10 "TIP" Expressions in English

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

What's the name of that director?

It's just on the tip of my...

Oh.

Hi. James from engVid.

Today I want to teach you about a word "tip".

We use this word a lot in English, and I am going to teach you what it means,

some collocations-and

collocations are words that are found together generally, you know, a lot-and a few idioms.

If you're ready, we'll go to the board, visit Mr. E and start our lesson.

Let's go.

So, E has "tip", he's pointing to his tongue and he's pointing to these icebergs, and he's

pointing to the tip.

So I've got an idea that "tip" has something to do with the edge or the pointed part of something.

Hmm?

Well, here's our word: "tip".

For pronunciation, you go: "t-ip".

Right?

"ip", "tip", like: "dip" or "sip".

So that's pronunciation.

I think it's very important that you not only know what the word means, but how to say it

or how to recognize it when you hear it.

So that's our lesson for the day.

The two basic meanings of "tip" are: A) a gift of money for service.

Not everywhere in the world this happens, but in North America and in England, if you

go to a restaurant, when you...

Oh, sorry.

Not England.

[Laughs] In North America, which is Canada, the United States, not including Mexico, but

in these two countries after you finish a meal you are kind of obligated to leave a

little extra money if the service is good.

So if you liked the waiter or waitress, they do a good service, you leave money and it's

called a tip.

It's a gift for good service, like:

"Thank you. I really appreciate it. Here you go."

We also do this for taxis.

All right?

Now, the pointed end of something...

Here's my tongue and the tip, the tip of my tongue.

That's the tip of my tongue, ah.

But also with this marker, that's the tip of the marker.

It's pointed and it's the very end.

And that should help you understand why E was pointing to the tip of the iceberg which

is pointed and the tip of his tongue.

With these two ideas we're going to now move into how we can use "tip" like a native speaker,

and some idioms as well.

Okay? To make English fun and understandable.

The first one we talked about, "tip" at a restaurant. Money.

But do you know "tip" is also for information?

Remember we said it's the tip or the pointed end?

Well, it's the beginning of something.

When someone gives you a tip, they might come to you close and go:

"Hey. I've got a hot tip."

So, "tip" here could also be hot, and that means like it's special information, important information.

Something they want to tell you that's going to benefit you.

"Hey, I got a hot tip about a car selling for a really cheap price and it's in really

good condition."

It's special and it's for you.

It's pointed to you.

All right?

This one's a funny one.

If you...

[Laughs] Another meaning for "tip" is to make something...

If it tips it will fall over.

So it means on an angle to fall.

Right?

It tipped over it went: "Wuh, boom".

It tipped.

"Tip" means to fall over, but in North America there's a little habit people have of cow tipping.

I don't suggest that you do it, it's not funny because the poor cows, they sleep standing up.

And some people will go to farms and they will push the cow, and the cow will fall over,

wake up.

"Moo. Who mooved me?"

It's not nice.

Don't do it.

All right?

That's number three.

So, "tip" here also means to make fall over.

So these are three basic pieces of information about "tip".

One is tip given for service; two is for information that you give to someone, especially a hot

tip; and three if something's tipping over like a book or a glass, it's going to fall.

All right?

And we did talk about the pointed end of something, and that's where we lead to here.

"Tip of the iceberg".

See how big icebergs are?

Okay?

Well, they're very tall.

If you look here you see this part here, yeah?

Well, that's a smaller part of something larger.

So if someone tells you something, like:

"And then he did that, and that's just the tip of the iceberg",

that means that small part is nothing compared to how much more is coming.

There's an enormous or a great amount of information, or other things about to happen.

Right?

So: "We went to the party, and we got shrimp to eat.

But that was the tip of the iceberg.

Then there was lobster, there was a pasta dish.

It just went on and on."

And you're like:

"Wow! That's a lot!" Here's one you might not know or I'm sure you don't.

See my hand?

"Tip one's hand".

No, I'm not talking about the finger.

When you tip your hand it's to reveal what you're going to do or let people know about

a secret.

Okay? Huh?

Well, I own a company and I want to buy someone else's company, so we're talking maybe at

lunch or dinner, and then I say:

"You know, John, I've always liked your company. I want to buy it."

I've just tipped my hand.

I've let them know what my intention is in my head and let them know.

So, "to tip one's hand" is like playing cards, you show them: This is what I have, this is

what I want to do.

All right?

Sometimes people say: "Don't tip your hand."

It means keep your cards or don't let them know what you want to do.

Keep it secret.

All right? That's tipping your hand.

Here's number six: "tip the scales".

Well, scales weigh things.

How much does it weigh?

Right?

Is it heavy, is it light, what have you?

In a lot of sports, they like talking about the big players.

And when they say...

