I listened to 100 minutes of English conversation and discovered these 100+ IDIOMS!

- Should I use idioms in IELTS speaking? And how many?

Absolutely lots. Maybe one or two.

One teacher said 33. How do I learn idioms, anyway?

I don't know. I need some help.

Need some help with idioms? Let's do it.

(bright upbeat music)

Should I use idioms in IELTS speaking? And how many?

These are questions that many students struggle with.

Oh, an idiom, by the way, is an expression

or a phrase that has a different meaning

from the individual words.

For example, to hang up your boots.

Here are my boots, right?

And if I hang up, I put on the wall, literally.

But idiomatically, it means to retire or stop working.

Traditionally for sports people, but nowadays for anybody.

Now you've probably learned idioms in your English class,

watching YouTube videos, but you are still not sure

how common they really are and how many you should use

in IELTS speaking.

Now I know social media can be confusing.

There's different pieces of information, but don't worry.

'Cause in this video I'm gonna give you

a simple answer to two questions.

How common are idioms in English?

And how many should you use in your IELTS speaking test?

Oh, as a bonus, I'm also gonna give you

50 idioms that I discovered, not learned,

but I discovered through my mini-research for this video.

So this was my experiment.

I wanted to discover how common idioms are

in spoken English.

So I listened to 100 minutes of natural spoken conversation.

I actually listened to five episodes

of a popular English radio drama

based on everyday life of common British folk.

So I listened to their conversations in houses, in pubs,

on the farm, in shops and so on,

to learn how many idioms we really use.

If anybody happens to be watching this who is British,

first of all, why are you watching?

Secondly, you may laugh because the episodes I watched

were from a radio show called "The Archers,"

which is as old as the hills.

But actually it's really, really good.

You can get hooked on it.

So that was it, based on "The Arches."

But it is perfect for analyzing natural spoken,

conversational English.

So I listened to 100 minutes of conversation,

and here's the result.

I discovered they used 150, more or less, idioms.

Now you can probably do the math,

but that means 1.5 idioms per minute.

Let's say three idioms every two minutes.

Now, if you are thinking about IELTS speaking part two,

speaking for two minutes, that would be three idioms.

A small caveat, this was a radio drama.

So the language was maybe a little bit more colorful

than normal spoken English, a little bit.

So as a guide, I would be saying probably

in natural spoken, in conversational English,

we use one idiom per minute.

This is not a scientific conclusion. English is not maths.

But as a rough guide or a rule of thumb, as we say,

one idiom per minute.

And this can be useful, because people may think,

yeah, every sentence must have an idiom,

or English people never use idioms.

Well, actually, yes, we do.

We use them quite a lot, not all the time.

And please don't count idioms.

Don't try and structure your IELTS answer around idioms.

Don't try and squeeze them in. It's like, oh, it's a minute.

I must use an idiom. No, no, no.

But as a very rough guide,

if you're using one idiom per minute, that's great.

In your whole test, maybe you use three or four, it's fine.

Just to give you an idea.

Now, probably what's more interesting for you

is the idioms I discovered.

I'm gonna share 50 of them.

I was gonna share 100 and share the links to the episodes

so you could listen and get the context.

Not that you would. That's too much hard work.

I know. Not many people would do that.

But what I discovered was,

oh, they've archived the episodes.

You cannot access them.

So that wouldn't help you anyway. So there's no context.

So what I've done instead, I've taken 50

of what I feel are the more common idioms.

I've put them into categories

of topics like relationships, work, food,

to help you understand them and learn them in a better way.

So here they are, 50 of those idioms

that were coming from this radio show,

natural spoken English conversations.

I'll tell you the idiom, tell you what it means,

and that's it.

Bob's your uncle. (laughing)

So the context of this radio show,

it's like a soap opera or a drama.

Is it's families, different families in a small village

called Ambridge in the UK.

And it's about their daily lives.

