Hello, this is Hyunjung from Seoul, and you're listening to Everybody ESL.
Welcome to Episode 451 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English or just learn more English.
My name is Ben and I have a mini episode for you today where I am going to teach you about one English topic.
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Okay, let's get on with this mini-episode.
In this episode, I am going to teach you a useful phrase.
The phrase is, one for the books.
One for the books.
That's O-N-E-F-O-R-T-H-E-B-O-O-K-S.
One for the books.
What does this phrase mean?
When do we use it?
We use one for the books.
When we want to say that something is remarkable, or unbelievable, or historic in some way.
If something especially, some event, is very, very interesting noteworthy remarkable special, you can refer to it as one for the books.
Maybe this comes from the idea of history books, books that record all of the very important events that happen.
Or maybe it comes from the idea of a book of records, that is, examples of things that are the most of something, the biggest, the fastest, the best in some way.
I'm not exactly sure where this phrase comes from, but the important thing is that you know what it means and how to use it.
How do we use this phrase?
We usually use it as a part of this sentence.
That is one for the books.
Or it is one for the books.
Or you could also say that or it was one for the books.
Here is an example of a situation where you might hear someone use the phrase, one for the books.
Imagine that two older people are sitting and talking about some huge snowstorm, a snowstorm that happened many years ago.
They remember it from their childhood.
And in this storm, so much snow fell.
It was just amazing.
One of these people might say, that snowstorm was one for the books.
That snowstorm was one for the books.
It was a remarkable or historic or very unusual or memorable or wonderful thing.
Here's another example to show how we use this phrase.
Imagine that there is a student who is not a very good student.
He doesn't study, he doesn't work hard, and he does not get good grades.
Now let's say that on this one very important exam, that same student did very well.
In fact, he had the highest score in the school.
This is a very strange thing.
This is remarkable.
No one thought that student could get a grade like that.
He was never a good student before, but now, just look, he did very well.
Someone could say about this strange event, that is one for the books.
In other words, that student's performance on the exam is really remarkable.
It's historic.
That is something that everyone will remember.
It's one for the books.
When we say that something is or was one for the books, we usually use it in a positive way, but not always.
You could think that something negative was so amazing or strange or remarkable that it also is one for the books.
I said that we usually use this phrase when we are talking about events, but not always.
You could also use it to refer to things or even people.
And that is one for the books, a useful and interesting phrase that I think you should know.
This is the end of episode 451 of Everybody ESL.
Remember if you have questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes.
The same way, Hyunjung recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode.
Send an email to everybodyesl at gmailcom.
I'll be back soon with a new episode.
And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning.
I'll see you soon.
Goodbye.
