How to learn and use English idioms
2025-11-16 19 min
Description & Show Notes
Unlock the secret power of idioms! In this fun and lively episode, the 3 English Experts break down colourful expressions—from sports and colours to cakes—that will instantly make your English sound more natural, confident, and unforgettable. Dive in, laugh along, and discover just how sweet learning idioms can be.
Want to take our “Know Your Idioms Quiz” before you start listening, click here: https://wordwall.net/resource/102125048
- [0:00–1:03] Introduction and overview of the episode: Idioms
- [1:04–3:38] Dave’s Section: Sports idioms
- [3:38–4:19] Birgit mentions German equivalents
- [4:19–5:00] Discussion about translation difficulties
- [5:01–7:05] Birgit’s colour idioms. 1. Red idioms
- [7:38–8:19] 2. Green idioms
- [8:42–9:30] 3. White idioms
- [9.31–10:08] Closing Birgit’s section
- [10:10–13:06] Rebecca’s Section: Food & Cake Idioms
- [13:07–13:34] German cake time & tea time
- [13:35–14:08] Birgit’s translation for “Monday morning quarterback”
- [14:09–15:30] Are idioms Important? Discussion and advice
- [15:31–16:15] Birgit: Additional Blue Idioms & motivation
- [16:16–17:38] Golden Nugget: Learning idioms by theme
- [17:38–18:06] Preview of the next episode
- [18:06–18:34] Final thanks and listener support
Want to work with US.
Rebecca: https://rebeccadeacon.com
Birgit: https://birgitkasimirski.de
Entdecken Sie die geheime Kraft von Redewendungen! In dieser unterhaltsamen und lebhaften Folge analysieren die drei Englisch-Experten farbenfrohe Ausdrücke – von Sport und Farben bis hin zu Kuchen –, die Ihr Englisch sofort natürlicher, selbstbewusster und unvergesslicher klingen lassen. Tauchen Sie ein, lachen Sie mit und entdecken Sie, wie schön das Lernen von Redewendungen sein kann.
Möchtest Du unser „Know Your Idioms Quiz” machen, bevor Sie mit dem Anhören beginnen, klicke hier: https://wordwall.net/resource/102125048
- [0:00–1:03] Einführung und Überblick über die Folge: Redewendungen
- [1:04–3:38] Daves Abschnitt: Sport-Redewendungen
- [3:38–4:19] Birgit erwähnt deutsche Entsprechungen
- [4:19–5:00] Diskussion über Übersetzungsschwierigkeiten
- [5:01–7:05] Birgits Farbidiosmen. 1. “Rot“ Idiome
- [7:38–8:19] 2. “Grün“ Idiome
- [8:42–9:30] 3. “Weiß“ Idiome
- [9.31–10:08] Abschluss von Birgits Abschnitt
- [10:10–13:06] Rebeccas Abschnitt: Redewendungen zu Essen und Kuchen
- [13:07–13:34] Deutsche Kuchenzeit und Teezeit
- [13:35–14:08] Birgits Übersetzung für „Monday morning quarterback”
- [14:09–15:30] Sind Redewendungen wichtig? Diskussion und Ratschläge
- [15:31–16:15] Birgit: Weitere blaue Redewendungen & Motivation
- [16:16–17:38] Golden Nugget: Redewendungen nach Themen lernen
- [17:38–18:06] Vorschau auf die nächste Folge
- [18:06–18:34] Abschließender Dank und Unterstützung der Zuhörer
Transcript
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi and welcome to the 3 English Experts.
I'm Birgit.
I'm Dave.
And I'm Rebecca.
And welcome to this episode.
3 English Experts is your English podcast to help you speak better English and create a positive and happy mindset for your English learning journey.
Hi everybody and welcome back to this episode.
Today we're talking about idioms.
So those nice little phrases that make your language sound a bit more colourful or interesting.
Sometimes you can translate them directly, sometimes not, which makes them kind of difficult.
And they're the kind of thing you need to learn very well, because you make one little mistake and then it all goes wrong.
So we're going to go and try and sort of make some easy examples, nothing too complicated.
So we figured we'd divide it into different topics.
We're all going to cover a different theme.
So Dave's going to kick off with sport, right?
Kick off, I like it.
Thank you, Rebecca.
Indeedy-deedy.
