5 Green Idioms | Vocabulary Lesson | St Patrick's Day 2017*

Hello everyone! And welcome back to English with Lucy

In this video we are going to be celebrating a very important day, especially in the Irish calendar

Yes, St. Patrick's day will be celebrated on the seventeenth of march

So I've teamed up with the guys from lingoda

They have a fantastic blog now which has lots of articles relating to specific events, days, seasons

So head over to that blog, the link is in the description box and you can read lots more about St. Patrick's day,

vocabulary used, language, the history; should be very interesting

So today I am going to tell you a little bit about St. Patrick's Day, how it's celebrated

And then I'm going to give you some idioms

And because the colour used to celebrate is the colour green

I am going to give you idioms related to the color green

So, for most people St. Patrick's Day is a day for celebrating everything to do with Irish culture

which normally involves going to the pub and drinking lots of beer or whiskey

and dressing up as leprechaun and shamrocks

If you want to find out what those are, check out the blogpost

And I must say I have joined in in those festivities I do like a pint of Guinness every now and again

However, it actually has much more cultural importance than that

In reality St. Patrick's Day celebrates the life of Saint Patrick, who would have guessed it?

Now, St Patrick's Day is celebrated on the seventeenth of March because it is believed to be the date he died

in around four hundred and sixty A.D

Now, St. Patrick's day is known for drinking because it actually falls within Lent

And that's a period of time where there are restrictions on food and drink

So the Irish people were given an exception, they were allowed to drink and feast on St. Patrick's Day

That's why it's associated with excess

Nowadays is celebrated all over the world, especially in America they love it over there

and people listen to Irish music, they drink Irish alcohol and drinks, they eat Irish food

And they sometimes talk with an Irish accent

Ireland. That's the best I can do

Oh! and very importantly they wear green, people wear green

So now, to help celebrate St. Patrick's Day

I'm going to talk to you about some idioms that are related to the color green

So the first idiom is: To be green with envy

To be green with envy

So, I'm going to give an example of how I would use this idiom in conversation

and I want you to guess what it means Aftewards I will say the definition

My neighbor has a gorgeous new pug puppy and I am green with envy

My neighbor has a gorgeous new pug puppy and I am green with envy

Yep, so I could say My neighbor has a gorgeous new pug puppy and I am really jealous

To be green with envy means to be really jealous, really envious of what somebody else has

So the next one is: to have a green thumb

And I would say in the summer months my dad grows amazing food for us all

No, he really, really does. We have fresh tomatoes, potatoes, beans, fruits, everything

Now, all the vegetables taste delicious because he has a green thumb

The vegetables taste delicious because he has a green thumb

So, if somebody has a green thumb it means that they have a real talent to for growing things, for growing plants

The next one: To be green around the gills

Gills are slits here that fish use to breathe

So if you are green around the gills, what do you think that means?

I'll give you an example

I sent Sharon home from work today because she looked a bit green around the gills

I sent Sharon home from work today because she looked a bit green around the gills

If somebody is green around the gills it means they look ill or they look unwell. So poor Sharon looked unwell

Now, the fourth idiom is: to give the green light

If I give something the green light, what am I-- What am I doing?

So, say my boss gave me the green light to start my new campaign

My boss gave me the green light to start my new campaign

If you someone the green light it means you give them permission to start a new project

It's a useful one for the work place

Now the final idiom, idiom number five, is: to go green

So if I say: I've decided to go green, from now on I am going to walk to work

I've decided to go green, from now on I am going to walk to work

So, to go green means to make a conscious life style change in order to be more environmentally friendly

So walking to work is more environmentally friendly than driving to work

Right guys, that's it for today's lesson

Now, lingoda have given me a very special offer to then give to you

It's fifty euros or dollars off your first month at lingoda

And if you want to know more about lingoda then click on my review video which is right up there

and you can see my experience with lingoda

and why I think it is one of the best tools for improving your English

It's an online language academy with real, exclusively native teachers

And you can have a mixture of group and private lessons and they can basically teach you anything you want

If you want to practice green idioms, you book in for a private class and you can practice green idioms

So that's it for today, don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media

I've got my facebook and instagram

And also, check out the blogpost where you can find out lots about St. Patrick's Day

And also some really good St. Patrick's Day vocabulary as well that we haven't covered in this video

I will see you soon for another lesson