10 Must-Know Idioms about Life - with Quizzes & Study Tips

Idioms make our speech more colorful.  They often express exactly what we mean  

and how we feel. However, you don't  want to overload your speech with  

idioms because it will sound forced  and unnatural. But a few well-placed  

idioms in a conversation or a text will  make you sound confident and proficient.

Hi. I'm Jennifer from English with Jennifer.  Let's see if you're familiar with 10 idioms  

that we use for talking about how we handle  difficulties and where we are in life. Ready?  

Answer my questions sometimes we say yes  too much, and then our responsibilities and  

obligations overwhelm us. My advice: Don't bite  off more than you can chew. In other words...

don't try to do too much or  something that's too difficult.

It's natural to worry about a problem,  

but sometimes a challenging situation becomes  a blessing in disguise. In other words...

it's something that initially appears  bad but then delivers a benefit.

Sometimes we exaggerate how bad things are.  Are you really down and out or just going  

through a rough patch? Which idiom  refers to a more serious misfortune?

Down and out. "Down and out" is  when a person has no opportunities  

because they lack almost everything:  money, work, and maybe even a home.  

"Going through a rough patch" is just a difficult  period of your life, a process, or a relationship.

Feeling like you don't have any options can  be stressful. With your back against a wall,  

you argue there's nothing you can  do. In other words, you feel like...

you have limited choices; you're helpless.  Note different variations like these:

my back is to the wall

my back is against the wall

I had my back against the wall

Or just the prepositional phrase  "with my back against the wall."

The key to making progress in life  is to roll with the punches. People  

who can't recover from a hit won't move  forward. In other words, you need to...

adapt.

How you show up in the world makes a difference  people who put their best foot forward find  

more good fortune and favor than those who  are pessimistic and cold towards others.  

In other words,

you should try your best and  show your best side to people.

Ideally you want to do more than just  keep your head above the water. Right?  

You want to thrive and enjoy success. In  other words, you don't simply want to...

survive.

I know it might be nice if every day  we're smooth sailing, but we can admit  

that we grow through challenges. In  other words, every day can't be...

easy and without any problems.

While challenges are a natural part of life,  it's not unreasonable to desire the kind of  

success that will keep you flying high throughout  the year. In other words, it's a common desire...

to be happy and achieve  success, especially financially.

Note that this idiom is used in the progressive:  

was flying high, is flying  high, has been flying high.

Okay. Let's review. I'll show you the  

idioms one by one with some missing words.  Do your best to recall them. Here we go.

bite off more than you can

chew

a blessing in

disguise

flying

high

going through a...patch

a rough patch

have your...the wall

have your back against the  wall/have your back to the wall

Either one is fine down.

down and

out

roll with

the punches

put one's best...forward

foot

keep your head...water

keep your head above the water

...sailing

smooth sailing

Let's try it this way. I'll show you an image,  and you tell me which idiom it illustrates.

How did you do? Let me give you a  couple of study tips. You can use  

ChatGPT or another AI tool to create  exercises for you. Use this prompt.

I'm an English language learner. Imagine you  are an experienced and very creative American  

English language teacher. Please create  a 60-word text with these five idioms but  

omit at least one word in each idiom to create  a gapped text that I can fill in for practice.

And then you list the five  idioms you want to practice.

Does that make sense? Here's a text that  ChatGPT created using that prompt. Let's  

read it together. Liam bit off more than he could

chew when he agreed to two jobs  at once. At first ,he struggled,  

but losing one of them turned out to be

a blessing in disguise. Now he's flying

high with his dream job. Last year,  he and his wife were going through a

rough patch, but they never gave up even  when they had their back against the

wall.

Once you enter that prompt, you can then generate  a second text to practice the same five idioms,  

or you can ask AI to generate a new  text with the other five idioms.

Here's a second prompt you can use for  speaking and writing practice. I'll put  

both prompts in the video description  so you can easily copy and paste them.

I'm an English language learner. Imagine  you are an experienced and very creative  

American English language teacher. Please  create five engaging discussion questions  

at the C1 level of proficiency. Each  question must use one of these five idioms.

And then list those idioms.

I'll show you five questions that Chat  GPT came up with using that prompt. You  

can pause the video and write your answers  to the questions in the comments. Remember  

you can use the same prompt to  practice the other five idioms.

One. Can you think of a time when  you felt down and out but managed  

to turn things around? What helped  you recover from that situation?

Two. Life can be unpredictable. How do  you personally roll with the punches?  

When faced with unexpected challenges, do  you think adaptability is a learned skill?

Three. When meeting new people  or attending an important event,  

how do you put your best foot forward? Do first  impressions always matter? Why or why not?

Four. Many people struggle to balance  work studies and personal life. How do  

you keep your head above the water when life feels  overwhelming? What strategies work best for you?

Five. Have you ever started a project  or task expecting difficulties,  

but it turned out to be smooth sailing? Shat  made the experience easier than expected?

If you have a conversation partner, you  can use these questions for practice.  

Do your best to use the idioms in your responses.

One of my favorite exercises to practice  new vocabulary is to create a story,  

and I'm not talking about asking ChatGPT to do it  for you. The story has to come from within. You  

could make it up, but I think it will be more  memorable if you base the story on real life  

experience. Let me model a short narrative based  on a real life experience. As I tell you my story,  

you can probably guess which idiom I'm about to  use before I actually say it, so listen carefully.

When I moved a few years ago,  I definitely felt overwhelmed  

by everything I had to do. I worried that I had

bit off more than I could chew. Once  I started a whole house renovation,  

I felt like there wasn't any  choice to stop. I felt like

my back was against the wall, so I wrote check  after check to get all the projects done.

My kids and I tried our best to adapt  to all the chaos within our house,  

but as much as we wanted to

roll with the punches, we got tired  of all the dust and disruption.

The weekly expenses were high, and I worried about  

managing my finances and not sinking  into debt. It was my responsibility to

keep my head above the water.

It wasn't an easy time to live  through, but moving really became

a blessing in disguise.  I'm happy where I live now,  

and I love my home office  even more than my old one.

Consider putting your own short story in  the comments. Try to use at least three  

of the new idioms. If you enjoy  working on advanced vocabulary,  

please consider joining me on Patreon, where  we work on all skills for more confident,  

effective communication. And you get  personal feedback from me not AI!

That's all for now. Please remember  to like and share the video if you  

found the lesson useful. As always,  thanks for watching and happy studies!