Let's Learn English! Topic: Things You Should Check! 💱⛅🌡️ (Lesson Only)

Well, hello and welcome to this English

lesson about things you should check.

This might seem like a strange title, but there are

a lot of things in life that you should check.

I don't want to give too many away, but if you have

a car, you should check the oil every once in a while.

I'll explain more about this one in just a

moment, once we get the English lesson started.

But in this English lesson, I'll teach you

about 25 or more words and phrases.

Looks like almost 30 words and phrases that we

use when we speak English, when we talk.

About things that you should check, things that you

should have a look at to make sure that

it is working right or make sure that things

are the way they are supposed to be.

So, again, welcome to this English lesson

about things you should check oil.

So, in English, if you are someone who has a car, it

is important to check the oil every once in a while.

Want to make sure there's enough

oil in your car engine?

You do this by opening the hood.

In my part of the world, if you're in Britain, I think

they call it the bonnet, uh, and then you pull out the

dipstick, wipe the dipstick off, put it back in again and pull

it out and you will get an accurate reading.

That, to me, is the proper way to check the oil.

If you have a lawnmower, if you have a car,

if you have a tractor, if you have a motorcycle,

you should check the oil everywhere once in a while

because if the oil gets low, the engine, well, it

could seize up if all the oil was gone.

That's pretty rare.

But you definitely, if you, if you have something

with an engine, you want to check the oil

and you want to check the gas gauge.

In English, sometimes we just say check the gas.

So I might say to Jen, oh, I'm going to check the gas

in the van, in the blue van, think it might be low.

So I'll go and I'll check the gas gauge to

make sure that van has enough gas in it.

Um, again, I think if you're in

Britain, you would probably say petrol.

Do they say petrol? I'm not sure.

In North America, we call it gas or gasoline.

And you're going to want to check the gas

gauge or check the gas from time to time.

There's nothing, nothing worse than leaving to go on a

long trip and you have forgotten to check the gas

and you have to stop for gas right away.

You might want to check the forecast.

So the forecast is, of course, a prediction as to what

the weather will Be like over the next few days.

This is actually my forecast.

So you can see, Friday, the forecast is minus 1.

40% chance of flurries.

Um, you check the forecast when you're going away

for the weekend, or you check the forecast the

night before so you can decide what you should

wear, how you should dress the next day. So now I know.

Let's make, make this big again.

Um, I should probably wear a winter coat today.

Minus one.

I don't think I need gloves or

a winter hat, but definitely I will.

I might even just wear a jacket.

Like, minus one isn't that bad, is it?

Anyways, you might check the forecast.

You might check the weather.

This is slightly different.

Notice this person is simply looking out the window.

When I check the forecast, I want to know

what they say the weather will be like tomorrow.

When I check the weather, it can

mean that I'm checking the forecast.

You can check the weather on your phone, but you

can also check the weather by simply looking outside.

You might be wondering, is it raining today?

And you look outside and you decide

you need a jacket and an umbrella.

So a slight difference.

Um, checking the forecast means literally looking at something

like this on the Internet or on your phone.

But when you check the weather,

it might mean looking outside.

It might mean simply looking at the app on

your phone to see what the weather is like.

You might need to check your bank account.

Um, sometimes you buy things and you don't think

about how much money is in the bank.

If I go and buy some groceries, there's usually

enough money in the bank account to buy that.

But if I decided to buy a used car, I would

certainly check my bank account before going to buy it.

I would think, okay, is there enough money?

My bank account?

I should check my bank account to

make sure I have enough money.

Um, and if there isn't enough money in my checking

account, I might have to borrow some money or I

might have to transfer money from a different account.

So from time to time, you might

need to check your bank account.

I usually check my bank account before I go on

a trip, even a short trip, just to make sure.

I usually know how much money is in there.

But it is good to check.

You might just check the time.

Uh, often as a teacher, I'll

say, okay, let's start on this. Now.

Let me check the time.

Okay, we have this many minutes left in

class, uh, so let's get started on that.

Or I might say, um, I have one more thing to do today.

Oh, let me check the time.

Oh, class is Almost over.

Let's save that for tomorrow.

So anytime you look at a clock, you look at your

watch or you look at your fitness tracker or your phone,

we would say that you are checking the time.

I check the time quite often when I'm teaching.

I don't check the time very often.

In the summer.

In the summer, sometimes I don't know what time it is.

It's like, oh, is it 1:00 already?

Oh, I hadn't checked the time for a while.

You might check the temperature outside.

So you might have a little thermometer like this

on your window, which tells you the temperature outside.

Again, you might just look at a weather

app on your phone to check the temperature.

This is similar to checking the weather.

Um, you might want to know, does that say 30 degrees?

It's not 30 degrees here.

