Idiom Practice At the drop of a hat
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kannan Vietnam hello bassam and haman
hello Louise in Geneva wonderful
Malaysia Morocco excellent Rio de
Janeiro Thiago glad you’re here well
today we’re going to be talking about an
idiom that involves a hat so you might
notice that I’m wearing a hat and it’s
not because there’s sun shining in my
apartment it’s a really cloudy day
actually
but it’s because our idiom today is
about a hat kind of the word hat is in
the idiom but it really has nothing to
do with a hat so I wanted to you to wear
this to help you remember the idiom and
to use it correctly so before we get
started talking about what this idiom
means I want to ask you a question who
is one of the most important people in
your life maybe it’s your your wife or
your husband or your kids or your best
and maybe your dog maybe your parents
who is really really important to you
we’re going to use this person in our
idiom full sentence in just a moment but
let’s talk about this really important
person Maddie says my mother great
Asiago says my mom Misaki my family my
mom my dad me job Jack Wow but don’t
tell your family Marina says my dog
Vince E says my kids of course wonderful
Oh Iago says myself great it’s important
to love yourself so let’s take the
person or the animal who you just said
and let’s try to make a sentence with
today’s idiom so let me tell you a quick
story and I want to see if you can make
your own sentence without any
explanation so as many of you know I’m
gonna have a baby in less than three
months whoo coming soon so when I told
my mother-in-law that I was gonna have a
baby she said I will help you at the
drop of a hat I will come immediately
and help you if you want help I will
help you at the drop of a hat and that’s
because it’s important to her to
participate in things that are happening
in our family and just because she
really cares because she cares about me
she cares about my husband who is her
son and about the new grandchild she is
willing to help at the drop of a hat
and that’s so special to have someone in
your life who will help you at the drop
of a hat can you guess what this idiom
means can you use this idiom about your
special person who you just mentioned
I’m gonna write my sentence here on the
clipboard sotto
give you just a moment to think about
how you can put that person into the
senate’s so maybe I could say my
mother-in-law would help me so kind at
the drop of a hat so nice so let’s take
a look really quick and see here’s our
lovely idiom at the drop of a hat
and two people are helping each other oh
so we’ve got some great sentences I
would help you at the drop of a hat I’m
sure my mom would help me at the drop of
a hat me sake great sentence I’m sure my
mom would help me at the drop of a hat I
would see my boyfriend at the top at the
drop of a hat
I I would go to the UK at the drop of a
hat oh I think you guys know what this
means
Marco says it means immediately yep
you you got it if this means immediately
right away yes and I think well I’m not
exactly sure where this idiom originated
but if you imagine a long time ago a
lady dropping her hat and a gentleman
running over and picking up her hat and
giving it to her immediately we kind of
have this idea of helping someone
instantly so for you a lot of you said
me to my mother-in-law would help me at
the drop of a hat when I feel sick I
the doctor at the drop of a hat great oh
you’ve got it this is a beautiful way to
use this because you’re expanding your
vocabulary of course you could say my
mother-in-law would help me immediately
my mother-in-law would help me write
when I need it okay that’s great but you
are here because you want to expand your
vocabulary so let’s make sure that we’re
using this idiom in your sentence
I’ll Douglas says if it were possible I
would visit Vanessa and her baby at the
drop of a hat wouldn’t that be awesome
that would be great
Oh Fifi says my mom helps me to prepare
dinner at the drop of a hat so she
doesn’t sit back and let you prepare
dinner she’s always helping that’s
really nice friendly oh now it says I
don’t make important decisions at the
drop of a hat so you’re using this in a
negative sense something that you don’t
do immediately and that’s exactly right
we can definitely use this in a negative
way so I used it in a positive way she
would help me at the drop of a hat I
would go to the UK at the drop of a hat
and you used it in the negative way I
wouldn’t do something at the drop of a
hat so I want to ask you now let’s try
to use this in a negative way what is
something that you don’t do at the drop
of a hat maybe make an important
decision like Navjot said he said I
don’t make important decisions at the
drop of a hat I need some time to think
about it great you have to reflect make
sure it’s good decision oh we’ve got
some excellent sentences thank you for
sharing them I would help you with your
Japanese at the drop of a hat
thanks Misaki I appreciate it Oh Erin
says when rain when it starts to rain I
get my clothes from the clothesline at
the drop of a hat
instantly you
don’t want them to get wet oh I’ll make
dinner at the drop of the Hat excellent
let me write a negative sentence so that
you can see how how it’s used here
what’s something that I don’t do at the
drop of a hat oh how about oh I have a
good one I didn’t decide to have
children at the drop of a hat it was a
really important decision and my husband
and I have been married for almost seven
years so we thought about it for a long
time and talked about it for a long time
it wasn’t an instant decision I didn’t
decide
so using that negative here I didn’t
decide something at the drop of a hat I
didn’t decide to have children at the
drop of a hat it was a really important
decision so I took some time and thought
about it
Oh a lot of you said I don’t answer all
questions at the drop of a hat you take
some time and think about it
Oh Richard says I watched Vanessa’s live
lesson at the drop of a hat when the
notification shows up excellent I’m
really glad that the lessons are useful
to you and it’s fun to participate
quickly Oh Fifi says I don’t make
decisions about my life at the drop of a
hat so maybe for you we have a similar
mindset when there are important
decisions you take your time you think
about it I don’t make important
decisions at the drop of a hat they’re
too important to make quickly oh I don’t
go to work at the drop of a hat oh I see
some maybe
you if your boss calls you and says oh
