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50 Important English Expressions for daily conversation — Transcript

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0:00Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
0:04Are you ready to level up your vocabulary?
0:08Let's do it.
0:13Having a good vocabulary level is essential for being able to express yourself completely,
0:19and have your true personality show when you're speaking English.
0:23I would love to share with you today, 50 most important English idioms, according to me.
0:30These are idioms that I use regularly and that are commonly used in daily conversation.
0:35Idioms are expressions that are not exactly literal.
0:40When we talk about a calm before the storm, we're not talking about the weather.
0:46This has another meaning that's more figurative.
0:49So all of these expressions will help you to understand spoken English better when you're
0:54watching movies and they're talking about the calm before the storm, or you want to
0:58up the ante, you want to get the ball rolling.
1:02What in the world are people talking about?
1:04I hope that this will help you with your understanding and listening skills, and also with your speaking
1:09so that you can express yourself.
1:10I created this video because at the end of all my email newsletters, I write, "You rock."
1:17And at least two or three times a week, I get a reply to my email asking, "Vanessa,
1:22what does you rock mean?"
1:24So I thought that I would reply to this question and also up the ante, an expression we're
1:31going to talk about in just a minute.
1:33And give you 49 other expressions as well.
1:35Are you ready to get started?
1:37I broke these 50 idioms into different categories, depending on what kind of words were used
1:43in those idioms.
1:44Our first category that we're going to look at are idioms with nature related words in
1:50them.
1:51And that leads us to our first expression, which is, you rock.
1:55This means you're great.
1:58Thank you for watching my cats while I went on vacation, you rock.
2:02Number two, the calm before the storm.
2:07This is referring to a quiet period before there's some chaos or craziness.
2:13You might say, I like to wake up at 6:00 AM before my children wake up, because this is
2:19the calm before the storm.
2:22I can drink my tea in quiet.
2:24I can just reflect on the day, and what's going to happen and just be alone with my
2:30thoughts.
2:31This is the calm before the storm.
2:33Under the weather.
2:34This means you feel a little bit sick.
2:37You might say, I wish I could go apple picking with you, but I feel a bit under the weather
2:42today.
2:43We often add the expression, "A bit," just to make this a little softer.
2:47I feel a bit under the weather.
2:49You're not extremely sick, but you just don't feel so great.
2:53I feel a bit under the weather.
2:55When it rains, it pours.
2:58This means that when bad things happen, they happen all at the same time.
3:03If you've watched my weather video, you can check out that weather video up here.
3:07You know that to pour means to rain a lot.
3:11Here, we're talking about not just a couple bad things happening, but a lot of bad things
3:16happening at one time.
3:18For example, you might say, between COVID, and protests, and riots, and then the presidential
3:25election, 2020 is a crazy year.
3:28When it rains, it pours.
3:30It seems like everything happened in this year.
3:34Hopefully, 2021 will be a peaceful time.
3:38We don't know yet.
3:39But when it rains, it pours.
3:42Rain or shine.
3:43This means that you're doing something in any weather.
3:47This idiom is a little bit more literal because we're actually talking about rain, or snow,
3:52or bad weather.
3:54Or shine, which means sunshine, good weather.
3:57So you might say, my family likes to go hiking every Friday, rain or shine.
4:04That means if it's wonderful weather, we'll go hiking.
4:07But also if it's awful weather, we try to go for at least a little hike.
4:11We will do it, rain or shine.
4:15Every cloud has a silver lining.
4:17This means that there is something good in every bad situation.
4:22You might say, lockdowns were really tough this year, but I guess every cloud has a silver
4:28lining.
4:29I got to spend some quiet time doing some enjoyable things with my family.
4:35We often add, I guess, before this idiom.
4:38I guess every cloud has a silver lining.
4:41And that means that it's not 100% good.
4:44Of course, lockdowns were not 100% good.
4:47There was a lot of awful things that happened because of lockdowns.
4:52But we could say, well, there's a little bit, there's a silver lining.
