Learning Clumsy, Klutz, and All Thumbs | Basic English Expressions Lesson

I'm Robin. And in this video, I'm  going to talk about the word clumsy,  

the slang word klutz and the idiom all thumbs.

All three of these expressions mean the same thing.

We're talking about an awkward person,

someone who has a lot of accidents or someone who's always breaking things.

OK, it can describe a man or a woman.

Let's take a look in my example.

He or she

He always has accidents.

He always has accidents, spilling drinks, things like that, and breaks things.

He always has accidents and breaks things.

He is.

All right. Here we go.

The first word, clumsy.

That's what we want to use to describe someone

who always has accidents and breaks things.

He is clumsy.

She is clumsy.

Here's the slang word.

He is a klutz.

She is a klutz.

A klutz.

OK.  They mean the same thing.

And the last one is an idiom.

He is all thumbs.

All thumbs.

OK, that's your thumb.

So if you're all thumbs, every finger is a thumb.

So it's very easy to have an accident.

OK.

So these are the three expressions we want to use

to describe this kind of awkward person.

Let's take a look at some example sentences.

OK, let's look at the first example.

He always accidentally sits on his glasses. He's so clumsy.

He always accidentally sits on his glasses. He's so clumsy.

The next one

She always pours too much coffee into my cup. She's so clumsy.

She always pours too much coffee into my cup. She's so clumsy.

And the next one

I'm a klutz when I dance. I hit everyone around me.

I'm a klutz when I dance. I hit everyone around me.

The nurse was a klutz. She gave the patient the wrong medicine.

The nurse was a klutz. She gave the patient the wrong medicine.

All right. And the next.

He can't play the piano at all. He's all thumbs.

He can't play the piano. At all. He's all thumbs.

I tried to fix the toilet, but I'm all thumbs. I just broke it more.

I tried to fix the toilet. But I'm all thumbs. I just broke it more.

Those were some good examples of how to use clumsy, klutz, and all thumbs.

Remember, they mean the same thing.

Describing a very awkward person.

Now, before we go, I'm going to tell you the story of my cousin Jerry.

Now, Jerry and I are the same age.

So as children, we used to play together.

And I'm going to tell you that Jerry was the perfect klutz.

He was a very clumsy kid.

He always broke things, and he always had accidents.

And his glasses, like his eyeglasses.

He must have broke them every day.

You know, his mother put tape here and tape here.

His glasses always looked broken and  terrible.

Also, his shirt is very dirty. He had a lot of food stains, drink stains when he ate food.

You know, ketchup and mustard always fell all over him.

Anyway, as I said, he's a klutz.

He used to come over to my house to play with me,

and he always wanted to play with my toys.

And, of course, he always broke my toys.

And I hated him. I really hated Jerry.

And every time he came over, so I used to complain to my mom.

You know, I don't want Jerry to touch my toys.

But, you know, my mom said, you know, you  have to share with Jerry.

So eventually, when Jerry came over, I just he had my toys,

and we would watch TV or play something else.

Well, anyway, that's the story of Jerry. The perfect klutz.

I hope you understand these expressions.

See you next time.