Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE SCARED STIFF and TO BE BORED STIFF

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to be scared stiff. When you're scared stiff, it just means that you're really, really scared. It means something's happened, and you went kind of like this, like your whole body is stiff as a board. Now I'm exaggerating a bit. We use this phrase, even if your body didn't go like that. I think I told you the story before of how, when I was younger, I hid behind the tree at night. And when my sister walked by, I jumped out, and said boo. And she was definitely scared stiff when I did that. She was also very angry with me. So don't do that. I don't know how many of you like to play practical jokes where you scare people. It's not very nice. And when you do it, sometimes people get so scared, you would describe them by saying that they're scared stiff.

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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to be bored stiff. Now, I certainly hope this doesn't happen in my classroom. When you're bored stiff, you look like this. It's when you're in a class, or you go watch a movie that's really boring, or you're doing something in life that's just not very exciting or enjoyable. You would say that you're bored stiff. It's just a way of emphasizing that you're really, really bored. You could say that the movie was really, really boring, but you could also say, I was bored stiff during that movie. It just was not very good.

So to review, when you are scared stiff, it means you're really, really scared. And when you are bored stiff, it means that you're really, really bored. I don't know why we have so many ways of saying things in English. Sometimes I feel like we should have less, but it's just another way of saying it. And by the way, I heard both of these phrases in the last week. So they are something, phrases that are very common in English.

But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Alex. Every time you pick the paper to read out a previous comment to us, it sounds like for me, and the Oscar goes to, and my response is ha ha, I should maybe have music start playing when I have 10 seconds left to talk.

So I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Oscars. The Oscars are awards that are given out in Hollywood for people who did a really good job making a movie, or starring in a movie, or doing the writing for a movie. And when you win an Oscar, the person at the front opens an envelope, and says, and the Oscar goes to. And that's kind of what Alex was talking about there. Whenever I go to read a comment, I reach into my pocket, and I pull it out. And for him, that reminds him of when he's watching the Oscars, and they say, and the Oscar goes to.

And my joke there was that maybe I should have a timer where after I talk for a certain amount of time, the timer goes off, or on the Oscars what happens is the microphone goes down I think. I think when you've talked for too long, the microphone starts to go down. So maybe I should do that. I'm trying to find a spot here where it's not too bright, and not too windy. Maybe I should do that for my videos when I get close to the four minute mark, maybe the microphone should start to go down, or maybe the camera should start to move down. And that would indicate to me that it's time for me to stop talking.

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Learn the English Phrases SCARED STIFF and BORED STIFF