Let's Learn English! Topic: Symbols 💲#️♾️ (Lesson Only)

Well, hello and welcome to

this English lesson about symbols.

Symbols are all these little one

character things that have meaning.

But maybe you don't know the actual

English name for each of these symbols.

I'm sure you'll know what each symbol means.

So this should be an interesting English lesson.

A lot of these symbols are universal.

They are used the same way in every language.

But in this English lesson, I will tell

you the English name for the symbol.

Then I will give you of course,

an English explanation as to its meaning.

So welcome to this English lesson about symbols.

Infinity.

So this is the symbol for infinity.

Infinity refers to something that goes

on forever, something that is endless.

In English we also use the word boundless.

Something that has a starting point,

I guess, but no actual end.

You wanted to count to infinity.

You would never be finished.

You would get to 1 billion and then 1 billion and 1.

1 billion and 2.

You would get to a trillion and then A trillion and 1.

A trillion and 2.

You can never actually get to infinity.

So infinity refers to something that has no limit.

Sometimes people will say, I wish I

had an infinite amount of money.

Would mean that they could spend

money forever and still have money.

But this symbol is, if you look at it,

it goes around and it keeps going forever.

Which is why I think they

chose this symbol for infinity.

So again, infinity, something that goes on forever.

Sometimes I think the government thinks it has

an infinite amount of money, but it doesn't.

Ampersand.

So this is an interesting one.

Uh, the ampersand is often used to replace the

word and so you have the word and so

I could write Bob and Jen a N D.

Or I could use this symbol, Bob and Jen.

Um, sometimes when you're making a poster or when

you're writing something on a card, maybe you don't

have enough room to write the word and.

And that case you would use an ampersand.

I sometimes do this on the titles for my videos

if I don't have enough room for the title.

If it's like, let's see, I was trying to

think of a title that has and in it.

There was one a while ago and

I can't remember what it was.

This and that. I guess.

There we go.

Instead of putting a N D, I

might use an ampersand to save space.

I saw a lot of these yesterday.

It was like buy one and.

And they would use the ampersand.

Buy one, get one free.

And they would use that instead

of the word and hashtag.

Or is it a number sign?

Hashtag and number sign.

Look A lot alike because they are the same symbol.

We have started to use hashtag

to tag things on social media.

So if you look at the bottom of

this video, I think there are hashtags.

Hashtag Englishlesson, hashtag learnenglish.

Bob, the Canadian.

So a hashtag used to and still does mean number sign.

But we also use it to

categorize things on the Internet.

If you post a picture of where you went on

vacation, you might put at the bottom hashtag vacation.

And then people can.

People will realize that you are on a vacation.

And if they follow the hashtag, they will

see other photos of other people's vacation.

So it's a way.

I think that's the best way to describe it.

It's a way to categorize things

that you post on the Internet.

This is English lesson.

It is an English lesson.

Number sign, though, simply means the number.

So if I was to read this

out loud, I would say number one.

If you've ever been to a sports game, someone

might have a giant foam hand with a finger

pointing up, and then on the palm it might

say, number one, or we are number one.

Um, so if you run in a race

and you finish 11th, they might in the

standings afterwards, say that you are number 11.

What number did I say? Number 10. Number 11.

So this is simply used to indicate

that you are using a number. Number one. Number two.

I was in line forever, and when I got in

line, I think I was number eight in line.

So a number sign, the peace sign.

So this was very common in the late 60s,

early 70s, uh, in North America, there were a

lot of people that we would call hippies who

were against war, who wanted peace.

And they used this sign to

indicate that they wanted peace.

Peace is, of course, a time when countries

do not fight against each other, where everyone

is happy and everyone lives a nice life.

So this is the peace sign.

It basically stands for a time

in the world without war.

Many, many people would love it if

we had peace in the world.

I think everyone would prefer peace in the world.

Copyright.

When you make something, write a novel, or when you make

a video, or when you create something, you own it.

In order for you to tell other people that

you own it, you will put a copyright sign

on the bottom of it or a copyright symbol.

So I don't have these on my videos,

but it's understood that this video is mine.

I own this video.

I have the copyright to this video.

If I wrote a book, I would own the rights to that book.

I would have a copyright on that book.

And inside it would literally say this little c.

And then it would say Bob, the Canadian beside it.

So the copyright symbol means that whatever you are

reading or watching is owned by someone else.

They made it and they own it.

Dollar sign.

