#20- 14 Popular Idioms that Americans Love to Use

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On this episode of The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast, you'll be learning 14 popular idioms that Americans love to use! If you want to succeed in an English speaking environment, it's important to know slang, idioms and phrasal verbs. In this episode I highlight idioms that you can confidently use in English.

I also give an inside look at my Idioms book, Real American Idioms, where you can learn 200+ relevant idioms that Americans use daily.

To learn more about Real American Idioms click >> HERE << and enter code PODCAST for a special discounted price!

Study Guide >> HERE

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Transcript

popular idioms that Americans love to use. Idioms like "bend over backwards," "get something out of your system," "have second thoughts," and "hold down the fort." Let's get to it.

Hey there, welcome to the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.

Are you ready to improve your English skills? Let's jump right in.

Today is a very special episode because I'm having a special promo for my idioms book in honor of my 20th podcast [00:01:00] episode, and it's only for my podcast listeners. Okay. So here's some backstory. Last year I wrote an idioms book. It's something that I had been wanting to do for years, because honestly, the idioms books that already existed on the market, I felt like they weren't good enough. Mainly because they used outdated, old idioms that nobody uses anymore. My goodness, can anyone write a good idioms book with current vocabulary that students can actually use? For example, I noticed that a lot of my students, when they first came to New York City, were using outdated idioms. And it kind of made me laugh because, you know, it's like my grandma would use these idioms. Idioms like "it's raining cats and dogs," or "I'm feeling really blue today." Also, there's a huge [00:02:00] difference between American and British idioms. And not knowing this difference can cause a lot of confusion.

So it's very important that students who are interacting with American English learn American idioms that are current and that are used in real American daily life. The last thing that I ever want my students to experience is feeling embarrassed when they're using English. I want to empower students to feel good and feel confident about using English in the real world. So I created an idioms book. But it's actually more like a workbook or textbook. Here's another thing about idioms books that I didn't like. See, a lot of idioms books, they give the definition and they give the word and an example sentence. And honestly, based on [00:03:00] research, that's not the best way to learn English.

For those of you who don't know me too well yet, I've been an English teacher for over 13 years now, and I have a master's degree in teaching English as a second language. So this is literally my area of expertise. I love teaching English. I love helping students meet their English learning goals. And I'm always trying to grow and get better and read research and go to conferences. I truly want to be the best English teacher that I can possibly be.

And based on research, like I said, the absolute best way to learn vocabulary is to actually learn it and not memorize it. And the way that you do this is through figuring it out on your own, by making your brain use context clues and taking steps to figure out the [00:04:00] vocabulary. This is so much better than simple memorization, or just looking at a translator. Because when you are told something or when you read something without figuring it out yourself, it leaves your brain more quickly.

Because of this style of learning vocabulary that's proven by research, I have a six to seven step method for teaching vocabulary because research says that you need to see something six or seven times before you can actually remember it. Repetition, repeated exposure, these are the keys to learning vocabulary. Maybe you read a lot of words, but you're frustrated because you don't remember them. This is why. This is why so many teachers have their students use vocabulary journals. So that they can have that repeated exposure. [00:05:00] And so that, you can remember words more easily.

So, this is why in the book I use a method that helps you get exposed to the vocabulary that you learn six to seven times. This is also why I create study guides for all of my podcast episodes, because you hear me, okay. But then I also want you to have more opportunities to be exposed to the vocabulary so that you can actually learn it and use it naturally and confidently.

Let me explain the exact method that I use to teach vocabulary in Real American Idioms, which is the name of the book. Number one, you read a story that has all the new words in context.

So first you're reading the words in context, real life context. Then in the second section of each chapter, you're going to read sample [00:06:00] sentences and here you have to figure out the meaning yourself. So I give you another example, and so based on that example, and based on the context of the story or dialogue, your brain is going, like, "Wait, what does this word mean?" And so you're figuring out the meaning yourself. In section three, I give you the definitions so that you can check your answers from the previous section. So, did you guess correctly? And then in sections four and five, I give you a quiz and it has two practice activities, similar to the study guides that I give you. And that's where you can practice what you learned in the previous sections. Then at the end of every chapter, section six is a review chart. You can print it out, you can screenshot it, you can add it to your favorites so that you can reference this whenever. And [00:07:00] then you have a challenge to use vocabulary in the real world. So I give you five ideas of how you can use the new idioms and expressions that week, that day, that month, so that you can actually use it in the real world. And so that it doesn't just stay in your brain. So that's the outline of the book. Again, this is very active reading. It's like if you're in class and your teacher gives you a worksheet or a textbook to work from. That's how the book is structured.

I took the proven methods that I learned in school and also from my experience. This is how I teach my own students. So, every single class with my students, we start off learning idioms and I give them a dialogue or a story. They have to read it and then they talk to their partners and they work together reading another example to try and figure out the context. And then we review together and then I'll have them sprinkle it throughout the week in [00:08:00] some other work. And then when we do our weekly quiz, it'll be on there as well. This is typically how I've been teaching idioms for years, and the method has worked for thousands of students. And so this is why I decided to talk about this today so that you can benefit and so that you can learn over 200 idioms that Americans actually use. And there's a special price just for my podcast listeners. If you put in a promo code "PODCAST," you'll get the book for $12. At the time of this listening, this is the cheapest it'll ever go. Typically, I don't go below $12, but I said, you know what? Let's do this.

