hi guys today we're going to be looking at some of the best idioms for IELTS

speaking to describe your feelings are you feeling in the mood in the mood for
a bit of learning let's get straight into it [Music]
hello my name is Keith and I run the website IELTS speaking success and I
want to help you speak better English give better answers and get a higher score in
the IELTS speaking test
so today we're going to be looking at different idioms and idiomatic expressions to
help you express feelings
this is really important especially in Part two because if you remember
remember if you remember the part two tasks card often finishes with explain
how you felt about it and you have to develop or talk about your feelings and
some candidates find it very difficult to say more than I was sad I felt happy
I felt nervous I was excited now that's fine but if you
really want to get a higher level up and seven and above it would be good to use
some more advanced vocabulary some idiomatic expressions that's what we're
going to look at today twelve different kind of feelings and tons of expressions
so get your pen and paper ready now I'd like first of all just to say a big
thank you to all of you who are studying IELTS everyday working very hard and
practicing and for following me and for helping me get her a a hundred thousand
subscribers on YouTube Wow amazing I would never have imagined that so thank
you very much all of you for following me and also today a big THANK YOU to
Camberley for sponsoring this video cambly is a fantastic online platform
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speaking teachers of many languages but for you English teachers where you can
practice
your speaking you can practice IELTS questions and answers it's a great
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you can even
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check it out and use your code to start practicing English now let's get into
those feelings the first feeling is I am or I was excited
so here are some expressions we can say first I was raring to go
which means I was ready to go I was excited and ready to go right when at
this at the start of the football match I was really excited and I was raring to go
I was on the edge of my seat
this is often when you're reading a book or watching a film that's very exciting
and with a little bit of suspense and
you're literally sitting on the edge of your seat right means I'm excited I was
on the edge of my seat watching the horror movie I was bouncing off the
walls there bouncing is boring boring boring now if you imagine lots of little
children inside your house during lockdown and they're bouncing off the
walls they full of energy they're excited they want to go out to play and
you can say they were bouncing off the walls I was bouncing off the walls as I
was waiting to go to my favorite concert I could hardly wait or I couldn't wait -
meaning I was so excited I didn't want to wait right I could hardly wait to
tell my friend about this new film I couldn't wait to see the new film so all
of these are ways to talk about being excited now number two being impressed
first of all we've got it blew my mind now blow is but it's also an explosion
to blow up right now if something blows your mind then it's very impressive
right also we can say it blew me away it
was so impressive right I was speaking to my friend he was telling me about
astrophysics it blew my mind he blew me
away with all his knowledge I was bowled over bold is hmm what is bold comes from
cricket now if you play cricket you'll know that you you throw the ball you
break your phone you throw the ball over your arm and if you're bowled over by
something then you are impressed by it so my friend the astrophysicist I was
bowled over by his knowledge
so now let's look at some part two questions and I'll give you a snippet of my
answer showing
you how I can use some of these expressions the first question is describe a
performance you watched
recently and explain how you felt about it I recently saw my favorite pop band
in concert you know four days before I was bouncing off the walls I just
couldn't wait to see them on the day of the concert they just blew me away you
know I was bowled over by their energy and enthusiasm and later I couldn't wait
to tell my friends about it right you can see how I'm using them brilliant
next question describe an exciting event you have been to and explain how you
felt about it obviously excited I recently attended the release of a new
film in my local cinema the weeks before I was raring to go I was so excited I
could hardly wait on the actual day I finally got to see the film and it totally
blew my mind the acting was
great the plot had me on the edge of my seat all the way through nice right
you can see how we're starting to use them let's move on to the next feeling next
the feeling of being angry
now there are quite a few expressions here we have for example be beside
yourself be beside yourself with anger or fly off the handle and that's when
you get really angry really quickly right imagine your flight is delayed not for
one or two hours but for seven hours you might be beside yourself with anger
because you want to get to the destination quickly and then imagine they don't give
you any food and you
have to sleep on the airport floor you would probably fly off the handle then
we've got three expressions with go which are quite similar right to go
spare to get angry to go through the roof to get very angry to go ballistic