This is probably the symbol I saw the most

yesterday when I was shopping in North America.

We put the dollar sign in front of

numbers to indicate how much something costs.

So if you see dollar sign 10, it costs $10.

If you're in Canada, it costs 10 Canadian dollars.

If you're in the United states, it costs US$10.

But this is the symbol we use

lot when we put prices on things.

When Jen and I go to market, we sell our bouquets.

And on a little chalkboard it

will say large country bouquet.

Dollar sign $25 or dollar sign $15.

This is so people know how much it costs. Check mark.

This is something students love to see.

When you see a check mark,

it means something is correct.

You have a checklist.

Let's say you have a list of 10 things to do today.

As you do each thing, you might put a

check mark at the front or at the end.

So for me today, do English

livestream lesson in about 45 minutes.

Check number two, help Jen move the chicken coop. Check.

When I've done, I'll put a check mark.

So a checkmark is also used by teachers

to tell students when something is correct.

Will read an answer and I'll put a check

mark so the student knows that it is correct.

The symbol.

So this again has two meanings.

There's the new meaning where we

use it in an email address.

So Bob, the Canadian dot com.

This is what the symbol means, but it

used to be used more for pricing.

So if I said, um, let's see, I bought 12

apples at $1 each, so you could write that out.

I should have put an example here for you.

Maybe I can put one down here.

Buy 12 apples at a dollar each.

So there's an example for you down there.

Basically, it means that I paid a

dollar, I bought 12, it cost $12.

That would be the symbol works percent so I

was going to say that this is from the

French pour sant, but then this morning I read

that it's from the Italian per cento.

But I'm sure every civilization in the world invented and

is using a symbol that means part of a hundred.

You will most often see this

sign when something is on sale.

So when you go to a store, it might say 10% off.

So if something costs $10, it's now $9, it's 10% off.

We also see this when things go up in price.

Sometimes they'll say, for instance, my taxes this

year are going to be 4% higher.

The taxes that I pay to my local

town, there's going to be a 4. Actually, it's more.

I think it's a 9% increase.

Yeah, I'm not sure.

So if last year I paid $1,000 in tax, next

year with a 9% increase, I'll be paying 1,090.

Hopefully.

I did the math right there.

You guys could check my math.

But a percent simply means a

fraction of a hundred more.

So I'm not a math teacher.

But again, if you owed someone $10 and then they

charged you 10% interest, you would owe them $11.

So this depends on what you're looking at.

But a red or white cross usually means health

or safety or first aid or medical assistance.

So if you see a bag like this that has

bandages, other things in it that you can use if

you are hurt, Uh, a first aid kit usually has

a white cross or a red cross on it.

It looks more like a plus sign.

Um, a cross is usually a bit taller, but we

still call this a red cross or a white cross.

Um, sometimes the first aid kit is white

and it has a red cross on it.

Sometimes it's red and it has a white cross on it.

If you go to a sporting event,

there are a lot of people there.

Like if I went to a soccer tournament or a

football tournament, there will probably be an ambulance that will

have a red or white cross on it.

There will probably be people wearing red vests, and on

the back it will have a white cross on it.

This is so people quickly know where

to go if they need medical assistance.

So if you twist your ankle, you get

hurt, then you would know where to go.

Parking.

So in this lesson, I had to be careful

because I want to do a lesson about symbols.

But occasionally it was more about signs.

And I already did an English lesson about signs.

You can go search for that if you want.

But this symbol means parking.

So if you're driving around a city, need

to park, you need to put your car

somewhere so you can go do other things.

You would look for this symbol in Canada.

In my part of the world, a P, usually

with a green circle around it, means parking.

It's different in other countries, I understand.

But if I go to Toronto, if I drive to

Toronto and I need to find a place to put

my car, I look for this symbol, I look for

the parking symbol, and Then I can park my car.

Radiation.

So if you go to a hospital to get

an X ray, you'll see one of these signs.

It means that in that part of the

hospital they are using something that emits radiation,

which can be dangerous in large quantities.

So if you go for, I think it's a CAT scan or a

CT scan, is that the same as a CAT scan or an mri?

One of these, One of those uses radiation.

I know one time I went for a test on

my heart and they injected me with something and then

they said, you can't go across the border for one

hour because you are radioactive for 48 hours.

So anyways, this sign means radiation, the asterisk.

So first of all, this is hard

to say the asterisk is located. Where is it located?

