hi there it's asiya ielts examiners check  if you can use idiomatic language in  

ielts speaking and today i've prepared for  you 25 idioms and expressions you can use  

in typical ielts speaking situations to  boost your score okay let's get started  

before we begin one word of warning  

ielts examiners are not impressed when students  learn a couple of complex phrases and insert  

them into their answers deliberately without even  fully understanding the meaning of those phrases  

so you have to learn these idioms and  expressions so well that they come out naturally  

now let me tell you a story i was over the moon  when i learned about my business trip to new york  

to be over the moon means to be extremely  happy however on my way to the airport  

i suddenly received a notification  that my flight had just been cancelled  

needless to say i wasn't a happy camper if you're  not a happy camper or you're not a happy bunny it  

means you're not pleased with the situation after  all this stress i felt a little under the weather  

so the next day i called in sick at work and  went shopping instead to be under the weather  

means to be slightly ill not fully ill just  slightly ill when i bumped into my manager  

at the shopping center he told me it was the  last straw and fired me with immediate effect  

the last straw is something small that makes you  realize that you can't accept this whole situation  

anymore and you may say that's the last straw i'm  leaving or that's the last straw i'm firing you i  

decided not to cry over spilt milk and continued  shopping to cry over spilt milk means to get upset  

about something that has already happened and  cannot be changed as a way to fight the blues  

i bought myself a new iphone if you're talking  about the blues you mean sad feelings for  

example you may have the winter blues or just  to have the blues and to try to beat the blues  

without work i had the time of my life i would  get up at midday do nothing all day have a dinner  

out at a restaurant and then play computer games  all night i even bought a new powerful laptop for  

this purpose to have the time of your life means  to really enjoy yourself to have a great time  

some friends told me that my new laptop cost  a number and a leg but i thought it was worth  

every penny to cost a num and a leg means to be  really expensive and to be worth every penny means  

the price was justified one day my mother told me  that money doesn't grow on trees i guessed it was  

a hint but i wasn't quite sure what she meant the  phrase money doesn't grow in trees means that you  

can't get more money whenever you want then my  father told me that i should look for a new job  

but i was still on the fence trying to decide  between job hunting and traveling around the world  

if you're on the fence it means that you are  unable to decide between something and job hunting  

is looking for a job the penny dropped  when i couldn't pay my rent anymore and was  

forced to look for a new job if the penny drops  it means you finally realize or understand  

something after all all is well that ends  well this is the name of a shakespeare's play  

all's well that ends well and we can use it as a  phrase before we continue let me tell you about  

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great place to practice your ielts speaking skills  on this platform you can choose a teacher you like  

or book lessons with different teachers to get  used to a variety of accents you can suggest  

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out and now let's get back to our idioms now let  me give you some idioms you can talk about your  

family your profession or your hobbies some of the  most common topics in ielts speaking and the first  

idiom is to take after somebody it means to look  or behave like another older member of your family  

usually your mother or father i take after my  father we're both entrepreneurs and we both love  

pasta and another similar idiom is to  follow in someone's footsteps that means  

to try to achieve the same things as another  member of your family or to have the same job  

and a similar lifestyle i wanted to follow in my  father's footsteps and become an entrepreneur or  

i followed in my mother's and grandmother's  footsteps were all doctors to run in the family  

that means that a lot of members of your family  have the same interest skill quality problem or  

disease for instance i'm short-sighted it runs in  the family it means that my parents and maybe when  

my grandparents are short-sighted too or we're all  ambitious it seems to run in the family another  

similar idiom is to be in the blood or to run  in the blood it means that you've inherited  

something from your parents and grandparents  for instance being adventurous is in my blood  

both my parents have traveled extensively next  to be swarmed with something a swamp is this  

wet magic ground where you can get stuck and  drown so if you're swamped you have too much of  

something too much work too many tasks for example  i was totally swamped with work before christmas  

i didn't even have time to browse instagram  you can also say something is a piece of cake  

or a walk in the park that means it's very easy  or it's not a piece of cake it's not a walk in  

the park it means it's not easy and perhaps it's  more difficult than you expected for instance  

learning to drive a car was a piece of cake for  me or it wasn't exactly a walk in the park but  

eventually i learned to ride a bicycle with the  benefit of hindsight it means that you look back  

at the situation that's already happened and think  that you should have done something differently  

for example with the benefit of hindsight  i shouldn't have left my ielts preparation  

until the last night before the exam and  because we talk about something in the past  

we use the construction should have  done or shouldn't have done for example  

should have studied shouldn't have played  computer games and when we speak we shouldn't  

have to have i should have studied i shouldn't  have played computer games and the last idiom  

to pass with flying colors it means to get a high  mark in your exam so i wish you all to pass your  

ielts exam with flying colors in your ielts  speaking exam don't try to use a lot of idioms  

otherwise they will come across as memorized  it's very important to give natural answers  

and to use idioms naturally in order to get extra  points for your vocabulary and if you want to  

learn all the strategies to help you achieve  your best score in ielts speaking and writing  

i'm gonna link my online courses  in the video description box below  

there you can find all the links to cambly  to practice your english with native speaking  

teachers and all the idioms from today's  lesson and you can learn more idioms in this  

video here thank you for watching me today good  luck with your preparation and your exam bye