[Music]
i'm going to start this video with a
little rant of how common english idioms
you see i've been complaining about
lists of common idioms that are made up
of idioms that simply stand out because
they are colorful
and seem very idiomatic but which are
anything but
common now i just used a fairly common
idiom
and it used a word that is commonly used
in idioms that are never
named in these common idiom lists
the word is anything and the idiom i
used was
anything but anything but simply means
not at all so when i said that these
idioms are anything but common i meant
that they are not common at all
i did not mean that they could be
anything else except
common idioms what's surprising even to
me is that i used that idiom in the
first sentence of my script without even
intending to use an idiom and being the
idioms guy i'm usually aware of what
idioms i'm using
it's the kind of idiom that is used way
more often than the idioms that stand
out
in our memories and if you neglect these
types of idioms for the more colorful
and typical idioms that you find in
lessons
you will not sound like a native speaker
but like someone who is
trying to use idioms yet this is the
kind of idiom that english teachers seem
to routinely disregard and it's used
much more commonly than idioms such as
kick the bucket or it's raining cats and
dogs
in fact the word anything gives us many
of these idioms
let's look at just five more of them
something you will often hear for
example when calling the customer
service of a company is
anything else i can do for you or they
might say
is there anything else i can do for you
and sometimes this is shortened to just
anything else when someone asks you this
they are not
really offering to do anything you want
them to do
they will not sing a song to you should
you ask
at least probably not it's an idiom that
means
can i be a further assistance in regards
to our particular service
or products and often it's just used for
politeness
another idiom that uses anything in a
similar way is
or anything let's say you comment on
this video
asking me a question about one of the
idioms
i answer your question and then i say if
you need more help with idioms or
anything
just let me know am i really offering to
help you with
anything no i'm not going to wash your
car for you
i'm offering to help you with anything
that is similar
or related to english idioms
anything does not really mean anything
it's used idiomatically and it is a
very common idiom so instead of trying
to commit
supposedly common idioms to memory if
anything you should try to develop a
good idiom radar
in other words you should learn to
recognize when something is idiomatic
there i just used another common
anything idiom
if anything if anything means if
nothing else if at all if to any degree
or if anything definite can be said
this is it if anything most idioms are
less common than they seem
another anything idiom that just doesn't
seem all that idiomatic at first glance
is
are you doing anything on a particular
day or at a particular time
when we ask this question we are not
really asking if another person is doing
something so they can tell us all about
it
we're asking whether they are busy it is
a prelude
to an invitation if i say are you doing
anything friday night
you then would know that i was about to
invite you to do something or to attend
something
if you wanted to accept this invitation
or was curious you would say
no why if you did not want to have to
turn down an invitation you should
probably respond something like
yes sorry i have plans that night so you
see
recognizing these extremely common but
not so
colorful idioms can save you from a lot
of awkward moments
now what if i told you anything is
possible
according to theoretical physicist
anything is possible
just not always probable but normally
when we say anything is possible we are
using an idiom
we are saying that any possible outcome
in a particular situation is possible
maybe your friend says to you you've
never been able to beat me at this game
i don't know why you bother
you say hey anything's possible
maybe we should call these types of
idioms little idioms or even better
idioms in disguise they are the bread
and butter idioms of our language
they are really the idiomatic glue that
holds conversations together
and there are thousands more so from now
on if you want to speak english like a
native speaker
don't disregard idioms that don't seem
interesting
colorful or that just don't seem
idiomatic enough
if you do you will not understand
english conversation
and you will not be able to use idioms
like a native
you will be lost in a confusing
hodgepodge of random phrases
and bread and butter in this case it
means something that is essential
and indispensable if you liked this
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