4:57There's a little bit of good that we can try to find in this difficult situation.
5:02The cloud is the difficult situation.
5:04There's a silver lining.
5:06Well, I got to have some quiet family time together.
5:10To go with the flow.
5:12And this means that you're able to adapt to whatever happens.
5:17You might say, when you have kids, you need to be able to go with the flow every day.
5:23You can have a schedule, a plan, an outline, but do you know what?
5:27When you have kids, things change, things happen that you don't expect.
5:32So you need to be able to be flexible and adapt to every situation.
5:36This is an expression that I try to think about every day, because sometimes I have
5:42certain things that I want to get done every day, certain goals or tasks, but I have two
5:48kids.
5:49There's other things going on in life that might change my plans.
5:53So I need to be able to go with the flow.
5:57To adapt depending on whatever's happening.
6:00Let's just go with the flow.
6:02Down to earth.
6:03This is someone who is practical, relatable.
6:07You feel that they are really human.
6:10We often use this for people who are celebrities or famous, people who seem larger than life.
6:17So you might say, when the movie star came to give a speech at my school, even though
6:22she is a celebrity, she seemed really down to earth.
6:26This means I felt like she was just like me.
6:29I could relate to her.
6:31She is down to earth.
6:32This is generally seen as a really positive character quality or personality trait when
6:38people can relate to you.
6:40Even if they think that you are larger than life.
6:44Tip of the iceberg, this is something small that's part of something bigger.
6:49And it's usually something negative.
6:52So you might say, when a parent yells at their child at the park, this is probably just the
6:59tip of the iceberg.
7:02Their parenting is probably much more aggressive at home when other people can't see them.
7:08What you see in public is just the tip of the iceberg.
7:13We often use the word just, in front of this expression.
7:17Just the tip of the iceberg.
7:19You can only see the top when you see that parent yelling at their child in public.
7:24Well under the water, there's probably a lot more negativity that's happening at home when
7:30you can't see.
7:31It's just the tip of the iceberg.
7:33Nip it in the bud.
7:36Nip it in the bud means that you are stopping some bad behavior right when it starts.
7:42A bud is a flower that's closed and it hasn't opened yet.
7:47So we can imagine a rose bud is a closed rose.
7:51And if you nip it in the bud, that means that you're cutting off the rose bud before it
7:56can open.
7:57But let's take that to talk about a negative situation.
8:01If there is something negative that's happening, before it becomes a big deal, you need to
8:06cut that off.
8:07For example, we might say, when my three-year-old son first lied to me, I knew that I needed
8:14to nip it in the bud.
8:16So, that that behavior didn't continue.
8:19Here, the word it, in the middle of this expression is his behavior.
8:24Nip it, nip his behavior in the bud.
8:28But we usually just say this fixed idiom, nip it in the bud.
8:32We don't usually exchange it for something else.
8:36This is true.
8:37This happened to me a couple of weeks ago.
8:38It wasn't such a serious situation, but I felt like I needed to nip it in the bud.
8:43My three-year-old was building a huge Lego tower in the other room, and it crashed and
8:49fell down.
8:50And he was really upset.
8:51And he said, "Mommy, why did you do that?"
8:54The problem was that I wasn't even in the room.
8:57I was in the kitchen.
8:59So there's no way that I could have done that.
9:02And I knew that this behavior, blaming something that isn't the cause, when you're upset, just
9:09lashing out and blaming something else.
9:12This is not good behavior.
9:14He's only three-years-old.
9:15He's just learning.
9:16I didn't make a big deal of it, but I just said, "Hey, you know what?
9:20It's okay to be upset when your tower crashes, but I don't want you to blame something that
9:27isn't the reason.
9:28Don't blame me for your Lego tower crashing.
9:31You can just say, why did that crash?
9:35I'm so upset.
9:36You can be upset, but it's not good behavior to blame something that's not responsible."
9:41Just a little lesson.
9:42But I knew that I needed to nip that behavior in the bud.
9:46Beat around the bush.
