Useful IDIOMS for Any Topic in IELTS Speaking

Idioms are fun.

And I want to show you a bunch of idioms

that you can use for any topic in IELTS Speaking.

Let's do it.

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Hello, this is Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy

and this is the YouTube channel English Speaking Success.

And I'm here because I want to help you

change from being an English student to an English speaker.

And I know you can do it.

If you study with me step-by-step, we can make it.

So idioms.

I know lots of students can find idioms

to be a real challenge, right?

Which do I learn?

How do I use them?

Well, there are thousands of idioms in English,

and I suggest that you just learn maybe one a day, right?

As a part of your daily English diet if you like.

I also suggest that you don't go

and look for lists of lots of idioms

and try and learn them, right?

I don't think that's effective.

Much better is that when you're watching a film

or a video or listening to a podcast

and you hear an interesting expression,

make a note, check the meaning and then learn it,

because then you've got the context,

and you're getting kind of just one or two idioms a day,

which is easier rather than learning a list of 20.

Now I realise it's a bit ironic,

because I'm giving you a list today,

but I am gonna try and give you the context

that will help you see how to use it better, right?

Now, idioms are very important,

because they help you to understand natural spoken English.

But also they're very important in IELTS Speaking, right?

'Cause if you want a band seven or above,

the band descriptors tell us over here

that you must use some less common and idiomatic vocabulary.

So it is important.

I also think idioms are fun,

and I think people forget why we use idioms, right?

We use idioms to add colour, metaphor or humour

to the way that we speak.

This is why you hear newsreaders, journalists,

politicians use them a lot, right?

To make their speech really attractive and colourful.

Now I'm a big fan of food, I'm a real foodie and cooking,

and I think you can think of idioms

as being the salt and pepper,

or (speaking foreign language)

of your speaking, right?

So they add a bit of flavour.

They are not the main dish,

but they give spice to your speaking.

So also do not overuse idioms.

Don't use so many, because like your food, right?

If you're putting in lots and lots of salt,

you're going to ruin your food.

It's the same.

If you use lots of idioms, you will ruin your speech,

ruin your English.

So just use them sparingly,

pepper them into your speech

to give a bit of spice and flavour.

Now, in this video, I'm gonna show you some idioms

and idiomatic expressions

that you can use for any topic in IELTS Speaking.

We will look at how to express opinions,

talk about likes and dislikes, expressing confusion,

saying that things, places and people are very good,

or even that things, places and people

are not very good, right?

Lots of flexible idioms.

What's more, I'm gonna help you with the pronunciation.

Because idioms are not literal, they're often metaphorical,

it's really important you get the pronunciation,

the stress and the intonation spot on

so people understand you.

I'm gonna help you with that,

and also show you an awesome mobile app called ELSA Speak,

which can help you when I am not here.

Right now, let's get into it.

Okay, let's have a look first at expressing opinions.

We can take maybe just a typical question about opinions.

What do you think about something?

For example, right?

Many governments are investing in space travel.

What do you think about this?

You could say, "My take on this is it's a good idea."

My take is my opinion, right?

What's your take?

What's your opinion?

"My take on this is..."

Right?

If you can connect the take on, my take on this

and stress the my, 'cause it's emphasising your opinion,

"My take on this..."

Try it.

"My take on this is it's a good idea."

Great.

Or you could say, "To my way of thinking, it's a good idea."

"To my way of thinking, it's a good idea."

My way of thinking is, again,

it's not literally a path or a way,

it's just a form of thinking.

And we would say to, to my way of thinking.

Notice the of thinking.

Of thinking.

"To my way of thinking..."

Nice.

Or if you're not sure if it's a good idea,

you could say, "I'm in two minds about this."

Two minds, boom, two different opinions.

"I'm in two minds about this."

And then you could go on to say,

"Well, on the one hand..."

"On the other hand..."

A similar expression is, "I'm on the fence about this."

So you might say, "I'm on the fence."

The meaning here is if you imagine a wall

and you're on the wall, you're not over here

and you're not over here, you're in the middle.

I'm on the fence.

A fence is a kind of wooden wall.

I'm on the fence, the stress I'm ON the fence,

'cause you're emphasising ON.

You're not off, right?

"I'm on the fence."

"I'm on the fence.

On the one hand, it's a good idea,

but on the other hand, maybe it's not."

"I think I'm on the fence."

Might be more natural to say, "I think I'm on the fence."

Okay.

Now a nice idiomatic expression,

which is also a phrasal verb, is to boil down to, right?

And this means that the most important thing is this.

Boil down comes from when you

have a sauce or a soup and you're boiling the liquid

so that the liquid disappears,

so you're boiling it down to the essential thing,

the most important thing.

So we can say, "It boils down to money.

Can we afford to invest in space?"

Right?

It boils down to plus the noun.

A simple way of using it is to say,

"It boils down to one thing."

And then you say what the most important thing is.

For example, "It boils down to one thing,

our planet is in danger, so we must explore space."

"It boils down to one thing."

Nice.

