Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Adverb Phrase 24. The adverb phrase today is like nobody's business. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone does something like nobody's business, he or she does it extremely well or to an excessive degree. So it could be used for both. One meaning somebody has a good skill, doing it very, very well or somebody goes way too far, way overboard. They do it to an excessive degree here. Let's continue. Some people think this phrase may have been invented to avoid using another similar phrase. You know, at the time " like the devil " we still do use like the devil sometimes too. Also you know, it's like an intensifier. Meaning you know, that you do something to an excessive degree or also extremely well. You know somebody could do something like the devil. Some people may have thought that the phrase" like the devil" was either offensive, because you know it's like the devil. It is like saying hell or damn. At one time those were considered to be like dirty words. Or perhaps giving the devil too much credit or praise. So instead of saying that. Maybe they started saying like nobody's business to avoid saying like the devil. Okay. Let's continue. And we have three examples here. Example number one. Complaints have been pouring in like nobody's business. Yeah. It could be about a positive thing too. You could say like fan letters have been pouring in like nobody's business as well. Or number two here. After winning the lottery, he started spending money like nobody's business. Yeah. I often hear it used with like spending money. Somebody could be spending money like nobody's business, to an excessive degree. And number three. He can run like nobody's business. He may have the chance to qualify for the Olympics one day. So again of course this one stresses a good skill. So in the same way, you could say you know, we could run like the devil. You could even still use that today, meaning that they are very skilled. Anyway, I hope he got it. I hope it was clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.
B1 US devil excessive phrase spending money adverb degree English Tutor Nick P Adverb Phrase (24) Like Nobody's Business 19 0 anitawu12 posted on 2019/10/24 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary