10 ENGLISH IDIOMS YOU MUST KNOW ENGLISH IDIOMS AND PHRASES

hey are you ready to learn 10 english

idioms that you

must know in order to sound like a

native english speaker

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[Music]

all right so our first idiom is easy

on the eyes easy on the eyes

now easy on the eyes is an idiom that

means

easy to look at attractive or beautiful

or someone or something that is good to

look at

now listen i’ve told you all before that

my ideal type

is a tall dark and handsome man whoa

yes i like them chocolate y’all so one

of my

favorite actors his name is hey diggs

and

man is he handsome he is

easy on the eyes it’s so easy for me to

look at him now i’m sure you have your

favorite actor

or your favorite actress or someone that

is very famous who is also very handsome

or beautiful

you can say they are yes

easy on the eyes now let me show you

some example sentences here we go

what if you’re talking about models you

can say that

model is definitely easy on the eyes

or what if you’re talking about a

trainer oh real quick y’all

now we’re in the midst of a pandemic

right now so we’re not able to go

to the gyms as freely as we were in the

past

and i actually used to go to the gym

every day

during the week to exercise now when you

go to the gym

sometimes there are individuals who are

very

very attractive very easy to look at

very easy on the eyes now i’ve had some

individuals

um who made it a little bit difficult to

focus on

what i was doing there there the guys

would walk into the gym at

every muscle every chest

muscle every arm muscle everything was

perfect

so what can we say

those guys were easy on the eyes so now

for the trainers we could say

the trainer at the gym is very easy

on the eyes now what about an actress

like i mentioned earlier for the actor

you can say

many people say that actress is easy

on the eyes and what about dating when

you go dating

maybe someone could say hey you should

give your number to him

he’s pretty easy on the eyes and this is

a conversation

ladies i’m sure you’ve had in your own

language

but now you can say it in english and

guys you can say the same thing

for females oh she’s easy on the eyes

alright so a very useful idiom and what

about when you have a crush

on someone oh let me explain that so a

crush

now a crush is when you like someone but

they don’t know

right you like them and you know what

maybe they have a feeling that you do

but

it’s kind of a one-sided love right like

oh

man i really like that person right um

let’s say for example when you’re in

school right you know when you were

younger

and there was a guy or for the guys

there was a girl

and you would just look at him or look

at her and be like man i really

really like him or i really like her we

can say oh you had a crush

on him or you have a crush on her so how

can we use

the idiom to explain a situation like

this

the teacher was easy on the eyes so all

of the little boys

wanted to sit in the front row oh quick

story y’all quick story

got an extra story time when i was

younger

i think i was in the fourth grade we had

a teacher he was tall

he was uh he had a nice voice he was

handsome

i was in the fourth grade i mean i was

young but he still was a very handsome

teacher

and i had a crush on my teacher so

whenever he’d come in the room i would

smile really big

i would focus really hard on the class

and the lesson

because i thought he was really cute so

as a child

i had a crush on my teacher okay alright

so

he was easy on the eyes all right now

let’s go on to the next one so number

one was easy on the eyes

number two our second idiom is let your

hair

down you’re probably wondering teacher

does that just mean like let your hair

down

this is called twists for those that are

curious about my hairstyle

these are twists but let my hair down

no no no it’s very very uh simple to

understand but it’s a

little bit different than just letting

your hair down physically

it means to behave in an uninhibited or

relaxed

manner to relax and enjoy oneself or

to allow yourself to behave much more

freely

than usual and enjoy it so

i want you to think about when you go to

work right usually when you go to work

you have to be very professional

you have to whether you’re working in an

office or an environment where there are

other people around you

you have to act a certain way you have

to wear certain clothes

because you are working but when you get

home think about it when you get home

do you sit properly at the table when

you’re at home with your family

or do you oh man yes

do you relax you probably relax i hope

so

you let your hair down all right so

let’s see some examples here we go

let’s say for example you’re tired again

after work

you can say after a long day at work

the office workers decided they needed

to let their hair

down make sense what about unwinding

oh another great word okay unwinding is

very

similar to let your hair down think

about something when you

wind something up right it gets really

tight and strict right you can’t really

move it but when you unwind it slowly it

starts

to relax right the same can be applied

to your day

you’re unwinding or letting your hair

down so

let’s see the sentence here we go here’s

the sentence

i had a really stressful day today i

think i’m just going to

let my hair down so you can use this

right now guys

you can use this idiom right now if you

had a long day at work

or if you’ve been working really hard at

home maybe you’re a stay-at-home mom

you have to take care of the kids you

have to cook you have to clean

and you get really stressed and you say

you know what

i just need to let my hair down make

sense

all right so let’s see another example

here we go again a very useful idiom

relaxing mandy spent the weekend

letting her hair down by watching three

movies

back to back now back to back just means

watching one and immediately watching

another and immediately watching another

back to back okay all right so mandy was

watching a lot of movies

and what about on vacation we can say i

spent

time at the beach ate lots of food and i

really

let my hair down i’m actually planning a

vacation with my friends and i am

looking

forward to letting my hair down as well

alright okay let’s keep going here we go

what about

on the weekends maybe you like to do

some things with your friends on the

weekends

it’s saturday night why don’t you stop

being so serious

and just let your hair down for a change

um now when we say for a change we’re

just saying

um you know now come on like for a

change

usually you do one thing but why don’t

you

switch it up a little bit change it and

do something

else so right now do something else for

a change

let’s say you usually eat at home

you do that on a regular basis but your

husband comes home and says hey honey

why don’t we go out to eat why don’t we

go to a restaurant

something that you don’t normally do so

he can say honey

why don’t we go out to eat for a change

makes sense

all right so this person is being told

to

relax and let their hair down for a

change

okay all right now let your hair down

was number two

number three another good one lose your

head

and lose your head like

i’m back no don’t worry lose your head

doesn’t mean that

actually lose your head means lose

self-control to panic or to lose

one’s composure for example i’m teaching

you right now i’m so excited to teach

you english right

i’m composed i’m explaining the idioms

in a very clear way

but let’s say oh my goodness uh oh okay

wait a minute

um suddenly i’m not composed

suddenly i’m panicking i lost my head

for a moment

but now i’m back makes sense all right

so let’s see some example sentences that

will make it even

easier to understand angry whoa this

guy’s angry

he usually stays very calm in meetings

but this time he just lost his

head and sometimes that happens when you

go to a meeting

and maybe there’s an issue and there’s

one individual individual

who’s usually very calm very composed

hey everything’s okay but this one

meeting

they get very angry and suddenly they

start yelling we can say whoa

he or she really lost his or her head

last day during the last meeting right

okay here we go all right what about

when you’re scared okay

i was afraid so at that point i lost my

head

and started panicking what about when

you lose your weight you don’t know

where to go

if you get lost don’t lose your head or

in other words don’t panic stay

calm stay composed just think and

retrace your steps or go over your steps

again

what about when someone’s yelling at you

after he ignored me

i lost my head and started yelling at

him

right you start yelling you lose your

head you’re not

composed you start kinda going off

lose your head right okay now

let’s see what happens if you’re

arrested right

try not to lose your head when you get

stopped

by a cop now there’s a lot going on in

america right now

with the black lives matter movement and

many other things that are happening

because of racism that

unfortunately is still present in

america so many

parents many black parents tell their

young men

and young women but mainly young men hey

if you get stopped by a cop i need you

to stay calm

i need you to stay composed i need you

to try not to lose your head

make sense now again not all cops but

i’m saying this is something that

parents are telling their children now

okay

try not to lose your head telling their

teenagers when they’re driving

okay all right so not to lose your head

so number three lose your head now what

about number four this is another good

one

head start head start now i want you all

to pay attention because this is one you

can use

for your children for yourself and for

many different situations all right even

work

now head start just means to start

before other contestants in a race

or an early start that results in an

advantage

or an initial advantage in a competitive

situation let me let me break it down

like this

i am american right so my language my

mother tongue

is english now you maybe you’re from

india maybe you’re from brazil maybe

you’re from china or russia

or a country in africa like kenya or or

maybe you’re from south africa

well you’re learning english and you are

amazing

but if we went to a job interview here

in america

right who would be more likely to get

the job

me as an american native english speaker

or you

right you probably said me because

teacher english is your mother tongue

that means that i had a head start