It's conversations in the pub, in the church.

There are social events, there's shopping,

all sorts of stuff goes on.

Very natural spoken, conversational English.

The categories that I've put them into to help you

are work, disagreeing, feelings, gossip, (whispering)

relationships, ideas, bing,

food, of course, and shopping.

Okay, are you ready for a rollercoaster of idioms?

Let's begin with work.

Number one, a busman's holiday.

A busman is a person who drives a bus, right?

A busman's holiday is when your holiday or your free time

is spent doing what you usually do for work.

So if I went to Poland on holiday, and I met people,

and they wanted me to teach them English,

and I taught them English, that would be a busman's holiday.

Number two, I got caught up in some work.

To get caught up in something is to become

involved in a task or a job

for a longer time than expected.

So this may be used for example,

if you are late for a meeting or for dinner with your spouse

and you say, "I'm sorry, love.

I got caught up in some work."

Next, you really know your stuff,

or you really know your onions.

It means that somebody, it's a compliment,

for somebody to say that somebody is very knowledgeable,

or they know their subject or their field really well.

When it comes to cooking,

Jamie Oliver really knows his stuff.

Number four, I've hung up my boots.

To hang up your boots, remember,

is to retire or to stop working.

Number five, all your hard work has really paid off.

And this is where the effort you put into a task

has resulted in a good successful outcome.

For example, if you studied hard for the exam,

and then you pass, all that effort paid off, right?

The hard work really paid off.

Next, it turned out great.

To turn out good or great is to be

when something is successful,

often better than expected.

For example, we had a party last week.

I didn't organize it very well,

but in the end, it turned out great.

Next, don't worry, I'm on top of it.

I'm on top of it means that I am fully in control

of the situation and handling it competently.

So maybe your boss says,

"Listen, have you finished the work yet?"

You say, "Yep, don't worry.

I'm on top of it." I'm controlling it.

Next, I don't want to pull rank, but...

To pull rank is to show or assert your authority

or seniority to control a situation.

So let's imagine a manager speaks to an employee

and the manager says, "I think we should do this."

And the employee says, "No, I disagree."

The manager may say, "Okay."

More likely the manager will say,

"Listen, I don't want to pull rank,

but we are going to do it my way." (laughing)

So it's a polite way of showing his authority

to control the situation, right?

I don't want to pull rank.

The rank refers to the level often in the army, right?

Soldier, lieutenant, general, captain, different ranks.

Next, I handed in my notice.

To hand in your notice is to resign

by giving a formal notification to the company.

Next one, she has put blood, sweat, and tears

into this place.

Blood, sweat, and tears is to put

a lot of hard work, dedication, and energy into a task.

This was a situation they were talking about.

A shop. The owner wanted to sell the shop.

The manager had worked so hard to make it successful,

and their friends said, "Listen, you can't sell the shop,

'cause the manager has put blood, sweat,

and tears into this place."

Next, everything went pear-shaped.

So a pear is the fruit.

To go pear-shaped is basically when something goes wrong,

turns out badly, often unexpectedly.

They were talking about when the manager

wasn't working one day, everything went wrong.

Everything went pear-shaped.

To boss me about.

To boss someone about is to give them orders

or try to control them,

to manage what they're doing, to control what they're doing.

So sometimes workers will say they don't like their bosses,

because the boss will boss them about as a verb, right?

Don't boss me about.

Next one. You've had a lot on recently.

This means that you've had a lot of work to do.

We can say have a lot on your plate,

or just to have a lot on.

So I'm sorry I didn't finish that task,

but I've had a lot on lately.

Finally, I will run everything by you first.

If I run something by you,

it means I will tell you about something

and get your approval or your ideas about it

before I make a decision.

And here again, they were talking about selling the shop

and the owner said, "Listen, I'm sorry.

But I will run everything by you first in future."

So that they are all involved in the decision making.

To run something by you.

Nothing to do with running.

