Let's Learn English! Topic: Symbols 💲#️♾️
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Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about symbols. Symbols are all these little one character things that have meaning but maybe you don't know the actual English name for each of these symbols. I'm sure you'll know what each symbol means. So this should be an interesting English lesson. A lot of these symbols are universal. They are used the same way in every language but

but in this English lesson, I will tell you the English name for the symbol and then I will give you of course an English explanation as to its meaning. So, welcome to this English lesson about symbols.

infinity. So, this is the symbol for infinity. Infinity refers to something that goes on forever. Something that is endless. In English, we also use the word boundless. Something that has a starting point I guess but no actual end. If you wanted to count to infinity, you would never be finished.

would get to 1 billion and then 1 billion and 1, 1 billion and 2. You would get to a trillion and then a trillion and 1, a trillion and 2. You can never actually get to infinity. So infinity refers to

something that has no limit. Sometimes people will say I wish I had an infinite amount of money. That would mean that they could spend money forever and still have money. But this symbol is if you look at it it goes around and it keeps going forever which is why I think they chose this symbol for infinity. So again infinity something that goes on forever.

Sometimes I think the government thinks it has an infinite amount of money but it doesn't. Uh ampersand. So this is an interesting one. Uh the ampersand is often used to replace the word and and

you have the word and so I could write Bob and Jen A and D or I could use this symbol Bob and Jen. Um sometimes when you're making a poster or when you're writing something on a card maybe you don't have enough room to write the word and and in that case you would use an ampersand. I sometimes do this on the titles for my videos.

if I don't have enough room for the title. If it's like um let's see um I was trying to think of a title that has and in it. Uh there was one a while ago and I can't remember what it was. Um I

Oh, this and that, I guess. There we go. Instead of putting A and D, I might use an ampersand to save space. I saw a lot of these yesterday. It was like buy one and and they would use the ampersand. Buy one, get one free and they would use that instead of the word and. Hashtag or is it a number sign?

hashtag and number sign look a lot alike because they are the same symbol. We have started to use hashtag to tag things on social media. So, if you look at the bottom of this video, I think there are hashtags. Hashtag English lesson. Hashtag learn English. Hashtag Bob the Canadian. So, a hashtag used to and still does mean number sign but we also use it to categorize

things on the internet. If you post a picture of where you went on vacation you might put at the bottom hashtag vacation and then people can people will realize that you are on a vacation and if they follow the hashtag they will see other photos of other people's vacation. So it's a way I think that's the best way to describe it. It's a way to categorize

things that you post on the internet. This is hashtag English lesson. It is an English lesson. Number sign though simply means the number. So, if I was to read this out loud, I would say number one. If you've ever been to a sports game, someone might have a giant foam hand with a finger pointing up and then on the palm, it might say,

number one or we are number one. Um so if you run in a race and you finish eleventh, they might in the standings afterwards say that you are number eleven. What number did I say? Number ten, number eleven. So, this is simply used to indicate that you are uh using a number. Number one, number two, I was in line forever and when I got in line, I think I was number eight in line. So, a number sign.

peace sign. So, this was very common in the late 60s, early 70s. Uh in North America, there were a lot of people um who

we would call hippies who were against war who wanted peace and they use this sign to indicate that they wanted peace. Peace is of course a time when countries do not fight against each other. Where everyone is happy and everyone lives a nice life. So this is the peace sign. It basically stands for a time in the world without war. Many many people have

would love it if we had peace in the world. I think everyone would prefer peace in the world. Copyright. When you make something, when you write a novel or when you make a video or when you create something, you own it.

order for you to tell other people that you own it, you will put a copyright sign on the bottom of it or a copyright symbol. So, I don't have these on my videos but it's understood that this video is mine. I own this video. I have the copyright to this video. If I wrote a book,

I would own the rights to that book. I would have a copyright on that book. And inside, it would literally say this little C, and then it would say Bob the Canadian beside it. So the copyright symbol means that whatever you are reading or watching is owned by someone else. They made it and they own it.

