12 ‘WALL’ Expressions in English

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today's lesson is about metaphors and idioms using the word

"wall". So, you might think "wall", that's a strange word. Are there so many idioms and

metaphors using that? Well, in fact there are, so... And they're all quite interesting,

I think, and they're quite useful, too. So, let's have a look at some examples.

So, a wall, you know what a wall is. It might be bricks. Sometimes it refers to a brick

wall, or sometimes just wall, the walls of a house, the walls of a building. Okay? So,

something quite straightforward and literal, not metaphorical so much, but actually literally

true is some places have wall-to-wall carpet, which means they have carpet on the whole

of the floor, right up to the walls, to the edge. Okay? So, that's usually quite luxurious,

nice to have. They've got wall-to-wall carpet in every room in their house, so it sounds

nice. Okay? But wall-to-wall, I think, can also mean in a metaphorical way something

sort of completely... Something that's been done completely, totally, something like that.

They really did a wall-to-wall job on that project, meaning they did everything they

could. They didn't leave anything out. Okay.

So, okay, that's wall-to-wall. A fly on the wall doesn't sound very nice. Anything to

do with insects is not very nice, really, unless you really like insects. But you can

have a documentary film, which is a fly on the wall documentary, which is what happens

when a group of filmmakers usually go into somebody's house or into somebody's office

or somewhere, and they may be there several days or weeks, even, filming the people just

doing their ordinary day-to-day activities. And so, the people being filmed, eventually

they forget they're being filmed. They get so used to having cameras there, they're not

thinking much about it, and they're just getting on with their normal lives. So, that's called

a fly on the wall documentary because you see real people living their real, ordinary

lives.

People also say sometimes, "Oh, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in their house." So,

you mean, you know, you'd like to see what goes on in that person's house. You'd love

to be a fly on the wall when maybe two people meet, and you'd love to see how they react

to each other. "Oh, I'd love to be a fly on the wall when those two people meet." Or in

that person's house, "I'd love to know what goes on. I'd love to be a fly on the wall."

So, the idea is the fly on the wall, nobody takes any notice of it, but the fly sees everything.

Okay? So, that's the idea with that one.

Better practical one here, if you're looking for a bank and you want to get some cash,

maybe it's after the banks have closed. So, you need the hole in the wall, which is the

place where you can get some cash on the street. There's a little screen and some numbers,

and you type in your security number and you can get some cash out of your account, assuming

you have some cash in your account, which hopefully you do. So, you go to the hole in

the wall to get some cash before you go shopping, or before you go to a restaurant or a cafe,

something like that. So, that's the cash machine on the street. Okay?

Now, this one, we start to get the brick wall coming in here. If you come up against a brick

wall, this is metaphorical, you're trying to achieve something, you're trying to do

something, but something stops you. So, you're going towards it, and then here's a brick

wall, and you can't go any further. Something is stopping you, and this is metaphorical.

It may be that a person is trying to stop you, they're blocking you from doing something,

so that's to come up against a brick wall. Or maybe you're just working on a project

and you can't get any further, you can't get some more information that you need to carry

on with the project, so you don't know where to go from there, so you've come up against

a brick wall. Okay?

And if you're in that situation, you might say, "This project, it's driving me up the

wall", meaning you're almost climbing the wall in frustration because you can't get

anywhere, or something is driving you mad, making you crazy because things are not working

out properly. So, it's driving me up the wall. Okay?

If someone says, "We've got our backs to the wall", it's like this, you're up against a

wall here, you can't go back any further. If you're in a situation maybe with running

a company and things are not going well, and you're trying to make a success of it, but

you've got to the point where you can't do much more and you're right up against the

wall, we've got our backs to the wall, and you can't go forward, you can't go back, you're

stuck, you can't progress, so you don't know what's going to happen from there, so we've

got our backs to the wall.

So, okay, next one. If something is described as a bit off the wall, or a little off the

wall, if someone makes a suggestion that sounds a bit eccentric, a bit strange, unexpected,

you say, "Oh, well, that idea, it's a bit off the wall, isn't it?", meaning it's a bit

unusual, we're not really used to that sort of idea or doing that kind of thing. If you

have a new idea for selling a product and it's not the usual way of doing it, someone

might say, "Well, it's a bit off the wall, isn't it?", but okay, we could try, see if

it works. Maybe we need something that's off the wall to create more interest, to appeal

to people's imaginations, and so on. Okay.