I want to add something: this is not a new idioms book. Well, I wrote it the second half of last year. And if you're wondering why this is the first time you're hearing about it, it's because I stopped promoting the book right after it came out. One of my family members [00:09:00] got sick, and over a period of time, he passed away. And during the grieving process, I just didn't have the mental capacity to actively promote the book.

In order to promote the book correctly, I wanted to fix my website. I wanted to have a good sales page. And so things kind of went dormant for a while. And so I didn't promote it. By the way, little side note: in one of the next few podcast episodes, you're going to hear all about the situation that I'm talking about with grieving a family member. Because talking about grief and knowing what to say when someone has lost someone is a really important topic.

And so that's coming up soon. So you'll hear the details of that soon. So anyway, going back to delayed promotion, I first promoted this book, I want to say, last fall is when I finished it. Maybe like late summer, early fall. And it was really successful when I first promoted [00:10:00] it. And since then I've gotten so many positive reviews from my students.

And so I was like, you know what, it's time to promote this again, because I know it'll help you. I really hope that you go check out the book. There is a link in the show notes. Okay. And if you're on my email list, I'll be sending an email to all of you. Also, you will have a lot of points of contact to get the book.

Okay, so now let's talk about the vocabulary. This is a sneak peek of one of the chapters in my book. I teach a lot of the idioms thematically, meaning with specific themes. But this chapter is 14 popular idioms that Americans love to use. I only teach idioms that I use myself or that I hear often in everyday life or on American TV shows, series, and movies.

Here are the 14 popular idioms that I'll be [00:11:00] teaching you in this episode: To be out for blood, to bend over backwards for someone, get something out of your system, have second thoughts, hit the books, hold down the fort, put yourself in someone else's shoes, see a light at the end of the tunnel, teach someone a lesson, wash your hands of something, wrap your head around something, get up on the wrong side of the bed, lose sleep over something, and hit the sack.

Alright, so this is split up into two short stories today. That's how it's structured in my book. When there are too many words, I break it up into two different stories. Alright, so story number one is called "Swimming with Sharks."

This past weekend, [00:12:00] we had an interesting experience at our resort in Hawaii. One of our customers really wanted to swim with sharks, even though we don't offer that experience at our hotel. We typically like to bend over backwards for our guests, so we hired a company to organize a one-day excursion with sharks. The main customer, a woman named Helena, was extremely happy because it was a big goal of hers to swim with sharks. She was so excited about finally being able to get a shark excursion out of her system after years of waiting. However, right before she went down in the cage with the sharks, she started having second thoughts. She even got out of the cage and said she wasn't going to do it anymore.

I [00:13:00] couldn't wrap my head around what happened and why she didn't even want to try after years of wanting to do this. After about 30 minutes of trying to convince her, I gave up and washed my hands of the situation. I asked my coworker if he could hold down the fort for me while I took a short break. Before I went to break, my coworker suggested that I put myself in Helena's shoes. It turns out that she had a fear of sharks but wanted to do this experience so that she could conquer her fear. I felt sorry for her, so I decided to go back and try to convince her to do it. She listened to what I said and decided to try it. She knew that if she went home without conquering her fear, she would lose sleep over it and always regret it. She finally decided to swim in the [00:14:00] cage with the sharks. She had an amazing experience and was able to conquer her fear. The end.

Alright, so this story has eight of the idioms. So let's discuss what they mean. The first thing I said was that customer service, we like to bend over backwards for our guests. So to bend over backwards for someone means to go out of your way or work really hard to help someone. Typically, you sacrifice a lot in order to help someone, and it costs you something, like time, money, etc. You'll hear this used a lot in the customer service industry for companies that really work hard to make you happy.

The next idiom is to get something out of your system. So I say that Helena [00:15:00] is gonna get a shark experience out of her system. To get something out of your system is when you do something that you've always wanted to do, and then once you finally achieve the goal or complete the action, you're satisfied and you don't have the desire to do it anymore. Sometimes it also refers to getting rid of some kind of emotion, maybe a negative one, like "I had a good cry and I finally got it out of my system." But a lot of times it's used for life goals, things that are on our bucket list or lists of things that we want to do before we die. For example, maybe you've always wanted to get a specific tattoo, and you've been waiting to get it, and then you finally get it, and you're like, "Okay, good, I got it out of my system." Finally. It can sometimes be checking something off the list, like, "Okay, check. I did it. I got it out of my [00:16:00] system."

Next is that Helena was having second thoughts. To have second thoughts is when you start to have doubts about a decision that you made. You thought it was the right decision at the time, but now you're thinking about it again and you're doubting your decision. This is very common in conversations with our friends. "I accepted the job offer, but now I'm having second thoughts."

