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hi everybody my name is alicia in this
lesson i'm going to talk about some
common idioms these are common american
english idioms for your reference an
idiom is a set expression that doesn't
mean exactly what the words in the
expression means it actually has a
special meaning these are set phrases
with special meaning so today i'm going
to introduce a few let's get started
okay the first expression the first
idiom is the expression i feel under the
weather i feel under the weather this
means i don't feel well i don't feel
well so you use this when you feel sick
like i'm feeling under the weather today
or he's feeling under the weather today
you can also change this verb to look if
you want to make a guess about the way
someone else feels you can say you look
under the weather like in this example
sentence you're looking a bit under the
weather a bit means a little and here
you're looking means like it seems that
right now your appearance now suggests
that you don't feel well but this is a
friendly and casual expression you can
use to say are you okay you look a
little sick so feel under the weather to
feel under the weather or to look under
the weather if you're just guessing uh
based on someone's appearance means that
you don't feel well or someone seems
like they might be sick
okay let's move on to the next idiom the
next idiom is i've put in parentheses
here i'm so hungry
but we drop this part sometimes
i could eat a horse i could eat a horse
so here you see could suggesting
possibility
this part we often drop so sometimes we
just say i could eat a horse or maybe a
different large animal like i could eat
an elephant for example
basically this idiom means i'm very
hungry that's all so in other words i'm
so hungry
it's possible for me to eat a large
animal an animal as large as a horse or
as an elephant or something we don't
really change the animal so much you
could say elephant i suppose but
typically people say horse this is a
little bit of an old-fashioned
expression now you might just hear i'm
starving
but that's kind of an extreme i'm really
really hungry expression
but if you use this it's okay people
will understand it means you're very
very hungry
okay let's move on to the third idiom
for this lesson this one is it's raining
cats and dogs it's raining cats and dogs
this one also is a little bit
old-fashioned
but you might still hear it used from
time to time it's raining cats and dogs
just means it's raining heavily it's
raining a lot there's a lot of water
coming down so it's raining cats and
dogs this does not mean there are cats
and dogs in the street or coming down it
just means heavy rain heavy rain
okay let's go on to another one that's a
little more commonly used this
expression this idiom is
that or it or these those whatever
that costs an arm and a leg an arm and a
leg physically body parts an arm and a
leg that costs an arm and a leg
this expression means that's very
expensive we use this for something that
is extremely expensive or perhaps more
expensive than we expected
so an example of this would be
my new phone cost me an arm and a leg my
new phone cost me an arm and a leg so i
paid a lot of money for my new phone
here cost is actually in past tense cost
here it's in present tense that costs an
arm and a leg here this is the past
tense expression my new phone cost me an
arm in the leg means i paid a lot of
money for my new phone
so
an arm and a leg these are key parts of
our body so we use them in this
expression to show that something was
really really expensive we had to give a
lot of ourselves a lot of our resources
to pay for this item so something costs
an arm and a leg means something is
really expensive we always use arm and
leg we don't use arm or leg only we use
them together always for this expression
okay
let's go along to the next one also uses
leg uh this expression this idiom is to
pull someone's chain or to pull
someone's leg you also hear the verb
yank used here so pull is this motion
yank is like a quick short pull so to
yank something
but to pull is a little more like smooth
but to pull someone's chain or to yank
someone's chain or leg
these expressions all mean
to be joking it means you're just
telling a joke you're kidding kidding is
a word that means joking so when you're
joking with someone like in a
conversation and you want to show uh i
don't mean anything by it i'm just
joking you can say i'm just pulling your
leg like if you're telling a story if
you're lying to someone for a joke
you can use this expression so here
sorry i'm just pulling your leg sorry
i'm just pulling your leg sorry i'm just
yanking your chain this means i'm just
joking i'm just kidding don't be serious
don't take what i'm saying seriously
it's a joke in other words so sometimes
people like to use this to like finish a
conversation if the other person is
getting angry um and then they can say
i'm just joking i'm just pulling your
leg
okay let's go on to the next one the