dollar sign. This is probably the symbol I saw the most yesterday when I was shopping. In North America we put the dollar sign in front of numbers to indicate how much something costs. So if you see dollar sign 10 it costs $10. If you're in Canada it costs 10 Canadian dollars. If you're in the United States it costs 10 US dollars. But this is the symbol we use to

a lot when we put prices on things. When Jen and I go to market, we sell our bouquets and on a little chalkboard, it will say large country bouquet dollar sign $25 or dollar sign $15. This is so people know how much it costs. Check mark. This is something students love to see. When you see a check mark, it means something is correct or

If you have a checklist

Let's say you have a list of 10 things to do today. As you do each thing, you might put a check mark at the front or at the end. So for me today, do English live stream lesson in about 45 minutes, check. Number two, help Jen move the chicken coop, check. When I'm done, I'll put a check mark. So a check mark is also used by teachers to tell students when something is correct.

will read an answer and I'll put a check mark. So the student knows that it is correct. The at symbol. So this again has two meanings. There's the new meeting where we use it in an email address. So Bob at Bob the Canadian.com. This is what the at symbol means. But it used to be used more for pricing. So if I said let's see I

bought 12 apples at $1 each. So you could write that out. I should have put an example here for you. Maybe I can put one down here. I buy 12 apples at a dollar each. So there's an example for you down there. Um basically it means that I paid a dollar. I bought 12. It costs $12. That would be how the at symbol works.

percent. So I was going to say that this is from the French but then this morning I read that it's from the Italian percento. But I'm sure every civilization in the world invented and is using a symbol that means part of a hundred. You will most often see this sign when something is on sale. So when you go to a store it might say 10% off.

So, if something costs $10, it's now $9. It's 10% off. We also see this when things go up in price. Sometimes, they'll say, for instance, my taxes this year are going to be 4% higher. The taxes that I pay to my local town, there's going to be a four, actually, it's more. I think it's a 9% increase.

Yeah, I'm not sure. So, if last year I paid a thousand dollars in tax, next year with a nine percent increase, I'll be paying 1090. Hopefully, I did the math right there. You guys can check my math but a percent simply means um a fraction of a hundred more. So, I'm not a math teacher but again, if you owed someone $10, you

then they charged you 10% interest. You would owe them $11. So this depends on what you're looking at but a red or white cross usually means health or safety or first aid or medical assistance. So if you see a bag like this that has bandages and

other things in it that you can use if you are hurt. Uh a first aid kit usually has a white cross or a red cross on it. It looks more like a plus sign. Um a cross is usually a bit taller but we still call this a red cross or a white cross. Um sometimes the first aid kit is white and it has a red cross on it. Sometimes it's red and it has a white cross on it. If you go to a sporting event, you

there are a lot of people there. Like if I went to a soccer tournament or a football tournament. There will probably be an ambulance that will have a red or white cross on it. There will probably be people wearing red

vests and on the back, it will have a white cross on it. This is so people quickly know where to go if they need medical assistance. So, if you twist your ankle, if you get hurt, then you would know where to go. Parking. So, in this lesson, I had to be careful because I

want to do a lesson about symbols but occasionally it was more about signs and I already did an English lesson about signs. You can go search for that if you want but this symbol means parking. So, if you're driving around a city and you need to park.

You need to put your car somewhere so you can go do other things. You would look for this symbol in Canada. In my part of the world, a P usually with a green circle around it means parking. It's different in other countries. I understand but if I go to Toronto, if I drive to Toronto and I need to find a place to put my car, I look for this symbol. I look for the parking symbol and then I can park my car.

radiation. So, if you go to a hospital to get an X-ray, you'll see one of these signs. It means that in that part of the hospital, they are using something that emits radiation which can be dangerous in large quantities. So, if you go for, I think it's a CAT scan or

or a CT scan. Is that the same as a CAT scan or an MRI? One of these, one of those uses radiation. I know one time, I went for a test on my heart and they injected me with something and then they said, you can't go across the border for one hour because you are radioactive for 48 hours. So, anyways, this sign means radiation.

the asterisk. So, first of all, this is hard to say. The asterisk is located. Where is it located? Above the two? I think so. I'm just looking at my keyboard here. Yeah, I think it's above the two. Can you see it? I don't know if this will focus. It sees my face. It won't focus. Asterisk is used for a couple things. If I'm writing something and I put an asterisk, it means look at the bottom of the page and

more information in the footnote. So if I was to be typing something I might put an asterisk and that means that if you look at the bottom it will tell you where I got the information from in the footnote or something else. Um an asterisk is also used just to highlight something. Um to make sure that people notice that it is there. Um so if you're saying um you

asterisk. Please note um the first aid station is located by the entrance. You might put that on some instructions and it simply means this is important. Please look here. Degree. So the symbol is actually that little circle.

