Idioms for Around the House in English

to talk about idioms that you can use

around

the house i chose a big list of

english idioms that i hope you can use

in your everyday life

to talk about simple everyday situations

i chose some that hopefully you haven’t

seen before

or maybe you have seen before but you’re

not sure about what they mean

so we will talk about them i have three

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up is facebook okay facebook okay good

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everyone is here so i’ll show you

today’s lesson boards

here are today’s lesson boards these are

the idioms i have chosen

i have chosen 13 i think uh i just chose

some that i think are really fun and

interesting and useful

that i use as well so these are all of

the idioms we’re going to talk about

today

and then i’m going to give a short

explanation

and some examples of each one but please

send me your examples

in the chat and also i was thinking too

if you have an

idiom that’s similar to the english

idiom in your language or in in a

language that you know you can send that

in the chat those are really fun to

compare i think so

let’s get started okay my first one

is uh which one did i say was gonna be

the first one

i forgot i have so many let me see

okay good uh let’s get to this one first

all right first list we’re gonna start

with something positive

for today first idiom for today comes

from baseball a lot of idioms

you’ll notice are kind of sports related

idioms so

this will be kind of a common theme in

today’s lesson

some sport related expressions so

let’s take a look at this first one this

one is knock

it out of the park to knock

it out of the park or to knock something

out of the park means to do

something extremely well to do

something extremely well to do something

very very well

so this expression is a baseball related

expression

yeah to knock something means like to

hit

something quickly usually like we can

say

i knocked my board over when i was

running by

for example however this knock

to knock comes from baseball like to hit

a ball

to knock a baseball out of the park

means outside of the baseball park

outside of the baseball stadium so

that’s a good thing

in baseball right like that’s the best

thing a home run

so that means when we use this

expression

we are referring to something that is

very good

very positive very very well done so

for example if you want to compliment

someone’s cooking

for example past tense knocked it out of

the park

or this dinner is amazing you knocked it

out of the park

that means you did something extremely

well so you can use this to compliment

someone okay good let’s go to the next

one the

next one is a really funny expression uh

this next one is back seat driver

back seat driver okay so a back seat

driver

it’s short right back seat so imagine a

car

yeah so in your car there’s a front seat

and a back seat

yeah in the front seat is that where the

driver

sits yeah in the back seat is the

passenger

so a back seat driver is someone who’s

not in charge

they’re not in control they give lots of

like

advice and instructions and you don’t

ask

for it it’s really like irritating so

we call that type of person a backseat

driver so in your life you can imagine

let’s say for example you’re cooking

something

and someone is in the kitchen they’re

not

helping you they’re not cooking but

they’re telling you what to do

like cut the onions this way or put this

in or don’t use that

that’s a backseat driver in your kitchen

so

you can use this expression to talk

about someone who is not in charge or

someone who is not in control of the

situation

but they give lots of unasked for advice

and lots of

like instructions and you’re like oh

it’s so irritating

so that’s called a backseat driver maybe

you have a backseat driver

in your house i i everybody does this

sometimes everybody does this sometimes

so

fun expression okay oh great lots of you

are writing uh good expressions with

knocking out of the park good

babna says we are here to work on

knocking it out of the park in english

great job

maria says you knock youtube out of the

park oh thank you that’s super nice

kanwajit says i had an english test and

i knocked it out of the park

perfect great job everybody um obama

also says my sister is a backseat driver

that’s pretty funny good examples

everyone okay

let’s go to the next one okay this next

one

i used this expression on my instagram

yesterday when i told you about today’s

live stream

i said you can join live or watch later

i said you can watch on youtube and then

i said

you know the drill you know the drill

this is a very common expression

and i use this expression a lot i think

i use this

a lot online in live streams on

instagram and so on

which means you know this routine so

a drill a drill means like a

concentrated practice so yes we have

like a drill maybe you know the tool we

use

for construction but this drill is

different

this means routine or like focused

practice or like the same thing you

always

do in this case our routine is

joining the live stream every week right

many of you have a routine

so it’s a drill uh we can we can use it

to mean sort of like

concentrated practice so when someone

says

you know the drill it means you

understand the routine

or i expect you understand this exercise

so in my example yesterday i said like

join live watch later

you can swipe up here for the youtube

lesson you know the drill

like you already know i expect you

already know

this experience so this is a very good

way

to express that you know someone else

knows a routine so

this is a very common uh expression you

can use

when you are doing something regular

okay i don’t see other questions so i’ll

continue

last one for this another very common

one

i use this in many different situations

this expression is to hit a wall

to hit a wall to hit a wall

means to reach a point where it’s

difficult

to continue to hit a wall so imagine

like

physically you could say you’re running

and you meet a wall

this doesn’t mean you physically meet a

wall

yeah it means mentally inside your mind

so for example

when you’re studying like maybe you’ve

tried to study for two hours

and you get really tired and at that

point

it’s difficult to continue you can say

uh

i hit a wall with my studies we use

with in this expression i hit a wall

with my studies

or maybe when you’re eating you’re

eating something super delicious

and it’s so good and you want to eat

more

but you’re so full you can say oh i hit

a wall

i can’t eat anymore so this is a great

expression to use in many situations

where you can’t continue it doesn’t mean

physically

hitting a wall i hope i hope you don’t

hit a wall physically

but it means the condition in your life

the condition in your situation

okay i’m looking for your questions

uh someone said where’s your instagram

my instagram i think is in the youtube

description

if not i’ll add it there later um

i hit a wall with my admissions in

university good example

uh i’m looking for other examples

someone on facebook is writing the same

thing don’t flood the chat don’t write

the same thing on facebook or

youtube please sunlight is hitting the

camera look at this beautiful ray of

sunlight

it’s very bright and beautiful here

today okay

so that’s our first list for today i’m

going to stop there and take a quick

break

and then we’ll continue on oh good

example

emed sorry on facebook said

in terms of economic crises some

countries

hit the wall good job nice one um

gabriel aj gabriel says i know the drill

to always turn

on these live notifications perfect

maria says so you can use hit in present

and

past tense yes the past tense of hit is

hit no change there great one right

okay let’s take a short break and then

we’ll go to group two for today

so in case you missed it uh as always

free stuff check the link below the

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pdfs but uh here’s one about sports

