Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases "to catch a break" and "if you catch my drift"

TRANSCRIPT:

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to catch a break. When you catch a break, it means something has gone your way. Let's imagine that you're trying to buy tickets for an Ed Sheeran concert, and you know that the tickets are gonna sell out really quick.

But then you catch a break because your cousin calls you and says, hey, I got, six tickets for the Ed Sheeran concert, and I only need three of them. Do you want to buy the other three? So when you catch a break, it means something goes your way. Something goes, in a positive way when you thought it was not going to go well.

And by the way, the past tense is caught. Like, I caught a break. My cousin got tickets for the Ed Sheeran concert for me. By the way, that's just an example. I don't have tickets for the Ed Sheeran concert. The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, if you catch my drift.

This simply means if you understand what I'm saying, but usually kind of in a sly or funny way. If I was to say, I'm trying to think of an example here. If I was to say, I'm going to... Oh, this is rare.

I'm drawing a blank. By the way, do you know the phrase draw a blank when you can't think of an example? But I might say this. If I say to someone, I'm going to be sick tomorrow, if you catch my drift. Basically, what I'm saying is I'm not gonna be sick.

I'm just gonna take a day off work and say that I'm sick. So to review, to catch a break means to get lucky. It means to have something go your way. And if you catch my drift, means basically, if you understand what I'm saying, you see how I'm raising my eyebrows?

Like, that would be a good example, though, if a colleague said to me, I think I might be sick tomorrow if you catch my drift. They're basically saying they're not really sick, but they're gonna call in sick tomorrow. But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.

This comment is from Mahenina. I don't know how to pronounce your name. Sorry. Hey, Bob, I've been watching your videos for more than five years, but I have never sent you a comment. This is my first. You really do a good job. Thanks. And my reply, thank you for watching for so long and I'm glad you finally commented.

So that's very cool, Mahenina, thank you so much for leaving a comment. I love it when people leave comments. So this is a little bit of a trick here. You might be wondering, where is Bob? He's standing in front of this farmer's field.

What will be planted here in the future. But then if I do this, if I start to turn, you will see a little bit of, a vacant lot area. And then you'll see my car, but then you'll see a subdivision.

So I am on the outskirts of town. If you are a member on my larger channel, you know that I just talked about what outskirts are. Outskirts of a town are where the town borders on farmland or nature or something like that.

But what I did want to show you is this. It says, no dumping. Let's get a little bit closer. No dumping. But then if we look on the ground, we see old cigarette packs. Even over here in the weeds.

Earlier, I saw some garbage as I was walking around. Sometimes when I make videos, people talk about how beautiful Canada is. But it isn't all beautiful. Sorry, I have to get over this way really quick, before time runs out, so you can see that there is more junk.

I'm not sure what that is. I hope I didn't set off some kind of alarm by looking out here. If you look here as well, you'll see an old tire over there, and you'll see just a whole bunch of garbage. Not very nice.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little short English lesson. And I will see you next week with another one. And I'll figure out what that alarm is.

Bye.

In this English lesson, I’ll share with you a simple technique that can help you start thinking in English instead of translating from your native language. Many English learners ask how they can train their brain to think directly in English, and in this lesson I explain an easy method you can practice throughout your day.

You will learn six powerful sentence starters you can use anytime and anywhere: I need, I want, I love, I hate, I feel, and I think. By using these simple sentences while you go about your daily activities, you can slowly build the habit of thinking in English and improve your fluency naturally.

This technique is easy to practice in everyday places like when you wake up in the morning, while you’re at work, or even when you stop somewhere like a gas station. With a little practice each day, these small thoughts in English can help open the door to better conversations and greater confidence.

If you enjoy learning English with practical tips like this, don’t forget to subscribe, like the video, and leave a comment telling me where you practice thinking in English!

In this English lesson I will answer as many questions from you, the viewer, as I can in about an hours time. We'll start the English class at 10AM Eastern Standard Time, and you can submit questions to me as early as 5 minutes before.

During the lesson I'll respond live to your questions about the English language, my life, life in Canada, strategies for learning and more.