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hello lovely students and welcome back
to english with lucy now if you are a
member of my email list
if you signed up to receive my pdfs and
my newsletters then you will know that
we have been doing a big focus on idioms
recently lots of you seem really keen to
expand your vocabulary and an amazing
way to do that is to learn idioms idioms
are so hard because they don't have
literal meanings you can't read the
words and understand what they're about
so idioms are really hard to learn but
they are much much easier to learn and
process and retain if you learn them in
context so this is how today's lesson is
going to work i am going to read you a
story that i wrote and it contains 20
idioms for the first part of the lesson
i will read the story you can practice
your listening skills maybe improve your
pronunciation
but i want you to listen
and see if you can identify all 20
idioms hold your hands like this each
time you hear one stick your finger up
okay see if you can get all 20.
after that we will go through the story
phrase by phrase and i will help you
understand each and every idiom as
always there is a free pdf and quiz that
goes with this lesson if you'd like to
download that just click on the link in
the description box you enter your name
and your email address you sign up to my
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automatically arrive in your email inbox
after that you will automatically
receive all of my lesson pdfs and all of
my news course information and offers
it's a free service and you can
unsubscribe at any time there is also
one other thing that i wanted to discuss
before we start this lesson i am running
an idioms challenge it's a 30-day
challenge every single day you get a
text containing between six and ten
idioms
you get a daily video from me i read
through the text so you can improve your
listening and pronunciation skills and i
talk about the meanings of all of the
idioms after you've read through the
text you've watched the video you can
take the exercises we have 20 daily
exercises and as you go through the
challenge i start to test you on what
you've learned in previous days
this is a 30 day challenge it has 30
videos lessons and sets of exercises but
you have lifetime access so you can take
it at any time for the pricing and
enrolment just click on the link in the
description box i just ran a
collocations challenge and the students
loved it it was amazing we had such a
great time right let's get started with
this idioms lesson as i said there are
20 idioms in this story
with your hands see if you can identify
them all obviously i don't expect you to
have 20 fingers you might have to do two
lots
i want you to use this as a listening
exercise as well to see how much you
pick up because we're going to go
through phrase by phrase
if you do need the extra help you can
turn on subtitles i woke up in the
morning feeling a little under the
weather
i took a deep breath and tried to pull
myself together
you've got to bite the bullet and attend
the interview i said to myself
i went downstairs to have some breakfast
my mum asked me if i was hungry
i told her that i could eat a horse
she made me a big plate of eggs and i
wolfed it down
i started to feel really nervous about
the interview
candidates like me are a dime a dozen
to add insult to injury i'd been
unemployed for six months
why would anyone hire me
perhaps i'm barking up the wrong tree
or perhaps i should throw caution to the
wind and just go
the ball is in my court i have to do
this
on the way to the interview my bus got
stuck in a traffic jam i was really down
on my luck
to make matters worse i spilt some
coffee on my shirt
i arrived 10 minutes late but the boss
said better late than never
she said that she would give me the
benefit of the doubt which i really
appreciated
she was really on the ball and asked me
lots of relevant questions about my past
experience
i managed to give her some good answers
so far so good i thought to myself
by the end of the interview i felt a lot
better she said to me that her decision
was a piece of cake she wanted to offer
me the position
i was over the moon
finally i had my dream job i told her
that i would give her my all i was on
cloud nine for the rest of the day ah
lovely positive story parts of that are
actually true i did once spill coffee
all over my shirt before a job interview
but i still got the job
yes
i have been rejected from quite a few
jobs in my time as well i really wanted
to work at the makeup counter
in my local department store
when i was younger and i applied three
times and got rejected every single time
so in the first part of the story i said
i woke up in the morning feeling a
little under the weather and to feel
under the weather or to be under the
weather is our first idiom this means to
feel ill or unwell it doesn't mean
seriously ill it just means i don't feel
as good as i normally do an example i
didn't go into school today because i
was feeling a bit under the weather i
hope to feel better tomorrow not that
serious just not feeling that great
okay next i said i took a deep breath
and tried to pull myself together and to
pull oneself together
is our next idiom idiom number two to
pull oneself together is to recover
control
of one's emotions sometimes if i'm
feeling a bit weak or pathetic i don't
