2 English Idioms about LIKE Advanced English vocabulary lesson
hi i’m vanessa from speak english with
vanessa calm happy valentine’s day today
we’re going to talk about two idioms
that you can use to talk about things or
activities that you like let’s get
started
even though valentine’s Day is usually
focusing on couples and romantic love
we’re human so we like a lot of other
things as well
we like activities we like things in our
lives so let’s talk about the first
idiom that you can use to talk about
something that you like what do you
think goes in this cup hmm they could
put a lot of things in this cup but
typically we put tea in this cup
this style of cup is called a mug but
for today’s expression we’re gonna say
cup because that is our idiom today you
might say English is my cup of tea even
if you don’t like tea you can still use
this idiom you can’t really say English
is my cup of coffee or English is my
glass of wine it’s a little bit strange
so we need to keep this expression with
tea it’s my cup of tea you can use this
idiom in a lot of different situations
you might say swimming is my cup of tea
it means I like swimming but because
you’re probably beyond a beginner
English Learner you want to expand your
vocabulary and use richer type
expressions like this one so of course
you can say I like swimming I like
English but let’s use this idiom instead
English
my cup of tea swimming is my cup of tea
so can you use this idiom my cup of tea
to talk about someone maybe you want to
talk about your boyfriend or your wife
or your best friend or your mom you want
to say he is my cup of tea you can say
that and it’s not too strange but this
means that they are the best person for
you they are exactly what you’re looking
for so maybe for swimming swimming is my
cup of tea this is the best activity for
you it’s the perfect fit so if we use
this for a person make sure that this
person is really special to you because
if it’s just an acquaintance or someone
you don’t know that well it’s a little
bit too strong so save this expression
to talk about people who are really
important to you or you can use it to
talk about activities or things you like
eating is my cup of tea
traveling is my cup of tea beautiful
let’s talk about the second idiom the
second idiom has nothing to do with
drinks or tea or cups do you know what a
little road is called a little path if
you live in a big city you probably have
a lot of buildings side-by-side and in
between two buildings is sometimes a
little path maybe it goes to the back of
the building or to another street
this little road has a special name do
you know what it is it’s Allie Allie and
that is part of today’s expression you
might say English is up my alley up my
alley
and again this means I like English it
is the perfect fit for me traveling to
new countries
up my alley if I could choose any
vacation I would choose traveling
because it’s up my alley it’s the
perfect fit for my personality for my
interest it’s up my alley and just to
let you know this expression is a little
weird if we use it to talk about someone
so I don’t recommend saying my wife is
up my alley or my parents are up my
alley it’s it’s a little bit weird so if
you want to talk about someone I
recommend using the first idiom my cup
of tea
they are my cup of tea they’re the
perfect fit so for this idiom up my
alley let’s talk about quickly how to
use this in a negative way because there
are things that we don’t like to do so
let’s talk about it negatively in my
house it’s my job to do the dishes and
it’s my husband’s job to do the laundry
and why is that well we came to the
conclusion that it’s not up my alley
to do the laundry and then my husband
hates doing the dishes it’s not his cup
of tea to do the dishes I don’t mind
doing the dishes and he doesn’t mind
doing the laundry it’s not my favorite
activity but we decided to share the
household chores because the other
activity was not up our alley so we are
exchanging and so far so good
in this little story I said that doing
the laundry is not up my alley
doing the laundry is not my cup of tea
or we could talk about my husband and
say doing the dishes is not up his alley
doing the laundry is more up his alley
than doing the dishes it’s not a fun
activity but it’s okay so I hope from
this lesson you saw how to use these in
a positive way in a negative way and how
express yourself with a more rich
vocabulary and now I have a question for
you
what is something that is your cup of
tea and what is something that is up
your alley try to use these two idioms
in the comments below this video
and let’s learn from each other let’s
take a look at all of the sentences and
share what we’ve learned thanks so much
for learning with me and I’ll see you
the next time bye the next step is to
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bye