Above the two, I think.

So I'm just looking at my keyboard here.

Yeah, I think it's above the 2.

Can you see it?

I don't know if this will focus.

It sees my face, it won't focus.

Asterisk is used for a couple things.

If I'm writing something and I put an asterisk,

it means look at the bottom of the page.

More information in the footnote.

So if I was to be typing

something, I might put an asterisk.

And that means that if you look at the

bottom, it will tell you where I got the

information from in the footnote or something else.

An asterisk is also used just to highlight something to

make sure that people notice that it is there.

Um, so if you're saying asterisk, please note the

first aid station is located by the entrance.

You might put that on some instructions.

And it simply means this is important.

Please look here.

Degree.

So the symbol is actually that little

circle and this is actually today's weather.

So it says Friday, 4 degrees.

I highlighted it with yellow, tomorrow 10 degrees.

This is real.

Like this is our actual forecast.

So this is not winter.

It, it doesn't look like a winter outside

right now it looks like fall or spring.

And it's, it's never sunny.

Right now I don't know why they have the sun there.

But this symbol here means degree.

It can be used for temperature.

So tomorrow it's going to be.

If you look way over there, 4 degrees

Celsius, you see the little degree symbol.

It can also be used to measure an angle.

So this, this is a 90 degree angle.

So from here to here is 90 degrees.

This is a 45 degree angle.

These are not exact, by the way, but that is

the symbol that we Use when we're talking about degrees.

Trademark.

So copyright and trademark are very similar.

It means that you own the process or you own the thing.

So let's say I'm trying to think like if Jen had

a special holder for bouquets, she could say that it's trademarked

and only she's allowed to make it and sell it.

It's similar to copyright or a patent.

It's a way to say that

whatever you're talking about, you own.

I do not have the name Bob trademarked.

I do not own the name Bob.

But that little symbol, TM simply means that it

is a trademark, that the company owns it.

For instance, you know the symbol

for BMW that would be there.

It's trademarked.

So no one else is allowed to use that symbol.

Carrot.

So yesterday I thought carat was spelled C A R a T.

It is if you're talking about diamonds.

If you have a five carat diamond. Is that really big?

That's probably really big.

It's C A R a T.

But apparently this is spelled two ways.

The little symbol like that I

thought was spelled the other way.

But this is supposed to be the proper way.

In the computer world, it Simply means exponent.

So 2 exponent 2 is 4.

You can also do it this way.

2 exponent 2 equals 4.

But when I was learning to program a computer, this

is how we indicated an exponent when we were writing

a computer program using two and then the caret to

show that it goes to an exponent.

Hopefully that made sense.

Notice I'm not a math teacher. Thumbs up.

So this is an interesting one.

Hey, I'm not sure why it's grayed out and pixely.

Maybe because I took the actual thumbs up.

Um, this is something that you click on to

indicate that you like something on the Internet.

Or it's something you might use to describe something.

But generally, if you are watching a video and

you look at the bottom of the video and

you can all do this right now, at the

bottom of the video, there is a thumbs up.

And that thumbs up button means if you click it, it

means, I like what I'm watching, I like what I'm reading.

On the Internet so often we call this a like

button, but we often also call it a thumbs up.

People have often asked, why is thumb plural?

Like, why don't you say, give me a thumb up?

We just don't.

I think in English, someone along the

way decided to use thumbs up.

Give me a thumbs up.

Um, I think a long time ago, there

were two music Reviewers called Siskel and Ebert,

and they would say, give two thumbs up.

And then from there, maybe people started to

use the plural to talk about one.

But give one thumbs up.

Um, but if you want.

Right now, if you want to practice this, you can go

down below and there's a thumb and you can give this

lesson a thumbs up, meaning that you like the lesson.

We'll see how many people do that.

Um, danger.

So if you see this symbol on

something, it means that there is danger.

Maybe it's on a bottle of something that is poisonous.

Maybe it's on a fence, and if you go

in that area, there's toxic waste or something.

But this symbol means danger.

Um, sometimes it's just an exclamation mark.

That can mean danger as well.

Um, but the actual symbol is called the

skull and crossbo, often used on pirate flags.

So if you were like hundreds of years ago, sailing

on the ocean and you saw a ship with the

skull and crossbones, or the Jolly Roger, I think it's

called, you knew that that was danger.

Okay, definitely very dangerous.

But this symbol means danger.

And then this is something you look

for in an airport or restaurant.

