Useful Idioms for IELTS Speaking to Express Feelings

hi guys today we're going to be looking at some of the best idioms for IELTS speaking to describe your feelings are you feeling in the mood in the mood for a bit of learning let's get straight into it [Music] hello my name is Keith and I run the website IELTS speaking success and I want to help you speak better English give better answers and get a higher score in the IELTS speaking test so today we're going to be looking at different idioms and idiomatic expressions to help you express feelings this is really important especially in Part two because if you remember remember if you remember the part two tasks card often finishes with explain how you felt about it and you have to develop or talk about your feelings and some candidates find it very difficult to say more than I was sad I felt happy I felt nervous I was excited now that's fine but if you really want to get a higher level up and seven and above it would be good to use some more advanced vocabulary some idiomatic expressions that's what we're going to look at today twelve different kind of feelings and tons of expressions so get your pen and paper ready now I'd like first of all just to say a big thank you to all of you who are studying IELTS everyday working very hard and practicing and for following me and for helping me get her a a hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube Wow amazing I would never have imagined that so thank you very much all of you for following me and also today a big THANK YOU to Camberley for sponsoring this video cambly is a fantastic online platform where you can find native English speaking teachers in fact native speaking teachers of many languages but for you English teachers where you can practice your speaking you can practice IELTS questions and answers it's a great platform where you can choose where you want to study what time you want to study you can even choose the teacher that you would like to study with so Camberley have given us a code you can see the details over here and you will get a 10% discount above what they already have on the website and that means you will get 10% for a month 90% if you study for three months and 32% if you want to study for 12 months it's a great platform great website they also have lots of resources and courses for IELTS students so go and check it out and use your code to start practicing English now let's get into those feelings the first feeling is I am or I was excited so here are some expressions we can say first I was raring to go which means I was ready to go I was excited and ready to go right when at this at the start of the football match I was really excited and I was raring to go I was on the edge of my seat this is often when you're reading a book or watching a film that's very exciting and with a little bit of suspense and you're literally sitting on the edge of your seat right means I'm excited I was on the edge of my seat watching the horror movie I was bouncing off the walls there bouncing is boring boring boring now if you imagine lots of little children inside your house during lockdown and they're bouncing off the walls they full of energy they're excited they want to go out to play and you can say they were bouncing off the walls I was bouncing off the walls as I was waiting to go to my favorite concert I could hardly wait or I couldn't wait - meaning I was so excited I didn't want to wait right I could hardly wait to tell my friend about this new film I couldn't wait to see the new film so all of these are ways to talk about being excited now number two being impressed first of all we've got it blew my mind now blow is but it's also an explosion to blow up right now if something blows your mind then it's very impressive right also we can say it blew me away it was so impressive right I was speaking to my friend he was telling me about astrophysics it blew my mind he blew me away with all his knowledge I was bowled over bold is hmm what is bold comes from cricket now if you play cricket you'll know that you you throw the ball you break your phone you throw the ball over your arm and if you're bowled over by something then you are impressed by it so my friend the astrophysicist I was bowled over by his knowledge so now let's look at some part two questions and I'll give you a snippet of my answer showing you how I can use some of these expressions the first question is describe a performance you watched recently and explain how you felt about it I recently saw my favorite pop band in concert you know four days before I was bouncing off the walls I just couldn't wait to see them on the day of the concert they just blew me away you know I was bowled over by their energy and enthusiasm and later I couldn't wait to tell my friends about it right you can see how I'm using them brilliant next question describe an exciting event you have been to and explain how you felt about it obviously excited I recently attended the release of a new film in my local cinema the weeks before I was raring to go I was so excited I could hardly wait on the actual day I finally got to see the film and it totally blew my mind the acting was great the plot had me on the edge of my seat all the way through nice right you can see how we're starting to use them let's move on to the next feeling next the feeling of being angry now there are quite a few expressions here we have for example be beside yourself be beside yourself with anger or fly off the handle and that's when you get really angry really quickly right imagine your flight is delayed not for one or two hours but for seven hours you might be beside yourself with anger because you want to get to the destination