Hello. My name is Emma and in today's video I am
going to teach you about a very important piece of vocabulary -- it's also very important
when it comes to grammar -- and that is the expression: "Just in case" or
we can also say: "in case". So, we use this a lot in
English, so it's very... It's something very
important for you to learn. So let's talk about what it
means and how we use it. So, we use: "in case" or "just in case"-we use
both-when we are talking about doing something to prevent a problem. Okay? So we're talking about... Or doing something to
prepare for a problem. So, we're looking at a problem and we're looking
at preparation or prevention of that problem. Okay? So, for example: "Tonight, I
am going to a restaurant." I'm very excited. Now, the problem is I get cold very easily,
and when I'm cold I'm not a very nice person; I get very cranky, and I'm not a good
person to be with when I'm cold. So my problem is I
get cold easily. What is my prevention or
preparation for this problem? Well: "I will bring a sweater
just in case I get cold." Okay? And that way I will have a great
time at the restaurant, hopefully. So my problem is being cold, and my
preparation is I'm going to bring a sweater. So, as you can see, if you think about life,
we have a lot of these types of problems and we do a lot of things to prepare
for these types of problems. So let's look at
some other examples. Okay, a problem is
when it rains... Okay? A lot of the times when it rains, you know,
I don't like getting wet, so what do I do? Well, my preparation or prevention is I bring
an umbrella, or maybe I'll bring a rain jacket. Okay? So: "I will bring an umbrella
just in case it rains." Another problem is if you work at 9am, you
know, a lot of the times there's a lot of cars; everybody's going to work at the
same time, there's a lot of traffic. And if there's a lot of traffic
maybe you'll be late for work. So what will you do
for this problem? So, traffic is the problem or maybe going
to work late is the problem, but what you can do to prevent or prepare for this
problem is you can leave your house early. So: "I leave my house early every
day just in case there's traffic." Another example of a problem is maybe you're
going to visit your friend, and your friend gives you their address. Now, if you don't write down their
address, you're going to be lost. I don't know where they live. I need to go to my friends' house, I forget
their address; I don't know where they live. So this is the problem. Especially if you're very forgetful like me
or you always forget people's phone numbers or, you know, where people
live, this is a big problem. So what do you do to
prevent this problem? Well, you write
down their address. Okay? On a piece of paper, your friend tells
you their address, you write it down. Why do you write it down? "You write down their address
just in case you forget it." Okay? You forget their address. So I've just given you some examples
of where we would use "just in case". There are a lot of examples
for "just in case". I want you to think
about your life. Is there something that happens every day
to you, maybe you have some sort of problem or something you worry about? So think about
that for a second. Is there something you worry about every day,
and what do you do to prepare for that or to prevent a problem
from happening? Okay? Maybe, you know, you're worried about failing
your test, so you might create a study group just in case. Okay? Or maybe, you know, your
teacher gives you homework. Maybe you will do the homework
just in case they want to see it. So, you see what I'm saying? There's a lot of problems you might have, and
a lot of preventions or preparations you do for those problems. So try to think of one
in your own life. Okay, so now we are going to look at the
grammar of "just in case" or "in case". Okay, so we've already looked at what are
problems, and how we prepare or prevent problems. Now let's look at some examples of: How do we
create this sentence in a grammatical fashion? So, I have here the sentence: "I will
bring an umbrella in case it rains." Do you remember what
the problem is? The problem is it rains, and the
preparation is bringing an umbrella. I have another sentence. "I will leave my house early
in case there is traffic." So, again, traffic is the problem, and leaving my
house early is the preparation or the prevention of a problem. So, I have a couple of questions
for you about the grammar. Okay? I want you to look at the sentences, both
of these sentences: Is the problem...? So the problem we're talking about, do you see
the problem before or after the expression "in case"? So where is the problem? So we find "in case". Is the problem before "in case", up here;
or is the problem after "in case"? It's after, right? So, "it rains" is the problem, so: "in
case it rains", these go together. What about down here? "...in case", is the
problem before the word "in case" or is it after the word "in case"? Well, the problem is traffic, so the
problem comes after the word "in case". Okay? So if it helps you to
remember: "in case"... So we wouldn't write
this in a sentence. This is... We won't put these brackets in a sentence, but
just to help you in your head to remember: "in case" is with the problem, so these
are like one unit, if that makes sense. Okay. And so if the problem comes after "in
case", what comes before "in case"? The preparation or
the prevention. So after "in case" is the problem, before
is the prevention or the preparation. Okay, so what verb tense
comes after "in case"? So when we're talking about the problem, what is
the verb tense that we use when we're talking about the problem? So I want you to look, here's the
verb and here is the other verb. Is this the past, the
present, or the future? If you said the present,
you are correct. We use the present tense
when we use "in case". Okay? And so: "in case it rains",
we could put this... You know, imagine if I said: "I will bring a
sweater in case it gets cold", so the part after "in case" is always
in the present tense. Okay. So another question you might be wondering:
"Do 'in case' and 'just in case' mean the same thing? Can I use either, 'in
case' or 'just in case?'" "I will bring an umbrella just in case it
rains" or "in case it rains", they're both correct. It's your choice; you can use
whichever one you prefer. Okay, and these two sentences use the word
"will": "I will leave my house early", "I will bring an umbrella", so this is talking
about, you know, doing something in the future, right? "In the future I will bring an umbrella", or
"In the future I will leave my house early". Do we always use
"will" when we use...? When we're making these
types of sentences? Can I say: "I always bring an umbrella in
case it rains" or "I brought an umbrella in case it rains"? Can I use the past, present, or
