Learn English Vocabulary: 12 ways to use body parts as verbs

Hi. James from engVid.

I was going to try to...

A shoe and a book joke, but I didn't think it would go well.

But Mr. E is saying to me: "I gotta hand it to you." Right?

"You tried."

Yeah, I did try.

Unfortunately I failed.

Today I want to teach you about body parts as verbs, and how certain parts of our body,

from our hands to our mouths, to our heads can be used as verbs and have a meaning.

Now, before I go any further, I want to say two things.

Thank you to Baz and Tomo.

Thanks, guys, you made this lesson possible with some of your suggestions.

And if you guys have suggestions for me at all for lessons, please, don't hesitate.

Go to engVid, www.engvid.com, and just say, you know: "Can you teach this, this, and this?"

or "Could you help us with...?" and you might get your name on the board.

Now, I'm going to move on to our lesson, but just to point out because you grammar heads

out there will say: "He wrote 'gotta', and that's not a word in English."

You're right, this is slang.

But I'm saying: "You gotta hand it to me", because I'm using one of these body parts

as a verb right there: "hand it", it means have got to.

"I have got to hand it to you."

But in English, we say: "gotta" because it's faster and simpler. Right?

So: "I have got to hand it to you" is very formal, "I gotta hand it to you" is very natural.

Keep that in mind.

If you're writing, write: "I have got to", but if you're speaking, you could say to a

Canadian: "I gotta get going now", and they'll understand you have to go.

Cool? All right. Moving on.

First things we want to talk about, and I tried to do this in order with your body so

you will remember the order.

"Head", I have a head.

I cannot walk like this, it doesn't make sense.

I turn my head in the direction I'm going.

So, when somebody says: "Where are you heading?" they're saying: "I see your head is going

in this direction.

To where are you going?"

So: "heading" means direction.

"He was heading to his house", that means the direction he was going of his house.

"She was heading to the store", she was going in the direction of the store.

Number one: "heading".

Number two: "eyeball".

"To eyeball somebody" is to look at them.

Usually used in a negative sense.

If someone says to you: "Are you eyeballing me?"

It means: "Are you staring at me or looking at me?

Because I don't like how you look at me, okay?

Stop doing it." Okay?

So: "to eyeball someone".

Maybe you, you know...

Sometimes you've seen women look at other women, and they look them up and down, like:

"Look at her."

They're eyeballing, because you can see their eyes moving and checking them out.

Or guys eyeball each other, like: "Yeah, he thinks he's tough", and they eyeball you.

Okay?

Number two: "to eyeball".

Number three: "neck".

I'm not a vampire, I don't...

I don't want to bite you and get your blood, but "necking" isn't when two people put their

necks together, but "necking" is kissing, but long-time kissing, so it's like you're

with your partner: "[Kisses]".

"Necking", okay?

So that's why I have two lips, because they're kissing and that's why the two people are

happy because messing...

Messing.

[Laughs] Kissing means...

"Necking" means long-term kissing or long-time kissing and passionate kissing.

Okay?

Number four: "mouth off".

You can see the mouth is jumping off of a box.

Let me finish that box, it doesn't look like a full box, there.

So it's jumping off a box.

"Mouth off" is to say things, like: "Get out of here.

I don't care."

It's being rude.

Being rude, maybe sometimes using slang towards someone.

So, for example, if your dad were to say: "Hey, could you pick up the box?"

And you go: "Yo, old man, why don't you pick up the box?

You're bigger than me, you should pick up..."

You're mouthing off.

I would say: "Stop mouthing off.

Stop being rude."

Okay?

Or: "...talking back to me like that".

"Mouthing off".

"Shoulder", "shoulder a burden", that's just one example, but when you shoulder something,

like a responsibility, it means you carry it with you.

You carry it with you.

So if you're shouldering many responsibilities, maybe you are a student, maybe you're trying

to learn English, maybe you have a job, maybe you have a fam-...

That's a lot of things to put on your shoulders.

Because shoulders are used to carry, so you're carrying a lot of these things on your shoulder.

Okay?

Next one, number six: "armed".

Dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh.

"Arm", this is your arm.

We say: "armed" to mean have a weapon, like a gun.

"Pewng."

That's a phaser, by the way, from Star Trek.

"Pewng, pewng, pewng, plewng."

Or a sword.

"Ta-ching, ching."

Even a knife.

You can use a pen as a weapon.

In fact, to be honest, if you're armed, you could use words as weapons.

It's anything that can hurt someone, we say they were armed.

Right?

So if you're not very smart, you might not be well-armed in an argument.

Sorry, it's funny.

Really, it is.

But think of "armed" being a weapon, like a gun, or a knife, or a sword.