because

english is already my first language now

if i came to your country right

if i decided to visit your country and

said i love this country i want to work

here

well you would have a head start because

that language would be your mother

tongue

make sense all right so let’s see some

examples here we go

let’s say for example for education a

good education

gives your child a head start in life

next what about work i’ll get a head

start on the paperwork

this weekend it means i’ll start doing

something

ahead of time i want to make sure that

i’m prepared so that when

we do have a meeting i’m already ready

okay

all right next what about

with activities we can say cindy gave

her younger brother

a five minute head start in the easter

egg hunt

that means she let her younger brother

start earlier than her to give him

a little bit of an advantage right okay

next example let’s say for example with

money and

life the inheritance money gave him a

head start

in life and next what about with reading

we can say

i was able to get a head start on my

reading

during the holidays again that just

means i was able to

start early i was able to get ahead of

the game

that’s another one ahead of the game

alright so we have

head start a very very useful idiom

now what about number five this one is

good an eye opener

an i opener right

no it’s not saying like opening your

eyes wide

but it is referring to something with

the view you have on things so

here we go an eye opener now an eye

opener is an event or situation that

proves to be unexpectedly enlightening

something that surprises you and teaches

you new facts about

life or something startling surprising

or enlightening

all right so we’re going to see some

examples that will really help you

understand how to use this idiom and

what it really means all right

something that really catches you off

guard

or even helps you to understand the

world or a situation

more here we go let’s say for example

we’re looking at this situation

foreigners now when i was in korea

i was a foreigner i heard that word more

than i had ever heard it in my entire

life right because i was not from korea

but i was living there all right

so for foreigners here we go living in

another country can be a real

eye opener very true i was able to learn

something new about another culture and

it changed the way i

viewed the world now there are certain

things i

do that i didn’t do before i learned a

lot from the korean culture

and i also learned a lot about my own

culture

i learned to appreciate so many

different things so it was a real

eye-opener an enlightening experience

all right

so let’s keep going foreigners a great

example what about

childhood her story about her childhood

was a real

eye opener now for this one think about

when you meet someone right

maybe you develop a good relationship

with them over time

but there are certain things they do

that you really don’t understand

and then one day you have a conversation

with them and they tell you about their

childhood and you’re like

ah that’s why he does that

it’s a real eye-opener so even for you

guys you love story time which is coming

at the end so you don’t want to go

anywhere

right story time is when i tell you

about my life

stories right and you’re able to get to

know me even better so i’m not just

teacher tiffany

i’m tiffany you get to know things i

liked when i was younger

things i didn’t like funny stories about

my family and my friends

and this brings you closer to me and

helps you

understand who i am more an eye

opener all right okay so let’s keep

going we have childhood as an example

what about the earth we can say the

movie was a real

eye-opener for me i never understood how

serious

global warming was before and what about

this one

travel sally said her trip to japan

was quite an eye-opener real quick fact

i

really want to visit japan do you know

why

i love stationery hold on one second i’m

going to show you

hold on so

i really like stationery and i think

i’ve showed you all these things before

but

this is just one of my pen cases and i

put my markers

and other stationery inside of it but i

have another one larger than this

but it’s a little bit big for the camera

right now but i really enjoy stationery

and i really enjoy

quality stationery i have certain pens

and markers that i use

when i’m organizing my my thoughts

in my notebooks because i really enjoy

stationery

now you all may like stationery too

i would suggest that you look at some

japanese websites they’re awesome all

right so

again she’s talking about her trip to

japan being an eye opener all right

so here we go let’s continue reading

the book was a real eye opener all right

so again we have

eye opener now number six another good

one

go over your head

like go over your head

i got you don’t you worry now go over

your head actually means

to go to a more important or powerful

person

to get what you want or to take an issue

to someone who has

more authority than your own boss this

one is funny because

so i have two nieces that are in the

state that i live in right now one of my

other nieces lives in california

but my youngest niece she’s three years

old her birthday’s

her birthday is actually today no she’s

