Free English Class! Topic: Secrets and Lies! 🙊🤐 (Lesson Only)

Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson about secrets

and lies. Communication is more than just having conversations.

It has some nuances. It has some different aspects to it.

One of those is sometimes people don't tell you

everything. Sometimes, they have secrets that they don't

want to tell and sometimes people tell you things that

aren't true. Sometimes, people lie to you. Uh so, in this

English lesson, I'm going to go over some words and phrases

related to the topic of secrets and lies. This isn't a lesson

where I teach you how to lie I think most people are truthful

but I think everyone tells lies every once in a while and

that's kind of on you to decide when you do that and when you

don't. Um but we'll start by talking a little bit about

secrets, different words and phrases related to secrets.

Things that you don't want to tell people and then we'll

spend some time talking about lies after that. A secret. A

secret is something that you know that you don't tell anyone

else. A secret can be shared between one or two or three or

more people. So sometimes people will have a secret and

they'll share that secret with a friend. So maybe um my

brother and I have a secret. Maybe we're planning a party

for somebody. But it's a secret. So we know that we're

doing it. But we do not talk about it openly. We do not tell

other people what we are doing or what we are thinking. So it

is a secret. Secrets can be uh for good things and also for

bad things. Sometimes people have secrets that they keep

because they just don't want people to know certain things

about their lives. Maybe they're things that to them

when they were younger maybe there are things that they did

maybe they uh participated in criminal activity and they want

to keep that a secret hopefully no one did that hopefully no

one was um a thief in their youth and is now keeping that a

secret so I just used the phrase to keep a secret

probably one or two times in that explanation. This is how

we talk about what you do with a secret. You keep the secret.

Okay? It's kind of a funny verb because to keep usually refers

to physical things. But you keep a Secret when you keep a

secret it means you don't tell anyone what the secret is

sometimes before people tell you something they'll say hey

can you keep a secret and what they're saying is are you able

to make sure you don't tell anyone else what I'm going to

tell you in a moment can you keep a secret so the phrase we

use when we're talking about secrets is the phrase to keep a

secret I'm really good at keeping secrets if someone

tells me something and says can you keep this a secret, it's no

problem for me. It's very easy for me to keep a secret. Some

people can't say that. For some people, uh you say, hey, could

you keep a secret? They say yes and then you tell them

something and then they go and tell someone right away because

they can't keep a secret. Sometimes, people do things in

secret. When you do something in secret, it means you do it

without other people knowing it. So, in our area of Ontario,

Canada, sometimes people grow a certain kind of plant in their

house in secret. A plant that is illegal. A plant that they

grow and harvest and sell and then eventually people will

smoke that plant and they do it in secret because it's illegal

to grow a certain number of those plants. So when you do

something in secret, you do it behind closed doors. That's

another phrase. You do it where someone can't see you. You do

it so that whatever you're doing is a secret instead of

being public knowledge, public knowledge would be the opposite

of a secret. Sometimes, governments have papers and

they mark them top secret. Maybe you've watched a spy

thriller. Maybe you've watched a James Bond movie in the past.

Often, in a James Bond movie, he'll be trying to get some

documents that are top secret documents. He'll be looking for

documents that have been stamped and say top secret on

them um because that's what spies do, I guess. I guess they

go around looking for top secret documents. So, when

something is top secret, it means that it's a government

document or even a project, there could be a top secret

project um and it means that not no one is allowed to know

about it unless the government says they can. It's top secret.

When I was a kid, we often had secret hideouts. A secret

hideout when you're a kid is like a little fort that you

build under a table, maybe with some blankets. We used to build

secret hideouts in the hay mow of our barn. We would use bales

of hay to build forts and secret hideouts. In movies,

sometimes criminals will have a secret hideout. So, they'll

commit a crime and then they'll drive really fast and they'll

go to their secret hideout. This is the place where they um

count the money they stole or other things and it is a place

that the police don't know about it uh about because it is

a secret. So, they have a secret hideout. I think you

recognize this guy. Um Superman has a secret identity.