If you want to know the password, you look for a sign

with this symbol on it, which means there is WI fi.

Then you can use the Internet.

So when you need to use the Internet at a

cafe, maybe at the airport, it might be automatic.

On your phone, it just says there's a WI fi available.

Or there might be a sign on the wall that

has this symbol and says WI fi is available.

The password is cat in a tree.

Just saying that because there's.

There's actually a cat in the tree out there.

Play.

So this is a pretty common one.

When you have a device and you want music to start

or you want the video to start, you click this button.

This is the play button.

This will start something playing.

So if you are, after this, going to watch

one of my other English lessons, you would click

on the thumbnail and then it doesn't start automatically.

You would hit play to get that going. Stop.

Pause. Mute.

Sorry, I put these all in a row.

I already did play before the break.

But you can hit play and then you can hit stop.

If you want the video to stop or if you

want the music to stop, there's usually a stop button.

Although it might be more common to hit pause.

Stop and pause are kind of the

same thing in the digital world.

Many years ago, if you were playing a tape, stop.

Actually removed the head from the tape and pause.

I Think left it there.

Um, but now these both mean the opposite of play.

So you can stop the video, or you can stop the

music, or you can pause the video or pause the music.

And then if you don't want to

hear anything, you can hit mute.

There are a few different symbols for mute.

There are like a speaker with a red

X on it or a line through it.

Um, I think there's another one as well.

But definitely, if you are watching videos on your

phone or on a computer, if you listen to

music, there will definitely be those symbols and more.

There's probably a power symbol.

Uh, there's probably a Bluetooth symbol as well.

I didn't add those to the lesson,

but there are many of them.

If you want to go somewhere, you will probably

use Google Maps or some other form of gps,

Global positioning System, something that will locate you on

a map, and then this will show up.

This is probably called a location pin.

Um, and it will show up on

the map to indicate where you are.

We might also call it a you are here symbol.

So if I go to Google Maps

and if I push in, actually, the.

The icon for Google Maps is actually that.

So if I click that, it will show me where I

am, and it will show me where I want to go.

Actually, it shows me where I want to go.

That's what it shows me.

Let me see here.

Oh, yeah.

So it doesn't show me where I am.

It shows me where want to go.

So that's a location symbol, common

when you use GPS search.

So anytime you use a computer, anytime, even

like if you're at a library, there might

be a sign with this on it.

Anytime you see a magnifying glass in the modern

world, it means you can search for something.

So you can search for something online,

you can search for something at the

library, you can search for something.

You see this symbol.

So magnifying glass is, of course, a lens that makes

things bigger, but more commonly just used as a symbol.

Now, meaning search, this is the share button.

Um, there are different kinds of share buttons.

One is just like a swoopy arrow.

But if you see this while you're watching something

or reading something online, if you click, it usually

means that you can share it with someone else.

You can let someone else know,

hey, here's a good English lesson.

Here's a good video to watch.

The share symbol.

This means to recycle.

Again, I'm trying not to do signs in this lesson.

I did a lesson on signs, but

this symbol means you can recycle.

So if you are at, let's say you're

at the mall, you're at the food court.

Instead of a garbage can, they will probably have a

big recycle sign and they will have four different bins,

one for garbage, one for paper, one for plastic, and

one for something else that I can't remember.

Oh, food waste.

We compost sometimes now.

So if you see this, it simply

means that instead of throwing everything in

the garbage, you can actually recycle it.

This means gas, or if you're

in Britain, it means petrol.

Um, if you see this, it refers to gas.

On your dash there will be a little gas gauge and there

will be this little symbol with an arrow and it tells you

which side of the car the, the gas cap is on.

So I'm not sure if you knew that.

If you're driving along the road and you see a sign

with this, it means if you pull off the road up

ahead, you will be able to buy gas or petrol.

And then this is more of a sign than a symbol.

But if you see this in my part of the world,

it means the vehicle in front of you is very slow.

If you see a tractor, if you see, um,

any kind of vehicle that can't go over 30

or 40 kilometers per hour, it will most likely

have a slow moving vehicle sign on the back.

This symbol means the vehicle cannot go fast.

So if you're driving a hundred kilometers an hour and

you're approaching a tractor with this sign on the back,

it means the tractor is probably only doing 30 or

40 kilometers an hour and it can't go faster.

It's a slow moving vehicle.

You better slow down.

Definitely slow down.