And this is actually today's weather. So, it says Friday, four degrees. I highlighted it with yellow. Uh tomorrow, 10 degrees. This is real. Like this is our actual forecast. So, this is not winter. It it doesn't look like winter outside right now. It looks like fall or spring and it's

It's never sunny right now. I don't know why they have the sun there but this symbol here means degree. It can be used for temperature. So tomorrow it's going to be if you look way over there four degrees Celsius. You see the little degree symbol.

It can also be used to measure an angle. So this this is a a 90 degree angle. So from here to here is 90 degrees. This is a 45 degree angle. These are not exact by the way but that is the symbol that we use when we're talking about degrees. Trademark. So copyright and trademark are very similar. Um it means that you you

Own the process or you own the thing. So, let's say, I'm trying to think like if Jen had a special

holder for bouquets. She could say that it's trademarked and only she's allowed to make it and sell it. It's similar to copyright or a patent. It's a way to say that whatever you're talking about you own. I do not have the name Bob trademarked. I do not own the name Bob but that little symbol TM simply means that it is a trademark that the company owns it. For instance, I

you know, the symbol for BMW, that would be their, it's trademarked. So, no one else is allowed to use that symbol. Carrot. So, yesterday, I thought carrot was spelled C-A-R-A-T and it is if you're talking about diamonds. If you have a five carat diamond,

that really big? That's probably really big. Uh it's C-A-R-A-T but apparently this is spelled two ways. The little symbol like that I thought was spelled the other way but this is supposed to be the proper way. In the computer world it simply means exponent. So two exponent two is four.

You can also do it this way. Two exponent two equals four. But when I was learning to program a computer, this is how we indicated an exponent. Um when we were writing a computer program using two and then the caret to show that it goes to an exponent. Hopefully, that makes it. Notice, I'm not a math teacher.

Thumbs up. So, this is an interesting one. Hey, I'm not sure why it's all grayed out and pixely. Maybe because I took the actual thumbs up. Um this is something that you click on to indicate that you like something on the internet.

it's something you might use to describe something but generally if you are watching a video and you look at the bottom of the video and you can all do this right now at the bottom of the video there is a thumbs up button and that thumbs up button means if you click it it means I like what I'm watching I like what I'm reading on the internet so often we call this a like button

but we often also call it a thumbs up. People have often asked, why is thumb plural? Like, why don't you say, give me a thumb up? We just don't. I think in English, someone along the way decided to use thumbs up. Give me a thumbs up. I think a long time ago, there were two music reviewers called Siskel and Ebert, and they would say, give two thumbs up.

then from there maybe people started to use the plural to talk about one but give one thumbs up. Um but if you want right now if you wanna practice this you can go down below and there's a thumb and you can give this lesson a thumbs up meaning that you like the lesson. We'll see how many people do that. Um danger. So if you see this symbol on something it means that there is danger. Maybe it's on a bottle of something that is poisonous. It

Maybe it's on a fence and if you go in that area, there's toxic waste or something but this symbol means danger. Um sometimes it's just an exclamation mark. That can mean danger as well. Um but the actual symbol is called the skull and crossbones often used on pirate flags. So, if you were like hundreds of years ago sailing on the ocean and you saw a ship with a

skull and crossbones or the Jolly Roger. I think it's called. You knew that that was danger. Okay. Definitely very dangerous but this symbol means danger.

then this is something you look for in an airport or restaurant. If you want to know the password, you look for a sign with this symbol on it which means there is WiFi and then you can use the internet. So, when you need to use the internet at a cafe, maybe at the airport, um it might be automatic on your phone. It just says there's a um a