want to do something i tell myself pull
yourself together lucy
worst things could happen an example
calm down and pull yourself together
screaming isn't going to help
in the next sentence i was speaking to
myself i said you've got to bite the
bullet and attend the interview and to
bite the bullet is our third idiom
it means to decide to do something
unpleasant that you have been avoiding
something unpleasant or difficult as
well
a big example of this is with me and
running i love running but i like
running in nice weather and when it's
really really cold i try to make myself
go out on a run but i don't want to it's
cold it's unpleasant it's more difficult
i try to make myself bite the bullet
stop avoiding it and just do it an
example i've been avoiding organizing my
finances but i need to bite the bullet
and open that spreadsheet
when you hear the phrase bite the bullet
think of nike okay just do it just do it
stop avoiding it just do it that's our
nike idiom the next sentence
i went downstairs to have some breakfast
my mum asked me if i was hungry and i
said that i could eat a horse i could
eat a horse is our next idiom and it
means i could eat a lot or i am so
hungry
an example after running the marathon i
could have eaten a horse i was so hungry
the next sentence in the story is she
made me a big plate of eggs and i wolfed
it down i wolfed it down to wolf
something down is actually a phrasal
verb but it's also slang so we're
including it here as an idiom to wolf
something down is to eat something
really quickly if you think
how a wolf eats
it goes down your throat really quickly
to wolf something down now if i'm
talking about eggs plural why did i say
i wolfed it down
this is because we're referring to the
plate of eggs mind that one there as i
often hear students make mistakes with
that an example he wolfed down two
plates of lasagna and still had room for
dessert
that is my husband he just loves
lasagna italians i hope you appreciate
the british pronunciation of lasagna
i do apologize
okay next sentence i started to feel
really nervous about the interview
candidates like me are a dime a dozen a
dime a dozen is our sixth idiom and it's
funny because we don't have dimes in um
the british monetary system that's an
american coin
but we still do use it and a dime a
dozen means very very common candidates
like me are a dime a dozen
there are loads of candidates just like
me
i don't have anything special an example
i'm sorry but your stamp collection
isn't worth anything most of the stamps
are a dime a dozen most of them are
really common
all right next sentence
to add insult to injury i'd been
unemployed for six months why would
anyone hire me
so number seven is to add insult to
injury to add insult to injury nice bit
of connected speech there two ends in
the vowel sound
and the next word starts with a vowel
sound so we almost put a little
sound between it to add to injury if you
want to learn more about connected
speech i've got a whole video about it
i'll put that in the description box if
you want to look deeply at it you can
try my pronunciation course the link is
also in the description box to add
insult to injury means to make something
bad even worse
if you look at the phrase insult to
injury
this means that you're already injured
and now you've been insulted too the bad
situation has been made worse
an example he broke up with me and then
to add insult to injury he started
dating my sister bad situation made
worse the next sentence is perhaps i'm
barking up the wrong tree perhaps i'm
barking up the wrong tree this is a
really common idiom here in the uk it
means to be wrong about the reason for
something or the way to achieve
something for example i thought that the
best way to hire a video editor would be
to put up posters around my town but i
was barking up the wrong tree what i
should have done is posted on an online
job board i was wrong about the way to
achieve something another example she
thinks that spending time apart will
solve her marriage problems but she's
barking up the wrong tree maybe they
need to spend more time together if you
visualize this idiom
imagine two trees and there's a squirrel
up this tree a little dog is barking at
this tree here he's barking up the wrong
tree he's never going to achieve what he
wants here he should go to the other
tree
next sentence or perhaps i should throw
caution to the wind and just go
idiom number nine is to throw caution to
the wind this means to act without
thinking of the consequences it doesn't
necessarily mean to act without care or
to act carelessly sometimes it's used in
quite an inspirational way i'm not going
to think about the risks i'm going to
follow my heart an example
i was worried she would reject me but i
threw caution to the wind and asked her
out
next sentence the ball is in my court i
have to do this if the ball is in your
court it means you have to make the next
move i can't do any more the ball is in
your court visualize two people playing
tennis this person has the ball
the ball is in their court this other
person can't do anything it's used a lot
in professional situations i've done as
much as i can the ball is in your court
you have to make a decision now we are
now halfway through the idioms moving on
to number 11. let's take a look at the
sentence on the way to the interview my
