"I'm all ears"?

Hi. James from engVid.

Today I'm going to use "all" in phrases and idioms, and teach you how you can use them

in common speech.

And I'm going to try and put them into sections that you will find most useful to help you

remember.

E writes...

Is saying right now: "He's all ears", and I bet you want to know what that means.

I'll explain that to you, and I have another seven other idioms.

Let's go to the board.

So, E's all ears.

Before we even start, let's talk about: What is "all"?

What does it mean?

Well, generally, it means as much as possible, or it can mean complete or whole.

The whole thing; all thing; complete.

Excuse me.

Or the parts of it.

Now, we understand that, what does an "idiom" mean?

An "idiom" is basically...

It could be a phrase or a clause, but it's a bunch of words that are together that when

you hear them, they don't actually make sense by themselves; but if you have the history

behind it, you get it.

One of my favourite ones to tell people is: "It's raining cats and dogs."

Clearly, dogs and cats don't fall from the sky, so you have to say: "What does that mean?"

Well, it means it's a lot of rain.

Okay?

So, there's a lot of rain coming down.

Now, it has an ancient...

Not ancient roots.

From, like 1600/1700s that there would be so much water coming down that dogs and cats

might, like, float away or, you know, be swimming down the streets, so that's: "It's raining

cats and dogs."

What does that have to do with what we're doing now?

Well, today, we want to look at "all" and how "all" can be used in different idioms

to have different meanings.

You probably won't know what they mean right away; but by the time I'm done, it shouldn't

be a problem.

So, let's look at the number one, the first one: I want to talk about emotional states.

So, it's a mental state or an emotional state; how you think or feel.

So, number one is: "It's all in your head."

That means imaginary; it's not real.

If something's all in your head, you go: "Oh, I think I have, like", I don't know.

I...

I don't want to say it because I don't want to give myself a disease.

People might say: "Oh, I think I'm growing four heads."

It's like: "It's all in your head.

It's your imagination.

It's not real.

It's not happening.

It's not going to happen."

Okay?

Or: "I think...

Oh, I think Beyoncé is going to leave her husband and meet me, because she was on a

TV program and she winked twice.

That was her code that she wants me."

It's in my head; it's not going to happen.

Okay?

Your friends will say: "You're crazy.

It's not happening."

What's another one?

We'll go down to number two.

Oh, sorry.

Before we go here, we'll go here: "All shook up".

Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm all shook up.

Those of you who like Elvis, that's an Elvis song: "All Shook Up".

What does "all shook up" mean?

Well, it's to shake...

"Shake" means to...

To disturb something.

In this case, to make it extremely excited.

You could be extremely excited if you win the lottery.

If I won 20 million dollars, I'd be all shook up, I'd be like: "What am I going to do?

I...

I...

I...

How...?

How do I get...?"

I'm excited.

I can also be very worried or disturbed when I'm all shook up.

If you get very bad news...

My baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, they lost again - I'm all shook up; I'm emotionally

disturbed.

Okay?

And you can be worried as well.

So that's emotional state with "all".

"All in your head".

Remember we said completely?

It's completely in your head.

"You're all shook up", it means as much as possible you've been disturbed.

Let's look to the other ones.

So, we talked about mental state, your emotional state; let's look at knowledge - how much

you can know.

All right?

So, if "somebody's not all there", you're not all there, it means it's not working properly.

Imagine if you had a car with four wheels, but only three tires.

They're not all there; something's missing.

You need one more tire to make four tires, four wheels.

Makes sense.

When somebody's not all there, something's wrong in the cabeza.

In the head, there's something missing.

Maybe half a brain.

You know?

You got to be careful.

If somebody goes: "Hey, watch out for E. He's not all there", it means he could be crazy.

Okay?

He could be not focused on the work.

And the other one, sometimes people say it, like: "That guy's not all there."

You stupid, you's very stupid.

Okay?

Because you only have half a brain so you can't think like other people.

Sorry, that just seems mean, but in case people say it, that's what they mean.

Now, the next thing about knowledge we're going to talk about is this one.

Okay?

If somebody says: "For all I know", it means: "For the knowledge that I have currently,

right now at this moment, all the information I have, this is what I believe will happen."

So I'm talking about knowledge, and it's like...

It's, like, my opinion on something that might happen.

So: "For all I know, that girl's going to get married to somebody else because she left me."

What do I know?

She left me, so then I'm guessing: "For all I know, based on my information of she left

me, she might get married."