i need to exercise everybody needs to

exercise

there’s some good vocabulary here you

can use you can pick up

whatever interests you pet related

vocabulary

check it out you can download all of

them for free

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joining today’s lesson

is about idioms we are talking about

idioms to use

around the house welcome if you are just

joining live

uh so we’re going to continue to part

two of course

please make sure to like and share the

video so other people

can watch today’s lesson okay i’ll show

you

again today’s lesson boards if you want

to take a screenshot get ready

here we go okay so this was group one

now let’s go to group two group two

continuing on all right great questions

and examples by the way

fantastic okay uh let’s go to this next

group

first one this expression another common

one

is to wake up on the wrong side

of the bed to wake up on the wrong side

of the bed

means to be in a bad mood to be in a bad

mood so this the

idea here to wake up on the wrong side

of the bed

i mean maybe if that happens to you it’s

unrelated but

this means it’s like saying from the

moment

your eyes opened in the morning

you were not normal like you were

mentally in a bad place so

to wake up on the wrong side of the bed

means to be in a bad mood

so sometimes you’ll hear like family

members ask someone like when i was a

little kid

and i was in a bad mood my mom asked me

she would ask me

did you wake up on the wrong side of the

bed today

so it’s asking are you in a bad mood

it’s kind of like but using this

expression is a little more

fun instead of saying why are you in a

bad mood

it’s like what happened like this is a

little more friendly and kind of cute so

you can use this

if you notice someone is in a bad mood

you can say did you wake up on the wrong

side of the bed today

to show you can see the other person is

unhappy

is that even english yes it is it is

very much english

okay i don’t see questions let’s

continue

next is get your house in order

to get your house in order so in order

in order means uh organized

like nice clean tidy yeah so to get your

house in order

of course we can use this to mean like

to clean

our home we can use it to mean to

organize our home

but we also use this to mean to organize

your life

like maybe you have many tasks to do

like you have to pay some bills and you

have to go to

like run some errands whatever you have

a few tasks you need to do

like it’s usually kind of small tasks

you need to take care of these you can

say i need to

get my house in order or he needs to get

his house in order

so generally we use it when we talk

about ourselves

like i i typically don’t use this

expression

to talk about other people’s lives i use

it to express

the things i need to take care of like

oh i need to get my house in order i

haven’t

taken care of these things in a week so

to get your house in order

means to organize your house and your

life

javier can i say i got up with the left

foot in english

no maybe in your in your language you

have that expression but we do not have

that expression i got up

with the left foot uh chosen says i woke

up on the wrong side of the bed today oh

no

so that means you are in a bad mood

i hope you’re not in a bad mood on that

on facebook says most of the time i wake

up on the wrong side of the bed

oh no oh no maybe you should have a

warm cup of coffee or tea in the morning

to improve your mood

yeah uh yeah interesting someone else on

facebook says

i wake up on the left foot is that an

expression what language is that

expression from we don’t have that

expression

in english the left foot expression i’m

very curious

okay um let’s go let’s go to the next

one the next one is an interesting one

to go out on a limb to go out on a limb

this word is limb what is a limb please

okay

limb imagine a tree so a tree

has branches right the word we use

to talk about a tree’s branches or

is limb a limb so

when we say we go out on a limb

imagine crawling out on a tree branch

dangerous right you might fall off you

you might make a mistake

this expression to go out on a limb

means to say something that might not be

true you’re not sure it might be wrong

it might be

bad you’re not sure so

you use this expression to mean i’m

going to say something and i’m

not sure about it it might not be right

that’s what this expression means so we

use this when we’re

like sharing new information like i’m

gonna go out on a limb here

is a very common expression i use this

i’m gonna