bus got stuck in a traffic jam i was
really down on my luck so number 11 is
to be down on your luck
this means to be experiencing a period
of bad luck
so this isn't the first bad thing that's
happened to you an example i really hope
that things have proved for you you've
been down on your luck and you don't
deserve it this could be me talking to a
friend who's been on three terrible
dates they really deserve a good date
but they've they've been down on their
luck the next one to make matters worse
i spilt some coffee on my shirt
so this is number 12 to make matters
worse and it means almost exactly the
same thing as to add insult to injury it
means we have a bad situation
and what has made it worse
is the following
an example the thief stole my bag and to
make matters worse he tripped me over so
not only did i lose my bag i also fell
over if somebody trips you over they
make you fall down
next sentence
i arrived 10 minutes late but the boss
said better late than never
better late than never is our 13th idiom
it means that it's better to do
something late or after it should have
been done than to not do it at all
sometimes we use it in a sarcastic sense
if i hand in my homework to my teacher
really really late they might say uh
better late than never
we like to be quite sarcastic in the uk
an example in context you lose 10 of
your marks if you hand in your
coursework late but better late than
never it's better to lose 10 percent
than to lose 100
okay next sentence
she said that she would give me the
benefit of the doubt which i really
appreciated ooh to give someone the
benefit of the doubt idiom number 14
this means to decide to believe someone
even if you're not 100 sure that what
they're saying is true or honest i don't
know if you're lying to me but i will
give you the benefit of the doubt
sometimes if my students hand in their
homework late and they tell me they had
internet problems i don't have any proof
but i give them the benefit of the doubt
i'll believe them if they keep repeating
the same thing over and over again then
i won't give them the benefit of the
doubt anymore an example i'm not sure if
he'll be able to deliver on his promises
but i'm going to give him the benefit of
the doubt
next sentence she was really on the ball
and asked me lots of relevant questions
about my past experience idiom number 15
is to be on the ball to be on the ball
this is something that you want to be
this means to be organized and alert
an example you won't be able to fool him
he's very on the ball when it comes to
new tricks and scams
sometimes if i make a mistake if i
wasn't careful enough with my work i
tell myself i need to be more on the
ball i need to be more organized and
alert and just in control of things
next sentence
i managed to give her some good answers
so far so good i thought to myself
number 16 the 16th idiom is so far so
good
and this means
everything until now has gone well it
means that you haven't finished
something yet but everything along the
way is going positively okay next
sentence by the end of the interview i
felt a lot better she said to me that
her decision was a piece of cake she
wanted to offer me the position
a piece of cake idiom number 17 is
very easy if something is a piece of
cake then it's very easy an example i
thought that exam was a piece of cake we
should all get full marks
next sentence i was over the moon
finally i had my dream job
idiom number 18 to be over the moon
means to be very happy to be ecstatic
an example i was over the moon when i
found out that my favorite band was
playing in my city next sentence i told
her that i would give her my all i told
her that i would give her my all number
19 to give something or someone your all
means to give something or someone your
full effort your best try
an example i gave it my all but i didn't
manage to win the race i tried as hard
as i possibly could i put in my full
effort but i didn't win the race and the
final sentence i was on cloud nine for
the rest of the day and to be on cloud
nine means to be elated very very happy
an example after our wedding day we were
on cloud nine it was amazing to finally
tie the knot to tie the knot is slang
for to get married it was amazing to
finally get married to tie the knot
right that is it for the story and the
20 idioms don't forget to download the
free pdf that goes with this lesson and
if you think you'd like to do something
like this every day learning between 6
and 10 idioms every single day with a
short daily text like this and a video
from me and so many practice exercises
then i really recommend my idioms
challenge if you'd like to sign up click
on the link in the description box all
of the information and pricing info is
there don't forget to connect with me on
all of my social media i've got my
website
englishwithlucy.co.uk i've got a cool
pronunciation tool there there are lots
of extra lessons i've also got my
vlogging channel lucy bella where we
document our lives here in the english
countryside all of the vlogs are fully
subtitled so you can use them for
listening practice and to acquire more
vocabulary don't forget to connect with
me on social media i've got my instagram
lucy i've got my english learning page
which is very new at english with lucy
and i've also got my facebook i will see
you soon for another lesson
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