Oh, hello. My name is Emma. You might be wondering
why I'm wearing sunglasses. Well, it's because
today I am relaxing. Being an English teacher
can be hard work, but today I want to relax.
Well, let's relax together, and let's also learn
something today. So, today we are going to learn
some expressions about relaxing. I'm going to
teach you 10 new expressions you can use to
talk about relaxing. So, get ready, sit back, relax, and let's learn together.
The first word I want us to talk about is the
word I just used, relax. So, when we relax,
it means we're not stressed out, we're not worried,
we are enjoying ourselves, and we're resting.
So, for example, how do I relax? Well, I relax
by listening to music. I relax by watching TV.
I relax by taking walks in my neighborhood. How do you relax?
Well, we can also use... So, I just used relax
as a verb. Remember, a verb is an action word.
We can also use relax as an adjective. An
adjective is a word that describes something.
So, relax as an adjective, we have two forms,
relaxing with -ing and relaxed with -ed.
Many learners find -ing and -ed adjectives really
confusing, but let's look at this word for a
moment and talk about it. So, relaxing with -ing
describes something. It describes a situation
or an object. So, for example, I can say, "The
music is relaxing." "Taking a walk is relaxing."
"Reading a book is relaxing." "Swimming is relaxing."
So, notice all of these things are either
situations or, you know, objects that I used
relaxing with. Well, when we use -ed and we say
relaxed, what that means is it means we're talking
about our feelings, how we feel. So, for example,
I am relaxed right now. I feel relaxed. So, this
means I don't feel stressed, I feel calm. So, this
is the difference between relaxing, which is for
situations or objects, versus relaxed. I am
relaxed, which is for describing our feelings.
So, now let's look at some other examples of
words we can use to relax. Okay, so another common
expression we use to talk about relaxing is the
expression "take it easy." This expression is
common in music. There's a great Eagles song
called "Take It Easy" where you can listen to
this expression. So, what does it mean, "take
it easy"? Well, one meaning is it means to relax
and to avoid hard work, to do very little. So, when I take it easy, I don't do much.
I relax, I rest. That's what I do when I take
it easy. So, let's look at an example of this
in a sentence. This weekend, I'm taking it easy.
So, again, that means I'm not going to do hard work.
I'm just going to rest and relax. There's another
meaning for "take it easy." We can also use it to
mean goodbye. Some people in English will say,
"Take it easy," and they mean goodbye. So, you know,
"See you later. Take it easy." It's a common way
to say goodbye. Another meaning of "take it easy"
is something you need to be careful of.
"Take it easy," depending on how you say it,
can also be a command for someone to calm down.
So, if someone is really angry and you say,
"Oh, take it easy," you're telling them to calm
down, which might work, but a lot of the times,
people, when they're angry, they don't want to hear "take it easy."
So, "take it easy" can mean the same thing as, "Calm
down. Take it easy." So, again, your voice matters.
We often use "take it easy" when people are
sick. So, imagine Fred is sick this weekend.
We might say, "Oh, Fred, I heard you're sick. Take
it easy this weekend," meaning rest. Don't do hard
work. Take it easy. And here, I've used the same
example, "I hear you're sick. Take it easy." So,
this is a great expression to learn, and it's very
common in English, so it's a good one to remember.
Okay, the next expression that also means relax is "unwind," and I want you to pay
careful attention to pronunciation here because
many students pronounce this as "unwind,"
but the pronunciation is "wind," "unwind." So,
what does it mean to unwind? Well, like I said,
it's relax. So, let's look at some examples.
"How do I unwind? How do I relax?" Well,
I'm watching TV to unwind. I listen to music to unwind. I go for a walk to unwind.
You might ask somebody else this question, "What
do you do to unwind?" So, what do you do to relax?
Here's another example of the word "unwind."
"She unwinds." So, it's a verb. "She unwinds
by drinking wine." I like this last sentence
because I think it can help you remember the
pronunciation. When people drink wine, they unwind.
"Wine" and "wind" have a similar pronunciation,
so maybe that can help you remember how to pronounce this word.
And "unwind" is common, again, in English
conversation. You know, "What did you do this
weekend?" "Oh, I spent the weekend unwinding."
You might hear people say that. Let's look at
some other examples of relaxation expressions.
All right. So, the next word, "chill,"
is very popular with younger people. This is
not the kind of word my parents or grandparents
will use. It's often used by teenagers or people in their 20s or maybe even 30s.
