Idioms & Phrasal Verbs - "on"

I think I'll go see this on Monday.

Hi.

I'm going to go see a movie on Monday.

What I want to talk about is the preposition "on" and I want to talk about its uses.

We'll do some phrasal verbs and we'll talk about "on."

"On," or should I say my favorite, famous catchphrase, let's go to the board, yeah?

"On."

Well, we have "on," there's basically two ideas with "on."

One, we talk about attaching or touching.

Or two, we talk about continuing, okay?

So when we look at these two ideas of attaching or touching or continuing, we use "on" in

especially phrasal verbs and idioms to carry those two ideas.

What ideas, you say?

Well, why don't we take a look?

So I'm going to move this to the top of the board, okay?

And you continue with me.

So what did we say?

We said number one was what?

"Attach."

Okay, attaching.

Or what?

"Touching."

Good.

And we said this one is to what?

"Continue."

"Continue."

Take a look.

Now, here's something for you.

You'll like this one, especially if you come to Canada, and you find me, if you come searching

for me, you can find me, "I'll buy you a drink on the house."

That's a good one.

You want to remember that when you go to a bar, especially when I sound really cool,

you can say, "Oh, it's on the house."

Well, you can only say that if you own the house, which would be the bar.

But "on the house" means the company or person will pay for you, on the house.

This is saying that the payment will be attached to the company, not to you.

Cool.

You like that?

So they pay the bill.

Bill?

Attached to them.

You can let it go.

"On the house."

How about another one?

Okay?

So that's one.

We can say that.

Now, let's say you have a goal.

You want to achieve something or get something done.

And well, here, let me draw a house for a second.

And here's the bill.

It's on the house.

And here's you.

You're smiling, of course, because you're happy.

You're not paying.

Okay?

Good.

Next one, "on target."

So we've got a little drawing here.

So a target is something you aim at.

You want to hit it.

Now, when you think you're going to achieve your goal, at the time you said you're going

to achieve your goal, you can say, "I'll buy you a drink on the house."

That's a good one.

You want to remember that when you go to a bar, especially when I sound really cool, you

can say, "I'll buy you a drink on the house."

Well, you can say, "I'll buy you a drink on the house."

Now, when you think you're going to achieve your goal, at the time you said you're going

to achieve your goal, we say, "We're on target."

Which means, if I said my goal would be, say, January 1st, I will have this done, and you

ask me in November, how are things going, and I go, "Hey, they're on target."

It means I'm aiming, I'm still going to hit here on the time I said.

So it'll be done on January, like I said.

Even though we're speaking in November, I can say, "January 1st, it will be done.

I'm on target.

Nothing has moved me away."

Cool, yeah?

Right?

It'll be on target.

Now, how does this work here?

Okay?

This means we are going to touch the goal, or target, when we said we would.

So you're going to get your goal on time.

If you're trying to lose weight, you weigh 200 pounds, you want to go to 150, every month

you say, "I will lose five pounds."

Okay?

It'll take you 10 months.

You keep looking, and you're losing the weight.

You go, "I'm on target, and in 10 months, I'll lose all that weight."

Yeah?

You like that?

Okay.

So take a look.

We got our "on the house," "on target."

Yeah?

Now, here are a couple more for you.

Okay?

If you're like me and are romantic, you like horizons.

They're beautiful.

You can fall in love.

You know?

Okay?

So, let's just say, we talked about goals before.

There's your horizon.

Okay?

I know you can't see him, but Ezekiel is enjoying the horizon.

There's Ezekiel.

He's smiling.

He's happy.

The horizon.

Now, let's say someone asks you, "What do you have happening in the future?

What's happening in the future?"

You might say, "What's happening in the future?

What's on the horizon?

What's coming up for you?"

Right?

So, let me say this, "What's on the horizon" is, "What's going to come up for you in the

future?"

Come up in the near future.

Okay?

So, by saying this, what we're saying is, what we're basically attached to, what's coming

to us.

