hello come in come in you're the first
here
actually you're the only one here
but that's great listen it's great to
see you
i thought today um we could learn and
practice
some idioms to talk about people
that's right as you know in ielts
speaking it's really important to
describe
people and to know how to describe
people
so this could be really useful for you
let's do it
so as you may well know my name is keith
what's your name by the way
right nice cool name
well um oh by the way do you
know that i run live lessons on youtube
every tuesday and thursday right you
knew
yes that's right 10 o'clock in the
morning
spanish time every tuesday and thursday
keep coming
i think there's lots of interesting
stuff to learn there
and if you want more resources yeah go
and check out my website
keithspeakingacademy.com
there will be lots of new stuff coming
there soon
so great listen let's start talking
about idioms
what is an idiom exactly
idioms are fixed phrases
whose meaning is different from the
individual words
and often you can't guess the meaning by
looking
at the individual words right idiomatic
so for example if i were to say
i think i've just put my foot in it
put your foot in what you mean you stood
in some dog poo or something
no i just told sarah her ex-boyfriend
is going to get married i thought she
knew but she didn't
and now she's so upset
so when we say something that can
accidentally upset
or make somebody angry we can say
to put your foot in it i put my foot in
it
right or she put her foot in it
right that's a simple idiom it's not
about putting your foot
anywhere that's not really the meaning
there's a wider meaning
to say something by accident that will
upset
somebody great
now then do you know any idioms
yeah great so you know we use idioms
to get attention especially in
journalism newspapers
blogs and articles we often use it for
humor
we can make jokes with it or just to
emphasize or add
color to what we're trying to say in
ielts speaking
of course it is a part a key part of
your vocabulary score
is being able to use idiomatic
vocabulary
so it might be useful to know the
different types of idioms that we can
use as well
let's have a look at those
so there are many different kinds of
idioms right there are
similes metaphors euphemisms
binomials and proverbs sayings
there's lots of kinds and knowing what
category
an idiom comes from can sometimes help
you to remember it and to use it
so let's have a look first at the
different types
of idiom and then later we'll look in
more detail
specifically about idioms for people
okay
does that sound good great
hunky-dory so types of idioms let's look
at similes
first
do you know any examples of similes
one of my favorite ones is um
they are like two peas in a pod
so similes are expressions comparing
two things usually using
like or as right so
as i said my my two brothers
i don't have two brothers right my
brother and sister are like
two peas in a pod which means they are
very very similar right because they
are similar to two peas which is the
vegetable
sitting in the pod which holds the
vegetable
or we can say um tom my friend
he's very very clever he's as sharp as a
knife
as sharp as a knife
so we're comparing tom to a knife being
very very sharp
and that means he's clever or
intelligent so these are similes
what about metaphors metaphors are
similar
do you know any metaphors
so metaphors are similar but we're not
really comparing them to something
we are saying they are something
and we're taking maybe a thing or an
object and personifying it
like making it like a person or making
the person
like the object right so for example
tom is as sharp as a knife but harry
harry at school right in my schoolmate
he used to think
two plus two was 22.
