10 Cliche Idioms You Should Stop Using

hello lovely I'm Maria and my name is Rory and in this episode we are going to talk about idiom Rory have you ever met people who use idioms in every sentence

yeah it's weird what's the weather like today it's raining cats and dogs did you enjoy the concert last night no it wasn't my cup of tea how often do you drink whiskey not very often I'd say

once in a blue moon how did you manage to finish all these essays I had to burn the Midnight Oil why do you get up at 5am in the morning because the early

bird catches the worm I do not have a worm for this it sounds really strange right it does so for this episode we picked 10 idioms that everyone seems to be using poorly or incorrectly we're

gonna show you how to use them naturally okay ready yes and to do that we have a very special guest Jessica is the director of curriculum development at

all ears English and it's a very long title so this is why I'm having to look at the script for it it is sorry and she's also one of the co-hosts for the IELTS energy podcast as well and she's

an ex-examiner of 14 years hey hello Jessica hi hi everyone I have all the ears podcast and energy

IELTS energy right tell us about your shows yeah yeah so the all ears English podcast um I'm on there sometimes and it's Lindsay and Michelle and Aubry and they

talk about um fluency they dig deep into grammar and vocabulary and even culture on there we actually have another podcast now the

business English podcast from all ears English which is also amazing um and the one that I'm on that I think your listeners will dig the most is the

IELTS energy podcast so me and Aubry have two new episodes every single week we talk about all the skills of IELTS you know how to master everything

listening Reading Writing speaking and lots of fun vocabulary episodes raining cats and dogs our introduction right how was it for

you was it natural were you okay with that but you know a lot of those idioms um are cliche at this point and native

speakers don't use them a lot if this is an idiom like reigning cats and dogs you know that is the great example because that is one idiom I tell my students like never to use really

because like nobody says that um but if it's an idiom that you learned in your first year of English or you've seen it on three or more idiom lists

online then like don't say it so it's raining cats and dogs is an old idiom nobody uses it right Rory would you use it well I would but not to convey the

meaning about the weather you would use it to make people laugh like we did in our opener which is a use for English but it's not something general that's a very specific use it's like the irony I

think it's not the the real meaning that you want to convey to people I mean that's when we use any cliche right because we're using it in a sarcastic way so we let the other person know like

I'm making a joke this is cheesy and then everybody laughs what would you say how can we make it more natural so if it's raining heavily just like like what

can you say I say like it's raining buckets or it's pouring outside right so pouring isn't exactly an idiom I guess it's used idiomatically in that sense

right because the water is pouring from the sky or gushing from the sky right but I would say yeah it's like raining buckets I say that a lot and you say

it's pissing down can I say piss on this podcast Maria so the neutral option is like it's pouring down it's British and American right yeah okay I wouldn't say bucketing

we don't say that here it's not my cup of tea our next idiom is it's not my cup of tea for example I did yoga yesterday and it

wasn't my cupboard Jessica would you say that um again like Rory noted earlier I would say it to be funny um and guys like when you're doing that I know this is hard to convey as a

non-native like sarcasm how do I do that that's some really difficult language skill in another language um and it's all about the intonation you know what I mean it has to be like high

and extreme like not my cup of tea like it's really just like high descending intonation and then

I know that or they know that I'm joking um I would just say like that's not that's not really my thing yeah that's not my saying you see jealous oh I I did

yoga yesterday that wasn't my thing isn't that a British English like idiom instead of like would you like some tea like what do you want a Cuppa that's I've seen it in movies Rory is that a

thing is it an idiom or is it just like one of these weird Expressions that it has a name that I've forgotten right now but it is a British thing yes for for tea specifically you don't ask someone

if they want a cup of bourbon um if we talk about why not would you like a cop no okay maybe I would no no no and then and then go blind afterwards

um if we talk about it's not my cup of tea then I would it's like Jessica said it's not my thing it's not really my thing or it wasn't really my thing although you could maybe we take the edge off it's not my cup of tea by

saying it's not really my cup of tea like adding in the really there might take like break it up a little bit but it's not the first thing I would reach for and here's the thing like listeners

sometimes I think students hear of an episode like this and they think well why are you telling me what people don't use you know what I mean but here's here's another reason why this is useful

is because the amount of Pop Culture that everyone takes in these days right movies from all the years about all the years TV shows music books you're gonna see and hear these idioms all over the

