Hello, everybody. My name is Coach Shane and welcome to Easy English Expressions.
You and me every day.
Come on! Let's master English.
Hello, everybody. Everybody welcome back to daily easy English expression.
Oh yeah, the weekend is here again.
Well, when you say the weekend, what do you think of?
Do you think of no work, relaxing, sleeping late, meeting friends?
Well, yeah, for most of you, the weekend is here.
But for me, it's not the weekend per se.
that's today's expression something something something per se huh this is an adverb per se have you ever heard an American or a British person saying something something something per se hmm well it's a great expression so for me It's not the weekend per se and what that means is the normal person's idea of the weekend Well, that's not the same for me for me.
Actually my weekend is very busy I have my hangouts.
I have my live classes.
This is when I'm most busy my weekend is actually Monday.
Monday is my day off.
That's my free day.
So my weekend per se is Monday.
We could say Sunday and Monday.
Now some people, especially the Muslims and the Jewish people, their weekend is Friday Night, is Friday and Saturday.
The Christians Saturday, Sunday and Coach Shane Sunday and Monday.
So we all like the weekend but our weekend, per se, can be different.
How we think of the weekend, it can be different.
Now, the definition of per se is actually something like in itself or as such and this gets a little bit confusing.
So the best way to understand, per se, is by listening to examples.
So check out today's dialog, it should help.
Should I throw this away?
Oh, don't touch that t -shirt!
Why not? It's not worth anything.
It's a rag! Oh, it may not be valuable, per se, but it means a lot to me.
Great dialogue, and this is a true story.
For many people do you have a t -shirt, maybe it's very old, maybe there are some holes in it, maybe the quality of the t -shirt isn't that good, but maybe that t -shirt has a special meaning to you, maybe it was from your university days, maybe your brother gave it to you, maybe Maybe it's a special t -shirt.
So to you, it's valuable.
Now when we say valuable we think of money.
So it's not valuable per se, it's not valuable the way most people think, but to me it's valuable.
So let's go back to the weekend.
Saturday and Sunday is the weekend but my weekend per se is actually Sunday and Monday.
Most people think of the weekend as Saturday and Sunday but my weekend per se as most people would think is actually Sunday and Monday.
Is this making sense?
Let me give you two more examples.
How about the word disaster?
D -I -S -A -S -T -E -R Can you imagine a disaster?
What's an example of a disaster?
How about an earthquake?
Or a large fire? A disaster is something really terrible.
People might die. It's very, very, very horrible.
But what about this sentence?
Oh no! I failed my test!
It's a disaster !" Is it really a disaster?
No it's not really a disaster So we could say well, it's not a disaster per se But it is really terrible for you What most people think about as a disaster Your situation is not a disaster It's not a disaster per se, but it is a bad situation.
And have you ever heard this expression?
If you work hard, you will be successful.
But is that always true?
Some people work hard their whole life and maybe they're happy, but they're never rich like Bill Gates, many people think of success as becoming rich like Bill Gates.
So we could say this sentence..
Hard work per se does not guarantee success.
Hard work in and of itself, hard work by itself, is not enough to guarantee success.
Yes. You have to be lucky.
You have to know people.
You have to win the lottery.
That's the idea. So per say, per say is a very common word. Well, not super common, but you'll hear it probably two or three times a month if you listen to American TV shows, if you listen to the American news, or if you read American newspapers, you'll probably see it two or three times a month per se, P -E -R -S -E, it's used in America usually as an adverb, and it's a great word to get to know.
It's not an easy one, but what I want you to do is I want you to start paying attention start listening for it.
Maybe do some Google searches find other examples and the easiest way to find this example is just type per se comma but P E R SE those are two words comma beauty put that in quotation marks quotation per se comma but quotation, and then you'll find lots of examples on Google.
Okay, it's a great expression, but you need to practice it.
That's it, check out the dialogue two more times.
Have a great day and together let's master English.
Should I throw this away?
Oh, don't touch that t -shirt.
Why not? It's not worth anything, it's a rag.
Oh, it may not be valuable per se, but it means a lot to me.
Should I throw this away?
Ohhh, don't touch that t -shirt!
Why not? It's not worth anything.
It's a rag! Oh, it may not be valuable per se, but it means a lot to me.
