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Hello, everyone. I'm George. Today, let's talk about phrases with unexpected meanings.
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Okay. In English, there are certain phrases, when you see them, you
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don't get the meaning right away. And today, we're going to cover six of those
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phrases, that you might not know the meaning of when you just look at the
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words. Here we go. Number One. Big Break. Big Break. In English, when you say big
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break, it does not have anything to do with breaking your legs or your arms.
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In English, we do use the word "break" a lot. For example, if you want to wish somebody
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good luck, you would say "Break a leg!" It means I wish you good luck. Here, "Big
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Break" means your big chance. The chance for you to become more famous or more
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successful. Then we would say, "It's your big break!" Let's take a look at this
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sentence. This is your big break. Hold on to it. This is your big break.
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hold on to it. And Number Two. Walk on thin ice. Walk on thin ice. In Chinese, we
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have very similar saying, but when you say this in Chinese, it means you are a
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careful person. You are doing something cautiously. However, in English, when I say
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"You are walking on thin ice," that is a warning. It is to warn you that you're
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doing something dangerous. You are going to get yourself into trouble. Let's take
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a look at the example sentence. You're walking on thin ice. Don't make another
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mistake. You're walking on thin ice. Don't make
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another mistake. And Number Three. Luck out. Luck out. If you interpret this phrase
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literally, you might think it means you are out of luck. You are not very lucky.
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However, it is totally different. When you say somebody "lucked out," it means that
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person has very good luck. The word "luck" here is used as a verb.
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Let's take a look at the sentence here. Our team just lucked out in last night's
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game. Our team just lucked out in last night's game. And let's move on.
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Number Four. Hold a candle to. Hold a candle to.
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Literally, when you hold a candle to someone.
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In English when you say to "hold a candle to" it means to be as good as.
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to be performing very well. Usually, this
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phrase is used with a "not" in the front, so you would say "can't hold a candle to"
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Let's take a look at the sentence here. Don't worry. He can't even hold a candle
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to you. You are still going to win. Don't worry. He can't even hold a candle to
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you. You are still going to win. And Number Five.
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Catch wind of. Catch wind of. To catch wind of something means something is
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spreading over the wind. Not something smelly. In Chinese, there is actually a
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very similar phrase to "catch wind of." It means to hear of something, to hear
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about something that happened to someone else. This phrase is most of the time
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used on something you're not supposed to know.
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So when you say "catch wind of something" it means you learn something you're not
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supposed to know. It's a secret. Let's take a look at the example
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sentence. They tried very hard to cover the secret, but their parents still
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caught wind of it. They tried very hard to cover the secret, but their parents
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still caught wind of it. And Number Six. Get a kick out of. Get a kick out of. To get a
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kick out of something does not really mean that you're supposed to kick
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someone. It means something that is totally different. To get a kick out of
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something means you had a lot of fun in it, for example, your reading, your
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studying, your learning English. Let's take a look at example sentence. I get a
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kick out of learning English. I get a kick out of learning English. These are
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the six phrases that I teach today that do not show their meanings right away. Do
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you have any phrases that you see and you don't get right away? Share them down
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below at the comment area, Tell us, and if you like this video, make sure you click
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the like button down below, or you can subscribe to this channel. I'll see you
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next time. Bye.