10 Idioms in English to Sound like a Native

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about some

common idioms these are common American

English idioms for your reference an

idiom is a set expression that doesn’t

mean exactly what the words in the

expression means it actually has a

special meaning these are set phrases

with special meanings so today I’m going

to introduce a few let’s get started

okay the first expression the first

idiom is the expression I feel under the

weather

I feel under the weather this means I

don’t feel well I don’t feel well

so you use this when you feel sick like

I’m feeling under the weather today or

he’s feeling under the weather today you

can also change this verb to look if you

want to make a guess about the way

someone else feels you can say you look

under the weather like in this example

sentence you are looking a bit under the

weather a bit means a little and here

you’re looking means like it seems that

right now your appearance now suggests

that you don’t feel well but this is a

friendly and casual expression you can

use to say are you okay you look a

little sick so feel under the weather to

feel under the weather or to look under

the weather if you’re just guessing

based on someone’s appearance means that

you don’t feel well or someone seems

like they might be sick okay let’s move

on to the next idiom the next idiom is

I’ve put in parentheses here I’m so

hungry

but we dropped this part sometimes I

could eat a horse I could eat a horse so

here you see could suggesting

possibility this part we often drop so

sometimes we just say I could eat a

horse or maybe a different large animal

like I could eat an elephant for example

basically this idiom means I’m very

hungry

that’s all so in other words I’m so

hungry it’s possible for me to eat a

large animal and

as large as a horse or is an elephant or

something we don’t really change the

animal so much you could say elephant I

suppose but typically people say horse

this is a little bit of an old-fashioned

expression now you might just hear I’m

starving but that’s kind of an extreme

I’m really really hungry expression but

if you use this it’s ok people will

understand it means you’re very very

hungry ok let’s move on to the third

idiom for this lesson this one is it’s

raining cats and dogs it’s raining cats

and dogs this one also is a little bit

old-fashioned but you might still hear

it used from time to time it’s raining

cats and dogs just means it’s raining

heavily it’s raining a lot there’s a lot

of water coming down so it’s raining

cats and dogs this does not mean there

are cats and dogs in the street or

coming down it just means heavy rain

heavy rain ok let’s go on to another one

that’s a little more commonly used this

expression this idiom is that or it or

these those whatever that costs an arm

and a leg an arm and a leg physically

body parts an arm and a leg that costs

an arm in the leg this expression means

that’s very expensive we use this for

something that is extremely expensive or

perhaps more expensive than we expected

so an example of this would be my new

phone cost me an arm and a leg my new

phone cost me an arm and a leg so I paid

a lot of money for my new phone here

cost is actually in past-tense cost here

it’s in present tense that costs an arm

and a leg here this is the past tense

expression my new phone cost me an arm

in the leg means I paid a lot of money

for my new phone so an arm in the leg

these are key parts of our body so we

use them in this expression to show that

something was really really expensive we

had to give a lot of ourselves a lot of

our resource

is to pay for this item so something

costs an arm and a leg means something

is really expensive we always use arm

and leg we don’t use arm or leg only we

use them together always for this

expression okay let’s go along to the

next one also uses leg this expression

this idiom is to pull someone’s chain or

to pull someone’s leg you also hear the

verb yank used here so pull is this

motion yank is like a quick short pull

so to yank something but to pull is a

little more like smooth but to pull

someone’s chain or she yanked someone’s

chain or leg these expressions all mean

to be joking it means you’re just

telling a joke you are kidding kidding

is a word that means joking so when

you’re joking with someone like in a

conversation and you want to show I’m

don’t mean anything by it I’m just

joking you can say I’m just pulling your

legs like if you’re telling a story if

you’re lying to someone for a joke you

can use this expression so here sorry

I’m just pulling your leg sorry I’m just

pulling your leg sorry I’m just yanking

your chain this means I’m just joking

I’m just kidding don’t be serious don’t

take what I’m saying seriously it’s a

joke in other words so sometimes people