quickly and then imagine they don't give you any food and you have to sleep on the airport floor you would probably fly off the handle then we've got three expressions with go which are quite similar right to go spare to get angry to go through the roof to get very angry to go ballistic wish to get really angry ballistic is like a ballistic missile right imagine an explosion that's how angry you get so if somebody breaks your favorite computer or maybe your only computer you might go spare you might go through the roof if you're really angry you'll probably go ballistic two expressions slightly softer are to lose my cool I lost my cool which means I didn't steak harm so when the waitress knocked over my computer who I lost my cool I might go spare and shout at her or him did I say waitress another one my patience was pushed to the limit so my patience was pushed to the limit and it broke right so I got angry when I was waiting for the flight and it was delayed another hour and another and another hour my patience was pushed to the limit finally I went through the roof I was so angry and the last one which is quite poetic but nice is it makes my blood boil imagine how angry you are if your blood inside your body is boiling like it's so hot because when we get angry we get hot so again somebody breaks your computer oh it makes my blood boil or it made my blood boil great let's have a look at these in the context of a part 2 question describe a time somebody apologized to you and explain how you felt about it well last week my friend borrowed my favorite book right and then he lost it initially I was beside myself with anger I mean I'm not one to fly off the handle right but that book had sentimental value for me I calmed down later and accepted his apology next describe a time when someone didn't tell you the truth about something and explain how you felt about it so when I bought this software the salesman said it could be used with any computer and when I realized later it was not the case I just went spare seriously I nearly went through the roof it makes my blood boil when salespeople blatantly lie next describe an important journey that was delayed and explain how you felt about it last month my flight to Rome was delayed for 10 hours I was so annoyed and when they refused to give us any food well I lost my cool and then when I spoke to the representative she was so unhelpful I just went ballistic and I started shouting at her now I'm normally a calm person but at that time my patience was really pushed to the limit I just wanted to get to Rome great let's move on now the next feeling being frustrated here we've got some expressions which are similar in meaning let's begin it got on my nerves or it gets on my nerves and this is just when something annoys you or irritates you if it annoys you a lot then you can say it drove me up the wall it drove me drive it drove me or pushed me up the wall we've had going through the roof right now this one is driving me up the wall similarly we've got it drove me round the bend so it pushed me around the bend all of these meaning it really frustrated and annoyed me imagine if you will you're sat in a coffee bar reading your book nice and easy relax the person next to you starts whistling ah it really got on my nerves when they started whistling and then the person starts tutting it drove me up the wall what are they doing and then finally they began humming hmm Oh it drove me round the bend when they were humming now if you are angry or frustrated you might go and tell them what to do right tell them to be quiet or tell them what you think about the situation if you want to tell them your feelings you can say I gave them a piece of my mind now a piece of your mind is a thought or a feeling I know your thoughts are in your mind your feelings in your body but we say I gave them a piece of my mind as I told them what I was thinking about that situation right listen you're humming is annoying me will you please stop I gave him a piece of my mind if the situation carries on and your frustration gets higher and bigger and stronger you might say I was banging my head against the wall now you're not literally banging your head against the wall but the feeling is the same and it's giving you a headache right so I've told this nice gentleman to stop humming but then he starts what does he start doing but then he takes out his mobile phone and starts watching a YouTube video at full volume I was banging my head against the wall what can I do right and that was the last straw I just went over there I gave him a piece of my mind and I threw his phone out of the Starbucks coffee cafe of course I didn't but that was the last straw right that was the final thing that made me get really really angry okay all of these expressions let's see how we can use them when we answer a part two question describe a time when you could not use your mobile phone and explain how you felt about it well when I was at the bank last week they told me I couldn't use my mobile phone there you know these silly rules really get on my nerves so I asked them why and they just said well that was the rule it just drove me up the wall because I needed to make a call but I didn't want to lose my place in the queue these kind of rules really try my patience if I had had more time I would have complained to the manager and given him a piece of my mind great now you'll have noticed there the expression it really tried my patience to try my patience is similar to push my patience to the limit and this is all about the feeling of being impatient some other expressions are I was out of patience I was at my wit's end completely out of patience or I was at the end of