100 Body Words in English Advanced Vocabulary Lesson
Vanessa: Hi, I’m Vanessa from
SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. What’s this part
of my finger? What’s this part of my ear called?
Let’s talk about it. Do you know this song?
Theo: Head, shoulders, knee and toes, knees and
toes. Eyes and ears and mouth and nose. Head,
shoulders, knees, and toes, knee and toes.
Vanessa: A classic children’s song. Today,
you are going to learn more than just the
basics, head, shoulders, knees, and toes.
You are going to master 100 body part vocabulary
words, plus some useful idioms along the way.
To help you never forget what you learn, I have
created a free PDF worksheet for you with all of
today’s body parts, idioms, expressions, concepts,
and ideas that we’re talking about in this lesson.
Plus, you can answer Vanessa’s challenge
question at the bottom of the worksheet.
Click on the link in the description to
download the free PDF worksheet today.
Just a little note before we get started this
video, like almost every video on my channel is PG
rated. This means that we are going to be talking
about acceptable body part words to talk about
in public. If you’re looking for a biology
lesson, this lesson is not for you, but if
you would like an appropriate word that you can
use without embarrassment in lots of situations,
this lesson is the right place for you.
Not sure how to talk about something taboo
politely, well, let’s learn. Let’s get started by
talking about the top of our head and working down
to our feet. Let’s start with the head. There’s
a lot of words to talk about. This is my head.
We have a great idiom that goes along with this,
which is off the top of my head, I couldn’t tell
you how far the earth is from the moon. Off the
top of my head, this means without doing research,
just having the knowledge in my head. Off the top
of my head, sorry, I couldn’t tell you. I don’t
know. Off the top of my head, I have no clue.
What’s on my head? It’s hair. So we could say I
have brown hair, or I am a brunette. This is most
often used for women. You could say it for men,
but brunette is most often used for women.
Or we could say he has blonde hair. She or he
is a blonde, or he has red hair. He’s a red
head. Or we sometimes say, he’s a ginger.
Sometimes people who have red hair, don’t like
this expression. My husband is a ginger and he
doesn’t care. This expression is fine with him.
So maybe just listen out for it. Or you could
just say, he’s a red head. He has red hair, or
he might have black hair. Under your hair we
have your scalp. Your scalp is the skin under your
hair. And then moving down, we have your forehead,
forehead. Then we have your eyebrows, your
eyebrows, your eye lids and your eyelashes.
I want to take a quick note for my Asian
followers. In the Asian world, it is somewhat
common to talk about some different terms for
your eyelids. When I lived in South Korea, I
heard my Korean coworkers, when they were speaking
in English, I heard them use the terms, mono lid
and double eyelid in their English conversations.
But I just want to let you know that this concept
is relatively unknown to most of the English
speaking world. This is something that’s much
more common in the Asian part of the world.
So if you were to have a conversation with
someone in English and you said, yeah,
he has a mono lid or a double eyelid,
most other people in the Western world are not
familiar with this concept. So we just call this
the eyelid. These are my eyelids. My eyelids
and my eyelashes protect my eyes, my eyes.
There’s a great idiom we sometimes use. Don’t
roll your eyes at me. Have you ever done that?
Have you ever done that to your parents? If
you have rolled your eyes at your parents,
they most likely said to you
don’t roll your eyes at me.
This is a common phrase that parents say to
their children. Don’t roll your eyes at me.
That’s rolling your eyes. Under my
eyes, I have my cheeks, my cheeks.
Babies have cute cheeks that we love to pinch,
cheeks. And moving over here are my ears,
my ears. So these are my ears, but this is
my ear lobe. Some people have a pierced ear
lobe. So I do. These are pierced ears and my ear
lobe is pierced. There’s another idiom we use,
which is I’m all ears. If you have a suggestion
for a YouTube video that you’d like me to make,
I’m all ears. This means I’m willing to listen.
I’m interested in what you have to say. I’m all
ears. I have no mouth, no nose, no eyes. I’m
all ears. I’m going to listen very carefully.
And then we have my nose. This is called the
bridge of your nose. And these are my nostrils,
my nostrils. Under my nose is my mouth. This is
the general word for this area, but there’s a lot
of specific words to talk about these parts. So
let’s talk about it. My mouth, my lips are on the
outside, my lips. And when I open my mouth, there
are my gums. The skin on the inside of my mouth is
my gums. And then there’s my teeth. And my tongue.
