0:00 Do you really need idioms for IELTS Speaking?
0:03 Which ones should you use?
0:06 How can you use them confidently?
0:09 Let's find out.
0:15 Hello, it's Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy,
0:19 here to help you learn idioms effectively.
0:23 So today, I'm gonna answer your questions about idioms,
0:26 and I'm gonna give you a complete lesson learning five idioms to express your
0:33 feelings.
0:34 Now, if you're doing IELTS, remember, IELTS Speaking Part 2, they always ask you,
0:40 "And describe how you feel about it."
0:42 So this could be really, really useful.
0:45 By the way, this lesson comes from my online course,
0:49 150 Idioms for IELTS Speaking.
0:52 You can find out more about it in the description below.
0:54 Right now, let me show you how to learn idioms effectively.
1:03 Now, let me answer three of your questions very quickly.
1:06 Number one.
1:07 Do I really need idioms for IELTS Speaking?
1:11 Yes.
1:12 If you want a Band 7 or above,
1:14 you must show use of less common and idiomatic language, including idioms.
1:21 Question two.
1:23 Which ones should I use?
1:26 Ones that are easy to remember
1:29 and easy to use ones
1:31 that can be used for many different topics,
1:34 and ones that you can use confidently.
1:38 Question three.
1:40 How can I use idioms confidently?
1:43 Good question.
1:44 Well, you need a simple system.
1:47 Here are four steps you can follow.
1:50 First, see the idioms or hear them in two or three different contexts.
1:56 Not just one, but different situations.
1:59 Number two, practice using them, speaking and writing.
2:04 Number three, test yourself to check your learning.
2:08 And number four, review, using songs or stories or both.
2:15 There's something about songs and stories that just makes idioms stick in your head.
2:22 Okay, right now, let's move on to the lesson.
2:24 I'm gonna show you five idioms to express your feelings,
2:27 which will be great if you're preparing for IELTS Speaking.
2:31 Here we go.
2:36 Ooh, a quick warning.
2:38 This is quite fun and interactive.
2:40 If you're looking for a boring academic lecture, go somewhere else.
2:46 Okay?
2:46 And remember, by the way, this comes from my online course,
2:49 150 Idioms for IELTS Speaking.
2:51 You can check out all of that in the description below.
2:54 Let's get into the lesson.
2:57 Great, so in this lesson, we'll be looking at the topic of feelings.
3:00 Again, five idioms on the topic of feelings, all through a story,
3:05 and it's a story about Anna and her brother,
3:08 Tom two children who spend the day at the amusement park.
3:12 But their father does something very surprising.
3:17 I wonder what?
3:18 Let's find out.
3:24 Anna was 15 and fed up with school.
3:30 So she was thrilled to bits
3:32 when her parents told her they were going to go to the amusement park.
3:37 She had always wanted to go on the big rollercoaster and eat candy floss.
3:44 On the day of the trip,
3:45 they woke up early and drove to the park, but when they got there,
3:49 they saw a long line at the entrance.
3:53 Anna and her little brother, Tom, had to wait for a long time.
3:58 They were bored stiff.
4:04 Anna tried to play a game with Tom to pass the time,
4:07 but he was too tired and grumpy.
4:12 Suddenly, a man in front of them started shouting at the ticket seller, "Hey."
4:20 He was flying off the handle, "Hey," because the prices had gone up.
4:27 Anna's mum told her to stay close because the man was very angry.
4:33 The man was so loud
4:35 that Anna's dad lost his rag
4:38 and told him to calm down.
4:40 But then both men started shouting, hey,
4:45 hey," and everyone around was taken aback by how loud
4:50 and angry the two men were.
4:53 Luckily, the park security guards came over quickly and sorted everything out.
4:59 Anna and Tom finally got their tickets
5:02 and had a great time at the amusement park.
5:10 Okay, let's have a look at idiom number one.
5:12 So, she was thrilled to bits
5:15 when her parents told her they were going to the amusement park.
5:18 To be thrilled to bits means to be very pleased and excited.
5:24 Okay?
5:25 To be thrilled is just to be excited.
5:29 To bits is the idea when something is so happy or so excited,
5:34 it explodes into little pieces.
5:39 Doo, doo, doo, doo.
5:39 To bits, to pieces.
5:40 So to be thrilled to bits just means very, very thrilled, excited, and pleased.
5:48 The to bits we often use in also, "I love it to bits."
5:54 I love it very much, right?
5:55 I love you to bits.
5:57 It's a nice expression.
5:59 But here, thrilled to bits.
6:02 Be careful with the th.
