Are you ready to expand your  vocabulary? Let's do it. 

A few months ago I made this video, 50 Important  English Phrases, and you loved it. Unfortunately  

there were a lot of phrases that I didn't include  in that lesson. Of course there are more than 50  

phrases that are important in English, so good  news. Today I'm going to help you to grow your  

knowledge, expand your vocabulary, and learn  50 more important phrases in English. These  

phrases are divided into different categories  like animals, body, work, transportation,  

wisdom. This will just help you to categorize  them in your mind and help you to remember them,  

I hope. You are definitely going to hear these  when you watch English movies and TV shows and  

have conversations. We use them all the time.  Let's get started with our first category. 

Our first category are idioms that have to  do with animals or animal characteristics.  

For each of these idioms, I'm going to be  telling you the idiom, then giving you a  

sample sentence. I want you to think about  what might this idiom mean in that context,  

and then I'm going to tell you what the  definition is. This is going to test your  

context skills. Of course, it's just one  sentence, it's not a whole conversation,  

but I hope that this will help you be able  to understand these when you hear them in  

conversation so that you can get the full picture. All right, let's start with the first one.  

A little bird told me. "A little bird told me  it was your birthday. Here's a present." Mmm,  

this is when you know a secret but you don't  want to reveal who told you. So, if you're giving  

a little present to your friend and your friend  thinks that you don't know that it's his birthday,  

you might say this sentence, "A little bird told  me it was your birthday today. Here you go." 

As the crow flies. "As the crow flies I'm  pretty close to the school, but because of  

lots of one-way streets it takes me a long time  to get there." What do you think this means? As  

the crow flies. A crow is a kind of bird. It's  really big and black. There's a lot of crows  

in my yard and they always make loud caw sounds.  Caw, caw, caw. They're always really loud. I'm not  

sure why they chose this for this idiom, but this  means that if you take the straightest distance,  

not accounting for one-way streets, just  a straight distance, as the crow flies,  

"I'm not that far from my school, but because of  one-way streets it takes me forever to get there." 

To kill two birds with one stone. "I wanted to  bake cookies with my son and I needed to make  

another English lesson for you here on YouTube,  so I decided to kill two birds with one stone,  

and I did both." Have you seen the lesson  where I baked cookies, chocolate chip cookies,  

with my three-year-old son? You can watch this up  here. It is a delight. It was delightful to film  

that with him and to eat cookies together. What  do you think this idiom means? Hmm. It means that  

you're getting two things done at the same time.  You're saving time and you're being efficient. 

Curiosity killed the cat. Well, it's getting  close to Christmas time here in the US,  

and if a package arrives at our door and  my son says, "Hey, I see we got a package,"  

I might say, "Hey, curiosity killed the cat.  Don't ask questions around Christmas time."  

And that's kind of hinting that probably  this is a Christmas present for him  

and I don't want him to open that package. I'm  kind of warning him about being too curious.  

So this is the meaning of the idiom that being  curious can sometimes get you into trouble. 

Cat got your tongue. "What's the matter?  Why are you so quiet? Cat got your tongue?"  

Imagine if a cat got your tongue. Mmm. This is  talking about being speechless or not talking,  

being quiet, and usually it's probably because  you can't think of something to say. "Oh. Oh,  

wow, she just told me something really  shocking. Uh, I can't say anything."  

And the other person might say, "What? Cat got  your tongue? Why aren't you saying anything?" 

To bark up the wrong tree. The word bark is the  sound that a dog makes. Woof, woof. Bark, bark.  

Or we might say in the sample sentence,  "My sister was barking up the wrong tree  

when she accused me of taking her favorite shirt.  It was in the dirty laundry the whole time.  

I didn't do it." What do you think this means?  It's when you believe or pursue something that's  

wrong. So she was accusing me of taking her  favorite shirt, but I wasn't the one who did it,  

it was just in the dirty laundry basket. I want  to let you know that we often use this idiom to  

talk about sexuality. For example, the famous TV  host Ellen DeGeneres is married to a woman. So,  

if a man flirts with Ellen DeGeneres, she might  say, "Sorry, you're barking up the wrong tree."  

