have you ever been really, really, really hungry and then you've

gone by a really nice restaurant and they have, I don't know, a steak you can smell

the steak from across the street and you go - it's got some mashed potatoes and some asparagus

and it's - you can just - mmm I'm hungry right now just thinking.

That's mouth-watering.

When your mouth gets actually water in it and you have to wipe your mouth.

Now, it doesn't just mean for delicious food.

Some people find cars mouth-watering.

It means it's so exciting that you lose control of your body and your mouth starts to water

and you have to wipe it away.

You could say, "That woman - she's got a mouth-watering body."

It's like Oh, look at her, oh.

Or ladies, for you, that guy with that chest, oh yeah, you know.

Mouth-watering.

Not me.

Not me.

But other guys.

That Thor, the Thor guy, Chris Hemsworth.

Mouth-watering, right, women?

Okay.

Yeah, delicious, I guess you could say.

And jaw-dropping.

Have you ever seen something and you're like "Ahh!"

And I'm not talking about stupid people who walk like this all the time.

I'm talking about something that's so amazing you go "What the hell?" and your mouth just

opens up and stays down.

Remember, I told you "jaw" over here?

Now you know why I explained it.

If something's jaw-dropping, it's so amazing that you lose control of your body once again

and your mouth just falls open, okay?

So, if you heard the price - if I said, "I will give you a brand new 2020 Mercedes-Benz

for $1", you'd go "Whaaaaaaaaaaat!?"

Jaw open, cool?

Now, eye-popping means astonishing or amazing.

You're like "Whoa!"

One good way to think about it is imagine if your partner.

If you're a girl, it's a boy; if you're a boy, it's a girl - came home with bright orange

hair.

I mean bright orange, you'd be like "Whoa!".

If you look at my expression, my eyes are like "Ahh!"

It doesn't mean it's bad, it's really, really astonishing.

It can be impressive.

It can actually also be bright.

Some people have eye-popping colors on their cars.

You can see the car a mile away because it's really impressive, okay?

So, it's not necessarily a bad thing.

It's just bright or impressive.

So, when you say, for instance here, we had Mr. E say, "The special effects in the movie

were eye-popping", it means he was like "Wow, that's incredible!"

It's not just it's good, it's not just great, it's - it made me change the position of my

eyes involuntarily, which means I didn't choose to open my eyes wide.

My brain went, "Wow!"

And that's the power of all of these phrases I gave you.

Literally what happens is - nail-biting.

You don't want to bite your nails.

You lose control and you start biting them because it's so scary to you.

Jaw-clenching.

You're so angry, like my old boss, you can't help it.

Your mouth just kind of clenches up.

Head-shaking.

Somebody says something, okay.

I forgot another one, which is "stupid".

When you're just like - I think my dad did that a lot when I was a kid.

He'd go "Don't touch the fire, don't touch -" I would touch the fire, of course, and

he would just shake his head, okay?

It's not that he wanted to watch me burn and shake his head, he was just like - and his

brain was saying, "That boy's stupid."

Anyway.

Head-scratching.

You don't do it on purpose, your hand just goes up there as you're trying to figure it

out.

And as I explained in psychology, it's to make you feel calmer by scratching to relieve

that tension.

All of these things happen because your body does something - not involuntarily, but it

does it before you actually think about it.

And that's what makes it cool, but by using these expressions, when you say it was really

a heart-warming movie, you're saying it struck an emotional place in me.

I was going to say "chord", like in music, an emotional chord that made me feel more

than I can probably say, or my words aren't good enough to explain it to you.

Now, I hope I've done a good enough job explaining these to you, because of course, we have to

have a quiz and you've got a bonus section and we've got homework, because you may not

think you're in school, but class is in session.

And we're back to the board.

So, of course, what I'd like to do now is give us a quiz because learning means nothing

if you don't really understand it.

Or, can you learn and understand - what I mean by that is me showing you something and

you saying "Yes, yes, yes" doesn't mean you really understood it, that you can use it.

So, you might have learned something new, but do you understand it well enough to use

it?

My little quiz is here, and then I'm going to give you a little bit of bonus stuff because

you've been such good students and hanging around.

So, let's go to the board.

The first one on the quiz is: Josh's wife looked amazing in her wedding dress.

And if you remember what I said earlier on, when we use these phrases, it's to - because

"amazing" is a pretty good word.

But when you use the correct term here, it gives it so much more in meaning.

So, I'm going to give you five seconds, and try to figure out, should it be "jaw-clenching"

or "jaw-dropping"?

Correct.

If you picked B, that's correct.

Because it was "jaw-dropping".

She was so beautiful, my mouth just fell open, right?

Even more than amazing and stunning.

Let's try number two: Her joke was very good.

That sounds good, right?

Give you a couple of seconds with that.

