10 Great Everyday English Idioms for your SPEAKING: Advanced English vocabulary

Idioms are useful and fun to include in your active vocabulary, not only for the speaking paper of the Cambridge English exams but also for your general English. The advanced idioms and phrases I teach in this video are used in real, everyday English, so... start practising!

Share your own examples in the comments!
Ben Gill
English Teacher


0:00 Everyday idioms
0:33 Take a leaf out of someone's book
1:37 A tall order
2:12 Days are numbered
3:16 Hare-brained
4:13 The proof of the pudding
5:15 Get the wrong end of the stick
6:33 Line one's pockets
7:14 Take the biscuit
8:26 Put someone on a pedestal
9:15 Call it a day
10:08 Watch this next!

#advancedenglish #englishidioms #advancedenglishvocabulary #c1advanced #b2first #c2proficiency #learnenglish #englishlesson

[raffaellabarbierato]

Watching your videos in the night isn't the best way to make them fruitful: I might take a leaf out of my husband's book and start wathching them in the morning. But this is a really tall order for me, due to my job: I'm working on a six-month project and my days are numbered. Would it be a hare-brained idea studying English in the morning and working in the night? I guess I'll find it out in six months and that will be the proof of the pudding. I have to admit that making these sentences up is amusing, but I'm afraid I'm getting the wrong end of the stick; certainly, creating weird content is something I'm used to, but this one really takes the biscuit. In order to achieve my goal and use all the idioms, now I should think about someone I trusted and I put on a pedestal: sadly, I remember a friend (former friend) who lined his pockets with charity money. I don't like to end on a sad note but I have to, so...let's call it a day. Thanks Ben, as always!

[victorcaballero]

Ive just passed the CPE Ben. You encouraged me to take it, im very grateful for that and for your unvaluable lessons. Thanks and a thousand times thanks.

[maria_fleurj]

Last week I finally decided to take a leaf out of my brother's book and went boxing. It'd always been a tall order for me, but I realized that my days were numbered in the dancing school. My mother surely said it was a hare-brained idea. As for my dad, I was considered the strongest girl in our neighbourhood, so he was sure the proof of the pudding would be on the first day there. My trainer seemed to get the wrong end of the stick when I asked him to enroll me in the boxing club, and I got into the junior football team. I heard that our school was lining the pockets with our parent's money, so I wasn't surprised. All those men who made decisions there were unpleasant but the most influencial one took the biscuit. For some reason, he was put on a pedestal by our director. So I was fed up with it and called it a day.

I like to learn new vocabulary with the help of such self-made stories) What do you think about that?

Lots of thanks, Ben! 💖

[kosggmo]

My vocabulary book is full of the useful words you taught me!
Thank you ❤❤❤

[Kacper]

Thank you Ben for this video. I think the idioms that you mentioned, are extremely popular and it's simply good to know them and use them in the everyday's conversations. I hope that you will make more materials like this, because I like learning new expressions with you. Have a nice day!

[dnister_nymph]

Thank you, these idioms really are very useful 💚

[LisaMischke]

My absolute favorite is and always will be: "The lights are on but nobody is at home." :D
"The days are numbered" We have the exact same expression in my native language (German) :)

[marcoantoniomoralescruz]

Such a priceless lesson. I love learning new idioms, vocabulary, collocations, phrasal verbs, and so forth. I did share your video with some friends and student's of mine.

[germanmorganti]

Great idioms, Ben. I've found the proof of the biscuit very witty. Thanks! Best!!

[amirniksirat]

Thanks, Dear Ben, conclusively they are so hands-on idioms

[ativkadiazberman]

Hi, Ben! I just wanna let you know that my CAE exam is already scheduled for June 15th and, whereas Im preparing really hard, seems like a tall order :(

[Crisguig]

Very useful video. Take the biscuit, could it be in Spanish...se lleva la palma?

[SabineHamer-mrpm]

Hi Ben,
Many thanks for these great idioms, you know I love them. I'm feeling a little bit under the weather lately so I'm not able to watch your video right away, but it's great as always, I'm a true fan of you channel and will be. Have a wonderfull upcoming week 🐕👋

[clubdeinglescongeomonreal]

Great video teacher! Thanks!
In expression number 8, in American English people would say: Take the cake

Example: All of the poems were lovely, but yours takes the cake.

[FirstClassEnglish]

Thank you for a great video. You inspired me to start my own YT channel where I talk about English. Thank you for posting an amazing content.

[aporsebestyen]

It's interesting, in Hungarian we have the idiom "the proof of the pudding is the eating". So it is longer than the English one and we say it in any context without pointing out what the actual "proof" in the given situation is.

Thanks for this great lesson Ben!

[zulfia]

I also learned “you can’t have your cake and eat it too”, and it means that you can’t have two good things at the same time

[alexi]

Hi Ben! Today I had my CAE speaking exam.
[VENTING ALERT]
As I really enjoyed preparing for it with your videos I feel that I failed you so terribly 🥲 I used some knowledge I gained by watching your simulations, especially with Craig and Zdenek (I love his attitude), but I didn’t manage to avoid dead air (these horrible moments felt like hours) and my answer for Part 2 questions was particularly poor. I really doubt I’ll pass this exam. The only positive thing about it is probably that I’ll have more motivation to study harder and probably make use of more of your videos.
Thank you for your hard work! You are truly one of a kind!

[vanessadimarco]

I like learning vocabulary and grammar, and I like video about all that concern English but idioms take the biscuits.

[teacherjeremyford]

When I was growing up, "Taking a leaf out of someone's book, " was either and both positive and negative. It just meant copying someone. When my brother was misbehaving, my aunt said he was taking a leaf out of my cousin's book. And, I've heard it used by others, mostly my family but still, as positive or negative.