5 common idioms in English | Learn English with Cambridge

Hello, hello everyone.

Welcome to a new video.

This time we will be exploring

the five common idioms in English.

For this video,

I have a friend to help me to explain these expressions,

Sofia, from Maryland USA.

All right, so first expression is:

we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

It means to face the problem when the problem arises.

For example,

if your mom is having a birthday party and you

need to go buy a present,

but you don't know what to buy,

you might say,

oh we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Meaning we’ll buy the present

when it’s closer to her birthday.

Second idiom: burn the bridge.

What does it mean?

To burn the bridge means cutting off relationships

or opportunities.

For example,

if you’re leaving from one job to another,

you want to leave on good terms,

so you might want to say something like,

oh don’t burn that bridge.

Don't cut off completely that relationship.

Clever one.

Number three: bite the bullet.

What does it mean?

To bite the bullet means to do something even

though you don't really want to do it, to say

something very unpleasant.

For example, suppose you have to stay awake

at night for a project for the next morning,

somebody might tell you,

oh you have to bite the bullet and just stay awake

and do the project.

Sometimes it is what it is.

Okay great.

Very useful.

Number four: cut somebody some slack.

What does it mean?

To cut somebody some slack is to make allowances

for somebody and to give them additional freedom or leeway.

For example, if you’re a teacher out of school,

and one child at the end of the day is not paying attention

or something like that,

you might say, oh cut them some slack

because it’s the end of the day.

And they’re tired

and they’re thinking about going home soon.

Number five and last one: it’s not rocket science.

What does it mean?

It’s not rocket science is one of my favourites.

It means that something is not as complicated or as

hard as rocket science would be.

For example, let’s say you’re baking a cake and,

say, somebody is helping you

but you’re having a hard time with it.

Somebody might say,

it’s not rocket science

because baking a cake is supposed to be

really easy compared to doing rocket science.

Thank you for having me.

Good luck everybody.

Thanks for watching this video.

Comment below if you already knew these idioms,

and let me know which topic you would like to see

in the channel.

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