Welcome to My IELTS Classroom, the podcast where two English experts talk all things IELTS.
I'm Shelley Cornick.
And I'm Nick Long.
And today we are going to discuss...
Learning vocabulary.
In particular, how do you learn idioms?
What is the usual process or order that people learn vocabulary in?
What makes learning idioms particularly difficult?
And what would our advice be if you want to learn idioms specifically for the IELTS test?
Good evening, Nick.
How are you?
Good, thank you.
How are you today?
I am very good.
Summer, I feel like summer has definitely arrived in the UK.
I've had a swim yesterday.
The water temperature was 16.7 degrees.
Sounds a bit chilly.
Well, it's three degrees higher than the first one I had a few weeks ago.
Um, so it already feels less painful.
Let's put it like that.
So I just think yeah, I don't know about you, but I find that once the weather is a bit sunnier, just my energy levels so much better.
Yeah.
Same.
Yeah.
It does help, doesn't it?
Having a bit of sun, a bit of warm air.
Yeah exactly, my hip continues to be pretty good, so i've been in less pain again this week and i've been.
In terms of motivation, i'm still doing my exercises excellent for a rehabilitating athlete, which is why the way i'm now seeing myself, um.
So yeah, all in all, pretty good, mate.
How are you?
Yeah good.
I haven't been doing my exercises as much as I should have, to be honest.
I've been a little bit slacking on the old gym.
Well, you've been quite consistently good for a little bit of time.
One thing we didn't speak about is that how I think motivation naturally drops a little bit.
It does.
It's peaks and troughs, isn't it?
There are.
So taking a break sometimes is not always a bad thing.
The key thing is if you get back up again.
Yes.
That's where I tend to go a bit wrong sometimes.
But anyway, right now I am swimming twice a week or three times a week and I'm feeling good.
So it's good.
So this week, as promised, we are going to be looking at vocabulary.
But I'm going to be honest, it might not be exactly the lesson that we promised last week, Nick.
Because last week I, very Cavalier-like, at the end of the episode, said next week we will be looking at some idioms which will help you with your IELTS vocabulary.
So let's start from the very beginning.
Why, Nick, would we be talking about using idiomatic language in particularly the speaking test?
Why is that a useful thing to be able to do?
Because if you look at the band descriptors, to get a 7, you need to use some idiomatic language.
Right.
And you just very cleverly stressed the word.
Some.
Some.
So I think probably this is where the most confusion comes, I think, is because students read that.
And quite rightly.
You know, as students, your job is to maximise your chance of getting a high score.
And as teachers, that's the same thing.
So I can understand why students are interested in adding this elusive idiomatic language.
The thing is though, of all of the points of the band descriptors, I guess that one is the one that causes the most trouble, because I think the word some is quite what's the word?
When something doesn't have a clear meaning, it can be interpreted in different ways.
For me, I mean, when you some, is it the majority?
When we read some, definitely not the majority.
No No, you know, I would say, for a really good student, a seven we're looking for, you know, and this is the other thing.
It's hard to quantify.
Students always say to me things like, how many mistakes can I make in grammar to get a seven?
It doesn't work like that, does it?
No, it doesn't.
Depends on what type of mistakes you're making, the level.
So I don't want to put a number out and then that become...
Well, Shelley said if I use three idiomatic pieces of languages, I would get a seven.
Because it doesn't work like that.
But, you know, generally when it says some, what would that be an indication of?
Well, I would say it's somebody who understands what it is and can use it when it's necessary.
OK, I think that is the perfect answer.
I think that's exactly right.
And I think that's what I really want to focus on today, because I think the danger and the truth is.
I sat down and I thought OK, students are always asking me for idiomatic language that they can use in speaking.
I thought I would sit down and I would try to pick out some phrases or some idioms that could be used in a wide range of contexts and therefore, you know, in a test may be likely to be used.
Now, I'm not joking.
I sat down and I looked through a book.
It's actually a very good book and I would like to recommend it to higher level students.
It's called Colleen's, what is it called exactly?
Let me have a look.
It's a Collins book, Work on Your Idioms, Master the 300 Most Common Idioms.
It's published by, as I said, Collins, and it was written by Sandra Anderson and Cheryl Peltrut.
So there were 300 idioms there.
I have to say, Nick, they are actually idioms which are commonly used.
But I went through all of them.
And at the end I honestly thought that there's not really any here which I could definitively say could be used in any IELTS exam.
And I got the fear.
And whenever people talk about idioms, that is the feeling that I have.
It is the fear.
And what would the fear be as a teacher, Nick, of teaching idioms?
Probably the fear that they're going to use them completely inappropriately.
Yeah.
And I think that is what happens.
Exactly.
Once you give students, it's a bit like when you teach inversion as a grammar point.
Students want to use it all day, every day.
It becomes their best friend, right?
It's like...
Not only will I drink a cup of tea this morning, but I will also have a slice of toast, right?
And unfortunately, inversion is not suitable in every situation because it's very formal, just as idioms are there to be used in extremely unique circumstances.
