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  • Hi, Bob the Canadian here.

  • I know that all of you love learning English idioms,

  • so I thought in this video, we would walk around the farm.

  • As some of you know, I live on a flower farm.

  • You can actually see some white flowers

  • on this rosehip bush behind me.

  • And you can see some dahlias

  • just starting to come out of the ground over there.

  • I thought I would walk around the farm

  • and I would help you learn some idioms

  • that kinda come from this world.

  • Idioms that are about plants, about farming,

  • about the things that we produce on the farm,

  • that we actually use in every day English.

  • (gentle music)

  • Sometimes in English we'll say to someone

  • that they need to stop and smell the roses.

  • Now, we don't have roses on our farm,

  • but we do have peonies, (inhales)

  • and they smell beautiful as well.

  • What this phrase means though,

  • is that if you are very busy,

  • if you are working a lot,

  • if you are in school and all you do is study,

  • sometimes someone will say to you,

  • "Hey, you need to stop and smell the roses."

  • It means that you need to stop working

  • every once in a while.

  • You need to stop studying every once in a while.

  • And you just need to spend time with family or friends

  • or have a good meal and enjoy life a little bit.

  • So when we say that you need to stop and smell the roses,

  • it means that you need to enjoy life.

  • Speaking of roses, it reminds me of another phrase

  • that we use sometimes in English.

  • Sometimes we'll say that everything is coming up roses.

  • This means that in someone's life,

  • everything is now going really, really well.

  • Maybe you have a friend who just got a new job

  • and they're making a lot more money now

  • and they have a new girlfriend, and life is good.

  • You could say that for them, everything is coming up roses.

  • In English, when we describe something

  • as being garden variety, it simply means

  • it's the normal or ordinary version of something.

  • It doesn't mean that it grew in a garden.

  • So you can buy garden variety bluejeans.

  • Instead of spending a lot of money

  • on name brand, expensive bluejeans,

  • you could just buy the store brand

  • or a garden variety pair of bluejeans.

  • So whenever we describe something in English

  • as being garden variety, it simply means

  • it's the normal, ordinary, less expensive option.

  • So I have this log here

  • and it has a few little bumps on it.

  • So it's smooth and then there's a bump.

  • You can see the bump right here.

  • You can describe a person though, as being a bump on a log.

  • If you say that someone is a bump on a log,

  • it means that they're someone who just sits a lot

  • and doesn't do anything.

  • It might even mean they're a little bit lazy.

  • Maybe you have a friend or a relative,

  • and when you try to do some work with them,

  • they're just like a bump on a log.

  • They just kinda sit there and they don't do a whole lot.

  • So if you describe a person as being a bump on a log,

  • it's not a nice thing to say,

  • but basically you're just saying that they sit a lot,

  • they don't work very hard, and they're a little bit lazy.

  • So this is a haystack and this is a needle.

  • You can imagine if you lost this needle in this haystack.

  • It would be incredibly hard to find it back.

  • When we lose things in English,

  • and we know that finding it back will be really difficult,

  • we often use the phrase,

  • it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

  • Because, yeah, if you lost a needle in a haystack,

  • you would have a lot of trouble finding it back.

  • Sometimes at the end of a long evening,

  • when you are hanging out with friends,

  • someone might say, "Ah, I'm tired.

  • "I'm going to hit the hay."

  • They don't actually mean that they're going to hit hay,

  • like I'm (laughs) hitting this bale of hay.

  • What they mean is that they are going to go to bed.

  • In English sometimes, instead of saying,

  • "Oh, I'm tired, I'm going to go to bed."

  • We'll say, "Oh, I'm really tired.

  • "I'm going to hit the hay."

  • Behind me you can see a tree branch,

  • and we sometimes will call a tree branch a limb.

  • And we have an English idiom to go out on a limb.

  • When you say that you are going to go out on a limb,

  • it doesn't mean you're going to climb a tree

  • and go out on the branch.

  • But it means that you're going to do something risky.

  • It means that you are going to take a chance.

  • Maybe you have a new idea for a business.

  • You have a new idea of something you could sell.

  • But you're not sure if people will buy it.

  • You might go out on a limb,

  • and you might try to sell it anyways.

  • So when you take a chance, when you take a risk,

  • in English, sometimes we'll say

  • that you're going out on a limb.

  • As flowers grow, they eventually bloom.

  • Sometimes you have a bud and sometimes you have a bloom.

  • You can see that this peony is open.

  • It has bloomed,

  • but this one is a late bloomer.

  • And there is an English phrase late bloomer.

  • When you described someone as a late bloomer,

  • it means that they get good at something late in life.

  • Just like this flower will bloom later than this one,

  • sometimes people bloom later in life.

  • Maybe they don't learn how to play the guitar

  • when they are young, but they learn how to play it

  • when they're in their 20s or 30s

  • and they're really, really good at it.

  • We would describe that person as a late bloomer.

  • This stick is in the mud.

  • But you can also call a person a stick-in-the-mud.

  • If you say that someone is a stick-in-the-mud,

  • it means they don't like change.

  • They don't like doing new things.

  • I am definitely not a stick-in-the-mud.

  • I love change and I love doing new things.

  • But, if you call someone a stick-in-the-mud,

  • it means they don't like change

  • and they don't like trying new things.

  • Have you ever gotten the short end of the stick?

  • In English, if someone says

  • that they got the short end of the stick,

  • it means that they got a bad deal

  • or it means that someone else got a better deal for sure.

  • Let's imagine that you need to go to the store,

  • and you and your brother are going to both go,

  • but you only have one bicycle and your brother says,

  • "Because I'm older than you,

  • "I get to take the bicycle and you need to walk."

  • We would say that in that situation,

  • you got the short end of the stick.

  • You got a bad deal.

  • It's nice to be out of the sun and in the shade.

  • I like it that this tree has lots of leaves.

  • You can see this nice maple leaf right here.

  • We have an idiom in English to turn a new leaf.

  • When you turn a new leaf,

  • it means that you change a bad behavior in your life

  • and you try to replace it with a good behavior.

  • So maybe you are trying to turn a new leaf.

  • Maybe you are someone who complains a lot

  • and maybe you think to yourself,

  • "You know, I should complain less.

  • "Maybe I should turn a new leaf

  • "and I should try to always say positive things

  • "when I'm having conversations with people."

  • So, when you turn a new leaf,

  • it means that you try to replace a bad behavior

  • with a good behavior.

  • So this is a nut,

  • and the outside of the nut is called the nutshell.

  • Sometimes in English

  • when we tell someone about something we did,

  • we give them a really short version of the story,

  • and we say, "That's it in a nutshell."

  • I could say, "Yesterday, I got up.

  • "I had breakfast, I read a book all day.

  • "That's all I did, that's it in a nutshell."

  • So basically, when you say in a nutshell in English,

  • it means you're giving a summary

  • or you're giving a short version of a description of events.

  • So, that's it in a nutshell.

  • Well, hey, thank you so much for watching this video.

  • I hope you were able to learn a few more English idioms.

  • I know some of you probably were hoping to see more flowers.

  • They're still quite little,

  • but I will make another video later this summer,

  • where I'll show you lots of the flowers on our farm.

  • Remember, if you're new here,

  • don't forget to click that red subscribe button below

  • and give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn

  • just a little bit more English.

  • And if you have the time,

  • why don't you stick around and watch another video.

  • (upbeat music)

Hi, Bob the Canadian here.

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