There is some fun idioms we can talk about with
the mouth. Let’s say that you tell your friend
that you’re going to have a surprise birthday
party for your sister. Your friend might say, oh,
don’t worry. I won’t tell her. My lips are sealed.
That means you can’t open your mouth. My lips are
sealed. The secret is safe with me. It’s a great
expression to let the other person know, don’t
worry. I’m not telling anyone. My lips are sealed.
What do you do with your mouth? You eat. So if you
love sweet things, maybe you have a sweet tooth.
This doesn’t mean just one of your teeth is sweet,
but this just means I love sweet foods. Ugh,
I have a sweet tooth, so I have to keep sweets
out of my house or else I’ll just eat them all
the time. I have a sweet tooth. And before we move
on to the rest of the upper body, let’s talk about
one more idiom about your tongue. This expression
is extremely useful for English learners.
What if I said to you, oh, what’s the name of
that movie with the pirate? Oh, it’s on the tip
of my tongue. Oh, do you get the idea that I know
the movie. I just can’t think about it right now.
So the name of the movie with a pirate is right
there. It’s on the tip of my tongue. I just can’t
get it out. Oh, I just can’t remember what’s
the name of that movie with the pirate. Oh,
it’s on the tip of my tongue. So if there is
a word that you don’t remember in English,
you might say, oh yeah, the skin in your mouth.
Oh, Vanessa talked about that. Oh, it’s on the
tip of my tongue. I forget what that word is. Oh,
well, first of all, you remembered this idiom.
That’s great. And just to let you
know, it’s your gums, your gums,
but this is a great expression to use when you
know, you know a word, you just can’t remember it.
Under your mouth we have your chin, your chin.
If I told you, keep your chin up, things will
get better. Hmm. Keep your chin up. This is an
encouraging statement that you can use to say,
you can do it. Keep going. I know that it’s tough
right now, but find some positivity in this tough
time. Keep your chin up. You can do it. Great
encouragement. Under your chin, we have your neck,
your neck and another wonderful idiom. What if I
said for you I stuck my neck out for her because
I felt like she did the right thing and she
needed some support. I stuck my neck out for her.
You’re not literally sticking your neck out for
her, but this has to do with the idea that you are
supporting someone, even though you
might face some criticism. So your
head is very important to your body, right?
This is a really valuable part of your body.
So when you stick your neck out, you are
putting your head in a vulnerable position.
You’re sticking your neck out. You’re not keeping
it close to you. So that’s the idea of this idiom.
When you support someone, even though you
might face some criticism, you could say,
I stuck my neck out for her. Sometimes
we use this if we regret it later, man,
I stuck my neck out for her and she just didn’t
appreciate it at all. I stuck my neck out for
her. I tried to support her, even though it wasn’t
the popular thing to do. And now I regret it. She
didn’t care at all. And it wasn’t really helpful.
And finally, for your head, we can say your face,
all of this right here is your face. Have you
ever had a pretty rotten morning? Things just
didn’t go well. But when you walked into the
office, you couldn’t be grumpy. You couldn’t be
in a bad mood. You had to put on a face, this
implies that things are going poorly, but you
have to pretend like everything’s fine. Sometimes
we say I had to put on a happy face when I walked
into the office. Or we could cut out the word
happy completely and just say, I had to put on
a face in front of the clients, even though I had
just gotten yelled at by my boss. I wanted to cry,
but I just had to put on a face when I talked with
the clients. This is kind of a tough thing to do,
but we all have to do it in lots of situations in
life. Maybe you have to put on a face. All right.
Let’s go to the next section, which is
not your head, which is your upper body.
Now let’s talk about the upper body, the upper
body. These are my shoulders, my shoulders. If
I’m angry at someone, I might give them the cold
shoulder. Ooh. The cold shoulder is never good.
That means that you ignore someone. You don’t talk
with them and you show them that you are angry by
giving them the cold shoulder. You might
not actually turn your body like this,
but that’s the expression we use. He gave me the
cold shoulder after I told him what was going on.
Below your shoulders is your chest, your chest.
And this is the socially acceptable word for men
and for women to talk about this
area. We often use the term,
ugh, I just have to get something off my
chest. If there is a weight on your chest,
it’s a burden. It is not a good situation. But
ugh, when you get something off your chest,
you tell someone something important. Maybe
you’ve been keeping in a secret and you finally
can tell someone that you love that secret.
