🧠 WHAT’S AN IDIOM?
An idiom is a phrase or expression whose meaning cannot be understood by the literal meanings of its individual words but rather by a figurative, culturally understood interpretation. For example, “it’s raining cats and dogs” means it is raining heavily, not that animals are falling from the sky. Idioms are common in everyday language, add dynamism to writing and speech, and often have cultural or historical origins.
▶️ Short example
✍️ Worksheet – Fill in the gaps
You’ll have the definitions and you’ll have to fill in the gaps.
🎮 Practice with games
🔤 UNSCRAMBLE
🧩 CROSSWORD
🍁 AUTUMN IDIOMS
🍂 Autumn Idioms – Listening with TV Clips listen → answer → reveal
Watch each clip, pause, answer the questions. Then open Answer Key. Mini-dictionary included.
🍁 1) TURN OVER A NEW LEAF start fresh / change your life
Transcript (clips)
- Clip 1: “Maybe a road trip is exactly what I need right now… I’m turning over a new leaf.”
- Clip 2: “Starting tomorrow, I’m turning over a new leaf. Time with you is my number one priority.”
- Clip 3: “I’m turning over a new leaf and my good luck starts now.”
🎧 Comprehension
- (Clip 1) What does the person need?
- (Clip 2) When do they plan to start? What becomes the number one priority?
- (Clip 3) What does she hope will start?
Answer Key
- A road trip.
- Tomorrow. / Spending time with her.
- Her good luck.
📘 Mini Dictionary
- road trip – journey by car
- start fresh – begin again with a new attitude
- priority – most important thing
🌰 2) THE AUTUMN YEARS later stage of life
Transcript (clips)
- Clip 1: “You are getting a little philosophical for me. I suppose so. They say it happens in the autumn years.”
- Clip 2: “I may teach, I may write a book, whenever the hell one does when one approaches the autumn of one’s years.”
🎧 Comprehension
- (Clip 1) What time of life is mentioned? What attitude/feeling is suggested?
- (Clip 2) What does the person want to do? When will they do it?
Answer Key
- Old age, later in life. / philosophical mood.
- Maybe teach, maybe write a book. When he retires or get older.
📘 Mini Dictionary
- philosophical – thoughtful, reflective
- approaches – comes close to
🥜 3) DRIVE (SOMEONE) NUTS make someone crazy/irritated
Transcript (clips)
- Clip 1: “Hey, I'm not gonna mince words, Mitchell. Your kid is driving me nuts!”
- Clip 2: “You better thank your lucky stars I'm not in this competition because I would eat you for breakfast. You're driving me nuts”
- Clip 3: “Babe, your mother drives you nuts.”
🎧 Comprehension
- (Clip 1) Who is driving him nuts? What emotion does he show?
- (Clip 2) Who drives the other person nuts? Is the tone angry or joking?
- (Clip 3) Who is driving him nuts?
Answer Key
- The kid. / Anger, irritation.
- The woman. / Joking, because she is a girl.
- His mother.
📘 Mini Dictionary
- nuts – crazy / very annoyed (informal)
- to mince words – to be indirect
- lucky stars – good fortune
🌦️ 4) UNDER THE WEATHER feeling a bit sick
Transcript (clips)
- Clip 1: “Heard you were under the weather.”
- Clip 2: “Oh, I didn't think I was going to see you until tomorrow. Yeah, well, Bernadette is a little under the weather.”
- Clip 3: “Anubis, you sound unwell. Well, I have been feeling a little under the weather, I’m feeling much better now.”
🎧 Comprehension
- (Clip 2) Who is sick? How sick is she?
- (Clip 3) How does the speaker feel now?
- (Clip 1/3) What does “under the weather” mean?
Answer Key
- Bernadette. / A little, not very sick.
- Much better.
- Feeling sick / unwell.
📘 Mini Dictionary
- unwell – not healthy
- much better – recovering
🌳 5) NECK OF THE WOODS local area / neighbourhood
Transcript (clips)
- Clip 1: “So, what brings you to my neck of the woods? Just a few errands.
- Clip 2: “I'm going to be in your neck of the woods soon. It would be very nice to see you.”
