"One of these days" — one of these, one off these days, one of these day. Yeah,
that is kind of tricky, isn't it? Hi, James from engVid. Got a problem. I've
had students asking about the pronunciation difference between "of"
and "off". And what the words actually means; it's not as simple. It's a
homophone, kinda; homonym, definitely. We're going to go to the board and
figure out the differences. Why? Well, pronunciation isn't just it sounds
different; they actually have different meanings, and will affect the sentence,
or what you're trying to convey or tell someone else. So, why is it important?
For clarity when we're speaking or when we're reading, and it will help you, you
know, without expanding your vocabulary, make you... Well, it's like having a
pocket knife; it will make you much more functional. And that's a good thing,
right? Okay, so how I'm going to do this for you is we'll go through
pronunciation of just a quick one, then I'll talk about the reduction — we call
it reduction of "of", the preposition "of" — and I'll talk about how one...
Well, let's go to the board and do it, shall we? We'll go through it.
So, I'm going to start off by saying: "of" or "off". Let's start with the
beginning "of" — it has, like, a "v" sound. So, there is a different... a
definitive difference in the sound. This is a "v" sound; it sounds like that:
"vvv". The bottom lip goes to the teeth: "vvv", because it vibrates. You hear
that? Vibrate. "Vvv". Okay? And with "off", I like to say this: "Off" has one
extra "f" to remind you to say: "fff" — the "f" sound. So, instead of: "vvv",
the same position and vibrating — that extra "f" reminds me it's an "f", so I
have to go: "fff", as in: "free" or "Frank". Cool? Well, this one doesn't
have that extra "f", so I know it's a: "vvv" sound, like: "vibrate" or "visit".
That'll make it a bit easy. And then at the end, I'm going to go over what we
call the reduction of "of", which gives you a little bit more to play with to
get much more like a native speaker. All right? But let's go through this.
They're both prepositions, to start off with. So, that is one thing they have in
common, and that's what leads to some confusion because if you do not
pronounce... pronounce it properly, you probably aren't aware when you're
writing it down, because they're both prepositions, that you're using them
incorrectly. Now, with "of", it's strict-... it's strictly a preposition
all the way down. "Off" is a preposition — we use it in phrasal verbs — but it
also has adverbial and an adjective meaning, and we'll go over all of those
together. But let's start over here. Now that we've got it down that what they
sound like; the difference, and we're saying they're both prepositions, let's
go through... see how this is further a preposition, and the differences we'll
So, "of" is a preposition expressing a relationship or a connection between
things; so, they go together. And you can use it like this, an example would
be a bottle on a cap — there's a connection. This is very different from
this, but one twist of the lid, and I can carry my drink because of the
connection that they make. And that's what "of" does — it shows us connections
between things. Now, in this case, it expresses relationship. So, we can say:
"the husband of my friend". Right? I know many people, but this is the
husband of my friend. That's the connection — friendship, and they're
married. Next: "It's on the top of the page." Well, when you have a book or a
magazine, if it's on the top of the page, it's connected. Right? The words
are on the page; the top of the page. So, we've demonstrated relationship
here, and connection here. What else?
We can indicate material. What does that mean? Well, things are not just things;
they're made of things. For instance, when I showed you the water, the water
is made... this water bottle is "made of plastic". The material is plastic. "It's
made of plastic." I can also say, because I think I've had that one there:
"It's made of glass." I can also say something, a small piece could be: "a
piece of glass". Because there is a lot of glass in the universe, this is one
piece. I usually like to say when we talk about relationship, and this goes
something of material, that when you say: "of", it's one piece of a larger
thing. In this case, in the relationship, there's two people, so
it's a larger thing and they're connected; relationship. In this... in
this case, glass — "made of glass" — there's glass in the universe, and this
thing is made of some of that glass; one piece or some of that. Okay?
We can also use "of" to express direction. This is a strange one because
a lot of students aren't aware of it, but if I go: "It's north of the city",
or east... In this case, I say: "north of the highway". So, if the highway's
here, keep going this way — that's where I live; "north of the highway". And if I
say: "east of something", I might go: "Oh, go east of..." So, "east of th
city" — you find the location, city, g east of that direction, so go aroun
that corner. So, we use it t indicate... express direction, we us
"of" to indicate what type of materia something is — "made of cotton". Okay
As I showed: "made of plastic". W expressed relationships: "my... a frien
of my brother's" — right? — or we ca show a connection: "on the top of th
page". And that's when we use "of". An remember, because it only has one "f"
we use the "v" sound for "vibrate" it's in the same position as the "f'
but we vibrate it instead of: "fff", le the air flow. Cool? All right
"Off", "off", "soft". A soft "f" sound; not like the bad "f" word. I knew you
were going there. It's a preposition. So, how does it work as a preposition?
