well hey there I'm Emma from English now
it's been a while since I've made you an
idiom lesson and since so many of you
have been asking for help with idioms
lately I thought we'd better get to it
[Music]
there are just so many English idioms do
you remember what they are they're
phrases
whose meaning is different to the
individual meaning of each of the words
in the phrase there are really tricky
part of learning English there's lots of
them thousands and some idioms are more
commonly used in some countries but not
in others which is a little bit
frustrating when you're trying to learn
them right which ones are the ones that
everyone uses there are some idioms that
my American friends use that I'm like
what and ones that I use that go
straight over their head as well that's
an idiom right there native English
speakers use them a lot they pop up in
spoken English when it's really
difficult to you know fully understand
them or stop the conversation and ask
about the meaning of how it's used you
just sort of left wondering why is he
talking about an elephant one little
hint with idioms is that there are
probably some English idioms that are
similar to the ones that you have in
your own language like crow's feet
crow's feet other wrinkles that people
get here caused by a lifetime of
laughing and smiles or maybe too much
squinting in the Sun but in English
they're called crow's feet but these
same wrinkles might have a similar idiom
as their name in your language so if you
do have some sort of idiom for these
wrinkles here I want you to add it to
the comments right now because I've
heard a few of them before but I'm
curious to see just how many we can
collect their crow's feet in English
they kind of look like a crows foot now
you may have seen some of my other
idioms lessons I've made quite a few but
you can find all of them right here on
my idioms playlist I'll also link to it
at the end of this lesson just in case
you want to keep practicing a little bit
more with me later on but there's
idioms whether idioms food idioms
holiday idioms body idioms they're all
there now even though you probably feel
like idioms make a conversation
confusing they're also really fun and
they're a great creative way to express
yourself they really show off your
English talents like in a speaking exam
for IELTS or TOEFL using an idiom
correctly is quite impressive and before
we get started make sure you subscribe
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button down there so that you can keep
up to date with what's happening so
we're gonna learn a few today we're
gonna go over some common animal idioms
starting with this one it's raining cats
and dogs now it's raining cats and dogs
doesn't mean that cats and dogs are
falling out of the sky it means that
it's raining and it doesn't just mean
raining it means raining really hard
it's heavy rain I think we'll have to
cancel the back row it's raining cats
and dogs out there it's really raining
now to be totally honest I don't really
use this idiom that much but I come
across it all the time in books so I
wanted to include it here for you
usually I would say it's bucketing down
if it's raining really hard but if it's
raining cats and dogs it's probably best
to stay inside now
speaking of cats who let the cat out of
the bag this idiom is used to talk about
revealing a secret now just imagine your
sister told you that she was flying home
to surprise your mom for her birthday
it's a secret right you can't tell your
mum because it wouldn't be a surprise if
you did you would let the cat out of the
bag your sister might say please don't
tell Dad he'll definitely let the cat
out of
bag the secret will be ruined because
dad can't keep a secret and the party
wouldn't be a surprise anymore would it
you can also ask the question who let
the cat out of the bag who told the
secret or you can apologize you can say
oops I may have just let the cat out of
the bag
I may have spoiled the surprise now I
want to ask you have you got an
addiction to something for me it's
coffee
I've got a coffee addiction I can't
possibly give it up well the only way
that I could do it is if I just went
cold turkey now this one doesn't make
much sense picturing a turkey who's
really really cold won't help you at all
but if you go cold turkey it means that
you stop doing something completely 100%
and we usually use it to talk about
quitting addictions like smoking coffee
drinking even social media addictions we
all know someone who's addicted to their
phone right or maybe you are maybe
you're addicted to your phone maybe you
can't put it down if you are maybe you
should think about going cold turkey for
a while so you delete Facebook delete
Twitter delete Instagram whatsapp
everything all forms of social media it
has to be everything otherwise it's not
cold turkey cold turkey means a hundred
percent absolutely no now you can use
two verbs with cold turkey you can
either say go cold turkey or you can
quit cold turkey
though that's a little more American
American English so I'm curious have you
ever quit anything cold turkey before
and completely stopped doing it tell me
in the comments usually it's not so easy