Doesn't mean it's true; it's kind of my opinion based on what I know now.

"For all I know, this might be a great opportunity."

It means: All the information I have says it, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's true.

Usually when people say: "For all I know", it's used in a negative sense.

People don't go: "For all I know I could be rich."

Not usually.

It's usually negative.

"For all I know, that guy should be killed."

Okay?

Or will be killed.

"Know-it-all".

Hmm, that seems pretty good, right?

You're a know-it-all.

Actually, no.

A "know-it-all", and I did the short version, but I'll give you the long version to know

what a know-it-all is.

A "know-it-all" is someone who seems to have a lot of knowledge, tells everybody that they

have all the knowledge, and it irritates everybody that they have so much knowledge because not

everybody thinks they have all the knowledge that they have.

Do you want me to repeat that?

I'm not going to because I don't know how to say all of that again.

That is what a know-it-all is.

It's somebody who thinks they know all the answers, and they make sure they let everybody

else know this, but not everybody agrees.

So, if someone calls you a "know-it-all", it's not a compliment.

So, if you're like...

I go: "Hey, you're a know-it-all", you go: "Yes, it's true; I know everything.

That's what all the people say to me, I'm a know-it-all because I know all" - they're

insulting you.

It's something we don't like.

Okay?

So, we've gone from mental state, emotionally, imagining things, and being, you know, excited

or worried about something, to amount of knowledge you have.

And let's see how this would play into work as we shift over her, and we talk about work

and "all".

Okay?

Now, when "somebody pulls an all-nighter", it means to go from the evening, say about

5 o'clock, all the way through the night to the next day.

It means to continually work through the night; not to stop.

Usually you do this in high-...

Not high school.

Yeah, high school and university.

You've got an essay to do, it's due the next day, you're like: "I'm never going to get

this done.

I've got to pull an all-nighter."

That's when you get a Red Bull or a coffee, you drink it, and you work all night to the

next day.

Cool?

Now, if something was an "all-nighter", it means it took all night.

So if you went to a party that was an all-nighter, the party didn't end at 2 o'clock in the morning;

it went from 5, 6, 7, it went on into the next day into the morning; it was an all-nighter.

Okay?

So, it's all night.

So, we've got "night".

Let's go to the opposite of "night", which is "day".

Okay?

"It's all in a day's work".

What does it mean: "It's all in a day's work"?

I heard one person say: "'All in a day's work' means easy."

That's not quite correct.

So, if you ever see that person, you should think carefully what they're saying.

It means that there's a job that's a usual job in my work which is actually quite difficult

or unpleasant.

I don't...

You know, so anybody else would go: "Ugh".

So, when you're a garbageman, okay?

You pick up garbage - sometimes it has dirty nappies.

It means little babies have went poo-poo and pee-pee in this, and you got to pick it up

and throw it in the truck.

And I go: "Oh, geez, oh, god, man.

Oh!

I'd kill myself if I had to do that."

You go: "Hey, dude.

It's all in a day's work.

It's just what I do."

It doesn't mean it's easy; it means it's a regular task or a regular thing I got to do

every day.

It's just in my day.

Okay?

Sometimes you have a stupid boss.

Yeah, you got a stupid boss and you got to look at the boss every day, and you go: "[Laughs]

It's all in a day's work.

It's all in a day's work."

It's an unpleasant task or an unpleasant thing to do.

By the way, the word "task" means job.

It means something that you have to do.

Okay?

It's not: "I have a task" meaning I'm working for somebody, they're paying me.

"I have a task", it means I have some work that I must do.

Like, cleaning your dishes is a task.

Right?

It's not a job; it's a task.

You don't get paid to do it.

All right?

Cleaning your toilet is a task you have to do.

Well, we've got that out of the way.

I have one over here.

I couldn't fit it in-sorry-but it's up here: "Pull out all the stops".

Notice with an "all-nighter" we had to stay up all night to do the work.

"All in a day's work", it means: "Hey, this may not be a good thing or it may be difficult,

but it's part of the job; you just got to do it."

All right?

All is done in the day.

When "you pull out all the stops", this means to put your heart and your mind, everything

into something - everything.

You want to put everything in there to get a result.

Okay?

So: "I want to meet a pretty girl."

You know, she's like walking down the street, she's really cute and I want to meet her,

and I go: "Pull out all the stops, man.

I'm going to get my car clean.

My car.

Get my hair cut.

Get some new shoes.

Get some pants, got a shirt.