[Music]
now maybe creative but the teacher said
duh
he's not the sharpest tool in the shed
so he's not the sharpest tool in the
shed means
he is stupid not clever
so here we're saying he is not like but
he is a tool
in the shed the shed is the place where
you keep all the tools for gardening
right
now let's look at binomials
binomials are normally two words joined
by a preposition
and that's usually and right
um things like fish and chips black and
white the and becomes
an black and white fish and chips
okay do you know any binomials
whoa lovely okay
so binomials for people do you remember
sherlock holmes
he's very calm and collected right
he's very he's as cool as a cucumber
actually
that's the simile remember but he's calm
and collected means he's very very
well very calm
take another example my wife right do
you know what she does
to relax well she likes to surf the
internet
but me i'm not really into that i much
prefer listening to music
so we're quite different we're like
chalk and cheese
chalk and cheese chalk is for writing on
the board
cheese delicious with a bit of red wine
that's for eating but we like chalk and
cheese
we're very different another binomial
that said my wife is a very very
helpful person and she will always be
there to help
come rain or shine come rain or
shine here rain or shine another
binomial
but with ore come rain or shine she's
very helpful
come rain or shine another category is
euphemisms
and we use euphemisms um
to avoid offending people or saying
words we're not comfortable with
right so imagine the scenario
you're in the workplace with some
colleagues some of them you know
some of them you don't know very well
and they say can you describe your boss
i mean physically what what is she like
and what you're thinking is well um
she's
short she's fat and she's old
that's what you're thinking but you
can't say that i mean
that might offend some people um it's
not very polite
so you use a euphemism right instead of
saying
she's fat you'd say well you know she's
she's big
boned she's big boned
she's getting on a bit right so
she's old she's getting on a bit
and a bit kind of humoristically
and you know she's you could say she's
vertically challenged
vertically challenged she's short
right you could say she's vertically
challenged
with a smile so here our euphemisms
are also idioms in order to say things
you may not be comfortable with great
so next sayings and proverbs
things like nothing ventured nothing
gained
where there's a will there's a way
once bitten twice shy right
now the challenge with proverbs and
sayings
is that they tend to have a bit of a
message
or a warning or advice right be careful
there's also sometimes a moral message
you know to be good you need to do this
so they're often not appropriate for
ielts speaking
however there is a trick you can use
right
so if you've learned nothing ventured
nothing gained
which means if you don't take a risk
you won't succeed right
now you're not going to say to the
examiner oh mr examiner
i'm going to try very hard today because
nothing ventured nothing gained
it doesn't sound natural at all right
but what you can say is my uncle
who runs a restaurant right he believes
nothing ventured nothing gained and so
he set up his own business
that's super simple and natural he
believes
nothing ventured nothing gained
another saying right where there's a
will there's a way
meaning if you really want to do
something you can do it you can find a
way to do it
right so again
could you make an expression with he
believes
right we're getting there my example
might be
my uncle who runs a restaurant right he
believes
where there's a will there's a way so
despite
obstacles when he set up his business he
managed to do it
so you can see just say he believes
or if you want to spice it up a little
bit
he's the kind of person who believes
my uncle right he's the kind of person
who believes
nothing ventured nothing gained and he
set up his own business
could you give me an example
nice so it's a nice trick to help us use
proverbs in ielts speaking
excellent okie cookie let's move on okie
cookie okey coke is a hokey coke is a
song
i mean i mean okie dokie okie dokie
excellent so listen we've looked at
different kinds of um
idioms right um let's now get
into the nitty gritty and that's the
detail
let's have a look at some idioms to talk
about people
first of all we've got to be the
spitting
image of can you say that with me
to be the spitting image of
i am the spitting image of my father
and it means i look exactly the same
or very very similar to somebody
next to be a loose cannon
to be a loose cannon this is where
somebody may talk
and sometimes say bad things
without realizing it right
for example my friend alan right he's
very talkative
but he is a loose cannon sometimes
he was down in the pub the other week
with some colleagues
two of them were irish and then alan
starts telling an irish joke
making fun of the irish
he's a loose cannon right he didn't
realize
that he might be offending them next
to get carried away and this is when
somebody talks a lot
without realizing they're talking too
much
allen is guilty of this when he's
telling a story
he gets carried away and he just
carries on talking and talking and
talking right it doesn't mean somebody
picks him up
and carries him away although that might
