Learn English: 5 'WORLD' Idioms

Hi. My name is Rebecca from www.engvid.com. In today's lesson, you're going to learn five

idioms with the word "world" in them. Okay? So, here we go.

First one: "They're on top of the world since they had a baby." What do you think it means?

"They're on top of the world since they had a baby." Well, it could be a lot of things

if you have a baby, but in this case, it means that they're very, very happy. So, to be on

top of the world means to be extremely happy about something; very joyful. Okay? To be

on top of the world.

Next one: "I think the world of my parents." So, what do you think that means? To think

the world of someone means to respect someone, to admire them. Okay? To value them. To think

the world of someone is to think very respectfully about someone. Okay?

Next, suppose somebody asked you: "So, what are you guys doing?" And you answer: "Nothing

much. Just sitting here watching the world go by." All right? So, what does it mean to

watch the world go by? To watch the world go by means really what it says, pretty much.

To not do anything much, to just sit, sit around, do nothing special, and the world

is going on. Okay? That's the expression: "to watch the world go by". It means to sit

around and do almost nothing, and certainly nothing important. Okay?

Next: "He had the whole world at his feet by the time he was 30." So, what do you think

that means? To have the world at your feet, or in this case, he had the whole world at

his feet means to become extremely successful, popular, admired. Okay? So, that's the expression

to have... Or the idiom: "to have the whole world at your feet".

Last one: "Congratulations on your new job! You're really moving up in the world." So,

the idiom is: "to move up in the world". What do you think it means? It kind of is easy

to figure out. It means to become more successful, to go up in social status, and so on.

All right?

So, we have here: "on top of the world", "to think the world of someone",

"to watch the world go by", "to have the whole world at your feet", and: "to move up in the world".

Okay?

So, which one of these means to not do anything special? Do you know?

Okay, it's the third one: "to watch the world go by". All right?

Which one means that somebody's extremely popular, and successful, and admired by lots

of people? What..? Which idiom is that?

"To have the whole world at your feet". Very good.

Okay. If you're very, very happy, let's say you're getting married or you just had a baby,

or you won the lottery, what could you say?

"I'm on top of the world." All right? Means

you're very, very happy.

Okay. What do you say about someone who is becoming more and more successful, getting

one promotion after another? What's happening to him or her?

They are "moving up in the world". Very good.

And if you respect someone very much, you could say that you:

"Think the world of them".

Again, an idiom is important... Idioms are important to learn because the individual

words don't always tell you the meaning; the entire expression tells you the meaning. All

right? So, that's why you have to learn idioms very carefully. The most important thing about

idioms is to understand them first, make sure you know, because people do use them very

often. And only when you really know how to use it, then you use it yourself in language,

especially if you are a language learner. Okay?

If you'd like to practice this a little bit more, please go to our website: www.engvid.com.

You could also subscribe to my YouTube channel for lots of other delightful English lessons.

All right? Thanks very much. Bye for now.