Learn 7 ways to use “OFF” in English

Hey, it's Ronnie.

And this probably will happen to you or happens to you or happened to you.

People will say things to you that you just really have no idea what they're talking about

or what they mean, and maybe you will answer them in the wrong way.

That's okay.

It's all right.

If you make a mistake when you're answering somebody's question, don't worry.

I know that you get embarrassed, like, "Oh my god, that's in English."

I'm here to help you.

But you have to understand that even if somebody asks me a question, I can give the wrong answer

because maybe I wasn't listening to them because I'm pretty bad at listening to people, or

I just didn't hear what they said.

So don't feel bad, and I'm going to teach you some expressions that people might say

to you, and now you can fix your mistakes and I can help you.

So this is a true story.

My friend was driving in a car, obviously, not an airplane, and he was going into a parking

lot, and the parking attendant or the person that works at the parking lot said, "Hey,

where are you off to today?"

But he would never have said it that slowly or understandably.

He probably said, "Where are you off to today?"

And my friend thought about it and said, "Oh, yes."

The parking attendant looked confused because he asked him a question, like, "Where are

you going today?"

So, where are you going today?

Are you going to the pool?

Are you going to the skating rink?

Are you going to the roller coaster?

And my friend thought, he said, which is kind of weird, is, "Hey, you have a day off today."

Or, "It's your day off today."

And my friend thought about it and said, "Why does this guy care, and how does he know that

today's my day off?"

Because it's a Monday, and most people work on Mondays.

So, you know, he calls me and says, "Ronnie, I need your help."

What does that mean, "Where are you off to today?"

It has nothing to do with your time.

He basically was asking where he's going.

So this is how I come and I help my friends, and I say, "Oh, let's do this."

So, where are you off to today?

The person wants to know, basically, where are you going?

But they're just not going to ask you, "Hey, where are you going?"

They're going to say, "Where are you off to today?"

I can say to my friends or my family, say, "Hey, hey, I'm off to the store, okay?

Do you want anything?

I'm off.

But why are you off?"

We don't say, "Hey, mom, I'm going to the store."

In natural language, we say, "I'm off to the store.

I'm off to the races."

So, "off" has many different meanings.

The first meaning, maybe you know because you have, yes, a holiday from work, I got

a day off.

Now, to have a day off means that you don't have to work, it's a day to relax or do whatever

you like to do.

You also know the expression, "I'm off tomorrow."

If you say, "I'm off tomorrow", it doesn't mean where you're going.

Again, both of these expressions, we're talking about not working, okay?

"I'm off tomorrow, yeah!" or "I got a day off, woo-hoo!"

Okay?

"Where are you off to?"

It changes the meaning of it.

So, "Where are you off to?" is the place.

"I'm off to the store."

And you'll notice that this has a noun, and this is going to have a time marker.

So, "I'm off tomorrow", you're talking about your schedule, but "I'm off to someplace",

you're talking about going someplace.

You want anything?

That's just to be nice, okay?

The way that we use the word "off", let's say you wake up in the morning, you got your

coffee ready, and you open the milk, and you pour it in - oh, uh-oh.

The milk seems a bit strange right now, and you - oh - and you smell the carton or the

bag, and you go - oh, oh, wow, that milk is off, or this milk is off - hold on, was the

milk even on at some point?

It's not like a light in English that we turn on and off.

If something is off with food, it means it's not fresh, or it's not good to drink or eat.

Sometimes you open a bottle of wine - I open bottles of wine sometimes - and you smell

it, and like - oh, oh, I think this wine is off.

So, when we talk about food or drinks, we mean that it's basically just not fresh, and

I don't recommend drinking the milk.

Now, the wine, I mean, you can still drink it.

I don't think it'll make you sick, but don't drink the milk, okay?

So food can be off.

You open up a bag of chicken, like - oh, oh, this chicken is off - it means it's not fresh.

Throw it out.

Bye-bye.

Or give it to me, I'll eat it.

We can also use this with measurement.

Sometimes you're looking at something, and maybe your friend sees the letter B, and you

say the letter D, and your friend says - wow, my eyesight must be off - on/off, on/off - because

I see a different letter than you.

We use this with measuring something, so eyesight is - you're measuring the distance of things

with your eyes, and like - oh, it's off.

Maybe your friend's hanging a picture on the wall, and it's crooked, and like - oh, guess

what?

The measurement must be off.

It means it's not perfect when we talk about measurement or eyesight.

Something that's like - it might be crooked, which is the opposite of straight, but when

we use it like this, it means, like, it's the wrong calculations, so be careful.

You don't want a crooked picture frame on your thing.

If that happens, what you're going to do is you're going to get one of these things.

This is called a level, okay?

And this makes sure that what you're hanging is straight.

Can you see the bubble in the middle?

If the bubble is off, not in the middle, it means it's not straight, so you got to be

careful with the measurements, here.

And the last one, one of my favorites.

Maybe you see some guy and he's smoked a little bit too much crack for Tuesday, or they're

just kind of acting strange.

You can say, "Oh, that guy's a little off."

My grandmother used to say to people, "She's off with the fairies."

I'm like, "I want to go with the fairies.

Where are the fairies?

I want to go."

They don't exist, gran.

But if there were fairies, please come take me away.

So, if somebody is a little off, it might mean they're a little bit crazy, or yeah,

there's something that's not quite right about them.

They're not...

They're not 100%, you know.

And you can use this, "Oh, you know, I'm a little off today.

I'm sorry I can't come into work."

And you know, that's just a really good excuse, so use it.

You don't... there's nothing really wrong with you, you're just a little off, you're

feeling a little crazy, you're feeling a little not fresh in the morning, okay?

You're just not going to work.

So, I hope you enjoyed this.

I'm off.

Bye.