5 ENGLISH IDIOMS YOU MUST KNOW

Hey today, you are going to.

Five English, idioms that you must know English, idioms, that native English

speakers use on a regular basis.

Now, these idioms are right here.

We have a foot in the door, a shot in the dark, allow the dust to settle barking up

the wrong tree and back against the wall.

Now, what do these idioms mean?

And how can you use them naturally in real life?

Like a native English speaker.

I am going to teach you all of this.

Today.

So are you excited now?

I do want to let you know that all of the idioms I'm going to teach you

today are found in my 100 English idioms ebook, and there are a ton more.

So if you want to keep learning and sounding like a native English speaker,

click the link in the description and get your copy of 100 English.

Idioms.

Trust me, you won't regret it.

All right.

Now, let me ask you this.

Are you ready to get started.

Well, then I'm teacher tiffani let's jump right in.

All right.

So let's get started with our first idiom idiom.

Number one is a foot in the door after me.

A foot in the door.

Excellent job.

Now, a foot in the door just means gives people an opportunity to start

doing something new, usually in an area that is difficult to succeed.

So, for example, let's say there was an individual that wanted to

get a great job at a very high paying bank in New York city.

Well, if that individual went to the number one finance university in America,

He, or she would have a foot in the door for that job because they went to

an amazing school and that gives them a better opportunity to get a good job.

Kind of makes sense.

We say a foot in the door.

Now, let me show you some other examples that will help you

understand how to use this idiom.

My internship allowed me to get my foot in the door for my career.

Now, this is a true statement.

And at the end, during story time, I'll tell you the full story.

Now don't go anywhere at the end.

I'll tell you a story about this.

So having an internship helped this individual, me, get a better job.

All right, we say, get a foot in the door.

Here we go.

Example, number two, this isn't the job you hoped for, but it will

help you get a foot in the door, meaning, Hey, the job you have right

now, I know it's not what you want.

But it's a stepping stone to the next job, the next level.

So we say a foot in the door.

Now what about sentence?

Number three?

I worked as a movie extra just to get my foot in the door.

It gave this individual more opportunities to get better jobs,

better acting jobs, make sense.

Right.

Okay.

So one more time after me, we have.

A foot in the door.

Excellent.

All right, now let's go to idiom.

Number two, here we go.

A shot in the dark.

Excellent.

One more time after me a shot in the dark.

Good job.

Now, a shot in the dark just means an attempt that has very

little chance for success.

Now, let me tell you a quick story that will help you understand this.

So, you know, I am a woman.

I look very young though.

I'm a woman that looks very young, but I actually I'm a

little older than you think.

So one day I was hanging out with some friends and there was a young man who was

very handsome, but he was in his twenties.

Now, he assumed I was in my twenties.

So he approached me and kind of made a pass at me.

He was trying to say, Hey, I'm interested now.

Here's the thing.

I was not in my twenties.

I was well in my thirties.

So his attempt was a shot in the dark.

There was no way he would succeed in dating me because he was too young.

Makes sense.

Right.

Again, it was a shot in the dark.

There's very little chance.

Honey.

You're too young for me.

That's the main idea you get it.

All right.

So we say a shot in the dark.

So let me tell you some example sentences.

Here we go.

You can look for your key on the beach, but that's a shot in the dark.

Very hard to find your keys in the midst of all that sand, a shot in the dark.

It's starting to make sense, right?

Okay.

Let's go to sentence.

Number two.

The figure he came up with was really a shot in the dark.

Like, come on that that's not realistic, a shot in the dark.

And finally sentence number three, it was a shot in the dark.

I can't believe I was right.

So this person thought that there were little chances of

them being correct or succeeding.

Oh, my goodness.

They were right.

So in English we say a shot in the dark.

So one more time after me a shot in the dark.

Excellent.

Now a quiz is coming, so keep paying attention.

I want you to ACE the quiz.

Here we go.

