Let's Learn English Idioms on the Farm! A Fun Way to Learn Idioms!

Hi, Bob the Canadian here.

I know that all of you love learning English idioms,

so I thought in this video, we would walk around the farm.

As some of you know, I live on a flower farm.

You can actually see some white flowers

on this rosehip bush behind me.

And you can see some dahlias

just starting to come out of the ground over there.

I thought I would walk around the farm

and I would help you learn some idioms

that kinda come from this world.

Idioms that are about plants, about farming,

about the things that we produce on the farm,

that we actually use in every day English.

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Sometimes in English we'll say to someone

that they need to stop and smell the roses.

Now, we don't have roses on our farm,

but we do have peonies, (inhales)

and they smell beautiful as well.

What this phrase means though,

is that if you are very busy,

if you are working a lot,

if you are in school and all you do is study,

sometimes someone will say to you,

"Hey, you need to stop and smell the roses."

It means that you need to stop working

every once in a while.

You need to stop studying every once in a while.

And you just need to spend time with family or friends

or have a good meal and enjoy life a little bit.

So when we say that you need to stop and smell the roses,

it means that you need to enjoy life.

Speaking of roses, it reminds me of another phrase

that we use sometimes in English.

Sometimes we'll say that everything is coming up roses.

This means that in someone's life,

everything is now going really, really well.

Maybe you have a friend who just got a new job

and they're making a lot more money now

and they have a new girlfriend, and life is good.

You could say that for them, everything is coming up roses.

In English, when we describe something

as being garden variety, it simply means

it's the normal or ordinary version of something.

It doesn't mean that it grew in a garden.

So you can buy garden variety bluejeans.

Instead of spending a lot of money

on name brand, expensive bluejeans,

you could just buy the store brand

or a garden variety pair of bluejeans.

So whenever we describe something in English

as being garden variety, it simply means

it's the normal, ordinary, less expensive option.

So I have this log here

and it has a few little bumps on it.

So it's smooth and then there's a bump.

You can see the bump right here.

You can describe a person though, as being a bump on a log.

If you say that someone is a bump on a log,

it means that they're someone who just sits a lot

and doesn't do anything.

It might even mean they're a little bit lazy.

Maybe you have a friend or a relative,

and when you try to do some work with them,

they're just like a bump on a log.

They just kinda sit there and they don't do a whole lot.

So if you describe a person as being a bump on a log,

it's not a nice thing to say,

but basically you're just saying that they sit a lot,

they don't work very hard, and they're a little bit lazy.

So this is a haystack and this is a needle.

You can imagine if you lost this needle in this haystack.

It would be incredibly hard to find it back.

When we lose things in English,

and we know that finding it back will be really difficult,

we often use the phrase,

it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Because, yeah, if you lost a needle in a haystack,

you would have a lot of trouble finding it back.

Sometimes at the end of a long evening,

when you are hanging out with friends,

someone might say, "Ah, I'm tired.

"I'm going to hit the hay."

They don't actually mean that they're going to hit hay,

like I'm (laughs) hitting this bale of hay.

What they mean is that they are going to go to bed.

In English sometimes, instead of saying,

"Oh, I'm tired, I'm going to go to bed."

We'll say, "Oh, I'm really tired.

"I'm going to hit the hay."

Behind me you can see a tree branch,

and we sometimes will call a tree branch a limb.

And we have an English idiom to go out on a limb.

When you say that you are going to go out on a limb,

it doesn't mean you're going to climb a tree

and go out on the branch.

But it means that you're going to do something risky.

It means that you are going to take a chance.

Maybe you have a new idea for a business.

You have a new idea of something you could sell.

But you're not sure if people will buy it.

You might go out on a limb,

and you might try to sell it anyways.

So when you take a chance, when you take a risk,

in English, sometimes we'll say

that you're going out on a limb.

As flowers grow, they eventually bloom.

Sometimes you have a bud and sometimes you have a bloom.

You can see that this peony is open.

It has bloomed,

but this one is a late bloomer.

And there is an English phrase late bloomer.

When you described someone as a late bloomer,

it means that they get good at something late in life.

Just like this flower will bloom later than this one,

sometimes people bloom later in life.

Maybe they don't learn how to play the guitar

when they are young, but they learn how to play it

when they're in their 20s or 30s

and they're really, really good at it.

We would describe that person as a late bloomer.

This stick is in the mud.

But you can also call a person a stick-in-the-mud.

If you say that someone is a stick-in-the-mud,

it means they don't like change.

They don't like doing new things.

I am definitely not a stick-in-the-mud.

I love change and I love doing new things.

But, if you call someone a stick-in-the-mud,

it means they don't like change

and they don't like trying new things.

Have you ever gotten the short end of the stick?

In English, if someone says

that they got the short end of the stick,

it means that they got a bad deal

or it means that someone else got a better deal for sure.

Let's imagine that you need to go to the store,

and you and your brother are going to both go,

but you only have one bicycle and your brother says,

"Because I'm older than you,

"I get to take the bicycle and you need to walk."

We would say that in that situation,

you got the short end of the stick.

You got a bad deal.

It's nice to be out of the sun and in the shade.

I like it that this tree has lots of leaves.

You can see this nice maple leaf right here.

We have an idiom in English to turn a new leaf.

When you turn a new leaf,

it means that you change a bad behavior in your life

and you try to replace it with a good behavior.

So maybe you are trying to turn a new leaf.

Maybe you are someone who complains a lot

and maybe you think to yourself,

"You know, I should complain less.

"Maybe I should turn a new leaf

"and I should try to always say positive things

"when I'm having conversations with people."

So, when you turn a new leaf,

it means that you try to replace a bad behavior

with a good behavior.

So this is a nut,

and the outside of the nut is called the nutshell.

Sometimes in English

when we tell someone about something we did,

we give them a really short version of the story,

and we say, "That's it in a nutshell."

I could say, "Yesterday, I got up.

"I had breakfast, I read a book all day.

"That's all I did, that's it in a nutshell."

So basically, when you say in a nutshell in English,

it means you're giving a summary

or you're giving a short version of a description of events.

So, that's it in a nutshell.

Well, hey, thank you so much for watching this video.

I hope you were able to learn a few more English idioms.

I know some of you probably were hoping to see more flowers.

They're still quite little,

but I will make another video later this summer,

where I'll show you lots of the flowers on our farm.

Remember, if you're new here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button below

and give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn

just a little bit more English.

And if you have the time,

why don't you stick around and watch another video.

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