Right?

So, what's attached?

So, here's a little leash.

Okay?

Mr. Sun has got Ezekiel holding on to him.

What's coming to me because I'm attached to it, I've got plans for it, in the near future,

what's on the horizon?

So, I've just finished a job or an assignment, and so I'm going to say, "You did a good job.

Congratulations.

What will you do tomorrow?

What's on the horizon for you?

What's coming up?"

Like that?

Okay.

Now, that's in the future.

What happens if you want to talk about now?

Okay?

It's a dot.

A dot is just a little circle.

Ezekiel is standing on the dot.

Why?

Because if I tell you to do something on the dot, it means, now, or at a specific time.

Okay?

So when somebody says, "James was here on the dot at five o'clock on the night," I shouldn't

say now.

I should say, "Exact."

We usually say it's exact, an exact time.

"I arrived at five o'clock on the dot."

See the dot, boom.

Specific time, right here, right now.

So that's when we talk about on, so of course you're attached to an exact moment or a specific

time.

"Be here at nine o'clock on the dot.

Be here at that specific time.

He did this at seven o'clock on the dot, exactly at that time."

Cool?

All right.

So that's what I want you to do, because we haven't even done continue.

So let's do that, okay?

Ezekiel, you know, he got a lot of reviews and replies from the last couple of videos,

so I'm trying to include him.

He's got fan mail now.

Can you imagine it?

He reads it.

He wears sunglasses.

He gets a cafe latte.

He reads it.

Anyway, number five.

So we did four fives.

Let's do number five.

So how about, you're a busy person.

That's why we're doing these for you, to help you learn English and learn it for us.

How about, okay, now let's just imagine, I can't draw Ezekiel because it wouldn't really

work as well here, but if somebody's running, they're running really, really fast, running,

running, running, running, running, we would say they're on the go, and then this one means

to be busy, right?

I'm very busy.

I'm on the go all the time, all the time doing things, busy, busy, busy, busy, and that's

to be on the go.

You'll never see Ezekiel anymore because he's on the go.

That was his new fame.

He's doing a world tour.

He just shows up on boards everywhere.

You'll see it pretty soon.

Okay?

So, take a look at that one.

We've got one more coming up for you.

Okay?

Now, if you look at this one, as I said, it's to continue being busy.

That's why we did this one.

But how about this one?

Okay?

Okay.

Okay.

You go, "What's going on here?"

Well, we have a clock.

Now, in North America, if we want to tell you something is happening all the time or

continues to happen on a regular basis all the time, we say on the hour.

Right now, there's Ezekiel.

He's here at 3 o'clock.

He'll be here at 4 o'clock.

He'll be here at 5 o'clock.

That means every hour, the same event will occur.

A good example is for buses.

When you go to foreign countries and you want to say, "When does the bus come?"

Someone might say, "It comes on the hour."

That means 1 o'clock, the bus will arrive.

2 o'clock, the bus will arrive.

3 o'clock, and so on and so forth.

So, every hour, the bus will come.

Okay?

So, that's another thing of continuing.

In fact, it's referring to the future, on the hour, not just now, but in the future.

So, we've looked at this preposition "on," and I've shown you a few phrasal verbs and

idioms and how "on" relates to it, and you've noticed how we can do it with attaching,

showing it's attached to something, or continuing something.

I hope you enjoyed the lesson.

I've got more coming for you, you know that, and why don't you go to engVid, where we've

got some fabulous teachers teaching you everything from pronunciation, grammar, TOEFL, and IELTS.

Where I want you to go, though, is go here, okay?

I've got a lesson for you there, for everybody, I'm sure, www.eng, as in English, vid, as

in video,.com, where you can see me and other fabulous teachers who would love to teach

you.

Now, my bus comes on the hour, so I've got to go, and you know, I'm always on the go.

I'm a busy guy.

Take care.

I'll see you next time, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye.