Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. Sometimes, English can be challenging and a little more difficult,
and at other times, it can be quite easy. This is one of those quite easy times, alright?
Because today, we're going to learn some expressions,
they all have only two words, and they are pretty short and easy to understand. Okay?
And easy to learn, easy to pronounce. So, you're not only going to learn the vocabulary,
you're going to learn a little bit of the pronunciation, which is not hard, and also the
meaning, of course. Alright? So, are you ready? Let's get started.
So, when you don't know the expression, you might use a lot of words to kind of say the
same thing. But when you know these short expressions, you can also speak more effectively,
more efficiently, and at a more advanced level. Also,
these expressions will help you to understand
what others around you mean when they're saying... When they're using them. Okay?
So, suppose you want to say, "They refuse to work because they want more money." Usually,
this refers to workers or employees, alright? They refuse to work because they're protesting,
they're demanding a higher salary, better working conditions. So, what is the expression
that captures that idea? Do you know what it is? You say, "They are on something. They
are on strike." Okay? So, if you say that certain employees are on strike, it means
they refuse to work because they are protesting and demonstrating for better working conditions,
or hours, or salaries, or something like this. Okay? Alright.
Let's look at number two. "She's feeling nervous." So, this could be for any kind of situation.
Maybe she's feeling nervous because she's waiting for her exam results. Maybe she's
feeling nervous because she's waiting for the results of some... Of a medical test,
or she wants to find out, "Did she get the job?" So, she's feeling nervous, so we could
also say "on something", because as you can see, all these expressions start with "on",
right? So, she's... She's what? She's on edge. Alright? Perhaps you've heard some of these
before. Okay? And perhaps you haven't. So, "on edge" basically means that somebody is
very nervous and scared about something. They're waiting for something and they're feeling
on edge. Alright? Got that? Good. Let's look at number three. If we want
to say, "The doctor is available", but we mean by that maybe the doctor's not here at the moment,
but he is available, or she is available. There's an expression for that. We would say,
"The doctor is on call." "On call" means that even if you're not there at that moment,
but you're somewhere, and if you're needed, you will be called and then that doctor will be
able to arrive. Okay? Now, this is usually used... It's used for all kinds of people,
certainly for medical professionals like doctors and so on. Also, first responders or firefighters
and so on, they are on call. But it doesn't only have to be for people like that. It could
also be just people who work at the... In different positions in an organization,
or if you're... Perhaps you're working at home, but if you're needed, then you're saying that I
will be available even though I'm at home. So, instead of saying, "I will be available",
then basically you're... The idea is that you're on call. Okay? Alright. Good.
Let's look at number four. So, if you want to ask, "Who's working right now?" Okay? Who's
in charge right now? Who is on duty? Okay? "Who's on duty?" means that there are different
people who have this job, let's say manager, and some days maybe one manager works, and
another day there's another restaurant manager, perhaps in a restaurant. Right? Or some other
kind of situation like that, or in a factory. Alright? There might be people who have different
shifts. Sometimes someone works the morning hours, sometimes someone works the evening
hours, and you want to know who's working now, or who is on duty. Okay? Got that? Good.
So, as you can see, these words are pretty short, right? They're not... And these expressions
are easy to say, to understand. Let's just repeat them, alright? "On strike", "on edge",
"on call", "on duty". Okay? You can pronounce the "t" here, or you could not. You could
say it like "on duty". North Americans would probably say "on duty", but I think it might
be easier for you and easier for others to understand you if you do pronounce that "t",
"on duty". Alright? You decide. Next, suppose you want to say, or someone wants
to say, "Everyone's on the plane. Everybody's on the plane now. All the passengers are on
the plane." So, what's the expression for that? "Everyone is on board", "on board".
Right? If you're... When you've traveled at the airport, you'll announce... You'll hear
the announcement, right? We're starting the boarding procedure. "To board" means to get
on a plane, or a ship, or anything like that. Okay? And once you are already on the plane or
the ship, you are on board. That is the... This particular meaning of this expression.
Okay? There is another meaning. This is kind of more physical. You're actually physically
on board the aircraft, or the cruise ship, or whatever. There is another meaning which is
not physical, and it means this. Suppose you're at a meeting, and they're discussing various
subjects, and deciding, making decisions about how to move forward, and then they say, "Okay, so
this is what we've agreed. Is everyone on board?" So, what do they mean? They're not talking about a
plane or a ship. When they ask in that context, if everyone is on board, what they mean is,
is does everyone agree to this? Does everyone think in the same way? Does everyone support this
path, or this choice, or this decision? Okay? That's another meaning of "on board". All right.
Number six. Suppose you want to express the idea that you can buy it for less. It can be anything,
any product. You can buy it for less. Why can you buy something for less? Because it's... What?
It's on sale. Yes. This is a very popular word around the world. Right? And something's on sale,
that means it's available to buy... To purchase, or to buy for a lower price. All right? On sale.
That one, I'm sure you have heard. All right. Next, number seven. She did it with intent. Now,
I know that word is a little bit harder to understand. Let me explain it to you. So,
it means she did it not by mistake. She really wanted
to do it. Okay? She didn't do it by mistake or by accident. She wanted to do it. And usually,
this one is talking about something negative. Okay? So, the expression we have for this is
she did it on purpose. Okay? Now, this word, if you look at it, you might end up pronouncing it
a different way, so be careful. The correct way to pronounce this is "on purpose", purpose. Okay?
Don't worry about the "p-o-s-e" here. Don't try to pronounce that the way you see it.
Just repeat after me. On purpose. On purpose. So, it's shortened a lot. Okay? It's reduced.
It's reduced here, it's reduced here. On purpose. Okay? Good.
Number eight, "The flight arrived at the expected hour."
Okay? The flight arrived when you were expecting it to arrive. So,
we could say, "The flight arrived..." We have a few options here. The easy one is we could say,
"on time", right? "The flight arrived on time." Or you could say, "on schedule". On schedule.
All right? "The conference began on time." On... Or, "The conference... The meeting began
on schedule." On time. At the time that it was expected to begin. All right? So,
those are the ones. Let's repeat the last four for pronunciation
again. "On sale", "on purpose", "on time", "on schedule", and also "on board". All right?
So now, let's take one more step to make sure that you've understood the meanings of these and
just to review them and make sure you got them. So, we're going to jump around a little bit,
and I'm going to ask you if you remember what they mean. So, here we go. So,
let's start with an easy one. If something is on sale, what does that mean?
It means that it's available for a lower price. All right? Good. That's done. All right.
If someone is on call, what does that mean? That means that person is available
if you need them, and when you call them, they will come and be available to do whatever
work you need them to do. Okay? They're on call. All right? Good. Let's look at this one. If
something is on time or on schedule, what does that mean? That means it happens at the time
you expected it to happen, the time it was supposed to
happen. All right? Good. Very nice. The next one, let's jump up here. If someone is on edge,
is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is that positive or negative?
It's probably going to be negative, because if you're on edge, you're what? You are nervous,
scared. Okay? You're waiting for something. All right? And you're on edge. Like, we talked about
the exam results, the interview, did you get the job, did you not? I don't know, I'm on edge.
Okay? Or you're waiting for some results from a doctor, or you're waiting for your wife to
give birth. All right? So you might be a little bit on edge. All right. If someone is on board,
what does that mean? When you're talking about on board, what could it refer to? Remember it had
two meanings? So let's talk about the physical meaning first. It means that you are actually on
board on a plane or a ship or something like that. Okay? On board. I'm on board right now.
So sometimes before your plane or your flight leaves, you call someone, you say bye and
everything, okay, I'm on board the aircraft now, I'm on board now, and I'm going to switch
off my phone, I'll talk to you after I have arrived wherever. Okay? So that's on board.
And do you remember the second meaning of on board? The second meaning was is everybody on
board? Does everybody agree? Does everybody say yes, we should do this? Okay? Those were the two
meanings of on board. Good. If somebody did something on purpose, usually is this positive
or negative? This is usually kind of negative. Okay? So, for example, sometimes when kids are
young, they don't still know, they don't know yet what they should do and what they shouldn't do,
and so they might hit other children, for example, and they're doing it on purpose, let's say,
okay, because maybe they don't know better, or they're jealous or something like that,
and they might hit another child on purpose until the parent explains that that's not what you
should do, you can't do that, and so on. Or a child may do something wrong if they're angry,
okay, they might throw something, and then again, the parent has to explain,
don't do that, but the child might have done it on purpose before they understood that you
shouldn't do those kind of things. All right? But again, it doesn't have to refer only to
children or anything like that, it can also mean an adult does something with intention,
but the intention is a negative kind of intention. Okay? All right. And if people are on strike,
remember we spoke about that? It could be factory workers, employees are on strike,
it means that they are not working. Why? Because they want something better, okay?
Their employer to give them something better, better working hours, better working conditions,
better salaries, and so on, or some other issues. All right? That was on strike. And this last one
here, if someone is on duty, what does that mean? That means right now they are working. That is
their shift, they're working from 9 to 5, or 8 to 4, or whatever it may be, they're on duty,
they're working right now. Okay? All right,
very nice. So, you see, you've learned these expressions.
What can you do now to make sure that you know them? First, you can go to our website
at www.engvid.com, and there you could do a quiz on these, it's a great way to review,
and make sure that you've really got them, because you've taken the time to watch this,
I know you're serious. So, take that extra step, okay? Do the quiz, lock it in. Then,
you could also try to write your own sentences using some of these expressions. You could say,
"Oh, I bought a laptop on sale." Okay? Or, "John is on duty on Friday." Whatever, write some
sentences about your own life using these expressions, that way you will really know
and connect them in a meaningful way to your own self and your life. All right? And don't forget
to subscribe to my YouTube channel for lessons like this on various kinds of subjects to do with
vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and exams, and everything else. Okay? So, thanks very much