Chip off the old block | English Language: American Idioms

In this video, Patrick discusses a different use for the word, "old", and explains the idiom, "chip off the old block".

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TRANSCRIPT: Hi Everybody. It's nice to see you again. You know, students who know me or who have taken classes with me know that I always bring out my laptop for various reasons when we are in class. Now, all of the classrooms have computers, but sometimes I'll bring out my laptop because I want to walk around with it, show a picture, or something like that. So I've got it in my bag and I usually say, "Hey, you guys, give me a second... let me 'get out my old laptop'."

"Let me get out my old laptop."

Now. I want to talk about the word "old" in that sentence, because, what I want to explain to you today, it comes into play. When I say, "let me get out my old laptop," even though my laptop is old - it's 3 years old and I need a new one - but the students are as familiar with the laptop as they are with me, really. They are used to seeing it. So when I say, "Let me get out the old laptop," or "let me get out my old laptop," it means, to say, let's bring out that thing that we all know about. We're not suggesting that it's OLD. Sometimes "old" means "familiar".

Now. What I really want to talk to you about to day is CHIPS.

What's the first thing you think about when you think of chips? Potato chips? It's the first thing I think about. There are a lot of great idioms that have to do with the word, "chips". What is a potato chip? A potato chip is a small part of a potato, right?

So now I want you think about that. It's a small part of something else: potato chips, poker chips, wood chips. I want you to think about a block of wood or a block of stone. A block, like this thing, okay?

Now. Imagine, you take a little piece of this block, right? A little piece of something like that, we call a "chip". There's an idiom that we use a lot called, "chip off the old block." It's a noun phrase, and what it means, is... let me just show you. Let me give you a sentence. "He is a chip off the old block." I want you to imagine a father - this is the father, he's got glasses and mustache - and he has a little son - he's a baby but the baby's has got red hair. Just like the father. The baby looks just like the father. We can imagine him in 20 years with the little glasses and mustache just like his father. And when we see the little boy who looks just like his father, we say, "he's a chip off the old block!" He looks exactly like where he came from.

I keep saying "he" when I use "chip off the old block," because, ladies and gentlemen, a "chip off the old block" is commonly used for the son of the father. I've got some ideas why but it's mostly men who use that about their sons or people comparing sons their men [fathers] because there is something similar about how they look or about how they behave. Let me give you another example.

Let's say, before this sentence - let's keep this sentence. The father might say - the father finds out that his son got an "A" on his test. And now the father is talking to his friends at work and he says, "Well, my son got another 'A' on his test. Of course, he did! He's a chip off the old block!" And what the father is really saying is, "my son is just like me." The father is taking pride and maybe even a little credit for what his son is doing.

"Well, yes. He's a chip off the old block!" The father feels smart, too. And that's the way fathers use it a lot of time. So, can mothers use it? Sometimes. Imagine the same scenario where the son failed the test. And now the mother is talking to the father and she says, "Well, of course he failed the test. He doesn't study. He's out until 11 o'clock every night when he should be home working on his homework! He's a chip off the old block!"

What the mother is really saying is, "the son is just like you, father."

Ladies and Gentlemen, there are many idioms about chips. I want to talk about more of them. So, if you liked this video please click LIKE down there, will you please? And tell other people about the different videos at SOLEX College. Please "like" us on Facebook. Not only SOLEX College, but also, "Learn English with SOLEX College" - it's an amazing page that our teachers contribute to with new lessons every [week]. It's a pleasure to see you again! Have a wonderful day.

Видео Chip off the old block | English Language: American Idioms канала Learn English with Solexian