be a good idea sometimes
but he just goes on talking too much
he gets carried away the next one
to run in the family it runs in the
family
means that it's a characteristic of
most of the people in that family so if
a lot of people in the family are
artistic
or they're artists or painters and
musicians
you could say you know art runs in the
family
being an artist runs in the family
the artistic spirit runs in the family
and here you can change the for my your
his right um
the entrepreneurial spirit runs him in
his family
so you could use this when you're
describing somebody
and you're talking about a
characteristic they have like
for example being kind right jane is
very very she's a very kind person
she's very generous and you know being
kind
i think runs in her family so
a lot of the other members of her family
are also very kind
nice next as bright as a button
a nice simile as bright as a button
and we contract the as to us
as bright as a button
bright meaning really clever or
intelligent
the button these are the buttons right
and if they're shiny
and they're clean they're bright as
bright as a button means you're
intelligent and clever right jane is as
bright as a button
who do you know that is as bright as a
button
give me a sentence
nice and does it run in the family
hmm right good another one
is to think on your feet
which means to think quickly to react
and improvise okay so
in ielts right the examiner can ask you
surprise
questions and you have to think on your
feet
right so my uncle tom who runs the
restaurant right
he's not called tom but let's call him
tom for today
my uncle tom can think on his feet
he has to think on his feet because so
many unexpected things happen
in the restaurant what about you do you
know somebody who can think
on their feet
very good if they can think on their
thief if they can
if if they can think on their feet
they're probably as bright as a button
lots of nice alliterations there right
bright as a button think on your feet
great pronunciation keep practicing
next a bosom friend the bosom
is just the chest part of the body so a
bosom friend
is a close friend right this is kind of
like a metaphor
sarah is a bosom friend right we go back
a long way ah there's another to go back
a long way
doesn't mean you're physically going
back all the way to manchester
it means we have known each other for a
long time
we go back a long way
sarah is a buzzing friend we go back a
long way
next to know someone like the back
of your hand if you
know somebody or something like the back
of your hand
it's assumed you know them very well
right i know her like the back of my
hand give me an example
and this yes you can probably use for
family members right
i know my sister like the back of my
hand
or my university friend um alan
yeah he's a bosom friend we go back a
long way
i know him like the back of my hand
yes it's okay to cough in ielts speaking
well not these days we have to have the
mask right
but let's move on to hit
it off and that would connect
probably to say to hit it off
hit it off hit it off
great we hit it off
we hit it off as soon as we met
great to hit it off means to get on
very well right the first time i met
alan we
hit it off straight away
nice to see eye to eye
to see i to i
just means to agree right
so although
i've known alan for donkey's years right
we go
back a long way he's a buzzing friend
and although we hit it off when we first
met
we don't always see eye to eye
don't always agree to see eye to eye
next um a woman after my own heart
or a man after my own heart
right now this means that
you are very similar and you admire
the other person's thinking or
philosophy
or way of living right so i can say to a
man
oh you're a man after my own heart
which means we do things and we think in
a similar way and i like that
it doesn't mean that i love you there's
nothing about heart being in love it
just means that we are similar and we
think in a similar way
right she's a woman after my own heart
for example i have a friend right who's
trying to teach her children to cook
even though they're very very young i
think that's fantastic i think we should
get
children into the kitchen very very
young she's a woman
after my own heart right
we think in similar ways great
next to be second to none
second to none means to be the very best
okay um so for example
the food in spain is second to none
it's really good it's the very best
talking about people you can take
any activity somebody does and say
when it comes to cooking she's second to
none
when it comes to singing she's second to
none
when it comes to helping others he's
second to none right their very best at
that
activity take the activity of playing
football
what could you say
yes when it comes to playing football
he's second to none starting a business
when it comes to starting a business she
is
second to none right the very best at
doing it
great talking about helping people um
we have the expression to go out on a
limb
now a limb is like the arm or the leg
it's one part of the body that sticks
out
um arms and legs are our limbs
so to go out on a limb
means to to try really hard to help
somebody and even to take a risk
but to help somebody right
so i will go out on a limb
to help my best friend right if they
need to borrow the car
or they need to borrow some money i will