my tether also I have no patience left all of them meaning a similar thing and I think in America they say a lot I was at the end of my rope so really a tether is a rope right imagine you're in the sea you're drowning and they throw you a rope and you're pulling up the road but then you get to the end you're at the end of your rope right you have no patience left I was at the end of my tether let's have a look how we can use these in some part to answer describe a time when an activity you did was delayed due to the bad weather and explained how you felt about it so some friends and I had organized a picnic in the countryside and we had been looking forward to it for weeks and then on the day we were about to leave and it started to rain would you believe it a short shower or so we thought so we decided to wait for it to stop two hours later it was still raining and we were running out of patience and then suddenly a storm broke out that was the last straw in the end we had to post we had to postpone the whole event to another weekend next question describe a crowded place you have been to to be honest I don't like crowds so I was a little nervous when my brother invited me to watch a football match with him the stadium was packed full right people behind us were pushing and it was getting on my nerves after 30 minutes of pushing I was at my wit's end seriously I was banging my head against the wall I was about to go ballistic with these guys and my brother told me to calm down and we decided to leave the game early nice let's move on and let's look at how we can talk about being bored so talking about being bored some expressions we can use are to be fed up and to be fed up is a bit irritated but bored and if you're really fed up I'm fed up to the back teeth right the back teeth right at the back why I don't know but I'm fed up to the back teeth I'm really bored right or we can also say if you're really bored I'm bored to tears maybe you you're so bored you start to cry I'm bored to tears also I'm bored to death I'm bored to death of course you don't actually die but we often used to death right I'm starving to death I'm really hungry I'm bored to death I'm really bored so we can use all of these for example if you're waiting to see the doctor and you're waiting a long time oh you might get fed up you might be fed up to the back teeth I was bored to tears waiting to see the doctor I was bored to death waiting to see the dentist I was fed up to the back teeth having to wait for everybody also when you're bored and a little bit annoyed you can be cheesed off you can be cheesed off yes cheese like camembert a menthol crumbly lancashire all kinds of cheese if I am cheesed off then I'm a bit annoyed but bored right I was cheesed off with my friend I was cheesed off with the doctor because I had to wait so long and if that frustration and boredom is building you might say I've had it up to here up to here this is the limit similar to the expression that was the last straw that kind of made you really annoy annoyed or angry if you're so bored and fed up you say I've had it up to here waiting for that dentist what is he let's have a look how we can use some of these in an answer describe a time you got bored when you were with others and explained how you felt about it a few weeks ago I went to a party with a friend of mine I was a bit cheesed off with him actually because he knew I didn't want to go but he wouldn't go alone anyway we went to the party and to be honest I was bored to death I mean there was no music no food I didn't know anybody I was just fed up to the back teeth and I told my friend listen I have had it up to here and I was ready to go home now let's move from some of these negative feelings to a happy feeling let's talk about happiness now there are lots of nice and interesting expressions for happiness first of all I was over the moon over the moon in the sky crazy but true if you're happy and I was tickled pink I was tickled pink if somebody tickles you then you start laughing and you probably go very pink right cuz you're laughing so much I was tickled pink when I found out I had won the lottery similar to the moon we talk about the clouds I was on cloud nine when I realized I had won the lottery and also we can talk about I was thrilled about something was its excitement and happiness together so if you're really happy you can say I'm thrilled to bits I was thrilled to bits to win the lottery we can be now we can have a feeling of happiness right and we can also be happy with something or happy with somebody write some expressions here are it made my day when I got a present from my friend on my birthday it made my day or it was music to my ears when my wife told me she was taking me out for dinner it was music to my ears coming back to doctors it was just what the doctor ordered now this is nothing to do with doctors but it means it's just what I needed it was something I was wanting and it's made me happy okay doesn't have to be medicine maybe I've been a bit fed up and cheesed off lately with all of the work so when my wife said I'm gonna take you to dinner I was over the moon it made my day and it was just what the doctor ordered right it was just what I needed to cheer up let's have a look about not about let's have a look at some of these expressions in some part two answers describe an occasion when you celebrated your achievement a few years ago I finished my master's degree and I was over the moon it had taken me four years because I had to work at the same time and when I finally got that certificate or I was tickled pink as you can imagine it made my day mm-hmm and it did really describe an interesting conversation you had with