Okay?

So, are the...

Were the people armed?

Did they have weapons?

"Elbow", that's this part of your arm, the elbow.

See that part?

That's your elbow.

Okay?

Now, I don't know where you are in the world, but Canadians will know this one and Americans,

but if you elbow somebody in hockey it means to hit them with your elbow.

So: "elbowing" usually means to either hit somebody with this part of your body, or to

push your way into a situation.

And it means there's physical contact or a little bit of violence, because if I elbow

into the room, it means I'm going: "Excuse me.

Excuse me.

Excuse me", and I use these to get room.

Or if I elbow past you, you're standing there and I go: "Excuse me, got to go", and I will

hit you with my elbow to make you move.

All right?

But if you watch hockey, elbows happen all the time.

Okay?

So: "elbow someone".

Now, because this is YouTube I'm going to give you the finger, but it's not this finger,

it's another finger.

This finger here, but I'm not allowed to show it on network TV, or kids...

The kids' channel.

So: "give someone the finger" is not this finger...

Okay, don't use this finger, don't use this finger, don't use this finger, don't use this

finger, use this one.

But I have to illustrate it like that.

It means to tell someone to go away in a very strong way.

In fact, you might say it's the F-word.

You can go find it out for yourself.

But if you go like this: "Hey, you", and I give you the finger, I probably will have

to run away because you're going to probably want to hit me back.

Okay?

So, go figure out what "the finger" is.

Number nine: "butt in line".

Okay, I don't know if you can see my butt - that's my bum-bum, but you can't see it.

So, hang on a second.

The things I do for engVid.

Okay.

Dunh-dunh-dunh.

Okay, so, that is my butt.

Get a good look.

Okay?

"To butt in line" means to take this thing and to push your way in line.

What do I mean?

I mean there is a line...

Sorry, give me a second.

Told you, all the stuff I do for engVid.

There is a line and everyone's lined up nicely, and you're like...

Remember "elbow"?

You go: "Excuse me", and people go: -"You can't butt in line.

Your butt has to go back with everyone else at the end."

-"Damn it."

Because if you butt in line, you try to get in line when you shouldn't.

Don't try that in England - the queue is everything.

You do that England, they'll all say: "Excuse me?

Right, you can't butt in line."

No, sorry.

"You can't invade the queue like that.

Go to the back of the line like everyone else."

Right?

They don't play in England.

And number 10: "skinned alive".

How do I explain "skinned alive" to you?

You know what it is...

Actually, you don't.

"To be skinned alive" means somebody...

This is my skin.

See the skin?

Skin is what covers your whole body on the outside.

It means while you are alive, like I am alive, they take a knife and they cut off all of

your skin.

You go: "Eww!"

Yeah, you never want to be skinned alive.

But if someone's being skinned alive, it's an expression we use to show that what is

happening is very painful to the person experiencing it.

Right?

It's almost like being killed.

You know: "I felt like I was being skinned alive when they were asking me these questions.

It was very painful."

Because to have your skin cut off while you're alive, not something I've ever...

No, of course I've never gone through it, and nor do you want to go through it.

Okay?

"Skinning someone alive" means to put them through extreme pain.

All right?

Cool.

I think we've done 10 of these, so I think it's time, if you remember...

So, let's go quickly through it.

"Heading", direction; "eyeball", look in a bad way; "necking", kissing for a long time;

"mouth off", be rude.

Remember?

So these are the verbs that they're going to...

"Mouthing off", you're being rude to someone.

You know?

"Shoulder a burden", carry, carry something heavy, like responsibility; "armed", right?

Could be armed to the teeth, many weapons.

Phasers and swords.

Words, for smart people.

"Elbow somebody", get that room in there, get that elbow happening; "give somebody the

finger", [laughs].

What was that movie with that guy, the British guy?

So, you had the guy doing this.

Right?

"Give them the finger", means give them...

Say something bad.

Right?

"Butt in line", you saw my bum, take this thing and try to get in front of other people.

Don't try that in England.

Don't try it in Canada.

Actually, don't try it because if they're armed, they will skin you alive.

And "skinned alive", remember?

Cause extreme pain to someone.

Cool?

Well, now you got it, let's test you on it.

[Snaps]

All right, the magic of the ciao.

Ready?

First I'm going to give you a bonus before we go to do our quiz, you know, a little bit

extra so you can add to your vocabulary.

"Foot", we...

You know what a foot is.

Okay, a foot fits in your shoe.

Right?

"Foot the bill" means to pay for it.

If you say: "Who's footing the bill?" you're actually asking someone: "Who's going to pay

for this?" or "Who's paying for this?"

"Foot the bill".