9:48This is to speak indirectly without getting to the main point.
9:53Sometimes we do this if we are uncomfortable, if we're talking about something that's a
9:57little bit difficult to talk about, or maybe something we don't really want to talk about.
10:03So you might say, for example, stop beating around the bush.
10:07Tell me, do you want to date me or not?
10:10Someone is being too indirect about this.
10:12We often use this with words like, don't beat around the bush.
10:16Stop beating around the bush.
10:18Why are you beating around the bush?
10:20We usually use this in these kinds of negative ways, because it's usually not seen as a good
10:26thing to beat around the bush.
10:28You should just get to the point.
10:30The best of both worlds.
10:32This is an ideal situation.
10:35For me, my husband and I work from home.
10:38And we also share the job of taking care of our children.
10:41This is the best of both worlds, because we can be fulfilled by our job and also fulfilled
10:47by taking care of our children.
10:49Get wind of something.
10:53This is to hear news about something that's secret.
10:57If the media gets wind of the political scandal, they are going to be talking about it for
11:04days.
11:05Plain as day.
11:07This is something that's obvious to see.
11:09It's plain as day that she loves you.
11:12Why don't you ask her on a date?
11:14Up in the air.
11:16This is talking about having no definite plans.
11:19I want to visit Switzerland next year, but because of COVID, our travel plans are up
11:25in the air.
11:26I don't know when they will become definite, if they will ever become definite, but I hope
11:30so.
11:31But right now they are just up in the air.
11:34Call it a day.
11:36This is when you stop working on a project for the day.
11:40Great job, team.
11:41You did it.
11:42Let's go call it a day.
11:44We often use this at the end of a work day when you've been working really hard.
11:48Or if you're feeling really tired after working, you might say, I'm so tired.
11:53I'm ready to call it a day.
11:56The next category of idioms are animal idioms.
11:58There are only three of these that I included, but they are essential in daily conversation.
12:04The first one is, to go cold Turkey.
12:08And this means to quit something completely.
12:10I looked up where this expression came from and it's thought that maybe it originated
12:16because when you quit smoking, for example, or if you are addicted to a drug, or even
12:22caffeine and you quit, your skin kind of becomes like a turkey, like a chicken.
12:29Kind of cold, and pale and clammy.
12:33You don't feel so great.
12:34So this is maybe the origin of this, to go cold turkey.
12:38So you might say, if you want to quit smoking, you need to go cold Turkey.
12:44Just stop.
12:47Stop completely.
12:48Go on a wild goose chase.
12:51If you have ever tried to chase a duck or a goose, they all just fly in every direction,
12:57right?
12:58It's not very possible to just chase a duck and catch it.
13:02It's pretty tough.
13:03So, that's kind of the feeling of this expression, is that you are just doing something pointless.
13:09For example, you might say, I went on a wild goose chase.
13:14I went to four stores to find molasses.
13:18This happened when I was living in Paris, I was trying to make some gingerbread men,
13:23which are some typical cookies that we eat in the U.S. over Christmas time, the Christmas
13:28holidays.
13:29I wanted to make this for the French family that I was living with.
13:32But do you know what?
13:33Apparently molasses is almost impossible to find in Paris.
13:37I went on a wild goose chase to four different stores.
13:40Finally, I found it in a British international store, but it wasn't called molasses.
13:45It had a different name.
13:47It was a big deal.
13:49I felt like I would never find it.
13:51I was on a wild goose chase.
13:54Crying wolf.
13:56To lie so many times about something that people stop believing you.
14:02Definitely a negative thing.
14:03This comes from the classic tale of Peter and the wolf.
14:06He cries wolf so many times.
14:08There's a wolf, there's a wolf.
14:11And there's no wolf eating his sheep, but the villagers come and they see there's no
14:16wolf.
14:17And then when there's actually a wolf, they don't come.
14:19I think this tale is kind of universal.
14:21I feel like almost every culture has some version of this story, but we often use this
14:26idiom to cry wolf in daily conversation.
