10 Essential Everyday English Idioms That You Need to Know

- People use this when they want to say,

in order to achieve your goals, in order to be great,

in order to be who you want to be,

you don't have to suffer,

you don't have to work hard,

you don't have to sacrifice everything.

Hi, this is Jack from tofluency.com,

and in today's lesson, you're going to learn

10 idioms that people actually use.

I know that many English learners want to learn idioms,

but a problem I see is that they often force them.

They try to use them when they're not appropriate.

And also, they tend to use old idioms

that people don't use these days.

So today, we're going to learn 10 idioms

that you're going to find useful

and people use in everyday conversation.

Now to get the most out of this lesson,

watch until the end and learn all the idioms.

You can also turn on subtitles if you'd like,

because I have added them for you.

And also you can read the idioms

in the description box below.

All right, let's get started.

(upbeat music)

Hey, are you watching the England game tonight?

When did you start liking football?

Well, England might win the Euros

and everyone's watching it.

Someone's jumping on the bandwagon.

To jump on the bandwagon means to start doing

something, or to be part of something, because it's popular

and lots of other people are doing it too.

An example is, my wife and I refused to jump

on the smartphone bandwagon for a long time.

I mean, we have them now,

but we didn't get on the smartphone bandwagon

for a long time.

And many people are starting to jump

on the crypto bandwagon.

Many people are starting to jump on the crypto bandwagon.

Now, an example of saying something similar

without using this idiom is,

you're only watching the England game

because everyone else is.

You're only watching the England game

because everyone else is.

Are you coming to the party later?

(sighs) I would, but Sarah's under the weather,

so we both have to stay home.

Under the weather, this means to feel unwell,

to feel sick, but it isn't very strong.

If you're really sick,

you don't say that you're under the weather,

so you can be under the weather,

or feel under the weather.

For example, I'm feeling a little bit

under the weather today.

I'm feeling a little bit under the weather today.

Now some non-idiomatic expressions here.

You can simply say, I feel sick,

or I feel a little unwell today,

and I think I'm coming down with something.

I think I'm coming down with something,

which means that you think you're starting to get sick.

Guess what?

What?

I've just one free vacation for two to the Grand Canyon.

Holy, that's on my bucket list.

If something is on your bucket list,

it means you want to do this before you die,

so we can talk about achievements

and goals or experiences here.

You can ask a question, what trips are on your bucket list?

What trips are on your bucket list?

And you can say, well, I can cross going

to the World Cup off my bucket list.

I can cross this off my bucket list.

Now to cross something off means

to like tick, check, done, done.

And this is a separable phrasal verb

because we cross something off.

A non-idiomatic expression here could be:

Where have you always wanted to go?

Where have you always wanted to go?

And I went to the World Cup last year.

That's something I had always wanted to do.

That's something I had always wanted to do.

All right, let's get back to work.

You're exhausted a second ago.

I know.

I got a second wind.

To get a second wind means to feel re-energized,

to get your energy back, and we use this a lot in sports.

For example, come on, team, we need a second wind here.

I know we look tired, but we need a second wind.

And that drink gave me a second wind.

That drink gave me a second wind.

A similar phrase is to get energy back.

For example, you can tell the team,

we need to get our energy back, boys.

You look tired, but we need to get our energy back.

Come on, six more, no pain, no gain.

No pain, no gain.

No pain, no gain.

People use this when they want to say,

in order to achieve your goals, in order to be great,

in order to be who you want to be,

you don't have to suffer,

you don't have to work hard,

you don't have to sacrifice everything.

And again, this is used a lot in sports too,

so when a team is training and they look tired

and they look like they want to stop,

the coach might say, come on, team, no pain, no gain.

And this could be used for learning English too,

because in order to reach a high level of English,

you might have to do things that are difficult,

things that you need to really work harder,

and sometimes, things that are uncomfortable.

I actually made a podcast on this,

and I'll leave a link to that in the description.

And here's a good quote, hard work beats talent

when talent doesn't work hard.

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.

Hey, did you hear about that company you applied for?

No. What?

So, they just went under.

Huh! Not getting that job was a blessing in disguise.

A blessing in disguise, before we talk about that,

there's another idiom I used there: a business going under.