- Clip 3 “If you ever get down to my neck of the woods, you’ve got a place to stay.”
🎧 Comprehension
- (Clip 1) What is the speaker asking?
- (Clip 2) Is the speaker friendly or unfriendly?
- (Clip 3) What offer does the speaker make?
Answer Key
- Why the person is in their area.
- Friendly, maybe flirting?
- A place to stay, accomodation.
📘 Mini Dictionary
- errands – small tasks, things to do
- get down to – go to, visit
🍃 6) NOT OUT OF THE WOODS still in danger
Transcript (clips)
- Clip 1: “Mike's gonna be okay. Can we see him? He’s not out of the woods yet. I guess one of you could go in for just a minute.”
- Clip 2: “Heartbeat is stronger, but we’re not out of the woods. You need to get things going now. The cord is wrapped around the neck”
🎧 Comprehension
- (Clip 1) Who are they talking about? Is he out of danger?
- (Clip 2) What has improved? What is the problem now?
Answer Key
- A patient, a sick person. / No, not yet.
- Heartbeat is stronger. / The cord is wrapped around the neck.
📘 Mini Dictionary
- heartbeat – pulse of the heart
- cord – umbilical cord / string
🍂 7) SHAKING LIKE A LEAF trembling with fear/nerves
Transcript (clips)
- Clip 1: “I'm setting your chair, dearie. You’re shaking like a leaf.”
- Clip 2: “He's going to be on muscle. Muscle? He's shaking like a leaf, how's he gonna do anything?”
- Clip 3: “He wanted to talk about his father's symptoms. He Skyped and there he was, he was shaking like a leaf.”
🎧 Comprehension
- (Clip 1) What is the person doing?
- (Clip 2) Who are they talking about?
- (Clip 3) What emotion is she talking about?
Answer Key
- Setting her chair.
- A man / he.
- Fear or anxiety.
📘 Mini Dictionary
- trembling – shaking slightly
- symptoms – signs of illness
🍁 8) GET WIND OF (SOMETHING) hear a secret/rumor
Transcript (clips)
- Clip 1: “I thought the publicity would really help ZipCouch. Once the press gets wind of this…”
- Clip 2: “Yeah, Bolivians get wind of this. You know what they're gonna say? They're gonna say you wear pissy pants.
- Clip 3: If the pervert community gets wind of morning jogging, oh God help us!”
🎧 Comprehension
- (Clip 1) Who might get wind of it?
- (Clip 2) What are Bolivians going to say about him?
- (Clip 3) What sport is she talking about?
Answer Key
- The press / the media.
- He is wearing pissy pants / he is a coward.
- Morning jogging.
📘 Mini Dictionary
- press – media, journalists
- rumor – unconfirmed news
🍎 9) THE APPLE OF (SOMEONE’S) EYE the person loved most
Transcript (clips)
- Clip 1: “Look who it is, my husband, the apple of my eye.”
- Clip 2: “Oh, the apple of my eye, love of my life”.
- Clip 3: “He's the apple of your life”.
- Clip 4: “I mean, this household was a jewish place and his wife Dolly… well she was the apple of his eye.”
🎧 Comprehension
- (Clip 1) Who is she talking about?
- (Clip 2) How does he call her?
- (Clip 4) What religion did they belong to?
Answer Key
- Her husband.
- Love of my life.
- They were jewish.
📘 Mini Dictionary
- love of my life – person you love most
- household – family living together
🦃 10) QUIT (SOMETHING) COLD TURKEY stop suddenly & completely
Transcript (clips)
- Clip 1: “So, no, it's not your fault. It's partly my fault because I made you quit cold turkey.”
- Clip 2: “You're right, Lisa, Love isn't about fixing someone. I’m just going to give her up cold turkey
- Clip 3: “You need to prove to Tara that you can be trusted. I'm cold turkey, Jax — no booze, no weed, I'm serious.”
- Clip 4: “The world can’t quit on oil and nuclear power cold turkey.. You'll dismantle our entire economy overnight”
🎧 Comprehension
- (Clip 1) Is it her fault?
- (Clip 2) What is he going to do
- (Clip 3) What two things has the speaker stopped?
