12 English expressions using 'THINK'

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com and today we're going to have a look at some expressions

using the word "think". Okay?

We've already had the lesson on the use of "think".

This is more to do with expressions now, particular meanings.

So, let's have a look at the first example. And if you say: "What was I thinking?!" or

"What were you thinking?!"

and especially if you have a question mark and an exclamation

mark afterwards-"What was I thinking?! Why did I do that?",

"Why did you do that? What were you thinking?!"

-it's like a criticism either of yourself or someone else because

of something they have done.

"Why did they do that? It was stupid. What were you thinking?! Oh, dear."

Don't do it again, whatever it was. Okay, so that's a very useful expression.

But you have to be a bit careful, though, how you use it. Be careful who you criticize.

Uh-huh. Okay.

Next one, this is somebody who thinks too much without doing anything, so:

"She tends to overthink things."

Meaning she thinks about doing things or she dwells on things too much,

maybe she gets a little bit depressed because she thinks too much. Too much thinking, not

enough action is not always a good thing. It depends what the action is, of course.

But: "She tends to overthink things." And the more you think about something, maybe

the harder it is to actually do it, so you need a balance. Okay?

Now, this is about somebody's opinion of themselves. So: "He thinks of himself as a great artist."

Okay? So he's not very modest. He's an artist, he paints paintings maybe, and he thinks he's

really good. So for people to have a really high opinion of themselves is not always a

good thing. A little bit of modesty is always useful. Okay?

So: "He thinks of himself as a great artist."

It sounds a little bit like a criticism. You know, he has a high opinion

of himself. Okay.

Now, this one: "It's later than you think!" It is like a warning.

It could be in a...

In a horror film, a horror movie or something, you know, The Martian, The Landing:

"It's later than you think!" It seems to have an American accent with it. Sort of something

to frighten people. It could be part of an entertainment, though, like a film. It doesn't

always mean just literally: "Oh, you think it's 3 o'clock and it's actually 4 o'clock.

It's later than you think."

It's an hour later than you think. So you could use it that way,

but it usually has a special meaning to make people worry a little bit. Maybe people advertising,

trying to sell insurance, life insurance.

"How old are you? 40. It's later than you

think and you haven't taken out life insurance yet.

What will happen to your family if anything happens to you? It's later than you think."

So companies, you know, insurance companies

especially try to worry people, so you can be aware of that.

Okay, next example: "Come to think of it, I haven't seen her for a month or two."

So, you're saying: "Well, now... Now I'm thinking about it, about that woman,

now I'm thinking about her, I haven't seen her for a month or two."

So you weren't aware that you hadn't

seen her, but then when somebody mentions her name:

"Oh, yeah, come to think of it, I haven't seen her for some time."

So: "Come to think of it" is quite a useful phrase.

Okay?

Next one, if someone says: "Oh, I'm just thinking aloud." or "I'm just thinking out loud."

they're saying things, they're saying their thoughts, and maybe they don't make a lot of sense sometimes.

If you say what you're thinking all the time, it can be very strange for other people. If

you're speaking your thoughts all the time you have to be careful to select a little bit.

If someone's having some ideas for a project

and they're sort of brainstorming-yeah?-they're thinking aloud,

thinking of different ideas... Thinking usually is silent, inside your head.

But if you're saying what you're thinking, you're thinking aloud or you're thinking out loud.

You're speaking your thoughts. And if you say:

"Oh, don't... Don't mind me. I'm just thinking aloud.

Don't take any notice of me. These are just my thoughts." You know?

I have to arrange them later into some sort of order and sense. Okay? So, just thinking aloud.

Right, moving on. If you have an idea, but then later you're not quite sure it's a good idea, you say:

"I did have an idea, but I've thought better of it." Meaning:

"Well, it wasn't such a good idea. I thought better of it", meaning I'm not going to do that now,

that idea. It's not as good as I first thought it was. Okay? I thought better of it.

Right. Next: "If you don't think big, you'll never achieve anything."

So when you think

new ideas, try to think big because you can always come back to something smaller later,

but if you're wanting to achieve things in life, sometimes you have to think big. Otherwise

if you think small you're only going to go a small way. So to think big you will progress

a little bit further. Okay. "If you don't think big, you'll never achieve anything."

Now, this is about opinion again, about people who work together, colleagues:

"He thinks very little of his colleagues." That means he doesn't have a very high opinion of his

colleagues. He doesn't really respect them very much. So it's not a very nice thing.

It's good to think well of your colleagues. Okay? Not to think very little of your colleagues.

Okay?

Also, if you go to see a film but you didn't really like it very much, you can say:

"I didn't think much of that film." It was okay, but nothing special.

"I didn't think much of that film."

Then decisions, decisions with money, it's always a big issue, especially nowadays.

"You should think twice before investing with that bank."

Now, if you think once and invest the

money... Okay? Well, you have to hope for the best. But if you think twice, it means

you've thought once and you've thought: "Okay, it's probably a good bank to invest with."

But if you think a second time, you might think:

"Ah, but there was some bad publicity recently about that bank. Maybe I shouldn't invest with them."

So when you think twice,

you're possibly changing your mind, deciding not to do something when you've thought for

the second time. So: "Think twice before doing something."

Okay, and then finally, this is a very nice one: "She thinks the world of her sister."

The world, the whole world, that means she thinks a lot of her sister. She thinks her

sister is great, lovely person. So: "She thinks the world of her sister." Okay.

So, I hope those examples have been interesting and useful for you.

And if you'd like to do a quiz on this subject, please go to the website: www.engvid.com.

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Thank you. And hope to see you again very soon.

Okay. Bye for now.