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