Learn English Expressions: What are binomials?

In this lesson, you’ll learn eight fun English expressions that will make your speech more interesting. First and foremost, I’ll teach you what binomials are. Next, you’ll learn two different types of binomials. These will help you to speak and understand English. Learning expressions is part and parcel of learning a language. Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you can keep learning. Your English will improve by leaps and bounds! TRANSCRIPT [Sings] By no means, binomial -- hi. James, from EngVid. Today’s lesson is going to be on expressions. Well, I want to do something on expressions. And it’s rather interesting that these expressions are different. You’ll notice number one, all the expressions I have here are joined by a conjunction. A conjunction is usually “and“, “but“, or “or“. And a conjunction puts two things together. You’ll also notice that there are two different types of them. There are sound patterns, and synonyms. And the third thing that we have to do, too -- it’s a lesson on “two“ it seems, right? These patterns are sometimes called “binomials“. And you’re probably going “bi what?“ I don’t blame you. But to make it easy, remember I’ve been speaking about two? “Bi“ means “two“ in English. “Bicycle“, right? “Bifocals“. “Nomial“ just means “name“. “Name“, right? So “name“ or -- I should say, “word“. So basically, a binomial is two words. And what we’re going to work on today is, well, expressions with two words. Now, in English, there are a couple of them. There are actually four, but I’m only going to do two today. We have -- the first one I’m going to work on is sound patterns. “Sound patterns“ means when you say it, they kind of sound similar. “Odds and ends“, “prim and proper“, “wine and dine“, “part and parcel“. They kind of rhyme a little bit, or they have, you know, a similar type of sound. So a lot of our sound patterns and binomials, they do have a meaning, and I’m going to explain four for you today so you can make your vocabulary or your expression vocabulary larger. All right? So let’s do the first one. “Odds and ends“. What are “odds and ends“? “Odd“ means “strange“. “End“ means “finish“. Not in this case. “Odds and ends“ means small, unimportant things. So if I ask Mr. E, “Mr. E, can you move the big boxes, and I’ll move the odds and ends later?“ It means -- I mean, what is this stuff? Just stuff. Just move this stuff later. It’s odds and ends. It’s odd stuff. It doesn’t have a pattern it fits into. Not important. Odds and ends, right? Now, I like this one. You have to be -- I’ve got it here again. I’m going to do it if I can. In England, “prim and proper“. “Prim and proper“. It means “fancy and fussy“. Fancy and fussy. Fancy as in, you know, the British like to speak like this. And “fussy“ means being very particular about something. So when you say someone is “prim and proper“, their shirts will be just -- their shirts will be proper; they will stand with a certain posture like they’ve got a stick up their bum bum; and they will walk like this and talk like this. “Prim and proper.“ They will not use contractions like “don’t“ and “can’t“. That’s not proper. Okay? So if someone says you need to be “prim and proper“, they mean you need to be somewhat serious, and you know, do not use those contractions, and act properly. All right? “Prim and proper“. A little bit fussy, a little particular, a little snooty, snobby. All right? Yeah. Okay, what about “wine and dine“? Well, you can wine and dine E and I anytime you wish. Just come to my house -- no. Take me to a fancy restaurant. “Wine and dine.“ Just think of it this way: “Wine“ -- you know you go to a nice restaurant, and “dine“ means to eat. When you “wine and dine“ someone, it means to entertain. “Come to my place, I’ll wine and dine you. I’ll entertain you.“ Simple, right? But it’s got that rhyming thing, and it’s a little nicer. It rolls off the tongue. All right? And how about this: “part and parcel“. It means “belong to“. What? Well, the word “parcel“ means a “package“. A “part“ means -- well, you know what “part“ means. There are four pieces; each is a “part“. So it’s part of a package. Let’s do this, okay? So part of a package. So here’s a parcel. I’m not exactly the best drawer, right? It’s a box. You get a parcel in the mail, yeah? Well, this is a part of that. So when you say “part and parcel“, it means it belongs to that. Cool enough, yeah?