So what about you?

Many governments are investing in space travel.

What do you think about this?

Lovely, let's move on

Next up, let's look at likes and dislikes.

So very often in IELTS Speaking, especially part one,

you might be asked if you like something.

Do you like your job?

Do you like football?

Do you like fast food, for example?

Now, if it's a singular noun, like job or fast food,

there are certain expressions you can use,

and one of my favourite ones is, "It's the bee's knees."

Right?

Bee as in bzzzzzzz.

Knee as in

this,

part of your leg.

It's the bees knees.

Pronunciation, bees.

Knees.

It's that long vowel sound.

It's the bees knees.

Great.

So we often use this expression

for a very particular thing, right?

If you're talking about, for example, fast food.

Sometimes, if the truth be told,

we go to McDonald's once in a blue moon,

and I love the Big Mac, right?

For me, the Big Mac, it's the bees knees.

Or for example, I watch football now and again,

and I was watching England in the Euro 2021.

Well done, Italy.

And one of my favourite players, Harry Kane, right?

For me, he's the bees knees.

So for very specific things, we can use this expression.

Notice if it's a plural noun,

we wouldn't use it in the same way.

So if, for example, do you like picnics?

Speaking generally.

You can't say it's the bee's knees,

'cause it's picnics, right?

So often we would make a noun phrase.

So for example, yes,

"Do you like picnics?

I love going to the countryside.

It's the bees knees."

It's referring to going to the countryside, the noun phrase.

"I love going to the countryside, it's the bees knees."

All right?

So just be careful that we use it with singular nouns

and usually quite specific ones.

Now, if there's something that you don't like a lot

and you don't dislike, we can say,

"I can take it or leave it."

Right?

Do you like your job?

I can take it or leave it.

Take it or leave it.

It's I'm indifferent, I don't really mind.

I can take it or leave it.

Notice there's a nice trick there

that when you've got a sentence with or,

you can pause there.

You can go, I can take it

or leave it.

I can take it or leave it.

It can help with your fluency, right?

You can just break up into two little chunks.

I can take it or leave it.

And then finally, if you dislike something,

you can say, "It's not my cup of tea."

"It's not my cup of tea."

So that's usually used in the negative,

things that you don't like.

Do you like rugby?

Nah, it's not my cup of tea.

Great.

Let's move on.

Now let's look at things that confuse you.

So sometimes in IELTS Speaking, right,

there are some topics or subjects

that can be confusing, right?

Maybe science or artificial intelligence.

What else?

Maybe museums or art, architecture.

And maybe you don't know much about it

or you find it confusing.

There are a couple of nice idioms you can use

to express that confusion.

For example, right, if somebody says,

"What do you think of artificial intelligence?"

"Well, to be honest, I can't make head or tail of it.

It's just totally confusing for me."

I can't make head or tail of it, right?

Means I don't understand it.

It's a bit like when you look at an animal

and if you can't say well,

"Which is the head of which is the tail?

I don't know, it's too confusing."

I can't make head or tail of it.

Often we would link head or tail of it.

"I can't make head or tail of it."

Nice.

And I think in the US, the Americans tend to use the plural.

"I can't make heads or tails of it."

Either one is absolutely fine.

Another similar expression is,

"I can't get my head around it."

If you get your head round something is to understand it.

So if you can't get your head around it,

you don't understand it.

It's confusing.

You know, what do you think of modern art?

"I can't get my head around it.

It just looks like nonsense to me."

For example, okay.

Great.

Right, listen, let's kick back and take a break

from idioms if we can.

What would you like?

A cappuccino?

All right, well, listen, while we're waiting,

I want to tell you about an awesome mobile app

that I really, really like.

It's it's second to none.

It's a cut above the rest.

ELSA Speak.

It's a pronunciation mobile app that I really like,

not only because of the really

cutting edge technology it has, using AI, right?

For voice recognition.

But also because of its approach to learning.

So you're able to repeat phrases that you hear,

words or phrases,

and then it pinpoints your mistakes and gives you feedback.

And you can carry on practising at your own pace

until you improve.

It's great.

I think actually, it's not just a great tool

for pronunciation,

but actually building up your vocabulary, right?

Picking up idioms day by day as a part of your English diet.

Let's go inside.

Let me show you the different things

you've got in here, right?

So you've got different features of pronunciation.

You can pick out anyone that you want,

or you can go and look at different topics.

There are the common topics you get

in IELTS or everyday life.

In fact, there are specific IELTS topics,

topics for part one, part two, and part three.

Even like conversations like this

that you can practise.

Brilliant, right, for your IELTS Speaking.

And there are also study sets where students and teachers

are sharing different phrases

or words that they want to practise.

I've got some study sets here.

I'm gonna show you my study set

for idioms for IELTS Speaking.

So let's have a look at this one here.

Here is my idioms for IELTS Speaking.

I'm gonna take this expression.

- [App] It's the bees knees.

- So I hear the model.

I then try.

I'm gonna do it wrong.

It's the business.