try my best
i will go out on a limb to help them
to be highly strong
to be highly strong means to be
a little bit nervous and to be upset
easily so somebody who is always nervous
a little bit
tense and easily upset
right yep i don't like your shirt what
do you mean you don't like my shirt
it's a beautiful shirt highly strung
very tense very easily upset right
um i have a colleague well i used to
have a colleague at work um
every day i mean she was very highly
strung
people would say the smallest thing
and if she thought it was negative she
would fly off the handle
fly off the handle get upset right
she was very very highly strung so you
had to be careful what you said
next to her to be a know it all
know it all as a noun
ah know it all is
a person who thinks they know everything
right of course they don't nobody does
but somebody who's maybe arrogant
and thinks they know everything he's a
know-it-all
so slightly negative connotation
right yeah you may have a boss like that
who thinks you know they know everything
and they tell you
and like you know my boss he's a
know-it-all
so it's not a compliment it's a little
bit of a criticism
next she doesn't suffer fools gladly
to suffer fools a fool is like a stupid
person
gladly means happily so
to happily be with stupid people
then it's not that so she's not
happy about being with stupid people
she doesn't suffer fools gladly
so that means she will you know be quite
strict and punish people who make
mistakes
this is very common in the business
workplace
where your boss can be quite strict and
if people make mistakes
they punish them and they're very very
tough with them
because they're not happy with stupid
people
of course it's not stupid they just made
a mistake
but the expression is he doesn't suffer
fools gladly right so be careful with
that boss
because he's very strict and he will
punish you
right because he doesn't suffer fools
gladly
similarly he will come down on you
like a ton of bricks metaphor
a ton is a large weight
bricks to build the house like a stone
imagine a ton of bricks falling on you
not nice
right so when somebody is going to
punish you quite strictly
they come down on you like a ton of
bricks
so be careful with that boss because he
doesn't suffer fools gladly
and if you make a mistake he will come
down on you
like a ton of bricks
and finally to be set in your ways
that's somebody who doesn't like change
so sometimes older people maybe
booby bamas baby boomers
whoops maybe baby boomers um
are set in their ways right
actually my you know my grandfather he's
set in his ways
he can't change who do you know
that is set in their ways
good and remember the pronoun will
change so he is set
in his ways i am set in my ways
right great so here we have
lots of idioms to describe people we're
gonna finish
up now with a little story introducing
two people
and let's see these idioms in action
this is adam and this is adam's father
adam is the spitting image of his father
and as you can see they're both
vertically challenged
adam's very talkative but he's a loose
cannon at times
last week he was having a drink with
some new colleagues
two of whom were irish and he started
telling jokes about irish people
you know he really put his foot in it
mind you his father right
he does the same he's always putting his
foot in it
i think it must run in the family
that said adam is as bright as a button
right and he can think on his feet for
example when he's in a meeting
he can present ideas clearly without
preparation
now this is sarah she's a buzzing friend
of adams
they go back a long way and they hit it
off as soon as they met each other
adam knows sarah like the back of his
hand
mind you they don't always see eye to
eye
when it comes to helping out others
sarah is second to none
she's always ready to go out on a limb
to help a friend
if you need to borrow money or just
someone to talk to
as for her personality well she's not
very expressive
in fact she's as cool as a cucumber
she works in a bank she's also
a little highly strung she always seems
to be in a rush
shouting at people in her office and
with the smallest negative comment from
anyone she'll
fly off the handle at times
i feel sorry for her co-workers because
she doesn't suffer fools gladly
if you make a mistake she'll be down on
you like a
ton of bricks she really is
set in her ways so as you can see
adam and sarah they are like chalk and
cheese
so that's it listen it's been great
being with you today
thank you so much for coming along i've
really enjoyed it
i hope this can help you we should do
this more often
right do come along to the live lessons
if you want to practice
and i guess that's an important point
right you've seen lots of idioms today
but really the key is in the practice so
if you need
so what you need to do now is start
practicing that
if you're looking for a speaking partner
why not pop along to
my facebook group you can look for it in
facebook keith's ielts mastermind
community
lots of people there very active and
also looking for speaking partners
and then you can start putting this into
practice which is where you really step
up your level thanks for joining me
today do remember
if you haven't yet um to subscribe to
the channel turn on the notifications
and i can't wait to see you next time
in the meantime take care all the best
now bye-bye