- (Clip 4) What can’t the world quit suddenly? Why?
Answer Key
- Yes, in part.
- Leave her (girlfriend).
- Alcohol and marijuana (“booze”, “weed”).
- Oil and nuclear power. It would damage the economy.
📘 Mini Dictionary
- booze – alcohol
- weed – marijuana
- overnight – very suddenly
🌾 WRITING ACTIVITY: pick one idiom and create a 2-line mini-dialogue using it naturally.
Then, let's write it down in the board and read it out loud.
Then, let's write it down in the board and read it out loud.
✍️WORKSHEET - FILL IN THE GAPS
You’ll have the definitions and you’ll have to match the two parts of the idioms.
HALLOWEEN IDIOMS!
Halloween is coming, so lets learn some scary idioms to get ourselves in the mood🎃
Halloween is coming, so lets learn some scary idioms to get ourselves in the mood🎃
Lets read aloud and learn some spooky idioms! Clic on the picture below:
🎃 HALLOWEEN READING – Midnight at Hollow Lodge read → spot idioms
It was the dead of night when Sara arrived at Hollow Lodge. The place looked like a ghost town, no lights in the windows, only the wind howling.
“Don’t be such a scaredy-cat,” her friend Jonas teased as they stepped inside.
Sara swallowed hard. They were here to dig up the Lodge’s secrets, but she feared she might be digging her own grave.
Inside, a skeleton crew of two caretakers greeted them. “Looks like we’re working the graveyard shift tonight,” Jonas joked.
A chill ran down Sara’s spine — it felt as if someone were casting a spell on us.
The door slammed. A whisper floated: “You’ll wish you’d never come…” The clock struck midnight — the witching hour.
“Run,” Sara hissed. Jonas only grinned: “The devil’s in the details of this place,” and pushed open the attic door.
There they found a box labelled Skeletons in the Closet. Letters. Photographs. Secrets long buried.
“See? This house has been hiding its skeletons for decades.”
As they fled, Jonas muttered, “Over my dead body am I staying here till sunrise.” Outside, the Lodge went silent again — a waiting ghost town.
💡 Idioms to notice
- dead of night – very late at night
- ghost town – place with almost no people or activity
- scaredy-cat – person who is easily frightened
- dig one’s own grave – cause your own problems or failure
- skeleton crew – minimum number of people to keep something running
- graveyard shift – night work shift, usually very late
- cast a spell on – enchant or strongly influence someone
- witching hour – midnight; time when supernatural things happen
- the devil’s in the details – small things can cause big problems
- skeletons in the closet – hidden secrets from the past
- over my dead body – absolutely not; never
🗣️ Quick tasks to review at home:
- Read aloud in pairs. Underline all idioms.
- Explain 3 idioms in your own words and give a new example.
- Which idiom best describes the house? Why?
▶️ Video lesson & Quiz
Lets listen: Halloween idioms
Quiz: Check your understanding
🎵 Listen and choose – Idioms in a spooky song
Lets finish with a sing-along using a song that includes spooky imagery and idiomatic language.
Tip: Choose “Beginner / Intermediate”, first do Multiple Choice, then repeat in Write Mode.
And that’s the icing on the cake for our first unit!😊
You’ve really hit the nail on the head with these idioms — now don’t rest on your laurels!
Keep your chin up and stay tuned for Unit 2!
You’ve really hit the nail on the head with these idioms — now don’t rest on your laurels!
Keep your chin up and stay tuned for Unit 2!
📘 Mini Dictionary – Farewell Idioms
| Idiom | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| the icing on the cake | Something extra that makes a good situation even better. | Learning idioms was fun, but your enthusiasm was the icing on the cake! |
| hit the nail on the head | To say or do exactly the right thing. | When you said English is crazy, you hit the nail on the head! |
| rest on your laurels | To stop working hard because you are satisfied with your past success. | We finished Unit 1, but don’t rest on your laurels — more fun is coming! |
| keep your chin up | Stay positive, even when things are difficult. | Phrasal verbs are tricky, but keep your chin up — you’ll get them! |
| stay tuned | Keep paying attention for future news or updates. | Stay tuned for Unit 2 and new surprises! |
