5 ENGLISH IDIOMS YOU MUST KNOW

hey today you are going to learn 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 alright now let me ask you this

are you ready to get started

well then i’m teacher tiffany 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 in 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 first

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 makes 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 he was

very handsome but he was in his 20s now

he assumed i was in my 20s 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 for success 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 but

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

after me

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

example 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 try 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 we go

my mom said i needed to allow the dust

to settle before i ask my dad to adopt a

dog makes sense oh wait a second let

things go back to normal before you ask

your dad for a dog alright here we go

sentence number three

she waited for the dust to settle then

began to express her feelings to her

fiance make 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 money

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 first

the lawsuit had him with his back

against the wall

make sense

alright 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 speak

english with tiffany.com and go to the

section that has the youtube lesson so

don’t worry you can see all of these

example 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 make sense oh 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 oh

i don’t think that’s the way you want to

go or oop 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 go out to

dinner

candlelight 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

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

buddy we say barking up the wrong tree

all right 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 an 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 gonna 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 maybe

time starts now

time all right what’s the answer come on

you know what 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

her

blank

after she lost her biggest client

this one is tricky you ready here we go

five seconds

time 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

time 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

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 learn 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 love it alright i hope you

enjoyed today’s lesson i hope you

learned 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 there

ha ha

you know what time it is here we go

it’s

story time

hey i said a 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

hard-working 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 nasa

that’s right my internship was with nasa

and one of their contractors great

internship i learned a lot and 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 day

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 in alabama packed

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 and 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 tiffany

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

tiffany

um did you enjoy your time there a lot i

said yeah i really did i enjoyed my

co-workers 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 a little bit that would be

awesome i would really appreciate if you

all gave me that opportunity meanwhile

inside my heart i was like yes jesus

come on now

but i didn’t want to do all that on the

phone 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 um salary

so i got off the phone of course i

immediately called my parents i got i

got a job 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 in that

moment i realized man lord

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 so 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 so 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

but

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