Learn how to use the verb "Hold"
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| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Know Your Verbs. My name is Alisha. In this episode, we're going to talk about the verb "hold." Let's go. |
| The basic definition of the verb "hold" is just to have in your hand, to have something. Like "hold my beer," or "I want to hold your hand." "Hold my beer," or "I want to hold your hand," for example. Let's look at the conjugations for this verb. The present, "hold," "holds." Past, "held." Past participle, "held." Progressive, "holding." |
| Now, let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb. The first additional meaning for this word is to have a position or some special distinction. Let's look at some examples of this. "He held the world record for donut eating for three years." "She holds the top position in the company." In these situations, we see a position, someone's job, someone's position, or some special distinguishing mark like a world-record holder or a record holder. "He holds," or "she holds a position," currently can refer to someone's job. We can also use it for something that we had in the past, some special distinction we had in the past, like he held a world record; or, maybe for a present distinction, we can say, "She holds the world record for something." Profession, a job, a special kind of recognition, we can use the word "hold" to describe them. |
| The second extra meaning, quite broadly, is to restrain, like to hold something back. Some examples of this. "Hold your fire." "He has trouble holding his temper." The first example sentence was "Hold your fire." If you've ever watched a war movie or, maybe, a historical drama, some film like that, you might have heard the expression, "Hold your fire." Fire means shooting. So, "hold" means restrain or stop from doing something. "Hold your fire," means stop shooting your gun. "Hold your fire." If you've ever seen a war movie, you might have heard this expression, "hold your fire." In the second one, "He has trouble holding his temper." To hold your temper. One's temper is one's emotional control. So, to hold your temper means to be able to control your emotions. Usually, when we say "temper," it means our angry emotions. "He has trouble holding his temper," means it's difficult for him to control his angry emotions, or it's difficult for him to control his anger. "Hold your temper," control your anger, but it sounds a little less direct. |
| The next meaning is to carry out. To carry out an event. Examples of this, "The company is holding a conference tomorrow." "We held an event at the concert hall last year." In the first example sentence, we see, "The company is holding a conference tomorrow." "Holding" in the progressive tense refers to a future plan. "The company is holding." In other words, the company is going to carry out some event tomorrow. The company is going to carry out a conference tomorrow, but instead of saying "going to carry out," we can say "the company is holding a conference tomorrow." Meaning an event is going to occur. In the second example sentence, "we held an event at the concert hall last year," we see the past tense. "We held an event," meaning we carried out an event. Some event happened there last year, but we can use hold, or in this case the past tense version, held, to describe that quickly. |
| Let's look at some variations on the use of this verb. The first variation is "to hold one's breath." "To hold one's breath" means just to keep air in your lungs. Like when you go swimming, for example, you hold your breath. It's a short example of that, to keep the air in your lungs. Not taking air in, not taking air out, that's to hold your breath. Examples, "How long can you hold your breath?" "He held his breath until his face turned red." We can use this expression to mean keeping the air in our lungs. However, we also have a set expression which is "don't hold your breath." "Don't hold your breath" means don't wait for something to happen because it's going to take a long time. For example, if you are hoping that you are going to get a huge raise and a big house next year, or something like that; you really, really, really want this big bonus or something like that, you might say to your colleague or your coworker, "I really want this. I really want this much more money." Your coworker might say to you, "Don't hold your breath," meaning it's going to take a long time. The image in this situation is that if you hold your breath, you can only do it for a short period of time, a few seconds, maybe a minute or so. "Don't hold your breath" means the suggestion you made is going to take a long time. So, you're going to hurt yourself or get in trouble if you expect it's going to happen quickly. So, don't hold your breath. |
| The next expression is "to hold your horses," or "to hold one's horses." This expression means to restrain or to keep in your enthusiasm. It's like you're too excited, calm down, in other words. Some examples, "Hold your horses; there will be plenty of time for celebration when the project is finished." "Whoa, hold your horses. We're not done yet." In both of these example sentences, we see "hold your horses," meaning there's too much enthusiasm, you need to slow down. I guess "horses" is used here because horses are animals that want to run quickly. They're fast, have lots of energy, but to say "hold your horses," means keep them back, keep them restrained, but not literally horses. It means your energy, your enthusiasm, means keep it restrained for now. Oftentimes, that just means because we're using the verb hold, it means restrain it; then, maybe later you can use that. It doesn't mean stop your enthusiasm. It means just keep it back for now. "Hold your horses." Another common expression. |
| Those are a few different uses of the verb "hold." I hope that it was useful for you. If you have any questions or comments or, if you want to try to make a sentence using this verb, please feel free to do so in the comment section. If you liked the video, please give us a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, and check us out at EnglishClass101.com. Thanks for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs. We'll see you again next time. Bye, bye. |
| Yes, that's true. We use "hold on the phone." I never explained that. When we're on the phone with someone and we need to contact someone else, we can say, "Please hold," and we put the phone down. "Thank you for holding." That's a very common one. |
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