When we use it as a preposition, it expresses: "away from" or "down". So,
I'm here — it'd be away from or down. Okay? So: "It rolled off the table."
Okay? So, when something rolls off the table, it's going away from the table.
In this case, it's not only just going away from the table, it's going down.
So, I've connected the two of them. I wish I could turn off that extra sound
that just happened. Anyway. Next.
We also can use it as an adverb. And an adverb, as you know, is how something is
done. So: "he took off his coat", we actually mean: "he removed it". So, he
moved it; removed it from himself. "He took off his coat" and that's the
adverbial or an example of an adverb that you'll use. What about an
adjective? And this is interesting, because people who are native speakers,
you know, in Australia, or Canada, and whatnot, they know this, but it would...
I understand it sounds strange to somebody who English isn't their first
language. Because: "a bit off", what does that mean? Well, this is describing
something. And it means it's not... When we talk about: "food is a bit off", it
means the food isn't at its perfect state; maybe it's a little bit bad. So,
the milk: "Oo, it's a bit off." It's not any good.
Now, a person can be "a bit off". It's like: "I'm feeling a bit off today",
meaning: "I don't feel very good. I'm not feeling my normal self." Now, if
that extends to: I'm not doing, you know, my usual self with a job I'm doing
— when my whole day is like that, I can say: "I'm having an off day." So, if
you've got a... Michael Jordan, I can at least say that because he was the
greatest — probably is — basketball player. If he's having an "off day", he
may not get 50 or 60 points, or 100 points; maybe he only gets 10 points.
So, he's "having an off day". Now, here's the funny thing: I can feel "a
bit off", like, I don't feel so good today, but still have a good day. But by
saying: "I'm a bit off" means I'm not feeling my normal self. To have the "off
day", remember, it means the whole day is not going well. And don't forget: You
can also use this for food. "That tastes a little bit off, smells a bit off" — it
means it doesn't... it's not really good. Something's wrong; it's not at its
perfect state, or a good state to eat.
Now, I'm going to give you something, as I said, to help you further
differentiate, because we have the reduction of "of". I kept it at the end
because I want to make sure you get the meanings, because if you get that...
this — you're doing pretty well. And if you could say: "one of this" or "one of
that", it's okay. But seeing as I'm here to help you out, because I like you, I
wanted to give you something a little bit better and show you when native
speakers take "of" and they change it. Now, there's an old Three Musketeers
thing, and it goes: "All for one, and one for all". And "all for one" means,
like, everybody in the group — right? — will support one person, and "one for
all" — that person in the group will help... one person will help support the
I've got a really corny, stupid saying, but I was thinking about it and it goes
like this: "'v' for 'vowel' and 'a' for 'fff'". That's why it's Three
Musketeers; they didn't invite me to the party. Okay? So, what do I mean by that?
Well, in the reduction, what happens is when you have a vowel that follows "of"
— okay? — so, I'll give you an example here, because I wrote one on the board.
You can see this, but you won't see it unless I do this. So: "one ov ours".
That's really this: "one of ours". Okay? But because a vowel follows here — okay?
— in English, we reduce it to: "one ov ours", "one ov ours". "That soldier,
he's one ov ours." Okay? It's reduced to a "v", or the "v" sound from "of", and
that's why I started with that in the first place. I needed to get that in
your head, so when I do this, you'll go: "Okay, I got it."
So, what's the "'v' for 'vowel' and 'a' for 'vvv'"? Well, I kind of lied. Now,
watch this. If it's followed by not just the "t–h" I said the "t–h", because
basically every "t–h" will work with this rule. But if it's got a consonant
after, so that could be: "b", "c", or "d" — any consonant — it changes to an
"a" sound. So, we say: "one a them". Right? "He's one ov ours, and she's one
a them." You go: "What? But that has nothing to do with..." Yeah, but that's
how we do it — we do reduction. I have a video where I talk about listening
skills, and how you have to watch for reduction in words. And also, you have
to watch out for joining words; linking words. It seems the same, but it's not.
