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  • Hi this is to Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 298. The idiom today is play it by

  • ear. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here.

  • If someone plays it by ear, they will wait for a situation to develop more

  • fully. Fully meaning more completely before one decides to do something. Okay.

  • The origin of this idiom goes back to the 1800s and was first used in a way

  • that is related to music and is still used today in this way. Okay. If an

  • experienced musician plays music by ear he or she can figure out the notes and

  • play the song just by listening to it. So no sheet music is needed. So they just

  • need to listen to it and they just by their ear they can figure out there must

  • be you know, A or B or whatever whatever note it is. And they they could just play

  • it , especially with guitar or piano. It could definitely be done this way. Oh.

  • Let's continue here, by extension you know , some meanings you know they could

  • be extended out in a different way. The more common meaning today of waiting to

  • decide depending on the circumstances came into being. You could reason you

  • know , you could use your logic a good reason if one plays it by ear, they

  • listen to gather more information or the latest information and decide when the

  • event is nearer in time. Perhaps at that time you may be able to make a better

  • decision depending on the situation. Yeah. You may have found out some things that

  • you know makes you more sure that this is the right decision or you say oh I'm

  • glad I didn't do that. You know , the way, the way this situation developed. So you

  • want to play it by ear. You want to wait. You don't want to decide yet. You want to

  • see how things go. See how the situation develops and decide later. Decide then.

  • Okay. So we have a couple of examples here. I am not sure how late we will be.

  • Yeah. Maybe somebody's going out and they say what time you going to return? And they

  • say well we don't know. We decided to meet at the park and see what everyone

  • wants to do. We're playing it by ear. Well this might be a reason why you don't

  • know how late you'll be back. Because you don't know what you're doing yet.

  • You know, you're meeting a group of friends and you know , maybe nobody

  • decided what they're going to do yet, but when you get there, you'll figure it out.

  • And then then once you know what you're going to do you might have a better idea

  • what time we'll return home by. Okay. Good. That's a good number to hear I'm not

  • sure which Beach Resort we are going to visit in Thailand. Once we get to Bangkok

  • we will play it by ear. I figure I'll ask some other travelers what they would

  • suggest. Maybe you'll meet some other travelers, if you're staying an area with

  • a lot of travelers and you know maybe they visited a lot of the resorts

  • already and this way you may decide you know which one might be best or which

  • one you could skip or so on. So you're playing it by ear. You're waiting. Okay.

  • Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is to Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 298. The idiom today is play it by

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