Her joke was very good.

Now, do you remember what I said when something is really, really funny?

It makes you involuntarily slap your leg?

"Hahahaha!"

Knee-slapping.

Because head-shaking means you don't agree, which is almost the exactly the opposite of

saying "It was very good", you'd be saying "It was very bad".

How about number three: Many people were left puzzled by the president's "covfefe" tweet.

I'll explain it in a second.

Many people were left puzzled by the president's "covfefe" tweet.

Puzzled means confused or you have a question.

You're not too sure.

Okay, so the first thing we're going to ask is, before we answer.

If you probably don't know what covfefe is, you're probably, "What's covfefe?"

Correct.

It is head-scratching, because you're confused.

Now, what you might be thinking is, "What is he talking about?

What is this covfefe?"

Well, it seems in the year 2017, on May 31st, the president of the United States at that

time had sent out a tweet, you know, twitterverse, and wrote this sentence: Despite the constant

negative press covfefe.

Now, nobody knows what covfefe - no one knew what covfefe was back then, and I think most

people right now don't know what covfefe is.

We think it means "coverage", but even still, the sentence isn't complete.

So, it's confusing or head-scratching.

So, that's a lesson, boys and girls.

Learn your grammar and complete your sentences.

Alright.

That's why you watch www.engvid.com so we can help you with this.

I would like to have helped him with this one.

Now, the final one, final one is: Waiting to find out if I got the job was a tension

filled experience.

Which do you think that would be?

*Tick-tock, Tick-tock, buzz*.

Well, it could be tear-jerking.

"Oh, I got the job, man!"

But if you start crying like that, I think you're crazy.

But really, what we're looking at is nail-biting.

Because if you're waiting for a job - to find out if you got a job, you're going to very

anxious and nervous.

And if you remember rightly, I said filled with tension.

So, it's a nail-biting experience.

So, hopefully you got 4/4, which means you understood these really well.

And if you didn't, you can go back and watch the video.

But before you do that, or go do that now but come back, because I have a bonus for

you, and I'm going to go through these here.

These ones are to do with your hands, so you can talk about emotions, strong emotions with

hands.

The first one we're going to talk about is white-knuckle.

Now, if you grab something really, really, really, really hard, the color of your knuckles,

and these are your knuckles here, they will actually get lighter because you cut the blood

supply, so they go lighter.

So, when they say something's a white-knuckle experience or a white-knuckle ride, it means

very scary.

Next, finger-pointing.

You've seen this before.

Who did it?

Who?

Who?

And that is to give blame.

Blame is to say somebody is responsible for something bad that has happened.

So, somebody said, "Jeremy did it!

Jeremy, I know Jeremy did it!"

They're pointing the blame.

They're saying that that person is responsible for the bad thing.

Fist-shaking.

I like this one because it reminds me of Homer Simpson.

Any of you watch The Simpsons?

Homer's often found going "Go, Mr. Burns!", or "Damn you, donuts!"

He's shaking his fist.

It means to demonstrate anger when you do this, or frustration.

"Oh, my computer did auto-correct again!"

And you never know when that happens, what message you send out.

So, that's fist-shaking.

Now, a finger-wag, I like this because in action movies, people use this a lot.

The bad guy might go, "Tsk tsk tsk tsk", or even the good guy.

And when they say this, and your mommy might have said this to you, or your daddy, like

"No, no, no, no", they mean "No".

But sometimes, it's a threat.

It's like, if you do this, bad things will happen to you.

Finger-wag, cool?

So, those are your bonus.

See, you stuck around long enough, you get bonus material.

But it's not a complete class until we do some homework, because you've got to practice

to get good.

So, today's homework, I would like you to put these two sentences, or correct these

two sentences.

And the sentences are: The special effects of the movie were great.

I actually kind of helped you with this one.

If you go back to the video, the answer is hidden at the beginning.

Okay?

And the second sentence is: Seeing the kitten and the puppy play was nice.

If you answer these in the comments below, you will be given 100 million points for each

one you get correct, okay?

So, I'd like you to go in the comments, write your answers, and the beautiful thing is other

students actually give you thumbs up.

So, if you're on YouTube and you get any thumbs up, you could actually add an extra 100 million

points for every thumbs up you get.

If you're anywhere else, you've just got 100 million points and that's a good thing indeed,

alright?

So, there's a bigger quiz to make sure you understand this, and that's your practice.

So, you're going to go to www.engvid.com , where you'll find the full quiz available there,

as well as other videos that I've produced and some really other good teachers.

Adam, Ronnie, Rebecca, a whole bunch.

You're going to love them.

Go check them out, they're really good.

And I'm going to let you go for now.

Once again, thank you very much, because if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here.

So, we greatly appreciate it, okay?

And I'll see you on the next video.

Have a good one.