20 Common English Idioms Explained Clearly [512]

In this episode, you’ll learn 20 English idioms that are often used in everyday conversations. I explain what each one means and show how it is used in context so you can understand and apply it correctly. This lesson will help you feel more comfortable when you hear idiomatic language in conversations.

Whether you’re preparing for exams, improving your professional communication, or just looking to grow your vocabulary, these idioms are easy to understand and can be used in many real-life situations. By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to use these expressions effectively, helping you stand out as a more confident and skilled English speaker.

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Transcript

0:09

Hi there, this is Harry. Welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry, where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language, to help you with your conversational skills, your business English skills, interview skills, whatever your goals are, we're here to help. And for those of you and your friends or family who want one-to-one lessons, well, you know what to do. Just get in touch, www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson and we'll be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. And this advanced English lesson, we're looking at useful and common idioms. Useful and common idioms. We're looking at these in 30 minutes. So for each of these, I've got 20 in total. I'm going to explain it to you and give you an example when you might use it. Okay, let's go. So number one, hands down. Oh, this team will win this match hands down. They are much better than the other team. Oh, he'll get the job hands down, meaning there's no real opposition. He's the best qualified for the job. He'll have no difficulty in winning this particular round of interviews and he'll certainly be selected for the job. So hands down. Number two, something will cost an arm and a leg. Well, this is a commonly used idiom and it means when something is really expensive. Yeah, of course you can buy it, but it's going to cost you an arm and a leg. Of course you can live in the center of the city, but an apartment there is going to cost you an arm and a leg. You'd like to drive a BMW? Oh yeah, wouldn't we all? But they cost an arm and a leg. So it means something is really, really expensive. To get cold feet is number three, to get cold feet. When we get cold feet, we lose our motivation about something, we get a little bit shy and we won't do something that we thought we might be able to do. He was going to ask the girl in the office out on a date, but he got cold feet and he didn't ask her. He really fancied the girl and thought she was really beautiful, but at the end he got cold feet and he didn't ask her out. He got a little bit shy. He was going to go and ask his boss for a raise or an increase or a bonus, but at the last minute he got cold feet because he thought his boss might get a little bit annoyed with him. So when we get cold feet, we lose our motivation, we lose that determination to do something. Okay, so to get cold feet. Number four, under the weather. Well, we all feel under the weather from time to time. We're not quite sure why. We wake up in the morning feeling not 100%. What's wrong with you today? I'm a little bit under the weather. I woke up with a bit of a headache. I woke up with a muzzy head. I woke up with a little bit of a runny nose. Nothing really serious, but I'm just feeling under the weather. Michael won't be at school today because he's feeling under the weather. So he might have a little bit of a virus starting. So I'll keep him at home in case he infects any of the other children. So to be under the weather. Number five, to pour your heart out. Well, when we pour our heart out, we tell the most personal details, something that's really on our mind, something that's really upsetting us. We tell all those details to somebody really close, somebody we can trust, perhaps our best friend. She broke up with a boyfriend. It had been a long, problematic relationship. So she spent an hour with her friend and she poured her heart out. She told her all the issues, the reasons, the problems, the difficulties. So hopefully she was going to get some sympathy and some empathy from her friend. So she poured her heart out. So somebody really opens up and tells another person everything that's on their mind, all those really, really deep personal feelings that they have been keeping deep inside for some considerable time to pour your heart out. Number six, to be at your wit's end. Well, when you're at your wit's end, you can't work out something. You're really concerned, you're very worried, and you just can't seem to get an answer. So perhaps one of the children hasn't phoned you for several hours. They didn't come home from school when all the other children were walking down the street. You've texted, sent messages, but no reply. So you're at your wit's end trying to work out what has happened to son or daughter. And then out of the blue, they're walking through the door. And when you ask them, where have you been? I've been worried, sick. I've been at my wit's end. I thought you'd been kidnapped. I thought you'd been in an accident. So when you're at your wit's end, you can't understand why something has happened. You can't get an answer. You can't work out the problem. You could be at your wit's end trying to come up with a suggestion for that celebration birthday party you promised your partner. It's a big 4-0 or the big 3-0, whatever the birthday is, and you promised them that you'd have a very, very special occasion. But you've racked your brains over the days and the weeks leading up to it, and you really can't come up with something. So you're at your wit's end trying to come up with something that they will really, really enjoy, to be at your wits end. Number seven, to blow a fuse. Well, literally, we can blow a fuse in the house when all the light sockets don't work. But when we talk about ourselves, to blow a fuse, it means we get really annoyed really, really quickly. So somebody says something, or somebody does something, or somebody doesn't say something, or doesn't do something, and we just explode. What? What? Come on, what are you doing? What are you doing? Yeah? To blow a fuse means to get really excited and annoyed really, really quickly. So somebody says something that you object to, somebody did something that you object to, or somebody forgot to do something that was really important, and you just blow a fuse. You lose it. You just blow a fuse. Number eight, to wrap your head around something, to wrap your head around something. Or sometimes people say to wrap