someone I recently had an interesting conversation with the lady who works in my local bookshop she told me that as a loyal customer I had won a prize I was surprised but it was music to my ears it turned out I had won a hundred euros of book vouchers well needless to say I was on cloud nine I actually needed to buy some new books for my daughter so it was just what the doctor ordered and later when I gave my daughter some of the new storybooks she was thrilled to bits let's move on and talk about being thankful so let's look at these expressions for being thankful there are different things we can say right we can say to be appreciative appreciative it's a sure sound I was appreciative it's one word appreciative that means I was thankful we can also say I was eternally grateful when my friend helped me paint our new home I was eternally grateful I was very appreciative now if you're really thankful and something surprises you use might say to be at a loss for words right so when my friend gave me a computer for my birthday wow I was at a loss for words I was eternally grateful but I was at a loss for words and also of course we can say I couldn't thank him enough so when he gave me the computer as a present I couldn't thank him enough let's have a look at these inside inside in a part to answer describe a time you lost something and finally got it back when I recently lost my wallet on the way to work I was so surprised actually to get it back so a man had found it he'd seen my address and brought it to my home I was so appreciative and to be honest I was at a loss for words so I invited him in for some tea and gave him a reward to show you know that I was eternally grateful you see my wallet had all my ID cards photos credit cards so I was tickled pink but I got it back and I just couldn't thank him enough now another feeling that we have quite often especially with IELTS is being nervous right especially with special events speaking out loud public speaking exams so we get nervous we worry and we can say I was worried sick about it it's almost to the point where you're worried and you are sick but it's idiomatic I was worried sick about the exam to have butterflies now the long expression is to have butterflies in your stomach and that's that little tingling feeling in your stomach when you're a little bit nervous so maybe before a job interview you might have butterflies in your stomach or you can just say I had butterflies before the interview when you actually go into an interview you have to speak and if you're nervous about speaking you may say I got tongue-tied imagine your tongue-tied in a lot you can't speak smoothly right so I was Tong tied or I got tongue-tied and if the feeling of being nervous is quite strong or very strong and you're getting more and more anxious or nervous or worried then you might say I was getting worked up work worked up I was getting worked up and he doesn't mean not work out like at the gym but work up to get worked up is to get nervous and really anxious so as you get closer to your interview or your job presentation or your exam you might get worked up right in addition if it's really strong you might say I was tearing my hair out not me a bit difficult but if you tear your hair out you're really nervous you're anxious about something a little bit of frustration maybe as well you'll notice there is quite a bit of overlap between a lot of these expressions right because emotions and feelings they are mixed up a little bit so I was studying for my exam but I just knew I couldn't find the right words I was tearing my hair out getting all worked up about it if the feeling is a bit softer you could say I was on edge on edge right not on the edge of your seat no I was on edge I was on edge is a little bit nervous right sometimes if you say I was on edge before the exam that can be quite good because a little bit of nerves is a good thing I was on edge waiting to do my IELTS speaking test great let's see these in action describe a time you met someone for the first time and explained how you felt about it I will never forget when I got my first real job and I met my new boss so be honest I was worried sick about it because right first impressions are so important so I spent ages in the morning thinking about what to say I had butterflies and I was getting a bit worked up to tell you the truth initially when I met him I was a bit tongue-tied but then I chilled out and everything went quite smoothly describe a challenge you faced recently and explained how you felt about it well a real challenge I faced last year was giving a presentation to about 300 students I wouldn't say I was tearing my hair out but I was certainly on edge I always get nervous when I speak in front of large crowds in the end it went very well despite the fact I had butterflies at the beginning so after all of that nervousness let's relax and how do it about relaxing well some common idiomatic phrases are to chill out you're not really cold but you chill out or to kick back you don't kick anybody hopefully but you just kick back to put your feet up again maybe you literally put your feet up on the table but it's idiomatic to put your feet up is to relax likewise if you've got hair you can let your hair down the idea that I guess for many women if they're at work they put their hair up in a bun and when they relaxing you let your hair down but just to relax take it easy to let your hair down another one to unwind this comes from the idea of a coil or a spring that is wound up very very tight it's very tense and when it unwinds it relaxes let's have a look how we can use these in an answer describe a leisure activity that you do with your family well one of my