Hi guys. Welcome back to English with Max.
In this video I'm going to talk about
five very common English idioms. If
someone asked me what my favorite idiom
was, I wouldn't be able to answer because
I like quite a lot of them. So for this
video I've chosen five that I like a lot
and that are also very common -
native speakers use these a lot.
They also very current.
I don't want to teach you old-fashioned
ones that only our grandparents might use.
Maybe I'll do that in another video.
OK, let's get started. The first one is:
you can't have your cake and eat it too.
Literally this might not make sense to some people
because some people think: "Well, if you
are having your cake, you are eating it
as well. It's the same thing." But the idea
behind this idiom is that you cannot eat
your cake and still have it in front of you.
The figurative meaning is that you
cannot have two things that are
incompatible. Another way to express this
is: you can't have it both ways.
Here is an example: Frank wants to go
play with George, but Frank has an exam
tomorrow and needs to study,
otherwise he will fail. So I could say to
Frank: "You can't have your cake and eat it too."
Another example is someone saying: "I want
to go to Paris when it's hot, but I don't
want to go when there are lots of tourists."
Well, when it's hot there are lots of
tourists. So yeah, you cannot have your
cake and eat it too. Many languages have
an equivalent for this expression.
I'm going to give you some examples and
I will put the literal translations of these
in the subtitles. In French the expression is:
On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre. (One can't have the butter and the money from the butter.)
In German a close equivalent is:
Mann kann nicht auf zwei Hochzeiten tanzen. (One can't dance at two weddings.)
And in Spanish you can say:
No se puede estar en misa y repicando. (You can't be at mass and ringing the bell.)
The R is really hard for me in Spanish.
For the other idioms in this video I'm
not going to give you any translations
or equivalents, because what I would like
you to do, is try to think of idioms in
your own language which express the same ideas.
Sometimes there isn't an
equivalent in another language, but often
there is. Please write it in the comments
below, if you can think of it, and it
would also be great if you could put the
literal English translation.
The second one is also related to cake and it is:
It's a piece of cake.
Of course native speakers often say:
It's a piece-a-cake.
This simply means that something is very easy to do.
For example, cooking pasta is a piece of
cake. For most people anyway, I hope.
Or, watching reality TV is a piece of cake;
learning a language is not. You should
also be aware that in the UK and
Australia we have a more vulgar form of
this expression. And that is: It's a piece of piss.
I'm not suggesting that you use this
expression because you could very easily
offend people, but it is good if you understand it.
On a side note, I know that the word
"pis" in Spanish is something that you often use with
children, but that is not the case with "piss" in English.
"Piss" is quite vulgar and it's
definitely not a word that you use with children.
Number three: nothing to write home about.
This means mediocre, nothing spectacular
nothing special. The idea behind this is
that you would not sit down and write a
letter to your family about something.
It can apply to many things: food, movies
places, events. For example, I could say to
you: "How was the movie?"
"Nothing to write home about."
Or: "How was the Justin Bieber concert?"
"Nothing to write home about."
The fourth one is: to bite off more than you can chew.
This means to try to do more than you are
able to do. I'm pretty sure most of you
know the word "bite". It's that. But some
of you might not know the word "chew".
"Chew" is what you do to food when it's in your mouth.
We do have the word "masticate" in English.
I know that in some Romance languages the word
is similar: "mastiquer" in French, "masticar" in Spanish.
But we don't use "masticate" very often.
Firstly it's quite formal, and possibly
also because it sounds like another word
which starts with "m-a-s-t" and ends in "a-t-e".
Yes, I know, I really need to grow up.
When would you use this? Well, for example,
you're at work and your boss comes to
you and says: "Can you please send these
emails, research this topic, file these documents
and then look at those accounts?"
And you say: "Yes, yes, no problem."
But then at one o'clock in the morning when you're
still in the office working, you might say to yourself:
"I think I've bitten off more than I can chew."
The last one for today is: to add insult to injury.
This means to make a bad situation worse.
I used this in my train travel video,
which you can watch by clicking right
here or clicking on the white box above.
I was complaining because I had to get
up early, and to add insult to injury
it was also raining. What a hard life.
But this can be used in many situations.
For example, the flight wasn't very pleasant
because there was a lot of turbulence,
and to add insult to injury there was a
baby sitting behind me. Or: my boyfriend left me
and to add insult to injury he announced it on Facebook.
Bastard.
That wouldn't be very nice would it, Frank?
We have come to the end, guys. I hope you
enjoyed this video. If you did, please
share it with your friends. And remember
to try to think of idioms in your own
languages that express the same ideas.
You can write those in the comments
section, and it would be great if you could
put the English translation. You can also
follow me on Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram. I'll put the links in the
info box below. See you next time.