English Idioms about my BODY

- You may know these parts of the body,

but I bet you don't know

all of these idioms using parts of the body.

Let's find out how many you know.

(upbeat music)

Hello, it's Keith from English Speaking Success

and Keith Speaking Academy

where you become a confident speaker of English.

Now this is an unusual video

because the first part is actually for beginners of English,

like A1, A2 level.

The second part is more for upper intermediate,

like B2 level of English.

However, I don't really

believe 100% in levels of English,

like A1, A2, B1.

I think it's hard to put language into boxes like that.

I think it's just more fluid.

So I think actually whatever your level,

you're gonna learn something new and interesting

in this video.

I'm gonna start

with a simple A2 lesson about parts of the body,

and all you have to do is repeat,

and I bet even your B2 students,

there are some that you don't know.

In fact, you can tell me in the comments below

which ones you didn't know.

Second part of the video, I'm gonna give you 10 idioms

with some of these body parts.

And all you have to do is listen and understand.

Dead simple.

Again, the ones you don't know,

maybe tell me in the comments below.

All right, are you ready for some body parts?

Oh, by the way, before we begin, to remind you,

there is a free PDF of this video.

So you can download that, get all of the words, repeat them,

and the idioms and practice them.

Let's get into it.

So parts of the body,

I will point, you guess,

and then I will say it.

Let's begin down here.

Foot,

toes,

big toe,

ball,

heel,

ankle,

shin,

calf,

knee,

leg,

arse.

Actually in America it's gonna be ass.

In England we also say bum and bottom.

(hands slap)

Chest,

arm,

fingers,

thumb,

palm,

oh, back of the hand,

wrist,

elbow,

shoulder,

head,

chin,

jaw,

cheek,

mouth,

teeth,

(chuckles)

tongue,

nose,

eye,

ear.

And that's it.

Okay, number one, the body part foot,

and the idiom to put your foot in it.

Imagine you're walking down the street, you see a dog

and the dog is pooing on the street

and you don't see the poo and you're walking

and you stand in the poo,

or the shit if you like.

And that is to put your foot in it.

It is the poo.

So the meaning is to say or do something embarrassing

unintentionally, right?

Unintentionally means without wanting to.

So we say I put my foot in it.

You put your foot in it. In it, you can link.

Okay, for example, "Oh, oh no, I forgot Jenny's party.

It was a surprise. Oh no.

And I've just told her about it.

Oh dear. I've really put my foot in it."

Number two, leg.

And the idiom is to leg it, to leg it, leg it.

A bit like Lego, but leg it.

This is a UK idiom much more, right? A British one.

And it means to run, basically, often to run away

or to escape something.

So we say I leg it, you leg it. Very simple.

For example, "Look, the bus is coming.

Quickly, leg it or we're going to miss it."

The idea of escaping maybe for example, "Oh no,

that dog is starting to chase us.

Leg it!"

Run away.

Number three, the body part is arse,

or in America, ass.

Polite British English, bum or bottom.

So arse and ass can be a little bit more vulgar.

This is probably not something you would say

in your IELTS speaking test, right?

So the idiom is

to be a pain in the arse,

to be a pain in the arse, a, the,

it's not my arse or your arse.

It's to be a pain in the arse,

and it means to be very annoying

or irritating.

So people can be a pain in the arse.

A traffic jam can be a pain in the arse, right?

For example, "My little brother never stops talking.

He's a real pain in the arse."

Now you can make this more polite and use it at work

or in IELTS by just saying to be a pain.

"My boss never stops talking.

He's a real pain."

And that is more polite.

Number four, chest.

And the idiom is to get something off your chest.

The something is normally a problem, an issue,

something that's worrying you, right?

And so to get something off your chest is to say something

or tell somebody about something that's annoying you

or worrying you.

Very often we say,

"Get it off my chest."

"I want to get it off my chest." My chest.

You get it off your chest.

So there's often a linking, get it off.

I want to get it off my chest.

I want to get it off my chest.

For example.

"Listen, thanks for listening to me

telling you about my problem.

I really needed to get it off my chest."

Next, number five, hand.

And the idiom is to know something like the back of my hand.

Like the back of my hand.

I know it like the back of my hand,

and it means really to know something very, very well.

Because you know the back of your hand very well, don't you?

It can be to know something very well,

know someone very well, or know a place very well, right?

I know it like the back of my hand.

You know it like the back of your hand.

For example, "I know this city like the back of my hand."

For a person, let's say Jack, right?

"Jack would never do that. No, no.

I know him like the back of my hand. He wouldn't do that."

Great. Let's move on.