go out on a limb here so that here

means about this point i’m gonna go out

on a limb here

and say blah blah blah so means i’m not

sure

but also sometimes people use this

one sarcastically to me like they use

this before something they’re very

sure is true but they’d use it to be

funny

oh someone said what that expression was

from that was from spanish the left foot

is spanish expression oh

okay i learned something today so to go

out on a limb so what’s a good example

of this like

i’m gonna go out on a limb here and say

that that expression was from vietnamese

for example like i’m just i’m it’s like

i’m putting myself in a dangerous

situation or an

uncertain situation so i know it’s not

true

obviously but if i want to make a guess

i could

say this uh it’s not like fake

news caillou it’s not really about

it’s like when you want to uh like

something at work

maybe like i’m gonna go out on a limb

here and guess our project was cancelled

like or maybe that’s not the best

expression

so it’s kind of when we’re like uh we

feel like there’s some

risk in what we are saying like we’re

not sure about our

own uh idea so

we use it a little bit more uh to talk

about ourselves

uh yes it can mean like to take a risk

exactly exactly

okay very nice let’s go to the next one

this one another super common expression

something rings a bell so it rings a

bell or

that rings a bell that means it sounds

familiar sounds familiar something

sounds familiar like

i’ve heard that before so if someone

says

do you know so and so or have you heard

of

such and such thing you might say that

rings a bell

so that’s like saying maybe i’ve heard

it

i feel like i heard it somewhere but i

don’t remember

so this is super useful when you think

maybe i know that thing maybe i’ve heard

of that but i’m not sure

you can say oh yeah that rings a bell or

it rings a bell i’m not sure though so

that’s the feeling

you have when you use this expression

when you’re not sure

but you want to express that you feel

some kind of connection

that rings a bell that rings a bell

uh aurelia says are you going to save

this live video on youtube

yes all of these videos are saved on

youtube you can watch it at any time

um bhavna says english class 101 is

ring a bell so no is there english class

101

rings a bell for me these days

but that means english class 101 sounds

familiar

we use sounds familiar when we are when

we hear

about we hear the name of something like

we hear a musical artist or we hear of a

movie

we hear maybe of a youtube channel and

we just want to say

i think i’ve heard of that before

okay onward let’s continue

uh so it doesn’t just mean i know that

thing

we use it when we’re like refreshing our

memory kind of

okay on to the next one this one maybe

many of you are experiencing these days

to burn the candle at both ends

to burn the candle at both ends i have a

candle

i’m gonna grab it okay to burn the

candle at both ends

means first of all to work very hard or

to be

very busy so what does what is the image

here

so if you imagine a candle right i won’t

show the brand you imagine you have a

candle

usually you light one end of the candle

yeah

and it burns just one direction

when you light the candle at both ends

this

expression it’s like one side is on fire

and the other side is on fire so the

candle disappears

very quickly so this means

you are working very hard and you’re

very very busy

but your energy is going away

very fast so this means like you are

doing too much

so if you know somebody who’s working

really really hard or their life

super fast paced or something you might

say

he’s burning the candle at both ends

so it’s like it’s too much that person’s

energy is going away

too quickly like a candle lit

on both sides okay

all right uh i don’t see other questions

min says i was burning the candle at

both ends this year yeah i think

for a lot of people a lot of us had that

experience of

trying to do many things and using a lot

of our energy

this year maybe many people uh jasmine

says i’m burning the candle at both ends

with my school

oh yeah for sure super stressful but

good luck yeah

okay great examples everybody okay

let’s go to oh that’s it that’s it for

this one okay

we’ll take a quick break and then we’ll

go to the last group

of four last ones i hope these are

interesting and useful for you

right now okay um quick break and then

we’ll continue

to the last part of today’s lesson if

you’re just joining please make sure to

like and share this video so other

people

can find and join today’s lesson uh if

