20 IMPORTANT IDIOMS Through STORY! Native English Vocabulary Lesson (+ Free PDF & Quiz)

(upbeat music)

- Hello, lovely students.

And welcome back to English with Lucy.

Now if you are a member of my email list,

if you signed up to receive my PDFs and my newsletters,

then you will know that we have been doing a big focus

on idioms recently.

Lots of you seem really keen to expand your vocabulary.

And an amazing way to do that is to learn idioms.

Idioms are so hard because they don't have literal meanings.

You can't read the words and understand what they're about.

So idioms are really hard to learn,

but they are much, much easier to learn and process,

and retain if you learn them in context.

So this is how today's lesson is going to work.

I am going to read you a story that I wrote,

and it contains 20 idioms.

For the first part of the lesson, I will read the story.

You can practise your listening skills,

maybe improve your pronunciation,

but I want you to listen and see if you can identify

all 20 idioms.

Hold your hands like this each time you hear one,

stick your finger up.

Okay, see if you can get all 20.

After that, we will go through the story phrase by phrase,

and I will help you understand each and every idiom.

As always, there is a free PDF and quiz

that goes with this lesson.

If you'd like to download that,

just click on the link in the description box,

you enter your name and your email address.

You sign up to my mailing list,

and the PDF will automatically arrive in your email inbox.

After that, you automatically receive all of my lesson PDFs,

and all of my news, course information and offers.

It's a free service and you can unsubscribe at any time.

There is also one other thing that I wanted to discuss.

Before we start this lesson,

I am running an idioms challenge.

It's a 30 day challenge.

Every single day,

you get a text containing between six and 10 idioms.

You get a daily video from me.

I read through the text so you can improve your listening,

and pronunciation skills,

and I talk about the meanings of all of the idioms.

After you've read through the text,

you've watched the video, you can take the exercises.

We have 20 daily exercises.

And as you go through the challenge,

It has 30 videos, lessons and sets of exercises,

but you have lifetime access so you can take it at any time.

For the pricing and enrollment,

just click on the link in the description box.

And just ran a communications challenge

and these students loved it, it was amazing.

We had such a great time, right?

Let's get started with this idioms lesson.

As I said, there are 20 idioms in this story.

With your hands, see if you can identify them all.

Obviously, I don't expect you to have 20 fingers.

You might have to do two lots.

I want you to use this as a listening exercise as well

to see how much you pick up

because we're going to go through phrase by phrase.

If you do need the extra help, you can turn on subtitles.

I woke up in the morning feeling a little under the weather.

I took a deep breath and tried to pull myself together.

You've got to bite the bullet and attend the interview,

I said to myself.

I went downstairs to have some breakfast.

My mum asked me if I was hungry.

I told her that I could eat a horse.

She made me a big plate of eggs and I wolfed it down.

I started to feel really nervous about the interview.

Candidates like me are a dime a dozen.

To add insult to injury, I'd been unemployed for six months.

Why would anyone hire me?

Perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Or perhaps I should throw caution to the wind and just go.

The ball is in my court.

I have to do this.

On the way to the interview,

my bus got stuck in a traffic jam.

I was really down on my luck.

To make matters worse, I spilled some coffee on my shirt.

I arrived 10 minutes late,

but the boss said, "Better late than never".

She said that she would give me the benefit of the doubt

which I really appreciated.

She was really on the ball and asked me lots of relevant,

about my past experience.

I managed to give her some good answers.

So far so good, I thought to myself.

By the end of the interview, I felt a lot better.

She said to me that her decision was a piece of cake.

She wanted to offer me the position.

I was over the moon.

Finally, I had my dream job.

I told her that I would give her my all.

I was on cloud nine for the rest of the day.

Oh, lovely, positive story.

Parts of that are actually true.

I did once spill coffee

all over my shirt before a job interview,

but I still got the job, yes.

I have been rejected from quite a few jobs

in my time as well.

I really wanted to work at the makeup counter

in my local department store

when I was younger and I applied three times,

and got rejected every single time.

So in the first part of the story,

I said, I woke up in the morning feeling

a little under the weather.

And to feel under the weather

or to be under the weather is our first idiom.

This means to feel ill or unwell.

It doesn't mean seriously ill.

It just means I don't feel as good as I normally do.

An example, I didn't go into school

because I was feeling a bit under the weather.

I hope to feel better tomorrow.

Not that serious, just not feeling that great.

Okay, next I said,

I took a deep breath and tried to pull myself together.

And to pull one self together is our next idiom,

idiom number two.

To pull oneself together

is to recover control of one's emotions.

Sometimes if I'm feeling a bit weak or pathetic,

I don't want to do something, I tell myself,

pull yourself together, Lucy,

worse things could happen.