Superman's secret identity is Clark Kent. So, he has a secret

identity. People don't know that he is Superman. Um so, he

keeps just a minute. Let me check something for a minute.

Um I want to make sure of something. All of the sudden I

was unsure of secret identity. Secret identity is a person's

alter ego which is not known to the general populous. Most

often used in fiction for yes, excellent. So, Superman's

secret identity is not Clark Kent. Clark Kent is his public

facing identity but his secret identity is Superman.

Hopefully, I got that right. I think you understood my uh

fumbled explanation of secret identity. Secret recipe. So,

sometimes people make things. They'll bake a cake or they'll

cook something in a certain way and when you say, how did you

make this? They'll say, oh, it's a secret recipe. Um it

might be a family recipe. That's another good word for it

but the best example I could think of was KFC. So, KFC has a

secret recipe. You can't just go into a KFC and say, this

chicken is really good. Can you tell me how to make it? Can you

give me the recipe? Because they'll say, no, no, that's a

secret recipe. No one's allowed to this recipe. I don't know if

it's seven herbs and spices or eleven herbs and spices but it

is a secret recipe. no1 else is allowed to know about it.

Sometimes, a sports team will have a secret weapon. Um so,

secret weapon sounds like a military term and it can be. An

army can have a weapon and it's a secret weapon. The enemy

doesn't know about it but it's probably more commonly used to

talk about someone like this. This is Fred Van Fleet he plays

for the Toronto Raptors. When he first started playing, he

was kind of their secret weapon because other teams didn't know

how good he was at shooting a three-point shot or at stealing

the ball from the other team. So, they knew he was a good

player but he was kind of a secret weapon. There were

things about him that made him a really, really good

basketball player. You might have a secret admirer. So, a

secret admirer is someone who likes you usually in a romantic

way but doesn't tell you who they are. So, this can either

be kind of cool or it can be a little bit creepy. When

something's creepy, it means you're like, you don't like it

but let's say at work, or maybe you're a university student,

someone keep sending you little cards. You keep finding little

cards or they come in the mail or someone keeps giving you

little gifts and you don't know who they're from but they all

say things like, I think you're an awesome person, I think

you're beautiful, I think you're handsome, um that would

be a secret admire. So, a secret admire is someone who

likes you, someone who thinks you're very attractive, someone

who lets you know via little notes or gifts but doesn't tell

you who they are. So, maybe you have a secret admire at work,

maybe you have a secret admire at school, I don't know. It's

possible. Um and again, it can either be something where you

are flattered. When you're flattered, you kinda smile and

you feel happy and good about it or it can be a little bit

creepy where you're another term would be weirded out

because someone keeps sending you gifts and you don't know

who they are. I think I might be weirded out if I had a

secret admire Sometimes, companies will have what's

called a trade secret. So, a trade secret is a way of doing

something or a way of making something that a company

doesn't want other businesses or companies to know, okay? So,

a trade secret might be a car manufacturer makes the way

their um their dashboard works in a certain way but it's a

trade secret. They don't want other companies to know how

they do it. The way that Tesla makes batteries, they have a

special process that they use to make car batteries it's

probably a trade secret. They don't want other companies to

know how they make those batteries. Actually, I think

Tesla doesn't care though. So, don't don't quote me on that.

That was just an example for an English lesson. And then secret

code. I put the answer to the secret code. I shouldn't have

done that but a secret code is when you mix the letters of the

alphabet up or you use a special chart to write

something that looks like gibberish. So, gibberish is

just something that words that don't make sense but if you

know the code, this is a reverse alphabet code. You can

uh you can decipher the secret code. So, this is a secret

code. Kids sometimes use secret codes and then spies use secret

codes. I think those would be the two people that use secret

codes. And then let's do one more and we'll get to some

questions. Deep, dark secret. So, sometimes a building might

hold a deep, dark secret. Maybe years ago, there was a really

horrific crime in a building and most people have forgotten

about it. You could say oh I'm not gonna buy that building

because it it holds a deep dark secret um someone maybe someone

was murdered there years ago or maybe something else happened

there that was really bad so it's a deep dark secret

sometimes families might have a deep dark secret I don't know

why we use deep and dark but it's the kind of secret that

people would be ashamed of or they just don't want to talk

about so I have no deep dark secrets just so you know um but

I think when People decide to run for office. If they wanna

be mayor or president or prime minister, sometimes the news,

the journalist will find out that there's a deep, dark

secret about that person that they didn't want the world to

know about and kind of stops them from getting into office.