In this case, there's not a linking; there's a reduction. And sometimes the
linking and reduction go together. I know, nightmare. That's why it's
difficult to learn listening in English, but it's paying attention to things like
See, when I'm teaching you to say: "of", I want you to say: "one of them". You
need the practice of proper pronunciation. Okay? You do. What I'm
teaching you, this reduction, is because you need to be able to understand a
Canadian, or American, or British speaker when they speak — you think
quickly, but it's not. You're kind of right; it's quick because they do these
reductions that you're not doing. So, by making you say this, you'll be clearly
understood, which is what you really want. You don't want people saying:
"What? What did you say?" By teaching you to do this, you won't be going: "I
don't understand. Can you repeat? Can you repeat?" because it's a native
A native speaker in any language finds it really kind of annoying when they
have to repeat themselves over, and over, and over again. So, I'm going to
reduce that for you by teaching you this reduction, so that people will like to
speak to you wherever they're from, simply because they're not repeating
themselves over and over. Cool? So, now you know my little secret. And what is
it? It is... Right? "v" for vowels. If it's... if the "of" is followed by a
vowel, you put "v", and "a" for — and I said "the", but you know, really, it
means consonant — if the word is followed, if "of" is followed by a
consonant word, then you put the "a" instead. In the examples I gave you,
they were almost the same: "One ov ours, one a them", and you can literally see
what I'm talking about. Speaking of "literally see", I want to literally see
if you understand what I taught you, and we're going to have a test. And what of
And we're back. Viva Las Vegas. The first question on the board. So, it's
time to do the test. Now, we're going to do two parts of this. The first we're
going to put: What is the correct preposition — is it "of" with one "f" or
"off"? And if you remember what I said, the second "f" reminds you to go: "fff".
Like: "fff it". Playing with you. Okay, so with a double "f" will be that soft
sound, and the single "f" would be the "v" sound, or what? It could be an "a"
sound. We talked about the reduction, remember? So, if a vowel follows "of",
we're going to use the "v" sound; and if it's a consonant, we're going to use the
"a" sound. And we're going to work on that because I'm going to fill it in,
and you're going to try and figure out what the reduction would be, and
whether... whether it's an adverb, or a preposition, or an adjective. Remember?
Remember that "of" is usually — no, sorry — always a preposition; and then
when we use "off", it can be adverb, adjective, or preposition. Let's go to
First question, as I said, Viva Las Vegas. "Toronto is north ____ Las
Vegas." That's right. "North of Las Vegas." And would that be...? And that's
with one "f", right? "North of Las Vegas". And would that be an adverb,
preposition? Okay, you're already ahead of me. Right? It is a preposition.
Right? We talked about direction — direction using... we can use the
preposition "of" for direction. What's the next one? "I didn't play well. I'm
having an ____". That whining, it's my belly. I need food. "I'm having an off
day." I'm hungry. See? That: "Wanh, wanh, wanh, wanh, wanh". That's the
"o-f-f", "off", "soft". Right? An "off day". And what would that be? Would this
be adjective, adverb, or preposition? That's right — it's describing the type
of day, so we're looking at an adjective. It's an adjective.
And I got a quick quiz for you. How can we reduce this one up here? How would we
reduce it? Yeah, it would be: "northa Las Vegas. Northa, northa", with the "a"
sound because this is a consonant. Good. You're learning — I like that. Let's do
number three. "He took ____ his hat in the restaurant." Oo, that's an ugly
sentence. So, what did we say? "He took his hat in his restaurant"? "took off".
Now, what is that: "to take off your hat", that would be, what? We did an
example earlier. That's right, "to remove", and removing is a way of doing
something — a verb describing, so it would be an adverb. I like this. I like
Now, number four. "I would love a glass ____". "of milk". Right? A "glass of
milk" showing a relationship or a connection. Right? Glass with milk. And
what would that be? Yep, because we know this one is a preposition. And finally,
Piglet. I love Winnie the Pooh — one of my favourite books — by A. A. Milne. And
Piglet's got a house. What's Piglet's house made of? -"I don't know, Pooh.
What's the house be made of?" -"Here, Piglet". "Piglet's house was made of",
whoop. I almost told ya. Hahaha. Yeah, you got it right. "It's made of wood".
Remember we talked about what type of material something's made of? "made of
wood", so we know the material it's made of. And that's also a preposition. Okay.
And how would you say that, because this has a consonant after that? Would it be
"made v" or "made a wood"? Yeah. A North American or Eur-... Sorry. An
English-speaking, native English-speaking person goes: -"It's
made a wood." -"What's the house made of?" -"It's made a wood." Good. So, now
we've done our reduction. We remember whether it's a preposition, or it's
adverbial, or it's an adjective. We've worked in all of that. I want to give
you some other things with "of" and "off", that are in English. And I'm
going to explain. There are simpler ways of saying some of these, but you may run
into people saying it and you should know what they are. Okay?
