10 English Phrases About Change

There's a saying in English

that one of the only things

that remains the same in life,

one of the only things that is constant is change.

Things change.

It's fall here in Ontario, Canada,

and as you can see, the leaves are changing color.

Everything around me is changing.

So I thought this would be a good time

to do an English lesson about change.

So stick around for this English lesson,

I'll help you learn about 10 different English phrases

that we use to talk about all kinds

of different changes that happen in life.

(cheerful music)

The first phrase I wanted to teach you to talk about change

is the phrase like night and day.

We use this phrase to talk about something

that's changed quite a bit.

The best example I can give you is this.

Sometimes my kids have messy rooms.

They leave everything on the floor and it's a real mess.

And then I tell them on a Saturday,

"You need to clean your room

or you can't play computer games later today."

And then they clean their room.

And then the difference between when their room was messy

and when their room is clean is like night and day.

The difference is so great

that I would walk in the room and say,

"Wow, the difference, it's like night and day.

It's so much nicer when your room is clean."

So when you say that something is like night and day,

you mean that it's changed so much

that it looks completely different now.

The next phrase I wanted to teach you is a phrase

that we use to describe when someone's appearance changes,

and it's the phrase to barely recognize someone.

Now, this phrase, I actually saw in the comments

in a video a number of months ago.

Because I shaved off my beard and my mustache,

and then when I made a video with no beard or mustache,

in the comments, a few people said,

"I barely recognized you."

What they were saying is that

because my appearance had changed so much,

it was hard for them to tell that I was Bob, the Canadian.

They thought maybe I was another person,

or maybe I was Bob's brother or something,

but it was actually me.

Now, be careful when you use this phrase,

because you don't want to use it

in a way that sounds negative.

You might wanna add a positive phrase

before you use this phrase

because it can be misinterpreted.

So you could say something like this.

"Oh, I can tell you've been exercising.

You look amazing. I barely recognized you."

Or, "Wow, your new haircut looks great.

I barely recognized you."

So when you use this phrase, you're simply talking

about how someone's appearance has changed.

Hi, Bob, the Canadian here,

just jumping into the middle of this lesson

to ask you to do one thing, actually two.

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Now, back to the lesson.

I don't know if you've noticed this,

but sometimes kids go through a growth spurt,

and we use the phrase to grow like a weed

to describe this change.

A weed is a plant that grows in a garden or a field,

and it's a plant you don't want there,

and they usually grow really, really quickly.

So we use this comparison to talk about how fast kids grow.

Maybe you have a nephew

or a niece who you haven't seen for a year or two

and the next time you see them, you could say,

"Wow, you're growing like a weed.

You're so much taller now."

In fact, at some point they might even be taller than you.

That's happened to me with a few of my nephews and nieces

in the last year or two.

I'm starting to feel a little bit short.

So when you're describing a child who is growing quickly

or a child who you haven't seen for a while

and they're much taller now, you could say to them,

"Wow, you're growing like a weed."

The English phrase to change your tune means

to change your behavior, usually in a positive direction.

Sometimes people do bad things.

Sometimes people do things that they're not supposed to do

and you wish that they would change their tune.

I have this sometimes in my classroom.

Sometimes I have students who don't listen

and they misbehave, and just day after day,

their behavior is not very good.

Their behavior is bad.

So I wish that they would change their tune.

I might even say to them, "You know what?

You need to change your tune

if you want to do well in this class.

If you want to succeed, you need to change your tune."

So the English phrase to change your tune means

to change your behavior in a way

that you are now doing things in a more positive way.

Instead of doing bad things, you're doing good things.

The next two English phrases about change

have the same meaning.

They are the phrases to do a 180

and to have a change of heart.

The best example I can give for these two phrases

is if you think about a professional athlete

who announced their retirement,

an athlete who decided not to play anymore

because they thought they were getting too old,

and then after being retired for a little while,

they decide to come back, they decide to play again.

In that situation,

we would say that the player did a 180.

