Can You Find the 15 Idioms? (with Paul Taylor)

Hello everyone and welcome back to this podcast which ismade by me in my flat in order to help you learn English and also enjoylearning English too!

If you heard the last episode, you’ll remember that I wasplanning to play an idioms game with Paul. That’s what you’re going to hear inthis episode – a game with Paul in which we have to try to include some idiomsinto our conversation seamlessly.

What you can do in this episode is not only follow theconversation as usual, but also try to spot all the idioms as they crop up.There are 15 in total. Admittedly, about 3 of them are explained and defined atthe beginning, but 12 others are slipped into the conversation and thenexplained and defined at the end.

So, can you spot all the idioms during the conversation? Doyou know them already? Can you work out what they mean from context? This isgood practice because it encourages you to pay attention and notice newlanguage as it occurs in natural conversation. Noticing is actually animportant skill which can really help with language acquisition.

This from the British Council’s website for teacherdevelopment, teachingenglish.org.uk

When learners “notice” new language, they pay specialattention to its form, use and meaning. Noticing is regarded as an importantpart of the process of learning new language, especially in acquisition-drivenaccounts of language learning, when learners at some point in theiracquisition, notice their errors in production. Noticing will only occur whenthe learner is ready to take on the new language.

Example
A learner might make an error in the use of a preposition, but “notice” itscorrect use by another learner, or in an authentic text. This might allow themto begin to use it correctly.

www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/noticing

It’s an important skill to develop – to be able to noticelanguage, to identify certain bits of grammar, or certain fixed expressionslike idioms, notice the form (all the individual words used to create theidiom) and the meaning. It helps you identify differences between your use ofEnglish and the way it is used by natives, and that comparison allows you tothen adapt your English accordingly. This awareness of what kind of Englishyou’re aiming for is vital.

Developing noticing skills is an important part ofdeveloping learner autonomy and your language acquisition skills. The betteryou are at noticing, the more you are able to learn English by just listeningto audio that you enjoy, rather than going through a language coursebook whichteaches you specific language items. So, I encourage you to pay special attentionduring this episode on idioms and fixed expressions. Obviously idioms areconfusing because they’re not literal – the whole phrase means somethingdifferent to the individual words being used.

About the idioms you will hear. These are all very commonones. Some of them you are bound to have heard before and will not be new toyou. In a way though, if you have heard them before I’m not concerned. Thatjust means that you’re starting to learn all our idioms, which is a good thing.Remember that you also have to be able to use these idioms, not just understandthem. When you do use them, be extra sure that you’re using them 100% correct –for example you’re not using a wrong little word here or there, or perhapscollocating the phrase with the wrong verb or something.

The topic of conversation just happens to be Paul’s brotherKyle who we talk about on the podcast occasionally. In case you don’t know –Kyle Taylor is a professional footballer who plays for the Premiership teamBournemouth FC, although he is still yet to make his Premiership debut. A debutis your first game. So he hasn’t played in the Premiership yet (he’s only about20) but he has played in the FA Cup.

Alright, so you can listen to Paul and I discussing Kyle andhis footballing career, amongst other things, and you have to spot the idioms,which will all be explained at the end. All the idioms are listed on the pagefor this episode on the website, so check them out there if you want to seespecific things like spellings, the specific form of the idioms and so on.

Right, without any further ado, let’s begin!

Ending

Remember, all those idioms are listed on the page for thisepisode. So check them out.

The Idioms List from this game

(to go) back to the drawing board

to mind your Ps and Qs

to feel under the weather

to be all ears

to take the bull by the horns

a hat-trick

to save something for a rainy day

to pull your socks up

to be down in the dumps

to let the cat out of the bag

to bend over backwards

to get your skates on

to call a spade a spade

to be full of beans

not a sausage