Learn 14 English Phrases with the Word Nothing in Them

I've never jumped out of a plane before,

but here goes nothing.

That's actually an English phrase that we use sometimes

before we do something new or dangerous.

I got my helmet on, I got my parachute on,

here goes nothing.

By the way, I'll meet you on the ground

and I'll do a little lesson about phrases

with the word nothing in it.

Once again, here goes nothing.

(plane engine roaring)

(calm guitar music)

Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson

about phrases with the word, nothing in it.

Before we get started, though, if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button

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

just a little bit more English.

The next English phrase, I wanted to teach you

with the word nothing in it is the phrase,

there's nothing to it.

When my kids were young,

I had to teach them how to tie their shoes.

You take the two laces. You make a simple knot.

You make a bow, you go around the bow,

you put your thumb through and you pull it tight.

There's nothing to it.

So there's nothing to it, is a phrase we use

when we're talking about something that's very easy to do,

or very easy to learn.

It does take a while to learn how to tie a shoe though.

Saying there's nothing to it

maybe isn't the nicest thing to say.

I know when I was a kid, it actually took me a long time.

Even though my mom kept showing me and kept saying,

there's nothing to it.

I was watching an old movie the other day

and the main character was put in prison

and they gave him dry bread and water,

which I guess is better than nothing.

The English phrase better than nothing means,

that whatever you have is better

than not having anything at all.

If I was really, really hungry and you gave me dry bread

and water, I would certainly think,

well, it's better than nothing.

It's better to have some bread

and to have a little drink of water

than to have nothing at all.

It's certainly better than nothing.

Ah, there's next to nothing left in this box.

Sometimes my kids eat all the cereal.

And then when I go to have a box of cereal,

there's next to nothing left in the box.

Next to nothing is a phrase we use in English

to talk about when there's some left,

there's some left in the box, but not as much as I wanted.

There's next to nothing left in the cereal box.

So that's kind of sad.

I'll have to maybe go to the store later and get another one

because I really like eating my Cheerios.

It's a little windy out here today.

Hey Bob, what are you doing this weekend?

Nothing much.

Nothing really.

When someone asks you what your plans are,

when someone asks you what you're going to be doing tomorrow

or on the weekend.

And if you're doing some things,

but they're not that important,

you might answer by using one of the two phrases

I just said.

You could say nothing really or nothing much.

These are very common phrases in English.

At work when heading out the door on a Friday,

a colleague might say,

"Hey, Bob, what are you doing this weekend?"

And probably my most common answer,

especially during this year of COVID

would be nothing much or nothing really.

It basically just means I'm doing some stuff,

but I'm not doing anything fun or exciting.

Oscar is a really good dog.

He hangs out with Jen when she's working

in the flower fields, he's very calm, but he does bark

if a stranger comes onto our property, he's a good dog.

Our last dog though, was kind of a good for nothing dog.

Good for nothing is a phrase we use in English

to describe someone or something that isn't very useful.

Our last dog just slept all the time. He never barked.

He just stayed by his dog house and he ate food

and he just wasn't very helpful.

He didn't really hang out with Jen.

He didn't bark when strangers came,

he was kind of a good for nothing dog.

This isn't a nice way to describe someone or something,

but it's just a way to describe someone or something

that doesn't really do anything.

In the flower bed behind me, there's nothing but flowers.

When you say nothing but in English,

it's just another way of saying only.

And in informal English, we often say sentences like this.

There's nothing but flowers in this flower bed.

We don't grow vegetables. We only grow flowers.

There's only flowers growing here.

There's nothing but flowers in the flower bed behind me.

When I was a teenager,

I worked for my uncle building houses.

But one summer he came to me and said,

"Bob, it's nothing personal,

but I can't give you a job this summer."

My uncle used the phrase, it's nothing personal

because it had nothing to do with me.

The reason he couldn't give me work

wasn't because I was a bad worker,

it wasn't because he didn't like me.

There simply wasn't enough work.

So the English phrase, it's nothing personal

is a phrase we use when we're about

to give someone information.

But we want them to be aware that it's not their fault.

It has nothing to do with something they've done.

It's nothing personal.

Another really common phrase in English

with the word nothing in it is the phrase.

It's nothing.

This is a phrase we use sometimes instead of saying,

you're welcome after someone thanks us for doing something.

Many of you in the comments below, will say,

thanks, Bob, for the English lesson.

And I could respond by saying, ah, it's nothing.

Basically what I'm saying is it wasn't that much work,

I enjoy doing it, it didn't cost me a lot

to make the English lesson,

and so I respond by saying, ah, it's nothing.

It's just another way of saying you're welcome.

Now if I wanted respond to people thanking me

for my English lessons in kind of a cocky, arrogant,

or boastful way I could use the phrase,

you ain't seen nothing yet.

So this is another English phrase

with the word nothing in it

that we use when we are telling people

that things are going to get better

and kind of in a cocky way,

like kind of like, whoa, you ain't seen nothing yet.

So if you like my English lessons now

just wait I have a lot of plans for this summer

to make them better and I could, boastfully say,

you ain't seen nothing yet.

So the best I think is yet to come.

A long time ago, I was working somewhere

and someone was stealing paper regularly.

So I made sure that my boss knew that I had nothing

to do with it.

I often worked late at that job

and I didn't want my boss to think

that I was the one stealing the paper.

I wanted to make sure that my boss knew

that I had nothing to do with it.

The English phrase, nothing to do with,

simply means that you didn't do it.

You're not associated with the person who is doing it.

You don't know who's doing it.

You had nothing to do with it.

Eventually they did catch the person

and that person got fired.

I guess that's what they deserved.

Sometimes people fall in love

and then sometimes they break up.

After they break up,

sometimes they might say something like this,

he means nothing to me or she means nothing to me now.

This is a phrase we use in English

to kind of indicate that we don't have feelings

for someone anymore.

So maybe there is someone in your past

that you really, really liked romantically,

but now they mean nothing to you.

You don't have those same strong feelings anymore.

And that's the phrase that you would use.

You would just say he means nothing to me now

or she means nothing to me now.

Sometimes sports teams are in an all or nothing situation.

Usually this happens towards the end

of their regular season.

They're in a situation where they need to win the game

if they want to move on.

If they lose the game, their season is over.

And in English, we would certainly call that

an all or nothing situation.

An all or nothing situation

is a time where either you do well

and you get the reward, or if you fail at something,

you don't get anything.

So thankfully learning English

is not an all or nothing situation.

It's not like being in a championship match,

you can just keep doing this, keep learning things

and keep doing well.

Well, thank you for watching this English lesson

about phrases with the word nothing in it.

It was pretty easy for me to make

because I had nothing at all to do today.

Nothing at all, is your last phrase

that I want to teach you in this lesson.

Nothing at all just means the same thing as nothing,

but we use at all to kind of emphasize it a bit.

So I had nothing at all to do today

so I thought it would be fun

to make this English lesson for you.

Thanks again for watching.

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

Give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn

just a little bit more English.

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