It's just to share the idea with you first.

That's it, idioms related to work.

Let's move on to the next topic. Disagreeing.

Okay, here we go. Seven idioms to do with disagreeing.

First one, they're going to kick up a stink.

To kick up a stink is also

to kick up a fuss.

We use both idioms.

And it means to disagree strongly

and protest against something, right?

It's quite strong.

A stink is just something, a very, very bad smell.

So imagine you're gonna have a party for your family,

but you decide not to invite Uncle Tom and his family.

Uncle Tom will probably kick up a stink.

He will disagree and protest and say, "No, we must come.

It's a family party."

They're going to kick up a stink or kick up a fuss.

Next one, they're going to fight tooth and nail for it.

To fight tooth and nail for something

is to fight very strongly for something.

A situation where maybe two families want to buy

a property and both of them really want it.

So they're going to fight tooth and nail

to get that property.

I beg to differ. (laughing)

It sounds very polite, but it's not.

It's just normal. I beg to differ.

It means I disagree.

So if you disagree with someone, you can just say,

"Well, no, actually I beg to differ.

I think da, da, da, da, da."

The next two idioms are actually quite similar.

The first one, let's not nitpick.

To nitpick. Nitpick

Drop the T sound normally. Nitpick.

To nitpick is to focus on the small details

or small mistakes rather than the bigger picture.

So we often say, "Don't nitpick."

For example, here's my plan for next year.

And what do you think?

Oh, you've spelt this word wrong.

It's missing a full stop.

Oh, come on, don't nitpick.

Is it a good plan or not?

Similar expression. You're splitting hairs.

To split hairs, those of you who have hair,

especially women may know, long hair.

The hair at the end splits. Sometimes it opens.

So to split hairs is to nitpick.

It's to focus on small details or fault small mistakes

that are not important, right?

So I may say to that person, "Listen, all right,

this word's spelt wrong, but come on.

You're splitting hairs. That doesn't matter."

Next, you are not going to drop it, are you?

To drop it doesn't mean to drop it.

It means to stop discussing a topic or an issue.

So imagine again, we were talking about the plan,

and my friend continues discussing the little mistakes

and I say, "Listen, you are not gonna drop it, are you?

You are not gonna stop discussing it?"

Or I may say, "Listen, just drop it.

Stop discussing it."

Finally, no can do.

And this is a simple phrase that just means

it's a colloquial way of saying something cannot be done.

It's not possible, right?

Can we go out for dinner tomorrow? No can do.

No, I can't. We can't.

It's not possible for whatever reason.

No can do, lovely. Let's move on.

Right, let's look at feelings.

The first two idioms are related

to being angry or irritated.

First one, I've had it up to here.

And often we use this with a physical gesture.

I've had it up to here. I've had it up to here.

It means I'm really frustrated and annoyed

or fed up with a situation.

I've had it up to here with your nagging

and nitpicking. (laughing)

The next one, what really bugs me is...

So when something bugs you, it irritates you

or annoys you, makes you angry.

That really bugs me. Makes me angry, okay?

What really bugs me is people

who don't pick up litter in the street.

Next, I was over the moon.

Just means to be very happy, really,

you know, delighted about a situation.

I passed my test. I was over the moon.

The next one is about being nervous.

To describe a situation where you are so nervous,

you lose control of the situation.

My nerves got the better of me.

My nerves got the better of me.

I was so nervous, I lost control.

This may happen in your IELTS speaking test.

You are so nervous that you can't speak properly.

Your nerves get the better of you.

Hopefully your nerves won't get the better of you,

and you'll be calm and everything will go like a dream.

What possessed you? (laughing)

What possessed you?

It's the idea that a spirit or a ghost possesses you

and controls your behavior, so you do something stupid.

Not stupid, irrational or unexpected.

So you can say this to somebody who does something

really irrational that is not good,

and you want to know why.

What possessed you?

