Advanced Vocabulary 5 English idioms about CHANGE
Hello I’m Emma from mmmEnglish!
In this lesson, I’ll go over five common idioms
that sound very similar,
their meaning is also very similar.
They’re all about change.
But the way that we use each of them in English
is a little different.
In some of my previous lessons like this one,
I explained why idioms are important
and what strategies you can use to learn them
and remember them.
Idioms can be a little tricky to learn
but they’re fun to use and they definitely make English
more interesting and more entertaining.
This lesson is an advanced lesson,
one that will teach you the subtle differences
between some very similar idioms.
It will help you to use them correctly and sound
more natural like a native English speaker.
Now my advice with learning idioms is always to think
about a situation in your own life
where the meaning of the idiom is relevant
so you can associate the idiom
with a memory or an experience that you have.
It’s going to help you to remember the idiom
but it will also mean you can use the idiom
whenever you talk about
that memory or that experience in English.
Super cool, right?
Okay so in this lesson we’re focusing on idioms
with the word change.
Now something my dear dad used to tell me
is that change is the only constant in life.
It’s the one thing that stays the same.
Everything around us is changing.
Our lives change, we change.
So these idioms are super relevant and helpful
so that you can express yourself.
When we move to a new house or we start a new job,
we meet new people, things change.
As we grow older, we change.
As certain things happen in our lives,
we also change.
Change isn’t always easy
but being able to talk about it in English should be.
So let’s start with
‘to change your mind’
Now it’s a common one,
one that you’ve probably heard before.
It’s used when you make a decision
or you form an opinion
that’s different to the one that you first had.
I was going to travel to Europe in September
but I’ve changed my mind,
I’m going to go Asia instead.
When I first met Paul, I thought he was odd
but now that I’ve got to know him a little better,
I’ve changed my mind!
I think he was probably just shy when I first met him.
Have you changed your mind about something recently?
Perhaps about a holiday
or maybe even your plans for the weekend.
Perhaps you’ve changed your mind about somebody,
you’ve changed your opinion about them.
If you can think of something tell me about it,
write a sentence in the comments
so I can check it for you.
Maybe you always wanted to study in America
but now you’ve decided you want to study in Australia.
Perhaps you’ve changed your mind.
So that was ‘change your mind’.
What about ‘to change your tune’
or a ‘change of heart’?
‘a change of scene’
‘a change of pace’
Now all of these idioms are similar
but the way that we use them is slightly different,
something that you need to understand
and you need to pay attention to
if you want to sound
natural when you’re speaking English.
‘To change your tune’ is usually used
when someone’s opinion changes
or someone’s behaviour changes
and usually it’s from a negative to a positive one.
So imagine that you have a colleague
who’s been complaining about your boss for months.
They don’t get on well together,
they disagree on most things
and your colleague can be quite stubborn about it.
But suddenly, your colleague comes into the office
and starts saying that your boss is really nice
and that he’s really great to work with.
He even goes and gets him a coffee every morning
and you think
“You’ve really changed your tune!”
They’ve changed their opinion
and they’ve changed the way that they
behave around this person.
This whole year I’ve been trying to convince
Shah, my fiance, to go on a holiday
and he’s been saying
“No, it’s too expensive we can’t afford it!”
But last night he came home and
he said he wanted to buy tickets to Tokyo
and I thought
“Hmm he’s really changed his tune.”
His opinion about the holiday has completely changed.
He’s changed his tune.
Now ‘a change of heart’ is slightly different.
You can see that it’s treated like a noun phrase.
It’s always a change of heart
and it’s usually singular.
And this idiom is about a change in attitude.
A change in the way that you
feel about something.
So imagine that you found a dress
and it’s perfect to wear to your friend’s wedding.
It’s gorgeous, you love it
but you’re not sure if it’s going to go with
the shoes that you’ve already got at home.
You’re not sure if you should buy it.
But the shop assistant says
“If you have a change of heart,
you can return it tomorrow.”
Now be careful that you don’t use this idiom
in the same way as the previous ones.
You can’t say “He changed his heart”
or “I changed my heart”
It doesn’t work, it’s not the same, it sounds a bit weird.
It’s usually used with the verb ‘have’.
He had a change of heart.
She will probably have a change of heart.
I still remember when I was
eighteen years old and I moved out of my family home.
I was moving into an apartment with
some friends in the city
and as I was saying goodbye to my parents,
I started feeling really sad that I was leaving
so my mum said “Well if you have a change of heart
and you decide to move back home,
you’ll always be welcome.”
which made me feel a lot better about leaving.
Now speaking of moving house, we have our next idiom,
‘a change of scene’
or ‘a change of scenery’.
And this idiom is used when
you move to different surroundings,
you know, a different environment.
It could be used to talk about where you live
or where you work.
Tim was tired of working at his father’s company.
He wanted a change of scene
so he applied for a job in Sydney.
I’m so tired of this little, tiny town.
I’ve been living here for twelve years.
I need a change of scenery!
I’m going to move to New York.
A change of pace is used in a similar way.
It talks about a change from your normal, daily routine
so you can use it to say that you need to try something
different for a while.
A change from what you’re used to.
If you’re not feeling very inspired by English these days
or very motivated to practise,
perhaps you need a change of pace.
You could travel to another country where you
have to use your English and practise more.
So there you have it!
Five useful idioms all about change,
ones that all have very similar meanings
but are used slightly differently.
You can be confident using any of them
with a native English speakers
from all English-speaking countries.
They’re really useful ones to learn
because they’re so common.
The best way to understand
the difference between them is to practise using them.
So get down in the comments
and write a few sentences using these idioms for me.
I’ll let you know if you need to
change them or rewrite them in any way.
Don’t be shy.
If you change your mind about your sentence,
you can always edit your comment later.
If you enjoyed learning new ways to talk about change
in this lesson,
I want to recommend a book for you
‘Where’d you go Bernadette?’
Its a funny entertaining book
about a mother who goes missing before a family trip
to Antarctica
and it offers countless opportunities
to use the idioms that you learned in this lesson
and to think about change generally throughout our lives
There’s a link to the book
and the audiobook in the description below.
You know I recommend audible to all of my students
as a way to learn new vocabulary
and the correct pronunciation,
the natural pronunciation of English words in context.
Now if you’re new to Audible,
you can actually get this audiobook for free
using the link in the description below.
Enjoy!
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Make sure you do! Show your love for mmmEnglish
and click that red button down there.
And of course you can keep practising
your English with me,
here are a couple of other
great lessons that I recommend.
I’ll be back here next week
with another lesson just for you.
Bye for now!