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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need you to do three simple things for
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let’s jump right in
[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