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FOOD IDIOMS

Hello I’m Emma from mmmEnglish and in this video I’m going to show you how to use my favorite English food idioms. English idioms are a piece of cake! Now if you don’t know what English idioms are, they’re expressions in English that are really commonly used or lots of them are really commonly used but the individual meaning of each word, each word on their own is different to the meaning of the expression when all of these words are together.

So this expression means that something is easy or simple to do. I’m confident I passed the exam, it was a piece of cake! Now there are hundreds and hundreds of English idioms so trying to learn them all is a pretty overwhelming task, isn’t it? Even just knowing which ones to focus on, which ones to try and learn and which ones to use!

Some idioms are commonly used and others are not, so my advice to you when you’re learning idioms is not to use a huge long list of hundreds and hundreds of idioms. In this lesson I’m going to share with you a few idioms that I use all the time, almost every day! And all of these idioms are to do with food. Ready? Let’s try them out! To put all of your eggs in one basket.

Now this idiom is used to describe when you risk everything at once and it usually relates to money or opportunity or hopes for the future and it’s based on the idea that if you drop the basket that’s full of eggs, you’ll lose everything. Perhaps it’s a better idea to put your eggs in a few different baskets, so that if you drop one, you’ll still have some others. For example, while my brother trained to be a professional footballer, he also studied a degree in engineering because my dad told him not to put all of his eggs in one basket.

Or, my uncle invested all of his savings into a company that went bankrupt. I don’t know why he put all of his eggs in one basket. To be in a pickle. We use this idiom when we’re in a difficult situation or we have a problem! And it’s often said to be in a bit of a pickle, especially when it’s not a serious problem and you want to make it seem less serious than it really is. I’m in a bit of a pickle.

For example, We’re in a pickle.. We’ve just locked the keys in the car! Or, I promised to pick up my sister from the airport, but I’m still at work and I can’t leave yet! I’m in a bit of a pickle, can you help? To bite off more than one can chew. This is one of my favourite ones! It’s when you try to do something that is too difficult for you and you’re not able to do it.

Maybe you don’t have the skills or you don’t have the time to make sure that you can do it. For example, He’s been working back late every night this week trying to finish the project. I think he’s bitten off more than he can chew. Or, I’m so sorry! I haven’t got time to meet you for lunch today. I’m organising my sister’s surprise party and I’ve bitten off more than I can chew! There’s so much to do!

Another good one! To butter someone up. Now this idiom means that you be really nice or friendly to someone so that you can get something from them, you want them to do something for you so you’re very nice to them, you’re buttering them up. Have you ever cooked your mum a really nice meal or maybe taken her out for dinner and then asked her if you could borrow some money?

Then, you’ve buttered her up! Here are some more examples, I know that Paul has a spare ticket to the concert perhaps if we butter him up, he might offer it to us! Or, he’ll have to butter his boss up if he wants to take extra leave at Christmas. In a nutshell. Now this idiom is used to show that you’re talking about something or describing something in a really simple way.

You’re not using many words, you’re trying to be as clear and as simple as possible. For example, your friend asked you about a movie that you saw on the weekend and you answer: Well… it’s a complicated story, but in a nutshell, it’s about three astronauts who disappear for about 30 years before returning to Earth with no memory of anything that had happened!

1Another example, I don’t want to explain their whole history but in a nutshell, they just wanted different things out of life. She wanted travel and adventure, he wanted to focus on his career. So in the end they broke up. It’s really sad. So they are my favourite English food idioms! I hope that you learned a couple of new ones and maybe you were reminded about some that you already knew.