And if a business goes under, it means it seizes to operate.

The business is no more.

Now, a blessing in disguise means something good

coming out of something that you thought was bad

because not getting that job at the time was misfortunate,

it was a bad situation, but because the company went under,

it was a good job that you didn't get the job,

so it was a blessing in disguise.

And another example is,

failing his exam was a blessing in disguise,

because he ended up playing soccer professionally.

Failing his exam was a blessing in disguise.

A similar phrase here is, turn out.

This is a phrasal verb.

So you could say, it all turned out great

because the company went under.

It all turned out great.

So, I've been meaning to get something

off my chest for a while.

Uh-uh! Go on.

I don't really like our dog.

Get something off your chest means to tell someone

something that has been troubling you for some time,

something that may be you're not proud of,

or something that's making you unhappy.

In the example, the person didn't like their dog,

weird, I know, and they had been keeping this

to themselves and not sharing it with their partner,

but finally, they got this off their chest by sharing it.

Another example is, you seem a little off today,

is there something you want to get off your chest?

Is there something you want to get off your chest?

And, (sighs) it feels so good to get that off my chest.

It feels so good to get that off my chest.

Another example, without using this expression, is,

is there something you'd like to share?

Is there something you'd like to share?

And, so, there's something I've been meaning to tell you.

There's something I've been meaning to tell you.

What're you watching?

Game of Thrones.

How is it?

So far so good.

So far so good, this means, until this point in time,

it's good.

Game of Thrones, until this point, is good.

Now, if someone asks you, how's the new deck coming along,

because you're building this new deck,

you can say, well, there's a lot more to do,

but so far so good.

There's a lot more to do, but so far so good.

Another similar expression is just to use

the present continuous.

For example, you can say, it's going well so far.

It's going well so far.

If you want to tell someone the opposite

and use a little bit of British understatement,

you can say, not the best, not the best.

(people laughing)

Will you turn that off?

It's getting on my nerves.

(people laughing loudly)

To get on someone's nerves means to annoy someone.

The guy over there is really getting on my nerves.

The way he's talking,

the way he's eating his food,

like, what he's wearing,

I think he makes me just so...

You're getting on my nerves.

An equivalent of this in American English is,

he's ticking me off, he's ticking me off.

Another example is, he's such a pain,

he's such a pain.

And, he's really bugging me, he's really bugging me.

Oh, I just can't,

I just, there's so much to do today, I just can't...

Will you lighten up?

To lighten up means to have a better mood,

to not take things so seriously,

to not be so emotional about something.

For example, if you say something

and then the other person gets annoyed,

you can say, I was just kidding - lighten up?

I was just kidding - lighten up?

Or if you realize you're being a little bit uptight,

you can say, I know, I know, I need to lighten up a bit,

I need to lighten up a bit.

And this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes,

never in the history of chilling out has anyone

chilled out after being told to chill out.

Chill out!

Are you ready for the speech?

Yeah, I've prepared well,

but I actually have butterflies in my stomach.

To have butterflies in your stomach

means to feel anxious and nervous,

to actually get that feeling of being anxious,

just like little butterflies are floating around in there.

Another example is, I bet even Ronaldo gets butterflies

in his stomach before taking a penalty.

I bet even Ronaldo gets butterflies in his stomach.

And if you don't have butterflies in your stomach

and you feel confident, you can say,

hey, listen, I'm cool, calm, and collected.

Or if you're talking about someone else,

you can say, he doesn't get nervous in these situations,

he doesn't get nervous in these situations.

Okay, so those are the 10 idioms for today.

If you'd like, I will make another video

with 10 more idioms.

To let me know you want me to do that,

Just click that like button on this video,

it helps a lot, and if you're new here,

then subscribe and turn on the notification bell.

Before you go, a couple of things to share.

Firstly, if you don't have my book,

The 5-Step Plan For English Fluency,

you can download this for free

by clicking the link in the description.

And while you're in the description,

have a little look around because I will list

the idioms for you down there so that you can read them.

And I'll also have more resources

so that you can learn English with me.

Okay, well, thank you so much for watching this video,

it's great to have you here,

and I'll speak to you soon.

Bye for now.

(upbeat music)