favorite pastimes that I do with my family is play cards together it's a great way to chill out and kick back we can just chat about what we've been doing lately at the same time as we play so that's why I really do enjoy putting my feet up and playing cards with the family describe a place where you read and write not your home and explain how you feel about this place well I often go to my local library to read a book or catch up on my blog writing I find the silence and the peaceful atmosphere just helps me chill out and unwind nice next one describe a singer or a band that you like and explain how you feel about their music well I love listening to my old jazz CD collection after a hard day's work I just find it an ideal way to relax and let my hair down the music is so calming really and I can just put my feet up and chill put my feet up and chill we're going to move on to another rather gloomy feeling let's talk about sadness [Music] okay I've got three idiomatic expressions here the first one is to be down in the dumps down in the dumps in the plural down in the dumps the Dubs for us in English that's like a rubbish dump or a garbage dump where you put all the rubbish but apparently it also comes from the Dutch word dump or the German word dump which mean kind of dull depressed heavy something like that so it just means to be very very sad if you know if you fail your exam oh dear if you fail something like your driving test you might be down in the dumps for quite a few weeks similarly we can say down in the mouth down in the mouth where does that come from who knows but down in the mouth is very sad again right if nothing's just working properly for me and I feel fed up a bit cheesed off I might also be down in the mouth and finally I'm smiling even though it's about sadness to feel blue and I love this expression to feel blue because the Blues music I love but it's all about oppression depression sadness so if you feel blue then you're feeling sad right what do you do when you feel blue listen to the blues [Music] or listen to some nice sprightly music let's see how we can use these in an answer describe an important journey that was delayed and explain how you felt about it so I was due to catch a flight home to attend my friend's wedding unfortunately the flight was delayed surprise surprise as I was waiting in the airport I began to feel more and more down in the dumps and when I realized gosh I was gonna miss the whole ceremony well I was totally down in the mouth it was such a shame right I've never felt so blue and it's true fancy that missing your friend's wedding ceremony and on that happy note I'm gonna give you a final tip two tips to finish up on how we use these expressions when you're talking about feelings as we mentioned feelings can you can mix feelings you might be a bit happy a bit sad a bit nervous a bit relaxed sometimes they're mixed up so if you don't have to choose one write a nice expression is to say well I had mixed feelings about it mixed feelings well I had mixed feelings about it on the one hand I was nervous but on the other hand I was happy it was all over right nice tip number two is to use the negative of an idiom so if you can't think of an idiom for example about being sad you can always use a negative of a positive happy one right so I failed my exam and to tell you the truth I just wasn't over the moon about it haha very clever right or well when I failed my driving test to be honest I wasn't on cloud nine at all it's a brilliant tip just use the negatives and you've doubled your emotional feeling idiomatic expressions now a quick word of warning with idioms than idiomatic expressions you need to practice lots don't start using them in the exam until you really know how to use them if you don't use use them correctly it can sometimes backfire right and have a negative effect so make sure you see them in context two or three times and get used to using them get feedback from a teacher if possible on whether you're using it correctly I'm cramming in lots of expressions into a very short answer just so you can see a lot but of course when you're giving your answer in the test don't cram in lots of idioms and idiomatic expressions just sprinkle one or two right not too many great and so my final word today is thank you I'm eternally grateful to the sponsors Camberley for sponsoring this video go and check it out remember you can get a 10% discount on all of their monthly plans go in there find yourself a teacher and start practicing you can even be practicing all of these great idiomatic expressions to get you're speaking better and better and better the secret is in the practice so thanks again very much to everybody at Camberley for their sponsorship great finally just to remind you if you want more free resources to help your speaking for IELTS go to the website IELTS speaking success com there's lots of information and videos and ebooks and things you can download I look forward to seeing you there in the meantime have a fantastic day thank you very much take care bye bye [Music]

Channel: English Speaking Success

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Keywords: ielts speaking tips, ielts speaking tips for band 9, english speaking tips and tricks, ielts speaking success, IELTS Keith, www.ieltsspeakingsuccess.com, prepare for IELTS, ielts speaking, ielts best tips, ielts speaking best tips, ielts speaking test samples band 8, idioms ielts speaking, idioms ielts speaking test, idioms and phrases for ielts speaking, idioms used in ielts speaking, ielts speaking feelings, ielts speaking idioms for band 9

Id: GdoPPOgBgdI

Length: 42min 0sec (2520 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020