wish to get really angry ballistic is
like a ballistic missile right imagine an explosion that's how angry you get so
if somebody breaks your favorite computer or maybe your only computer you
might go spare you might go through the roof if you're really angry you'll probably
go ballistic two expressions
slightly softer are to lose my cool I lost my cool which means I didn't steak
harm so when the waitress knocked over my computer who I lost my cool I might
go spare and shout at her or him did I say waitress another one my patience was
pushed to the limit so my patience was pushed to the limit and it broke right
so I got angry when I was waiting for the flight and it was delayed another
hour and another and another hour my patience was pushed to the limit finally
I went through the roof I was so angry and the last one which is
quite poetic but nice is it makes my blood boil imagine how angry you are if
your blood inside your body is boiling like it's so hot because when we get
angry we get hot so again somebody breaks your computer oh it makes my
blood boil or it made my blood boil
great let's have a look at these in the context of a part 2 question describe a
time somebody apologized to you and explain how you felt about it well last
week my friend borrowed my favorite book right and then he lost it initially I
was beside myself with anger I mean I'm not one to fly off the handle right but
that book had sentimental value for me I calmed down later and accepted his
apology next describe a time when someone didn't tell you the truth about
something and explain how you felt about it so when I bought this software the
salesman said it could be used with any computer and when I realized later it
was not the case I just went spare seriously I nearly went through the roof it
makes my blood
boil when salespeople blatantly lie next describe an important journey that was
delayed and explain how you felt about it last month my flight to Rome was
delayed for 10 hours I was so annoyed and when they refused to give us any
food well I lost my cool and then when I spoke to the representative she was so
unhelpful I just went ballistic and I started shouting at her now I'm normally
a calm person but at that time my patience was really pushed to the limit
I just wanted to get to Rome great
let's move on now the next feeling being frustrated here we've got some
expressions which are similar in meaning let's begin it got on my nerves or it
gets on my nerves and this is just when something annoys you or irritates you if
it annoys you a lot then you can say it drove me up the wall it drove me drive
it drove me or pushed me up the wall we've had going through the roof right
now this one is driving me up the wall similarly we've got it drove me round
the bend so it pushed me around the bend all of these meaning it really
frustrated and annoyed me imagine if you will you're sat in a coffee bar reading
your book nice and easy relax the person next to you starts whistling ah it really
got on my nerves
when they started whistling and then the person starts tutting it drove me up the
wall what are they doing and then finally they began humming
hmm Oh it drove me round the bend when
they were humming now if you are angry or frustrated you might go and tell them
what to do right tell them to be quiet or tell them what you think about the
situation if you want to tell them your feelings you can say I gave them a piece
of my mind now a piece of your mind is a thought or a feeling I know your
thoughts are in your mind your feelings in your body but we say I gave them a piece
of my mind as I told them what I
was thinking about that situation right listen you're humming is annoying me
will you please stop I gave him a piece of my mind
if the situation carries on and your frustration gets higher and bigger and
stronger you might say I was banging my head against the wall now you're not
literally banging your head against the wall but the feeling is the same and
it's giving you a headache right so I've told this nice gentleman to stop humming
but then he starts what does he start
doing but then he takes out his mobile phone and starts watching a YouTube video at
full volume I was banging my
head against the wall what can I do right and that was the last straw
I just went over there I gave him a piece of my mind and I threw his phone out of
the Starbucks coffee cafe of
course I didn't but that was the last straw right that was the final thing
that made me get really really angry okay all of these expressions let's see
how we can use them when we answer a part two question
describe a time when you could not use your mobile phone and explain how you felt
about it well when I was at the
bank last week they told me I couldn't use my mobile phone there you know these
silly rules really get on my nerves so I asked them why and they just said well
that was the rule it just drove me up the wall because I needed to make a call but
I
didn't want to lose my place in the queue these kind of rules really try my
patience if I had had more time I would have complained to the manager and given
him a piece of my mind great now you'll have noticed there the
expression it really tried my patience to try my patience is similar to push my
patience to the limit and this is all about the feeling of being impatient
some other expressions are I was
out of patience I was at my wit's end
completely out of patience or I was at the end of my tether also I have no