Secret Santa. So, every year, um well, not every year but

sometimes at work, we have what's called secret Santa. So,

secret Santa is something that people do sometimes in a

workplace, sometimes with their family where everyone puts

their name on a piece of paper in a hat and you pick a name

and then you have to secretly buy gifts for that person.

Maybe one, maybe two, maybe three gifts. Um when we do it

at work, sometimes it's uh like three gifts throughout the week

before Christmas. So, everyone picks a name and you secretly

give gifts to that other person for a few days. So, when we do

secret Santa, I don't know who my secret Santa is. I just know

in my mailbox at work, I get a gift every couple of days. At

the end of the week, everyone reveals usually with their last

gift, they put their name on it so you know who your secret

Santa was. It's really fun to do. We do it sometimes with

family as well where you get a gift from someone and you don't

know who it is until they eventually tell you. So, my

house does not Have any secret passages. A secret passage. We

also say secret passage way. Um so John Fay, let's get John Fay

to make sure he's not spamming. There we go. Thanks. Thanks

Todd. Um a secret passage is like a tunnel or a hallway that

only the owner of the house knows about. There are many

castles in Europe that have secret passages or secret

passageways. They have little place is where if you move a

bookcase or if you open a secret door in the wall,

there's like a tunnel or a hallway you can go through.

There is a secret passage. Again, my house does not have

any secret passages. When I was a kid though, I wished we had a

secret passage underground from the house to the barn because

it would be really cold outside and it would be fun to be able

to just walk through a little secret passage to get there.

But we didn't. So, here's a few phrases about secrets before we

get to lies. You often will say to someone, wait, I think I

only have one phrase, just this phrase. You might say to

someone, your secret is safe with me. So, if someone says,

can you keep a secret? And you say, yes, I can keep a secret

and then, the person tells you a secret. You might say, don't

worry, your secret is safe with me. If you say that, it means

that you will not tell anyone that person's secret. It's

really nice when um if you need to tell someone a secret and

they say don't worry your secret is safe with me. Um it's

nice to know that. It's very reassuring. A lie. So we've

talked about secrets. Let's talk about lies. A lie is

something that is not true. A lie is something that can be

very hurtful to people. Sometimes people will just make

things up. They will just think of something that isn't true

and they will tell it to people as if it is true. Okay? One

example where be this. Every once in a while, someone will

buy flowers maybe and then they'll say, I already paid you

and it's like a little confusing because you're like,

no, I don't think you paid us yet and so, a lie would be

something you make up maybe for your own advantage. Sometimes,

people will be speeding and then, when a police officer

pulls them over, they say, I wasn't speeding and the police

officer will know they're lying because they'll have their

radar gun and it will have the speed on. So, a lie is any time

you say something that isn't true. You tell a lie um so you

can lie or you can tell a lie. This is Pinocchio. I don't know

if you know about Pinocchio but Pinocchio was a wooden boy

whose nose would grow every time he told a lie. So when you

lie, it means you are saying something that isn't true. When

you tell a lie, it means you're saying something that isn't

true. If I said Oscar can talk, Oscar can speak English.

Oscar's my dog by the way. You you would that I am lying. You

would know that I am telling a lie because dogs don't talk.