next idiom is to hit the road to hit the
road this does not mean physically hit
the road
outside this means to leave to leave
this is a casual expression which means
to leave your current position and go
somewhere else to hit the road an
example it's late let's hit the road so
in other words it's late let's go let's
leave this place okay
onward to the next expression
the next idiom is kill two birds with
one stone so a stone
is a rock small a rock uh two birds with
one stone this expression means to
accomplish two things with one action to
do so one thing you do one thing but you
accomplish two things uh of course you
could do multiple things i suppose three
birds with one stone maybe uh but we
tend to use it two birds one stone an
example
met friends and checked out a new
restaurant i killed two birds with one
stone so i wanted to see my friends and
i wanted to visit a new restaurant i did
them both at the same time i killed two
birds with one stone so i accomplished
two things in one action there this is
quite a common expression two birds one
stone it's always that that pairing okay
onward to the next one the next idiom is
piece of cake piece of cake like that's
a piece of cake or it's a piece of cake
or that was a piece of cake it means
very easy piece of cake means easy also
be careful of your spelling this should
mean peace like one part of something
it's not
p-e-a-c-e peace like peace on earth
peace around the world but piece of cake
part of cake it means very easy this is
an expression that means very easy an
example making coffee is a piece of cake
so some activity some action is easy to
do we say piece of cake so actually we
don't always clearly state the action or
the activity that's easy sometimes we
get like a request like can you make
this or can you do that and the response
is just piece of cake no problem i can
do that that's easy for me so quite a
common one too
okay let's go along to the next idiom
which is put all your eggs in one basket
to put all your eggs in one basket this
is an idiom that's usually used for
advice and we usually say
don't put all your eggs in one basket
this means
to rely on only one thing for your needs
to rely on one thing so let's look at an
example of this
don't invest in just one company
don't put all your eggs in one basket so
the image here is that we need eggs in
this example we need eggs to eat for
something for breakfast let's say if we
put all of the eggs we need in one
basket and we drop the basket or the
basket is stolen or there's some other
problem
the eggs are destroyed or they disappear
or whatever we have nothing we have no
resources so this is a life advice idiom
that suggests if you have some resources
you should spread them to different
places so don't put everything that you
have in one location if something
happens then you're in trouble so it
means spread out your resources spread
out the things that you need in case
something happens so here too don't
invest in just one company try to spread
your investments out is what this really
means so this is quite a common
expression don't put all your eggs in
one basket okay let's go on to the last
one the last one is a special idiom it
is hair of the dog
that bits you i have this in parentheses
because we often remove we often drop
this part hair of the dog that bits you
this is an idiom that we use
particularly the day after we've had
alcohol
so
hair of the dog this is a suggestion for
a hangover cure so hangover means that
sick bad feeling you have after drinking
too much alcohol so we feel like a
headache we have a headache we have a
stomachache we're slow it's difficult to
do things that's a hangover
so hair of the dog that bit you
so we're suggesting here that alcohol is
a dog that's what there's kind of a
small story here alcohol is a dog and
the dog bits you so because the alcohol
like harmed you damaged you you feel
sick
so the idea here is if you take like
like medicine kind of if you take part
of the dog a hair from the dog that bit
you you'll be cured it's like a
treatment kind of or a suggestion for
treatment so example hangover how about
a little hair of the dog in other words
this means if you drink a little bit of
alcohol then maybe you will feel better
it's suggesting not to drink a lot but
have a little bit of alcohol and then
your body will be better it will improve
i don't know if it's true or not maybe
for some people but that's what this
expression means hair of the dog and we
often drop that there so how
about some hair of the dog that bit you
that could work all right so those are a
few common idioms that we use in
american english there are many many
more if you have questions or if you
have comments or if you know some other
idioms and you'd like to know more about
them please let us know in the comment
section of this video of course if you
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thanks very much for watching this
lesson and i will see you again soon bye
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