you missed it there’s free stuff for you

below the video uh the pdfs i’m pointing

at here check them out

uh for if you’re watching on youtube

below the video above the video

if you’re watching on facebook what did

i show you

here are some other oh i showed you the

cooking one already i’m fond of the

cooking one

oh this one’s good time planning

planning your time we talked about

making steady schedules last week so

this could be a good refresher if you

joined last week’s live lesson

all right uh so let’s go to the last

part

i will show you today’s lesson boards

again you can take a picture

get ready you can take a picture now

uh this will be uh the last group right

here

we’re going to talk about four more

expressions you can use

hopefully in your everyday life uh let’s

continue all right so a few more idioms

to use

around the house oseas says can we use

the last expression

in whatever tense to burn the candle yes

like he burned the candle at both ends

yeah you could say that in past tense

we tend to use it in progressive a lot

like

he is burning the candle at both ends

like right now

okay onwards let’s go next expression

up for grabs up for grabs this is a

really fun one i like this one

something that is up for grabs so we do

not use this

really to talk about people i don’t know

maybe if you’re really

like a really aggressive dater i don’t

know but

usually we use this for objects for

objects and for

opportunities something is up for

grabs means something that is available

for anyone to take so grab this word

grab is a is a verb yeah to grab

something

means to quickly take something up

for grabs so grabs i know that sounds

weird grab is a verb

right but this is a set expression up

for grabs means it’s available to take

available for

anyone to take so you might say

about maybe some food you made like oh

yeah

i made a bunch of food and i brought it

to the party it’s all

up for grabs means anyone can take it

it’s all up for grabs or for an

opportunity

like oh did you hear she’s leaving her

job

that means it’s up for grabs so that

means

anyone can take it yeah this is a really

fun expression i like this one

it’s up for grabs okay

uh all right carrying on this next one

uh this one kind of similar to burning

the candle at both

ends to have irons in

the fire to have irons in the fire

this is a common again a common

expression

uh with an interesting image so iron

iron means like metal so imagine

imagine you’re making a sword yeah

imagine you’re making a sword

in order to make a sword we use metal we

put it in

fire to prepare it yeah we have to

prepare it

to make it for the making process we are

getting it

hot in order to make something so

this expression to have irons in the

fire

i might say i have irons in the fire

means

to be working on something or making

progress on something to be working on

something or making

progress on something so it’s like you

are

in the preparing stage for something

you’re getting something ready

to do something like making a sword in

this case

to have irons in the fire or i have lots

of irons in the fire

means i am preparing many different

projects

so you might hear someone say i have

lots of irons in the fire right now

which means i’m working on many things

or i’m preparing

about many things

okay good uh

too weird says we’ve got a bunch of

drinks up for grabs in the fridge

good nice yeah up for grabs good good

good

okay sounds nice uh someone said i

oh javier says there are some flowers up

for grabs on the way that could work

just make sure when you use up for grabs

it means like it’s okay to take that

thing

like this this is not about like

stealing stealing things

just make sure to use it when it’s clear

like it’s okay to take

that thing or it’s okay to try to get

something

okay uh

all right i have irons in the fire

uh to my homework ah good point

so irons in the fire we don’t use for

everyday tasks actually to have irons in

the fire

is something we use for like upcoming

projects or like an upcoming idea

so if you for example are thinking of

starting

you’re thinking of starting a business

or you’re thinking of starting

a new project and you just started

preparing you just started

like sending emails or you just started

building your team

that’s a situation we would say you have

irons

in the fire so it’s like behind the

scenes we don’t use this for

everyday tasks really

okay all right let’s continue

yeah irons in the fire can be a little

bit confusing

i would recommend like uh try a quick

