Do I Need To Know English Idioms How Many Idioms Should I Learn
hi i’m vanessa from speak english with
vanessa calm do you need to know english
idioms let’s talk about it in my course
The Fearless fluency Club we have a
private Facebook group for members of
the course and this question has come up
a couple times
Vanessa do I need to learn idioms how
many idioms do I need to know how can I
learn them so I want to address this
question and answer it for those people
and also answer it for you in case you
had the same question the best way to
answer this question is to see if native
speakers use idioms in daily
conversation and you can do this by
watching TV shows by interacting with
native speakers by reading books this is
a good way to see if it’s actually used
and which idioms are used in
conversation this is something that I’ve
tried to help with in my live lessons
recently we’ve been focusing on some
idioms that I personally have used
within the last week or the last couple
days because I want to help you with
commonly used idioms not thousands of
idioms that we don’t really use that
often so the first question is do native
speakers actually use idioms let’s take
a look at one ATM and see how it’s used
in real life you’ve probably heard the
idiom a piece of cake it’s a piece of
cake
this means it’s easy mowing the lawn was
a piece of cake making new friends is a
piece of cake for me playing the piano
is not a piece of cake it’s easy but do
native speakers actually use this in
daily conversation if you watch TV shows
or watch native speakers conversations I
recommend listening for idioms and
writing down the ones that you hear
because some people will use idioms more
than other people but maybe they don’t
use them in the same way that you think
they should be used just like this idiom
a piece of cake yes it means easy
something that’s easy but typically in
conversation we use this in a sarcastic
way kind of in a joking way and we don’t
use the full idiom we don’t usually say
it was a piece of cake
if someone says oh Vanessa you’re
learning Russian isn’t that hard I maybe
think ah it is really hard but I want to
make a joke so I might say Oh piece of
cake piece of cake it’s a joke because
really it is hard it is a big deal but I
could use this idiom in the opposite way
so in this situation you can see that
native speakers might use some idiom but
they might be in different ways than
your idiom book shows this is why I
recommend a lot of natural English input
watching TV shows listening to podcasts
listening to conversations participating
in conversations this way you can be
exposed to idioms in their natural
situations so one way that my students
do this is by a conversation that I have
with another English speaker each month
so in the fearless fluency Club I have a
conversation about 30 minutes with
another native English speaker and we
see do they use idioms do they use
phrasal verbs what do they use how can
we imitate their style of speaking
because each person has a different way
of speaking some people never use idioms
some people use them a lot some people
use a lot of slang or other types of
speech so we can see for individual
people how they speak and how to imitate
it and you can do this as well while
you’re watching YouTube videos or
watching a movie use your notebook and
write down some idioms when you hear
them if you’re using subtitles
this will be a lot easier because you’ll
see them in English and hear them in
English you can accurately write them
and this way you’ll know which ones
native speakers use and which one they
don’t and in which situations which
context I hope that this quick
explanation is useful to you and if you
want to learn some real idioms that
native speakers use certainly in daily
conversation check out some of my latest
live lessons where we focus on some
idioms that I’ve used in my life that
way you know they’re real you know the
context you know all of the nuances and
situations when you might use it you
really feel comfortable and know that
you’re speaking natural English and in
the comments below this video I want to
challenge you to try to make a sentence
using an idiom it could be any idiom may
be an idiom that you learned with me in
our live lessons may be an idiom that we
talked about today like piece of cake
using it like a joke sarcastically it’s
really hard but you say oh piece of cake
piece of cake so in the comments below
this video I want to see your idiom
sentence and help you to use it
naturally thanks so much for learning
with me and I’ll see you the next time
bye the next step is to download my free
ebook 5 steps to becoming a confident
English speaker I want to help you
master English and speak fluently feel
free to subscribe so that you don’t miss
new English lessons thanks so much for
learning with me bye