four wow okay

today is the 23rd her birthday is today

um

and later on if you watch this sydney

happy birthday from auntie tiff

uh so anyways her birthday is today but

she’s four years old

so our whole family loves her we love

her and all of my other nieces as well

but we love her and

she knows how to kind of get what she

wants sometimes

so if she asks me for something and i

say no

she may go to my mom her grandmother and

say

gammy can i have that and see what my

my mother says why because my mother is

more important than me and her eyes

sometimes right because

well maybe gamey has more power because

she’s auntie tiff’s mom

so you see what i’m saying go over my

head ah

tt she calls me tt or auntie tiff tt

said no

but tt’s mom she may say yes

so to go over your head all right so or

to be too difficult

for someone to understand they’re two

different meanings here we go

angry i was furious that he went

over my head and complained to my

manager next complaint

she would occasionally go over her

manager’s head to complain to the top

financial officer

make sense right when something happens

at your job and maybe your manager

or boss doesn’t listen to you sometimes

you have to go to someone that’s more

important

maybe your boss’s boss makes sense you

have to go

over their head not advice sometimes but

sometimes you have to do it

joking around she was being sarcastic

but he took her seriously

look at the expression on this guy’s

face all right

the joke totally went over his head

now remember this is the second meaning

for this idiom it means to not

understand something like i don’t i

don’t get it what

what are you talking about it went over

my head or over his head all right

so a very good and useful idiom what

about in class

the students did not understand what the

teacher said

her explanation went completely over

their heads makes sense right so when i

teach

a lesson i try to make sure to break it

down so that it

does not go over your head makes sense

now sometimes if something goes over

your head

you can say in the comment section or to

your tutor if you have a tutor right

wow the lesson was good but this one

part i didn’t understand

or this one part went over my head

makes sense right okay good so in class

you can use it now again

what about in meetings a lot of what was

said in the meeting

went right over my head like

i don’t know what they were talking

about it went

right over my head all right

go over your head now what about number

seven

come to your senses that’s right

come to your senses what does that mean

like your senses are you know

touch taste hear feel what does that

mean

let me show you come to your senses

actually means

to start to understand that you have

been behaving

stupidly or to stop being foolish and

become

sensible again or to become reasonable

after being foolish coming to your

senses like maybe you act crazy

for a little bit and then you’re like

hey hey you gotta calm down

you gotta relax don’t act out of

character

i need you to come to your senses make

sense

all right so let’s look at some examples

here we go here we go

death her death brought many people

to their senses now i want you to think

about this

sometimes when someone dies yes people

feel

very sad but people also think about

changing their lives because they

realize wait a minute

i don’t know when i may be gone let me

live my life to the

fullest let me live my life in a way

that

will will be something good for people

to remember when i’m gone

let me come to my senses and get it

together

make sense all right so death can also

be spoken about using this idiom

what about a job search i wish you would

come to your senses

and look for a better job or what about

making a mistake they are waiting for

him to come to his senses and

realize that he was wrong maybe he’s

saying i didn’t do anything wrong

i’m okay you guys are the problem but

everyone knows

man mark is the one that made the

mistake what is he talking about

he needs to come to his senses make

sense

all right here we go now what about

when you’re not studying his mother

wanted him to

come to his senses and start studying

for his exam all right and what about a

bad guy

right now let’s say for example you’re

talking to your friends

i wish you would come to your senses and

break up with him

he is not a good guy now there are times

when you’re

friends right maybe they’re dating a guy

or a girl

and you know it’s not good you know the

situation is not

good and you try to tell them hey i know

you like this person

but this relationship is not good for

you you got to realize

he’s not good for you we need you to

come to your senses

make sense all right so come to your

senses a very useful

english idiom now number eight again

another good one

it’s written all over your face and i

think that you may have heard this idiom

before i think i may have taught this

idiom to you before

in a lesson very quickly but think about

it it’s written all over your face

how do you think i feel right now

i’m not saying anything but how do i

look

i look happy right i am happy to teach

you but let’s say for example i changed

suddenly i look irritated or angry right

why because you could see it all over my