You told Uncle Tom he can't come to the party?

Ah, what possessed you?

He's going to kick up a real stink now. (laughing)

What possessed you?

And finally, I'm sorry. I got so worked up.

To get worked up, to get worked up

or to be worked up is to be agitated,

emotionally excited, a bit out of control.

Often you may say this after you've maybe

got very angry with somebody and you've shouted at somebody

and you say, "Oh, I'm sorry.

Really, I'm sorry. I just, I got so worked up."

Like, you were emotionally out of control.

Lovely. Let's move on.

Now the next topic is gossip.

But just before I gossip,

today's topic, I think idioms and how many to use

is really important.

But another important question I think,

is how should I learn idioms, right?

Because it's one thing to watch YouTube videos like this,

and just listen to idioms or maybe pick up one or two.

But it's another thing to really learn them

so you can use them confidently,

which is what you need for the IELTS speaking test.

I think it's great to learn by topic as we are doing here,

but it's really important that you hear the idiom

in lots of different contexts.

'Cause that's the only way you'll really learn

when you can use that idiom.

It's also important to learn, well,

which words can you change or can you not change?

Can you change the tense? How do you use it?

How do you pronounce the different words?

And that's why you can do this on your own,

better if you've got a teacher.

But if you don't have a teacher,

I have a new course coming out,

150 English Idioms for IELTS Speaking.

And here there are 30 topics with idioms for each topic.

I show you how to use them, when to use them,

which words you can change, when you can't use it,

how to pronounce it, and then get you practicing

lots of examples.

So it's a great way, systematic

to learn 150 idioms that can really help you

with your IELTS speaking and your general English ability.

The course is coming out in a few days,

so keep your eyes peeled on my website,

Keith Speaking Academy on my social media,

on the YouTube channel.

I'll let you know all about it.

In the meantime, let's get back to some gossip.

Okay, gossip is where you tell people secret information

or you spread rumors.

Tell them things that should be confidential.

The first one is between you and me.

And this is when we say something

that you want to be kept a secret or confidential.

Great word, right? Confidential, secret.

Between you and me, his plan is not very good, right?

Meaning don't tell him.

The example in the radio program was great.

There were two men, two blokes.

Blokes, two men sat in the pub chatting,

and one bloke, well, his wife was angry with him

and wouldn't speak to him.

And so the bloke says to his friend,

"Oh, I'm having a terrible time.

My wife won't speak to me. I dunno what to do.

And I feel terrible, because between you and me,

I really love her."

And the waitress walks past and says, "That's your problem.

You really love her. That shouldn't be between you and him.

You should tell her. It should be between you and her."

(laughing) So true, right?

Between you and me. Great connector if you like.

The next one, a little bird tells me,

or a little bird told me.

And this is where it's a playful way

to say that you've received information that

is from a secret source that people didn't know, right?

For example, somebody says, "Eh, I hear that Uncle Tom

is not coming to the family party."

"How did you know that?"

"Well, a little bird told me." (laughing)

Next one, word gets around.

This expression basically means that information or rumors

tend to spread very easily.

Word gets around. "How did you know about Uncle Tom?"

"Well, word gets around, right?"

Finally, spill the beans.

And you'll say this when you want to ask somebody

or tell somebody to reveal the secret,

tell you the secret.

Spill the beans.

The beans, well, it's a kind of food, right, from a can.

And if you spill the beans, they come out of the can.

Let the cat out of the bag. Same expression.

Spill the beans. Tell us the secret.

That's enough gossip.

Let's move on to talk about relationships.

Okay, relationships, idioms to do or talk

about relationships with people.

The first one, she can run rings round him.

To run rings round someone,

run rings round, run rings round someone

is to outperform or outsmart somebody, right?

Do something better than that person.

The idea you're running rings, it's so easy for you.

I think many, many wives can run rings round their husbands

depending on the situation.

