5 ENGLISH IDIOMS YOU MUST KNOW

hey today i'm going to teach you five english idioms you must know after this lesson you will be able to use the idioms like a native english speaker are you ready well then i'm teacher tiffany let's jump right in all right our first english idiom is be in a tight spot i want you to repeat it after me for pronunciation practice be in a tight spot excellent very good now this idiom is very commonly used and it just means to be in a difficult situation i want to explain it to you think about tight when something is really tight think about when you were a kid right and your mom would buy clothes for you that were a little bit too small you'd put on the shirt but you just felt restricted like you could not move it was very difficult for you to move because the clothes were too tight well the same idea applies to this idiom being in a difficult situation or being in a tight spot now let's look at an example sentence here's the first example sentence you have put me in a tight spot i think i need to let you go hey you you've made my situation very difficult and i think i'm going to have to let you go imagine you were a manager or a boss and you were speaking to your employee that did something really bad for the company and the company was negatively affected that's a difficult situation you are in a tight spot so you have to let him or her go makes sense right okay let's look at the second sentence using this idiom her divorce put her in a tight spot but she is doing better now i want you to think about this divorce is never a good situation for people even when two people decide mutually to divorce there are lots of difficulties that come up after that divorce financial difficulties dealing with the children who's going to have custody lots of difficult situations and many of them relate to finances you go from a two-person household with income to income household to now one income only one salary so that's a very difficult situation you've put me in a tight spot the divorce put her in a tight spot make sense all right now what about this example sentence right here jeremy put me in a tight spot a difficult situation when he brought up the bankruptcy in front of everyone oh my goodness it was a very difficult situation put him in a tight spot all right so one more time after me be in a tight spot excellent very good now the next english idiom that will really help you out is this one right here be off the mark be off the mark after me be off the mark excellent now this just means not achieving the desired result due to inaccuracy i want to show you this visually i want you to think about a goal maybe a goal that you have in your life your goal is what to speak english fluently right and maybe your goal is to do that within this year or maybe next year that is your goal so i want you to imagine i have my marker i'm going to get a sheet of paper and i want you to imagine that this sheet of paper i'm going to write down your goal in the middle speak english fluently that is your goal that is your target and your target is right in the center of this paper right here you see that speak english fluently that is your target however you miss your target and you're not able to speak english fluently just yet keep watching these lessons you are off the mark you did not hit the target that can happen in business or in other aspects of life so let's look at an example sentence again being off the mark means not achieving the desired result here's a first example sentence i was really off the mark on my exams so think about it your exams your tests maybe you want to get an a you want an a plus but instead of an a plus on your test you get a b minus so in this situation your goal was to get an a plus but you got a b minus you were off the mark you got it right excellent now the second example sentence his efforts were off the mark she was too hysteric to console she couldn't comfort him his efforts were off the mark he made an effort but she was too hysterical he could not actually comfort her off the mark his goal comfort but he was not able to off the mark all right what about this third example sentence the weather forecast was really off the mark today they said it was going to be a really hot day today but instead it was it was really brisk outside really cold the weather forecast was really off the mark today makes sense right okay excellent so one more time after me be off the mark excellent now this third example idiom is very very important the idiom is bend over backwards one more time after me bend over backwards excellent i want you to think about this bending over is not difficult but bending backwards can be a little bit challenging this idiom actually means to work extra hard in an effort to make someone happy i want you to be happy i want you to achieve your goals i'm working hard i'm actually bending over backwards to make sure you achieve your english goals makes sense right okay excellent now i want us to look at the first example sentence here we go jamie's husband constantly bends over backwards for her he's trying to make an extra effort to make his wife happy bend over backwards you see how useful this idiom actually is next i bent over backwards for that guy and he still treats me poorly you went over up above and over all that you had to do you worked extra hard to make him happy but he still treats you poorly we say bend over backwards and the third one i only bend over backwards for my family i only make an extra effort for my family to make them happy again i only bend over backwards for my family now i want to talk to you about something