future, or is it always the future? Actually for "just in case", you can use "will",
you can use the past tense, or you can use the present tense when you're
talking about the preparation. So the problem... We're talking about a future problem, this
stays in the present tense; but in terms of the preparation, it depends on
when you do the preparation. So the key question here is: When did you
prepare, or when did you prevent the problem? So I'll give you some examples. Imagine for this one: Yesterday I brought
an umbrella to work because today I knew it would rain. So if in the past, if yesterday or earlier
today, you know, I brought an umbrella, we could change this to: "brought". "I brought an umbrella
in case it rains". "...in case it rains"
stays the same. Okay? It's always in the present. But before the preparation
we can use the past. Or what about if, you know... For example, the second sentence, imagine
I always leave my house early, every day. Okay? I always do it. It's a routine. "I will leave my house early
in case there's traffic." If it's a routine and it always happens, I
can use the present tense here, I can say: "I always leave my house early
in case there is traffic." Okay? Or if we're talking about something I'll do
in the future to prepare: "I will leave my house early in case
there is traffic." So, bottom line, the key point here, the thing
that you really got to remember: After "in case" this is
always the present. Okay? So, after the words "in case", the verb is
the present; but when you're talking about what you're doing, the preparation,
it depends on when you prepare. If you're preparing... If the action of preparing is in the past,
you use the past; if it's a routine that you always do, you use the present; or if it's
something you're going to do, use the future. Okay? So let me think if I can
give you another example. Okay, if we think about a test and studying, I
can say: "I studied hard for my test yesterday in case my test is hard." Or, sorry: I studied... Yeah. "I really studied for my test yesterday in
case the test is hard", so we have it in the past, I studied in the past. Now if, you know, maybe I always study for
a test and I always really study hard for a test, I can say it in the present: "I
always study for a test in case it's hard." Or, you know, maybe I've never done that before,
but maybe tomorrow I'm going to study, I can say: "I will study, you know,
for my test in case it's hard." Okay? So it depends on when
you're doing that action. All right, so we're going to look at a couple
more examples, you know, to get you more practice and more familiar with "in
case" and "just in case". Okay, so in my life
I get hungry a lot. And just like when I get cold I'm not really
a happy person, when I get hungry I'm not a happy person. So in order to make sure I stay happy,
I always try to have food with me. So, for example, I've made a sentence with
"just in case" or "in case": "I brought a sandwich today in
case I get hungry." So what's the problem here? The problem is when Emma's hungry
she's a horrible person to be around. Okay? So, we have a problem:
Emma's hungry. So, what do we do to make sure Emma,
you know, stays like a happy person? Well, we make sure she takes a sandwich
with her, so that's the preparation. Okay? And, again, after "in case" we have the
problem, before we have the preparation. Okay, and this, again,
is in the present tense. And this one is in the past tense
because I already brought the sandwich. Okay? This is something I
did this morning. Now, it is possible to change the
structure of the sentence around. You don't have to, so if you think: "Wow,
Emma, today I learned a lot, I don't want to, you know, learn anymore",
that's okay, you've learned a lot. But if you're interested, we can also change
the sentence and put it in the opposite way. So what do I mean by that? Well, in this case "in case" is the second
part of the sentence; we can also put it as the first part of the sentence. "In case I get hungry,"-so it's the exact
same words, we just add a comma-"I brought a sandwich". So it's your choice, they
have the exact same meaning. You can start with "In case" or "in case"
can be in the middle of the sentence. But when you start with "In case",
just make sure you remember the comma. Up here there's no comma. Okay? So, for a lot of people this is easier because
they, you know, forget their commas, but we do use both. Okay, let's look at
another example. "I always keep medicine at
home in case I _______ sick." Okay? So if you think about it, a lot of people
will have medicine for headaches, or for when they catch a cold, they
keep medicine at home. So what's the problem here? The problem is getting sick. Okay? So, the problem is getting sick,
and how do we prepare for that? Well, we have medicine at home. So, after "in case" I want
to use the verb "get" here. What do I need to do
to the verb "get"? Is it going to be in the past tense as
in "got", do I say "get", or "will get"? What tense do I use? If you said "get", which is the
present tense, you are correct. Yay. Good for you. I hope you got that. "I always keep medicine at
home in case I get sick." And, again, this is in the present because it's
something we do as a routine, we're always doing this. Okay, so the last example: "I'll go
early just in case there is a line." So imagine you're going to the movie theatre,
and you know a lot of the times with movie theatres there's a long
line up -that's a problem. A long line up is a problem, so what do you
do to prevent that problem or to prepare for it? Well, you go to the movie theatre early so
you can line up and make sure you get a good seat. So, in this case I've used
the word "just in case". "I'll go early to the movie theatre
just in case there is a long line." Do I need to use,
like, all of this? Can I just say: "I'll go early just
in case", and not even say this? That's possible. So if you don't even want to do this, you
can actually just say: "I'll go early just in case" as long as the person you're talking
to knows, like, the context and can understand what you're talking about, and it's obvious,
you know, what you're doing, you can just use "just in case" instead
of the full sentence. Okay? So, even up here: "I always keep medicine at
home", you probably keep medicine at home in order... Like, in case you get sick, it's kind of obvious,
so if you wanted to, you can just say: "...just in case". Okay? So there's a couple of ways
we can use "just in case". You've learned a couple
of different ways today. You will hear all of these different
variations in conversation, in movies, on TV. Again, "just in case" and "in case" is very
common and very important; we use it a lot. So you might hear any of
these variations of it. So, I hope you have
enjoyed this lesson. And just in case you want to practice more, you
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