How to Talk About FLOWERS in English!

59,192 views ・ 2022-06-21

Learn English with Bob the Canadian


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

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So you might have noticed in the last video or two
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that the peonies were almost ready to bloom,
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and they've definitely bloomed now,
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so I thought it would be a good idea to do a
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little English lesson about flowers.
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In this English lesson,
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I'll talk about the types of events where we give
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or send flowers in this part of the world.
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I'll talk a little bit about the parts of the flower,
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the basic vocabulary that we use in English
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when we talk about flowers,
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and then I'll talk a little bit about the verbs we use
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and the phrases that we use
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when we talk about giving, sending, receiving,
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and doing all kinds of different things with flowers.
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(upbeat music)
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Well, hello and welcome
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to this English lesson about flowers.
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Before we get started,
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if this is your first time here,
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don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there,
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and gimme a thumbs up if this video helps you learn
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just a little bit more English.
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Well, probably one of the biggest events
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where people buy flowers or where people use flowers
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in this part of the world would be a wedding.
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When a bride and groom get married,
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often the bride will have a brides bouquet.
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A bouquet is just a little group of flowers,
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or it can be really big.
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There's also bridesmaids bouquets.
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There's also something called a boutineer,
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which is a little thing that the men wear
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on their shirt or on their suit jacket.
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And then sometimes women in a wedding will wear a corsage,
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which can either be on their wrist,
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or can sometimes be on their dress as well.
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So weddings, the first event, when two people get married,
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they spend a lot of money on flowers.
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I think most of the money in the world
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that's spent on flowers, at least in Canada,
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is probably spent at a wedding.
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Another common time when people send flowers
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is when there is a funeral.
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Oftentimes when someone passes away,
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we often use that phrase by the way,
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instead of saying that someone died.
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Often when someone passes away,
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because you want to express your sympathy,
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and you want to express your condolences,
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you will often send flowers.
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You will often send what's called a flower arrangement.
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A flower arrangement is usually a container
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with some very pretty flowers in it, and you'll send a card.
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So another common time when people use flowers,
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when people send flowers.
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and also a very sad time is when there is a funeral,
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and you want to just express to the family
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that you feel bad for them,
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you want to express your sympathies, and your condolences.
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Another time where you might send someone flowers
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or give someone flowers is if they're sick,
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or if they're in the hospital.
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When you're in the hospital,
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it's really nice when someone sends you flowers.
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People don't always have time to visit,
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or maybe they're not able to,
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so they send flowers because they want you to get well soon.
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In fact, you might even get a card
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with the flower arrangement that says get well soon.
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So another time when it's just nice to send flowers,
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when it's nice to have flowers in your life
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is if you know someone who's sick and in the hospital,
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you might send them flowers.
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Or if you yourself are sick or in the hospital,
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it's really nice to get them.
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It just lifts your spirits a little bit.
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Giving flowers whenever there is a special occasion
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is just a good idea.
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In English, when we say something is a special occasion,
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we mean the day is special for a certain reason
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It might be a birthday, maybe it's a graduation,
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someone's graduating from university.
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Maybe it's Mother's Day or Father's Day,
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although flowers aren't as popular on Father's Day,
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for some reason.
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Anyways, whenever there is a special occasion,
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giving someone a bouquet of flowers,
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or giving them a flower arrangement
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is just a cool gift idea.
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You can give them other things if you want to,
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but for some reason, when Jen and I are asked
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what would make a good gift for Mother's Day,
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we usually say flowers, I think because we grow them.
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Anyways, special occasions are cool days
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where sometimes people give gifts,
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and flowers are sometimes a really
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unique and cool gift to gift.
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Flowers can also be a very romantic gift.
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When we use the word romantic in English,
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we're talking about love.
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Sometimes when two people are starting
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to fall in love with each other,
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one person might buy the other person flowers
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to show them that they're starting
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to have feelings for them.
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In English, when you say someone is starting
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to have feelings for someone else,
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it means they're starting to really like them a lot,
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and maybe they're falling in love a little bit.
