Bob's Short English Lessons Learn the English Phrases IT'S NOT SET IN STONE and STICKS AND STONES...
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IT'S NOT SET IN STONE and STICKS AND STONES
In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, it's not set in stone. If something isn't set in stone, it means it might not happen. Maybe you're making plans for something, but all the details aren't in yet. So you're not even sure you're going to do the thing that you are planning. You would tell people that it's not set in stone. We also sometimes say, it's not written in stone or it's not etched in stone. And we almost always use this phrase in the negative. I can't think of any time where I've said something is set in stone. I almost always say something is not set in stone. So maybe you're thinking of having a party, but you're not 100% sure you want to have one. You might say to your friends, hey, I'm thinking of having a party this weekend, but it's not set in stone. That means it might happen, it might not happen. It's not permanent. The decision hasn't been made yet as to whether it happens or not.
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The second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, sticks and stones. And this is a shorter version of a phrase that kids say, which is sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. This is a phrase I used the other day because someone said, do you ever get negative comments on your YouTube channel? And I was like, wow, you know, sticks and stones. And what that means is that people do sometimes leave negative comments, believe it or not, sometimes I get really negative comments and I just delete them. I always, I think to myself, sticks and stones and then the whole rest of the little nursery rhyme. Words, negative comments do hurt a little bit, but I'm glad I'm older. I'm glad I'm an older YouTuber. I think I have a thick skin at this point in my life.
Anyways, to review, when you say it's not set in stone, or it's not written in stone, or it's not etched in stone, it means that the plan is just an idea and it's not permanent at this point. And when you say sticks and stones, you're basically saying yes, sometimes people say negative things, people say mean things, but you don't let them affect you. Words do hurt sometimes though. I think when you're younger, it's a lot more challenging, right?
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Franco The Tutor and Franco says, first comment, i'm a teacher from Peru, thanks for being an inspiration to me. And then a little smiley face. And my response was, hey, it's no problem, Franco, I love doing it, I hope your teaching is going well, have a great day.
So that's an example of a really nice comment. I mostly get really nice comments on my videos and I appreciate them. But going back to the sticks and stones thing, I was a little surprised when I first started doing YouTube, I almost tripped there, how many people would leave negative comments. And I think this is my opinion of negative comments. I feel bad for the person who's leaving the comment. I feel like that person is not having a good day and they're having a such bad day that they just wanted to leave mean comments on someone's YouTube channel. I don't know why people do that. It doesn't really help the world to leave mean negative comments.