really quickly because this idiom is so important again bending over backwards you all know that i bend over backwards to help you achieve all of your english goals but actually the sponsor of today's video also bends over backwards for you each and every day cambly right here i want to thank cambrie so much for sponsoring this video you see cambly offers english tutors to english learners like you around the world they offer english tutors from america canada australia and the uk and they are available 24 7 every day every time of day every week for you they are bending over backwards because they want to help you achieve your goals now you all know how much i love canely because cambly wants to help you by giving you a free 10-minute lesson they want to help you reach your goal they want to help you finally speak english fluently and they said tiffany we want your students to get an opportunity to practice with an english tutor an amazing english tutor now if you're really serious about truly taking your english to the next level they have a 40 off any 12 month plan coupon just for you now the link is in the description again remember cambly has english tutors that bend over backwards to help you reach your english goals cambly thank you so much i want to encourage everyone to click that link in the description and get your english tutor today and start speaking english fluently thanks again cainly all right guys let's jump back into the lesson remember hit the link in the description now our fourth english idiom is right here bite off more than you can chew again bite off more than you can chew excellent very good now this just means to make a commitment you cannot fulfill to make a commitment a promise that you cannot fulfill i want you to think about a big sandwich right maybe you like burgers right and there's a huge burger and you want to eat this burger so you go to take a bite but you're not able to eat this entire burger but you try to stuff it in your mouth and then you're not able to talk you've bitten off more than you can chew and your commitment was to eat the whole thing but you're not able to so in the idiom it's the same taking on a commitment making a promise that you cannot fulfill so i'm actually kind of hungry now here we go here's the first example sentence i think i bit off more than i can chew with this new job i thought i could handle it but whoa there's too much responsibility i really bit off more than i could chew make sense all right now the second example sentence is i need to expand to build my company but i don't want to bite off more than i can chew i don't want to make a commitment that i cannot fulfill fight off more than i can chew don't forget that big burger alright and the third example sentence is right here he is about to bite off more than he can chew by marrying sabrina she's a wild one now i'll say it again she's a wild one just means she's a little bit much for him to handle she's a little wild she's a little excited and a little bit too much so again he is about to bite off more than he can chew by marrying sabrina she's a wild one he's trying to commit to her but i don't know if he's gonna stay in this marriage bite off more than you can chew all right last time after me bite off more than you can chew excellent all right now the fifth idiom you must know this idiom is bitter pill to swallow bitter pill to swallow excellent think of a pill you know you take a pill as medicine and you swallow it right usually pills are small right not huge because they're too difficult to swallow when they're big so doctors and companies make them small now a bitter pill means when you actually take the pill in oh my goodness i i can't take this pill it's difficult the meaning is an unpleasant happening that is difficult to endure an unpleasant situation that is difficult to proceed forward in difficult to endure so let's look at an example sentence here we go the first one moving away from family this situation was a bitter pill to swallow unpleasant not something that you would like to do i don't want to move away from my family i'll miss them a bitter pill to swallow very difficult i don't want to accept this bitter pill to swallow next the pandemic is a bitter pill to swallow but we will overcome this it's not something that you like it's not something that you enjoy it's unpleasant it's a bitter pill to swallow and finally this one failing the bar exam again was a bitter pill to swallow but i will make sure i pass next time again i wanted to pass the bar exam to become a lawyer but i didn't and that was unpleasant but i had to accept it it was a bitter pill to swallow makes sense right so again after me bitter pill to swallow excellent very good job now you know what time it is it's time for your quiz i want to see how much you remember out of these five idioms here's question number one and i'm going to start the timer after i read it the pandemic is uh but we will overcome this five seconds time what's the answer excellent the pandemic is a bitter pill to swallow but we will overcome this excellent job very good what about this second quiz question i know you can do it jeremy dot dot dot when he brought up the bankruptcy in front of everyone five seconds time what's the answer come on yes put me in a tight a difficult spot excellent job now what about this question right here question number three i need to expand my company but i don't want to five seconds starting now time i gave you an extra second what's the answer i don't want to bite off more than i can chew excellent you're so smart now what about this fourth question the fourth quiz question