Let's go to idiom number three, allow the dust to settle.

Allow the dust to settle.

Excellent.

Now you're probably wondering teacher, what is this about dust?

Let me explain.

So allow the dust to settle means to allow a situation to become normal again.

So this is what I want you to imagine right now.

Close your eyes.

Just listen to my voice.

Imagine that there was a rug on the ground.

And that rug was full of dust and dirt.

So you go and you walk up to the rug and you pick it up and you

shake it to get the dust out of the rug right now, what happens?

The dust gets all in the air and now it's hard to see and you have to pause and

wait a minute for the dust to settle.

You have to wait for the situation to become normal again.

It makes sense, right?

You kind of visualize now.

Oh yes.

The dust in the air.

You need to wait for it to leave the air.

So the same idea goes for this idiom, allow the dust to settle.

So let's look at some examples sentences that will help you

understand this a little bit more.

First one, I'm going to allow the dust to settle.

Before I try talking to her again, that means something happened.

There was a challenge or an issue, and now things are a little bit

strange, like that dust in the air.

And you want things to go back to normal.

Hey, I'm going to let the dust settle before I tried talking to her again.

Makes sense, right?.

You're seeing it now, even visually.

Right.

. All right, so let's check out sentence number two here.

My mom said I needed to allow the dust to settle.

Before I ask my dad to adopt a dog.

Makes sense.

Ooh, wait a second.

Let things go back to normal.

Before you ask your dad for a dog.

All right, here we go.

Sentence.

Number three, she waited for the dust to settle.

Then began to express her feelings to her.

Fiance.

Makes sense again, waiting until things go back to normal.

Before you do something in English, the idiom is allow the dust to settle.

Make sense?

You're smart.

Here we go.

Let's keep going to idiom number four.

So again, we had idiom number three.

Let's move on to idiom.

Number four, here we go.

Back against the wall.

Wait a minute, teacher, what does that mean to have your back against the wall?

Now this means to be in a very bad situation or position,

a very bad situation.

So let me tell you really quickly when I had my back against the wall, you see

I've been teaching for a long time, but at the very beginning of my business,

when I started, I didn't have any.

My credit card was maxed out.

So my back was against the wall.

I had to figure out how to bring in more money.

Again, I had my back against the wall.

I was in a bad situation.

Makes sense, right?

Maybe you've been in a bad situation.

You had your back against the wall.

Make sense?

All right.

Let's check out some example sentences.

Here we go.

The lawsuit had him with his back against the wall.

Makes sense.

All right.

Sentence, number two, we had our backs against the wall, but

somehow we managed to win the game.

Makes sense.

Right?

All right, here we go.

Now again, all of these examples you can find.

If you go to my website, SpeakEnglishWithTiffani.com and go to

the section that has the YouTube lesson.

So don't worry.

You can see all of these examples sentences.

Here we go.

I was in a foreign country without a phone and my back was against the wall.

It makes sense, right?

That's a horrible situation to be in overseas in a foreign

country without a phone.

Your back will be against the wall.

Makes sense.

You're smart.

All right, now let's go to our next idiom.

Here we go.

Let's go to idiom.

Number five.

Remember your quiz is coming up.

So I hope you are paying attention.

Here we go.

Idiom.

Number five, barking up the wrong tree.

Good one more time after me barking up the wrong tree.

Excellent.

Now this just means to pursue, to move forward on a mistaken line

of thought or course of action.

It's like, Ooh, I don't think that's the way you want to go or I don't think that's

the direction we're trying to go in.

You are barking up the wrong tree.

All right.

Now again, these idioms.

Oh my goodness.

We use them all the time.

So I get excited because I want you to sound more like a native English speaker.

So here we go.

Let's look at some example, sentences, sentence.

Number one.

If he thinks I'm paying for him, he's barking up the wrong tree.

Now this is something that a woman can say on the first date.

You know, they'd go out to dinner.