your brain around something. Usually when you're trying to work out a problem or something that just doesn't, you just don't understand it. It doesn't make sense. I've been trying to wrap my head around this problem now for hours. I just don't see it. I just don't see how we're going to get out of this problem. Yeah, perhaps somebody else has an idea, but I really, really can't see a way out of it. So when we have what we think is a dead end, we have a problem that we don't believe we can resolve, we can use the expression, well, look, I've tried and I've been wrapping my head around this for, oh, it looks like all day, but I could be here until next week and I won't find a solution to it. Or you can try to wrap your brain around it, try to puzzle out, to work out the solution to your particular problem. Number nine, to let your hair down. Well, we all like to do this metaphorically, of course. In my case, to let your hair down. To let your hair down means to forget about all your problems, forget about all your responsibilities, just go into town, go out on a date, go off with your friends and have a really, really good time, completely relaxed. You might have a couple of beers, you might go to the cinema, you might go to a nightclub, you might go to the disco, whatever it is you do, you just forget about everything else in your life and you let your hair down and you just don't care what happens. And the next day, somebody gets some photographs on WhatsApp and they say, wow, you were really enjoying yourself last night. Look at these photos. I've never seen you so relaxed for many, many months. Yeah. Ah, yeah. I decided to go and let my hair down. Just forget about all the stresses, the worries and the concerns of life to let your hair down. So that's number nine. That's number 10. So we're halfway there. Number 10. The world is your oyster. The world is your oyster. Well, oysters are regarded as really, really expensive. And of course, there's always the idea that in some oyster, when you open it, you might find that pearl. Yeah, so oyster divers go down deep, deep, deep in the ocean, hoping to find an oyster with a pearl in it. So when the world is your oyster, it means you've got everything in front of you. All the opportunities you could possibly think of are there. So there's nothing holding you back, nothing preventing you from doing what you really want to do. So parents often say this to their children. They've finished secondary school, they've got through the university, they've got their degree or their diploma, whatever it is. They said, okay, that's it. Your education is over. The world is now your oyster. Meaning, you can go wherever you want to go. You can do whatever you want to do. You can choose to do nothing. You can choose to do something that you want to do. So the world is your oyster. Everything is a possibility. Everything is possible and everything is an option. Effectively, everything is on the table for you. Okay, number 11. Number 11 is to paint the town red. Well, earlier on, we said to let your hair down. So to paint the town red is another similar idiom. So when you paint the town red, you go out and you have a really, really good time. So you finish the exams with your friends and your college mates. So somebody organises a big party and you ask, well, what we're going to do? Ah, we'll do something. We're going to go out and paint the town red. We'll have a really, really good time. We'll let our hair down, lots of dancing, lots of socializing, really, really get this college system out of our systems. Okay, so to paint the town red. Okay, now the next one is to break the ice. Number 12, break the ice. When we meet people for the first time, we're often a little bit shy, a little bit reserved, a little bit embarrassed to say something because we don't know what the people think or we don't know what they're into. Okay, so when we break the ice, we have certain topics that will help to get the conversation started. So it could be a simple conversation about the weather. It could be about how they got to your office today. What was the plane or train journey like? These are conversational topics that will break the ice and make people a little bit relaxed. It's like when you step inside an elevator. There are 10 people there looking at the floor, looking at the ceiling, nobody looking at each other. So when you want to break the ice, you might crack a little joke. You might say something that will help to relax people in some way to break the ice. Number 13, call it a day. When we decide to call it a day, it means that's it. We'll finish now. We'll put away all the documents. We'll close the laptops and we'll go home. Look, we've worked here long enough. You've been here since eight o'clock this morning. It's just gone eight now. We're not going to achieve anything else. So we'll just call it a day, meaning stop what we're doing. We'll pick it up from here tomorrow. Okay. So let's call it a day, mean let's end what we're doing and just go home and try and relax. And thanks for all of your hard work. Somebody could also call it a day when he decides perhaps to retire, to stop teaching, to stop working wherever he's working, might go into his boss and say, look, I think I'm going to call it a day. I'm going to end my career. I've really enjoyed my life here. I've really enjoyed working here for the last number of years, but I think it's about time to step aside, get on with the rest of my life and let somebody else take my place. So to call it a day. Number 14, a fair weather friend. These are the friends you don't really want. A fair weather friend is a friend who's only with you and only calls himself a friend when the weather is good. That's the literal meaning. So when you've no problems in your life and you've no difficulties, you're not seeking help, well then you'll have plenty of fair weather friends. The difficulty will be when you have a personal problem, a serious problem, and you're hoping that your friend is there to give you that shoulder to lean on, the shoulder to cry on, the helping hand, the bit of good advice. When you're looking for that, unfortunately, fair weather friends are few and far between. You can't find them anywhere. Okay, so we could all do without fair weather friends and look for that really serious, long-term friendship, the person that will be with you through thick and thin, as we say. Okay, so fair weather friends, those that are only there during the good times. And when the bad times come, the difficulties, they're nowhere to be seen. Number 15. Number 15 is to make ends meet. To make ends meet. And to make ends meet is when you struggle at the end of the month to have money, to put food on the table, to pay the rent, to pay the