6:03 It's that strange British or English th sound.
6:07 Thrilled, try it.Thrilled to bits.
6:14 Great.
6:14 I'm thrilled to bits.
6:18 Nice.
6:18 How do we use it?
6:20 Well, thrilled to bits doesn't change.
6:23 It's always thrilled to bits.
6:24 You can change the verb, the verb tense.
6:27 So we can say, "I'm thrilled to bits."
6:30 She was thrilled to bits.
6:34 Okay.
6:34 Generally, we often say, "I'm thrilled to bits to see or to hear something."
6:41 Right?
6:42 "I'm thrilled to bits to hear you passed your exam."
6:46 "I'm thrilled to bits to see you're making a lot of progress with your
6:50 English."
6:51 Okay.
6:52 Or you can say, "I'm thrilled to bits when something happens."
6:57 "I'm thrilled to bits when Manchester United win their game, their games."
7:03 Final example, "I was thrilled to bits to hear my best friend was getting
7:09 married."
7:11 Idiom number two, "Anna
7:13 and her little brother Tom had to wait for a long time.
7:16 They were bored stiff."
7:19 To be bored stiff is to be very bored, right?
7:23 It's the idea that you're stiff means that it doesn't move, right?
7:29 So something...
7:30 I mean, a pen is stiff. it can't bend.
7:33 It's stiff.
7:35 Bored stiff means like maybe a piece of wood that doesn't move.
7:40 So you're so bored, you just don't move, bored stiff.
7:47 We often say bored silly as well, bored silly, bored stiff.
7:52 Pronunciation here, bored, the ore is a long vowel.
7:58 Now, I know many languages only have short vowels.
8:02 And so, a lot of students might say, "Bored, bored."
8:06 But the O is ore.
8:08 You have to stretch the vowel and exaggerate it.
8:12 There's a slight change in the lips, ore, bored.
8:18 Really exaggerate it.
8:19 Try it with me.
8:23 Ore.
8:23 Like O-R, ore.
8:26 Good.
8:27 Don't say ore.
8:28 Say ore.
8:28 Bored.
8:33 That's it.
8:33 Great.
8:34 And the D at the end is not plosive.
8:37 It's not bored-.
8:39 No.
8:40 Bored.
8:43 So your tongue is touching the top of your mouth,
8:46 but it's not going T.
8:48 It's just bored, because the next word, stiff.
8:52 Bored stiff.
8:55 Can you hear it?
8:56 Bored stiff.
8:59 Nice.
8:59 Great.
9:00 So we use this, well, like any adjective, right?
9:04 Bored is an adjective.
9:06 To be bored stiff is an adjective.
9:08 So we use it as an adjective, right?
9:10 I'm bored stiff.
9:11 You are bored stiff.
9:13 I really hope you are not bored stiff with this lesson.
9:20 Oh.
9:20 Okay.
9:20 Final example, "That three-hour lecture was so slow and dull,
9:27 I was bored stiff and almost fell asleep."
9:32 Don't fall asleep.
9:32 Don't nod off.
9:33 Stay with me for idiom number three.
9:36 Okie cokie.
9:36 Okie dokie.
9:36 Okie cokie.
9:38 No.
9:39 Okie Cokie is a song.
9:41 Okie dokie.
9:41 Hokey Cokie is the song.
9:45 Enough.
9:45 Idiom number three "He was flying off the handle
9:49 because the prices had gone up."
9:52 So fly off the handle means to get very angry and lose control.
9:58 Okay.
9:59 Now, this comes from the ax, and this is an ax, okay?
10:06 The ax has a handle and it has a head,
10:08 and when you use the ax, boom, in the old days,
10:12 the head might fly off the handle.
10:14 A bit like this one, I've got a hammer.
10:16 It's an old hammer.
10:17 The head...
10:18 This is the handle, this is the head.
10:20 When you're knocking, if the head flies off the handle,
10:25 then it's in a uncontrolled and maybe dangerous way.
10:30 So nowadays, we say fly off the handle means to get angry
10:36 and to lose control,
10:39 right?
10:39 Notice the pronunciation with the stress.
10:43 Fly off the handle.
10:45 Fly off the handle.
10:49 So the way we use it, off the handle, doesn't change.
10:54 You can only change the tense of the verb, to fly, right?
10:59 So I fly off the handle.
11:02 He flew off the handle.
11:05 Be careful, a common mistake, people sometimes say, "He flew off his handle."
11:11 No.
11:11 Off the handle doesn't change.
11:13 It's always the.
11:14 So he flew off the handle, right?
11:18 So repeat with me.