So, the first one we're going to look at "of": "out of". "out of" really means
"out" because it's the opposite of "in". So, "out of" means... is the opposite of
"in". And people will say, like: "Get out of the rain. Get out of the rain."
You can say... Well, it's really difficult to say anything. It's so, so
customary for us to say: "Get out ov the car". Right? "Get out of the car", that
"out" and "of" go together. We got these two prepositions to tell us: Well, it's
the opposite of "in". So, you don't just say "out", you say: "out of". Cool?
Opposite of "in". Next: "off of". Now, this is okay to say, but please do not
put it in formal writing. It's... a lot of people say it and there are times we
say it when we want to make emphasis. Example: You have a little boy or girl
on the table, and they're dancing on your kitchen table, you say: "Hey! Get
off of the table!" You should just say: "Get off the table." Right? But "getting
off of the table" gives it a little bit more umph. Like: "Get off of the table".
"Get off of my back". "Get off my back" is simple enough, but some people will
say this to put some emphasis on it. And it is the opposite of "on". If you're on
the table: "get off of the table". Okay? Opposite of "on".
And, finally: "offed". This is a weird one. Not really weird. You'll see it in
a lot of police movies or dramas, it's like: "He was offed by the criminal."
You go: "What do you mean, 'offed'?" Remember we say: "off" is the opposite
of "on"? Well, when you kill somebody; first I'm alive — I'm on — you kill me,
I'm off. So: "The criminal offed the snitch." If you don't know what a
"snitch" is, a "snitch" is someone, if we... they tell the police what criminal
activities someone has done. They snitch. It doesn't always have to be a,
you know, a police thing. You could have a friend who snitched on you to your
girlfriend, and they told that you were at the club drinking. And you go: "Why
did you snitch on me?" Right? So, in this case: "The criminal offed the
snitch" — the snitch told somebody he shouldn't have spoken to, and he got
killed. So, this is your bonus — giving you three ways you may say "off" that
isn't quite in the preposition, adjective, adverb way I've taught you,
but in colloquial or common speech. You like that? Good. I try to deliver
because you guys deserve it. All right?
As... as I wrap this up, or you know, before I get out of here, I would like
to give you a quiz. Before I do that, I want to say thank you, as always. Thank
you for being part of this. I don't always say it every video, but I try to.
I appreciate that you take the time to study with me and with engVid. Okay? And
never... I never stop appreciating that. So, in saying that, I'm giving you
homework. It's like: "What!? How...? That's not a thank you!" It is — you get
to practice, and practice again when I get back in a second. But first, your
first question is: "They killed" something and I want you to use either
the preposition "of" or the preposition "off" to finish this statement. "They
killed" something — one of these — "all of the animals in the rain forest." I've
given you a little bit of a help. Because I'm not a bad guy, I've helped
you a little bit. You're going to have to figure that out. And then I want you
to put down: Is it a preposition, is it an adverb, or is it a...? Sorry.
Preposition, adverb, or adjective. Okay? So, put the answer, and then beside it
put: "adjective", "preposition", or "adverb".
Next: "She is the top ____ her class." Once again, you're going to put in the
proper preposition — if it's "off" or "of"— and then you're going to put down
if this is adverb, or adjective, or prep-... Sorry. Adverb, preposition, or
adjective. Now, for this particular quiz, because this is a little bit
difficult, I'm going to say: This quiz is worth 1,000 points for each one you
get correct. Yay! And I would like you to put it in the comments below, whether
that's on YouTube or on engVid. A lot of students give you the thumbs up or the
thumbs down, and you get to know, you know, how good you actually are. If you
want to take one step further, make a few sentences using the different
meanings that I taught you in this particular lesson.
Now, to finish off my gift to you, because I love you so much, I want you
to go to www. "eng" as in English, "vid" as in video.com, where there will be
another question, another, other quest-, quiz and other great teachers for you to
learn from. Hope you've enjoyed this lesson. And am I missing anything? Yes,
I got a quote for this. If you remember what I talked about "of" it shows about
relationship between things, like materials, peoples, and whatnot — here's
my quote: "A great relationship is about two things. First, it's appreciating the
similarities between things; and second, it's about respecting the differences."
I hope you take that quote, not just from the lesson I produce, showing how
there is a connection, but take that great relationship, and the respect, and
the appreciation in the relationships you have with the people you know. All
right? And actually, some people you don't know — make the world a better
place. Anyway, it's been fun. It's my time off. Ah, no reduction. See you.