For example, once my wife and I, we invited people to dinner

and I said, "I'll cook this dish."

And she said, "Okay, I'll cook that dish."

And my daughter said, "Dad, don't bother.

She's going to run rings around you.

She's gonna do it better."

Probably true, actually, yes. Oh, well.

Next, I think I've blown it with him.

When we say I've blown it,

it just means I've made a serious mistake

or an error, sometimes in a situation or a relationship.

I've blown it with him means I've made a mistake,

and things are not gonna work out well with that person.

The situation in the radio drama was a woman

who had been dating a man,

and she had talked to him about her family,

and she went on and on and on, and he got bored.

And the woman said, "Oh, no,

I think I've blown it with him."

He's not interested anymore. He was so bored.

Next one, he's a nightmare.

A nightmare is a bad dream.

But we use this colloquially to mean

that somebody or something

is a very difficult situation to handle,

usually because the situation or the person

causes lots of problems.

He's a nightmare.

And I think in the program they were talking

about a new waiter or a new cook in the restaurant.

They were trying to train him,

and he just kept making mistakes,

dropping things, burning things.

And they were saying, "Oh, he's a nightmare."

It means, right, he just makes lots of mistakes

and causes problems.

We often use this in a kind of a exaggerated way

or a humorous way, right?

He's a nightmare.

Next, I wasn't sure where I stood.

Now to stand, see,

when you say, "I'm not sure where I stand,

or where I stood in the past,"

it suggests that you are not sure about your status

in a relationship or in a situation.

I wasn't sure where I stood with him.

This goes back to the woman who was dating the man.

And after their first date, the man said,

"Yes, I'll call you, yes."

And then after a week, he didn't call, and the woman said,

"Well, I wasn't sure where I stood."

She didn't know the status of the relationship anymore.

You can talk about this for relationships,

but also in different situations,

in a work situation as well.

Next one, we have our moments. We have our moments.

Now those moments,

actually, they mean good and bad times.

So this really means we have our ups and downs.

We have our moments.

It's suggesting we have moments of anger,

frustration, difficult times.

Sometimes when you look at happily married couples

from the outside and you look at them and go,

"Oh, everything looks wonderful.

You are so much in love."

Very often the married couple will say,

"Mm, yes, but we have our moments," right?

Every marriage has its ups and downs. We have our moments.

The next one, she's a hoot. A hoot. (laughing)

A hoot, this means that somebody is very amusing

or can make you laugh.

They're a lot of fun, right? It's used very informally.

She's a hoot. She's a fun person to be with.

Describing somebody who makes you laugh.

Finally, let's just wipe the slate clean.

To wipe is to clean, right?

The slate is, well, years ago in schools,

we would have a piece of slate to write things on,

so you'd have chalk and you'd write things on it.

So to wipe, to clean the slate,

to wipe the slate clean,

just means let's start fresh.

Start something anew,

trying to let go of all the past problems.

This is used often when two people disagree,

or they argue and they say, "Listen, stop.

Let's just wipe the slate clean and start new."

Lovely. Let's wipe the slate clean and move on to ideas.

Right, ideas. The first one.

I did toy with the idea of starting again.

To toy with the idea of something is to consider.

Think about something.

We also say to play with the idea.

Kind of you're looking at it,

you're playing with it, to toy.

Toy we know is a noun, but to toy as a verb,

I toyed with the idea

of getting a new job, right?

I considered it.

Let's park that idea for the moment.

To park an idea, it's like parking a car.

You postpone the idea, or you put the idea

on one side for the moment,

and maybe come back to it later.

So great expression in a meeting, right?

If you are chairing a meeting, you say, "Right, nice idea.

Let's park that idea for the moment and discuss this."

Next, this idea has got legs.

So the idea, if something has legs, it can walk,

or it can run, it can go places.

So if you say an idea has legs,

it means it has potential to succeed.

It has the possibility to succeed.

This idea has got legs.

