8 Popular Idioms You Should Know: “out of the blue”, “out of the question”, “out of…”

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid, and in this lesson you're going to learn eight more idioms. You

can never learn enough idioms, right? Okay. There are only hundreds and hundreds of them,

but today you will learn eight more, and all of them start with the words "out of the"

or something very close to that. Okay? Let's get started.

Now, the way we're going to do it today is a little bit different because usually you

don't just hear the idiom, right? People use the idioms either in writing or in speaking,

right? And so you do have context, so what I'm going to do first is I'm going to give

you a little bit of context to help you figure out the meaning by yourself, like in real

life, and then I will explain. Okay? So, here we go.

The first one is "out of the woods". So, let's say somebody says, "Oh, thank heavens. The

computer systems are running again. We're out of the woods." So, if the computer system

is back again, it means you're out of trouble. "We're out of the woods" means we're safe,

we're out of danger, we're out of trouble, the problem is over. Okay? So, "out of the

woods" means out of danger. All right.

Number two, someone says, "No, there's no way you can get next week off. It's out of

the question." So, what does that mean? That it's impossible. Okay? Because maybe they're

having a very busy week and so you can't take next week off. It's out of the question, it's

impossible. Okay.

The next one, "out of the blue". "Out of the blue, John got down on one knee and proposed

to her right there in the restaurant. Did you hear what happened? Man, she was so surprised."

So, what does that mean? "Out of the blue" means suddenly, without any expectation. Out

of the blue. Okay? Something happens suddenly.

The next one, "out of the picture". Okay. So, maybe not the same John, let's call him

Jim now. So, Jim and Mary broke up. Did you hear? Jim's out of the picture, they're no

longer together. Jim is out of the picture. So, when someone or something is out of the

picture means it's not relevant anymore, it's not true anymore. Okay? It's not real anymore.

It's not relevant, basically.

Alright. Now, "out of the ordinary". "The police asked me if I had seen anything out

of the ordinary" means anything unusual. So, I said no, everything was normal. I said nothing

was out of the ordinary, nothing was unusual or strange or abnormal. Okay? Got it? Good.

It's much easier when you have the context, right? Obviously.

Okay, man, you should have come to that concert. It was out of this world. What does that mean?

And I'm smiling, and I'm all enthusiastic, and I'm happy, and I'm telling you it was

out of this world. That means it was fantastic, it was great, it was beautiful, amazing, exceptional.

Okay? Something is out of this world, it's really fantastic.

Okay, the next one, we do hear this quite a bit. "Out of the closet". So, what does

this idiom mean? It basically means that someone is now revealing secret information about

himself or herself. Usually, it means that someone is acknowledging or saying or admitting

or confessing or whatever you want... Word you want to use that they are homosexual,

that they are gay. Okay? It could be a man or a woman. Most often, it's used for that.

All right?

And the last one, thank you so much, you really went out of your way to help me with English.

Okay? So, "out of your way" means you did something more than necessary. You went...

You did something really great, something really wonderful, something more than you

needed to do. This is usually used when we're thanking someone. And so, we have to change

this word here. "You went out of your way. Thank you so much for helping me find a job."

Okay? Or, "They really went out of their way to help us find a good hotel." Or, "He went

out of his way, she went out of her way." Okay? So, that's how we use those expressions.

Now, here you heard them in context, now let's try to match them up in some way to see how

well you have learned them.

All right, so now let's review by matching up the idioms with the definition. Okay? Ready?

So, let's work it backwards. If I want to say that something is impossible, which idiom

would you use out of these four? Okay? I divided them up, so you have to match those four with

these four in some way. So, if something is impossible, it is... Which one? Out of the

question. Good. If something is... Or someone is not relevant anymore, then which one is

it? That person is out of the picture. Good. If you say we're not in danger anymore, which

of those? We are out of the woods. Good. And if something happens suddenly, it happens

out of the blue. Good.

If somebody reveals secret information about themselves, which one is that? That person

came out of the closet. If you say that something is abnormal, then something is... Which one?

Out of the ordinary. Good. If you say that something is amazing, then you say it's good,

out of this world. And the last one, to... Somebody made an extra effort to help you.

They didn't have to drop you home, but they went out of their way to do that. So, that's

the one. Right? The last one there. Again, it could be their way, his way, your way.

Okay? My way. I went out of my way. All right.

So, these are the eight idioms for today. If you want to really learn them very well

and review them, then please go to our website, www.engvid.com. There you can do a quiz on

them and really master them. Okay? And then, maybe in the next seven days, in the next

week, or in the next eight days, you could try to use one of these idioms each day. Okay?

So, that's all for now. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more lessons about idioms, grammar,

vocabulary, pronunciation, the IELTS, TOEFL, business English, everything. All right? And

all the best with your English. Bye for now.