like to use this to like finish a

conversation if the other person is

getting angry and then they can say I’m

just joking I’m just pulling your leg

okay let’s go on to the next one the

next idiom is to hit the road to hit the

road this does not mean physically hit

the road outside this means to leave to

leave it’s as a casual expression which

means to leave your current position and

go somewhere else to hit the road an

example it’s late let’s hit the road so

in other words it’s late let’s go let’s

leave this place okay onward to the next

expression the next idiom is kill two

birds with one stone so a stone is a

rock small a rock

two birds with one stone this expression

means to accomplish two things with one

action to do so one thing you do one

thing but you accomplish two things of

course you could do multiple things I

suppose three birds with one stone maybe

but we tend to use it two birds one

stone in example met friends and checked

out a new restaurant I killed two birds

with one stone so I wanted to see my

friends and I wanted to visit a new

restaurant I did them both at the same

time I killed two birds with one stone

so I accomplished two things in one

action there this is quite a common

expression two birds one stone it’s

always that that pairing okay onward to

the next one the next idiom is piece of

cake piece of cake like that’s a piece

of cake or it’s a piece of cake or that

was a piece of cake it means very easy

piece of cake means easy also be careful

of your spelling this should mean piece

like one part of something it’s not PE a

sieepiess like peace on earth peace

around the world but piece of cake part

of cake it means very easy this is an

expression that means very easy an

example making coffee is a piece of cake

so some activities some action is easy

to do we say piece of cake

so actually we don’t always clearly

state the action or the activity that’s

easy sometimes we get like a request

like can you make this or can you do

that and the response is just piece of

cake no problem I can do that that’s

easy for me so quite a common one - okay

let’s go along to the next idiom which

is put all your eggs in one basket to

put all your eggs in one basket this is

an idiom that’s usually used for advice

and we usually say don’t put all your

eggs in one basket this means to rely on

only one thing for your needs to rely on

one thing so let’s look at an example of

this

don’t invest in just one company don’t

put all your eggs in one basket so the

image here is that we need eggs in this

example we need eggs to eat for

something for breakfast let’s say if we

put all of the eggs we need in one

basket and we drop the basket or the

basket is stolen or there’s some other

problem the eggs are destroyed or they

disappear or whatever we have nothing we

have no resources so this is a life

advice idiom that suggests if you have

some resources you should spread them to

different places so don’t put everything

that you have in one location if

something happens then you’re in trouble

so it means spread out your resources

spread out the things that you need in

case something happens so here too don’t

invest in just one company try to spread

your investments out is what this really

means so this is quite a common

expression don’t put all your eggs in

one basket okay let’s go on to the last

one the last one is a special idiom it

is hair of the dog that bit you I have

this in parentheses because we often

remove we often drop this part hair of

the dog that bit you this is an idiom

that we use particularly the day after

we’ve had alcohol so hair of the dog

this is a suggestion for a hangover cure

so hangover means that sick bad feeling

you have after drinking too much alcohol

so we feel like a headache we have a

headache we have a stomachache we’re

slow it’s difficult to do things that’s

hangover so hair of the dog that bit you

so we’re suggesting here that alcohol is

a dog that’s what there’s kind of a

small story here alcohol is a dog and

the dog bit you so because the alcohol

like harmed you damaged you you feel

sick so the idea here is if you take

like like medicine kind of if you take

part of the dog a hair from the dog that

bit you you

we’ll be cured it’s like a treatment

kind of or a suggestion for treatment so

example hangover how about a little hair

of the dog in other words this means if

you drink a little bit of alcohol then

maybe you will feel better it’s

suggesting not to drink a lot but have a

little bit of alcohol and then your body

will be better it will improve I don’t

know if it’s true or not maybe for some

people but that’s what this expression

means hair of the dog and we often drop

that you there so how about some

hair of the dog that bit you

that could work alright so those are a

few common idioms that we use in

American English there are many many