patience left all of them meaning a similar thing and I think in America
they say a lot I was at the end of my rope so really a tether is a rope right
imagine you're in the sea you're drowning and they throw you a rope and you're
pulling up the road but then you
get to the end you're at the end of your rope right you have no patience left I
was at the end of my tether let's have a look how we can use these in some part
to answer describe a time when an activity you did
was delayed due to the bad weather and explained how you felt about it so some
friends and I had organized a picnic in the countryside and we had been looking
forward to it for weeks and then on the day we were about to leave and it
started to rain would you believe it a short shower or so we thought so we
decided to wait for it to stop two hours later it was still raining and we were
running out of patience and then suddenly a storm broke out that was the
last straw in the end we had to post we had to postpone the whole event to
another weekend next question describe a crowded place you have been
to to be honest I don't like crowds so I
was a little nervous when my brother invited me to watch a football match with him
the stadium was packed full
right people behind us were pushing and it was getting on my nerves after 30
minutes of pushing I was at my wit's end seriously I was banging my head against
the wall I was about to go ballistic with these guys and my brother told me
to calm down and we decided to leave the game early nice
let's move on and let's look at how we can talk about being bored
so talking about being bored some expressions we can use are to be fed up
and to be fed up is a bit irritated but bored and if you're really fed up I'm
fed up to the back teeth right the back teeth right at the back why I don't know
but I'm fed up to the back teeth I'm really bored right or we can also say if
you're really bored I'm bored to tears maybe you you're so bored you start to
cry I'm bored to tears also I'm bored to
death I'm bored to death of course you don't actually die but we often used to
death right I'm starving to death I'm really hungry I'm bored to death I'm really
bored so we can use all of these
for example if you're waiting to see the doctor and you're waiting a long time oh
you might get fed up you might be fed up
to the back teeth I was bored to tears waiting to see the doctor I was bored to
death waiting to see the
dentist I was fed up to the back teeth having to wait for everybody
also when you're bored and a little bit annoyed you can be cheesed off you can
be cheesed off yes cheese like camembert a menthol crumbly lancashire all kinds
of cheese if I am cheesed off then I'm a bit annoyed but bored right
I was cheesed off with my friend I was cheesed off with the doctor because I
had to wait so long and if that frustration and boredom is building you
might say I've had it up to here up to here this is the limit similar to the
expression that was the last straw that kind of made you really annoy annoyed or
angry if you're so bored and fed up you say I've had it up to here waiting for
that dentist what is he let's have a look how we can use some of
these in an answer
describe a time you got bored when you were with others and explained how you
felt about it a few weeks ago I went to
a party with a friend of mine I was a bit cheesed off with him actually because he
knew I didn't want to go but
he wouldn't go alone anyway we went to the party and to be honest I was bored
to death I mean there was no music no food I didn't know anybody I was just
fed up to the back teeth and I told my friend listen I have had it up to here and I
was ready to go home now let's
move from some of these negative feelings to a happy feeling let's talk about
happiness
now there are lots of nice and interesting expressions for happiness first of all I
was over the moon over
the moon in the sky crazy but true if you're happy and I was tickled pink I
was tickled pink if somebody tickles you then you start laughing and you probably
go very pink right cuz you're laughing so much I was tickled pink when I found
out I had won the lottery similar to the
moon we talk about the clouds I was on cloud nine when I realized I had won the
lottery and also we can talk about I was thrilled about something was its
excitement and happiness together so if you're really happy you can say I'm
thrilled to bits I was thrilled to bits to win the lottery we can be now we can
have a feeling of happiness right and we can also be happy with something or happy
with somebody write some
expressions here are it made my day when I got a present from my friend on my
birthday it made my day or it was music
to my ears when my wife told me she was taking me out for dinner it was music to
my ears coming back to doctors it was just what the doctor ordered now this is
nothing
to do with doctors but it means it's just what I needed it was something I was
wanting and it's
made me happy okay doesn't have to be medicine maybe I've been a bit fed up
and cheesed off lately with all of the work so when my wife said I'm gonna take
you to dinner I was over the moon it made my day and it was just what the
doctor ordered right it was just what I needed to cheer up
let's have a look about not about let's have a look at some of these expressions
in some part two answers
describe an occasion when you celebrated your achievement a few years ago I
finished my master's degree and I was over the moon it had taken me four years
because I had to work at the same time and when I finally got that certificate