Um, if it was 30 degrees outside, I would

think, okay, I should wear shorts, should wear sandals.

I should wear a thin T

shirt because it's really warm outside.

And the reason I put the word outside

is because sometimes you might want to check

the temperature of food or drink.

So you might want to.

When you're drinking tea or coffee, if you bring it to

your face, you can kind of feel that it's hot and

you might blow on it here, I'll give you an example.

With water, like, when you bring it here, you

can kind of sense how hot it is.

And then you might take a little

sip to kind of check the temperature.

Um, if you're cooking something, you might want to

check the temperature to make sure it's done.

If you're cooking a chicken, it's important that

you cook it to the right temperature so

that it is safe to eat.

So with food and drink, you

might occasionally check the temperature.

I'm sure most of you don't do

this, but farmers do this quite regularly.

After it rains, we check the rain gauge.

Jen and I have two rain gauges on our farm.

And when it rains, raindrops go in the

rain gauge and it fills up and it

has little measurements along the side.

I'm not sure if you can see them.

You can kind of see the number four there.

Uh, so we measure how much rain we got.

That's very interesting for us.

It's something we like to check so we know if

we need to keep irrigating or keep watering the flower.

So I think most people don't have a rain gauge, but

I thought I would put this one in here because this

is where the idea for the lesson came from.

Uh, from the idea that we check the rain gauge.

And then I thought, hmm, there's a lot

of things in life that you can check.

So this we might use check or check on.

You have a baby and the baby

is sleeping in a different room.

You might go check the baby.

If you have kids and they're little kids and they're

playing outside, you might go check on the kids.

So notice you can say check or check on.

It means you just want to

make sure that everything is okay.

You want to make sure the baby is sleeping well, so

you go check on the baby or check the baby.

Uh, you might go check on the kids

to see if they're having fun outside, if

they need a snack or something like that.

And I think I would most likely use the word

check on that to me, seems to flow the best.

I'm going to check on the baby.

I'm going to check on the kids to make

sure that they're having fun and enjoying their day.

You might check the water temperature in the pool.

Now, as I look at this photo, feel

like this is a very small pool.

I'm not sure if this is an accurate photo, but

when you go swimming, if you go to the lake,

if you go to the ocean, if you have a

pool or you go to a pool, you might dip

your toe in the water to check the water temperature.

And then you might say, oh, it's

too cold, or, oh, it's too.

It's quite warm.

Um, we go swimming at a pool in a town

close to us in the summer, and often one of

us will dip our toe in the water.

Before we start to go in the pool, we

check the water temperature to see what it is.

Like, you might check your pulse.

Now, this is common for people who exercise.

Often your Fitbit or your Apple

Watch will track your pulse.

My pulse right now is 81.

Pretty good pulse, considering I'm actively teaching.

If I sit for a long time and check my pulse or take

my pulse, by the way, you can use both verbs for that.

You can check your pulse or take your pulse.

Um, my resting pulse is usually.

I don't know, if I sit for a while, it can

be as low as 60 if I'm walking a lot.

Like, if I walk for a few months vigorously

and my heart has good health, My resting pulse

is 61 or 62, but normally it's high 60s.

Um, so people who exercise might check their pulse.

When you go to the doctor,

the doctor might check your pulse.

The doctor might check your blood pressure,

check your pulse to see how Many

times your heart beats per minute.

I should have mentioned that you check your pulse to see

how many times your heart beats per minute or BPM.

So my heart rate right now, oh, now it's 90.

I must have been moving my

arms around a lot or something.

Um, or maybe.

Oh, maybe my Fitbit's just wacky because

now it says it's 81 again.

So I'm pretty sure my heart rate or my

pulse doesn't go up and down that quickly.

So you're actually checking the air pressure.

But we often say check the tires.

Sometimes I walk around my van and one of the tires

looks low, and I know that I should check the air

pressure and should put some air in the tire.

When I take my van to the garage for

an oil change, they also check the tires, they

check the air pressure, they check the tire pressure.

There's a few different ways to say that to

make sure there's the right amount of air in

the tire, the right amount of pressure.

In Canada, we use psi pounds per square inch.

Even though we.

Even though we use the metric system with

tires, we still, for some reason use psi.

So I think a tire needs to be

30 or 40 psi, maybe 60 psi. I don't know.

A bike tire is way higher.

But you might want to check the tire pressure, check

the air pressure, check the tires from time to time.

If you're driving somewhere where there's the possibility

of lots of traffic or traffic jams, you

might want to check the traffic.

You might have an app on your

phone that lets you check the traffic.

When Jen and I go to Toronto, we take the train.

But from our house to the train

station, sometimes traffic can be bad.

So we often check the traffic on our phone.

