Hi and welcome back to Love English well it is nearly that time of the year again no
not christmas just yet it's nearly halloween and for those of you who celebrate halloween
it might be a little bit of a different one this year but nevertheless let's try and get into the
spooky spirit in today's lesson i'm going to share 11 idiomatic expressions with you 11 idioms that
we commonly use day to day in english but there's a slightly more spooky and devilish theme going on
here yes the language used in these idioms might contain words like witch blood devil and what else
stab but they are not necessarily only used at halloween they are common idioms that we would use
on a day-to-day basis and many of them are slightly more advanced so pay attention
and at the end of the lesson i want you to have a go comment in the box below and use some of these
idioms you don't have to use all of them but why not try using one or two of your favorite
now when it comes to learning idioms indeed when it comes to learning vocabulary one of
the most important things is for you to actually put it into practice meaning get that practical
experience whether spoken or written to actually use the language here on love english we give you
the opportunity to write sentences below and we do try to correct everybody's sentence however
most people love the opportunity to speak with a native speaker and if you have the chance to
speak with a native teacher professional teacher then even better so our partners in today's video
cambly are a way to get just that practical experience you need to help you put into practice
many of these idiomatic expressions and no doubt learn many many more cambly is a language learning
app dealing exclusively in english and you can get it on ios android and on the web cambly offers
so many flexible learning packages and importantly they're all competitively priced now the great
thing about studying online with cambly is that you can choose your teacher and you can choose
the time that you want to study so lessons are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days
a year so no matter how busy your schedule you'll be able to fit in at least 15 minutes of speaking
practice with a camberly teacher now cambly has got a great offer for love english viewers if you
use the code layla sabra 10 then you can save ten percent on a one-month course with cambly
19 on a three-month course and 32 if you choose to sign up for a year so if you do decide to take
that big step and sign up to study with cambly for a year you're essentially getting four months
of your course for free now if you feel like that is too big of a commitment don't worry
cambly will offer you a refund on the time you do not use so you'll only pay for your minutes used
now would you like the chance to study it with a camberly teacher for 60 minutes for free and
actually practice using some of these idiomatic expressions well if you comment below the best
comment use of at least three of these idiomatic expressions will go into a draw to win 60 minutes
with a camberly teacher so that's all for free there's no sign up required it's just our gift
to you so whether you want to improve your business english your ielts speaking or even
just ways to express yourself in english then click the link below to learn more about cambly
or indeed go to your app store and type in kamily to learn more right on with the lesson 11
bit of a strange number 11 idiomatic expressions commonly used in english but with a spookier theme
right number one if you want to say that you feel scared frightened then a very common idiom we use
is to say your blood has run cold your blood has run cold we often talk about running a bath
and we're not referring to actually running but we're talking about the flow
the movement of the water from the tap into the bath in this case my blood ran cold is referring
to the flow of blood around the body so that maybe makes a little bit more sense to you now
so can you think about a time where your blood ran cold where you were so scared that you were almost
frozen to the spot number two to play devil's advocate to play devil's advocate now we're not
actually talking about playing but we're actually talking about being somebody in
the middle somebody that's trying to see both sides of an argument often a person might say
look i understand where you're coming from but i'm just playing devil's advocate here
do you think maybe he's feeling a bit stressed too so it's trying to understand a more unpopular
opinion for the sake of creating a more balanced argument i'm just playing devil's advocate i'm not
saying i agree with that argument but i am trying to understand it so that we can all approach this
in a more balanced understanding way i often have to play devil's advocate between two of my
friends that are often arguing now number three to dig your own grave now to dig is this action
when you are taking earth out of the ground to make a hole and a grave is where you are buried
if you choose to be buried when you die if you dig your own grave you are making a situation a
problem worse for yourself you're causing trouble for yourself for example you didn't get the report
done yet are you kidding me the deadline was two hours ago you really are digging your own grave
so when you're making a problem for yourself when you're making a situation worse and essentially
going to get into trouble now number four sticking with the same theme graves you can also say
that you feel like someone has walked over your grave now this is when you kind of get a shiver
and you feel a bit strange and uncomfortable this really does come from 18th century folklore where
if you kind of get a weird shiver sensation where you kind of shudder and shake maybe your
spine tingles then it's said it's when actually someone is walking over your grave the place where
you are going to be buried it is rather a bizarre expression but again one that is commonly used in
english it's usually a response or a sudden shake shudder or shiver for no real reason you just go
and yeah oh i think someone just walked over my grave
nice expression bit odd number five if you become angry if you become so mad that you lose control
you can often describe your blood as boiling or he made my blood boil when he lied to my face
so you're basically talking about feeling so angry when you become red
that your blood is boiling obviously not literally because that would be a bit weird
but yes to boil remember is the process of heating a liquid till it bubbles and starts to evaporate
and become a gas so you're imagining becoming so hot and enraged that you say your blood was
boiling or you made my blood oil when you lied to my face right number six like a bat outer out of
hell now if someone moves or does something like a bat out of hell you've got to say it quite fast
bat out of hell or bat out of hell then you're referring to somebody moving or doing something
very suddenly quickly when she heard he was coming you should have seen her move like a bat out of
hell to get ready and put some makeup on number seven over my dead body over my dead body now you
don't have to literally be dead when you use this expression but you're simply saying you will not
allow something to happen you're refusing to let someone do something or behave in a certain way
over my dead body are you inviting her to the party tonight now if someone has a secret or
something they don't want to tell you you could say that they have a skeleton in the closet
a skeleton in the closet now if they've got more than one secret obviously you could say
skeletons in the closet i'm not sure i trust gary at work i think he's got a few skeletons in the
closet we don't know about yet now number nine to have a skeleton staff is quite simply to have
the bare minimum number of staff whether that's because you can't afford to hire a lot of people
or if people are on holiday and taking a break basically you're referring to having
the minimum number of people needed in order to keep the business open or complete a project
we decided it was best that we have a skeleton staff on this one just to make sure that we came
under budget number 10 to stab someone in the back yes quite an unpleasant thought there but
essentially it means that someone has betrayed you you can often use it in the passive voice to be
stabbed in the back she told the boss that i was late handing in the report so that she would get
the promotion she completely stabbed me in the back now here there's actually no reference to
real physical violence it is very much a metaphor for being betrayed so think about a time someone
stabbed you in the back what did they do to betray you now finally number 11 to go on a witch hunt to
go on a witch hunt or for there to be a witch hunt essentially here we're using an expression that
comes from the middle ages when people really did believe there were witches and wanted to
find them and kill them now in this day and age we no longer believe there are witches around
however we do still use this expression when we're talking about a group of people or a
particular person being hunted in a way to blame them for a problem that may or may not actually
be caused by them it is often used when we're referring to harassing people that have opposing
views to perhaps the majority doesn't mean they're wrong doesn't mean they've done anything wrong
but often we will refer to this as being a witch hunt as an example in america senator mccarthy led
a witch hunt against people who were believed to be communists right and there we have it 11 rather
spooky but commonly used idiomatic expressions in english and don't forget if you would like to put
those idioms into practice and you'd like to get 60 free minutes with a cambly native professional
teacher then comment below a minimum of three idiomatic expressions used in a context that is
personal to you thank you so much for watching i look forward to seeing you very soon with
plenty more pronunciation idioms vocabulary and grammar in the meantime have a spooky halloween