Ah, I just have to get something off my chest.
I love you. I’ve been wanting to tell
you this for so long. Ah, I love you. Oh,
it feels good to say it. I’m free now. So that’s
the idea of getting something off your chest.
Under your shoulders, we have your arm pits,
your arm pits, and they’re connected to your
arms, your arms. If you have to twist
someone’s arm to get them to do something,
you had to work really hard to convince them.
I had to twist my husband’s arm to get a cat,
but he finally said yes. And now he loves that
cat. It’s actually not true. He wanted to get
a cat. He had to twist my arm to get a cat. It
means, ugh. I had to convince him to get a cat.
And now we have one. Wonderful.
On your arm, there is your elbow, your elbow.
Sometimes we say, I need some elbow room, some
elbow room. If you’re cooking and all your kids
are in the kitchen and everyone’s moving around,
you might say, Hey guys, I need some elbow room.
I’m trying to cook here. Can you guys just give
me some space? That means I need some room,
some elbow room. Attached to your arm, your elbow
is your wrist, your wrist. This is the joint here.
Your wrist. When I was in high school, I broke my
wrist. It was literally and figuratively a pain.
And then I have my hand, my hands. When
you give someone a hand, you help them.
Hey, can you give me a hand? This box is really
heavy. I need some help picking it up. Hey, can
you give me a hand and read over this report? I
want to make sure I said it right. Give me a hand.
And on my hand I have my Palm, my Palm, that’s
the bottom of your hand. And I have five fingers.
Each of my fingers has a knuckle. My thumb
has one knuckle notice the K is silent,
but my other fingers have two knuckles, knuckles.
You might see in a movie, we don’t really use
this in daily conversation, hopefully not too
much, but you might see in a movie, someone say,
do you want me to give you a knuckle sandwich?
And that means, do you want me to punch you?
Because your knuckles are like this. And it’s
a knuckle sandwich. Hopefully you don’t use
that a lot in daily life, but you might hear
it in a movie. And now you’ll understand it.
Each of my fingers has a fingerprint and a
fingernail, a fingernail. We have different names
for each of our fingers. Do you know what they
are? This is my pinky finger. Sometimes we say
my little finger, but almost always do we say my
pinky finger. My ring finger, and that’s because
we often put our wedding bands on this finger,
my ring finger. My middle finger. In the west,
maybe in other places as well, it’s very rude to
show only your middle finger. That means F you.
I’m so angry at you. Here’s my middle finger. So
be careful not to do that. Do not point with your
middle finger instead point with your pointer.
That’s what this finger’s called. Point with your
pointer. And then we have your thumb, your thumb.
All right. So we’ve talked about the hand,
the arm, your chest. Sometimes we talk about
this as your chest area, especially if we’re
being a little bit vague with women, you might
say, oh, there’s something on your chest area.
Maybe there’s like a stain on your shirt, but
you don’t want to point. You don’t want to be
rude. You might just say, oh, there’s something on
your chest area. It’s not talking about your skin.
It’s just in this general area. So that’s
a very polite way to talk about this.
And we sometimes use the term collar bone
for this bone here, my collar bone. Oh yeah,
I just slammed into a drawer and I hit my collar
bone. It really hurts. This is my collar bone.
Sometimes schools will have a dress code that
says you need to cover your collar or bone.
So that’s what they’re talking about. And in
your chest area, we have your ribs, your ribs,
that’s the bones here. And sometimes we use the
more technical term, your rib cage, your rib cage.
I bruised a rib. Oh, that hurts my ribs. Oh, it
hurts my ribs to laugh so much. This is your ribs.
Below your ribs, you have your belly button. If
you are human, you have a belly button. This is
what connected you with your mother when you were
in the womb, you have a belly button. And this
area is usually called your stomach. But sometimes
we call it your belly. This is especially for
children. Aww, your belly hurts. Oh, this is my
belly. But we often use an idiom that uses another
word and that is your gut. Technically your gut
is inside you. That’s like your intestines and
your organs inside you. We’re not going to
get to that. That’s too detailed right now.
But we sometimes use the phrase, trust your gut.
This doesn’t mean that you are using your rational
brain. You’re just trusting your instincts.
So if you thought, hmm, should I join Vanessa’s
course or not? Well, this is how much money it is.
This is what I saw on the website. This is it. Now
I’m just going to trust my gut. I know Vanessa
is a nice teacher and I think it will be useful.
