100 Body Words in English: Advanced Vocabulary Lesson

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from  SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. What's this part  

of my finger? What's this part of my ear called?  Let's talk about it. Do you know this song? 

Theo: Head, shoulders, knee and toes, knees and  toes. Eyes and ears and mouth and nose. Head,  

shoulders, knees, and toes, knee and toes. Vanessa: A classic children's song. Today,  

you are going to learn more than just the  basics, head, shoulders, knees, and toes.  

You are going to master 100 body part vocabulary  words, plus some useful idioms along the way.  

To help you never forget what you learn, I have  created a free PDF worksheet for you with all of  

today's body parts, idioms, expressions, concepts,  and ideas that we're talking about in this lesson.  

Plus, you can answer Vanessa's challenge  question at the bottom of the worksheet.  

Click on the link in the description to  download the free PDF worksheet today.  

Just a little note before we get started this  video, like almost every video on my channel is PG  

rated. This means that we are going to be talking  about acceptable body part words to talk about  

in public. If you're looking for a biology  lesson, this lesson is not for you, but if  

you would like an appropriate word that you can  use without embarrassment in lots of situations,  

this lesson is the right place for you. Not sure how to talk about something taboo  

politely, well, let's learn. Let's get started by  talking about the top of our head and working down  

to our feet. Let's start with the head. There's  a lot of words to talk about. This is my head.  

We have a great idiom that goes along with this,  which is off the top of my head, I couldn't tell  

you how far the earth is from the moon. Off the  top of my head, this means without doing research,  

just having the knowledge in my head. Off the top  of my head, sorry, I couldn't tell you. I don't  

know. Off the top of my head, I have no clue.  What's on my head? It's hair. So we could say I  

have brown hair, or I am a brunette. This is most  often used for women. You could say it for men,  

but brunette is most often used for women. Or we could say he has blonde hair. She or he  

is a blonde, or he has red hair. He's a red  head. Or we sometimes say, he's a ginger.  

Sometimes people who have red hair, don't like  this expression. My husband is a ginger and he  

doesn't care. This expression is fine with him.  So maybe just listen out for it. Or you could  

just say, he's a red head. He has red hair, or  he might have black hair. Under your hair we  

have your scalp. Your scalp is the skin under your  hair. And then moving down, we have your forehead,  

forehead. Then we have your eyebrows, your  eyebrows, your eye lids and your eyelashes. 

I want to take a quick note for my Asian  followers. In the Asian world, it is somewhat  

common to talk about some different terms for  your eyelids. When I lived in South Korea, I  

heard my Korean coworkers, when they were speaking  in English, I heard them use the terms, mono lid  

and double eyelid in their English conversations.  But I just want to let you know that this concept  

is relatively unknown to most of the English  speaking world. This is something that's much  

more common in the Asian part of the world. So if you were to have a conversation with  

someone in English and you said, yeah,  he has a mono lid or a double eyelid,  

most other people in the Western world are not  familiar with this concept. So we just call this  

the eyelid. These are my eyelids. My eyelids  and my eyelashes protect my eyes, my eyes.  

There's a great idiom we sometimes use. Don't  roll your eyes at me. Have you ever done that?  

Have you ever done that to your parents? If  you have rolled your eyes at your parents,  

they most likely said to you  don't roll your eyes at me. 

This is a common phrase that parents say to  their children. Don't roll your eyes at me.  

That's rolling your eyes. Under my  eyes, I have my cheeks, my cheeks.  

Babies have cute cheeks that we love to pinch,  cheeks. And moving over here are my ears,  

my ears. So these are my ears, but this is  my ear lobe. Some people have a pierced ear  

lobe. So I do. These are pierced ears and my ear  lobe is pierced. There's another idiom we use,  

which is I'm all ears. If you have a suggestion  for a YouTube video that you'd like me to make,  

I'm all ears. This means I'm willing to listen.  I'm interested in what you have to say. I'm all  

ears. I have no mouth, no nose, no eyes. I'm  all ears. I'm going to listen very carefully. 

And then we have my nose. This is called the  bridge of your nose. And these are my nostrils,  

my nostrils. Under my nose is my mouth. This is  the general word for this area, but there's a lot  

of specific words to talk about these parts. So  let's talk about it. My mouth, my lips are on the  

outside, my lips. And when I open my mouth, there  are my gums. The skin on the inside of my mouth is  

my gums. And then there's my teeth. And my tongue.  There is some fun idioms we can talk about with  

the mouth. Let's say that you tell your friend  that you're going to have a surprise birthday  

party for your sister. Your friend might say, oh,  don't worry. I won't tell her. My lips are sealed. 

