Visual Vocabulary - To Muddy the Waters - Speak English Fluently and Naturally

13,329 views ・ 2016-10-06

EnglishAnyone


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Welcome to Visual Vocabulary, the new animated series from EnglishAnyone.com that helps you
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learn useful English expressions the same way native speakers do so you can master them
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quickly, AND start using them confidently in your conversations today!
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Today’s expression is “to muddy the waters.”
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This is a very common phrase meaning to make a situation or issue more complex or confusing
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by adding additional, and often unimportant, information or elements.
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Imagine you’re standing in a shallow, beautiful stream.
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It’s a sunny day in the forest, and you can look down through the clear water at your
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feet.
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The mud on the bottom of the stream is undisturbed, and you can see little fish swimming by your
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toes.
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But, once you begin to move your feet, you send mud from the bottom of the stream up
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into the water, making the stream cloudy and reducing visibility.
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Like muddying the waters of a real stream, when you add lots of additional, unnecessary
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things to a situation or issue, you make it more confusing and difficult to understand.
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to muddy the waters
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to muddy the waters
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“To muddy the waters” is a phrase you can use in both professional and casual situations:
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A: By introducing all of that extra data at end of the meeting, Tom just muddied the waters.
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B: I know.
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Sometimes he can explain things too much.
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A: I hope I’m not muddying the waters, but there are a few other things about the project
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we need to consider.
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B: I understand.
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It’s important to be thorough.
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A: Stop muddying the waters!
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No one cares about all of these useless facts!
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B: I’m sorry.
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Forget everything else.
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Just follow the instructions on the form.
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A: Let me tell you exactly what we’re going to do each day on our vacation!
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B: You’d muddy the waters of my enjoyment by explaining everything now.
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Just tell me only what we’re going to do next.
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Well, that’s the end of this lesson.
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But if you feel like you’re muddying the waters of your English education by learning
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lots of information that’s not helping you speak more fluently, take our free English
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fluency test by clicking on the link in this video!
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This quick, simple test will show you exactly what to focus on so you can finally become
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a successful, confident English speaker 2, 3 or even 10 times faster!
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Click on the link in this video to take your free test now, and get personalized advice
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that will help you see immediate improvement in your spoken English.
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Have a fantastic day, be sure to click that like button, and we’ll see you in the next
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lesson!
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