14:30You might say, in the U.S. this happens often, weather forecasters cry wolf about dangerous
14:37hurricanes so many times that people stop believing them.
14:41Every time there's a hurricane, weather forecasters say, "This is it.
14:45This is the worst hurricane.
14:47It's awful.
14:48It's terrible.
14:49You should leave."
14:50And do you know what, people stopped believing them.
14:52And when there actually is a dangerous hurricane, people stay and they don't listen to the weather
14:58forecasters, because they have cried wolf so many times.
15:02The next category of idioms are food related idioms.
15:06They have a food word in them.
15:08Our first one is, to bring home the bacon.
15:11Are you actually bringing bacon home?
15:14No.
15:15This just means money.
15:16It means that you are the financial supporter of your family.
15:19You are making money.
15:21When I was growing up, my dad brought home the bacon.
15:24He was the one who financially supported our family.
15:28And my mom was the one who did everything else.
15:32She was in charge of our house, the kids, of our doctor's appointments, of our school
15:36clubs, everything else.
15:38But my dad brought home the bacon.
15:40Two peas in a pod.
15:43This refers to two people who have a perfect little relationship.
15:48It's usually kind of a cute relationship, often with kids or with a couple that's really
15:54cute.
15:55So you might say my son and his friend, who lives down the street, are two peas in a pod
16:01when they play together.
16:02They are adorable.
16:05Butter me up.
16:07This is to flatter someone in order to get something.
16:11If your child is suddenly comes to you and says that you look beautiful.
16:15Beware, they are probably trying to butter you up to get some money or to get a favor.
16:22Spill the beans.
16:24To tell a secret.
16:26When I was pregnant with my first son, we didn't spill the beans that I was pregnant
16:30for the first couple months.
16:32We often use this idiom with negative expressions.
16:36Like we didn't spill the beans.
16:38Or if you tell someone a secret, you might say, don't spill the beans until I'm ready
16:42to tell everyone.
16:44Don't spill the beans.
16:45I didn't spill the beans.
16:47These kind of negative expressions around this.
16:50Take it with a grain of salt.
16:53This means that you don't believe something seriously.
16:57When my neighbor asks me for a gardening advice, this is what I tell her.
17:02If I say, don't plant tomatoes and potatoes together.
17:07But take it with a grain of salt, I'm just an amateur gardener.
17:11I read that in some article.
17:13I don't really know if it's true, but the article said tomatoes and potatoes are not
17:18good together.
17:19If I tell someone this, they should probably still do their own research.
17:24Take it with a grain of salt.
17:27Spice things up.
17:29This means that you're doing something differently in order for it to be more interesting and
17:34exciting.
17:35You might say, when you work for a news journal, don't spice things up, just write the facts.
17:43But you can also use this for daily life as well.
17:46You might say, I try to spice things up by going for a walk down a different road.
17:52I go for a walk every day, but if I took the same walk every day, 365 days a year, it might
17:59get a little boring.
18:00So I try to spice things up and go for a walk down a different road.
18:06The next category of idioms have body related words in them.
18:10And our first one is to lose your touch.
18:14This means that you're losing something that you had a skill or a talent for.
18:19If you don't speak English for months, you will lose your touch.
18:26So try to practice every day.
18:28Rule of thumb.
18:29Thumb.
18:30A rule of thumb.
18:32This is a general rule or guideline.
18:35The key word here is general.
18:36It's just a general rule.
18:39For example, you might say texting your friend before you go to his house is a good rule
18:45of thumb.
18:46Don't just show up at his door without announcing yourself.
18:50You can just send a quick text message first.
18:53And it's a good rule of thumb.
18:54We often add the word good in front of this.
18:57It is a good rule of thumb.
19:00By the skin of my teeth.
19:05This is meaning to barely make it.
19:08You barely survived.
19:10If you said that a passing exam score is 75% and you got a 76%.
19:18Well, you passed by the skin of your teeth.
19:22You barely survived.
