Most Common English Proverbs Basic English Phrases

okay we are rolling hi everybody welcome

back to our weekly live stream my name

is Alisha and today we’re going to talk

about some common English

proverbs if you’re not familiar a

proverb is kind of like a traditional

advice a piece of advice or kind of a

traditional like historical idea about

how to live life in a specific language

or a specific culture so you might find

in today’s lesson that there are some

things that are similar or the same with

your language and the advice in your

city or in your country but there might

be some unique things that you can find

in English proverb so today we’re going

to focus on this topic so as you join

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so if you’re just joining again today or

this week rather our topic will be

common English proverbs common English

proverbs so let’s get started Oh a

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review then for those of you just

joining today’s topic is English

proverbs English proverb so a proverb

proverb is the key word for today I

think proverb means like a short

expression that’s like a short piece of

advice from that culture so these are

really really common expressions ways

that people like try to communicate how

to live life or how to work and so on so

that will be the focus for today’s

lesson excellent

all right with that then let’s get

started in a minute no maybe yes no

shall I past that no pick okay no

problem we won’t share a picture this

week no worries okay so let’s get

rolling into today’s topic then I’ve

grouped them into just three proverbs so

I’ll explain each proverb on the board

you’ll see some text on screen too so

it’s the same but let’s get started with

the first the first proverb for today

first one the first one for today is a

watched pot never boils a watched pot

never boils

so here please notice we’re using this

watched watched form a watched pot never

boils

excuse me have a bit of gold a watched

pot never boils

means if you’re focusing

your attention on something you are

waiting to happen like there’s something

you really are excited about there’s

something you really hope is going to

happen it’s going it’s never going to

happen or it’s going to seem to take a

long time so imagine this expression

comes from cooking then so when you’re

cooking in the kitchen and you’re

waiting for water to boil if you stand

in the kitchen and watch and watch the

water and you wait for it to boil it’s

going to seem to take a long time if

however you move around you do other

things in your house while you wait for

the water to boil it will seem to boil

at a faster rate so this means if

there’s something you’re waiting for

don’t just focus on it while you wait

for it it means do other things as you

wait for it - so a watched pot never

boils is a key for today all right

good and if you have questions please

send them in the chat I will try to

check the chat a lot though I can’t

catch everything so good all right so

that’s our first one a watched pot never

boils a watched pot never boils

and please make sure your pronunciation

here not a watch pot but a watched

watched why is it watched think of the

passive form like the pot is being

watched by someone by you or someone

else maybe but the pot is being watched

so a watched pot that’s why we use the e

d form watched pot okay good let’s

continue on to the next proverb for

today then so the next proverb I chose

because I thought it would be really

good for you guys who are studying

people who are studying learning just a

nice reminder um oh are we gonna see

this if so that’s cool no okay all right

well I’ll go on to the next proverb the

next proverb that I thought was really

good for learners today is practice

makes perfect practice makes perfect so

everybody oh yeah we’ll see that in just

a second

see it um up above here perfect thank

you so practice makes perfect practice

makes perfect is great for study for

anything you are trying to improve I

imagine in your language you probably

have some kind of similar expression but

practice makes perfect means if you

practice something a lot it will become

perfect so like a lot of you asked like

how do i improve my english what should

i do in those cases it’s like the answer

is practice you have to practice so

practice lots and lots of practice makes

perfect so like to make something you

need to do something else before the

result so practice is the first thing

practice make something perfect so

practice makes perfect really short and

easy to remember but a good proverb for

studying in particular hmm okay oh do we

have subtitles in the lie that’s

exciting

alright good ok nice so practice makes

perfect is our second one for today

alright someone says I don’t believe

that practice makes perfect

oh really then what makes perfect if you

have a different suggestion what makes

perfect if practice does not okay

alrighty let’s continue on to the next

one next one is an interesting

expression next one I’ll break it down

in just a second the next expression is

hindsight is always 20/20 hindsight is

always 20/20 okay so first let’s look at

this word hind sight hind so this part

hind this part think of the word behind

so behind meaning like in fact of like

not in front of the opposite of the

front behind here we have hind sight so

sight refers to your vision yeah so hind

sight means looking back on your

activities looking back over your past

is hindsight so what did you do

yesterday thinking about that that’s

hind sight hind sight so hindsight

looking back over your past is always

20 20 20 so this refers to vision this

refers to vision so if you have visited

an eye doctor

an optometrist the kind of baseline for

like perfect normal regular vision is

20/20 so 20/20 is the measurement for

perfect vision for clear vision so

hindsight is always 20/20 means in other

words when we look back over the past we

can see everything very clearly like

everything seems very clear when we look

at it like when we’re looking back over

everything we’ve done before so

hindsight is always 20/20 here it is if

you can’t see the board hindsight is

always 20/20 here so 20/20 refers to

perfect like clear vision perfect and

clear vision okay

oh yeah it South Korea same proverbs

cool cool yeah okay um practice makes

perfect yeah people are talking a lot

about practice makes perfect for sure

great great okay um yeah and someone on

Facebook I’m in says hi well I would

like to improve my English what should I

do like we talked about this one

practice makes perfect is a great one

for those of you who like studying so

practice just you know you have to

practice for sure

okie dokie we are about 12 minutes in so

please yeah keep sending questions and

ideas too um but for now I think we’ll

move a log we do have a special that

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this new there’s a new PDF

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show but Oh special delivery looking