we really need you to come to the office
today a little bit early maybe you don’t
do it immediately you say okay I’ll come
later and you come later not immediately
take your time muwah says I didn’t
decide to go to college at the drop of a
hat
I didn’t decide to go to college that’s
a big decision great way to use it in a
negative sense I don’t drive at the drop
of a hat
okay so maybe for you driving is a big
deal and you like to take it easy think
about it for a little bit so as you
might have noticed we use this idiom at
the end of both of these sentences and
there’s not a strict rule about using it
at the beginning or using it at the end
but as you can see it generally sounds
most natural at the end so you’re
probably going to hear in TV shows or
movies when people use this idiom you’ll
probably hear it at the end of a
sentence but we could put it at the
beginning at the drop of a hat my
mother-in-law would help me okay
it just means immediately it means the
same thing but typically at least for
myself I would use this at the end of a
sentence so if you are studying English
and that’s why you’re here I imagine
because you’re studying English I want
to know which english-speaking country
would you go to at the drop of a hat
ooh let’s dream big which
english-speaking country would you go to
maybe you’re already living in an
english-speaking country for me even
though English is my native language I
would go to Australia at the drop of a
hat if someone gave me a free plane
ticket of course I would go to Australia
at the drop of a hat maybe it’s because
I already live in the US and I’ve
already been to
the UK and Canada’s not too far away I
think I would still go to Canada at the
drop of a hat if I had the opportunity
but Australia and New Zealand are so far
away that I would go at the drop of a
hat if I had the opportunity so what
about for you oh gee ah go says I’d like
to go to Orlando mom it says if possible
I’d go to Canada at the drop of a hat a
lot of use of Canada I would go to
Canada Gabriel says I would go to New
Zealand at the drop of a hat ah Stella
you chose England I would go to England
at the drop of a hat Oh Alec says you
should know the fearless fluency club
learn it at the drop of a hat I’m so
glad that that course is useful to you
if you would like to join Alex in The
Fearless fluency Club you’re welcome to
do it and become my personal student
I’ll put a link in the description
Melvin says I want to go to the US and I
would go there at the drop of a hat so
here we’re talking about a hypothetical
situation it’s not a real plan at the
moment you don’t have airplane tickets
you’re not really planning to go to that
place so we’re more likely to use would
I would go to the u.s. at the drop of a
hat I would go to the UK at the drop of
a hat something that’s possible in the
future but you’re just dreaming about it
I would do this at the drop of a hat
Oh Gustavo we have the same idea I would
go to Australia at the drop of a hat
Bruno - if I had money I would go to
Australia excellent
me too it’s a pretty far far away place
so it’s pretty expensive but you know
what I’m sure it’s completely worth it
it would be amazing always Ella says I’d
like to go to Asheville at the top of
that great well I hope you would enjoy
it the sun’s coming out so now it’s much
better
well thank you everyone for using this
idiom in so many different ways before
we go let’s say a full sentence together
because it’s useful to write sentences
but it’s also important to speak out
loud exercise those pronunciation
muscles so what I recommend is if you’re
in a private place quiet place excellent
if you’re not go to a place that’s a
little more quiet somewhere that you
feel comfortable and we’re going to say
one sentence using this idiom a couple
times and I’m not going to write it down
on my clipboard what I want is I want
you to listen to the sentence and write
it in the chat box so it’s kind of like
a dictation practice see if you can hear
each word in the sentence and then we’re
going to say it together are you ready
let’s say a sentence about English how
about I would visit an english-speaking
country at the drop of a hat it means
I’m not scared to go to an
english-speaking country because I’m
really excited about it it would be
awesome I want to practice speaking
English I would visit an
english-speaking country at the drop of
a hat if if Vanessa gave me an airplane
ticket I would do it at the drop of a
hat let’s say the sentence together I
would visit an english-speaking country
at the drop of a hat I would visit an
english-speaking country at the drop of
a hat let’s say it slowly thank you for
those of you who are writing this
sentence down excellent let’s say it
slowly so you can see my mouth and kind
of imitate that pronunciation and then
we’ll say it faster are you ready to say
it slowly I would visit an
english-speaking country at the drop
of a hat let’s say it a little faster I
would visit an english-speaking country
at the drop of a hat I would visit an
english-speaking country at the drop of
a hat beautiful thank you a Gustavo
Abdullah Marco aleem Thiago hello thank
you everyone for writing this sentence
down and hopefully saying it out loud I
want you to exercise some pronunciation
muscles don’t just be passive be active
so thank you everyone for using this
idiom and I hope that in your English
conversations you’ll hear this as you’re
watching movies as you’re interacting
with English speakers I hope you’re
gonna hear this idiom and you’ll feel
more comfortable understanding it and
hopefully now using it yourself so if
you’re talking about travel with one of
your foreign friends or english-speaking
friends definitely use this idiom you
could say ah I would visit Australia at
the drop of a hat
woo if they’re an English Learner as
well maybe they don’t know this idiom
and you can teach it to them or if
they’re a native speaker they’ll be
quite impressed so make sure that you
use this and thanks so much for
practicing together with me I really
appreciate it if you feel like ink you
in Q says no Vanessa don’t go well I
have some good news first of all there
are a lot of live lessons on my youtube
channel there the recording the replay
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expressions that you can continue to
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beautiful day I hope that you are having
an enjoyable Tuesday thanks so much I’ll
see you again I hope that you’ll join me
again at the drop of a hat see you later
everyone bye