And when they're used outside of those, they don't actually add to your score, do they?
No, they couldn't even detract from your score, yeah.
They really can.
So I am still today going to present a few idioms.
Right.
But I thought to help students understand a bit more about vocabulary and how it works and the type of vocabulary we're sort of looking for.
I thought we could just do a brief history of studying vocabulary.
Or more importantly, let's look at the types of Lexis that we teach students at different levels.
So students sort of listening can understand what we're kind of expecting.
Right.
For the different bands, right?
So if we go right back to elementary, or even beginner, I guess, and probably even into pre-intermediate,
So in IELTS terms or language, they are students who are like three years. for maybe 4.5.
What are the first types of words that we learn?
You know, if you walk into an English classroom.
Imagine, you know, in England you are an 11 year old and you're about to learn French for the first time.
It'll be the same, except we're learning the French words, not the English words.
What type of vocabulary sets do we focus on early in a student's learning path?
Family.
Family.
Where you live.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
How old you are.
Hobbies maybe a little bit.
Yes.
Describing the hobbies that you've got.
Definitely.
Food maybe.
Maybe food.
Yeah.
A few bits of food.
Things you eat, clothes, the things that you wear.
Essentially, and it's kind of obvious, but if you are, you know a lot of people ask me how do you teach elementary students when you don't speak the language?
Well, the reason you can teach elementary students is everything you teach in elementary is just something you can usually see in the real world, right?
Yeah.
So if you're teaching food, you can just point to a banana and say, banana, apple, cherries, right?
That is what basic vocabulary is.
It's just literally being able to describe the world around you.
And if you look in any elementary book, it could be English file.
It could be the BBC ones.
Speak out.
Speak outs.
Could be my other favorite ones.
Goodness.
Solutions.
No, I've just forgotten the name.
Cutting Edge.
Cutting Edge, that's a good one.
They were always my favorite books.
You're just going to find those basic vocabulary sets.
And to be honest, you don't really need a teacher to learn those things.
It is purely about memory, isn't it?
It's just here is something I know.
Here is the English translation of that word.
Right.
So that is where we begin.
Once you get up to intermediate, which is like a five on the IELTS bands, you start to sort of move away, I think, from things that you can sort of physically see in the real world.
Yeah, to more abstract ideas.
Not very abstract but, for example, is it intermediate?
We start to introduce Mm-hmm.
Or attitude.
So you might, for example, learn some basic words to describe people's personality.
Yep.
So how's it look in our intermediate book?
You know, it teaches simple ones, I would say like kind or selfish, but also a few more difficult ones, like bossy.
Mm, nice one.
Charming.
How would you describe someone who is charming, Nick?
Charming.
Yeah, I think that's difficult to understand.
I would say that's quite a high level word, actually.
But yeah, it's like somebody who's very pleasant and maybe quite good looking.
Yes.
With a very sort of friendly demeanor, good manners.
Yes.
Yes.
Maybe a little glitter in the eye or something as well.
That's hard to explain to an intermediate student.
I would usually say when I think of someone charming, it's usually always a man.
It is a word to describe males usually, isn't it?
Yeah.
And it's usually a man who's very uses very nice words that makes the ladies around him smile and feel good about themselves.
Hugh Grant is very charming.
Yeah.
Manipulatives.
As you can see, these are not words now.
Like if I'm trying to explain that word to a student, I can't just point.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, I could point to Hugh Grant, but that could mean many things, right?
So the sort of words that we learn start to be a little bit more abstract.
We also start to understand that.
You know there are lots of different words in English for particular topics.
So, you know, if you think about ways of getting money, for example, right?
Well, you can earn money.
You can inherit money when somebody dies.
You can borrow money.
You can invest money.
You can steal money.
You can steal money.
Exactly, right?
So...
Again, we start to get into these, what I would call shades of meaning.
Like it's not just now big.
We've got loads of words in English.
Sometimes in English, because we have got...
Words which are taken from many other languages, right?
So we've got Greek words with Greek roots, Latin roots, French roots.
Because of that, we have ended up with duplicates, I guess, right?
Big and large, students will say, what's the difference?
I mean, in 99% of the time, there is no difference, really.
However, we do have many, many words that do show small differences in meaning.
The other thing that we start to do when we get up to intermediate is we start to learn the importance of chunks of language.
So quite often vocabulary is not just learning one word, it's learning groups of words together.
In particular, I would say this is where, as a teacher, we would start to introduce the students to the idea of prepositions and how important they can be in a sentence.
If we were talking about money, I've got this from an intermediate book.
I will read a sentence and say mmm, and your job listeners and Nick will be to say which preposition should go in this space, right?
So, I paid mmm the dinner last night.
Four.
Thank you.
When can you pay me mmm the money I lent you?
Pay me back.
Right.
So we've got pay for something, pay somebody back when you've borrowed.
What about this one?
Would you like to pay cash or credit card?
Would you like to pay in cash or by credit card?
Fantastic.
So you can see one verb pay, four prepositions.