Almost correct, well, 57% is not great,

but what's the feedback?

Bees, pronounce the E with the vowel E.

Yeah, it said /ɪ/, should be /i:/

Bee's knees.

Try again.

It's the bees knees.

Excellent, much better.

Brilliant.

So listen, you can go and download the app

and you can start practising my study set.

Brilliant.

Also, ELSA, for my students,

that's you if you're watching this,

they have some great discounts, right?

If you go for the one year membership,

you can get 30% discount.

If you go for the lifetime membership, you get 80%,

eight, zero.

80% discount, and then you've got ELSA in your pocket

for the rest of your life.

Day by day, improving your pronunciation with ELSA.

Fantastic.

And you can check out the links below.

Go and download the app, check them out

and start practising with ELSA Speaking.

Excellent.

Now you can have your cappuccino to go,

because we're going back to find out

more about those idioms.

Let's go

Now in IELTS Speaking Part Two,

sometimes you have to talk about a person,

maybe a person you know or a famous person, right?

And very often you may say,

"I'm going to talk about..."

Or, "The person I'm going to talk about is my father."

Well, there's a nice little idiomatic expression

you can use here, which is,

"The person I'm going to talk about

is none other than my father."

None other than is just,

it's used usually when the person you introduce

is gonna be a surprise for the listener, right?

"The person I'm going to talk about

is none other than Donald Trump."

Ooh, what a surprise.

Now the thing is, because whoever you talk about

is gonna be a surprise for the examiner,

because they don't know you.

So in fact, you can use this for anybody, right?

The person I'm going to talk about is none other

than my English teacher at primary school.

Absolutely fine.

Just notice the pronunciation,

none other than.

We normally link none other than.

None other than.

Try it.

"The person I'm going to talk about is none other than..."

Brilliant.

Let's move on.

Now we talked about IELTS Speaking Part Two,

you may have to talk about a person.

But you may also have to talk about a thing or a place.

Now, if you want to describe a person,

a thing or a place as being very good,

there are a number of different idiomatic expressions

you can use.

Let me take an example.

I'm gonna talk about a celebrity,

a famous football player, Harry Kane.

Who else?

None other than Harry Kane.

I could say, "Harry Kane is hands down

the best football player in the world."

"Harry Kane is second to none."

"He is a cut above the rest."

"I think the world of Harry Kane."

So all of these expressions mean, you know,

he's very good or he's the best.

You could also use these for places or for things.

Maybe your favourite restaurant, right?

What's your favourite restaurant?

"Oh, McDonald's is second to none."

Really?

No, I'm joking.

What about you?

Which is your favourite restaurant in your city?

Now, if you want to talk about things,

places or people that are just normal, right?

Nothing special.

A really nice idiom is to say,

"Run-of-the-mill."

"Run-of-the-mill."

Can you say that?

"Run-of-the-mill."

Run-of-the-mill just means ordinary,

nothing special, right?

"I went to a restaurant last night in my neighbourhood.

It was okay, but it's a run-of-the-mill restaurant."

"I've got this new game on my phone.

Yeah, it's okay.

It's a run-of-the-mill game, like all of them, really."

Nice expression to use.

So we've looked at something that's very good,

something that's normal.

What about if something is not so good?

Again, we might want to say, for example,

"It's not a patch on..."

"It's not a patch on..."

"It's not a patch on."

Can you say it?

"It's not a patch on."

And here we're comparing two things, right?

So for example,

"I saw the latest Marvel film the other day, right?

'The Black widow.'

Have you seen it?

"Right, it's good, but it's not as good as

the previous film, right?

It's not a patch on the previous film."

Or, "I saw a film and I've also read the book.

I mean, the film is okay, but it's not a patch on the book.

The book is much better."

It's not a patch on, nice expression.

Similarly, another expression is,

"It can't hold a candle to this one."

Again, meaning it's not as good as.

So the latest Marvel film was okay,

but it can't hold a candle to the very first Marvel film.

Right?

"I mean, Spider-Man is good,

but he can't hold a candle to Batman."

So you can use it with things, with people,

with places as well.

Yeah?

"I mean, Manchester is a nice city,

but it can't hold a candle to London."

I shouldn't say that, because Manchester's my hometown,

but it's true.

London I think is a nicer city than Manchester,

but don't tell anybody I said that.

Great.

So we've talked about people, places and things

that are very good, normal and not so good.

Let's move on.

So remember, just pick out one or two idioms from these,

start practising them and slowly build up your base,

maybe one idiom a day,

so that over time, you'll have a larger and larger base

of idioms that you can use more confidently

and will help you move from being

an English student to an English speaker.

Excellent.

If you like this video,

please do press the Subscribe button,

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and do remember check out ELSA Speak

if you want to really improve your pronunciation,

or even just brush up on your pronunciation.

It's a fantastic tool to do that.

If you go down here, follow the links,

you can download the app and you can get your 80% discount

on a lifetime membership.

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And I look forward to seeing you very, very soon

in the next video.

Take care, my friend.

Bye-bye.

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