Candle light, beautiful restaurant.

The meal comes, oh, it looks delicious.

And when the meal is over, the bill comes and the guy looks at her and

she looks at the guy and she says, oh, he thinks I'm paying for him.

No, no.

He's barking up the wrong tree.

Makes sense.

Right?

Oh, that's the wrong train of thought.

That's the wrong idea.

We say barking up the wrong tree.

I think some ladies understood that one.

Here we go.

Sentence.

Number two, she's barking up the wrong tree.

If she thinks that will solve the problem, she has the wrong idea.

That's not going to solve anything.

She's barking up the wrong tree.

Makes sense.

Right?

I know you're taking notes and I'm so proud of you.

Here we go.

Last example, sentence.

The investors kept barking up the wrong tree.

Hey guys, come on.

This is not the right direction.

You guys are barking up.

The wrong tree.

Makes sense, right.

Again, barking up the wrong tree.

All right now real quick.

Before we have our quiz, I want to go over them real quick.

Before our quiz.

I want you to ACE the quiz foot in the door, giving an opportunity.

Number two shot in the dark and attempt that has little chance of success.

Number three, allow the dust to settle.

Remember that one, let things go back to normal.

Number four, back against the wall to be in a very bad situation and number

five, barking up the wrong tree.

Hey, that's a mistake.

That's not the right way to think.

Are you ready?

It's time for your quiz.

Now you are going to have five seconds for each question.

I hope you're ready.

I'm going to give you the question you need to fill in the

blank with the correct idiom.

Remember you've learned them, you know them, you can sound

like a native English speaker.

Here we go.

Question number one, you have five seconds.

Here we go.

She doesn't like guys with long hair, so I think you may be time starts now.

Time.

All right.

What's the answer.

Come on.

You know it what's the answer.

Yes.

Barking up the wrong tree.

Excellent job.

Very good.

All right, now let's go to question number two.

Again, you have five seconds.

Here we go.

Question number two.

Her "blank" after she lost her biggest client.

Woo.

Her blank.

She lost her biggest client.

This one is tricky.

You ready?

Here we go.

Five seconds.

All right.

What's the answer?

This one was tricky.

Her yes.

Back was against the wall after she lost her biggest client.

Excellent.

All right, here we go.

Number three.

Now remember you have five seconds.

My mother was furious.

So I decided to, before I asked for a new phone, what idiom goes

here, which idiom did we learn?

That matches this one, five seconds.

Here we go.

All right.

What's the answer?

Come on.

I know you know it.

What's the answer?

Yes.

Allow the dust to settle.

Excellent job.

Here we go.

Question number four, the project was hopeless, so his suggestion

was really five seconds.

Here we go.

Time.

All right.

What's the answer.

Come on.

I know, you know it a shot in the dark.

Excellent.

Very good man.

You learned these idioms so fast.

All right, here we go.

And number five, last one who I think this conference will really

help you get your five seconds.

Here we go.

Five seconds

Time!

What's the answer?

Yes!

Your foot in the door, man.

You are awesome.

Excellent job.

You did such an amazing job.

So again, today you learned five new English, idioms that will

help you sound more like a native English speaker, a foot in the door.

A shot in the dark, allow the dust to settle barking up the wrong

tree and back against the wall.

Now, remember if you want to learn even more English, idioms, and

sound like a native English speaker.

Remember to get this book right here.

I created this ebook just for you.

100 English idioms.

Download your copy.

Get your copy now by going to the link in the description,

trust me, you are going to.

All right.

I hope you enjoyed today's lesson.

I hope you learn these idioms and use them.

I love being your teacher and I can't wait to see you next time, but as

always remember to speak English,

you still.

You know what time it is.

Here we go.

It's story time.

Hey, I said it's story time.

All right.

Now I promised you guys that I would tell you the story about how

my internship helped me get a foot in the door for my job at NASA.

All right.

Now.