face my expression

changed so it’s written all over your

face

just means a i can tell

how you’re feeling because your facial

expressions

whoo they’re telling me a lot okay all

right so let’s see some examples here we

go

let’s say for example um again let me

explain it a little bit more

the expression on someone’s face is

showing their true feelings

means that it is clear what a person is

thinking or feeling

or it is very evident when looking at

someone’s face

like i explained when i look happy it’s

very easy to tell

when i’m angry it’s very easy to tell

don’t worry i don’t get angry a lot all

right here we go now we’re looking at

the examples

what about when someone makes a mistake

i know she’s guilty

it’s written all over her face

it’s written all over her face all right

so what about this situation

when you get caught i know my son stole

the money

the guilt was written all over his face

what about this one good news i can tell

something amazing has happened

it’s written all over your face

tell me what it is think about it y’all

when you’re talking to your friends

right

and suddenly your friend another friend

walks up and is like hey guys

how are you and they look really excited

what do you normally do that’s right you

ask them

hey how are you what’s going on

you look really happy you can tell

because it’s written

all over their face all right all right

what about this situation

someone does something wrong i know you

did it

it’s written all over your face ah

here’s a funny story

so when i was um in high school in high

school we got a dog her name was

snickers

yep like the candy bar her name was

snickers and snickers was a good dog

very cute

she was a lasso opso small white dog

right

but we always knew when snickers did

something bad we always knew when she

bit something she shouldn’t have been

uh biting or when she peed

you know sometimes dogs pee sometimes uh

in the area that they should not be

peeing in like when she was running

around downstairs

we’d see her and she kind of

like kind of shy away from us i’m like

what’s wrong with you and i said hey

you peed didn’t you you peed didn’t you

snickers and then i find the spot

and you know i have to clean it up and

everything but it was written all over

her face

i hadn’t seen the spot but i saw her

face and i was like wait a minute

you did something dog you did something

snickers so it was written

all over her face all right now let’s

keep going

what about this one feeling sad

i know he is sad it’s written all

over his face so again

it’s written all over your face now

number nine whoa

another good one y’all face the music

face

the music we got another face one so

what does face the music actually mean

now face the music means to be

confronted

with the unpleasant consequences of

one’s actions

to receive a punishment or to accept

responsibility for something

you have done maybe you made a mistake

and you know there are going to be

consequences but you have two choices

either you can act like hey i didn’t do

it it’s not me

or you can say you know what i did it

whatever the consequences are i’ll take

them

i need to face the music all right take

responsibility for your actions here we

go

playing let’s say for example michael

broke a vase

and had to face the music when his

father

got home michael’s dad was not gonna be

happy

at all all right next what about this

one

doing poorly all right after failing a

history exam

samantha had to go home and face the

music

her mom was about to be angry

but she knew she had to take

responsibility for the mistakes she made

on the test

right okay now what about this situation

robbing

smith was returned to the u.s from cuba

to face the music for his part in a

robbery

more than 10 years ago take

responsibility

next what about stealing when the

missing handbag was noticed

he chose to disappear rather than

face the music meaning he did not want

to take responsibility for what he had

done

alright so what about with worrying

stop worrying about it and just face the

music

it’s okay take responsibility for what

you did

face the music okay all right so a very

very

useful idiom face the music now number

10 y’all this one is

great rack your brain

rack your teacher what is rack your

brain

oh i’m so glad you asked now rack your

brain here we go

rack your brain means to make a great

effort to think or remember

something to think very hard or to try

very hard to think of something so

let’s say uh we’re talking about again

in story time i talk about my childhood

and my family and my friends and let’s

say i’m telling you a story about when i

was in elementary school right

and i’m like yes my teacher my math

teacher and i’m like

ah what was her name oh man what was her

name

i’m trying hard to remember something

i’m

racking my brain to try to remember oh

man what’s my teacher’s name what was

her name again

i’m racking my brain makes sense

all right so let’s see some examples

here we go all right so first we have

working he’s racking his brain about how

to deal with the situation

what about searching my dad was

racking his brain trying to remember

where he put his wedding ring

oh you better find that ring dad all

right

uh next what about this one studying