That means, you believe that I'm going  to be interested in you? But that's not  

true. You are believing something that's not  true. So we often use it in those situations. 

Our final idiom for the animal section is to  be packed like sardines. Have you ever eaten  

sardines? They're the little fish that are  often packaged in a little tin or in a can,  

and there are often a lot in that can. So what do  you think about this sentence? "When everyone got  

in the train, we were packed like sardines."  This is something that hasn't happened much  

in the year 2020 but we can remember back to  the good old days when we were all together,  

lots of people together. Well, when you are  packed like sardines, you feel like that  

little fish that's smashed into a tin or into  a jar or a can. You are packed like sardines. 

In our next category, there are a lot of idioms  that have to do with the farm, or farm-related  

vocabulary. But don't worry, you don't have to  be a farmer to use these or understand them. I  

hope that they will be useful to you. The first  one in this category is, when pigs fly. "I told  

my husband that I would stop eating chocolate when  pigs fly." This is something impossible, something  

that will never happen and you can use it in those  situations. "I will never stop eating chocolate.  

I will stop eating chocolate when pigs fly." To put all of your eggs in one basket. Hmm.  

When you're applying for a job, don't put  all your eggs in one basket. You should apply  

to multiple companies. Mmm, to put all your eggs  in a basket. Are you applying to become a farmer?  

No. In this situation we're talking about  diversifying. Don't put all of your hope,  

all of your dreams, in just one option.  Instead, you should apply to multiple companies.  

It's not a good idea to put all of your  efforts and resources in just one place. 

Don't count your chickens before they hatch. "I  wanted to buy a car with my end of year bonus that  

I was expecting from my job, but my friend told me  not to count my chickens before they hatch." Hmm,  

not to count my chickens before they hatch? This  means that you shouldn't assume something is going  

to happen. You should wait until you are certain.  You're not sure if you're going to get that end  

of year bonus from your company, so don't buy  a car in advance. Instead, wait until you have  

the money and then you can buy the car. Don't put the cart before the horse.  

"Don't put the cart before the horse by  quitting your job before you have another  

one." Hmm. Can you imagine the same idea,  counting your chickens before they hatch,  

putting the cart before the horse. Mmm,  this is the same idea, talking about doing  

something in the wrong order. Before you  quit your job you probably should secure  

another job so that you're not jobless while  you're searching for a job. So don't do things  

in the wrong order. Don't put the cart before the  horse. Make sure the cart is behind the horse. 

Straight from the horse's mouth. "If you don't  believe me, ask him and hear it straight from  

the horse's mouth." Mmm, if your friend  tells you that he just quit his job because  

he got a job as an advisor to the entire  company, wow, this is a big promotion, you  

might not believe it. So you might say, "Hey, ask  him and get it straight from the horse's mouth."  

Is that guy a horse? No, it just means hear  it directly from the source. Instead of  

hearing it from someone else, hear something  directly from the source, the horse's mouth. 

A needle in a haystack. "Trying to find my  friend in a crowd was like trying to find  

a needle in a haystack." Do you imagine  that this is an easy task or a tough task?  

Very tough task. Maybe impossible. If there is  a needle in the middle of a haystack, good luck  

trying to find it. In fact, this happened to me,  literally, last year. My two-year-old son, Theo,  

dropped a basketball pump needle in our grass.  We were pumping a basketball in the grass. We  

should not have done this in the grass, we should  have done it on the sidewalk. But he dropped the  

needle and I knew almost exactly where it fell,  but do you know what? It took almost one hour,  

it took me, my husband, two neighbors and my son  trying to find that needle in the grass. It was  

almost impossible. Thankfully we found it, but  this is a really tough task to find a needle in  

a haystack, or in my case, a needle in the grass. To hit the hay. "Are you hitting the hay?"  

No, when we say, "Hoo, after learning these 50  idioms, you are probably going to be ready to hit  

the hay." That means, you're so tired you want to  just go to sleep. Maybe at the end of a long day  

you say, "All right, I'm going to go hit the hay.  I'm so tired, I'm going to go hit the hay." You're  

not sleeping in a barn, you're just going to bed. Our next section of idioms have to do with  

the body or different body parts. They might seem  a little bit strange when you first hear them,  

but stick with them and you'll be able  to use it. Our first one is, break a leg.  

