10 Animal Idioms | English Expressions

Welcome to Eat Sleep Dream English, my name is Tom and I teach fresh modern British English

so that you can take your English to the next level. Today we're looking at ten animal idioms.

An idiom is a phrase that has a set meaning and it's not always clear what the meaning

is just by looking at the words. You have to learn the idiom and its meaning to understand

what it means. So if you are an animal lover and you love learning English this is the

perfect lesson for you. All that is coming right up after we meet another Eat Sleep Dreamer.

My first idiom is 'the world is your oyster'. Now this means that the future in front of

you is good. You have good opportunities. It's a very positive idiom. 'When you leave

university, the world's your oyster.'

Now as we go through these idioms I want you to think about what's the translation of this

idiom into your language. So for example, the world's your oyster, what's that idiom

in your language? So is it 'the world's you something else' 'the world's your elephant'

or 'the world's your guinea pig' I don't know. So let me know in the comments below, what's

the equivalent of this idiom in your language?

Next one, I don't give a monkey's. I love this phrase, this is a really British English

phrase. So to not give a monkey's. If you don't give a monkey's it means that you don't

care or that you unconcerned about something. Now this is quite informal English and it

could be seen as being a bit rude. If you said to someone that you don't give a monkey's,

it could be quite informal so be careful who you use it with. But yeah, this one just means

I don't care. 'I don't give a monkey's what anyone thinks about my new hair, I like it'.

To have butterflies in your stomach. This is to have a feeling of excitement or nervousness

and it's usually, you kind of feel it. This one, it's quite a physical idiom because you

know that feeling in your stomach when you are excited or nervous about something it

kind of starts feel like something is in there. It goes brrrr and we think of it as being

butterflies. So to have butterflies in your stomach. So for example I gave a speech quite

recently and I was very nervous so I had butterflies in my stomach. So an example sentence 'Before

this speechI had butterflies in my stomach.' Again in your language what is it? Is it butterflies?

Do you have butterflies in your stomach? Do you have birds? Do you have bees? What do

you have in your stomach beforehand? When someone is getting married they have a party

to celebrate beforehand to celebrate with their friends their best friends. We call

this, for the male, we call it a stag party and for the female we call is a hen party.

So we're taking two animals here, a stag and a hen and using them to describe the party.

So the male has a stag party where he gets all his friends and they go and do fun things

and the female has a hen party and again she gets all her friends and they do something

fun as well. Now that's very British English because in American English they have a bachelor

party and a bachelorette party.

I love this one, a little bird told me or a little birdie told me. This is a light-hearted

way to say that you have heard some secret information or a secret. 'A little birdie

told me that you are planning to propose to your girlfriend.' So again it's quite a gentle

way of telling someone that you have heard a secret maybe about them or about someone

else.

Hold your horses.If you say to someone hold your horses it just means like slow down wait,

like ok just slow down. Hold your horses. So 'Hold your horses guys! Let's just take

a minute to think about it.'

Like a fish out of water. So to be a fish out of water means you are not comfortable

with the situation that you are in. Think about it, I mean a fish that isn't in water,

it's not happy is it? Ok, so that's why we use this phrase. So when I first moved to

Argentina I was a fish out of water. I wasn't comfortable with the language, I couldn't

speak Spanish. I didn't know the environment, I didn't know the city, I was, you know, I

was a fish out of water but slowly I learned some Spanish and I was able to get more familiar

with the place so I felt more comfortable. But when I arrived I was a fish out of water.

If you say that someone wouldn't hurt a fly that means they are very gentle. They are

a gentle person and the thought of being mean or nasty or violent just wouldn't even enter

their mind. So 'it can't have been Dave in the fight because he wouldn't hurt a fly.'

And that means he's a very peaceful calm non-violent person, he wouldn't hurt a fly.

To make a pig's ear of something. If you make a pig's ear of something you do it all wrong,

you do it terribly or ineptly without any skill. It's a bit of a disaster. So let's

say I'm trying to cook a cake and I put too much sugar in and not enough flour and the

end result is a disaster you could say that I made a pig's ear of it'. It's a disaster,

I did it all wrong. To make a pig's ear of something. Poor old pigs, I don't know why

they get tagged with a negative idiom like that.

Finally the last one, a bird's eye view. If you get a bird's eye view that means you get

a view from very high up. So it could be from an airplane, it could be from a very tall

building and you get to see the land below you. So think about a bird, they fly very

high in the sky so you get a view that's like a bird. A bird's eye view. So 'from the Shard

you get a great bird's eye view over London.'

So let me know in the comments below, from which buildings or places do you get a bird's

eye view of your city or your town.

Thank you so much, that was ten animal idioms that you can use today in your English. That

will make your English sound really natural. Thank you so much for watching guys, I really

appreciate it. Remember to check out my videos every Tuesday and every Friday brand new English

lessons just for you. Alright, this is Tom, the English Hipster, saying goodbye.