6 Common English Proverbs

Hello and welcome to English Like a

Native.

My name is Anna and today we're very

lucky to be joined here by Chris from

Learn British English Free which is a

fantastic channel. Chris actually has

lots of social media platforms where he

provides lots of English education, so I

would definitely recommend checking out

Chris's channels if you aren't already aware

of him.

Thank you very much Anna, yeah like Anna said

I have the YouTube Channel "Learn British

English Free'.

We're also on facebook and a website

learnbritishenglish.co.uk so everyone

is welcome. The lessons are free that we

publish there; about the British accent,

pronunciation, and even things like slang.

So hopefully you'll be able to learn

some things with us.

So today I've got Chris here and we're

going to be talking about proverbs. Now

a proverb is a saying which kind of

gives you some advice for how to live

your life, so it's like a moral, absolutely.

Or a lesson. We're going to be talking about

some of our favourite proverbs. Now we've

already discussed six of our favourite

proverbs on Chris's channel, so if you

want to watch that video and I highly

recommend it because there are some very

common proverbs we've discussed. Then

please do check that out after you

finish watching this one.

The link will be in the description box

below and also on this video at the end.

So here are six more of our favourite proverbs:

This is a really popular one and very

wise as well. Yes it means that if

something is working well, then there's

no point in adjusting it. Don't try and

fix something if it's already working.

Why don't you tell us one. Okay then well one for me is:

What does that mean?

What we're talking about is that no one

can really function independently. You

can't be completely alone in life, not

completely, not completely. You always

need, we all need someone. Exactly.

We need someone don't we Chris. We do indeed.

We do so much better if we work as a team. One proverb that my mum used

to say to me all the time was:

Have you heard that one?

I have and I use it often. Do you? I do indeed yes.

So beggars can't be choosers means if you're

asking someone for something, if you need

a favour, if you're begging for something,

"please can I..." then you can't turn around

and be picky about it. So if I ask you to

lend me a pen

yeah, I can't let say "oh I don't want a

blue pen. I want a green sparkly pen.

Oh no that pen's not very good. Can I

have a better pen please?"

I mean, not only is it rude but it's just

going to make the person who's happy to

help you initially, not want to help you

in future. So beggars can't be choosers.

Another one for me is:

Ok so this is a both positive and

negative spin. So we should be optimistic

We should be looking forward to

good things happening but at the

same time we also have to be careful and

be prepared just in case things don't

work out how we would like. Yeah I guess

you should always have a back-up plan.

Absolutely always have a back-up plan

and then there's no nasty surprises.

Never hurts.

Yeah. Rather be safe than sorry. So the

last one from me is:

Now you can say anything. You can. You can

say anything, but what really resonates

with people is how you behave and your

actions. So I might profess my love for

someone" I love you, I love you, I love you,

I love you." But actually it's how you

behave that suggests that you love them.

So it might be turning up on time, not

standing them up on a date, and bringing

them flowers, cooking them dinner, just

being there when they need a

shoulder to cry on, that kind of thing. So

actions speak louder than words.

Yeah and if you promise something

then make sure you do it.

Yeah because words are cheap. They are

cheap. Words are nothing!

Ok and the last proverb for me (yep) is:

And what we mean by this is that if

there's someone who you know perhaps

isn't on your side then you should

be careful with them. So maybe don't

argue with them openly but stay close to

them so you can watch them and observe

just in case.

Yes because if you're close to your

enemies then you can keep an eye on

exactly what they're doing, and they're

not a danger to you if you've got them

close to you. Correct. I'll have to bear that one in

mind, although I don't think I have any

enemies

luckily, I hope not! So let's just

recap all the proverbs we've covered

today.

The first one was: if it ain't broke

don't fix it.

I had: no man is an island. Beggars can't

be choosers. Hope for the best but

prepare for the worst.

Absolutely. Actions speak louder than

words, and keep your friends close and

your enemies closer.

Now I hope you learned something from

that, don't forget that there are six

other fantastic proverbs; very commonly

used proverbs, on chris's channel so do

click on that link in the description

box below, go and check out that video

and don't forget to subscribe both here

and on chris's channel. That's all from

us today, so thank you for watching and

goodbye.