Let's Learn English During an Ice Storm! English Phrases with the Word "ICE"

Hi, Bob the Canadian here,

welcome to this little English lesson about an ice storm.

We're currently having an ice storm here in Ontario, Canada, and

I thought this would be a great opportunity to come outside

and teach you some English words and phrases about ice.

(gentle guitar music)

Well hey, welcome to this video about an ice storm.

If this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button below,

give me a thumbs up at some point during this video

if it's helping you learn English.

Well, we're having a little bit of freezing rain

here in Ontario, Canada.

This is what we would call an ice storm.

If you look at the branch behind me,

maybe I'll give you a closer view,

you'll notice that we are getting rain,

but at the same time, it is below zero.

It is about minus one degree Celsius.

So as we get rain coming down,

when it lands on different surfaces it freezes,

and we have what we would call an ice storm.

So let me show you a few things that you will see,

and let me teach you a few English phrases

and words that you would use in an ice storm.

I know this isn't going to be a video

that everyone finds useful,

because many of you live in parts of the world

where there is no ice,

but let's have a look around anyways,

I think you'll enjoy the views.

So I don't want to stand too close to this tree,

because what you can see here is that the branches

are covered in ice and what makes this dangerous

is that the entire tree is covered in ice,

and as the ice forms it makes the tree very heavy.

You can actually hear this tree behind me

cracking a little bit,

because the wind is blowing the branches,

and some of the branches have even started

to fall off the tree.

So one of dangerous things about an ice storm

is the ice weighs down the branches of the tree,

and some of branches will actually crack

and fall off later today, so,

not a good day to stand under trees.

So I thought, since we're out in an ice storm,

I should teach you some phrases

that have the word ice in them.

The first phrase that comes to mind,

the first phrase I can think of is to break the ice.

When you break the ice with someone,

you're not actually stepping on ice.

You are doing things that help you get to know each other,

so that you can have a conversation.

For many of you, you'll want to learn

how to break the ice with someone,

in order to have an English conversation with them.

A good way to break the ice is to just

ask how someone's doing, maybe tell a small joke,

or ask about the weather,

that's a great way to break the ice

to start a conversation with someone

that maybe you haven't met before.

So one of the things that happens during an ice storm

is the rain lands on our vehicles and it freezes.

So you can see here that this is a lot different

than what we saw during the snow storm a few weeks back.

Right now my van is covered in ice.

Tomorrow when I have to go somewhere,

I will have to start my van early to warm it up.

It's very hard to scrape this ice off,

even with an ice scraper,

but one of the things you will see during an ice storm

is a lot of vehicles get covered in a thin layer of ice.

Another thing that happens during an ice storm,

which might not be very easy for you to see is that

surfaces become like skating rinks.

In fact we will often say during an ice storm,

it's like a skating rink out there.

A skating rink is a place where you go,

and you put on skates and you skate.

But you can see my driveway behind me,

there is a sheet of ice.

If you remember in the video in the snow storm,

I said there was a blanket of snow,

when we have an ice storm,

we get what we call a sheet of ice.

So it's kind of shiny because my driveway

is actually very slippery right now.

It is literally a sheet of ice.

I could probably slide on it if I tried.

Nope, it's not quite that slippery yet.

Another English phrase with the word ice in it

is as cold as ice.

We sometimes use this to describe someone.

It's the opposite of describing someone

as being a warm person.

So we also will say someone is a very warm person,

usually like a grandmother,

or an older person is very warm and friendly.

But if we say someone is as cold as ice,

it is the opposite.

It means that they are not a very kind person,

they don't smile a lot,

and maybe they're even a little bit mean.

Because the precipitation today is coming down as rain,

it actually drips on surfaces,

and then it forms icicles.

You can see here that we have some

really cool icicles that are forming.

On my tractor you can see that there is a row of icicles.

So there is a lot of beauty during an ice storm,

in fact, I think today I might go out

and take a few pictures,

I'm just looking over there because a branch

just fell off the tree.

But we have icicles forming on

a number of different surfaces.

They're really cool.

As a kid I used to go out and get icicles

and then I would eat them.

Tastes pretty good.

So I'm not planning to go anywhere today,

but I'm really happy because

the same tires that make it safer to drive in snow

also make it safer to drive on ice.

Not totally safe, but it is nice to have snow tires

on my van if I did have to go somewhere on a day like this.

So I mentioned earlier that the branches on the trees

are becoming heavy because they have ice on them.

The same will happen to our power lines.

So in fact, right now in the house,

we are making sure that we are charging

all of our flashlights,

because when you get ice on power lines like this,

the weight of the ice can make the power lines fall,

and you can have a power outage.

In English we say power outage to indicate a time

when we have no working electricity

in our homes or at our businesses.

So I'm not sure how well you can see it, but up here,

there is ice and icicles forming on the power line,

so it is incredibly dangerous on a day like this,

because power lines can fall,

and that sometimes results in a power outage.

I really hope the power doesn't go out today though,

'cause I wanna finish editing this video.

I thought this branch was pretty cool.

Another English phrase with the word ice in it

is to put something on ice.

When we say in English that we're going to

put something on ice,

it means that we are going to put it on hold.

Maybe you are doing a certain project at work,

and you might put that project on ice.

That would mean that you are not going to work on it

for just a little bit.

So when you put something on ice,

it means you are putting it on hold.

So I just wanted to stop and show you this tree here.

Ice storms can create some really

beautiful things to look at,

this tree is completely covered in ice right now,

even the small berries on the tree are covered in ice,

and it's just really cool in an ice storm

to walk around and look at all of the things

that are covered in ice.

Let me give you a closer look.

So these puddles don't have any ice on them yet,

but I wanted to teach you another English phrase,

and that phrase is on thin ice.

When you are on thin ice,

it usually means you've done a couple of things wrong,

maybe at work, and if you do one more thing wrong,

you will probably be fired.

So when you're on thin ice,

it means you've made a few mistakes,

and if you make another one,

you will probably lose your job,

or someone will be very very annoyed with you.

So try in your life to never be

on thin ice with other people.

You wanna see something really cool?

Here's some icicles on this wagon.

Well hey, thank you so much for watching this English lesson

where we learned a few words and phrases about an ice storm,

and we learned a few English phrases that use the word ice.

I hope this video helped you learn

just a little bit more English.

I'm Bob the Canadian, if you are new here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button below,

and give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn

just a little bit of English.

I almost slipped just now, by the way,

it's very, very slippery.

Oh, did I teach you that word?

When something is slippery, in English,

it means it's easy to slide on it, and lose your balance.

It's pretty slippery right now.

Anyways, Bob the Canadian here, have a great day.

(gentle guitar music)