Four prepositions, yeah.
Right.
The next one, I spent 50 euros books yesterday.
On.
Yeah, exactly.
They charged us 60 euros a bottle of wine.
For?
For a bottle of wine.
Have I ever told you about that story about my uncle's friends who went to that restaurant in Spain?
No, I don't think so.
So all of them managed to get last minute flights, went there.
It was one of those, you know, 12 course, try everything meals, about 250 euros.
They ordered a bottle of wine.
That was 400 euros.
But between the 12 of them, they thought, you know, come on, it's a once in a lifetime experience.
Between 12 of us, do the math.
What's that?
Like 30 quid or something each?
30 euros.
So they ordered it and they were like, oh, okay.
And they enjoyed it and they thought, we'll get another one.
And then they came back and said, if you buy this second bottle, we'll give you the meal for free.
And they were like, this is incredible because it's 250 euros each for the meal.
And the wine's 400.
So we're going to save loads of money by getting the second bottle.
Got the second bottle when the bill came, Nick.
How much do you think they paid for the bottles of wine?
A lot.
It was not 400 euros.
It was 4,000 euros.
Oh, dear.
A bottle.
Actually, the two bottles of wine cost 8,000 euros.
Oh, my God.
Well, between 12 people, that's still a lot of money, isn't it?
It's still almost.
It's like 700 euros each.
Oh, my.
It was unbelievable.
So it's just... And they paid it.
I mean, anyway, but...
This is the point is prepositions are important, right?
They're small words, but they do make a big difference, you know, in terms of as you get better.
And actually, as you get higher and higher, there are more and more prepositions added.
So that is something we add an intermediate level.
Upper intermediate level we now start to introduce not just sort of nouns and verbs.
But this is where and actually this was interesting today Nick, because I had a look
If you look at the upper intermediate English file book at the vocabulary bank at the back, almost all of it now is adjectives or adverbs.
Hmm.
So it's sort of adding words that give your sentences more color and more meaning.
So you know one of my favorite examples with adjectives I love.
If you're talking about weather.
We've got lots and lots of adjectives that describe when things are bad, but they change depending on what we're describing.
So let's imagine it's really, really raining outside.
How would you describe really, really, I'm going to say big rain?
Pouring.
Oh, you could say pouring, but what would be an adjective?
Downpour.
Oh, an adjective?
Yes.
And before rain, it's, oh, look at it.
It's really beep rain.
Heavy rain.
Heavy rain, right?
If I looked outside and said, oh my goodness, look at the trees.
It's a really beep wind.
Strong wind.
So it's not a heavy wind, is it?
It's a strong wind.
And if I said, oh my goodness, look outside, I can't see anything.
There's a really fog.
Thick.
Thick fog, right?
So they are basic examples of...
Adjectives.
But as I said, these are the sorts of words we start adding in our upper intermediate.
So if I said to you the words, I'll say four words and you're going to try and guess what topic these come from in the book.
Okay.
Okay.
If I said, so these are adjective biased, accurate, sensational, censored.
So that's going to be a topic about the media.
The media, exactly.
So you can already see these sorts of words, bias, accurate, sensational, censored.
These are already, I think.
If I you know, if I asked a student questions about the news in their country or the media and they were using these, I think these are already kind of band seven words, aren't they?
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, 100%.
Bias, sensational, brilliant.
So, you know, already we're up to sort of band seven without really having touched on any idioms.
And it's interesting that in the Upper Intermediate book they do start to introduce idioms, but they are just three or four idioms at the end of a unit, of the end of a unit.
So they'll teach all of the important stuff like the adjectives and the nouns and the verbs, and then they almost are upper intermediate.
Just give you a little bit of a flavor, a little taste.
Yeah, a little taste.
Now already, I think this is where we come into problems, right?
So I've taken these idioms, Nick.
These appeared in a unit about personality.
Okay.
So the student's job was to match the idioms with their meanings.
Right.
So the first one is, my boss is rather a cold fish.
I don't even know if he likes me or not.
So first of all, what is the idiom there?
We've got to recognise the idiom.
Cold fish.
A cold fish.
Nick, how many times, as a red-blooded Englishman, have you heard anybody use the expression cold fish?
Never.
I don't think ever.
No, yeah, it's not a good one, is it?
It's not a good one.
I'm just like, why is that the first thing you're introducing students to?
If someone is a cold fish, are they A annoying and difficult, B very kind and generous, C distant and unfriendly or D do they show no sympathy or fear.
Distant and unfriendly.
Distant and unfriendly.
Mm-hmm, not a very common yeah.
No, do you want to know the second one?
She has a heart of gold.
She always helps anyone with anything.
That one is common, right?
So if someone what's the idiom there heart of gold, if they have a heart of gold yeah, what is the meaning of that one?
Um, it was very sort of very, very kind and loving and caring and always, always giving it like taking time for somebody else.
You know, it's interesting because just read again the description for cold fish distant, and See if you said that in the exam, the examiner would probably think yeah, that's pretty good language.