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this is a new PDF actually I know we

usually share like the vocabulary PDFs

but this is a new one that we have the

team made

lots of people asked like what should i

do how should I study so we made or the

team made rather a goals a goals cheat

sheet so you can see it here look at

that we got fancy camera action this

week

so like this is basically to help you

build a goal for your studies so like

first by asking the question like why

first like why are you learning English

what do you want to do with your English

in other words and then there are a few

ideas here so I want to travel to the US

I want to use it for my job I want to

speak to someone about someone special

in English for example other ideas here

on the other side like I like the

language I like the culture and so on so

it’s sort of meant to give you sorry

it’s sort of meant to give you oh I’ll

go back to that to give you some ideas

to help you build goals for yourself so

once you’ve done that making a plan what

are you going to do when are you going

to do it

sorry it’s difficult to see and then a

few patterns that beginners can use and

some grammar as well some key grammar

expressions so if your beginning or if

your if your beginning or if you’re just

thinking about how to move forward how

to make a study plan for yourself you

can take a look at this it might help

you and if anything if you want to

review like I just showed quickly the

grammar the grammar points down here

basic grammar points these are some

great basic grammar points for you to

begin with to understand so please check

this out this is available on the

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all right let’s continue on great if you

are just joining today’s lesson I’ll

stand here there okay good okay so if

you are just joining today’s lesson

today we are talking about English

proverbs English proverbs proverbs are

like kind of historical traditional

advice I look fair I look kind of bummed

out they’re like what am I thinking

about anyway using proverbs how to use

them what they mean and so on yes it is

totally free on the website you need an

account but the account is free to

download the the PDF I just showed okay

sorry again I have a bit difficult break

time is over indeed one yes so if you’re

just joining please don’t forget to hit

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we appreciate it

all right let’s go to the second group

of Proverbs

for today today second group of Proverbs

let’s start with this one this one I

think about a lot actually this one

personally I really think about this one

the expression is actions don’t forget

this s actions speak louder than words

so again as here actions speak louder

than words actions speak louder than

words means the things you do are more

important than the things you say so

your actions the things you choose to do

with your time those things are more

important than just talking so actions

speak louder than words actions speak

louder so actions don’t actually speak

no but your actions communicate more

than just words like words are one thing

it’s easy to say words but taking action

making choices and making decisions

that’s different

so actions speak louder than words this

is a great one that I think about a lot

so here it is above me actions don’t

forget these s sounds at the end of

these two actions speak louder than

words also comparative form here this is

a comparative expression

actions speak louder than words so

actions here words are down here more

okay good nice all right so that’s one I

personally really like actions speak

louder than words

then let’s go to one that might not

quite the opposite but like a slightly

different idea a twist so a twist means

like a kind of change or like an

unexpected change in a story or an idea

the next one is the pen the pen so pen

literally means like the writing device

a pen so the pen is mightier again

comparative the pen is mightier than the

sword

the pen is mightier than the sword sword

if you don’t know is like an old weapon

a big weapon that people used to fight

swords so this expression means the pen

so writing in other words words writing

words we have the word mightier mighty

means strong or like effective like in

battle it means powerful for example so

the pen is mightier more effective

stronger more powerful than the sword

here the sword refers to fighting so the

pen is mightier than the sword means

words and communication that way are

more effective than fighting you the pen

is mightier than the sword the pen is

mightier than the sword so this is quite

a good one that people like to talk

about in times of like battle or in

times of war for example the pen is

mightier than the sword

or perhaps writers as well like to use

this proverb but - okay nice and if you

have any questions uh mode brews hi some

I’m really sorry I’ve mispronounced your

name if you change it to 50/50 this

expression hindsight is twenty-twenty to

5050 note it sounds very strange please

use 20/20 this expression okay yeah em

Rainey said 1 & 2 are opposite because

the sword represents an action and

penned two words so yeah so there’s a

bit of discussion you could have here

these two

kind of different like they’re kind

almost opposites you could say that

sword means specifically fighting

specifically like violence actually so

that’s one way that we could say it’s a

bit different anyway quite interesting

okay um let’s continue to the third one

for this group then flees the third one

here is you can’t judge a book by its

cover

you can’t judge a book by its cover okay

what does this mean so this expression

means you can’t determine a person’s

personality you can’t understand a

person based only on their appearance

based only on the way they look so here

we’re talking about a book you can’t

judge a book so the cover of the book is

the first appearance of the book I don’t

think we have a book in this room

okay let’s imagine oh no I don’t never

mind so if you imagine the cover of a

book there’s some artwork or something

on the cover but there’s a lot of

information inside the book in the pages

of the book we can’t understand all of

the information inside the book only

looking at the cover so in other words

don’t judge people based only on their

looks hmm so you can’t judge a book by

its cover

you can’t judge a book by its cover so

this is one that’s like trying to teach

people to be understanding and to kind

of try to get to know other people

before judging them before making a

judgement so to judge someone actually

to judge this is a word that means like

to make a determination so like a very

simple judgment is oh that person’s good

or that person’s bad so that’s a

judgement we judge we determine we

decide something so to judge a person or

to judge a book is to decide that person

that book is good or bad only by looking

at their

hereit’s so this is saying you can’t do

that it’s not possible to know

everything only by appearance quite good

someone on Facebook nah man Nubia

AutoKey no physical appearance might be

good but the context or pages inside

aren’t that good God said that’s

something to maybe the the appearance

looks amazing but inside is not so great

so there are a lot of different ways

that we can apply this proverb for sure

it’s quite interesting Aquila YouTube

says sometimes we say in Arabic the

content is known by its subject

interesting I want to know more about

that hmm interesting

okay fantastic great so those are the

next three I have three more for today

but I want to take another quick break