They've reversed their decision.

Or we would say that the player had a change of heart;

they reversed their decision.

So instead of doing what they were going to do,

instead of doing what they decided to do,

they've decided to reverse their decision

and come back and play again.

It's always cool when your favorite athlete retires

and then does a 180 or has a change of heart

and decides to play again.

This next English phrase is a phrase we use

to talk about the change in someone's appearance,

and it's a phrase that we use maybe

to bug someone a little bit or in a humorous way,

and it's the phrase to clean up nicely.

Sometimes Jen and I have to go to a wedding,

and so I get a haircut

and I shave my beard or trim my beard,

and I put on a suit and tie, and Jen will then say,

"Wow, you clean up nicely."

And what she's talking about is the change

from how I normally look

to how I look after I get a haircut,

and trim my beard, and put on a suit and tie

makes me look really, really good.

So, remember, this is a phrase you use

with someone you know well.

It's a phrase you use

to kinda jokingly give someone a compliment,

I hope that makes sense, but you would say,

"Wow, you clean up nicely."

Hi, I thought I should pop into the lesson

with my suit and tie on just to show you

that I do actually clean up nicely.

The English phrase out with the old, in with the new

is a phrase we use to talk about change

in almost any situation when we think change is important.

I don't know if you noticed,

but the intro to my English lessons

on YouTube changed about a month and a half ago

because it was time

to make it look a little more fresh and new.

It was time for me to get rid of the old

and bring in something new.

The way I would describe that is I would say,

"You know, out with the old, in with the new.

It was time to make a change

so that things would look just a little bit better."

So when you say out with the old, in with the new,

it's used any time you want to talk about the reason

why you're changing something.

If someone at work was saying,

"Why are we doing it this way now?"

You could say, "You know, out with the old,

in with the new.

We have to keep up with the times."

Sometimes you need to make changes to stay current.

So, out with the old, in with the new.

Have you ever had a job that you didn't like?

Or maybe there's a room in your house

and you just don't like how it looks?

You might use this English phrase

to describe either of those situations.

You might say it's time for a change.

In English when you say it's time for a change,

it means that you want to change your situation

or you want to change something to look more pleasing

or just to be more pleasing.

So the best example would probably be the job.

Sometimes people work at a certain job for a long time

and then they start to not enjoy it.

And then the best phrase to describe that would be to say,

"It's time for a change."

In fact, you might have a friend in that situation

and you might say to them,

"Hey, I know you've been complaining

about your job a lot lately, maybe it's time for a change.

Maybe it's time for you to look for a different job.

That might make you happy."

The English phrase to shake things up means

to do something differently than how you have been doing it.

Here's a good example.

My sister and brother-in-law

go to the same campground every year,

but this year when they went camping,

they decided to shake things up.

They decided to go to a completely different campground.

We use this phrase when we decide

to do something differently than how we've been doing it.

Maybe you've become bored with doing something the same way.

Maybe you've become bored with the place

where you've been going.

Maybe you've become bored

with the kind of food you've been eating,

and then you decide to shake things up.

You decide to change how you do something

so it's a little more exciting.

A long time ago,

if you wanted to communicate with someone far away,

you would make a long distance phone call.

But times have changed.

Now you would probably send them a text message

or just send them an email.

The English phrase times have changed is used

to describe big changes

that we have all experienced as humans

over the course of time.

Probably the smartphone is the biggest change

that I can think of when I use this phrase.

Many years ago, no one had a smartphone in their pocket,

but times have changed.

Now, almost everyone has a smartphone with them

on a daily basis and uses it for all kinds of things.

Wow, times have changed.

Well, hey, thank you so much

for watching this English lesson about change.

I hope you were able

to learn just a few more English phrases that you can use

to talk about the things in life that change.

Remember, if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there,

and give me a thumbs up

if this video helped you learn

just a little bit more English.

And if you have the time, why don't you stick around

and watch another English lesson?

(cheerful music)