An example, calm down and pull yourself together.

Screaming isn't going to help.

In the next sentence, I was speaking to myself.

I said, you've got to bite the bullet,

and attend the interview.

And to bite the bullet is our third idiom.

It means to decide to do something unpleasant

that you have been avoiding.

Something unpleasant or difficult as well.

A big example of this is with me and running.

I love running, but I like running in nice weather.

And when it's really, really cold,

I try to make myself go out on a run, but I don't want to.

It's cold, it's unpleasant, it's more difficult.

I try to make myself bite the bullet,

stop avoiding it and just do it.

An example, I've been avoiding organising my finances,

but I need to bite the bullet and open that spreadsheet.

When you hear the phrase bite the bullet,

think of Nike, okay, just do it.

Just do it, stop avoiding it, just do it.

That's our Nike idiom.

The next sentence.

I went downstairs to have some breakfast.

My mum asked me if I was hungry and I said

that I could eat a horse.

I could eat a horse is our next idiom,

and it means I could eat a lot or I am so hungry.

An example, after running the marathon,

I could have eaten a horse.

I was so hungry.

The next sentence in the story

is she made me a big plate of eggs and I wolfed it down.

I wolfed it down.

To Wolf something down is actually a phrasal verb,

but it's also slang.

So we're including it here as an idiom.

To wolf something down is to eat something really quickly.

If you think how a wolf eats,

(chuckles) it goes down your throat really quickly.

To wolf something down.

Now, if I'm talking about eggs, plural,

why did I say I wolfed it down?

This is because we're referring to the plate of eggs.

Mind that one there

as I often hear students make mistakes with that.

An example, he wolfed down two plates of lasagna,

and still had room for dessert.

That is my husband.

He just loves lasagna.

Italians I hope you appreciate

the British pronunciation of lasagna.

(laughing)

I do apologise.

Okay, next sentence.

I started to feel really nervous about the interview.

Candidates like me are a dime a dozen.

A dime a dozen is our six idiom.

And it's funny because we don't have dimes

in the British monetary system.

That's an American coin, but we still don't use it.

And a dime a dozen means very, very common.

Candidates like me are a dime a dozen.

There are loads of candidates just like me.

I don't have anything special.

An example, I'm sorry,

but your stamp collection isn't worth anything.

Most of the stamps are a dime a dozen.

Most of them are really common.

All right, next sentence.

To add insult to injury.

I'd been unemployed for six months.

Why would anyone hire me?

So number seven is to add insult to injury,

to add insult to injury.

I have specific connected speech there.

To ends in the vowel sound, o.

And the next word starts with a vowel sound.

So we always put a little, wa sound between it.

To add to injury.

If you want to learn more about connected speech,

I've got a whole video about it.

I'll put that into the description box.

If you want to look deeply at it,

you can try my pronunciation course.

The link is also in the description box.

To add insult to injury means

to make something bad, even worse.

If you look at the phrase, insult to injury.

This means that you're already injured,

and now you've been insulted

to the bad situation has been made worse.

An example, he broke up with me,

and then to add insult to injury,

he started dating my sister.

Bad situation, made worse.

The next sentence is perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree.

This is a really common idiom here in the UK.

It means to be wrong about the reason for something

or the way to achieve something.

For example, I thought that the best way

to hire a video editor would be to put up posters

around my town but I was barking up the wrong tree.

What I should've done is posted on an online job board.

I was wrong about the way to achieve something.

Another example, she thinks that spending time apart

will solve her marriage problems,

but she's barking up the wrong tree.

Maybe they need to spend more time together.

If you visualise this idiom, imagine two trees.

And there's a squirrel up this tree.

The little dog is barking at tree here.

He's barking up the wrong tree.

He's never going to achieve what he wants here.

He should go to the other tree.

Next sentence.

Or perhaps I should throw caution to the wind and just go.

Idiom number nine is to throw caution to the wind.

This means to act without thinking of the consequences.

It doesn't necessarily mean to act without care

or to act carelessly.

Sometimes it's used in quite an inspirational way.

I'm not gonna think about the risks,

I'm going to follow my heart.

An example, I was worried she would reject me,

but I threw caution to the wind and asked her out.

Next sentence, the ball is in my court.

I have to do this.

If the ball is in your court,

it means you have to make the next move.

I can't do anymore, the ball is in your court.

Visualise two people playing tennis.

This person has the ball.

The ball is in their court.

This other person can't do anything.

It's used a lot in professional situations.

I've done as much as I can.

The ball is in your court, you have to make a decision now.

We are now halfway through the idioms.

Moving on to number 11, let's take a look at the sentence.