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When two people go on a date,
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sometimes on the second or third date
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one person might buy the other person flowers
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to show that they are very, very interested in them.
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The most popular day for giving flowers
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for a romantic reason would be Valentine's Day.
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Every February 14th, people celebrate Valentine's Day.
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It's when you buy flowers for your loved one,
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flowers are the best gift, by the way, I think.
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Sometimes people buy chocolate or jewelry, or other stuff,
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but as a flower farmer, I have to say
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I think flowers are the right way to say
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"I love you" to someone.
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The most common flower on that day is of course the rose,
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and I think the most common gift,
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if you're going to buy flowers, would be a dozen red roses.
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And then lastly, the last romantic time to give flowers
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would be on an anniversary.
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If you are married to someone,
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every year you celebrate your anniversary.
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It's the day where you got married,
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so every year you celebrate that,
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and it's really nice to buy the other person some flowers
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to show that you love them just as much now
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as you did the day you got married.
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So, I have a couple of flowers here,
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because I thought I should teach you
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some basic English flower vocabulary.
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You can see this flower has not opened up yet.
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It hasn't bloomed, so we would call this a bud,
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so this is the bud.
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This is the bloom, or the flower.
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If I take this entire thing,
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down here, we would say this is the stem.
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This is just a leaf, the same as a leaf on a tree.
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And when we talk about all of them in plural,
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we would say leaves.
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And again, this is the bloom or flower,
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and each individual part of it is called a petal.
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Now I'm not gonna go into scientific detail
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about what's all in the middle,
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this is just a basic English vocabulary lesson,
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but I do have something else to show you.
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This is a bouquet.
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A bouquet of flowers is when you take
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not always different flowers,
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but it can be all different flowers and some greenery,
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and you put it all together into something like this,
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which looks very beautiful.
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So this is a bouquet of flowers, and of course,
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if you got a bouquet of flowers from the store,
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you would want to put it in a vase with some water
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so that the flowers are happy,
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and live for a long time in the vase.
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Usually about a week,
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sometimes two weeks before the flowers eventually die,
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but that's just what happens when you have flowers.
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So let's talk a little bit about
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the verbs you would use in English to talk about flowers.
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Jen and I grow flowers.
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If you like having flowers in your flower beds or garden,
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we would say that you grow flowers.
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That's the verb we use.
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We grow peonies, we also grow sunflowers.
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We use the verb to grow
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to describe all the different flowers that we grow.
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A couple times a day right now,
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Jen will go out and cut flowers.
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When you go out to the field to get the flowers,
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you take pruners, and we use the verb to cut.
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Jen will go out and cut peonies
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every morning and every evening
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because they bloom quite quickly through the day.
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When you take flowers and you put them into a bouquet,
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or when you put them into an arrangement,
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we use the verb to arrange.
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Jen and I go to a market on Thursday,
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so Wednesday night we arrange the flowers.
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We take the individual flowers and some greenery,
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and we put them into a bouquet.
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We arrange the flowers.
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And then you either send flowers to someone,
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that's when you call a flower shop
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or you order flowers online,
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and someone else delivers the flowers for you,
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so we use the verb to send.
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I'm going to send flowers to my mom
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because she's in the hospital.
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She's not actually in the hospital, that's just an example.
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The other verb we use is to give.
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You might give someone flowers.
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This is a better example.
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The other day I went to my mom's
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because it was her birthday, and I gave her flowers.
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I'm using the verb to give
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to indicate that I went in person.
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I had flowers, and I gave them to my mom.
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I like to give my mom flowers.
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She really likes them.
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It's kind of handy that we have a flower farm.
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Well, hey, thank you so much for watching
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this English lesson about flowers.
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I hope you were able to learn a few more English
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vocabulary words that you can use in your next conversation
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when you talk about flowers.
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Remember, if this is your first time here,
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don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there.
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Gimme a thumbs up if this video
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helps you learn some more English, and if you want,
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why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson?
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(upbeat music)
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