We're going to do about sports idioms.
So to kick off, I'm sure you've heard of touch base, but did you know it's from baseball?
Okay, so where you make contact or you check in with somebody.
Maybe you've heard of move the goalposts, which is when the goalposts move in football.
And so they change something in the middle of a process of something.
Maybe you've also heard of throw in the towel, which comes from boxing, which means when you give up or you admit defeat.
But here are three new ones.
Firstly, from baseball, to hit it out of the park.
So for example, if you do something extremely well, for example, you could say your pitch, there's a play on words there, the pitch hit it out of the park.
So it was an extremely good pitch presentation that you did.
Also from cricket, you know, the English sports with the bats and some ballers and lots of people on a field.
Very boring for non Brits.
And there is the phrase called balled over from what the bowlers do when they try to ball this ball and knock over the wickets, all very complicated.
But to ball somebody over means that they are amazed or very impressed.
So you could say that after they hit the presentation out of the park, the people were balled over, they were amazed or very impressed by your presentation.
And finally, there will always be the boss of you, who from American English, I didn't know this word before from American football, he or she is the Monday morning quarterback.
So what does that mean?
As I said, I'd never heard of that before.
Someone who criticises something after the fact.
Okay, so the boss then come across criticises your pitch, which everyone else was happy about.
Except, of course, for the boss, who decided to criticise it afterwards, and not before.
So the Monday morning quarterback.
Okay, that's my three from sports.
So Birgit, what are your topics?
Hello, everybody.
My topic is colours.
But before I come to this, what was coming to my head when I listen to you, Dave, is because I think learners are always looking for the equivalent, the German equivalent, because we talk about idioms now, Redewendung, and there are a lot of games you can buy, like card play games, like they do the Denglish, because people try to translate it literally.
And now when I hear those, can you think of a German equivalent and sort of the Monday morning quarterback?
So this is what comes to the head, would there be equivalents?
Or we will deliver that in the show notes, maybe at least to find out.
Yeah, putting me on the spot here.
I didn't even think about translating them.
But you're absolutely right.
Putting somebody on the spot is also an idiom, right?
Put somebody on the spot.
Okay.
What do you want to say, Rebecca?
No, I was just gonna say it is quite difficult to find an equivalent.
Sometimes they translate absolutely directly, and other times not.
I mean, the Monday morning quarterback, I'd also never heard that.
But yeah, somebody who, instead of giving you a chance to change your presentation before, they criticise afterwards.
Like in Nachhinein, they know everything better kind of thing.
They know better after the event.
But I don't know if there's a German word for that.
I have no idea.
I will check because very often there is, and I'm very quick, so I will deliver that in a minute or so.
But let's talk about my colours first.
Because what I have on my mind then is always the translation.
I know that people are so much looking for that when they want to learn them.
And anyway, what's your favourite colour, Dave?
Well, of course, it's red.
Red for Liverpool Football Club, and red for my glasses, which is corporate design red glasses.
Okay.
Corporate Liverpool red design.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
The reds.
Wow.
Impressed.
Okay.
So I have some idioms with the colour red, and that's easy to translate.
I'll start with the easy ones, easy to translate.
See red.
No problem.
What's in?
To be in the red.
Yes.
And then there are some which we can't really translate.
So maybe people have heard or have not heard of.
To be caught red-handed.
To be caught in the act of doing something bad.
So a frischer Tat, a taps sein.
Yeah, it has got nothing to do with the colour when we talk of that.
So that's a nice learning, maybe a nice takeaway for people.
Also, interesting red tape that's referring.
So the natives are nodding.
I don't think that you are nodding out there.
Red tape is bureaucracy, but too much of it over bureaucratic.
So maybe we have a lot of this in Germany.
So we are a red tape country.
Could we say that?
Yes, Dave is nodding heavily.
Germany created red tape, I think.
Red tape.
Okay.
Yes.
And then another one with red.
To paint the town red.
Again, we wouldn't be able to have a mnemonic aid and an easelspoke here to burn the city or what would be to really...
To paint the town red is to have a party.
Party, party, yeah.
I always think of paint the town red as put my red lipstick on, and then I'm out.
Paint the town red.
But does that mean you're doing something stupid or that is just going on?
No, just having fun.
Having a good time and like really having a party, not just going home at 11.
