Hi! My name is Jason Palmer and I'm an English teacher from Toronto, Canada.
Today we're going to talk about eleven natural expressions that you can use in
your everyday English. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of
expressions that we use in English that are usually idioms or some combination
of phrases that really might not make sense to people that are not native
speakers, so they're good to learn. Today we're going to take a look at eleven of
them that are very quite common, and you might hear these almost every day. It's
good to at least understand them, even better if you can practice using them to
sound more like a native speaker. The first one we're going to talk about is
"to bend over backwards". "To bend over backwards" this does not literally mean
that your body bends in the opposite way. This means to put in a big effort for
someone. For example, I can say "yesterday I really bent over backwards to finish
that project for you". So, I expect that I will be appreciated, something like that.
To indicate that you have put in a big effort. "To bite off more than you can
chew". Now this one's easy to remember simply because literally you can imagine
this is a problem as well. If you literally bite more than you can chew, if
you're eating a hamburger for example, that means you're going to have a
problem swallowing this hamburger. But we use this mostly in a figurative
sense. So, maybe I wanted to impress my boss and I told my boss that I could
have five reports done by tomorrow, then I started to work on these reports and I
realized that I had bitten off more than I can chew.
So, "to bite off more than I can chew" means I decided to do more work or
something more than I could actually handle. So, it's a good one to know, and be
careful not to bite off more than you can chew. "To work something out". "To work
something out" is an expression that means to solve a conflict, usually this
conflict is between two people. So, someone might ask me: "How are you and Jim
doing?" And I could say "Well, Jim and I had a conflict yesterday about the project
we were working on, but we're trying to work it out". So, this means we're trying
to solve this conflict. "In the nick of time". "In the nick of time" is a very
common expression when you finish something and just before it is due. So,
for example, my boss might ask me" Did you finish that project last week on time?"
And I could say: "Yes, we finish just in the nick of time, we finished it half an
hour before it was due'. So, it was very close, but to be in the nick of time
means that you are on time, but just very close. "To sleep on it". "To sleep on it" is a
good expression when you need to make a serious decision. So, for example, if you
need to decide about whether or not to take a new job, whether to buy a car or
any other very serious decision that requires time to decide, you might say
"I'm going to have to sleep on it" or "I will sleep on it and let you know
tomorrow". So, it doesn't literally mean that you really have to sleep overnight
before you make this decision, but it means that you will take a few days
perhaps to make a decision. So, for a very serious decision, this is a good
expression to use. "To get the ball rolling". "To get the ball rolling" is an
expression that means you need to do something to start. So, for example, maybe
you have a new project that you were given yesterday and you need to do the
first task on that project. You might tell your team: "Ok, team, well, let's get
the ball rolling by meeting this morning to discuss our next steps in terms of
this project". So, this is a way that you could use "let's get the ball rolling" to
really to get something started. "To know it like the back of your hand". Now
literally this one's quite easy to think about or to remember because if you
think about the back of your hand, you might know your the back of your hand
very well. So, if you know something like the back of your hand, it means you know
it very well. Maybe, I might ask my team: "Do you know where we can find a good
Java developer?" And they might say: "well we should hire Eric.
Eric knows Java like the back of his hand, he has been working in Java for 10
years." So, "to know something like the back of your hand" - really to know something
very well. "By the skin of my teeth". "By the skin of my teeth" means that I did
something and I was successful, but it was extremely difficult and I was very
close to being unsuccessful. So, maybe I could say
something like "I managed to finish that job today by the skin of my teeth". Maybe
this job was very difficult, it required skills I didn't have and I was very
close to making a mistake that might have ruined that job, but I managed to do
it by the skin of my teeth. So, I successfully completed it, even though it
was very challenging. "To end up doing something". "To end up doing something"
means the result of what you did. To explain it more in detail I will give
you an example. So, maybe your boss asks you: "I heard that you had a problem with
the project last week, what did you end up doing to fix it?". So, what he's asking
here is what was the end result of that challenge. So, what did you end up doing?
"Well, I ended up canceling the project because we had a problem with the client", -
or some other issue. So, that was the result of that situation. "Once in a while".
"Once in a while" is an extremely useful expression because we use this to mean
sometimes or occasionally. Someone might ask you: "How often do you go shopping?" And
I could say: "Well, I go shopping once in a while". This means maybe once a month,
maybe once every few weeks, not very often and not never. "Every now and then".
"Every now and then" is really an expression that
is a synonym of once in a while. So, someone could ask you a very similar
question maybe: "How often do you go salsa dancing?" And I could say: "Well, I go salsa
dancing every now and then". So, this might be every couple of months, something like
that. So, again this is quite similar to sometimes or occasionally. Okay, to review
our eleven natural expressions: the first was "to bend over backwards", then we had
"to bite off more than you can chew", "to work something out", "in the nick of time",
"to sleep on it", "to get the ball rolling", "to know it's like the back of your hand",
"by the skin of your teeth", "to end up doing something", "once in a while" and
"every now and then". Please remember to subscribe to our channel below and I
will see you next time.
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