Uh, before we leave, in case we want to

take an alternate route, we will check the traffic

so that if we need to go a different

way, if we need to take a different route

or route, I guess there's two pronunciations there.

I will check our traffic app

to see what traffic is like.

So if you're sitting at an intersection in

your car, you should check the stoplight.

You should check the traffic light.

There's two names for it to see what color it is.

If it's red in Canada, you can't go.

If it's orange or amber, you can't go.

But if it's green, you can go.

So when I'm sitting at a stoplight, this

is a situation where I do check repeatedly.

I'm always looking around, talking.

Look up, look up, look at the Light.

Has the light changed yet?

I constantly check the stoplight so that when it

turns green, I know that I can go, um.

And here in Canada, we have more and more

traffic cameras at intersections, so you can get, we

call them red light cameras or traffic cameras, but

you can get a ticket from a camera.

If you go through an intersection when the

light is red or I think you're okay

if the light's orange or amber, if you're.

If you're partway through the intersection, you're able to go,

uh, if you are going somewhere to a different country,

you might want to check the exchange rate.

When I went to South Africa, the exchange rate

for Canadian dollars to Rand was very favorable.

I think it was seven to one or eight to one.

Um, when you go on a trip and you're going

to a country that uses different currency, that uses different

money, you'll want to check the exchange rate because you'll

need to buy Canadian dollars if you come to Canada.

And you'll want to know, how many euros do

I need to spend to get 500 Canadian dollars?

You want to figure out what the exchange rate is, um,

and it goes up and down, so it's not predictable.

But you want to see if you can

exchange money when the exchange rate is favorable.

So you kind of want to know what the exchange rate is.

Schedule.

Why am I confused about this one?

Oh, this is for a trade. Yes.

You'll want to check the schedule if you are taking public

transit, if you're going to take a bus, if you're going

to take a train, if you're going to take the subway,

you can go online and you can check the schedule.

You can find out what time the train

leaves or how often the train leaves.

For Jen and I, when we go to the train

station, the train leaves every half hour for Toronto.

During the week, during rush hour,

I think it's every 20 minutes.

So you can go online.

There's a nice little app again

to check the train schedule.

Um, but you can also look at

the big screens at the train station.

Um, if you go to an event, if you go to.

Let's say you go for training somewhere for

work, that day will have a schedule.

And you'll see, okay, 9:00, opening speaker, 10:00, workshop

on how to weld two pieces of steel together.

12:00, lunch, 1:00, workshop on how to separate

two pieces of steel that you welded together. Wrong.

Sorry, these are bad examples.

But if you go for training or for a

day like that, There will most likely be a

schedule and you should check the schedule.

Um, so we haven't been to a

wedding for a while, by the way.

In life you go to a lot of weddings

and then there's a little bit of time where

you don't go to very many, and then all

your nephews and nieces get married and then no.

And then eventually there's a time where you

don't go to a lot of weddings.

I think we'll start going to a

lot of weddings again soon, though.

We're getting to that age.

Um, but you might want to check the invitation to

see when the wedding is or what time it is.

There might even be a small map on the back

of an invitation that tells you where it is.

So if you get an invitation to a party, if you

get an invitation to a wedding, if you get an invitation

to something, sometimes you need to check the invitation.

Um, sometimes the day of, you're like, what,

what time does Joe's retirement party start?

And then you quick check the invitation.

Oh, it starts at 8pm and it's at the hall in Hamilton.

So anyway, sometimes you get an invitation and sometimes you

have to check it, sometimes you lose the invitation and

then you can't remember where the event is or what

time it starts or even what day it is.

And then you have to ask somebody.

Um, so there's a number of ways to refer to

this, but we call it the best before date.

It might be the expiration date.

Some food in Canada also has a made on date.

So when you buy bread from a bakery,

it'll say made on November 25, best before

November 30 or something like that.

So the best before date or the

expiration date, um, you should check it.

Now this doesn't mean, like, if I checked

the milk today and it said best before

November 29, I would still smell it.

If it smelled okay, I think it's fine to use.

It's not an exact date.

When you see the expiration date, you

don't have to throw it out.

But certainly with some things, you

might want to be cautious.

So anyways, before you drink the milk, you

should check the expiration date or the best

before date before you eat the cheese.

Cheese lasts forever, by the way.

But before you eat the cheese, you might want to

check the best before date or the expiration date.

So this is going to take me a little bit to explain.

Before you cross the road, you want to check for cars,

you want to look both ways before you cross the road.

Um, we often use the word for and

then refer to something that you're checking for.

So you want to check for

cars before you cross the road.

Uh, you want to check for.

Was trying to think of another example.

Um, you want to check for geese before

you go for a walk at the park.

Um, you might want to check for.

I can't think of another example.