Right, so to see the writing on the wall, this is when you... You realize that things

are not good. It comes from a very old story from the Bible, the Old Testament, with a

king called Belshazzar. I don't know if you know the story, but Belshazzar is the king

of Babylon, and it's a very rich city, but things are going to go badly wrong. He's going

to be punished for being, I suppose, too arrogant or something. So, they see... They're having

a big feast, Belshazzar's feast. You can see paintings of this, and there's also a big

musical work called Belshazzar's Feast by a composer called William Walton, an English

composer, which is a very exciting piece of music, actually. And Belshazzar's Feast, they're

all having a lovely feast and a wonderful time, and they're not thinking of anything

going wrong, but suddenly a hand appears, just a hand, no body with it, just a hand

appears and writes on the wall, and it's a kind of warning that you've... You know, your

happy, nice, luxurious, self-indulgent life is about to finish. This is a warning to tell

you. And that's the writing on the wall. So, it's now used as a metaphorical saying. If

you see the writing on the wall, it's a kind of "Oh, there's trouble now. This is the end

of the nice time you've been having." It might be with a company that's been doing well,

but then things start to go downhill, and people realize that this company is going

to fail, and now we've looked at the figures and we've seen the writing on the wall, we're

going to have to go bankrupt or whatever, and close the company, make everybody redundant,

and so on. So, that's to see the writing on the wall, to realize you can't continue.

Okay. "Walls have ears" is... It's a saying that was quite popular during the Second World

War in the 1940s. There were posters warning people don't talk about the work you're doing,

especially if it's connected with the war, because walls have ears. Somebody could overhear

what you're saying, and that's... That person could be a spy, and they could then tell the

enemy what you've been doing. So, walls have ears. So, even now, if people are chatting,

someone might say, "Oh, be careful what you say. You don't know who's listening." Walls

have ears. So, if you're on the train or the bus with other people around, you have to

be careful what you say. If you're talking about confidential things, it's... Well, it's

best not to. Okay.

Right. And then three sayings which are all quite similar, where it begins, "It's like...

It's like banging my head against a brick wall." So, if you're trying to do something

or tell somebody something or persuade somebody, but you're getting nowhere, you say, "Well,

it's like banging my head against a brick wall. It's just pointless. It's not achieving

anything, and it's causing you a lot of pain at the same time." So, that's that one. And

very similar, "It's like talking to a brick wall." I mean, if you talk to a wall, that's

a waste of time and energy as well, because the wall isn't going to... It's not a wall

with ears; it's a different kind of wall. So, it's not going to listen or respond or

anything; it's a pointless waste of energy talking to a brick wall. But it's usually

when you're talking to a person who might as well be a brick wall because they're not...

Either not listening or they're not interested; they're not going to do anything in response,

so you might as well not bother.

And finally, which is a bit similar again, "It's like nailing jelly to the wall." If

you think of jelly, which is, you know, if you have a piece of maybe raspberry-flavored

or strawberry-flavored jelly, a sort of transparent, sweet stuff, if you tried to nail that to

the wall, it would just disintegrate and fall on the floor. You can't actually nail...

I don't think you can nail jelly to the wall. It's... Again, it's a pointless exercise;

it's a waste of time. So, all of these three have a similar idea in them.

Okay, so I hope those are interesting for you, and hopefully taught you some new vocabulary

as well as the idioms. We'll now go on to a second board and some sentences with gaps

in for you to fill in the correct metaphor to go with that sentence. Okay, so here we

have some sentences with gaps at the end for you to fill in the right metaphor or idiom

based on the ones I gave you previously.

So, first one. "The bank manager never listens to me." It's... What would you put there?

So, "The bank manager never listens to me." It's like talking. So, if he's listening,

you're talking. It's like talking to a brick wall. Okay? Right.

Next one. "I wonder what goes on in that house. I'd love to be..." What would you love to

be? If you'd love to know what's going on in that house. "I'd love to be a something

on the wall." What was it? A fly on the wall. Okay. Right. Next one. "Be careful what you

say because walls have ears." Okay, so be careful what you say because walls have ears.

Somebody's listening. Right. Good.

Next one. So, that's an unusual suggestion, but perhaps we need to try something that's

a little... So, this means a little out of the ordinary, a little bit unusual. So, with

wall in it, something that's a little off the wall. A little off the wall. Okay?

Next one. "I need some cash before we go shopping. Where is the nearest something in the wall

to get some money from the bank?" I need some cash before we go shopping. Where is the nearest

hole in the wall? Hole in the wall. Okay. It's not a circular hole; it's usually a sort

of rectangular hole, isn't it? But it's still called the hole in the wall. Okay.

Next one. "Their new office is very luxurious." That means it's very nice, luxury. They've

spent a lot of money on it. Their new office is very luxurious. "Everywhere you look, they

have _____ carpet." So, what kind of carpet? So, wall to wall carpet. Everywhere you look,

they have wall to wall carpet. Very nice. Okay. Next one. "It's so difficult to make

any progress on this project. Everything we try is like..." What is it like? Something,

something to the wall. Everything we try is like nailing jelly to the wall. Okay? Good.

And finally, you're trying to do your accounts. "I can't get these accounts to add up correctly."

It's really... It's really something, something up the wall. It's really driving me up the

wall. Okay? So, I hope you got all of those, and I hope you've enjoyed learning some typical

idioms using the word "wall". There are lots of them, and you'll be able to use them in

your use of English. And so, if you'd like to go to the website, www.engvid.com, there's

a quiz, and please subscribe to my channel if you haven't already, and see you again

soon. Bye for now.