That means you can't open your mouth. My lips are  sealed. The secret is safe with me. It's a great  

expression to let the other person know, don't  worry. I'm not telling anyone. My lips are sealed.  

What do you do with your mouth? You eat. So if you  love sweet things, maybe you have a sweet tooth.  

This doesn't mean just one of your teeth is sweet,  but this just means I love sweet foods. Ugh,  

I have a sweet tooth, so I have to keep sweets  out of my house or else I'll just eat them all  

the time. I have a sweet tooth. And before we move  on to the rest of the upper body, let's talk about  

one more idiom about your tongue. This expression  is extremely useful for English learners.  

What if I said to you, oh, what's the name of  that movie with the pirate? Oh, it's on the tip  

of my tongue. Oh, do you get the idea that I know  the movie. I just can't think about it right now. 

So the name of the movie with a pirate is right  there. It's on the tip of my tongue. I just can't  

get it out. Oh, I just can't remember what's  the name of that movie with the pirate. Oh,  

it's on the tip of my tongue. So if there is  a word that you don't remember in English,  

you might say, oh yeah, the skin in your mouth.  Oh, Vanessa talked about that. Oh, it's on the  

tip of my tongue. I forget what that word is. Oh,  well, first of all, you remembered this idiom.  

That's great. And just to let you  know, it's your gums, your gums,  

but this is a great expression to use when you  know, you know a word, you just can't remember it. 

Under your mouth we have your chin, your chin.  If I told you, keep your chin up, things will  

get better. Hmm. Keep your chin up. This is an  encouraging statement that you can use to say,  

you can do it. Keep going. I know that it's tough  right now, but find some positivity in this tough  

time. Keep your chin up. You can do it. Great  encouragement. Under your chin, we have your neck,  

your neck and another wonderful idiom. What if I  said for you I stuck my neck out for her because  

I felt like she did the right thing and she  needed some support. I stuck my neck out for her.  

You're not literally sticking your neck out for  her, but this has to do with the idea that you are  

supporting someone, even though you  might face some criticism. So your  

head is very important to your body, right? This is a really valuable part of your body.  

So when you stick your neck out, you are  putting your head in a vulnerable position.  

You're sticking your neck out. You're not keeping  it close to you. So that's the idea of this idiom.  

When you support someone, even though you  might face some criticism, you could say,  

I stuck my neck out for her. Sometimes  we use this if we regret it later, man,  

I stuck my neck out for her and she just didn't  appreciate it at all. I stuck my neck out for  

her. I tried to support her, even though it wasn't  the popular thing to do. And now I regret it. She  

didn't care at all. And it wasn't really helpful. And finally, for your head, we can say your face,  

all of this right here is your face. Have you  ever had a pretty rotten morning? Things just  

didn't go well. But when you walked into the  office, you couldn't be grumpy. You couldn't be  

in a bad mood. You had to put on a face, this  implies that things are going poorly, but you  

have to pretend like everything's fine. Sometimes  we say I had to put on a happy face when I walked  

into the office. Or we could cut out the word  happy completely and just say, I had to put on  

a face in front of the clients, even though I had  just gotten yelled at by my boss. I wanted to cry,  

but I just had to put on a face when I talked with  the clients. This is kind of a tough thing to do,  

but we all have to do it in lots of situations in  life. Maybe you have to put on a face. All right.  

Let's go to the next section, which is  not your head, which is your upper body. 

Now let's talk about the upper body, the upper  body. These are my shoulders, my shoulders. If  

I'm angry at someone, I might give them the cold  shoulder. Ooh. The cold shoulder is never good.  

That means that you ignore someone. You don't talk  with them and you show them that you are angry by  

giving them the cold shoulder. You might  not actually turn your body like this,  

but that's the expression we use. He gave me the  cold shoulder after I told him what was going on. 

Below your shoulders is your chest, your chest.  And this is the socially acceptable word for men  

and for women to talk about this  area. We often use the term,  

ugh, I just have to get something off my  chest. If there is a weight on your chest,  

it's a burden. It is not a good situation. But  ugh, when you get something off your chest,  

you tell someone something important. Maybe  you've been keeping in a secret and you finally  

can tell someone that you love that secret.  Ah, I just have to get something off my chest.  