19:25To get something off your chest.
19:27This means to talk about something that's bothering you.
19:32So if you have a close friend, you might say to them, "You seem upset, is something bothering
19:38you?
19:39Would you like to get something off your chest?"
19:41And your friend might say, "Yes, I need to get something off my chest.
19:45I am changing my career."
19:48But it's not true for me.
19:50Notice how the pronoun in the middle of this idiom changes depending on the subject, do
19:55you need to get something off your chest?
19:59I need to get something off my chest.
20:02Those always match.
20:04Put your foot in your mouth.
20:07This means to say something, you shouldn't have said.
20:11This happened to me.
20:12I really put my foot in my mouth when I asked my neighbor about her husband.
20:17But I didn't realize that she was divorced.
20:20Thankfully, she was very understanding and just said it lightly, I'm divorced.
20:25And we went on from there.
20:27Bite the bullet.
20:29A bullet is something very hard.
20:31It's something that comes out of a gun.
20:33It doesn't seem like a fun activity, right?
20:36Bite a bullet.
20:37Well, that's what this idiom means.
20:38It means to stop procrastinating and do something difficult.
20:43For me, I hate calling my insurance company, but sometimes I just have to bite the bullet
20:50and do it.
20:51We often use, just have to, with this expression.
20:55I just have to bite the bullet.
20:57Or if you're trying to encourage someone to do something difficult, you might say, you
21:02just have to bite the bullet.
21:04Just do it.
21:05Get out of hand.
21:08To lose control.
21:10A classroom of 20, three-year-old children, can quickly get out of hand.
21:16As you might imagine.
21:17We often use the expression quickly get out of hand to explain something that is almost
21:24impossible.
21:2520, three-year-olds in the same classroom.
21:27I can't imagine.
21:29Wrap your head around something.
21:32This is to understand something complicated.
21:35We usually use this in negative sentences though.
21:38I can't wrap my head around something.
21:41This was true for me as a high school student, I couldn't wrap my head around complex math
21:47problems.
21:48That just wasn't how my brain was working in high school.
21:51I couldn't wrap my brain or wrap my head around them.
21:57To play something by ear.
22:00This means you're not making definite plans.
22:03You might say, well, I want to go hiking tomorrow, but it might rain.
22:08So let's play it by ear.
22:10That means that you're going to look at the news report in the morning.
22:14Look at the weather forecast in the morning.
22:16And if it seems fine, you'll go.
22:18If it seems bad, you won't go.
22:20You will just play it by year.
22:22A blessing in disguise.
22:25This is something good that seemed bad at first.
22:30Like we just talked about previously with COVID lockdowns, there's a silver lining.
22:34This has a similar idea here.
22:37COVID lockdowns were kind of a blessing in disguise for some people, because they got
22:43to spend more time with their family.
22:46Notice that I used kind of a blessing in disguise.
22:50This phrase kind of makes this not so strong.
22:54Of course, there were many terrible things about COVID lockdowns.
22:57A lot of people were lonely.
22:59A lot of people lost jobs.
23:00A lot of people felt fear.
23:03But if we're talking about a blessing, a positive thing that was disguised as something negative.
23:09Well, we might try to find the silver lining here that people got to spend time, more time
23:15with their family.
23:16Our next category of idioms are related to money.
23:20And the first one is to break the bank.
23:24When you break the bank, it means that there is something really expensive, but we often
23:28use this in a negative sense.
23:30For example, you might say that learning English on YouTube doesn't break the bank.
23:36In fact, it's free.
23:38So there's no way that it could be expensive when it's free.
23:42Learning on YouTube doesn't break the bank.
23:45Give you a run for your money.
23:49This is talking about a challenge.
23:52If you need to run in order to catch money, this is probably going to be a little difficult.
23:58So we're talking about this challenge here.
24:00You might say that the Italian soccer team, or football team, like the rest of the world
24:06says, the Italian soccer team gave the German soccer team a run for their money.
24:14This means that the Italian soccer team was really tough to beat.