"Face", look at this beautiful face, only a mother could love it.

Only my mom loved it.

"Face the facts" or "face facts", it means there are things that are happening and you're

not...

You don't think they're real or you're not paying attention to them, or you're not taking

care of it.

So when someone says: "It's time to face facts", they're saying: "This, and this, and this

are happening.

You're not doing anything about it or you're pretending it doesn't exist, and we have to

do something about it now.

It's time to face facts."

"Knee someone in the groin".

Once again, the things I do for engVid.

I need to get danger pay.

Okay.

This my knee.

To knee someone is err, err, hit them with the knee.

Hit them with the knee.

Your groin is here.

I'm sure that was blacked out, but it's the thing between your legs that can hurt you.

So, if someone knees you in the groin it means they will kind of kick you, but with their

knee into your special area.

Let's just call it that.

Okay?

So it's a "poo-yah" to the special area.

But you can also knee someone in the head, you can knee them in the stomach, you can

knee them in the back.

You can use that part of the body and hit anyone, like a kick.

Okay?

It means to hurt someone.

I got kneed in the groin while playing soccer.

Somebody hit their knee in my you know what.

Now, normally I do a quiz, I usually have blank spaces and I ask you to look at the

space and tell me the word.

Today's different.

For you visual people, you know, you people who learn best by seeing pictures and visuals,

I'm going to give you a shot today.

So I have the picture and I want you to tell me what the word would be, the corresponding

word.

Each one has a picture of the body we were talking about, but now you have to use it

properly in the sentence to show that you understand.

And in doing that, you have to use the proper verb tense, so: "head" might be: "heading"

or "headed".

Right?

Or: "heads".

Be careful.

Okay, so are we ready?

Let's start off.

"One day", our hero, "Mr. E", you know that, so this is Mr. E was...

That's right: "heading to the movies".

There's a head there.

"...when he saw a couple in the movie line".

For those of you who don't know: "a couple" is a...

It could be a boy and girl, or what have you, a married couple that are together.

You know, in a relationship, a couple.

Right?

In that case, a couple.

"They were holding hands and they started", what?

"...necking". Remember kissing?

So they're holding hands and then they're waiting for a movie, they're in love.

So nice, young love.

"Mr. E thought he could", yeah, remember?

I have a nice one of these ones.

Look at that.

What do you think?

"...butt in line". Remember?

That means to sneak in the line and go ahead of someone.

So, when the couple are kissing, Mr. E thought: "I can just go in front and they will never

see because they were kissing each other and holding hands."

Okay? "...and they wouldn't notice.

So Mr. E", remember that part of your arm?

"...elbowed past them".

So they're kissing, he went: "Excuse me.

[Laughs] I made it."

He's such a worm.

"Mr. E elbowed past them, but other people saw him

and eyeballed Mr. E." So they're going: "Oh, what are you doing?

Why are you going in line?

That's not your place.

Get back.

Oh, move back."

Okay?

They eyeballed him.

"So Mr. E..."

Remember, this is the funny part because he has no hands, but...

"So Mr. E gave them the", yeah, he's got no arms so he was like this, but he was going:

"Ah, all of you people, ah".

"He gave them the finger and ran away because they were armed", they had knives and guns.

"Ah, we'll skin him alive!

Let's cut him alive! Ah!" The end. Did you like my story?

Probably not, but you learned English, that's the important part.

There are many ways of learning, I mean we can use the words, but if pictures work for

you, use what works.

Okay?

Different methods will get there for some people faster than other methods.

I hope you enjoyed this because it probably made you giggle, will help you remember.

Giggle means to, like, laugh, like: "Hehehehe", right?

It's kind of funny, the finger and the bum-bum.

All right?

Anyway, before I go, we have homework because this is a quiz, but you learn and you grow

from doing homework. Right?

The homework I'd like you to do is take five of the body parts...

I believe I gave you 10. Right?

You have 10, so 10 to choose from, and use them in your own short story.

It could be with myself, it could be with you, Mr. E, whoever. Right?

Use some of these. Right?

"Was James eyeballing Mr. E while he was doing his lesson?"

I don't know, it's your story.

Have fun with it.

And then when you're done, go to engVid and share.

Once again, there's a community there.

You can tell people your story, and they might say: "Hey, this is a good one, but I did this",

and you can learn from each other.

You might even exchange a few new ones that I didn't give you.

Anyway, I've got to go, and as always, I want you to go to www... www.eng as in English,

vid as in video.com (www.engvid.com), engVid where you can do the quizzes there.

And I look forward to seeing you, and you can see other people that I work with. Right?

Anyway, it's been a good day. Don't forget to subscribe somewhere around here, and I will see you soon.