I love you. I've been wanting to tell  you this for so long. Ah, I love you. Oh,  

it feels good to say it. I'm free now. So that's  the idea of getting something off your chest. 

Under your shoulders, we have your arm pits,  your arm pits, and they're connected to your  

arms, your arms. If you have to twist  someone's arm to get them to do something,  

you had to work really hard to convince them.  I had to twist my husband's arm to get a cat,  

but he finally said yes. And now he loves that  cat. It's actually not true. He wanted to get  

a cat. He had to twist my arm to get a cat. It  means, ugh. I had to convince him to get a cat.  

And now we have one. Wonderful. On your arm, there is your elbow, your elbow.  

Sometimes we say, I need some elbow room, some  elbow room. If you're cooking and all your kids  

are in the kitchen and everyone's moving around,  you might say, Hey guys, I need some elbow room.  

I'm trying to cook here. Can you guys just give  me some space? That means I need some room,  

some elbow room. Attached to your arm, your elbow  is your wrist, your wrist. This is the joint here.  

Your wrist. When I was in high school, I broke my  wrist. It was literally and figuratively a pain.  

And then I have my hand, my hands. When  you give someone a hand, you help them.  

Hey, can you give me a hand? This box is really  heavy. I need some help picking it up. Hey, can  

you give me a hand and read over this report? I  want to make sure I said it right. Give me a hand. 

And on my hand I have my Palm, my Palm, that's  the bottom of your hand. And I have five fingers.  

Each of my fingers has a knuckle. My thumb  has one knuckle notice the K is silent,  

but my other fingers have two knuckles, knuckles.  You might see in a movie, we don't really use  

this in daily conversation, hopefully not too  much, but you might see in a movie, someone say,  

do you want me to give you a knuckle sandwich?  And that means, do you want me to punch you?  

Because your knuckles are like this. And it's  a knuckle sandwich. Hopefully you don't use  

that a lot in daily life, but you might hear  it in a movie. And now you'll understand it. 

Each of my fingers has a fingerprint and a  fingernail, a fingernail. We have different names  

for each of our fingers. Do you know what they  are? This is my pinky finger. Sometimes we say  

my little finger, but almost always do we say my  pinky finger. My ring finger, and that's because  

we often put our wedding bands on this finger,  my ring finger. My middle finger. In the west,  

maybe in other places as well, it's very rude to  show only your middle finger. That means F you.  

I'm so angry at you. Here's my middle finger. So  be careful not to do that. Do not point with your  

middle finger instead point with your pointer.  That's what this finger's called. Point with your  

pointer. And then we have your thumb, your thumb. All right. So we've talked about the hand,  

the arm, your chest. Sometimes we talk about  this as your chest area, especially if we're  

being a little bit vague with women, you might  say, oh, there's something on your chest area.  

Maybe there's like a stain on your shirt, but  you don't want to point. You don't want to be  

rude. You might just say, oh, there's something on  your chest area. It's not talking about your skin.  

It's just in this general area. So that's  a very polite way to talk about this. 

And we sometimes use the term collar bone  for this bone here, my collar bone. Oh yeah,  

I just slammed into a drawer and I hit my collar  bone. It really hurts. This is my collar bone.  

Sometimes schools will have a dress code that  says you need to cover your collar or bone.  

So that's what they're talking about. And in  your chest area, we have your ribs, your ribs,  

that's the bones here. And sometimes we use the  more technical term, your rib cage, your rib cage.  

I bruised a rib. Oh, that hurts my ribs. Oh, it  hurts my ribs to laugh so much. This is your ribs. 

Below your ribs, you have your belly button. If  you are human, you have a belly button. This is  

what connected you with your mother when you were  in the womb, you have a belly button. And this  

area is usually called your stomach. But sometimes  we call it your belly. This is especially for  

children. Aww, your belly hurts. Oh, this is my  belly. But we often use an idiom that uses another  

word and that is your gut. Technically your gut  is inside you. That's like your intestines and  

your organs inside you. We're not going to  get to that. That's too detailed right now.  

But we sometimes use the phrase, trust your gut.  This doesn't mean that you are using your rational  

brain. You're just trusting your instincts. So if you thought, hmm, should I join Vanessa's  

course or not? Well, this is how much money it is.  This is what I saw on the website. This is it. Now  

I'm just going to trust my gut. I know Vanessa  is a nice teacher and I think it will be useful.  

I'm going to join the course. Great. Well,  you can join The Fearless Fluency Club here.  