Yeah.
If you said, my boss is a bit of a cold fish, the examiner would be like, what?
That is the best example you can give.
Distant is a really...
In itself, actually, is an idiomatic expression because it's being used not for its direct meaning.
Exactly.
Right?
Yeah.
My boss is kind of distant.
Yeah.
But if you said, yeah, my boss is a goldfish, I'd be like, oh God, here we go.
Exactly.
Heart of gold though, I think is actually quite good.
Yeah, half gold is very commonly used by native speakers.
For that reason yes yeah yeah, and that's why it's good to use in the exam.
Yeah, and it's easy to.
I think, as we'll talk about later, it's got a very clear, distinct meaning yes, which i think most people can understand.
She's generous.
I mean even the idiom heart of gold obviously represents something warm and positive connected to your feelings, doesn't it?
Number three, I mean, again, she's as hard as nails.
She doesn't care who she hurts.
So if you're hard as nails Nick, we've got left annoying and difficult or shows no sympathy or fear.
It's the second one.
Shows no sympathy or fear, but...
I mean, when I read Hard As Nails, I think of, I can't think, what's that old guy, the guy who used to be a football player?
Vinnie Jones.
Yeah, who's now like a movie star.
I imagine if someone says oh, my sister's Hard As Nails, I imagine that their sister has stood with a baseball bat And a Staffordshire bull terrier in a tracksuit.
And a face that looks like it's been stung by a wasp.
Exactly.
That's a better idiom, right?
So then the last one, I hope Jack doesn't come tonight.
He's such a pain in the neck.
Pain in the neck's a good one and it's very commonly used.
We don't use the word neck usually, but... No, exactly.
We might use another part of the body.
Yeah, someone who's difficult or annoying not even for a person that I would say I use that more for Could be used for a thing, couldn't it?
Yeah, I use that more for like activities, which I find annoying.
Like oh, when you're a teacher, filling out the register is a pain in the neck, or having to walk 20 minutes to the supermarket is a pain in the neck.
It's just annoying and difficult.
So, but you can see they, I mean, in that lesson, there were probably 25 personality words.
Yeah.
And just four idioms at the end of which.
Not all of them.
No, but that's the kind of thing that we've got at upper intermediate level.
But I would say, as Nick said, actually learning the, the nouns, the adjectives at that level is far more beneficial.
So calling your boss distant would be good, yeah.
Much better than a cold fish, right?
Once you get to advanced level, believe it or not, there is actually quite a big jump up, right?
There is, yeah.
Next, we start looking at Um, the formality of language, right?
So you know we spoke a lot, if you are a general training student, about language which is formal and informal.
So words that have got the same meaning.
So, you know, like ask or request, ask is informal, request is more formal.
You know this is sort of the letters of language.
A lot you know so knowing when something's formal or informal, knowing as well when it's British English or American English.
I think the big thing when you start getting really good is understanding that language has got different connotations.
So connotations are like the feelings that we connect to particular words.
So, you know, words which might have, if you look in the dictionary, the same meaning...
Sometimes they might have a positive connotation, so that they sort of feel like you're praising someone.
Sometimes they've got a negative one.
So I was doing a lesson today with a student and we were looking at language, for when someone pays a lot of attention to detail.
So if I tell you, I mean, obviously, Nick, I'm saying you, but I really mean the listener.
Three words, which all sort of adjectives to show that someone pays attention to detail.
Two are positive, one is negative.
Which one is the negative one?
So we've got meticulous, systematic, nitpicking.
Okay.
It's nitpicking is the negative one, of course.
It is nitpicking.
I mean, and again, right?
Nits.
I mean, that's nitpicking is what monkeys do to each other, isn't it?
Like literally, it's when they pick insects from each other's fur.
Mm hmm.
A nitpicker does have attention to detail, but why does that feel negative?
Because they're picking you up on small details that are maybe unimportant.
To be annoying.
To be annoying, yeah.
Yeah, usually.
So it's probably like I don't know.
We work in a business and I wanted a contract.
You didn't want the contract.
Now it's time to do the work.
So every time I give you a document, you come back and say, oh, there's a mistake there.
Oh, that's difficult.
You're doing everything you can.
You're finding tiny small mistakes.
Mm-hmm.
But again, if you look in the dictionary, you're going to find all of those words in the same place.
You also.
When you get to advanced level, you start looking at much more abstract topics which ding ding ding Nick.
How does that connect to the exam?
Part three of the speaking test.
Exactly.
So I had a look again.
So this is in our advanced book, maybe the advanced plus book.
There are units on, you know creativity, working to deadlines, time management, like things which actually do appear a lot in part three.
And you know this is a vocabulary activity.
Vocabulary that's not how you pronounce it, how it is.
So there are.
Just we're not going to do all of them, but there are.
So this is all about creativity, right?
And so there are pairs of expressions and we have to say do these things mean the same, or are they different?
Opposites, or are they similar but have small differences?
Okay, so this is just to give you an idea of the sort of Language that you know.