Wi-Fi available or there might be a sign on the wall that's has this symbol and says Wi-Fi is available. The password is cat in a tree. Just saying that because there's there's actually a cat in the tree out there. Play. So, this is a pretty common one.

when you have a device and you want music to start or you want the video to start, you click this button. This is the play button. This will start something playing. So, if you are after this going to watch one of my other English lessons, you would click on the thumbnail and then if it doesn't start automatically, you would hit play to get that going.

stop, pause, mute. Sorry, I put these all in a row. I already did play before the break but you can hit play and then you can hit stop. If you want the video to stop or if you want the music to stop, there's usually a stop button. Although, it might be more common to hit pause and

Stop and pause are kind of the same thing in the digital world. Many years ago, if you were playing a tape,

stop actually removed the head from the tape and pause I think left it there. Um but now these both mean the opposite of play. So you can stop the video or you can stop the music or you can pause the video or pause the music. And then if you don't want to hear anything, you can hit mute. There are a few different symbols for mute. There are uh like a speaker with a red X on it or a line through it. Um I think there's another one as well.

But uh definitely if you are watching videos on your phone or on a computer, if you listen to music, there will definitely be those symbols and more. There's probably a power symbol. Uh there's probably a Bluetooth symbol as well. I didn't add those to the lesson but there are many of them. If you want to go somewhere, you will probably use Google Maps or some other form of GPS and

global positioning system. Something that will locate you on a map and then this will show up. This is probably called a location pin and it will show up on the map to indicate where you are. We might also call it a you are here symbol. So if I go to Google Maps and if I push in actually the the icon for Google Maps is actually that

So, if I click that, it will show me where I am and it will show me where I want to go. Actually, it shows me where I want to go. That's what it shows me. Let me see here. Oh, yeah. So, it doesn't show me where I am. It shows me where I want to go. So, that's a location symbol. Um common when you use GPS. Search. So, anytime you use a computer, anytime you

even like if you're at a library, there might be a sign with this on it. Anytime you see a magnifying glass in the modern world, it means you can search for something. So, you can search for something online. You can search for something at the library. You can search for something

if you see this symbol. So, magnifying glass is of course a lens that makes things bigger but more commonly just used as a symbol now meaning search.

This is the share button. Um there are different kinds of share buttons. One is just like a swoopy arrow but if you see this while you're watching something or reading something online, if you click it, it usually means that you can share it with someone else. You can let someone else know, hey, here's a good English lesson. Here's a good video to watch. The share symbol. This means to recycle. Again, I

trying not to do signs in this lesson. I did a lesson on signs but this symbol means you can recycle. So if you are at let's say you're at the mall and you're at the food court. Instead of a garbage can they will probably have a big recycle sign and they will have four different bins. One for garbage. One for paper. One for plastic. One

one for something else that I can't remember. Oh food waste. We compost sometimes now. So if you see this it simply means that instead of throwing everything in the garbage you can actually recycle it. This means gas or if you're in Britain it means petrol. Um if you see this it refers to gas. On your dash there will be a little gas gauge and there will be this little symbol with an arrow. It

it tells you which side of the car the the gas cap is on. So I'm not sure if you knew that. Um if you're driving along the road and you see a sign with this it means if you pull off the road up ahead you will be able to buy gas or petrol. And then this is more of a sign than a symbol but if you see this in my part of the world it means the vehicle in front of you is very slow.

If you see a tractor, if you see any kind of vehicle that can't go over 30 or 40 kilometers per hour, it will most likely have a slow moving vehicle sign on the back. This symbol means the vehicle cannot go fast. So if you're driving 100 kilometers an hour,

and you're approaching a tractor with this sign on the back, it means the tractor is probably only doing 30 or 40 kilometers an hour and it can't go faster. It's a slow moving vehicle. You better slow down. Definitely slow down.

Hi, Bob the Canadian here. Thank you for listening to this English podcast lesson. If you would like to support me in the work that I do as an online English teacher, please visit patreon.com slash bobthecanadian.