Hello, my dear friends! Welcome to Series English!
My name is Antonia Romaker and today we are going to
keep studying English idioms!
Namely animal idioms today.
So let's not beat about the bush and get right into it.
The first idiom for today is 'to let the cat out of the bag'.
You have a bag, you have a cat in it and you let it out.
What does it mean?
It means to allow a secret to be known usually unintentionally.
So you don't want the secret to be known, but you let it slip.
An example.
She was pregnant and she tried to keep it a secret,
but her husband let the cat out of the bag.
So he accidentally let it slip, he told someone
and then the cat was out of the bag.
By the way you can use this idiom as follows:
the cat is out of the bag.
So you might say:
I am pregnant! The cat is out of the bag.
The second idiom is o get back on the horse.
Probably we have already talked about it
but it won't hurt to refresh our memory.
What does it mean - to get back on the horse?
It means to return to or resume an activity
that one has previously failed at
or had difficulty with.
So something was very hard for you, you tried and tried,
but failed, however later on you decide
that you need to get back on the horse,
you start doing it again and you succeed.
An example.
Even if it seems that you can't master phrasal verbs,
it's time to get back on the horse and keep studying.
Get back on the horse, keep studying them
and you'll master them, I'm sure of that.
So usually when you get back on the horse
it means that you resume the position of power,
when you are in control, you are in charge.
You are the master of the universe.
The third idiom is 'the teacher's pet'.
Once again the meaning is quite understandable from the content.
It is a student in a class who is liked best by the teacher
and therefore is treated better than the other students.
BTW have you ever been the teacher's pet?
As for me I guess that probably a couple of times.
However being the teacher's pet is not always a very good idea,
because other students envy you.
Have you ever been the teacher's pet?
I don't think that teachers should have pets,
well at home they can but not in class.
The idiom number four is 'to ruffle somebody's feathers'.
I guess birds don't like it when you ruffle their feathers,
because the meaning of this idiom is to upset or annoy someone.
Well to cause somebody to be upset.
An example: she knows how to ruffle his feathers.
So she knows how she can upset him
or annoy him, make him mad.
So don't ruffle anybody's feathers.
By the way there is another idiom which has a similar meaning -
to push somebody's buttons.
However it's not entirely negative,
it doesn't actually mean to annoy,
but it means to influence somebody,
to be able to control this person.
So we can say she knows how to push his buttons,
but the meaning will be a little bit different.
Here - she knows how to ruffle his feathers.
Don't ruffle my feathers or I'll lose it.
And the last idiom for today is the 'lion's share',
which means the biggest part of something.
For example you might do the lion's share of work,
you are a workaholic and you do all the work.
They send the lion's share of donations to charity.
Good for them! They are good people!
So they send the lion's share,
it means the biggest part of donations
are sent to charity.
As I have already pointed out,
you can say - I do the lion's share of work here.
I need to have some rest, take it slow,
go some place and relax.
You can also eat the lion's share of food at home. Why not?
Anyway the lion's share is the biggest part of something.
And now take a look at the examples I found in TV shows,
they will help you remember the idioms better.
OK, that's it for today.
We studied five idioms.
I hope that you are going to recognize them
in different TV shows and films,
you are going to use them in your active vocabulary,
you are going to introduce them into your active vocabulary.
This will make you speech much more colorful,
interesting, exciting
and more like the speech of a native speaker.
OK, that's it.
If you liked this video, please, press the button, like it, share it.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to continue studying English with me.
And I hope to see you soon!
Happy English and Russian practice! Bye-bye!
Do not forget that if you have any questions feel free to write a comment,
I will try to answer as soon as possible!
See you, guys! Bye!