to go cold turkey what do you think okay
for the next idiom I want you to think
of someone that you know who's
very kind and gentle well you can
describe them by saying they wouldn't
hurt a fly flies and mosquitoes are
pretty annoying aren't they especially
here in Australia so someone who
wouldn't hurt a fly
must be so patient and kind right so
this is a really positive affectionate
idiom and it's used to describe a person
so you can also use this expression to
reassure someone if they're worried
about trusting someone you might say to
them don't worry Steve wouldn't hurt a
fly he's the nicest guy that you'll ever
meet all right I think it's really time
we talk about the elephant in the room
have you ever heard of this idiom the
elephant in the room is the thing that
nobody wants to talk about so it's quite
specific the way you use this idiom it's
when people are talking normally but
they're all deliberately not talking
about a particular issue but this issue
is a big one it's like a big huge
elephant sitting in the middle of the
room that is really obvious and it's
impossible not to look at and know if
you can see it right but nobody is
talking about it the issue is something
really obvious but everyone's ignoring
it right or they're trying to avoid it
probably because it's an uncomfortable
topic or a difficult situation we really
need to deal with the elephant in the
room none of us have been paid in over a
month
no one wants to talk about this right
talking about money can be a little bit
awkward especially with your boss this
is a bad situation why is no one in the
room talking about it it's definitely
what everyone's been thinking about why
haven't I been paid it's the elephant in
the room we need to deal with this big
issue right this one is one of my
favorite idioms it's one that I use a
lot when you have butter
flies in your stomach it's when you feel
kind of nervous do you know this feeling
it's that feeling in your stomach right
before you walk on stage to speak in
front of a hundred people and present
your research it feels like you
literally have butterflies flying around
inside your belly right now think of
anything that makes you feel so nervous
that your tummy starts to feel a little
funny this can be described as
butterflies in your stomach right you
can use it to describe good nervous
feelings or bad nervous feelings I'm so
scared to speak on stage I've got
butterflies in my stomach he always gets
butterflies in his stomach before he
goes into big exams when was the last
time you had butterflies in your stomach
do you know this feeling
tell me about what makes you nervous and
when you have this feeling for me if I
see police lights in the rear-vision
mirror in my car when I'm driving I
instantly get butterflies in my belly
even if I've done nothing wrong you can
say stomach or belly here belly is just
a little more informal it's an informal
way to say stomach now you might also
hear people just say I've got
butterflies and they're talking about
this same idiom unless that person has a
jar of butterflies with them in their
pocket then they might be seeing it and
literally mean it but that's unlikely
right so here's the next video a fish
out of water now if you see someone who
is uncomfortable in a specific situation
like your grandma if she walked into a
nightclub then they look like a fish out
of water she would feel like a fish out
of water really uncomfortable right she
would feel completely awkward in a
nightclub unless you've got a super cool
granny I was really excited on the first
day of my internship but when I arrived
I felt like a fish out of water
maybe when you get invited to a party
but everyone is a native English speaker
you might feel a little like a fish out
of water there okay we've got time for
one more
idiom to open a can of worms
imagine a can full of worms it's full of
long wriggling squirming worms that are
all twisted together look so when you
open that can of worms you're gonna have
a big mess they're going to go
everywhere it's probably going to be
really difficult to clean up and try and
catch them all right you'll have a lot
more problems than when you started it's
easier when they're in the can but if
you open it there's going to be problems
don't ask them about the argument you'll
just open a can of worms or let's not
talk about raising prices we're just
going to open a can of worms so if you
don't want to create a tricky situation
then don't open the can of worms right
it's simple so those are some of the
common animal idioms that I tend to use
quite often but there are more do you
know any other ones in English or can
you share the meaning of any animal
idioms in your own language perhaps
there are some similar ones in English
and we can chat about them in the
comments and make sure you try and use
some of the new idioms that you've
learnt in this lesson below in the
comments I'll try and give you some
feedback and help you to make sure
you're using them correctly thanks for
joining me here again at the English
Channel make sure you subscribe if you
haven't already and right now we're
gonna check out a few more videos about
idioms right here let's go