8 English Body Idioms You Should Use in Your English Conversation

Hi, I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident

English and welcome to this week's Confident English lesson.

So last week I was walking to a coffee shop to do a little bit of work and

while I was walking I was chatting with a friend of mine on the phone and we

were talking about our life, what we were up to,

the things we were doing at work and she said,

Annemarie, it sounds like we both need to let down

our hair. We both need to let down our hair.

What do you think she really meant by that?

She definitely was not talking about some new hairstyle or fixing our hair,

and the moment she said it, I knew that I wanted to share this idiom

with you. It's actually one of my favorite idioms

and I realized that I haven't done a lesson on idioms in a really long time.

So that inspired me to do today's lesson where we're going to focus on eight

common English idioms that focus on different parts of the body.

You're going to learn exactly what those idioms mean,

how to use them with some examples, and you'll have the opportunity to

practice as well.

Idiom number one is to get cold feet. Now,

to be honest with you, if you've watched any American rom-coms

or romantic comedies, you've probably seen a film about this

idiom. We'll talk more about that in a moment,

but let's imagine that a guy, we'll call him Diego,

is going to get married today and he's with his friend getting ready for the

wedding, the ceremony,

and just before it all starts, he turns to his best friend and he says,

oh my gosh, I don't know if I can do this.

I'm getting cold feet. What do you think he means?

If you're not sure, let me give you another example.

Imagine that you have a presentation to give an English next week.

You're preparing, you've been working on it,

but just before the meeting or the conference,

you tell your colleague, is there any way we can cancel this?

I'm getting cold feet. The idiom to get cold feet is a great

way to express that feeling of anxiety or nervousness that you might have

before a really big or important event like a wedding or giving a presentation

in English. Now,

if you ever know someone who has cold feet about something,

one of the most common things that we say,

one the most common pieces of advice is: don't worry,

everyone gets cold feet, you're going to be fine.

So the next time one of your friends or colleagues has cold feet.

You can definitely use that. Now,

as I said, we do have a lot of rom-coms or romantic

comedies about this in the United States.

If you've ever seen a film like the Runaway Bride,

Julia Roberts, that is definitely a movie about getting

cold feet. Idiom number two is to get something off

your chest. Imagine that you're at a cafe with a

friend and you know that something weird is going on.

She's acting strange and then she says to you,

I need to get something off my chest. What do you think she's really saying?

We use that idiom when we need to tell someone something that might be really

difficult to say, maybe it's uncomfortable and we know

that it will cause some stress or tension.

Maybe we've been hiding something or we need to confess something.

In all of those situations, we can use that idiom.

I need to get something off my chest. Idiom number three,

to have a chip on your shoulder, to have a chip on your shoulder.

We use that idiom to describe a situation when someone suddenly gets

angry or frustrated. One moment everything's fine and the

next moment they're super frustrated about something really small or

something that doesn't seem very important.

For example, maybe you come home and you've had a

good day at work.

It was a long day, but it was a good day.

You arrive home and there is stuff all over the floor.

It's chaos. There's dishes in the sink that need to

be cleaned, there are socks and toys on the floor,

and all of the sudden, very quickly you become frustrated and

angry, so maybe one of your children or your

spouse might say, why do you have such a chip on your

shoulder? In other words,

why are you getting so angry or frustrated about something so small and

usually that anger or frustration comes from something in the past,

something that annoyed us or bothered us in the past and suddenly in this moment,

that same situation makes us feel really angry or frustrated.

Number four, to pull someone's leg.

Let's imagine that you've just spent the last three months working really hard to

organize a big event at your work and it has taken a lot of time,

a lot of energy, and the day before the big event,

your colleague says, Oh,

did you hear we're going to cancel the event?

You would probably feel a little bit frustrated or shocked,

and your friend then might say, I'm just pulling your leg.

What does your friend mean? I'm just pulling your leg.

We use that to say that we're just kidding or making a joke.

Another example that I can give you, and this one is true.

My grandfather loved to pull other people's legs.

It was something he did for fun. He thought it was funny to always make

jokes. Idiom number five to let down your hair.

This is the idiom I used at the beginning of our lesson today when my

friend told me on the phone that it seemed like we both needed to let down

our hair. Let's go back to that situation where

you've just planned a huge event for your work and the event goes perfectly.

Of course, after three months you're feeling a

little stressed, so when the event is over,

your friend says, that was amazing.

You did such a good job, but now you need to let down your hair.

What do you think your friend means? Of course,

your friend is trying to tell you that now you need to relax,

do something fun and just enjoy your life or your day.

Things have been really stressful and now it's time to just calm down.

Idiom number six is a pain in the neck. Now,

once again with organizing an enormous event,

let's imagine that 500 people came to this work event.

I'm sure that during the organization, during those three months of putting all

the details together, there were probably some moments that

were a pain in the neck. Now we could say that and mean that you

really do have pain in your neck, but in this situation it means something

a little different. When we use this idiomatically,

we use it to say that something is annoying.

It's bothering us or it's frustrating. We can use this idiom to describe people

as well. It's definitely not positive,

but we can do it. Maybe you have a colleague who's always

negative. They always come late to work and so you

might say, Oh,

my colleague is such a pain in the neck! Idiom number seven to get out of

someone's hair. This is one of my favorites.

Let's say you have a huge deadline at work.

You have one more day to finish a big project and you really need to focus,

but during the day, all of your colleagues keep coming to

your office with questions. People are knocking on your door,

someone's calling your phone. Every five minutes your children are

calling you. There's so many things happening and you

keep getting distracted, so during the day you might start to

think, I wish everyone would just get out of my

hair.

What do you think that means? We definitely use that idiom when we

want to say that we wish someone or other people would stop annoying us.

Stop bothering us, stop getting in the way,

and finally our last idiom today to rub elbows with somebody.

This is definitely not about touching someone else's elbow.

Let's say that your company is planning a end of the year party.

Everyone in the company is invited and you're feeling kind of excited,

but also a little nervous about rubbing elbows with some of the senior level

management and maybe the owner of the company.

What do you think that means to rub elbows with senior level management or

the owner of the company? We use this idiom in situations where

you're going to spend time with someone or with a group of people who you don't

normally spend time with. So another example is,

if you're lucky, when you go to Hollywood you might rub

elbows with a celebrity, and with that we've got eight English

idioms that we use every day in English and you should definitely start using

these idioms as well.

We've talked about what they mean. You've got examples,

and now it's time for you to practice. Now,

before I share my practice questions with you,

if you enjoyed this lesson and found it useful to you,

be sure to let me know and there are three great ways for you to do that.

You can subscribe to this YouTube channel and give this lesson a thumbs

up, share it with friends and colleagues on

Facebook, and be sure to share your answers to my

practice questions. You can share in the comments below this

video or in the comment section at the end of the online lesson.

Now, here are my three questions for you.

Number one, have you ever gotten cold feet?

If you have, what was the situation and what did you

do about it? Did you give up?

Did you cancel the event or did you find some way to go through with it to

continue?

Number two, imagine that you need to tell your best

friend something. It's something that you've needed to

tell her for a very long time. What would you say?

And finally number three, you've planned a really big vacation

with your family and you decided to go skydiving.

It's the very last moment and you're feeling super nervous,

so what would you say? Again,

you can share your answers with me in the comments just below this video or in

the comment section of the online lesson.

Thank you so much for joining me and I look forward to seeing you next week for

your confident English lesson.