So, what does it mean to say "chill"? Well,
"chill" is slang for "relax." So, for example,
someone might say, "This weekend, I'm chilling." "Let's chill this weekend."
"I like to chill on the weekend." This means
relax. And again, it's not used by older people;
it tends to be used by younger people. We can also
use "chill," depending on our tone or our voice,
to mean "calm down." Just like "take it easy," if
we say "chill," that means we're telling someone
to calm down. And they might not take it in a
good way. "Chill, man. Calm down." Or "Chill.
Take it easy." It means, you know, relax because
a person probably is mad or angry or upset.
"Chill out." You might also hear someone say,
"You need to chill." That means you need to relax.
Again, it's all about the way you say things. So,
now let's look at our next word that has to do
with relaxation, "are" and "are." So, if you hear
someone say "are" and "are," one of the meanings
of this can be "rest and relaxation" or "rest and
recreation" or "rest and recuperation." It doesn't
really matter what the second "are" is. The point
of "are" and "are" is it means relaxing in your
free time. So, when we talk about "are" and "are,"
we're talking about our free time we use to enjoy
life and to relax. So, how might we use this in
a sentence? Well, "are" and "are" is a noun. So,
I'll give some examples. I might say, "Oh, summer
is great. It's a great time for are and are."
This means summer is a good time to relax. As
simple as that. I can also say, "Oh, I'm getting
a lot of are and are this week." This means I'm
relaxing and resting this week. So, this, again,
it's slang, but you might hear someone talk about
"are" and "are," and that's what this means.
Okay, so the next word or expression I want to
look at is "take a break" or "take a breather."
"Take a break" and "take a breather" mean to
take a short pause or to stop doing something
for a short time in order to relax or to de-stress. So, for example,
we can also say you take a break to stop doing
something for a short time. When we use "breather,"
it's usually more about stress. "Take a
breather" usually means someone is stressed out,
and if they take a breather, it means
they're resting so they don't feel stressed.
"Take a break" is more common. We use it more in
our everyday English. If you say, "Oh, it's time
for a break. Let's take a break." That means let's
stop doing what we're doing. Let's take a moment
to rest and relax. Now, I just wanted to point
this out. The verb we use with "break" in English
is "take." "Take a break." In other languages, it
might be "do a break" or "make a break," but in
English, we always use the word "take a break."
All right, let's look at a few more expressions
to do with relaxation. All right, so we have three more expressions to go.
The next expression is "sit back" or "kick back."
We can use either of these expressions. They mean
the same thing. When you sit back or you kick
back, it means you relax and you don't do much
of anything. You rest. So, for example, "I'm going
to kick back," or if I want, I can say, "I'm going
to kick back and relax." We use both of these. I
can also say, "I'm going to sit back and relax."
That's possible, too. "Let's kick back this
weekend. Let's sit back and enjoy the show."
So, again, this means to just relax and to not do much of anything.
The next expression is "put my feet up." So,
when you put your feet up, it's an expression in
English, and it means to sit and relax. English
has many expressions for relaxation. You're
probably noticing that right now. When we say, "put
my feet up," let's look at some examples of this.
We can say, "Put your feet up. It's the weekend."
So, that means relax. Don't do anything. It's the
weekend. "After work, I put my feet up and watch
reality TV." So, this means after work, I sit and I
relax and I watch reality TV. All right, so our
next expression, our final expression, is an
important one, "recharge." "Recharge" or "recharge
our batteries" is what we do when we rest in order
to get energy back. So, every day, we have lots
going on. Maybe we have children or work or school,
and at the end of the day, it's important to
recharge our batteries. This means it's important
to rest and relax to get more energy. So, this is
how I would use this. "Every year, I go on vacation
to recharge" or "Every year, I go on vacation to
recharge my batteries." So, thank you for watching
this video. We've talked a lot about relaxation.
I'm going to tell you something that's not so
relaxing for a moment, and then we'll go back to
relaxing. You can take our test at www.engvid.com
to practice the words you learned here. It's not
relaxing. I hope you take it easy after the test
and relax after you do that because, remember,
the best way to remember something is actually
to test ourselves. You can also subscribe to my
YouTube channel. I have many different videos
on all sorts of different topics from pronunciation
to grammar to writing and vocabulary and so much
more. So, thank you for watching. I am now going
to unwind. I'm going to take it easy. I'm going
to recharge my batteries, kick back, relax, sit
back, enjoy myself. So, thank you for watching,
and I hope you get some relaxation too. Until next time, take care.