place they are cliche for a reason you know what I mean because they're used all the time they have been so it is useful totally to know what they mean and recognize them

um but you don't it's it's better to to say these other Alternatives now we're giving you it's a piece of cake

our next idiom is it's a piece okay something that is very easy for example making pancakes pancakes you know pancakes pancakes making pancakes is a piece of

cake Rory what would you say do you ever use it it's not not in the full form no but I've heard people say just like piece of cake in um in media but that not the whole thing

not it's a piece of cake just piece of cake uh to describe something easy but it's not um in huge numbers in the media that I've seen or talking to real people so

we don't say the full thing it's a piece of cake no piece of cake and we say that piece of cake piece of cake piece of cake piece of cake yeah do you ever say

it sometimes I mean yeah I have been known to say that um I think normally though I just say easy peasy or if you want to like make

it longer like easy peasy lemon squeezy whatever you want to like rhyme with that um but I like that note that sometimes we don't use the whole idiom though

there's um I did a YouTube video a couple years ago on IELTS energy TV about the half idioms that natives use like um when in Rome like we never say

the whole thing when in Rome do as the Romans do like that takes forever so instead we just say when in Rome and so there's these like half idioms that you can convey to sound more natural but

yeah like I do comment like that piece of cake um yeah I've said that sometimes but my favorite is easy peasy and the Rory you don't use like biscuit but you heard it I've heard it yes it's not something

that I would say though um I I usually just say it's easy um and that's about it but then I'm not very imaginative sometimes it sounds like pizza cake but no that's not what

we're saying peace uh cake that's important once in a blue moon our next idiom is once in a blue moon

which means not very often for example Rory lives in Scotland I am in Moscow I see him once in a blue moon Rory do you

ever say this this I have again aired before but it's not something that I've said but more than once or twice it's not something you would use regularly it's usually

usually a question like how often do you do something if you say like oh once in a blue moon and then move on to the next thing but that's not with any regularity I don't think there's uh I don't think it's something that people use to

describe their situation very often what about you Jessica I actually love the phrase that you just used instead of once in a blue moon being like not with

any regularity like that like that such a smart sounding phrase oh you you like that one then you're gonna love the other one which is not with any degree

of any regularity or not with any great degree of regularity that's the other one as well that's exhausting why would you say that many words if you don't

have to come come to Britain that we have words for we have excessive numbers of words for everything burn the Midnight Oil

okay the next one is interesting burn the Midnight Oil Rory could you tell us what it means burn the Midnight Oil it is my favorite one because I'm trying to

lead a Revival for people to start using it however to burn the Midnight Oil is to work through the night on something Jessica easy to use today or is is it a

cliche should we learn it should we use it um yeah I mean use it if you want to I you know honestly like any of these idioms guys if you if they like click with you if they resonate with you if

they are fun for you to say then say it like it's not gonna ruin communication it's not gonna like you know stop a connection from happening

um I think uh the thing like idioms and slang guys if they're fun for you to say that then say it like have fun with words that you're using use English that

you enjoy um do I say this uh sometimes yeah I mean honestly there's not a lot of context for me to say this at this point

you know I'm 43. I don't burn the Midnight Oil anymore I mean maybe when I was like a university or maybe in my 20s or something but you know now I go to

sleep at at a proper time um and I sleep well and I wake up every really so I don't have the opportunity to use it that much

um but yeah like I do hear people say it sometimes if you talk about your University is what would you uh any other synonym that you would use like to

say that you stayed up late no I can't think of any like idiomatic or slangy synonym it would just be in um the way like the intonation and

describing how little I slept I could be like oh like I did not sleep at all maybe maybe just throwing in a double negative in there to emphasize like

didn't sleep at all I worked through the night there's a good uh phrasal verb we can put in there as I said them worked through the night our friends that you

see praise the verbs are better than idioms work through the night The Click is in the description okay what about like I pulled an all-nighter oh yeah I yeah that one more call that's a good

one I don't know why um but I it sounds like it's something that came from America over to the UK but if you ask me to explain why I couldn't it just sounds there's something American about it I don't know

like pool pill something is more of an American thing do Americans have the phrase like pull a fast one I'm wondering if that is an overlap yeah so yeah yeah I think this might be an American

one it's still cool though um but it's not again one you want to overuse Bob's your uncle our next idiom is one of my favorite

ones Bob's your uncle for example just open the Google podcasts type IELTS speaking for success and Bob's your