Although, sometimes you can tell from the look on his face

what he wants. That's not a lie. That's true. Uh there was

a movie a long time ago called liar liar. So, a liar is a

person who lies a lot, okay? So, if you say, oh that guy is

such a liar or she is a liar. Don't believe anything she

says. This is the word we use to describe someone who lies a

lot. People tend to either be mostly trustworthy and maybe

lie a little bit or they're just liars and they lie all the

time. Sometimes, people will start to think a politician is

a liar that a politician just lies. Anytime they are talking,

they are lying but a liar is a person who tells lies. You

would say they are a liar. It's not a nice term. You don't

wanna say, you know, that's a lie, you're a liar because it's

not a very Nice term. Um just one sec here. My camera did

something funny. Okay, there it's back. Good. Um now my mic

stand is moving. Uh but you have this word if you want to

say someone is a liar. Um Tony Wang, thank you so much for the

super chat. Hello, Bob. We'd love you from Taiwan. Thank you

so much uh Tony uh for the super chat and for supporting

me on this channel. You're awesome. Nice work. Um when you

talk about lying, the opposite is to tell the truth. So, if

you tell lie or if you lie, you are saying something that is

untrue and when you say something that is true, you

tell the truth. Sometimes, criminals will lie in court and

then eventually, they will tell the truth. After someone asks

them a lot of questions, they might decide to tell the truth.

So, the opposite of lying is to tell the truth. We have

something called a little white lie. A little white lie is a

lie that you tell that doesn't really cause any harm or hurt

anyone's feelings. A good example would be this, maybe

your friend texts you or your friend calls you on their phone

and you don't answer or you don't respond for a day. When

you do talk to them again, you might lie and say, oh, I would

have called you back earlier but the battery on my phone was

dead. Or I would have texted you back but my phone was dead.

We would call that a little white lie. It's a lie that it's

probably it's not good to lie but it's a lie that didn't

really cause any harm. It and I don't know why people do it.

But people tell little white lies all the time. So as

opposed to a big lie that might be very hurtful or damaging. A

little white lie is just a simple lie that humans do. I

don't a why. Sometimes we just lie the way it is. A fib is

very similar. Uh a fib is a little lie that it's not

totally a lie. It might be a little bit truthful. A good

example would be this. If someone says um you said you

were going to pick me up at nine. Are you on your way? And

if you say yeah I'll be there in five minutes. But you know

it's gonna be more like ten minutes. We would consider that

like a little fib. So a fib is similar to a little white lie.

We we could use both words interchangeably. It's a small

lie that you tell. Um That doesn't really do any damage or

hurt anybody's feelings. A falsehood on the other hand is

the formal way of talking about a lie especially if you make it

to like the police or in court. So a falsehood is like sayings

that like in this example, if someone was drinking and

driving, and then when the police came, if the police came

a long time after the accident and the person said, I wasn't

drinking and driving, that would be a falsehood. So, in

the court of law or when you're officially uh lying in an

official place, we would call it a falsehood. We don't use

the word falsehood very often. It's a very old word. There's

also something called a half truth. So a half truth would be

something where part of the lie is true and so you can kind of

exaggerate a little bit. A good example of this would be if

you're late for work and it was snowing a little bit. You could

say oh it was the roads were really bad on the way to work.

Okay. You could say I was in a traffic jam. I'm late for work

because I was in a traffic jam. I'm late for work because the

weather was bad. So it's already Snowing a bit. Maybe

you're late for work for other reasons but when you get there,

you tell a half truth. So, something that's sort of true

and you exaggerate a bit. And it's sort of a lie. A pack of

lies. So, a pack of lies is when someone uh tries to

convince you to do something and they use um just multiple a

good example is this. If your cousin said, give me $100 and

in a week, I'll double your money and they're just Telling

you about this scheme, you would say it's just a pack of

lies. So, a pack of lies is like one lie on top of another

that people might use to try and get you to do something

that they want you to do. So, lie or lie or pants on fire.