Next, we need to push the envelope.

To push the envelope means to push beyond the limit,

beyond the existing limit.

You'll often hear bosses in companies talk about this.

If you want people to be creative, think outside the box.

Then you need to push the envelope. Push the envelope.

Why? I don't know.

(laughing) But push the limits, right?

Next, he has already written off the idea.

To write off an idea is to basically forget,

or not go ahead with an idea, to give up on an idea,

because it's not going to work.

The context was the owner of the restaurant

who was thinking about, toying with the idea

of selling the restaurant, but in the end,

he decided to write the idea off or write off the idea,

'cause it wasn't going to work.

And finally, that idea was totally off the cuff.

If something is off the cuff, it's improvised,

spontaneously decided, right?

It wasn't planned.

The cuff, oh, I don't...

If you have a shirt, you have a cuff of the shirt.

I don't wear it. I haven't got a shirt.

Something off the cuff just means

it's improvised, not planned.

Again, it was the idea that the owner

of the restaurant was going to sell it.

He wrote the idea off, and then he had a new idea

to change the style of restaurant to sell different food.

And that idea was totally off the cuff.

It was just improvised in that moment,

in that moment.

Good. Let's move on talking about restaurants.

Let's talk a little bit about food.

Okay, three short idioms about food.

First, they lay on a great spread,

or they put on a great spread.

And this is to give a great selection of food

and drinks for an event.

So spread is to put lots of things over a large area.

So if you imagine all the foods spread out,

here, it's a noun.

A spread, a great spread,

it means a great meal, a great variety of food.

They lay on a great spread.

The next one, it was a decent meal.

It was a decent meal.

Decent just means that it was reasonable

or quite good quality.

We can use decent with a lot of different context.

A decent meal, quite good quality.

If you get, let's say six out of 10, that's a decent mark.

If you think this video is quite good, it's a decent video.

Not very good, but quite good. (laughing)

Lastly, let me top up your glass.

To top up, you can imagine when you've got your glass

or your cup and you fill to the top.

Let me top up your glass.

Often for wine, but not necessarily.

Okay, the last topic of shopping.

We've got three idioms here.

First of all, I've got my eyes on something.

I've got my eyes on something

means I want to buy or to get something.

If I ask my wife what she wants for her birthday present,

I say, "Let's go shopping and let's find something nice."

And she says, "Oh, that's a good idea,

because I've got my eyes on something at the moment.

I've got my eyes on a nice dress."

Something she wants to buy.

The next one, to fork out money for them,

or to fork out money for something

is to pay, well, is to spend too much money,

often reluctantly that you don't want to.

So something's very expensive, you say,

"Well, I'm not gonna fork out money on that,"

or, "I'm not gonna fork out money for that."

You can use both of them.

Finally, I bought it for a song.

If you buy something for a song, la, la, la, la,

it just means it's cheap.

It's very low cost.

When you go shopping in the January sales,

you'll find some good deals and you can say,

"Huh, I bought it for a song."

That's it.

That's it. 50 idioms.

Listen, if you want the PDF of all these idioms,

just click on the link below.

You can download that.

If you really want to learn idioms,

new idioms deeply and well

and learn how to learn them,

follow or join my new course,

150 Idioms for IELTS Speaking, coming out very, very soon.

In there you'll have 30 topics with different idioms

you can use to talk about those topics.

I'll show you how to use them, how to pronounce them,

give you examples, what you can change,

and what you can't change, so you really become

a much more confident speaker of English,

face your IELTS examiner with confidence,

or just have great colorful conversations with people.

That's coming up soon. Keep your eyes peeled.

And well, if you've liked this video, give me a like,

subscribe, turn on notifications,

and thank you so much for spending this time with me.

I have really enjoyed it.

It's always nice to spend some time with you.

Keep studying, and I will see you in the next video.

Take care, my friend. Bye-Bye.

(bright upbeat music)