On the way to the interview,

my bus got stuck in a traffic jam.

I was really down on my luck.

So number 11 is to be down on your luck.

This means to be experiencing a period of bad luck.

So this isn't the first bad thing that's happened to you.

An example, I really hope that things improve for you.

You've been down on your luck and you don't deserve it.

This could be me talking to a friend who's been

on three terrible dates.

They really deserve a good date,

but they've been down on their luck.

The next one.

To make matters worse, I spilled some coffee on my shirt.

So this is number 12.

To make matters worse.

And it means almost exactly the same thing

as to add insult to injury.

It means we have a bad situation,

and what has made it worse is the following.

An example, the thief stole my bag,

and to make matters worse, he tripped me over.

So not only did I lose my bag, I also fell over.

If somebody trips you over, they make you fall down.

Next sentence.

I arrived 10 minutes late, but the boss said,

"Better late than never."

Better late than never is our 13th idiom.

It means that it's better to do something late

or after it should have been done than to not do it all.

Sometimes we use it in a sarcastic sense.

If I handed my homework to my teacher really, really late,

they might say, "Ugh, better late than never".

We like to be quite sarcastic in the UK.

An example in context, you lose 10% of your marks,

if you hand in your coursework late,

but better late than never.

It's better to lose 10% than to lose 100%.

Okay, next sentence.

She said that she would give me the benefit of the doubt

which I really appreciated.

Oh, to give someone the benefit of the doubt.

Idiom number 14.

This means to decide to believe someone,

even if you're not 100% sure

that what they're saying is true or honest.

I don't know if you're lying to me,

but I will give you the benefit of the doubt.

Sometimes if my students hand in their homework late,

and they tell me they had internet problems,

I don't have any proof,

but I give them the benefit of the doubt.

I'll believe them.

If they keep repeating the same thing over and over again,

then I won't give them the benefit of the doubt anymore.

An example.

I'm not sure if he'll be able to deliver on his promises,

but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Next sentence.

She was really on the ball,

and asked me lots of relevant questions

about my past experience.

Idiom number 15 is to be on the ball.

To be on the ball.

This is something that you want to be.

This means to be organised and alert.

An example, you won't be able to fool him.

He's very on the ball when it comes to new tricks and scams.

Sometimes if I make a mistake,

if I wasn't careful enough with my work,

I tell myself, oh, I need to be more on the ball.

I need to be more organised and alert,

and just in control of things.

Next sentence.

I managed to give her some good answers.

So far so good, I thought to myself.

(chuckling)

Number 16.

The 16th idiom is so far so good.

And this means everything until now has gone well.

It means that you haven't finished something yet,

but everything along the way is going positively.

Okay, next sentence.

By the end of the interview,

I felt a lot better.

She said to me that her decision was a piece of cake.

She wanted to offer me the position.

A piece of cake, idiom number 17 is very easy.

If something is a piece of cake, then it's very easy.

An example.

I thought that exam was a piece of cake,

we should all get full marks.

Next sentence, I was over the moon.

Finally, I had my dream job.

Idiom number 18 to be over the moon means

to be very happy, to be ecstatic.

An example, I was over the moon

when I found out that my favourite band was playing

in my city.

Next sentence, I told her that I would give her my all.

I told her that I would give her my all.

Number 19 to give something or someone your all,

means to give something or someone your full effort.

Your best try.

An example, I gave it my all,

but I didn't manage to win the race.

I tried as hard as I possibly could,

I put in my full effort, but I didn't win the race.

And the final sentence.

I was on cloud nine for the rest of the day.

And to be on cloud nine means to be a elated,

very, very happy.

An example.

After our wedding day, we were on cloud nine.

It was amazing to finally tie the knot.

To tie the knot is slang for to get married.

It was amazing to finally get married.

To tie the knot.

Right, that is it for the story and the 20 idioms.

Don't forget to download the free PDF

that goes with this lesson.

And if you think you'd like

to do something like this everyday,

learning between six and 10 idioms every single day

with a short daily texts like this,

and a video from me and so many practise exercises,

then I really recommend my Idioms Challenge.

If you'd like to sign up,

click on the link in the description box,

all of the information and pricing info is there.

Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.

I've got my website, englishwithlucy.co.uk.

I've got a cool pronunciation tool there.

There are lots of extra lessons.

I've also got my blogging channel, Lucy Bella

where we document our lives here in the English countryside.

All of the blogs are fully subtitled

so you can use them for listening practise,

and to acquire more vocabulary.

Don't forget to connect with me on social media.

I've got my Instagram at Lucy.

I've got my English learning page

which is very new @EnglishwithLucy.

And I've also got my Facebook.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

Mwah.

(upbeat music)