mortgage, to pay the fuel, whatever your costs or your outgoings are, at the end of the month, the last two or three days, you have difficulty making ends meet. I never seem to be able to make ends meet. When I get to the 27th or 28th of each month, I'm always out of money. I have to always borrow some money from somebody because I just don't seem to be able to budget. Now, some people, particularly those on very low incomes, from the lower part of society, they struggle continuously. And if they have badly paid jobs or no jobs at all, then the government have to step in with social welfare support and payments that will help those families to make ends meet. So to make ends meet is to try and match your outgoings with the income that's coming in. Number 16, to do something on a shoestring. Well, this is actually the opposite about making ends meet. When you can do something on a shoestring, it means that you can get by on very, very little money. And people are often surprised how well you can cope and how well you can manage on such a low budget. Wow, you're really good. I mean, you manage that project on a shoestring. Many other people would have spent significantly more money and we wouldn't have had such a good time. It's amazing what you can do when you can think about it. So I was able to do this or manage this on a shoestring. Now, you can use that in a positive situation or you can use it negatively and say, oh, I always have to do everything on a shoestring. My boss is so mean, so tight with the money, he never gives me enough money to do this marketing budget. And I'm expected to work miracles. But I manage and I'm able to do things on a shoestring. I don't know how, but I always seem to manage. So to do something on a shoestring is to do it with very limited means, a very limited amount of money or budget. To jump the gun, that's number 17. So we're getting close to the end. To jump the gun. When we jump the gun, we start something a little bit early. Any of you who are interested in sports and in particular athletics will know that in, say, the Olympics or other big athletic events, they used to start the races with a gun. So you'd hear the gun going off and then the sprinters would run and then the race would be over. But if somebody jumps the gun, they get a little early start before the gun actually goes off. Then the race is stopped and they have to try and start all over again. So when you jump the gun, you start a little bit too early. Okay, so perhaps your boss is talking to you about some super duper plan he has and he's really going to get excited about this. He's got new ideas for the marketing department for the next year. And you say, okay, look, I'll get onto it straight away. He says, no, no, no, don't jump the gun. Wait until I get everything lined up. Wait until I send the memo around. Wait until we have the staff meeting and then we can start. I don't want anybody jumping the gun and spoiling the fun or indeed ruining the surprise. So don't jump the gun. Don't go off too early. Number 18, going places. Well, when we say that somebody is going places, we're not talking about anything specific. We mean that the person might be on the fast track. Oh yeah, Mike in accounts, he's really going places. The boss really likes him. He's a really smart guy. He seems to have the boss's favor. The boss likes him. So he's really going places means he's set for success. He's on the right career path. Or somebody just might make this wild statement. What are you going to do for the rest of your life? I don't know, but I'm really going places. I can sense it. I've got everything lined up. All I need now is that job, that real critical job. But I'm not in too much of a hurry. I'm going to wait till I get the right job. And when the right job comes along, I will know. But I know I am going places. So nothing specific, but just a general idea that they are on the right path and going in the right direction. Number 19, in the bag. Oh, it's in the bag. Yeah, we've got this one. I can smell it. I can sense it. Yeah. So it might be that your football team is eight, nine points clear of all the other teams and there's maybe seven or eight games left until the end of the season. But you know, even though it's mathematically possible for them to be overtaken, you believe that they're going to win the championship. So you can say to your friends, yeah, it's in the bag. We are really playing great football at the moment. Okay. Or you could be about to land a really key account for your business. Everything is heading in the right direction. And when you have the next meeting with your boss, you say, yeah, I think it's in the bag. He says he'll sign the contract this week. So really, really waiting for that. And I can't see anything getting in the way. Yeah, I think we can say that this one is safely in the bag. I think we have it. Okay. Now, we have to be very careful because we should always say, don't count your chickens until they're hatched because something might happen before the ink is dry or before the contract is signed. So you just have to be very, very careful. But in this case, he believes and he's told his boss that this is in the bag. We have it. Okay. And then finally, number 20, okay, as they used to say on the best movies, make my day. Clint Eastwood in one of his famous detective stories, Dirty Harry, make my day, punk. Go ahead, make my day. Yeah, so when somebody makes your day, they give you some good news or they do something that's really, really something that will help you. Okay, so wow, that really made my day when the boss came into me and told me that I could have the next week off for all the hard work I'd done. Or when the boss told me that I was being promoted and that the promotion would be announced to the rest of the staff in an email that evening, that really made my day. Okay, so yeah, that made my day when something positive happens, something that you had hoped for, but you weren't so sure. But it does happen. It's good news. So you can say that, yeah, that really made my day. Okay, so there we have our 20 useful and common idioms that I believe you can learn and understand in 30 minutes. So what I want you to do is go back over them. I want you to practice. I want you to understand them, write them down, try to use different examples than I've used, but try to understand how they're used and then use them in your speech, your written English, whatever way you can. And if you have any problems, any difficulties, any issues, you come back to me, www.englishlessonviaskype.com. Very happy to help you and very happy to hear from you. So that's Harry Saint. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. And as always, remember to join me for the next lesson.