or I was tickled pink as you can imagine it made my day
mm-hmm and it did really describe an interesting conversation you had with
someone I recently had an interesting conversation with the lady who works in
my local bookshop she told me that as a loyal customer I had won a prize I was
surprised but it was music to my ears it turned out I had won a hundred euros of
book vouchers well needless to say I was on cloud nine I actually needed to buy
some new books for my daughter so it was just what the doctor ordered and later
when I gave my daughter some of the new storybooks she was thrilled to bits
let's move on and talk about being thankful
so let's look at these expressions for being thankful there are different things we
can say right we can say to be
appreciative appreciative it's a sure sound I was appreciative it's one word
appreciative that means I was thankful we can also say I was eternally grateful
when my friend helped me paint our new home I was eternally grateful I was very
appreciative now if you're really thankful and something surprises you use
might say to be at a loss for words right so when my friend gave me a
computer for my birthday wow I was at a loss for words
I was eternally grateful but I was at a loss for words and also of course we can
say I couldn't thank him enough so when he gave me the computer as a present I
couldn't thank him enough let's have a look at these inside inside in a part to
answer describe a time you lost
something and finally got it back when I recently lost my wallet on the way to
work I was so surprised actually to get it back so a man had found it he'd seen
my address and brought it to my home I was so appreciative and to be honest I
was at a loss for words so I invited him in for some tea and gave him a reward to
show you know that I was eternally grateful you see my wallet had all my ID
cards photos credit cards so I was tickled pink but I got it back and I
just couldn't thank him enough now another feeling that we have quite
often especially with IELTS is being nervous right
especially with special events speaking out loud public speaking exams so we get
nervous we worry and we can say I was worried sick about it it's almost to the
point where you're worried and you are sick but it's idiomatic I was worried sick
about the exam to have butterflies
now the long expression is to have butterflies in your stomach and that's
that little tingling feeling in your stomach when you're a little bit nervous so
maybe before a job interview you
might have butterflies in your stomach or you can just say I had butterflies
before the interview when you actually go into an interview you have to speak
and if you're nervous about speaking you may say I got tongue-tied imagine your
tongue-tied in a lot you can't speak smoothly right so I was Tong tied or I
got tongue-tied and if the feeling of
being nervous is quite strong or very strong and you're getting more and more
anxious or nervous or worried then you
might say I was getting worked up work worked up
I was getting worked up and he doesn't mean not work out like at the gym but
work up to get worked up is to get nervous and really anxious so as you get
closer to your interview or your job presentation or your exam you might get
worked up right in addition if it's really strong you might say I was
tearing my hair out not me a bit difficult but if you tear your hair out
you're really nervous you're anxious about something a little bit of frustration
maybe as well you'll notice
there is quite a bit of overlap between a lot of these expressions
right because emotions and feelings they are mixed up a little bit so I was
studying for my exam but I just knew I couldn't find the right words I was tearing
my hair out getting all worked
up about it if the feeling is a bit softer you could say I was on edge on
edge right not on the edge of your seat no I was on edge I was on edge is a
little bit nervous right sometimes if you say I was on edge before the exam
that can be quite good because a little bit of nerves is a good thing I was on
edge waiting to do my IELTS speaking test great let's see these in action
describe a time you met someone for the first time and explained how you felt
about it I will never forget when I got my first real job and I met my new boss
so be honest I was worried sick about it because right first impressions are so
important so I spent ages in the morning thinking about what to say I had
butterflies and I was getting a bit worked up to tell you the truth initially when
I met him I was a bit
tongue-tied but then I chilled out and everything went quite smoothly describe
a challenge you faced recently and explained how you felt about it well a
real challenge I faced last year was giving a presentation to about 300
students I wouldn't say I was tearing my hair out but I was certainly on edge I
always get nervous when I speak in front of large crowds in the end it went very
well despite the fact I had butterflies at the beginning so after all of that
nervousness let's relax and how do it
about relaxing well some common idiomatic phrases are to chill out
you're not really cold but you chill out or to kick back you don't kick anybody
hopefully but you just kick back to put your feet up again
maybe you literally put your feet up on the table but it's idiomatic to put your
feet up is to relax likewise if you've got hair you can let
your hair down the idea that I guess for many women if they're at work they put