Or boxing, or martial arts, they talk about tipping the scales and it means something

has or specifically in this case somebody has a certain weight.

So when you go: "He tips the scales at 250 pounds.

He's a big guy and he weighs 250 pounds."

Right?

So "to tip the scales" is usually used for weight.

How much does a person weigh?

And especially used in sports.

If you watch football or soccer, they don't talk about those guys.

But you talk about the boxers, UFC fighters, you know, MMA, or football players, American football

or hockey players because they like to talk about how big they are.

Tipping the scales.

The "tip of the tongue".

We talked about that early...

Earlier, and if you remember...

So let's go back.

It's on the tip of my...

That's right, I reversed back in time to show you "tip of the tongue" means I want to say

it, his name is Luca-...

But I can't remember.

It's on the tip of my tongue.

I have the knowledge, but I can't seem to remember it well enough to say it.

So when something's on the tip of your tongue it means you want to tell somebody something,

but you can't remember the information, but you know it's right in here and it's just

not coming out.

So you're ready to speak, but can't remember.

"Tip one's hat".

"Good day, Governor. How are you today, sir?"

When you tip one's hat it's to show respect.

In the old days, people used to tip their hat by going: "Hello" to the ladies or the

gentlemen, and it would be saying: "Hello. How are you?"

But sometimes you'll see people today say: "I tip my hat to you, sir."

It means you've done something special, unexpected, and it's a show of respect, like:

"What you did I respect a lot, so I tip my hat to you."

I take...

I show you respect.

"Tip" here.

Do you remember we talked about "tip" is information for help?

Well, the police usually have a problem finding criminals and people don't want to talk.

So sometimes they pick up their phone: "Hello. Police?

No, you don't need to know my name.

No. Don't need to know my name, but I will tell you about the criminal who had the gun."

This is called "anonymous tip".

"nym" meaning name, "anom" means no name.

It means they give information to the police to help them solve a crime, find a criminal,

but they don't say their name so their identity is hidden.

It's an anonymous tip.

Information to help the police.

You can give an anonymous tip at work as well.

It's like: "Boss..."

You can't say: "Boss, I know who did it" because that's not anonymous.

But if you left a card and didn't sign it, and just said:

"Mr. E was the one smoking the cigarettes and eating the chocolates."

They go: -"Who told you?"

-"Nobody, but I have this letter. It's an anonymous tip."

And I'm having troubles saying "anonymous", so I know you probably have trouble saying

it, too.

So you can say: "a-non-y-mous, anonymous".

Cool?

Let's go on to the next one.

Remember: "anonymous" means to not know.

You don't know the person who said it or wrote it.

"Tip the balance".

Well, you see there's a little balance beam, it's equal now, right?

But when something tips the balance what it does is it's a change or something that happened

which will make something more likely to happen.

I know, okay, let's go back over that again.

That's a complicated sentence.

More likely to happen means maybe before it was 50/50 but now it will be 70 to 80, maybe

100% going to happen.

So when something is more likely to happen you have changed something that was:

"Enh, I don't know", to: "Definitely I'm going to".

An example, maybe I see a beautiful girl across the road and I think:

"Oh, I would really like to say 'Hello' to her and ask her to go out for a date.

But she's really beautiful."

But then I see her with heavy groceries and she's looking for help, and I go:

"Now I'll go and say 'Hello', because she could use my help and then I can ask her."

Her groceries have tipped the balance, given me an opportunity to go and talk to her.

Yeah, see?

Or maybe someone offers you a job and it's a lot of hard work and a lot of time, and

you're like: "I don't know about this.

This seems difficult."

And then they say: "We'll pay you 1 million dollars."

Well, that tips the balance, I'm going to take that job for sure.

Anyway, we've done some...

Well, we've done the basic definition of "tip", we worked on the pronunciation-right?-we've

given some meanings, other meanings for the word "tip", as well as some common idioms.

I want to go now to do some collocations and a little quiz to make sure you've mastered the lesson.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

[Snaps]

Okay.

So, let's look at those collocations, shall we?

Remember: a collocation, a collocation are words that are usually found together and

have a certain meaning.

Okay?

In this case since we're working on "tip", what I've done is I've put the word "tip"

with a box to show you where it would show up when you say the collocation.

You'll notice it's not always in the same place.

Now, when you have "tip" and "of" together it usually means the pointed end of something.

This is the tip of my finger, that is the tip of my tongue, and this is the tip of the

marker, the pointed end.

Cool?

So, usually "tip of" will be followed and it means pointed end of something.

Tip of the iceberg. Right?

Number two, when we have something like "tip" and we're talking about money for a service,

these are some words you will see with it.

"He left a big tip.", "He left a generous tip.", "He left a small tip."

In this case, "big" and "generous" refer to giving a lot of money because you probably

really like the service and thought the place was great, and you wanted the waiter to get,

you know, some money.