This sounds kind of like a mean thing to  say, right? "Hey, I hope you break your leg."  

No, if you say, "Break a leg," to someone, think  about this situation. "Before I went onstage for  

the performance, my fellow actors told me to  break a leg." Are they evil, terrible people,  

trying to make me get hurt? No, this simply means  good luck, and it's something that you can use  

usually in a performing or competing situation. If you're performing or competing, you can say to  

other people, "Break a leg." In fact, sometimes  it's seen as bad luck if you say, "Good luck,"  

to someone who's giving a performance. So if  you are a singer and you're going to sing in  

front of other people, if someone says to you,  "Good luck, you can do it," you might think,  

"Oh, no, I'm going to fail." Because in some  situations, depending on how superstitious your  

theater group is or your singing group is, saying  good luck can be considered bad luck. So instead,  

this expression, break a leg, is used for these  professional, competing or performing situations. 

Pulling my leg. "I thought my dad was telling  me a serious story, but it turns out he was  

just pulling my leg." Is my dad pulling my leg?  No. In this situation it just means that he's  

teasing me or telling me a joke. I want to tell  you a little story. I live in the mountains,  

and as I've mentioned before, there's black  bears everywhere. Sometimes there's a black bear  

walking down my street, really. But one time  I was at the store and my hands were full of  

grocery bags. I had just bought some  food and I was walking towards my car  

when I saw a black bear in the parking lot,  and the black bear started to chase after me,  

maybe he wanted my food, and I started to run. You should not run when you see a black bear.  

But that was just my instincts. I ran and I got  my bags and I started running and the black bear  

caught my shoe and he started pulling my  leg, just like I'm pulling yours. Ha ha.  

Do you get it? Do you understand this joke? If  you don't, first of all, don't worry, this story  

is not true at all. Well, it is true that there  are black bears in my neighborhood, but a black  

bear has never chased me at the grocery store.  Instead, black bears are really shy and timid,  

and usually if you just go, "Roar," and make  a loud noise, they run away. They're very shy. 

But I wanted to tell you this story. When  I was little I loved to tell this joke  

because usually people are listening like, "Oh,  really? Oh, really? Oh, really?" And then you say,  

"The black bear was pulling my leg."  This is literally, he's pulling my leg,  

and then we say, "Just like I'm pulling your  leg," or, "Just like I'm pulling yours."  

And this is called a punch line. That means it's  the end of the joke, it's something funny that  

was said, and it means, "Ha ha, I'm just teasing  you. I'm just telling a joke." So, if you have any  

English friends or English-speaking friends who  know this idiom, you can tell this little story,  

this little joke, and maybe they'll get a good  laugh. If they don't understand this idiom,  

maybe it's a good time to teach them. Keep an eye out. Take your eye out?  

No. Keep an eye out. "Keep an eye  out for snakes when you're hiking,  

they're everywhere." A couple of years ago, my  husband Dan and I saw a huge, thick rattlesnake  

right beside the trail where we were hiking,  and it was a little reality shock for me because  

when I hike I'm just looking at the trail, I'm not  really thinking about every possibility. But now,  

because of that experience, I try to keep an eye  out for snakes and always just remember that they  

could be there and to keep an eye out for them.  Can you imagine what this means? It means to be  

on the lookout for something. This is like active  searching, so now, whenever I step off the path  

or if I step over a log or especially for my kids,  if they're running ahead of me, I need to make  

sure that they're safe because snakes are much  more dangerous for children, so I want to keep  

an eye out for snakes. This is actively looking. Keep your eyes peeled. That sounds awful. Usually,  

for a banana, you peel a banana. But to keep your  eyes peeled? What about this sentence? "When I  

go hiking I keep my eyes peeled for snakes. I  keep my eyes peeled for snakes." We can imagine  

your eyelids are kind of like a banana peel, so  you're keeping your eyes open, you're peeling  

your eyes so that you can be on the lookout  for snakes. This is the exact same meaning,  

to keep an eye out, to keep your eyes peeled  for something, this is the exact same thing.