Next up is to wrap your head around something. In the story, I say, "I can't wrap my head around why Helena would suddenly change her mind." To wrap your head around something is to fully understand or comprehend a difficult or unusual situation. Typically, it's used in questions and negative sentences by people saying that they [00:17:00] can't wrap their head around something or, "Can you wrap your head around this?" But the most common form is to use it in a negative sense. "I can't wrap my head around the president's decision," for example.

Next it says in the story that I gave up and I washed my hands of the situation. To wash your hands of something means that you refuse to take responsibility for a situation or you refuse to admit that you were involved with it. Sometimes it's used to describe a situation that you were involved with, but then you decided to cut your involvement in order to avoid consequences.

Next we have hold down the fort. So one worker asked the other worker to hold down the fort for them while they were going on break. To hold down the fort is when you take care of something temporarily or you're in charge of a [00:18:00] place or a group of people while the main leader is away. So it's temporary leadership. This is actually a military term, and it comes from when we used to have fortresses, so we call them forts. "Hey, can you hold down the fort, take care of the military base while I'm gone?"

Next, it says that my coworker encouraged me to put myself in Helena's shoes. This means that you try to understand someone by imagining what it's like to be in their situation. If you switch lives with someone, how would you feel? This is something that we say to others, maybe when they're lacking a little bit of compassion, and we say, "Why don't you put yourself in her shoes?"

Next we have to lose sleep over something. The person tells Helena, "If [00:19:00] you don't do this, you're going to lose sleep over it." To lose sleep over something is when you worry about something so much that you can't sleep because you're thinking about it too much. Your mind is literally too preoccupied to even be able to sleep.

Alright, so now let's get to the second mini story. It's called "Loud Neighbors."

My roommate and I had a big problem last semester. We lived in the university dorms and we had neighbors that were extremely loud and loved to party. When it was time to hit the sack at the end of a long day, or hit the books to prepare for exams, the loud music from next door would come on and prevent us from doing what we needed. One morning during final exams, my roommate and I woke up on the wrong side of the bed because our neighbors had been playing [00:20:00] music all night long. We were very tired and very upset. And even though the semester was almost over and we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, we decided that it was time to teach our neighbors a lesson. Their door just happened to be open one day, so we went into their dorm room, took their sound system and all of their speakers, and hid them in our room until the last day of classes. On the last day of classes, right before we moved out, we put the sound system right back in front of their door. Thankfully, they never found out who had taken their speakers, because if they had, they would've been out for blood. Who knows what they would have done to us had they found out. We hope that this taught them a valuable lesson and that they will behave better next semester so that their new [00:21:00] neighbors won't suffer like we did. The end.

Alright, so let's take a look. The first expression is to hit the sack. Hit the sack is a common expression. The older expression to this is actually hit the hay. No one really uses hit the hay anymore, but hit the sack very simply means to go to sleep. Hit the mattress, hit the bed. Visit dreamland. Goodnight.

The next expression is using "hit" again, but this time it's hit the books. In this story, it said that anytime they wanted to hit the sack or hit the books, they would always hear loud music and it would distract them. Hit the books means to focus and study a lot for an upcoming exam, upcoming presentation, or upcoming assignment. So anytime something big is coming [00:22:00] up and you've gotta study, you can say, "I'm hitting the books," or "I need to hit the books."

The next expression after this is to wake up on the wrong side of the bed. This is a really fun one because it has to do with someone's mood. To get up on the wrong side of the bed means to wake up in a bad mood and continue being in a bad mood for most of the day. So typically it's not what someone did to you necessarily, it's just you wake up in a bad mood from the minute you open your eyes.

Next up is to see a light at the end of the tunnel. To see a light at the end of the tunnel means to finally see that hope is coming during a really difficult situation. In many cases, it means to see the end of a tough situation coming soon

Next, in the story, they say that they took their equipment because they wanted to teach their neighbors a lesson. To teach someone a lesson is when you try to improve someone's behavior by making them experience the bad effects of their actions. So what that means is you treat the person the same way that they treat everyone else in order to show them how their actions look and to see the impact. This is very similar to another idiom that you're going to learn in the book, which is to give someone a taste of their own medicine.

Next, it says that if they found out who had taken their sound equipment, they would be out for blood. To be out for blood is when you want revenge against someone who hurt you in the past. We typically use this for extreme revenge. In some cases, revenge that will physically hurt them, cause them to bleed. We are out for blood. We want to see blood. We want to see suffering. So that is what we use it for in that context.

Alright. So there you have it. That's 14 popular idioms that Americans love to use. And if you loved learning in this episode, be sure to get the study guide for episode number 20. The link is in the show notes, but also more than that, if you want to see and if you want to be a part of my family of students that grows together and learns English together, then I encourage you to download the study guide and to take a trip to my website, EnglishwithGabby.com, or my blog site. You'll get the link there, the special discount code, and then you'll be able to take your time learning English idioms.

Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. I hope that you go out and use these words confidently and naturally. See you next week.

Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English learning. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a review.

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