uncle you'll find our show so Jessica do you ever say this Bob's your uncle no you know what I say instead I say Tada um like that's what I would say it's

literally like instead of that so um you wanna you wanna find Isles energy just type in Isles energy and there's our podcast because really all you're

doing is like presenting Tada okay well Bob's your uncle Roy do you think it's British English I was about to say I think this is a British thing um but why it's never been used by Americans I don't know

um like you say maybe today alternative yeah Duke have many bulbs in your country we have tons of Bobs everybody has an Uncle Bob again like watching uh

like watching a movie or TV show that was made a long time ago or about a time you know in the past um that's when I would have come across it come across phrasal verb I'm Gonna

Keep highlighting your phrasal verb course because that's so cool every time I say a praise a phrase over I would be like okay hey uh IELTS for Success friends over of course

um so yeah like I've come across it but uh never used it myself okay Rory could you give us another example to make sure that our listener does understand it yes go to success with ielts.com forward

slash pod courses and download our phrasal verb scores today I'm Bob's your uncle you're a phrasal verbs master the early bird catches the worm

the next idiom is the early bird catches the worm I say the early bird gets the worm catches Rory do you say catches I'm more likely to say gets but I'd wonder

if that's because of the influence of American culture over the years it's expanded I say that sometimes and I know it is cliche and um overused but that is something I

still hear people say honestly and again like um some of this does come down to context in your lifestyle right like I am not likely to use or hear people say

burn the Midnight Oil but I am likely to hear people use um the early bird catches the worm or gets the worm in what context like oh

Jessica like uh do you get up early um yeah because I have to get done with a lot of work before uh before I get my

son at three o'clock and the early bird catches the worm but I was thinking about well the Alternatives might be and I would usually seek to get in early um and some people talk about to

physically go into a place early I uh here it used to mean getting work done early get your work in early for example give us a sentence uh oh well somebody said like um oh why are you up at this

time and I was like well I think it's important to get in early you know um that was a phrasal verb you know the uh the video that I think is more

General that could be used in this context and a variety of contexts talking about early morning to say the crack of dawn you know like if you want to convey this idea that you get up

early to do something to do anything or even if you didn't mean to get up early but you did right you'd be like oh I was up at the crack of dawn this morning I don't know why I just couldn't go back

to sleep or oh my gosh I'm so tired I had to wake up at the crack of dawn because I had all much work to do um I'm gonna sleep in tomorrow yeah I

was up at the crack of dawn I was thinking as well but what Jessica was saying about using half of the idiom here and you can't use it but you can't make a slight modification just by saying well you know what they say about

and then half of the idiom so in this case it would be you know what they say about the early bird um and then the other half you assume the other person knows what you're saying that's a really good point

actually you could also I think we also use this to be like um like cute with friends you know if they are like super productive and get up early and do stuff you're like well okay early bird and

again it's just taking it from that idiom but just using those two words yeah but it's it's not the whole thing it's the part like you know what they say about that Midnight Oil I don't know

why I'm doing that with my hands I say if you learn an idiom learn the full thing and use the full thing as it is okay don't just tune only super natives

feel what they might do and like how they can change what path to use what part not to use oh Maria no experiment just not in an IELTS exam or anything

like that cool is a cucumber okay cool as a cucumber or as cool as a

cucumber no no also yeah I mean this I've you know I've heard it I've seen it like it's it's used sometimes um but it does sound super cheesy to me

it is very cliche you know um how would I describe someone that's cool as a cucumber um I would well I would just say they're super cool you know what I mean just uh

throwing in super in there for the adjective but cool as a cucumber really means like calm um unflappable in the face of uh challenges right somebody that is

um um just yeah even Keel I guess is a phrase we could throw in as a city as a synonym um yeah or you're doing this right now

so it reminds me of just calling someone Zen you could say that as an adjective which is kind of slangy like no he's super Zen it doesn't matter what dumpster fire is happening around him

he's gonna stay super cool although on the subject of Expressions that we use alternatively I went on a bit of an adventure to find some alternatives to this and I discovered

something because the words I would use are unfazed and non-plussed which just means that it doesn't affect you but apparently in America non-plussed means

something completely different to what it means in the UK so if I said somebody was non-plus Jessica what would you say how do they feel if they're non-plussed it means they are unimpressed yet over

in the UK apparently it means that people are confused so it's so fun it's funny how there's this one word that's got two totally different meanings weird yeah that's so