If you really are advanced, you know this is what Cambridge or Oxford are teaching in their advanced books.
So this is the sort of thing examiners would recognize as high level, right?
So we have got stifle the imagination versus fire the imagination.
They're opposites.
They are opposites, aren't they?
So if something fires your imagination, what does it do?
It means you kind of go wild and creative in your brain.
You get lots of ideas, lots of inspiration.
Yeah, it starts your imagination in a strong way, doesn't it?
Whereas what is stifle the imagination?
It's something that kind of blocks the creative process from happening.
Yeah, exactly.
Stifle.
I think if you imagine a candle, if you put your hand over a candle, it would put the candle out, wouldn't it?
And so the candle would stifle.
It's like stifling is removing the air or the oxygen, so it dies.
Right.
What about learn by rote or learn by heart?
They're basically the same, right?
They're very similar.
Very similar.
Well, rote is when you repeat something again and again and again and again, so you remember it.
Yeah.
And usually if you learn something by heart, you kind of have to do that to remember it.
Yeah, I would say it could be like learning poetry or something.
Depending on the situation, I guess, yeah.
Yeah, I think learn by rote feels more like you're learning it without necessarily understanding it.
It's like a process, isn't it?
Whereas you can learn something by heart, naturally.
Yes yeah, if you loved a poem or like loved a song and you listen to it again and again, you could learn it by heart, which would mean you don't need to look at the words anymore, but you would still understand it.
But generally they both mean quite similar, aren't they?
Yeah yes, you've learned something can don't need to.
You can repeat it without Reading it, I guess.
What about be spontaneous or do something on the spur of the moment?
They're the same, basically.
Yeah, they are the same.
But again, you know, this is the sort of thing where, for our students rather, you know, this type of language is difficult right, it's really complex on the spur of the moment.
That's not something that i would hear very often as a language teacher from a student, and if i did, that's the type of thing that i'd be like.
Well, that's moving you up too, the band eight kind of thing right, and so i would say, once you get up to these advanced book, these advanced plus books, these are the band eight kind of levels, the difference, what we're learning, is the small shades of difference between shades of expression.
So it's, you know, one of the key things In the band descriptors for Lexis.
I think it says something you know being able to use language to give precise meaning.
Precise meaning, exactly, yeah.
Yeah.
So you know, the more vocabulary you have for particular small circumstances, the higher the chance that you've got, I think, to be able to score really well, because you're going to be able to give a really precise feeling or meaning.
So I would say, yeah, like, you know, maybe intermediate level, you might have...
One idiom to talk about relationships.
You might be able to say that you get on well with your boss, right?
So you've got that.
As you get better and you start gathering more idioms that talk about feelings, you can start talking about, you know, particular sort of more individual types, granular types of things, yes.
So you might want to say, instead of you just get on with your boss, you might be able to say that i don't know, you hit it off immediately with your boss.
What does that mean nick, if you hit it off immediately?
It means the um, the sort of start of the relationship was very good instantly yes, instant.
Maybe you have a lot of a lot of stuff in common, so you Mm-hmm.
Again, in common, another idiom.
Or you might want to say, rather that we get on well, we get on like a house on fire.
Yeah.
Which sounds like it's a bad thing, but actually it's a really good thing, right?
It burns very well, doesn't it?
It does.
Or you might want to say that you know, instead of saying I don't get on well with my boss.
You know there's loads of things that you could say which We don't see eye to eye.
We don't see eye to eye.
He showed his true colors when he talked down to me in a meeting.
Wow, like showed his real self, you know, you know, an easy one.
He drives me up the wall because he sets unrealistic deadlines, irritates me.
That's the thing, right?
So I would say the thing with language is the more you have, the more precise you can be in your speech, which is kind of obvious, but I think we forget that a little bit.
I used to always describe it.
You know, when I was trying to learn Russian, that if you said to me in English English, can you describe your phone?
I would be able to speak for about two minutes, but in Russian all I'd be able to say it's black, it rectangular.
Do you know what I mean?
It's plastic.
Is that you know?
Obviously I don't have as many words, but I think what I'm trying to sort of show in this process is that You can't run before you can walk.
Ding ding, ding.
Idiom with vocabulary right.
If you're going to start using idiomatic expressions correctly, you're going to have to know not just all the sort of basic vocabulary that goes around it, but you're going to have to also know, sort of like, some of the more basic idioms, right?
Mm-hmm.
Three or four accurately in the exam.
In the entire exam.
Yeah.
Probably 30 or 40.
I think more.
Maybe more even, yeah.
You're going to be able to use maximum 10% of what you know.
Maximum.
Oh, well maximum, I reckon, because there's, you know, it's all going to be based on the topic.
It's true, yeah.
You know, like it was all based on the topic, really.
And that's the thing you know.
Often when I use an idiom, I can't remember the last time that I used it right.
Because you just did it naturally.
Yeah.
You just do it naturally.
They're just in a bank in my brain ready to be used correctly in context.
And I think that's the problem with idioms.