You're staying out till three and you're spending lots of money and having a lot of fun.
That's paint the town red.
Yeah, that's a nice idea to think of really going out with lipstick on.
Yeah.
Maybe not for the men.
I have to put my red glasses on.
Yeah, I don't know.
Yeah.
But you see, when we talk about this in this way, it may be easier for you to remember in the long run.
Okay.
Any chance what's your favourite colour, Rebecca?
Well, I was just thinking I am in Ireland, so I'm going to go green.
Oh, thank you very much.
Yes.
And then we have, again, some idioms you could use to have a green thumb.
That's easy enough to translate.
We also say that.
Or green fingers, we say, not thumb.
Oh, okay.
You mean for gardening or what do you mean?
Yeah.
But I think the green thumb also exists, doesn't it, Dave?
Wouldn't you?
I would say we've got green fingers.
Fingers, yeah.
I'd say green fingers, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Green fingers.
Do we have thumbs?
I don't know.
Well, we have thumbs, but do we?
Maybe we don't use our thumbs for gardening.
I have no idea.
I would say she's got, I haven't got green fingers, like, because I've got plants.
But I don't know.
Maybe in the American saying green thumbs.
I don't know.
Yeah, maybe.
And then you can be green with envy.
Maybe think of that.
What was that comic figure called?
He was green.
Oh my God.
Now I brought something up.
I can't really.
There's lots of green characters.
Yeah, green characters in films.
The Hulk.
The Hulk.
Incredible Hulk.
The Hulk, for example.
Yeah, that would be something to remember with the envy.
Yeah.
The nightishes on somebody.
Give the green light.
That's easy enough to translate.
And the grass is always greener on the other side, of course.
Yes.
But I want to add another learning.
Not so easy to translate.
Maybe the white lie.
The white lie is a lie you really resort to if you can't think of anything else.
Right.
And it's the small one.
You would say, well, it wasn't a big lie.
It was a white lie.
It's just a little.
It's just a white lie.
Yeah.
Okay.
Not the North Luger.
I didn't know.
Okay.
That's I didn't know that.
Emergency lie.
Emergency lie.
Yeah.
They play with this translations.
There are a few card games and that's what comes up.
Emergency lie.
Emergency lie.
Very good.
Exactly.
Okay.
So that's from my side on the colours.
I'm going to look up the quarterback and Rebecca, your part now.
So finishing with me, I'm going to talk about food.
Oh, what a great topic.
Great topic.
Right.
And specifically cake.
Oh, even better.
We've got to finish with the cake.
So first of all, obviously food, you can say it's food for thought.
I would say that's a nice one.
Again, doesn't really translate to German.
I don't think you say stuff.
Would you say that?
Yeah.
Stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The thought.
So if you someone gives you an idea and then you go away and you say, okay, that's food for thought.
It's something for me.
Exactly.
Food for thought.
So moving on to cake.
Nice, easy one.
It's a piece of cake.
Piece of cake is like kinderspiel, like child's play.
We also say in English, but it means the same thing.
Something that's like super easy.
Oh, how was your exam?
Piece of cake.
Piece of cake.
It was just so easy.
Then we've got, what else do I have?
Oh, the icing on the cake.
That's like the nice extra.
The Germans have cream, you know, they have the Zahner option.
We have icing.
Yeah.
You always use icing.
That's very British people.
So every cake needs to have an icing.
Full covering and, and, and dads or moms, they do a lot for, for a birthday cake.
Absolutely.
You got to have the icing.
In American, they would call it frosting, but we call it icing.
Same thing.
So on a cupcake, you have icing.
Yeah.
The Germans don't have Zahner on everything.
It's like everything with a massive thing of Zahner, like cake with a huge amount of Zahner.
Yes.
But you know the song.
Yes, I do.
Yes.
I always think it's funny.
You get this like piece of apple cake and the cream is more than, bigger than the cake.
Yes, of course.
So, yeah.
So we have the icing on the cake is the nice extra.
So you, something's good and then you get something even better.
The icing on the cake.
The other one, which I kind of, I don't like this one because I don't get my cake.
You can't have your, you can't have your cake and eat it.
This is such a stupid phrase, but it's a really common one.
You can't have your cake and eat it.
Meaning you can't do.
Exactly.
You can't have everything.
I think the German is the German one about dancing at two weddings or something.