the student was racking his brain trying

to remember the definition

of the word huge now you know the

definition right

very large that’s the word huge that’s

the meaning

but he was trying to figure it out what

about this one

investigating the detective kept racking

his brain

to solve the mystery and what about this

one

reflecting i’ve been racking my brain

all day but i can’t remember her name

what was her name again remember talking

about maybe when i was in school

my favorite english teacher what was her

name again

racking my brain so again number 10 was

what

rack your brain all right guys i really

hope you enjoyed

this lesson i loved teaching it to you i

love

helping you learn 10 of these idioms

that we use in english and if you master

these and start practicing

and using them you will start sounding

more

like a native english speaker all right

guys well i will see you

next week in our next lesson but

remember if you want to continue

studying with me

and you enjoy the lessons that i give

you each week

please come and join our family in the

speak english with tiffany academy

you can go to this link right here right

now and become a part of

our family we have so many students from

around the world and we are waiting for

you

to join our family all right guys i’ll

see you next week but

as always remember to speak english

[Music]

you know what time it is it’s story

time hey i said a story

time all right guys so today’s story

actually happened was it last week last

week

so um i have lots of friends god has

blessed me with really good friends

and strong friendships and strong

relationships so i

contacted one of my friends and i asked

her if she wouldn’t mind being on my

podcast i wanted to interview her

she said sure i’ll definitely be on your

podcast so

you know we set a date we set a schedule

and i contacted her i said okay you know

we’re ready for the interview

but before we started recording we were

kind of chatting because it had been a

few

few weeks since we had spoken last so

we’re talking

and she said tiff you know what i

actually was talking about you with one

of my patients

now my friend is a psychologist right

and she has patients that

um have some serious issues sometimes

you know like

she works with young people a lot young

people who have had trouble with the law

and you know just in very i guess

suspect or

bad situations so i said

my name came up i hope it was something

good

she said she laughed and she said well

tiff we were actually talking about

boundaries i said okay keep going

she said well i was telling my client

the importance of

having and setting boundaries and she

said i brought up you

she said i have this friend and when we

lived in korea

so she and i met in korea she’s american

but we met in

korea and she lived in the apartment

above me so she would come over

sometimes either have dinner or just

talk and she was telling her clients she

said yeah

and this friend of mine you know i’d go

to her apartment and i’d be talking to

her now

you all know i’m a morning person right

i’ve told you i’m a morning person

and i normally go to bed early because i

get up so early

so she was telling her client she said

yeah so i’d go to my friend’s apartment

and i would be talking to her and

suddenly

as soon as it hit 9 30 at that time it

was 9 30 i go to bed earlier now but she

said at 9

30 no matter what i was talking about

she would stand up talking about me

and cut the light off now i’m laughing

and she’s telling me this

because it was automatic she said tiff

you would stand up

again we’re still having a conversation

you would turn the light off and say hun

you can stay as long as you want you can

stay here you can continue telling your

story

but i cannot promise you that my eyes

will stay open

i cannot promise you that i’ll stay

awake

and she said i told my client i was

offended the first time that that

happened

again i’m still laughing because i’ve

had so many other friends tell me the

exact same thing

when it hits nine o’clock at that time

it was 9 30 when it hit nine o’clock

i cannot control it guys my body shuts

down i get good sleep i fall asleep very

quickly

so my friend was telling her client you

need to be like tiffany

you need to set boundaries and no matter

what is going on

you keep those boundaries so we had a

great laugh

and i said she said tiff after after a

while i realized it wasn’t just me that

you did that too you did it to all your

friends because

you couldn’t control yours you had to

fall asleep so we laughed we had a good

laugh but yes that’s something about me

literally my body will shut down so i

work very hard during the day

and my body says okay tiff we need

it it’s over now it’s you’re gonna go to

bed yep we don’t care if you’re on the

phone we don’t care if you’re

working your body is going to shut down

so

my friends all know that about me and

they laugh about it because

we’ve tried to have movie nights i’ll

tell you some stories later

and i’ll be the first one to fall asleep

no matter what if

it’s in the evening at night i’m gonna

fall asleep so that’s something maybe

you did not know about me

i get my rest all right guys well

i hope you enjoyed today’s story i will

talk to you next

week have a wonderful week