You can see I have a kid here with his tongue out and his

finger on his nose. When children play together,

sometimes they lie. Children are humans, humans lie

sometimes. But when a child catches another child lying,

when I was a kid, we used to yell this sometimes. Like,

you're a liar, liar, liar, pants on fire and I don't know

the phrase came from but uh definitely it's something when

I was a kid, kids said, I didn't actually check if it's

still a common phrase with children but it certainly was

many, many years ago when I was Bobby the Canadian, not Bob the

Canadian. I was little Bobby the Canadian. Sometimes people

lie straight to your face. So you could say ah he lied

straight to my face or she lied straight to my face. This is

when someone tells you a lie and you know they're lying but

they just tell you a lie while they're just having a

conversation with you. It can be very very frustrating. If I

see one of my children do something and then I ask them

about it later and they say no I didn't do that. We would say

that they are lying straight to my face. Um it's a very awkward

situation for anyone on the planet, not just English

speakers. When a child or a parent or a friend or a

colleague lies straight to your face, it can be very, very

awkward. It's not a nice feeling. You could also say

that they are lying through their teeth. Um this is a

little different than lying straight to your face. When

someone lies through their teeth, uh it basically means

you'd, again, you know they're lying. You you're aware that

they're lying but it's usually more accusatory. Like, I think

he's lying through his teeth. So, maybe you don't know

they're lying but you think they're lying. So, you say,

that guy, he's just, he's always, he just lies through

his teeth. Whenever he's talking, there's just lies

coming out of his mouth. He's just lying through his teeth.

Sometimes, people will stretch the truth. So, when you stretch

the truth, it means part of what you're saying is true but

you've exaggerated it a bit. Maybe you went fishing This is

the classic example. You went fishing and you caught a fish

that was this big and when and you throw it back in the lake.

When you get home, you say you caught a fish that was this

big. So, you did catch a fish. That is true. But the fish

wasn't this big. It was only this big. So, what you did is

you stretched the truth. So, when you stretch the truth, it

means you kind of tell something that's, it's like a

half truth, right? Uh similar to the earlier phrase. It's a

little bit true but it's a little bit a lie. We also say

things like this, I don't trust him as far as I can throw him.

I don't trust that guy as far as I can throw him. I don't

trust him as far as I can throw him. So, we don't actually like

pick people up and throw them but it's just a way of saying

that you don't trust someone in a kind of a fun way, right? You

know, my son's friend is not very trustworthy. I don't trust

him as far as I can throw him and so it's just a way of

saying that you don't trust someone. Sometimes, you're

lying to yourself. So, this happens like let's say you

usually exercise every day and you say to yourself, you know

what? I can take three or 4 days off. That's not a problem.

You might be lying to yourself. Maybe you use social media too

much. But you're like, you know, it's good though. It

keeps me connected with my friends. We would maybe say

you're lying to yourself. Or what's another example? If you

think, oh, I can eat two ice cream. Uh I can have two ice

cream instead of one uh because I'll I'll walk uh a bit longer

tomorrow. You might be lying to yourself, okay? So, we use this

phrase a lot. When you do something, when you deceive

yourself, we say that you're lying to yourself. Now, we have

a phrase, I'm not gonna lie. So, this phrase I think is most

often used when you do something you didn't wanna do

because you didn't think you would like it but you end up

enjoying it. So, the best example would this for me. I

don't want to go skydiving. I have no desire to jump out of a

plane with a parachute. But if I did it and if I enjoyed it,

when I landed, I would and someone and if if someone said,

how was it? I would probably say this, I'm not gonna lie. I

had a lot of fun. Maybe someone makes a cake and it's a kind of

cake I don't really like and they're like, just try a piece

and it's like, okay, I'll try a piece and I take a bite and if

I'm by how good it is. I might say, I'm not gonna lie. This is

really delicious. So, it's kind of a unique usage. That's how I

use the phrase. It's when you're surprised at how fun

something is or how good something is because you didn't

think it would be. So, you would say, I'm not gonna lie.

This is very tasty cake. I'm not gonna lie. I had a lot of

fun jumping out of a plane with a parachute. Um I'm not gonna

lie. I never expected my YouTube channel to be

successful. I'm not gonna lie. II was shocked when people

started watching my videos. Um so, thanks by the way for

helping me uh be successful at this.