Yeah.
It's like, you can't have everything.
You can't.
Exactly.
But I want my cake and I want to eat it.
What am I going to do with it?
Look at it.
Have my cake and then just look at it.
But that is quite a nice one.
But you can't have your cake and eat it.
Yeah.
Maybe.
Isn't the one with cherry on the top?
Am I thinking this now?
The cherry on the top.
Isn't that like icing on the cake?
The cherry on the top.
Cherry on top.
Yeah.
Maybe.
Yeah.
There's also cherry picking.
So like you only want to take the best bit.
Right.
You take the cherry off the cake.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
So there are my cake idioms.
Yes.
And the right time in the afternoon for it.
Exactly.
German cake time.
Yes.
Tea and coffee.
Well, what time is official cake time?
Is it, is it from three or is it from two?
What do you mean every day?
Like Kuchenzeit.
Like Kaffeekuchen.
When does it begin?
I don't think it's that strict, but I would rather tend to say three rather than four.
Yeah.
I think four o'clock in England, but three o'clock in Germany.
Earlier.
Tea time.
Well, official tea time is from three.
Oh, also three.
So, okay.
So three o'clock.
Same time.
Yeah.
The quarterback actually I found nothing else than Besserwisser.
And, and the special thing is that somebody criticises im Nachhinein, so after.
That's, that's the, the special thing.
So it could be, people say, Ich will ja kein Besserwisser sein, aber.
Aber.
Okay.
So it's, yeah.
So it's like a know it all, but after the event kind of thing.
Yeah.
And how can we, what is it in terms of, is it very important to know these idioms or is it.
It's the icing on the cake, Birgit.
Okay.
The question of taste.
I mean, I think it is nice to know them.
And I think it depends on, think about yourself in your own language.
Do you use them in your own language?
Cause some people love these and they use them all the time.
And other people, it's just not their style of speaking.
So again, be authentic, do what suits you in your own language.
Don't use them just because someone told you, you have to, you don't have to.
On the other hand, it's good to understand some of them because you know, people, British people do use them not all the time, but they might come up in business as well, not only in small talk.
So it's worth learning, it's worth learning a few.
Just, I wouldn't focus all my time on it as a language learner.
I think I would be like a, you know, a short, it's like vocabulary.
And that's the other thing is learn them exactly.
So it's not a piece from the cake, for example, it's a piece of cake.
Something's easy.
It's a piece of cake.
And then you hear people say a piece from the cake.
And it's just one little word.
It's just the preposition, but it changes the meaning.
It just doesn't work, you know?
So I think that's the other, I would say, learn them really like vocabulary, like a phrase and really exactly.
Yeah.
And as you said, Rebecca, I only use them in my own language once in the blue moon.
So there's something with blue again, coming back not very often.
And yeah, people might use them a lot or just out of the blue, let's say suddenly.
Yes.
And I think what's good about the idioms is that people usually like them.
So, and it's, it's nice and fancy to know a few of them.
So that can be very motivating and hopefully we can motivate you to look for, yeah, categories.
And if you, if you give in any category, there will be probably idioms coming up referring to that category.
Again, nodding Dave.
Absolutely.
The Golden Nugget.
So this week's Golden Nugget is learning idioms.
As you noticed, I took sports, Birgit took colours, and Rebecca went really niche and not just food, but even cakes.
So this is a perfect way to learn your idioms.
And this is one of our Golden Nuggets from our 50 Golden Nuggets, our PDF that we've produced, which you can now go ahead and pick up at our website, 3englishexperts.com, and then just leave your name and email and we'll post it on to you.
And also there, you can get a link to the Padlet and on a Padlet, which is like a digital board, notice board.
On the Padlet, you have lots of info about the various themes that we have there, the nuggets, the 50 nuggets.
And for the number 17, which was all about learning idioms in themes, we have a quiz to go along with it.
So go ahead, sign up and enjoy the 50 Golden Nuggets and the Padlet that goes along with it.
Yes, thank you, Dave.
And in our next episode, we will learn about one more communication tool from Dave.
He's got so many tools in his toolbox for communicating professionally and on a higher level in English.
And he's going to tell us more about one of them in our next episode.
So hopefully, you will be listening to us again.
Bye for now.
And thanks for listening.
Bye.
Bye.
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