Learn the English Phrases OUT OF HAND and I CAN COUNT ON ONE HAND

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases OUT OF HAND and I CAN COUNT ON ONE HAND

In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase out of hand. When we say that things have gotten out of hand or that things might get out of hand, we're talking about things getting out of control. We're talking about things not going well. A great example of this would be sometimes university students will have a party and they'll invite about 10 people over and sometimes 200 people will show up. We would say that the party is getting out of hand. We would say that when that many people show up, things can get out of hand. And what we mean by that is things are definitely not in control. I mean, a party with five or 10 people is one thing, a party with 200 people can quickly get out of hand. It can quickly become something that's no longer fun for anybody who's there.

The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase I can count on one hand. Sometimes in English, when we're talking about things we've done in life, and if we've not done it very much, we might say, you know, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been skiing, or I can count on one hand the number of times that I've gone to a movie and didn't like it 'cause I normally like movies. So, in English, when we say that we can count something on one hand, it means that it's something that we probably only did twice, maybe three times. You could also say something like this, I can count on one hand the number of times I've made soup. So you can always use this to talk about anything that goes somewhere between the number two and five, okay. So if it's more than five, you obviously can't count it on one hand and we don't ever say I can count on two hands, it's always on one hand. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen elephants in real life, so, there you go, there's another example.

Again just to review when something is out of hand or when something gets out of hand, it means it is no longer under control. Sometimes things get out of hand and people need to call the police, that's how you restore order sometimes. And if you say that you can count on one hand the number of times you've done something, it means you've done it once, maybe twice, maybe three times, maybe five times, definitely not six.

But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Prankitt, and this is a comment from the video where I taught you the English phrase keeping up with the Joneses and Prankitt says this, "My grandma said, "forget about keeping up with the Joneses. "The people who matter in your life will respect "and love you because of who you are, "not because of what you've got "or what sort of car you drive." And my response to that was this, "Your grandma said a very wise thing in my opinion. "At the end of the day, it isn't the fancy car you drive "that people will remember. "It's how you treated them and how you made them feel." I think that this is very, very true in life, I think it is nice to have nice things, I won't say it's not but when I think about all of the good memories I have in life, most of my good memories have nothing to do with things and have everything to do with time that I spent with certain people, so Prankitt, thank you so much for that comment and that was a very wise thing that your grandma said for sure.

Transcript

In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase out of hand. When we say that things have gotten out of hand or that things might get out of hand, we're talking about things getting out of control. We're talking about things not going well. A great example of this would be sometimes university students will have a party and they'll invite about 10 people over and sometimes 200 people will show up. We would say that the party is getting out of hand. We would say that when that many people show up, things can get out of hand. And what we mean by that is things are definitely not in control. I mean, a party with five or 10 people is one thing, a party with 200 people can quickly get out of hand. It can quickly become something that's no longer fun for anybody who's there.

The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase I can count on one hand. Sometimes in English, when we're talking about things we've done in life, and if we've not done it very much, we might say, you know, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been skiing, or I can count on one hand the number of times that I've gone to a movie and didn't like it 'cause I normally like movies. So, in English, when we say that we can count something on one hand, it means that it's something that we probably only did twice, maybe three times. You could also say something like this, I can count on one hand the number of times I've made soup. So you can always use this to talk about anything that goes somewhere between the number two and five, okay. So if it's more than five, you obviously can't count it on one hand and we don't ever say I can count on two hands, it's always on one hand. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen elephants in real life, so, there you go, there's another example.

Again just to review when something is out of hand or when something gets out of hand, it means it is no longer under control. Sometimes things get out of hand and people need to call the police, that's how you restore order sometimes. And if you say that you can count on one hand the number of times you've done something, it means you've done it once, maybe twice, maybe three times, maybe five times, definitely not six.

But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Prankitt, and this is a comment from the video where I taught you the English phrase keeping up with the Joneses and Prankitt says this, "My grandma said, "forget about keeping up with the Joneses. "The people who matter in your life will respect "and love you because of who you are, "not because of what you've got "or what sort of car you drive." And my response to that was this, "Your grandma said a very wise thing in my opinion. "At the end of the day, it isn't the fancy car you drive "that people will remember. "It's how you treated them and how you made them feel." I think that this is very, very true in life, I think it is nice to have nice things, I won't say it's not but when I think about all of the good memories I have in life, most of my good memories have nothing to do with things and have everything to do with time that I spent with certain people, so Prankitt, thank you so much for that comment and that was a very wise thing that your grandma said for sure.

And just to go on a little bit, I do, like I said, in my last video think that the best things in life I think are free. Today we went for a hike with our kids. A lot of times when I'm enjoying myself in life, it's because I'm in nature or I'm going for a walk or I'm doing something which costs me nothing but it's totally free and it's just totally the best thing that day, so I'm not saying things are bad, it is nice to own things and to have nice things, but I do think the best things in life are free.