Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Repetition
Repetition
Next up we have party animals. A party animal.someone who enjoys parties and they
go to as many as they can.They're always out and about. They love staying up late,
dancing and having a good time.They're a party animal. They can't stop.Do you know
any party animals?
A dark horse I really love this idiom because these people, they always surprise you,
but in a really positive way.A dark horse is a person who keeps their ability, their skill or
their achievements a secret. So when you do finally discover it, it surprises you.
You're like: "Wow! I had no idea!"Like one of my students. Really shy, hardly ever
spoke for a long time but then one day, I found out she can speak 10 languages!
I had no idea. She'd never mentioned it before.
A team player. A team player is someone who works really well with other people, as
part of a group.It's a pretty common idiom. You might have heard it before,
and it often comes up in professional contextlike at an interview, when you might get
asked if you're a team player.Pssst! If they ask this, the right answer is: "Yes. I'm a
team player."
A culture vulture. Say that with me. Culture vulture.This idiom is a little outdated, but
still it appears really frequently in media and literature so it's definitely one to be aware
of.What's a culture vulture? It's someone who really loves culture, in all forms.
They can't get enough of art and theatre and literature and music. All of those things.
An early bird. I think this is probably one of the very first idioms that you ever learned,
right? An early bird is someone who is early. Usually someone who gets up early in the
morning they're awake as the sun comes up. But it can also be used to refer to people
who are first to do something. You know? It doesn't have to be that they wake up early.
though it's often the case.Being an early bird is definitely a good thing and the idiom is
inspired by an old English proverb, that says: 'the early bird gets the worm'. Those who
are first get the reward. Right?So now, do you know the opposite of an early bird?
Well it's a night owl of course, and night owls are people who feel like they
function better during the night.They prefer to be awake at night not in the morning.
So what about you? Are you a night owl or an early bird?
A go-getter. Say it with me. A go-getter.A go-getter is someone who is ambitious. They
pursue their goals.They know what they want and they go after it. They're a go-getter.
So it's a really positive idiom.Do you think of yourself as a bit of a go-getter?
Or, if not, maybe you can think of someone else in your life who is a go-getter.
Someone who knows exactly what they want they go after it.
A good egg. A good egg is just a good person.
You didn't need to spend your weekend helping me to move into my new house. You're
a good egg.
But equally, someone can be a bad egg. A bad egg, and that's a bad person. Don't be
a bad egg.
What's that? You already know all of these idioms?Well aren't you a smart cookie then.
If you're a smart cookie, then you might be the teacher's pet. The teacher's pet. I'm
sure that you can think of, if you think back to your classes at school, your teacher's
favourite student in the class. This is the teacher's pet. Usually they're the best or
they're the most helpful student in the class. The best. The most helpful. This idiom is
always used with the definite article 'the'. The teacher doesn't have multiple pets. They
only have one favourite.You can only have one favourite.It's not fair!
The teacher's never angry with Jim when he forgets to do his homework. He's the
teacher's pet.
A creature of habit. A creature of habit.You can use this idiom to talk about yourself or
other people,especially if your routine is always the same and you really like it that way,
then you're a creature of habit.You always choose the same thing on the menu, every
time you go to the restaurant or you always go to the same fish and chip shop down the
road even though everyone says the new one is better. You still just keep going to that
one because it's what you know and you like it.
A smooth talker. A smooth talker.This person is really good at persuading other people
to do what they want, or to get themselves out of trouble. They can even convince
people of things that are not true or convince you to do something that you never
intended to do. The salesman was a real smooth talker.
A busy body. Busy body. Oh I'm sure you know someone who's a busybody. Someone
who is overly interested in the lives of other people or what, what are they doing?
What's happening there?
A cheapskate or a tight arse. If someone is stingy with their money or maybe they're
quite obsessive about avoiding to spend money, then you could call them a
cheapskate or a tight arse, but don't say it to their face. This is not a compliment. You
don't want anyone to hear you talking about them in that way.
A fuddy duddy. Try it. Say it with me. Fuddy duddy. A fuddy duddy.This is someone
who is quite old-fashioned in their ways or maybe in the way that they think.
Their ideas are a bit old-fashioned. They're quite conservative and a little boring.
So again this is definitely not a compliment. You don't want to say: "you're a fuddy
duddy".
A goody goody. A goody goodie. This is someone who always appears to be perfect
doing the right thing. They try very hard to please people in authority so especially
people like teachers or parents or any superior. So it's quite similar to the teacher's
pet, but it's a bit more general. A goody goody is not usually liked by everyone else
because they're always sucking up to the teacher, their parents.
You know doing the right thing when the rest of us are doing the wrong thing.
Like Jeremy, he's always handing in his homework early. He's such a goody-goody.
A know-it-all. Say it with me, a know-it-all. This idiom is exactly as it sounds someone
who knows everything or more accurately someone who thinks they know everything
and they go around making sure that everyone knows that they're intelligent and they
have all the answers. So it's usually used spitefully. It's not a compliment.
A gold digger. This is also not a compliment. it's quite a nasty thing to say about
someone actually. It's someone who is in a relationship with someone else only
because they're rich. So usually you're making an assumption about someone else's
relationship when you use this idiom. It implies that they're not there for love or for
anything meaningful. They're there for the other person's money.
If you did come into a bit of money then I'd say you're a lucky duck. Do you know
anyone who's won a big prize or had something great happen to them?
You can always say, "You're a lucky duck".Party poopers. I use this idiom all the time
myself.
Don't be a party pooper. A party pooper is someone who ruins all of the fun.
Now it could be at a party but it could also be someone who doesn't want to
participate in an activity that everyone else is doing. Well they're just being really
negative and they're saying no to everything. Party poopers say, "No. I don't want to do
it. I don't want to go there. I'm going home". They're party poopers. They ruin all the
fun. Can you think of the time or someone that you know who's a party pooper?
A penny pincher. Now this is not quite as negative as cheapskate and tight arse.
They're the ones that I mentioned earlier and they're quite an insult.
A penny pincher refers to someone who is very careful about the money that they
spend. They're quite thrifty. Cautious with their money.
A backseat driver. Okay this is another one I use all the time. Imagine that you're
driving a car and someone is sitting in the back seat behind you telling you how to
drive. Overtake that car. Don't go so fast. This isn't the best route. Going on the ring
road would have been way quicker. That person sitting back there, they're a backseat
driver telling you what to do even though you're perfectly capable of doing it yourself
and it can be used in the context of driving in the car, don't be a backseat driver, but it
can be used in other contexts too. When someone is watching over your shoulder or
telling you how to do something that you already know how to do. All right backseat
driver, I've got this.
A smart aleck or a smart arse. So a smart aleck is someone who thinks they are highly
intelligent and they try to demonstrate this to others all of the time. A smart arse is more
common here in Australia and I think that smart aleck is more common in the UK.
A straight shooter or a straight talker. That's someone who speaks the truth
even if it hurts a little. Brad is a really straight talker.
He's not going to sugarcoat his feedback. He'll make sure that you know
what worked well and what you need to improve.