24:19Maybe the German soccer team is awesome and they think they're going to win.
24:23But then when they play the Italian team, they think, wow, they are giving us a run
24:28for their money.
24:30Or you might say, having a toddler and a newborn is giving me a run for my money.
24:38This isn't talking about some kind of competition or even money, but it's a challenge.
24:45Having a toddler, a three-year-old and a newborn, like I do, is a difficult thing.
24:52It's just the way it is.
24:54But it is giving me a run for my money.
24:57Up the ante.
24:59Or we could say this final word, ante.
25:02Sometimes we cut off the T. To up the ante or to up the ante.
25:06This has to do with when you're playing cards.
25:09In a gambling situation, you put some money on the table, maybe $5, and then the next
25:16person puts $10 on the table.
25:18They upped the ante.
25:20They raised the situation to be better or more difficult.
25:27And that's what this figurative idiom is talking about as well.
25:30To request or to do more.
25:32So we might say, my sister brought a salad to the dinner party.
25:37But I decided to up the ante, I brought homemade bread and two bottles of wine.
25:44That means that I did more than she did.
25:46I kind of raised the bar, another wonderful idiom, for what is expected.
25:52I did something better.
25:55The next category of idioms include action words.
25:58I'm sorry.
25:59I tried to find a way to put these idioms into a category, but it was almost impossible,
26:04because they don't have money words, animal words, human body words.
26:09They're kind of in a category of their own.
26:11Our next two categories, the first one is, action words.
26:15And the last one is just extra idioms.
26:17Sorry that these don't exactly perfectly fall into a category, but they're still extremely
26:23useful.
26:24And I wanted to make sure that they were included in this lesson.
26:26So let's get started with the next idiom that talks about an action word at the beginning.
26:31Cut someone some slack.
26:34This means that you don't judge someone too harshly.
26:38For example, you might say, sorry, I forgot to call you.
26:41Please cut me some slack.
26:43I haven't slept in weeks.
26:45We usually use this as a request.
26:47Please cut me some slack.
26:49Please be gentle with me.
26:51If I make a mistake in this video related to one of these idioms, please cut me some
26:56slack.
26:57Please be gentle in your judgment.
26:59Don't be too harsh.
27:01Draw a line or draw the line.
27:04These are used interchangeably.
27:06And that means that you know the difference between something that's okay and not okay.
27:11Something that's acceptable or not acceptable.
27:14We might say that there are a lot of ways to raise a child, but most people draw the
27:21line at violence.
27:24We might say there's a lot of ways that you can be a good parent or a bad parent, but
27:28most people say, on the side here that's not acceptable is violence.
27:34Most people draw the line at violence.
27:37Don't be violent.
27:38Just be gentle with your children.
27:40Play devil's advocate.
27:43Here you are arguing the opposite point just for the fun of it.
27:48Just for the purpose of debate.
27:50If you're having a conversation about how best to learn a language, how best to learn
27:54English, you might say, I agree with you that textbooks are not the best way to learn a
28:00language.
28:01But to play devil's advocate, aren't grammar books useful when you are just starting to
28:07learn a language?
28:09So here, the person has said, "Yes, I agree with you.
28:13Textbooks are not the best way to learn a language."
28:15And then they're going to argue the opposite point.
28:17A point that they don't exactly agree with, but they want to have some kind of fun debate
28:23with you about the topic.
28:25We use this expression, to play devil's advocate, when you're introducing an opposite opinion
28:31that you don't really agree with, but you just want to talk about.
28:34Rings a bell.
28:36This is something that sounds familiar, but you don't know exactly why.
28:41You might say, Victor Hugo, that name rings a bell.
28:46What did he do?
28:47He was only one of the greatest authors of all time.
28:51That name rings a bell.
28:53Go the extra mile.
28:56This means that you are doing something above and beyond what is expected.
29:01This happened a couple of weeks ago.
29:03My neighbors went the extra mile and picked up my trash when a raccoon made a mess.