Cars is the best one.

Before you cross the road, you want to check for cars.

Uh, you teach children this.

You teach children to look both

ways before you cross the road.

We always tell our kids to look twice.

Like, look to the right, look to the left, look

to the right, look to the left before you cross.

And if you look at this, the young

girl in the front, she's still checking.

That's approved by Bob.

That's a good way to cross the road because

you never know if a car might be coming.

So look both ways, check for

cars before you cross the road.

And this is important in our current era.

It's important to check the facts.

Important to fact check.

If you read a news story and it

seems hard to believe, you should see if

other news organizations are reporting the same news.

You should do some research.

You should check the facts.

If I was to tell you something that sounded

in English we say sounds fishy, that means you.

You're not sure you believe it.

I would certainly check the facts.

So if someone asks me an English question, if

I was to say the word either is pronounced

two ways, we say either or either.

If you don't believe me, you should go

to the Internet and look up are there

two pronunciations for the word either?

And then either you would find the answer

or you wouldn't see how I used either.

And either there.

Anyways, check the facts.

Um, I think it's very important in this era

where we have fake news and those kinds of

things, it's important to check the facts.

Uh, and you should check your spelling.

Although we don't have to do this as much

anymore because the computer does it for us.

But you should probably, if you

do some writing, check your spelling.

Make sure that you have spelled every word correctly.

You should check your grammar as well.

But certainly you should check your spelling.

Here we have the sentence I wasn't sure what to accept.

So we have an apostrophe missing in wasn't the

contraction was not needs see in the blue.

And then the wrong word was used.

So it's not what you were expecting. There you go.

So check your spelling. Internet speed.

This is for those of you who are More techie.

Those who like technology, often when I am somewhere

else, will check the speed of the Internet.

I will use my phone to run a speed

test to see how fast the Internet is.

Probably most of you don't do this.

I usually run a speed test before I do a live

lesson to make sure that it is, everything's working properly.

Um, so you might be somewhere where you

do an Internet speed check or speed test

to see how things are working.

If you have software, you might

check the version of the software.

Someone might say to you, what

version of PowerPoint do you have?

What version of Chrome are you using as a browser?

What version of Mac OS do you have here?

This person has version 12.

Um, this sometimes is important.

If someone is helping you with your computer, they might

say, what version of Microsoft Word are you using?

What version of Safari are you

using to browse the Internet?

So you might need to check the version so that you can

tell them, uh, the common thing to check is the mic.

Like, check, check, 1, 2, 1, 2, check, check, check.

If you go to an event early, you might hear

someone checking the mic to make sure it's working.

They are doing a mic check. And that's.

That is the common thing.

Check, check, 1, 2, check, 1, 2, testing, testing.

Can you hear me? Check.

Um, so you might need to check the mic.

You might to check.

You might need to check a box.

So this is a different kind of check.

If I check how much water is in my

glass, I'm trying to see how much is there.

If I check a box, I'm

literally putting a check mark in.

When you vote, you might need to check a box

on the ballot to say who you are voting for.

You might need to check the year of something.

Um, when I was selling my tractor, I

needed to check what year it was.

It was built in 1999.

It was built in Germany.

Thank you for building such a good

tractor, all of you from Germany.

Um, but you might own a car and you

might say, oh, I'm going to sell my car.

I think it's a 2008, maybe a 2009.

I need to check what year it is.

So you would look at your, your ownership or your title

for the car and you would check what year it is.

If someone was selling you a motorcycle,

you might say, what year is it?

And then they would go check what year it is.

By the way, we mean what year it was built.

So they might check what year it was built.

You might need to check the status of something.

If you applied IMMIGRATE to Canada.

They don't just say, sure, come on over.

Your application has to be looked at by people, and

you can check the status of your application every few

weeks to see if it's approved or not.

When I renewed my passport, I could go

online and check the status of the renewal.

Because when you renew your passport, they

don't just say, okay, thank you.

Here's your new one.

They need to check to make sure

you are who you say you are.

So every once in a while, I would

check the status, and then eventually it said,

your passport is ready to be picked up.

And then, as I said earlier, sometimes

you need to double check things.

The most common thing I double check is

my suitcase before I go on a trip.

Um, probably even more common than that

is keys, phone, wallet, wedding ring, Fitbit.

Before I leave the house, I check and double

check to make sure I have those five things.

Um, because I don't want to leave

without my wallet or my phone.

You can't leave without your keys,

but I usually double check.

I kind of pat each pocket to make sure I have it.

But definitely before you go on a trip, you will

most likely double check to make sure you have everything.

You'll put everything in a suitcase, close the

suitcase, open it again 10 minutes later.

Do I have my toothbrush? Yes.

Okay, close it. You will double check.