Hello, everybody. My name is Coach Shane.
And welcome to Easy English Expressions.
You and me every day.
Come on. Let's master English.
English. Hello everybody, welcome back to Daily Easy English Expression, the podcast. Today, it's a long expression, listen carefully to nip it in the bud.
Nip it in the bud. You need to nip it in the bud, we need to nip it in in the bud.
Let's nip it in the bud.
What? To nip N -I -P, that means to cut.
To nip it. What is it?
In the bud B -U -D. What's a bud?
Well it's springtime and right now on many trees and many flowers you will see buds b u d well plural b u d s buds are new flowers new growth to nip means to cut to nip it in the bud this is a great expression and it means to stop a bad thing, like a bad habit, before it grows.
To stop something bad before it becomes really bad.
Wow, the easiest example would be smoking.
That's right. So how many of you smoke?
I know there are a couple of you, maybe hundreds of you, that smoke.
How many of you have been smoking for less than a year?
Okay. You guys, if you have been smoking for less than a year, now is the time to do your best to quit.
You can still nip it in the bud.
Yes, you might think you are addicted already to smoking, but believe me.
If you can quit now, you're saving leaving yourself so much stress in the future.
It's much harder the more you smoke.
If you just started smoking, please try to stop.
Nip it in the bud. Don't do it anymore.
Be good to yourself.
Save yourself some money.
Be good to your friends and neighbors.
Oh yeah, it's time to nip it in the bud.
We can use this expression in many different situations.
I'll give you another example after you listen to the dialog.
Oh ho ho, I think I'm gonna get that caramel macchiato.
That was really good yesterday.
No, you better nip that in the bud.
Why? You get addicted, all that sugar, stay away or you'll get fat.
Great example, yeah there's a coffee called caramel, some people say caramel, caramel macchiato, It's a really nice coffee.
It's some espresso.
Lots of milk. Lots of caramel or caramel.
Both pronunciations.
We use them in America.
Oh, it's very sweet.
There are so many calories.
It's really delicious.
And if you start drinking caramel macchiato, you might get addicted.
It becomes a daily habit.
And all that sugar, oh boy, you will get fat.
so stop if you only had it once yesterday and you're thinking about it again today no no no stop nip it in the bud nip that in the bud stop it before it becomes terrible and then you start getting fat and you wonder why am I getting fat uh -huh caramel macchiato that's why another Another great example, when I was young, oh gosh, I must've been maybe four years old?
Yeah. I don't know what happened, but I think I saw a guy driving really bad, and I was watching, you know, my dad was driving, and I was looking over my dad's shoulder, and I saw the bad driver, and I said something like, oh shit.
Okay, shit is a really bad word. in America it's a bad word in my family SHIT is a bad word you shouldn't say SHIT it's bad so my dad was like what what did you say oh my dad got really angry at me and and he yelled at me and he took away my toy for all night I couldn't play with my toy and the reason he did that was he wanted to nip it in the bud.
If he laughed and actually he told me recently that when he heard me say that he wanted to laugh so much, but he said if he laughed at that time then I would probably think it was cute and I would probably use that word much much more.
Instead, my dad yelled at me.
He kinda scared me, but by doing that, he nipped that word in the bud.
I never said that word for the next, I dunno, what was I?
If I was four years old, for the next 14 years, I never said that word. And even to this day, I still don't use that word in front of my mom and dad.
It's a bad word. So, to be honest, yes, I use it with my friends, but in front of my mom and dad, no, never.
They nipped that in the bud.
They stopped me from saying that bad word before it became a habit.
So can you think of anything that you have nipped in the bud, N -I -P -P -E -D?
Or did you recently start something that's not so good?
It might make you fat it might make you sick it might well Let's say for example suddenly these days you're going to bed late Yeah, stop it.
It's a bad habit try going to bed earlier.
Nip it in the bud It's a great expression.
Nip it in the bud See if you can leave me an example practice the dialogue two more times have a fantastic day and together let's master English Oh ho ho, I think I'm going to get that caramel macchiato!
That was really good yesterday!
No, you better nip that in the bud!
Why?! You'll get addicted!
All that sugar, stay away or you'll get fat!
Oh ho ho, I think I'm going to get that caramel macchiato!
That was really good yesterday!
No, you better nip that in the bud!
Why?! You'll get addicted.
All that sugar. Stay away, or you'll get fat.