When you are learning as an elementary student, you know, clothes, T-shirt, jeans.
A scarf is always clear when you should use the word t-shirt, jeans and scarf, because there is a clear item attached to that.
When you start to use idioms, you've got to make sure that you're using them correctly in context.
And to do that, you really do need to be getting feedback.
Yeah. from either a teacher or a native speaker to be able to do that.
So I would say if, after everything I've said, you are still kind of interested in learning some idioms, maybe you can get that book, the Collins book.
I would say the steps to learning a good idiom, or to learning an idiom correctly, are as follows Nick right.
Firstly, I think you absolutely have to make sure that you learn the form of the idiom.
And by that I mean that you learn word by word the parts of the idioms, because idioms are set phrases.
Mm-hmm.
Or you change a word or you add a word.
What happens to that idiom, Nick?
It's gone.
It's just gone, isn't it?
Yep.
You lost it.
You lost the chance.
The examiner's going to be like, what?
Yeah.
So even that one we said before, get on like a house on fire.
If you said get on like the house on fire...
Mm-hmm.
Gone.
Gone.
If you said get on like a house in fire.
Gone.
Gone.
Get on as a house on fire.
Gone.
Gone.
It has to be every single word.
Mm-hmm.
So you've got to be like if you are someone who, just if you're remembering idioms like oh, something about a house and fire.
Mm-hmm.
Forget it.
It's not going to happen, is it?
Idioms are only for people who are able to learn things precisely, right?
Secondly, you have to be absolutely sure of the meaning.
And as much as I think that Collins book is quite good, I don't think on its own...
It's enough.
It's enough because really, how do you get meaning?
It comes from context.
Whenever anyone asks me to describe an idiom, I usually start a long story.
Imagine... Imagine you're at work.
Imagine you're on a bus.
Imagine you're on a long journey.
Because...
Idioms only work in certain circumstances.
So, for example, in that book, they have got the idiom to cross your mind.
And their description of to cross your mind is to think about something suddenly, or to suddenly think about something.
So that makes it feel like...
If you just, bing, have a quick idea, suddenly, you could use cross your mind.
But I don't think it's as clear as that.
No, it needs to go into a bit more detail.
That's not really what it means, is it?
If I said, I was trying to sleep when John crossed my mind.
I don't know if that would really work.
I think that one feels more like it should be like popped into my head or something.
Yeah, popped into my head would be better.
Yeah, definitely.
In that context, 100%.
I mean, it does make sense.
But it's not really something that somebody would say in a natural setting.
No, I think a much more natural one.
If I read this one, which I do think is more natural Nick, what extra information or what is different about this sentence?
I was listening to John when it suddenly crossed my mind that he might be lying.
Now, I think that's more natural, isn't it?
Mm hmm.
Why is that one better?
Because here it suddenly crossed my mind.
But what has happened in this sentence, maybe?
Well, based on what he said, I guess, you've sort of thought, hang on a minute.
Exactly.
Something's not quite right here.
Exactly.
And I think it's the, hang on a minute, right?
Wait a minute.
I've suddenly had an idea which kind of changes my mind about something or yeah.
So like, you know, I was going to sell my car when it suddenly crossed my mind.
That my sister needs one.
Like, oh God, why would I sell it when my sister needs one?
There's something, when we use that name correctly, it's something unexpected there, isn't it?
I think.
So, you know, that is a simple example of how.
Between even native speakers, even as teachers.
It's hard to sometimes describe these phrases because they just work in particular situations.
And sometimes it's not easy to verbalize when that is and when that isn't correct.
Which is why, if you just learn three idioms and try to use them in the exam, you're going to sound like a clown, to be honest.
Exactly.
And this is it.
This is why I think you need to have hundreds of idioms to be able to use a few accurately, because they can only really be used in very specific situations, I think.
What I would say is the best idioms to learn first are the ones that you might have in your own language.
So either pure translations or ones which you're like.
Oh, we don't say that, but for that exact situation we say this
So you've got something, so you've already got the feeling.
It's like a reference, isn't it?
The other thing you know when I said before, as you get better, you might need to know when an idiom is American English or British English, even Australian English.
A couple of weeks ago, I said to a friend of mine, oh, but you know what he's like?
I was talking about some guy I know.
He's got tickets.
And she was like, I have no idea what that means.
Right.
She was like, what?
I was like, no, he's got tickets on himself.
What?
In Australia there's an idiom which is if someone's How can I say this without saying that they've got their head up their beep?
If someone is very arrogant and they really love themselves.
An Australian idiom is that they've got tickets on themselves, which means
They've kind of bought tickets to their own performance.
I see.
Right.
So they love themselves so much that, you know, like, yeah, I've got tickets on myself.
So again, that shows complete breakdown of communication, because I use an Australian idiom with an English friend.
So, you know, there's lots of things to talk about.
But I would say the main thing is learn all of the words correctly.
Mm-hmm.
And then you've got to kind of use them to find out when you're using them in the correct context and when you're not using them in the correct context.