their hair up in a bun and when they relaxing you let your hair down but just
to relax take it easy to let your hair down another one to unwind this comes
from the idea of a coil or a spring that is wound up very very tight it's very
tense and when it unwinds it relaxes let's have a look how we can use these
in an answer describe a leisure activity that you do
with your family well one of my favorite
pastimes that I do with my family is play cards together it's a great way to
chill out and kick back we can just chat about what we've been doing lately at
the same time as we play so that's why I really do enjoy putting my feet up and
playing cards with the family describe a place where you read and write not your
home and explain how you feel about this place well I often go to my local library
to
read a book or catch up on my blog writing I find the silence and the peaceful
atmosphere just helps me chill
out and unwind nice next one describe a
singer or a band that you like and explain how you feel about their music
well I love listening to my old jazz CD collection after a hard day's work
I just find it an ideal way to relax and let my hair down the music is so calming
really and I can just put my feet up and chill put my feet up and chill we're
going to move on to another rather gloomy feeling let's talk about sadness
[Music]
okay I've got three idiomatic expressions here the first one is to be down in the
dumps down in the dumps in
the plural down in the dumps the Dubs for us in English that's like a rubbish
dump or a garbage dump where you put all the rubbish but apparently it also comes
from the Dutch word dump or the German word dump which mean kind of dull
depressed heavy something like that so it just means to be very very sad if
you know if you fail your exam oh dear if you fail something like your driving
test you might be down in the dumps for quite a few weeks similarly we can say
down in the mouth down in the mouth where does that come from who knows but
down in the mouth is very sad again right if nothing's just working
properly for me and I feel fed up a bit cheesed off I might also be down in the
mouth and finally I'm smiling even
though it's about sadness to feel blue and I love this expression to feel blue
because the Blues music I love but it's all about oppression depression sadness
so if you feel blue then you're feeling sad right what do you do when you feel
blue listen to the blues [Music]
or listen to some nice sprightly music let's see how we can use these in an
answer describe an important journey that was
delayed and explain how you felt about it so I was due to catch a flight home
to attend my friend's wedding unfortunately the flight was delayed surprise
surprise
as I was waiting in the airport I began to feel more and more down in the dumps
and when I realized gosh I was gonna miss the whole ceremony well I was
totally down in the mouth it was such a shame right I've never felt so blue and
it's true fancy that missing your friend's wedding ceremony and on that
happy note I'm gonna give you a final tip two tips to finish up on how we use
these expressions when you're talking about feelings as we mentioned feelings can
you can mix
feelings you might be a bit happy a bit sad a bit nervous a bit relaxed sometimes
they're mixed up so if you
don't have to choose one write a nice expression is to say well I had mixed
feelings about it mixed feelings well I had mixed feelings about it on the one
hand I was nervous but on the other hand I was happy it was all over right nice
tip number two is to use the negative of an idiom so if you can't think of an
idiom for example about being sad you can always use a negative of a positive
happy one right so I failed my exam and to tell you the truth I just wasn't over
the moon about it haha very clever right or well when I failed my driving test to
be honest I wasn't on cloud nine at all it's a brilliant tip just use the
negatives and you've doubled your emotional feeling idiomatic expressions
now a quick word of warning with idioms than idiomatic expressions you need to
practice lots don't start using them in the exam until you really know how to
use them if you don't use use them correctly it can sometimes backfire
right and have a negative effect so make sure you see them in context two or
three times and get used to using them get feedback from a teacher if possible
on whether you're using it correctly I'm cramming in lots of expressions into a
very short answer just so you can see a lot but of course when you're giving
your answer in the test don't cram in lots of idioms and idiomatic expressions
just sprinkle one or two right not too many great and so my final word today is
thank you I'm eternally grateful to the sponsors Camberley for sponsoring this
video go
and check it out remember you can get a 10% discount on all of their monthly
plans go in there find yourself a teacher and start practicing you can even be
practicing all of these great
idiomatic expressions to get you're speaking better and better and better the
secret is in the practice so thanks
again very much to everybody at Camberley for their sponsorship great finally just
to remind you if you want
more free resources to help your speaking for IELTS go to the website IELTS
speaking success com there's lots
of information and videos and ebooks and things you can download I look forward
to seeing you there in the meantime have a fantastic day thank you very much take
care bye bye
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