So you left a generous tip which means to give a lot, or "big", which is similar, to

give a lot of money.

"Small tip" is the exact opposite.

If you leave a small tip there are only two reasons.

Number one, you had bad service.

They didn't bring you food or they weren't polite to you.

I understand.

The other one is you're cheap.

Don't be cheap.

Okay? If they give you good work, you give good tip.

Now, tips, to be honest, they're usually found in North America.

Now, North America includes Mexico,

but specifically I mean Canada and the United States in this one.

Okay?

Not every country tips, but if you do come to Canada and the United States, when you

go to restaurants and certain other service industries they will kind of expect a tip

so be careful about that.

Next: "tip", when it's information to be used.

If someone tells you your tip was helpful, useful, or handy it means the information

you gave them can be used right away and it will benefit them.

"A helpful tip" means...

Ah, I'm working on a computer and I can't do something, you say: "Do this."

I go: "Oh, that's helpful. Thanks. That makes my work easier."

"Useful" means...

It's like a credit card, I may not be able to use it right now, but later on I can use it.

It's useful for me.

Right? Useful information.

And "a handy tip" means:

"Oh, that came in at the right time, that's handy, I can use that now.

Or like a hammer or a screwdriver, I can use it later."

Similar to "useful", but "handy" means it's like in my pocket for whenever I need it.

Cool?

All right.

So these are different collocations you will hear, and I will say a lot when people talk

about helpful tips around the house.

Right?

"He left a generous tip", that was really nice.

And, you know what?

It's on the tip of my...

You understand now, right?

Good.

But I just want to make sure you have it down because we've done the definition of "tip",

we did the pronunciation of tip.

Right? Or the two definitions of "tip" and the pronunciation,

then we showed how it can be used in different

ways and some idioms, and now finally we're going to do a quiz.

[Laughs] All right?

Wish E were here because he's so much better at it than I am, but what the heck.

We've got one to six, each one has a different meaning and we have to figure out which number

goes with which phrase or idiom, or expression let's say.

So the first one: a small part of something larger.

Right?

Someone wants to say something they know, but can't remember at that particular moment

or specific moment.

To greet or show respect.

"Hello, Governor."

Right?

To make something fall over.

Remember we talked about that?

It tipped over and it fell. Right?

The cow.

The cow, it's terrible about the cow.

Information you can get.

Right?

And money as a gift for service.

It's a gift because they don't have to give it to you, but they choose to give it to you

like a gift, like: "Here you go. I really appreciate that."

So, number one or A: Leave a tip, which one would that be?

Hmm, hmm.

Did you say money as a gift for service?

Congratulations.

That is correct, it is number six.

What about B, tip of the tongue?

I'm trying to remember.

Hmm.

What?

Number two, correct.

Someone wants to say something that they can remember, but they can't say it at that moment.

As you noticed, I had problems.

I was like: "I know the answer, but it just won't..."

On the tip of my tongue, that's number two.

What about tip one's hat?

You know, like: "Hello, Governor." What does that mean?

Hmm.

A show of respect or a greeting.

Yeah. Remember?

"Hello, Governor."

Or: "That was really good.

I tip my hat to you."

It's a show of respect.

Congrats.

Now, what's the next one?

Hmm.

Tip, tip by itself.

If someone gives me a tip, gives me a tip...

Gives me a tip.

What would that be?

Hmm.

Did you say information?

Yeah, information, number five.

That's like...

I'll give you a tip now.

If you go to engVid-huh?-you can get a lot more information

on collocations, idioms, vocabulary, and grammar.

See?

Is that a useful tip?

I bet you found that a helpful or a handy tip.

Right?

Okay, cool.

Enough of that.

Back to work.

Okay.

I'm so tired I could just...

Well, it says tip over, so what does that mean?

"Tip over"?

I'm so tired I could just...

Did you say tip over, to fall?

Yeah, sometimes you're so tired you could just fall over to the ground.

Or that cow, remember?

So what's that one?

To make fall.

Now, I think you're a smart person.

There's only one left, but just in case you need some time to be sure, I'll give you a

second or two.

Tip of the iceberg.

Yeah, I'm sure you figured out it's number one, the only one left.

Right?

It's a small part of something larger.

Like if there's corruption in your town and you find out that the police take money for

speeding tickets, you know, driving too fast.

And then you find out it's the mayor and it's also the fire department, you go:

"This is just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more."

Right?

Cool. All right.

So, look, I've given you some helpful tips, and I've got to get going, but I always want

to say thank you very much for watching this video.

And before I go I want you to go to www.engvid.com to do the quiz there.

Right?

And don't forget to...

I don't know what you've got, touch your screen, enter, but subscribe.

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Have a good day.