hi and welcome back to love English I'm Leila and today I want to share 10
idioms with you 10 very common English idioms but they are connected to autumn
the language that they use is rather autumnal in meaning leaves nuts trees
these kinds of words are being included in these idioms now despite the fact
that they are rather autumnal it does not mean that they are restricted to
being used in only the autumn months these idioms are commonly used at all
times of the year so they are going to be exceptionally useful now in the
northern hemisphere at the moment we are definitely in the middle of autumn I'm
wearing a nice warm woolly jumper today and there is definitely a chill in the
air now for me I actually kind of liked the autumn in fact my birthday is in
October so I have an autumn birthday I love the changing of the seasons I
like going from summer to autumn autumn to winter and definitely winter to
spring so comment below and let me know what is your favourite season of the
year do you like the changing of the seasons
or do you just prefer lots of Sun and before we get started don't forget you
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we have got new lessons uploaded for you right let's get started
number one a very common idiom I probably use it at least once a week and
I'm sure many people use it about me to drive somebody nuts
means to make them crazy to annoy them to irritate them to the point that they
feel a bit crazy the kids were running around the house all day
they were driving me nuts can you turn the music down it is driving me nuts now
in English we do have a lot of idioms to talk about making someone feel a bit
crazy you can drive someone bonkers drive
someone crazy drive someone mad we often use the verb drive with these
expressions I suppose you're taking them to the point of madness they are
expressions it doesn't mean that they're actually crazy but again be careful how
you use them you probably wouldn't want to say to your teacher you're driving me
nuts maybe your friend's number two on the same theme of nuts is to be nuts or
to go nuts about something or actually someone essentially it means you really
really really like them or it she's nuts about that boy band One Direction I
don't know why my friend seems to be totally nuts about her I think you
really likes her number three an idiom relating to leaves the plural of leaf
leaf leaves now of course we have lots of leaves in the autumn they're falling
to the ground they look rather beautiful with the different kind of browns and
maroon colors but we have a lot of idioms that use the word leaf or leaves
in them to turn over a new leaf to turn over a new leaf to start from the
beginning to start anew to reform or to refresh something so after we would use
this expression to refer to a criminal's someone that's had a bad lifestyle up
until that point he turned over a new leaf and got a good honest job he gave
up his life of crime or to quit smoking she quit smoking and turned over a new
leaf she had a much healthier lifestyle now
to be shaking like a leaf imagine the wind rustling a leaf and it's shaking
the wind to be shaking like a leaf essentially means that you are shaking
it could be from fear or even the cold you might say to somebody
oh you're shaking like a leaf come here I'll get you a warm blanket or a hot cup
of tea but to be shaking like a leaf means to be shivering to be cold or
fearful and have that physical reaction of shaking number five a great idiom and
really some wise advice to save for a rainy day
now in the UK we probably wouldn't have the opportunity to do this because most
days are raining but when we refer to saving for a rainy day we mean that
we're saving something often money for a time when there's a difficult situation
when you might need it so for example I make sure that I've got
some savings put to one side money just in case I need it for a rainy day now it
doesn't have to be money it can be an object for example I bought the children
again but I'm gonna save it for a rainy day when they're really really bored and
need entertaining so what might you save it for a rainy day for a time when
there's an emergency and you need something saved now unfortunately in the
autumn we do tend to get a little bit unwell you can get sick get the flu have
a cold because the weather is changing and our bodies need to adapt and there's
usually lots of germs going around but when you say I'm feeling a bit under the
weather it means that you're feeling a little bit unwell
if you say I'm really under the weather obviously you're very sick but it's a
great expression that we commonly use in English to say that you are feeling
unwell sorry I didn't come to school today I was feeling a bit under the
weather number seven is a little bit more
advanced there's a deeper meaning to this idiomatic expression you can't see
the wood for the trees you can't see the wood for the trees meaning that you
can't grasp the bigger picture the main issue because you're too focused on the
smaller details and maybe too close to the situation so that you can't take a
step back and really see what's happening she was so focused on the
small problems in her marriage she didn't see the big one
she couldn't see the wood for the trees he was so focused on the small details
of the business worrying about how much they were spending on paper or what time
the workers were getting in he couldn't see the wood for the trees and see that
the business was not doing well because it wasn't bringing in enough money in
English a wood is actually a small area of trees not a forest but slightly
smaller and of course if you're inside that wood then you obviously can only
see the trees and you can't see the actual wood itself so it really is an
idiom that you can make some sense off number eight the autumn years the autumn
years referring to somebody later in life someone a little bit older he
retired at 65 because he wanted to enjoy his autumn years my simple one there
number nine to get wind of something wind obviously trees blowing we had a
very windy day the other day but to get wind of something means to hear
something hear a rumor about someone so it might not necessarily be true but you
hear something from somebody and you think it might be she got wind that they
might be making some redundancies in the office she got wind that he might be
breaking up with her she was definitely not happy and number 10 to be barking up
the wrong tree this is a great expression and again I am leaving you
with a more advanced expression to be barking up the wrong tree means that
you've got the wrong idea to bark is the sound that a dog makes that's right and
to be barking up the wrong tree means that that you have got the wrong idea
about something that you've made a false incorrect assumption when I called her
into the office she thought I was going to fire her she was completely barking
up the wrong tree she was actually called in for a
promotion when she saw him with another woman she thought he was cheating but in
fact it was his sister she was totally barking up the wrong
tree so there we have it 10 amazing autumn idioms that are used throughout
the year these are common idioms you'll notice that I did in fact leave out it's
raining cats and dogs now this is probably one of the first
idioms you have learnt but in fact it's not that commonly these ten items that I
have shared with you are much more commonly used in the English language of
course you can say it's raining cats and dogs but there's actually lots more
expressions for that and if you would like to learn more vocabulary about
weather we've got plenty of those for you and of course a lot of idioms
lessons so comment below and try and use some of these expressions in English
I'll check them and correct them for you thanks for watching bye