google search to see the kinds of

situations that people

use this in for a little bit more

explanation

yeah okay

okay let’s continue to the next one

under

wraps under wrap so something that is

under wraps

is secret something that is secret so

imagine

this expression wraps maybe you know

wrapping paper like presents

yeah under something that is under

wraps is under like you can imagine

wrapping paper that means it’s secret so

we use this for plans like the upcoming

budget changes are under wraps for

example

or that project is under wraps all of

that is

secret so if you hear under wraps and

don’t forget this

s when you use this it means that

something is

secret something is secret okay oh

virginia has a great example on facebook

she says

i have many irons in the fire so i’ll be

burning a candle at both ends soon

i would say i’ll be burning a candle at

both ends

very soon maybe in the future nice

example virginia great work

um jose says does the up for grab

expression also

apply when you go somewhere and they

have candies available to be taken yes

that’s fine you could say hey all that

candy’s up for grab like

you can you can grab that stuff so the

key there is that it’s

clear there’s a clear opportunity to

take those things that’s the idea

all right let’s go to the last one oh my

gosh oh my gosh i’m late i have to go to

the last one

so the last one i chose this one for the

last expression

call it a day call it a day to call it a

day means to decide the day is done to

decide you’re finished

call it a day like today is finished

here

we use this at the end of the day like

at work uh maybe at school

you can use it at home too after

cleaning or

after making dinner whatever you are

finished

for the day you want to decide you’re

done

you say usually let’s call it a day

you can use this in command form too ah

call it a day you had a long day today

so this means finish to be finished with

the day

so we could say this i guess we wouldn’t

really say this for like the live lesson

we would say in this case call it good

or call it done let’s call it done

so let’s say it’s finished we can use

that

if it’s not the end of the day

phew all right that was a lot so i’ll

finish there for now

i’ll show you one more time today’s

lesson board so that you can take a

picture

here you are if you want to take a

screenshot this

is our list of idioms for around the

house

we talked about today so i hope that you

found something

that was useful for you i hope that uh

you picked up

a few idioms that you can use in your

everyday life

around your house with your family your

roommates co-workers

whatever um

i’m looking for your questions uh i

don’t see other questions

specific questions okay so we’ll finish

there so i’m

i won’t say i’ll call it a day because

today is depending on where you are

there’s different time zones right

so i’ll say i’ll call it good we’ll call

it good there so that means call it

finished i’m going to say this is

finished call it them

but next week of course i’ll be back

next week

uh here is next week’s lesson

information next week i’ll be back

november 11th

wednesday 10 p.m eastern standard time

that is new york city time please google

it

or set a notification so that you can

join

uh when you’re ready the topic will be

how to make basic comparisons i’m going

to do

some basic grammar review adjectives and

nouns i’m going to cover adjective and

noun comparisons

i have some videos on the english class

101 youtube channel

you can check it out you can review and

prepare for next week’s lesson so

you can send me your awesome questions

and example sentences

all right we are going to finish let’s

call it done there

thanks everybody for joining me again

live super fun as always

um couple questions at the end because i

have like a minute left

uh yes everybody’s saying let’s call it

a day good this is a good situation to

use that

if it’s not the end of the day as i said

use call it good

or call it then uh do you have instagram

yes check the youtube description

um maria says to have irons in the fire

could that mean irons like ideas in your

mind

yeah you could say that we usually use

irons in the fire for action for things

we’re actually making progress on

not just for ideas okay all right

i think that’s it so let’s finish there

thanks everybody for liking and sharing

the video thanks very much for your

great questions and your awesome example

sentences

i will see you again next week have a

great day have a great night and i will

see you again

next time bye