Hello everybody, my name is Coach Shane and welcome to Easy English Expressions.
Come on, let's master English!
Hello everybody, how you doing?
Welcome back to the Daily Easy English Expression, the podcast number 1163.
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And you can listen to that and actually watch the videos and actually read the script of the Let's Master English podcast in my community.
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This is August of 2025.
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Get in there, okay?
The school community is LME.
S-K-O-O-L dot com slash L-M-E.
School dot com slash L-M-E.
One more time.
S-K-O-O-L dot com slash L-M-E.
Okay?
Yeah, this is a great opportunity.
Please check it out.
Today's expression is great, too.
Caught me off guard.
Caught me off guard?
What?
Well, check out the dialogue first.
Think fast.
Whoa!
You dropped it.
You caught me off guard.
I do this to my boys.
Um, I'll have like a, a ball uh, a plastic ball or a rubber ball, or maybe a pillow or something like that.
Nothing too dangerous.
And, uh, I'll be looking at them, not moving, just holding the ball.
And then I'll look at my son, Mikey, and, uh, I'll say, Hey Mikey.
And he'll say, yes.
And I'll say, think fast.
And as soon as I say think fast, I throw the ball at him.
And he has to catch it if he's fast.
But my son is too young.
So he's not fast.
And he never catches it.
But he's going to learn.
I know he will.
Caught me off guard.
G u a r d.
You know what a guard is?
Right yeah, guard.
They protect things like a security guard.
If you live in an apartment building, you might have a security guard.
A bank has a security guard.
All the airports have guards, right?
They protect.
They watch the building.
They watch the people going in.
They keep us safe.
They are guards.
So if you are on guard, you, if you are on guard, you are watching things.
You're making sure your environment is safe.
So, for example, when I take my two boys outside for a walk, I have to be on guard, because my two boys are crazy.
They'll run in any direction.
And if it's like a busy street, oh, my God, they're that dumb.
I mean, they're smart, but they're that crazy.
They'll just run.
It's unpredictable.
They can run or fall.
They can fall on just like they can hurt themselves.
So I'm always on guard.
I'm always watching, making sure their environment is safe, making sure they are safe.
If I am off guard, well, then something bad could happen, right?
If you catch, C-A-T-C-H, if you catch me off guard...
That means you see me when I am not on guard and I should be on guard, but I'm not.
That's not good.
Don't catch me off guard.
So to catch someone off guard means to surprise them.
The person wasn't prepared for something.
Now, obviously, if I'm supposed to be watching my boys, I'm supposed to be on guard.
And if you catch me off guard, that's really bad.
I'm a bad father, right?
But sometimes...
You can just like my wife is sitting on the sofa and I throw my wife her phone and I say oh, here's your phone.
And I throw it to her, but I don't prepare her.
She's going to get angry at me for throwing the phone at her when she wasn't surprised.
I caught her off guard. she wasn't prepared.
She was surprised.
And in that case, my wife will get angry.
My two boys cannot get angry.
When I throw a ball at them, think fast, they can't get angry because they're my little boys.
But my wife absolutely can get angry.
To catch me off guard, To surprise somebody.
Sometimes it's okay.
Sometimes it's funny.
But sometimes it's not funny.
Sometimes it's not good.
Does that make sense?
This is a great expression.
And if you listen to a lot of podcasts or watch TV shows or movies, you will hear this expression.
And I hope that you catch its nuance, catch its meaning, okay?
Now, listening to my EQ podcast is a fantastic way to build your English skills.
But the best way to build your English skills is to...
Be in an environment where you see English being used.
To be able to use it yourself.
To see somebody use the expression caught me off guard.
And then for you to be able to use it in a situation.
This is the best way to learn English.
It's the fastest way.
And I invite you to study with me.
I would love for you guys to study with me so that you can learn expressions like this.
So I have a special offer right now.
I'm going to send you my newest DDM assignment for free.
It's DDM 995.
We talked about the weather. the weather.
It's been so hot.
This is August of 2025.
All around the world, it's been so hot.
Europe just cooking.
Asia just cooking.
Right now in the U.S., it's so hot.
It's really bad.
So it's an excellent DDM assignment with so many great things to learn.
This is going to give you a english, being used to be in a situation where you can use it yourself.
Well, that's my classes, so you're not actually in my classes, but i'm going to give you this lesson so you can get a feel for it.
Okay, would you like that?
Yeah, that's great.
Then please send an email.
Send an email to contact at letsmasterenglishcom.
Contact C-O-N-T-A-C-T at letsmasterenglish.com and just say, hey, please send me DDM 995 for free.
That's your subject line, okay?
And we will do that.
Yeah, we will do that.
So it's my gift to you.
I want you to get into English, not just listening to podcasts, which is fun, but get serious too.
All right.
Let's check out that dialogue two more times.
And together, let's master English.
Think fast.
Whoa.
You dropped it.
You caught me off guard.
Think fast.
Whoa.
You dropped it.
You caught me off guard.