Trust your gut. That means I'm just  going to trust my instincts and do it.  

All right. Let's move on from the head, the  upper body and talk about the lower body. 

All right. Now let's talk about the lower  body. These are my hips, my hips. And if  

you want to talk about this area in a polite  daily conversation type way, we often just say  

private parts. This is something that's  common for children to say. And I think  

this is something that's common for adults to say  as well. Of course, we don't usually talk about  

this area in the workplace, just in general. But if you are going to use a polite term,  

we would say private parts. We sometimes use  the word crotch, but this is mainly for men.  

And it's mainly used to say, Hey, don't  hit me in the crotch. Of course, talking  

about this area is not professional. So in the  workplace, of course, none of these words apply,  

but in daily conversation, those are words you'll  definitely hear, and they're not considered rude. 

You'll also hear the term groin used. And this  specifically has to do with the muscles on the  

inside of your legs, like in this picture. And  it's most commonly used to talk about when you  

hurt your groin. So you might say, ah, I pulled  my groin when I was doing yoga yesterday. So  

it's used to talk about maybe some kind of pain.  If you go to the doctor, you can use that term  

to talk about the muscles on the inside of your  leg. I know that's a little technical, but you  

will use this and hear this in daily conversation.  Ugh, I pulled my groin and now it hurts to walk. 

Next, let's talk about your legs. This is my leg  and my knee, my leg and my knee. And here is my  

butt. This is the most general term that we use.  But sometimes we use backside to be a little more  

polite. For my kids, we use the word bum. Wipe  your bum. Don't put your bum on the table. We  

use those terms to be a little more indirect,  but the most general you're going to hear is,  

butt. We often also use thigh to talk about the  upper part of your leg, my thigh. Oh, I bumped  

my thigh on the table and it really hurts. Your  thigh. Then below your knee, notice that the K  

is silent, below your knee is your shin. Your shin, this is also a little bit of  

a technical term, but we often use shin when  we're going to the doctor and saying, ah, yeah,  

I just really have some shooting pains in my shin.  And I don't know what it is. This bone in the  

front is your shin. Behind your shin is your calf,  your calf. Now, strangely enough, this is also the  

word for a baby cow. A baby cow is a calf, notice  the L is silent, but this muscle here, back here  

is your calf. My calves are really sore after  going on that hike. Ugh, my calves are so sore.  

Then we have your foot, your foot. Just like the  hand, the foot has a lot of parts as well. We can  

talk about your ankle. Your ankle is the bone  here. Don't twist your ankle. That hurts a lot. 

For your toes, we don't have a name for every  individual toe. Maybe doctors do. I imagine  

doctors do, but in daily life, we just say your  big toe and your little toe. The other toes are  

important, but we don't have a specific name for  them. So it's your big toe and your little toe.  

Then we have underneath your foot is called  the foot arch. And sometimes we say the arch  

of my foot. The arch of my foot hurts after  walking for 10 hours yesterday, Ugh, my foot  

arch hurts or the arch of my foot. And the back  of your foot here is called the heel. The heel,  

notice the spelling is different than to heal,  the verb. So this is with two E's, heel. I hurt my  

heel and I hope it heals soon. That's your heel. What would it mean if I said, I have a new  

job starting tomorrow and I'm going to put my  best foot forward and be prepared for my job?  

To put your best foot forward doesn't really mean  that one of your feet is better than the other.  

It just means I'm going to do my best. I'm  going to do everything I can to make sure that  

there is success. I'm going to put my best foot  forward. I'm going to wear professional clothes.  

I'm going to be in the right mindset. I'm going  to get a good night's sleep the night before.  

I'm going to put my best foot forward.  Excellent expression. Whew. That was a  

lot of body vocabulary words and idioms, but  keep your chin up. I know that you can do  

it. Put your best foot forward and download the  free PDF worksheet so that you never forget the  

expressions that you learned in today's lesson.  And you can answer Vanessa's challenge question  

at the end of the PDF worksheet. There is a link  in the description so that you can download it. 

And now I have a question for you, which one of  these body part words was new for you? I would  

love to know which one of these helped you to  expand your vocabulary so that you can speak  

confidently in daily life. Well, thank  you so much for learning English with me  

and I'll see you again next Friday for a new  lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next  

step is to download the free PDF worksheet for  this lesson. With this free PDF, you will master  

today's lesson and never forget what you have  learned. You can be a confident English speaker.  

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel  for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.