I’m going to join the course. Great. Well,
you can join The Fearless Fluency Club here.
Trust your gut. That means I’m just
going to trust my instincts and do it.
All right. Let’s move on from the head, the
upper body and talk about the lower body.
All right. Now let’s talk about the lower
body. These are my hips, my hips. And if
you want to talk about this area in a polite
daily conversation type way, we often just say
private parts. This is something that’s
common for children to say. And I think
this is something that’s common for adults to say
as well. Of course, we don’t usually talk about
this area in the workplace, just in general.
But if you are going to use a polite term,
we would say private parts. We sometimes use
the word crotch, but this is mainly for men.
And it’s mainly used to say, Hey, don’t
hit me in the crotch. Of course, talking
about this area is not professional. So in the
workplace, of course, none of these words apply,
but in daily conversation, those are words you’ll
definitely hear, and they’re not considered rude.
You’ll also hear the term groin used. And this
specifically has to do with the muscles on the
inside of your legs, like in this picture. And
it’s most commonly used to talk about when you
hurt your groin. So you might say, ah, I pulled
my groin when I was doing yoga yesterday. So
it’s used to talk about maybe some kind of pain.
If you go to the doctor, you can use that term
to talk about the muscles on the inside of your
leg. I know that’s a little technical, but you
will use this and hear this in daily conversation.
Ugh, I pulled my groin and now it hurts to walk.
Next, let’s talk about your legs. This is my leg
and my knee, my leg and my knee. And here is my
butt. This is the most general term that we use.
But sometimes we use backside to be a little more
polite. For my kids, we use the word bum. Wipe
your bum. Don’t put your bum on the table. We
use those terms to be a little more indirect,
but the most general you’re going to hear is,
butt. We often also use thigh to talk about the
upper part of your leg, my thigh. Oh, I bumped
my thigh on the table and it really hurts. Your
thigh. Then below your knee, notice that the K
is silent, below your knee is your shin.
Your shin, this is also a little bit of
a technical term, but we often use shin when
we’re going to the doctor and saying, ah, yeah,
I just really have some shooting pains in my shin.
And I don’t know what it is. This bone in the
front is your shin. Behind your shin is your calf,
your calf. Now, strangely enough, this is also the
word for a baby cow. A baby cow is a calf, notice
the L is silent, but this muscle here, back here
is your calf. My calves are really sore after
going on that hike. Ugh, my calves are so sore.
Then we have your foot, your foot. Just like the
hand, the foot has a lot of parts as well. We can
talk about your ankle. Your ankle is the bone
here. Don’t twist your ankle. That hurts a lot.
For your toes, we don’t have a name for every
individual toe. Maybe doctors do. I imagine
doctors do, but in daily life, we just say your
big toe and your little toe. The other toes are
important, but we don’t have a specific name for
them. So it’s your big toe and your little toe.
Then we have underneath your foot is called
the foot arch. And sometimes we say the arch
of my foot. The arch of my foot hurts after
walking for 10 hours yesterday, Ugh, my foot
arch hurts or the arch of my foot. And the back
of your foot here is called the heel. The heel,
notice the spelling is different than to heal,
the verb. So this is with two E’s, heel. I hurt my
heel and I hope it heals soon. That’s your heel.
What would it mean if I said, I have a new
job starting tomorrow and I’m going to put my
best foot forward and be prepared for my job?
To put your best foot forward doesn’t really mean
that one of your feet is better than the other.
It just means I’m going to do my best. I’m
going to do everything I can to make sure that
there is success. I’m going to put my best foot
forward. I’m going to wear professional clothes.
I’m going to be in the right mindset. I’m going
to get a good night’s sleep the night before.
I’m going to put my best foot forward.
Excellent expression. Whew. That was a
lot of body vocabulary words and idioms, but
keep your chin up. I know that you can do
it. Put your best foot forward and download the
free PDF worksheet so that you never forget the
expressions that you learned in today’s lesson.
And you can answer Vanessa’s challenge question
at the end of the PDF worksheet. There is a link
in the description so that you can download it.
And now I have a question for you, which one of
these body part words was new for you? I would
love to know which one of these helped you to
expand your vocabulary so that you can speak
confidently in daily life. Well, thank
you so much for learning English with me
and I’ll see you again next Friday for a new
lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next
step is to download the free PDF worksheet for
this lesson. With this free PDF, you will master
today’s lesson and never forget what you have
learned. You can be a confident English speaker.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.