odd but I've only heard the American usage I haven't heard that used any to mean anything else besides how we use it um yeah I would say

let's see if this will be in response to someone asking how you feel or how you liked something right so if somebody was like um did you uh what'd you think about a vet last night did you know was

it useful did you meet make a lot of new connections I could be like I was I was getting a non-plussed actually it was pretty boring and useless [Music]

be busy as a bee to be as busy as a Bee I love that Jessica are you as busy as a Bee these days I'm always busy as a Bee man that's

fun to say you know because it sounds like a b busy as the beat um let's see do I say that though yeah again I know it's a cliche but it is

something I'll throw in there um let's see what would I say instead maybe maybe two let's see exaggerate we exaggerate a lot in English to make a

point to emphasize a point so I could be like oh I don't get a moment's rest these days or I don't have a moment free these days um like no that's not exactly true it's

an exaggeration um but it does convey like I'm super busy Roya would you say that um you know I I wasn't thinking about that although I like Jessica's Alternatives because the only one I

could think of was just being a busy bee which is a slight paraphrase of the original I'm a busy bee I've heard that one before I'm a busy bee that's adorable but then I I hear people use

Expressions about insects all the time like being a social butterfly and things like that so it all kind of fits together for me you know what's crazy Social Butterflies need to to visit wall

flowers so if I'm a social butterfly I kind of what what do I do I visit different places socialize with people yeah Social Butterflies just um your classic extrovert they're good

at going and talking to lots of people um they uh people want to talk to them right they're not like annoying people a social butterfly usually like has lots

of friends and is outgoing whereas a Wallflowers the opposite of that a Wallflower goes to an event with a group of people and does not interact with anybody it just like stands aside

against a wall or something and is very shy actually people often say like look at you being a social butterfly um I want to say that it's British but

not for any particular reason other than it's cool and I want to lay claim to it culturally what do you think Jessica it's no it's ours I'm afraid oh okay awesome it's yours I've claimed it I've claimed

it now an apple a day keeps the doctor away so let's wrap it up with an apple a day keeps the doctor away this like

exhausted you already I think they know our message come on please tell me that nobody uses this not in the full form yeah exactly it's a half idiom right

um yeah it would you would still hear people say like well an apple a day honestly like this is what Apple's such a part of our like linguistic slang

um like you know um was that movie with Ben Affleck uh Goodwill Hunting when he's like how about them apples that's become like a cliche people say that we love to talk

about apples I do hear people use this as talking like just whatever's healthy so um well an apple a day like if you say

well I'm really I'm trying to eat better I'm trying to have like vegetables with every dinner not have meat and you're like well you know an apple a day um it's just sort of like a comment on

someone else talking about healthy habits Rory could you give us an example with half the idiom I'm not very healthy so I don't know if I'm very good at that

okay okay how about like um let's talk about your University days like um let's not did you keep fit like did you eat healthily well then in that case it

would be well despite what they say about an apple a day I didn't go to the gym that much and and spent a lot of my time eating pizza so not very healthy you know now that we're trying to come

up with natural examples I'm realizing like we really do only use this to like joke you know like it I mean we really don't use this to mean what it means that often

um I think it's often like sarcastic like it's um okay oh so here's the story okay I got a good story here so my my mom is a dietitian

so she knows all the health food science stuff right and um she told my son that ice cream is very

healthy because it has protein and calcium and so my son took that and ran with it and he's like well Grandma said ice cream's healthy I should have it

every day an apple a day Mom and it's just like it's you know it's a joke type thing so I think that's really the only time I would use it if it's like to me

the opposite of what it actually means you know what I mean wow dylis now you see how confusing this is so if you are

not 200 sure idioms phrasal verbs do you have an idiom you often use maybe your favorite idiom could you write in the comments I

really want to know what idioms you often use so write in the comments please okay maybe a sentence maybe your favorite idiom or some idioms that you really don't understand you like hate

them I'm sorry egms so please write them down in the comments Jessica you do have a course right yes guys so first remember for free our podcast IELTS

energy follow it wherever you listen to podcasts check out the Isles energy TV channel on YouTube um and we do have an IELTS course guys

um and it now comes with lifetime access and everyone gets personal feedback on speaking and writing on their final practice test so do check that out guys

um alliersenglish.com k-e-y-s thank you so much for being with us oh my pleasure my pleasure have me on

again okay yes please bye guys