And very often, you know, I think, one good way to do that Nick, if you haven't got a teacher around all the time, what could be one way of like learning an idiom and seeing it used correctly in context?
If you don't have a teacher.
Yeah.
YouTube.
Well, I was going to say watching or listening to English movies.
Yeah, definitely.
Because you will definitely hear a lot of them just used naturally in conversation, won't you?
Yes.
Yeah.
If you're watching British TV series, particularly if they're sort of like reality TV shows like MasterChef or something or something where you've got people talking naturally, that is probably the best place to pick up.
And, you know, if you keep hearing the same idiom again and again...
That's probably an indication that it is a widely used, you know, like heart of gold.
And it's going to give you the context as well.
You can see the situation, understand when it was used, why it was used and how it fits to the situation so that you can use it naturally.
Exactly.
I would almost say you probably want to be able to.
Before you start using idioms, you probably want to learn it and then recognize it and then check yourself.
Would I have used it there?
Does that use confirm the way I think this idiom should be used?
And once you've heard it a couple of times...
Boom, then go forward.
That's if you haven't got a teacher.
If you've got a teacher, you're paying them to check.
So feel free to use it.
So for all of these reasons Nick, you know, when I went through the Collins working on your idioms book, the 300 most common idioms,
It is perhaps less surprising that I found that I, you know, wasn't really able to find idioms which could be used in any IELTS exam.
Because as we just said, context is so important.
And, you know, the types of questions you've got, the topics make it almost impossible.
However, what I thought you might one of the only areas where a student might be able to learn a few basic idioms, and they are basic.
Which could be useful or more useful than others.
Because I thought we could learn just a few idioms to describe feelings.
Because quite often in part one, you're asked about your own life, aren't you?
And different things.
You might be able to give a simple idiom.
So the first idiom, we're only going to learn five.
Mm-hmm.
That is more than enough.
The first one is, well, if I said to you this idiom, what is it?
I've got to think of something that's true.
So something is not my cup of tea.
Is that an idiom which people actually use in England?
Really not as much as IELTS students use it.
Exactly right, so if something is not your cup of tea, what does it mean?
If I said oh, the opera is not my cup of tea, what does it really mean?
I'm not a big fan of the opera.
I'm not a big fan.
I'm not very interested in it.
Yeah, I'm not keen on it.
See, there are better words than... Right.
So what I would say is, rather than saying the opera is not my cup of tea, it might be more modern to say well, the opera is not really my thing.
Not my thing yeah yeah, not my thing, would be better.
So you know, if you want to say oh, I don't really do it.
You know, if I was thinking there's a lot of questions in IELTS, isn't there in part one?
You know, do you often go to art museums or something?
It's not quite naturally.
Yeah, not really.
Yeah, it's not really my thing.
You know anytime, any of my students and when I was an examiner as well, whenever somebody said not my cup of tea in the exam,
Yeah.
Instantly.
I was like you learn that to use it in the exam exactly, it just doesn't sound, it sounds silly.
Yeah not, my thing is much better actually.
Yeah yes not, my thing is much better.
So, in a similar way, so if you want to say that you're really happy over the moon, you could.
I could say i was over the moon right, so i was over the moon.
When uh, can we think of a better one for over the moon?
Hmm, I don't know.
I was blown away.
Blown away is a good one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So if you're really happy and it's usually you're really happy because something unexpected happened
Right.
So you know, maybe you've got a really high score in an exam when you're expecting to do really badly, or something or someone gives you an incredible gift.
I'm over the moon.
Yeah.
It really gets on my nerves when people email me at five o'clock on a Friday.
What does get on your nerves mean?
Something that's annoying.
Super annoying.
Yeah.
Now we've actually got loads of expressions for annoyance and we do teach these.
Now, which ones could we use?
I really like gets my goat.
I don't know if that's, is get my goat commonly used?
My dad used to use that, I remember, when I was younger.
Maybe drives me up the wall.
Drives me up the wall.
My mom and dad said that all the time.
Yeah, but it drives me up the wall like, annoys me, makes me angry, so that's gonna be quite good one.
Um, if you're feeling a little bit poorly, you might say i'm feeling quite under the weather.
Under the weather yeah, that's.
I mean, that's a fairly common one.
Yeah yeah, under the weather.
So not feel very good.
And if you find something really boring, instead of saying it was really boring, you could say i was bored to tears.
Oh, to tears as well.
Yeah, bored to death.
Bored to tears like yeah, that's a good one, i've forgotten about that.
So yes, rather than just saying i was bored god, i was bored to death.
Bored to death, yeah.
So you know, having even these, you might say well, there's nothing particularly complicated there.
Well, that's not the point, is it?
In your exam, you shouldn't be worried too much about idioms.
You should be focused more on topic-specific vocabulary, addressing the question, extending your answers, showing your fluency.
But just as a little practice to finish, I will ask you a question, Nick.
And at home listeners.
You can pause and answer it, which will give you a chance to use one of these idioms.
So what is something that most of your friends like, but you do not like?
Something that most of my friends like, that i don't like?