So what happened was when I was in university again, I was

a very hardworking student.

I actually paid my way through school.

I had three jobs when I was in university because I didn't want my

parents to have to pay for anything.

So one of the jobs that I had when I was in university was actually an

internship and it was connected to.

That's right.

My internship was with NASA and one of their contractors, great internship.

I learned a lot.

Gained a lot of experience.

So I, again, thought to myself, Hey, this internship is going to help me get my foot

in the door so that I can get a great job.

So fast forward my senior year, last year of university, and

we're moving closer to graduation.

But I hadn't gotten a job offer yet.

So I was getting a little nervous again.

I had worked so hard.

I thought I had done well in my internship, but I

wasn't getting any emails.

I wasn't getting any messages related to job offers.

So graduation day came, I graduated still.

No offers packed my things.

My parents came down to my university.

It was an Alabama.

Hacked my stuff, put it in the cars and we drove back up to Maryland weeks, went

by about, well, two weeks went by still, no offers, no emails, no phone calls.

And I was starting to get a little bit nervous because I had worked

so hard at the internship, but they weren't offering me a job.

So I said, okay, Lord, you know, as you guys know, I'm a Christian.

I started praying a lot.

I said, maybe I have to look for a job somewhere else.

So I started looking for other jobs and I remember this, like it was yesterday.

I was walking in my house and the phone rang; our house phone rang.

I walked into my parents room where the house phone was and I sat on their bed.

I said, hello?

I said, hi, can we speak to Tiffani Claiborne?

I said, okay, sure.

You know, it's me.

And they said, how are you?

I'm fine.

They said, you know, how did you enjoy your internship?

And that's when I realized it was connected to the internship.

So I got a little bit nervous again.

I still remember this, even though this was literally 17 years ago, I was sitting

on the bed and my heart started to race.

I said, I really enjoyed the internship.

They said, yes, you actually did pretty well.

I said, oh, thank you so much.

And I waited and I waited.

They said, well, Tiffani, um, did you enjoy your time there a lot?

I said, yeah, I really did.

I enjoyed my coworkers and what I learned and what I did.

I said, okay, would you like to keep working with us now?

I didn't want to scream on the phone, but I was excited.

I said yes, that that would be amazing.

I would appreciate that opportunity.

You know, when you're on the phone for a professional call,

you know, you have to change.

That would be awesome.

I would really appreciate if you all gave me that opportunity.

Meanwhile, inside my heart, I was like, Jesus, come on now,

but I didn't want to do all that.

So I said, yes, that would be amazing.

Thank you so much.

So the phone call continued.

They said, okay.

So what we're going to do is we're going to send you an offer via email and you

please let us know if that offer is okay.

They're talking about the month, you know, the money amount of money.

My, uh, my I'm salary.

So I got off the phone.

Of course I immediately called my parents.

So of course I got a job offer again with your family, you can be honest,

you know, the way you want to speak.

Right.

So I talked to my parents and then I got the email and the offer amount.

I said, yes, Lord, the salary was good.

It was comparable for my experience.

It matched where I was going to be living.

It was amazing.

And then that moment I realized, man, That internship really

did give me a foot in the door.

I now had a job with NASA because of the internship I

had while I was in university.

I will never forget the day the offer came.

I will never forget that day because there were so many weeks and months

prior to that, that I just didn't think I was going to get a job offer.

Maybe you've experienced something similar.

You're waiting for a call.

Or maybe you did something that you thought would get your foot

in the door for a specific job.

Then there was this period of waiting.

Now.

I appreciated everything that happened during my time at NASA.

I loved the job, but as you all know, I left and I became an English teacher, but

yes, hopefully you understood the story.

Hopefully you liked it.

And hopefully now you even mastered get your foot in the door.

All right, guys, I will see you next week.

Don't forget to get your copy of 100 English idioms right here.

The link is in the description.

All right.

Love you all.

And I'll see you next week.