Learn the English Phrases "to give somebody the slip" and "to slip through your fingers"

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English expressions TO GIVE SOMEBODY THE SLIP and TO SLIP THROUGH YOUR FINGERS

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to give somebody the slip. If you give somebody the slip, it means you escape. It means for some reason, they were trying to catch you and you managed to get away. You will most likely hear this phrase, to give somebody the slip if you're watching a TV show and the police officers on the TV show are trying to catch a criminal, and sometimes that criminal will give them the slip, the criminal will simply disappear. They'll run down an alley, or they'll go a certain direction, or maybe they'll drive away really fast in their car and they'll give the police the slip. They'll just evade being captured, and they will escape.

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The second phrase I wanted to teach you today is to slip through your fingers. When something slips through your fingers, it means it was going to be something you would have, and now you don't have it anymore. It means something got away from you a little bit. And this can be something as simple as a job. Maybe you are looking to get a job somewhere, and it kind of slipped through your fingers. You applied for the job, and maybe they called you back to offer it to you and left a message, and you didn't get the message, and you forgot to call them back, and then it just kind of slipped through your fingers and it never happened. Maybe you were going to buy a car for really cheap from a relative, and then for some reason, you didn't communicate properly, and the whole deal just didn't happen. It kind of slipped through your fingers. So it means that something good that could have happened didn't happen. It just sort of went away. It's always a sad time when something like that happens.

But, hey, to review, to give somebody the slip means to escape from them. And to have something slip through your fingers means that you could have had it. But somehow it just. I'm putting my hand up because it's like when you have sand and the sand goes through your fingers, it's like that thing you wanted is the sand, and it just kind of went away. That would be sad.

Anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Ruslan. Thank you for the nice, sunny lesson, Teacher Bob. Such a beautiful landscape. It looks like the Shire from the Lord of the Rings. And my response... My response? Yeah, a little bit. No hobbits or wizards around here, though.

No. At least I haven't seen any hobbits or wizards. By the way, if you don't know what the Lord of the Rings is, the Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel series by J. R. R. Tolkien, and it also was made into some movies. But, yeah, it's certainly beautiful out here today. There's things like this. I'm sure if I was a hobbit, if I was a tiny person who lived under the earth in a little house, I would probably have plants like this outside. I would probably have big trees like this, full of leaves or like this one over here.

It's just gorgeous out here tonight, by the way. I'm out here in the evening. Normally I do these videos during the day, but I was out and about today. One of my kids is on the track and field team. So track and field is where you do the 100 meters dash or you do the long jump or triple jump where you throw the shot put. Actually, you don't throw the shot put. You put the shot put. But I think you know what I mean.

So Jen and I, after I was done work today, we went and watched my son participate. He did okay. He just was one place too low, though, to go on to the ne

Transcript

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to give somebody the slip. If you give somebody the slip, it means you escape. It means for some reason, they were trying to catch you and you managed to get away. You will most likely hear this phrase, to give somebody the slip if you're watching a TV show and the police officers on the TV show are trying to catch a criminal, and sometimes that criminal will give them the slip, the criminal will simply disappear. They'll run down an alley, or they'll go a certain direction, or maybe they'll drive away really fast in their car and they'll give the police the slip. They'll just evade being captured, and they will escape.

The second phrase I wanted to teach you today is to slip through your fingers. When something slips through your fingers, it means it was going to be something you would have, and now you don't have it anymore. It means something got away from you a little bit. And this can be something as simple as a job. Maybe you are looking to get a job somewhere, and it kind of slipped through your fingers. You applied for the job, and maybe they called you back to offer it to you and left a message, and you didn't get the message, and you forgot to call them back, and then it just kind of slipped through your fingers and it never happened. Maybe you were going to buy a car for really cheap from a relative, and then for some reason, you didn't communicate properly, and the whole deal just didn't happen. It kind of slipped through your fingers. So it means that something good that could have happened didn't happen. It just sort of went away. It's always a sad time when something like that happens.

But, hey, to review, to give somebody the slip means to escape from them. And to have something slip through your fingers means that you could have had it. But somehow it just. I'm putting my hand up because it's like when you have sand and the sand goes through your fingers, it's like that thing you wanted is the sand, and it just kind of went away. That would be sad.

Anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Ruslan. Thank you for the nice, sunny lesson, Teacher Bob. Such a beautiful landscape. It looks like the Shire from the Lord of the Rings. And my response... My response? Yeah, a little bit. No hobbits or wizards around here, though.

No. At least I haven't seen any hobbits or wizards. By the way, if you don't know what the Lord of the Rings is, the Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel series by J. R. R. Tolkien, and it also was made into some movies. But, yeah, it's certainly beautiful out here today. There's things like this. I'm sure if I was a hobbit, if I was a tiny person who lived under the earth in a little house, I would probably have plants like this outside. I would probably have big trees like this, full of leaves or like this one over here.

It's just gorgeous out here tonight, by the way. I'm out here in the evening. Normally I do these videos during the day, but I was out and about today. One of my kids is on the track and field team. So track and field is where you do the 100 meters dash or you do the long jump or triple jump where you throw the shot put. Actually, you don't throw the shot put. You put the shot put. But I think you know what I mean.

So Jen and I, after I was done work today, we went and watched my son participate. He did okay. He just was one place too low, though, to go on to the next level next week. So he kind of missed out by just a bit. It kind of slipped through his fingers. I guess he got fifth and you need fourth in order to go on. So next week there will be another track and field meet, but he didn't place high enough, so we feel bad for him. But he enjoyed his day and he jumped, I think a personal best.

That's pretty cool as well, but, so, yeah, I'm out here. It's evening. I think it's 07:00 p.m. This video might be coming out a little bit late on Friday. I might put it up in the morning instead of finishing it off tonight. But anyways, bright, sunny, beautiful day, but no wizards, no hobbits. Maybe someday. We'll see. Anyways, thanks for watching. I'll see you in a few days with another short English lesson. Bye.