29:10We had our trash in the trash bin, but overnight when we weren't home, a raccoon got into the
29:16trash bin and put trash in our yard.
29:20So my neighbor came over, and picked it up and put it back in the bin.
29:24This was not necessary.
29:25It was not required.
29:26I never asked him to do this.
29:28But he went the extra mile.
29:30And I thanked him a lot.
29:33Make a long story short.
29:36This is to tell a long story, briefly in just a couple of words.
29:40If you ask me how Dan and I met, my husband, how we met, I might say, "Well, we met on
29:47the first day of college.
29:48And to make a long story short, we became friends.
29:53We dated for five years.
29:55And then we got married."
29:56We often use this expression with to at the beginning.
29:59To make a long story short.
30:01And then you can continue and tell your abbreviated summary of that long story.
30:07Jump on that bandwagon.
30:11This is to do a trend just because everyone else is doing it.
30:15For example, when I was in high school, a lot of high school girls were dyeing their
30:20hair blonde, but I didn't jump on that bandwagon.
30:24I didn't do this.
30:25In fact, I've never dyed my hair.
30:27It's just something that's never really interested me.
30:30But when I was in high school, I didn't jump on that bandwagon.
30:34Our final category of idioms are just other miscellaneous idioms.
30:39There's five left.
30:40And I want to share them with you.
30:41I didn't want to forget about them, even though they don't really fit in one of the other
30:45categories.
30:46On the ball.
30:47To be prepared for something.
30:49My house is often messy.
30:51The sink is full of dishes, but in my professional life, I am almost always on the ball.
30:58So you might think that I always am on the ball or another similar expression is I always
31:03have it together.
31:06But this is not the case.
31:07When you can record a video, and edit it and plan it, this is much more different than
31:14doing the dishes and keeping your house in order.
31:1824/7.
31:19All the time.
31:20Something that happens constantly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
31:2624/7.
31:27For example, when you are a parent, you are busy 24/7.
31:33Or you might say my neighbors play loud music 24/7, help.
31:37What do I do?
31:39Easier said than done.
31:41This is something that seems easier than it really is.
31:46For example, I always say that it is important, it is essential to use English a little bit
31:52every day, but easier said than done.
31:55Life is busy.
31:57Things happen.
31:58But today, congratulations, you are using English today.
32:01You are enriching your mind with these idioms.
32:04So congratulations.
32:06Better late than never.
32:08Well, this is kind of self-explanatory.
32:09It's better to arrive late somewhere than not arriving at all.
32:15So if you come late to your friend's house, you might say, "So sorry I'm late.
32:18Traffic was awful."
32:19And they might say to you, "Oh, it's okay.
32:22Better late than never."
32:23This is probably an idiom that you don't want to use at work, but it's okay to use in more
32:30informal situations.
32:32Our final idiom is, so far, so good.
32:36And this means that everything is going well so far.
32:41I've been making videos on YouTube for almost five years, and so far, so good.
32:47I don't plan to stop anytime soon.
32:50It has been going well.
32:52So far, so good.
32:54Congratulations on flooding your mind with the top 50 English idioms, at least according
32:59to me.
33:01I have to get something off my chest and I won't beat around the bush.
33:05Making this lesson was tough.
33:07What you see here on YouTube is just the tip of the iceberg, but I decided to just bite
33:13the bullet and go the extra mile for you, my beloved students.
33:18I hope these 50 idioms are plain as day.
33:21Now, it's time for me to call it a day.
33:24My homework for you is in the comments below this video.
33:29Use one of these idioms, create a wonderful sentence using one of them and show us what
33:33you've learned.
33:34Make sure to spend some time reading other people's comments as well, so that you can
33:38refresh your mind about these idioms.
33:40Well, thank you so much for learning English with me and I'll see you again next Friday
33:44for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
33:47Bye.
33:48The next step is to download my free ebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
33:54Speaker.
33:55You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.
33:59Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.
34:03Thanks so much.
34:04Bye.

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