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idioms idioms expressions catchphrases
we call them many things many languages
have them they are very specific to
different languages in English we love
them I'd say as a native English speaker
I use about 30 idioms a day okay and
very commonly English learners will
listen to English TV American TV English
podcasts radio and the confusion in
listening comes because of all the
idioms and expressions that are just
dotted around so if you want to speak
like a native and have excellent
listening comprehension phrases
expressions idioms are what you need to
learn so we're gonna start today with 10
very common English phrases and idioms
so let's go number one
the last straw this is commonly used to
express a negative emotion and the best
way I can describe it is like this
imagine you're at work your boss is
being terrible you have more work to do
because your colleague forgot to do it
it's raining you're hungry you're tired
everything is going wrong then your boss
comes up to you and says can you stay
behind and work late oh that is the last
straw the last straw is the thing that
sparks action multiple things have been
happening maybe in a day or
week and the last straw is the final
thing that makes you go right no that's
it I am angry number two it costs an arm
and a leg this one is very British I'm
not sure but I haven't heard it spoken a
lot in American media but definitely in
Britain we say it a lot and it just
means expensive that's it it just means
it's really really expensive so for
example while I was away at work my
boyfriend bought a huge TV without
telling me I walk in and I say that must
have cost an arm and a leg it's
expensive it's a lot of money it's a lot
of this watch out for this one if you're
talking in the present tense we say it
costs an arm and a leg with that s on
the end it is in the past tense it cost
an arm and a leg number three a taste of
your own medicine imagine a doctor with
medicine all day he gives medicine away
medicine half this take this now imagine
the medicine is not good it's bad
medicine
da da da da one day we turn to the
doctor and we feed him his own medicine
have a taste of his own medicine it just
means to treat someone how they treat
others it's like revenge so we can
replace the your with his/her there for
example that girl is horrible she needs
to have a taste of her own medicine no
for pulling my leg no it doesn't
literally mean pulling someone's leg it
means lying or joking with someone so
for example I phoned my friend and I say
I've just won the lottery and she says
are you pulling my leg are you lying to
me
are you joking with me are you pranking
me that's pulling your leg and again you
can replace the pronoun always whoever
it applies to pulling his leg pulling my
leg pulling your leg pulling their leg
yesterday I was talking to Dan and I was
pulling his leg about this blah blah
blah blah blah number five are you
having a laugh I say this all the time
and it's very similar to pulling my leg
it's are you joking are you pretending
are you lying are you having a laugh it
usually comes from a place of shock like
half no way this can't be serious
you know okay number six off the hook
now this phrase is commonly said like
this let him off the hook or let her off
the hook or let them off the hook
normally it's let with a pronoun off the
hook
let me explain so imagine your friend
borrowed your car okay
it's driving the car well but crash is
it okay crashes the car little scratch
on the car not good so you're angry with
your friend for a bit because they
crashed your car but then it's been a
few days and you think maybe I should
forgive them maybe I should let them off
the hook letting someone off the hook is
just forgive if you think about a hook
on a wall a hook and someone is on the
hook as in you're angry with them when
you forgive them you there we go
it's okay I forgive you
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thanks belay me off the hook moving on
number seven burning the candle at both
ends and this one basically means you
wake up very early to do work and then
you stay up very late to do work you're
busy you're tired you've got no time to
rest you're just working all the time
if you imagine a candle a candle and we
light both ends and you have your candle
and it's going you're burning the candle
at both ends you're just waking up early
going to bed late working hard in the
morning work hard me evening you're not
resting you're not sleeping burning the
candle at both ends
number 8 elephant in the room you may
have heard this one it's very very
common the best way I can explain it is
imagine there's an elephant in the room
so imagine there's an elephant in the
room and no one's talking about it he's
just in the room he's in the corner and
no one mentions it we just have our chat
you know how are you how are you doing
elephant over there but no one's talking
about it it's those situations where
there's a piece of knowledge or there's
something that everyone in the room
knows but no one's talking about it
because maybe it's good to talk about it
or we shouldn't talk about it
you know you'll commonly hear people say
something like should we address the
elephant in the room and by address we
mean notice I knowledge talk about
elephant in the room there you go
number 9 bite the bullet I don't know
where this expression comes from I'm
sure there's a wonderful story attached
to it bite the bullet means to finally
do something that you didn't want
to do something that you knew at some
point you were going to have to do it
but you were like oh no no I won't do
that now I won't do that
well I'm going to do that now and then
finally I just have to bite the bullet
and do it I just have to do it it's like
realizing that I'm gonna have to do this
you don't necessarily want to but you
just have to for example I'm still
waiting for my boyfriend to bite the
bullet and propose to me oh and the last
one is a ridiculous phrase that is very
British and it's silly but I love it
number 10 we have wild goose chase it
doesn't mean to chase a goose it means
to be searching and looking and and
crazily running about to find something
or spending so much time trying to get
somewhere or trying to find something or
someone I was looking for the shop and I
had to go on a while a goose chase to
find it because I had to go to the bus
stop and then I took the bus and then I
got off the bus cuz I was on the wrong
bus and then I had to go to this other
place and ask someone and they sent me
to here which was the wrong place name
everything well never that just this
long complicated journey to get where
you need to be able to get something
that you need so there we go tend very
common expressions in the English
language if you enjoyed this video
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tada
and my resource recommendation today is
lights out with Louise this is a really
sweet youtube channel which posts lovely
bedtime stories for children so if you
have children in your family who are
wanting to learn English give this
YouTube channel or watch because it's an
excellent way to get them listening to
some really engaging English I'll leave
the link in the description below bye
bye
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