the weather forecast was really today five seconds time i gave you another extra second what's the answer yes off the mark not accurate excellent and what about question number five i dot dot dot for that guy and he still treats me poorly five seconds here we go time what's the answer excellent i bent over backwards for that guy and he still treats me poorly excellent job you are amazing today you learned five english idioms that you must know in order to finally sound like a native english speaker i hope you understood them i hope you enjoyed them and i hope you use them today don't forget to click the link in the description because cambly tutors are waiting to bend over backwards to help you reach your english goals hit that link in the description and i will see you next time you still there you know what time it is here we go it's story time hey i said it's story time all right so today's story is actually connected to one of the idioms that you learned today the idiom that we are going to be talking about is be in a tight spot so i want to tell you about when i was in south korea now during my time in south korea i was an english teacher as a missionary i also was a student studying oriental painting and also learning korean and i started this youtube channel to help you speak english so i was a very busy individual but i always had a passion for helping people in need and during my time in korea i saw many different individuals in need you know that no matter where you go you're going to find someone in need and i saw lots of homeless people when i went downtown even in america when you go downtown in the city you'll see quite a few homeless people and korea was the same and i felt like i needed to do something i didn't just want to enjoy this wonderful country and teach english and learn korean i wanted to do something else so as you know i'm a christian i prayed and i said god what can i do to help the homeless people i see when i go downtown he said okay i want you to start something and i started this monthly group we would raise money and then take food to people downtown that were in need now i had actually done the same thing when i lived in america prior to going to korea so i was continuing the same thing i did when i was in america so every month we would raise money and we would our goal was to hand out 100 meals every month it was so inspiring people inspired me by how excited they were to help it was so nice to talk to the homeless people again i spoke korean so i could have conversations with them and it was very interesting to learn their life stories and what happened to them so every month our goal was 100 meals which meant we had to raise about four to five hundred dollars and every month you know we'd send out messages to our friends and say hey we're trying to raise money people in america my family and friends would donate money my korean friends in korea would donate money because we all wanted to help people but one month we went out at the end of it we were scheduled to go out at the end of the month and it was about maybe a week away the day that we were going to leave to go out there was about a week period prior to that date and we didn't have the money we only had about 300 dollars so we needed about 100 to 150 more and the money wasn't coming in so i said god you know i am doing this to help you your people lord i want to feed people that's what i'd like to do but god i'm in a tight spot i don't have the money we need to actually purchase the meals i was in a tight spot so i prayed and i said god i don't know how you're going to do it but you have seven days to figure it out i prayed hard then i went to work i was still teaching and a few days later i got my salary i received my notice that said tiffany you've received your salary for the month from the institute that i worked at now we had a set salary every single month as missionaries we made a certain amount of money and we received the same time every month so i wasn't looking for any extra money but then i went to the bank and i looked at my stub that had the paper that showed me how much i made and it was exactly what i needed to get the food for the homeless it was about 150 dollars the exact amount i needed to add to what we had raised to get food for that month for the homeless people and i was in shock that god answers prayers like that the simple prayers and so quickly come to find out that my job at the time decided to give us all a bonus randomly and this bonus i used the bonus to help feed the homeless that month we were all able to go out and we were able to hand out a hundred meals and i will never forget that situation because when i was in such a tight spot god came through and gave me what i needed to help somebody else maybe you've also been in a tight spot and someone god or someone else has helped you if so let us know in the comment section i hope you enjoyed today's story and i can't wait to see you next time

Channel: Speak English With Tiffani

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Keywords: teacher tiffani, fluency in english, speak english fluently, learn english, english speaking, english fluency, fluency, fluent english, how to speak english fluently, speak fluent english, how to get fluent in english, how to become fluent in english, english lesson, learn english speaking, speaking english, native speaker, learn english conversation, speak english with tiffani, how to speak english, english lessons advanced speaking, english conversation, english idioms

Id: N12Q0tiiCTA

Length: 22min 0sec (1320 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 12 2021