Yeah, it's quite a tricky one, probably struggling.
Now you put me on the spot.
Yeah, i tried to just do something that was a little bit more targeted.
Or what about something your family likes that?
Well, my family I can talk about.
When I was younger,
My mom used to be obsessed with going for a walk in the countryside every Sunday.
Yeah.
And she would always say, come on, boys, we're going for a walk.
And we would go to Fountains Abbey or we would go to Brimham Rocks or somewhere like that.
Yeah.
Or go to Filey, maybe, or Scarborough, Scarbados.
Yeah.
So I guess when I was young, it wasn't really my thing.
I just wanted to sit at home and play Super Nintendo.
You just wanted to be on your Nintendo, didn't you?
Exactly, yes.
Yeah.
But I'm grateful that we did that because it was actually fun.
And I have much better memories of going for walks with family than I do of sitting and playing games.
So
Well, I think you just have memories.
I think the problem when you just sit and play a game is you can sort of remember that you liked the game, but you don't really remember.
The process, yeah.
No.
Oh, I'm deep into playing that God of War Ragnarok now.
But it's just a time killer.
Okay.
When was the last time you felt over the moon with a gift, that someone gave you over the moon with a gift?
Probably you were blown away by a gift, i think probably the only time.
Well, two times actually.
So the first time was when i got a nintendo 64 for christmas i knew you were gonna say that.
And then the second time was probably when i got um, my own car on my 18th birthday.
Wow, you must have been totally blown away by that.
Yeah, I was.
Completely over the moon.
I didn't expect it at all.
You didn't expect it?
Nope, it was a surprise.
Okay, that's incredibly good.
And that connects very well to the next question, which is what gets on your nerves when you are driving.
People on their phones.
Oh, is that a problem?
Do people do that?
It's just, it's the worst thing.
I hate seeing it.
And it really, really makes me angry.
And when I'm driving, it's bad.
But when I'm a pedestrian, I see it even more.
So I don't understand why can't you put the phone down, for I mean, like people sat on on social media, traffic lights and stuff like that.
It's just, it's insanity.
I could never imagine driving and being on my phone at the same time.
Yeah.
So just, yeah, that really, that really winds me up.
There's another one.
Good.
Yeah.
What does my head in?
Which is my favorite one is when people I don't mind people, you know, I don't want people to drive really quickly, but when people are driving fast.
10 or 20 miles, like an hour, under the speed, under the speed limit is so when they're going 40 when it should be 60, and i'm just like, what on earth are you doing?
Come on yeah, come on, granddad.
Yeah, I find myself getting a bit road ragey then.
I wanted to beep the horn.
All right.
So then Nick, what do you do when you're feeling a bit under the weather?
Do you have any remedies or anything that helps you feel better?
I do.
I mean, it depends what's wrong with me.
If it's just, if it's a headache, then it's sleep.
If it's a tummy bug, then it's just lying in bed and hope it goes away.
But if it's a sore throat I usually have a lot of tea with lemon and honey.
Seems to do the trick after a few hours.
Yeah.
So that's good.
Because basically feeling under the weather, it's not seriously ill, is it?
It's just, you know, if you've got cancer, you're not feeling under the weather.
But if you are just a little illness yeah, I think resting, having a nap, just sort of taking it easy really.
Taking it easy.
Yeah right, my last favorite question what do you do when you're bored to tears at a family event?
My answer is drink and drink yeah, drink.
I mean, i haven't been to a family event for years, so oh yeah, and to be honest, i don't really get bored at family events.
I don't either.
They're always pretty fun, usually.
Being with my brothers is always hilarious.
And winding up my mum.
Winding up, that's another great idiom right, embarrassing her in front of people trying to push your buttons.
Push have an emotional reaction.
Yeah, i don't know why, but i, every time there's one of these events, we always put on scottish accents around my mom and it really annoys her.
That's funny.
So I'm sure that some people listening today will be a little bit disappointed, because they were like I thought I was going to come and I was going to learn the magic idioms that will help me in the exam.
And the thing is, I've kind of saved the best bit till last, Nick, because I would say that...
When we talk about idiomatic language, we focus far too much on pure idioms.
But there are other ways that we can be idiomatic in the way that we speak, in particular by using phrasal verbs, which are much more common and much more effective, easy to insert into every exam.
And I would say a much better sort of like place to focus your energy.
Yes.
If you're interested in improving your score for Lexis.
So that dear listener is where we end this week's lesson and where we will pick up.
Yeah.
That's a phrasal verb on next week's lesson.
So until then, have a lovely week.
Tell us if you've got any idioms that you think you're able to use naturally in most exams.
Come on, let's put a bank together.
Maybe Nick and I are wrong.
Maybe there are some other ones out there.
Idiom bank.
The idiom bank.
Something you can count on.
Ding, ding, ding.
In any exam.
But until then, have a lovely week.
We will see you next week.
It's a bank holiday, but we will still be here.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
My IELTS Classroom Podcast is a production of My IELTS Classroom Limited.
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