11:19 Let's try.
11:20 I sometimes fly off the handle.
11:25 Get the stress.
11:27 I sometimes fly off the handle.
11:32 Change to she.
11:37 She sometimes flies off the handle.
11:43 Good.
11:43 Change to yesterday.
11:47 Yeah.
11:48 Yesterday, she flew off the handle.
11:51 Perfect.
11:52 Okay.
11:53 Final example, "It's important for managers not to fly off the handle
11:58 when employees make mistakes."
12:02 Be supportive, Mr.
12:03 Manager or Mrs.
12:06 Manager.
12:06 Let's look at idiom number four.
12:08 Okay.
12:08 Idiom number four, "The man was
12:10 so loud that Anna's dad lost his rag."...
12:14 and told him to calm down.
12:16 To lose your rag is to lose your patience and suddenly become very angry.
12:24 Okay?
12:24 To lose your rag.
12:26 This is a rag.
12:28 Okay?
12:28 It's normally used maybe for cleaning your shoes, cleaning the window.
12:34 Yep.
12:34 Cleaning things.
12:35 Now, if you lose your rag, you can't clean, so you become angry, right?
12:41 The idea of losing something that you, you need.
12:45 You lose your rag, you become angry.
12:48 Lose your patience, lose your temper is a similar expression, right?
12:53 To become angry.
12:54 Also, in old English, again, hundreds of years ago, there was a verb,
12:58 to rag someone, meant to tease or annoy somebody,
13:03 a bit like playing tricks on them.
13:06 In fact, also, in the UK we have something called the Rag Week,
13:10 which is when It's organized by the universities,
13:12 where the university students do processions in the street, a celebration.
13:16 They play tricks and pranks.
13:18 Rag Week comes from ragging someone.
13:21 Okay?
13:22 So, to lose your rag.
13:24 With this expression you can change the tense of the verb to lose,
13:29 and you can change the pronoun, my, your, his, etc., right?
13:34 So, "I lost my rag last week." "he is going to lose his rag
13:42 if you're not careful,"
13:45 and so on.
13:45 Okay?
13:46 Great.
13:47 Final example: "I tried to stay calm during our discussion,
13:51 but I just lost my rag when he suddenly insulted my family."
13:58 So, idiom number five:
13:59 Everyone around was taken aback by how loud and angry the two men were.
14:05 To be taken aback means to be surprised or in shock.
14:11 Okay?
14:12 So the word aback is an old word actually meaning to go backwards.
14:18 Similar, today we have the word around, to go around.
14:22 We also have aback, to go backwards.
14:24 We don't use it now.
14:25 It's an old-fashioned word.
14:27 So if something surprises you, you're taken aback.
14:32 Okay?
14:32 You can imagine.
14:34 The way to use this: The way to use this: well,
14:35 think of taken aback as an adjective, right?
14:39 It's a fixed adjective phrase, like, "I am happy.
14:43 I am taken aback."
14:45 Use it in the same way.
14:46 We normally say, "I am taken aback by something," or,
14:52 "I'm taken aback when something happens."
14:55 Let's try. repeat with me.
14:59 "I'm taken aback by your answer."
15:04 Good.
15:05 Change to she in the past.
15:12 "She was taken aback by your answer."
15:16 Perfect.
15:17 Great.
15:17 Okay.
15:18 Final example: "The news was so unexpected that everyone was taken aback."
15:26 That's it.
15:27 Five idioms to talk about your feelings.
15:30 So there you have it.
15:31 Five idioms you can start using straightaway.
15:35 If you want to discover more lessons like this
15:37 so you can learn effectively
15:39 and use idioms confidently,
15:41 check out my online course, 150 Idioms for IELTS Speaking.
15:46 Let me show you inside.
15:48 Inside the course, you have a coursebook showing you all the different units,
15:55 including the stories and explanations of all the different idioms.
16:01 There is also a mini-novel
16:03 which includes all of the idioms from the course inside a fun
16:08 and entertaining story.
16:11 Also, the course is available on a podcast you can download to your phone,
16:16 and there are lots of songs featuring all of the idioms from this course.
16:23 And then you've got 30 different topics,
16:26 each of them containing a short video
16:28 which will explain and illustrate the idioms in different context all across 30 different
16:34 topics.
16:35 Perfect for IELTS Speaking or your general English.
16:39 That's it.
16:40 More information in the description below.
16:42 Thank you so much for watching.
16:43 I hope you've enjoyed this.
16:45 Do remember, subscribe, turn on notifications,
16:48 and I will see you in the next video.
16:50 Bye-bye.
