Speaker 1: I was off work yesterday, so I decided to go
off the grid and spend a quiet day at a
little park which is totally off the beaten path. Well,
I was way off the mark because as soon as
I sat down, there were tons of mosquitoes flying around.
Let's discuss.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: Alrighty, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael here
from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
This is Happy English Podcast Episode seven thirty eight. Be off.
In this podcast English Lesson, I'm gonna show you eight
phrases that use b off. So first to see these
in context, let's check out this short story about a
woman named Jessica. Jessica was thrilled to be off from
work on Friday. She had been working NonStop for weeks,
so when her boss told her to take a day off,
she didn't hesitate. As she sat with a cup of
Joe at her favorite coffee shop, she thought about how
she was off to a flying start with her new project.
Her team had worked hard, and everything was finally coming together.
Just as she was taking a sip of coffee. Jessica's
phone rang. It was her coworker Tom. Hey Tom, what's up?
Speaker 3: Hey, Jess? I think we might have messed up the
numbers in the report. The boss isn't happy.
Speaker 1: Are you sure? I hope you're off base on this one.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately I'm not off the mark this time. But don't worry.
The boss said you're off the hook. He knows you've
been working extra hard, so he's not blaming you.
Speaker 1: Jessica thanked Tom and hung up the phone. She knew
she was lucky to be off the hook this time,
but it reminded her of how important it was to
double check everything. After the call, Jessica decided to enjoy
the rest of her day off. She turned off the
phone so she could be off the grid and headed
to a quiet park to relax. Once she was off
the beaten path, she spent the afternoon reading and soaking
in the peace and quiet, far away from work. Stress.
And now. Let's have a look at the key vocabulary
from this lesson. The first one is to be off
from work or school. We also say that someone is off.
When someone is off from work or off from school,
it means they have a break or are not required
to go to work or school that day. For example,
on Fridays, Emily is off from work, so she usually
spends the day with her family because he was sick.
Mark was off from school last week. Rachel is off today,
so she's planning to relax at home. Next, we have
to be off to a flying start. When someone is
off to a flying start, it means they have made
a very successful or positive beginning of doing something. Here
are some examples. I heard from Kevin that he's off
to a flying start with his new job. He's even
managed to impress his new boss thanks to her hard work.
Olivia's project is off to a flying start. Jason was
off to a flying start in the marathon, leaving the
race early on. The next phrase is to be off base.
When someone is off base, it means that they are
wrong or mistaken about something. We often use this phrase
when someone misunderstands a situation or has incorrect information. Let's
look at a few examples. I told Ted that he
was completely off base because he thought the meeting was tomorrow,
but in fact it's next Monday. Sarah's guess about the
surprise birthday party was way off base. I'm not sure
what Jimmy was thinking, but his idea about moving the
website to a new hosting company was totally off base
from what the boss wanted. Next is to be off
the hook. When you go fishing and you catch a fish,
it's on the hook, which is good for you, but
the fish is in trouble. If you take the fish
off the hook and throw it back to the sea,
then it's going to be free from trouble. Well with
this image, when someone is off the hook, it means
they are no longer responsible or no longer in trouble
for something. For example, Lisa was relieved when her boss
said she was off the hook for the mistake. All
Tony needed to do was to explain the situation to
his wife, and he was off the hook. The boss
has security video of Larry walking out of the office
with some equipment, so there's no way he's gonna be
off the hook for that. We use the grid or
the power grid to talk about public utilities like electricity.
Most people live on the grid, which means connected to
public utilities. On the other hand, some people these days
prefer to live off the grid, like that guy Nate
on TikTok Off the grid means living in a remote
area without using public utilities like electricity or the internet.
In the story above, off the grid is also used
to mean being disconnected from the Internet. You can be
off the grid or go off the grid. Here are
some examples. Sam enjoys being off the grid during his
camping trips to relax without distractions. Melissa decided to go
off the grid in a cabin in the mountains all
last weekend. Josh was off the grid, so he didn't
see any messages or social media. The last thing that
you can be off for today is off the beaten path.
A place that is off the beaten path is a
place which is not commonly visited or not well known.
For example, when traveling, Lisa loves to be off the
beaten path and explore small hidden villages. While walking around Brooklyn,
John found a great little restaurant that was off the
beaten path. Megan is always going off the beaten path
instead of visiting tourist spots. Keep in mind the best
way to remember this and any other word or fra
in English is to take that word or phrase write
it in a sentence that's true for you or true
in your world and then memorize your sentences. By the way,
can you imagine getting the chance to practice this kind
of English with me directly. You can get more practice
using your English when you join my podcast Learner's study Group.
There you can make new friends, join us for live
group lessons every week where we practice these podcast lessons together.
Plus you get access to the pdf, transcript and audio
download for every Happy English podcast in the past and
in the future. And on top of that, each episode
has exercises where you can practice this English point with
speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more, just
visit Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast lessons seven
point thirty eight. Remember, learning another language is not easy,
but it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you
on your journey.
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