Before we go into the next part of the video,

I want to talk about idioms.

They are fun but challenging, right?

I think your first goal should be

to understand the idioms

and then notice them, as you're listening to English,

start noticing, "Ooh, one of Keith's idioms."

Well not my idioms,

but from my video, English idioms, Keith's idioms.

But one, understand, two start to notice.

And that really should be 80% of your focus,

just 20% is start to use them

and use the ones you really understand,

the ones you feel comfortable with.

Over time, as you notice more,

you'll start activating more and more.

But it takes time to activate idioms.

They are fun but challenging.

I do have an idioms course, 150 Idioms for IELTS.

Again, the focus there really is about 80%,

it's understanding what they mean, how to use them,

when to use them, and then to start noticing them

as you listen to the stories and the podcast,

in the course and in your everyday life.

About 20% is starting to use them.

But over time you notice more, you use more,

you become more confident,

and then you can use the ones you need

to do better in your IELTS speaking test.

For today's video, do remember you can get the PDF,

you can review the idioms here right now.

Well, let's get into those idioms.

Let's carry on with those idioms.

The next part of the body is fingers

and the idiom is to have green fingers.

You can imagine maybe if you are like gardening

or working in the garden, you have green fingers.

Actually, not just if you like it,

but if you're good at it, then you have green fingers.

You can make things grow. I have green fingers.

Actually I don't, but an example.

"All my plants seem to die.

I don't really have green fingers."

Next, well, we're still with the hand,

but we've got the fingers and the thumb.

Thumb.

And the idiom is to be under someone's thumb.

If you're under someone's thumb,

they have you under their control.

So you are under someone's control.

Sometimes we talk about husband-wife relationships

where somebody's under the thumb.

It can be maybe a boss and a worker.

Different kinds of relationships.

So we say I am under his thumb

or I am under her thumb

talking about particular person, right?

For example, "Jack can't come out tonight.

We're all going down the pub,

but Jack can't come out tonight.

His wife won't let him.

He's really under her thumb."

Poor Jack.

Next, number eight, tooth.

And the idiom is to have a sweet tooth.

To have a sweet tooth. Not teeth, just one.

Although you've got many teeth,

the idiom is I have a sweet tooth, singular,

and it means you like sweet things.

You like chocolate, desserts, anything sweet.

For example, I always, this is not true by the way,

but "I always have a dessert after dinner.

I have a real sweet tooth."

Notice we can often use real or just in these idioms.

I have a real sweet tooth, to emphasize it's quite strong.

All right, let's move on to number nine.

Number nine is eye,

and the idiom is to see eye to eye.

Eye to eye.

When two people see eye to eye,

they agree on something.

Listen to the linking here,

see eye to eye, see eye to eye, see eye to eye.

It's a bit strange, right?

So when you're listening,

listen for that sound, see eye to eye,

they see eye to eye.

So it's not, I see eye to eye.

Well, you can say, "I see eye to eye with you,"

or "They both see eye to eye."

Okay, for example,

"My wife and I don't always see eye to eye,

but we can usually work out a compromise."

What about you and your partner? Do you see eye to eye?

Let's move on to number 10.

The final one, well, is head,

and the idiom is to be in over your head.

The idea is imagine if you're swimming in the water

and the water is over your head.

You are in the water over your head,

and this means you're in a difficult situation.

It's too difficult a situation. Okay?

I am in over my head,

so there are two prepositions.

I am in over, and it's my head.

You are

in over your head, right?

She's in over her head. Exactly.

That's it. And you may listen to that linking.

She's in over, she's in over, she's in over, he's in over.

He's in over his head. Hmm, okay.

For example, "Oh, I got promoted, but you know what?

This job is too difficult. I think I'm in over my head."

Great. There you've got 10 idioms.

If you like them, like, do subscribe to the channel.

Let me know in the comments if you know any other idioms

with these body parts.

So I hope this has been useful for you.

If you want to learn more idioms,

well check out my idioms videos on YouTube.

There are plenty of them.

Or if you want to go deeper,

you can join my 150 Idioms for IELTS Speaking online course.

They're idioms for IELTS, but also for everyday life.

Now, I know also many students cannot join a course,

so here's my advice for you.

Download the free PDF from this lesson.

Have a look through each idiom and try and say

or write something that is true for you

with each idiom.

If you practice with examples

that are true for you, your leaning,

your leaning, no, your learning will be deeper

and you will remember the idioms better.

That's it for today. Thank you so much for watching.

It's been a pleasure being here with you.

I hope you weren't in over your head today

and you could follow the class.

I look forward to seeing you maybe in the next video.

Take care, my friend. Bye-bye.

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