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Learn English Fast - Learn English Idioms From Around The House ✔
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Apr 9, 2025
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hi this is Jan at learn English with B
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Global and today we're going to learn
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about idioms from around the
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house um these are English phrases you
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might hear that reference items around
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the house in the idiom itself self but
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the meanings don't necessarily have to
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do with the actual house our first idiom
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is one of my favorites to hear and it is
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on the
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house have you ever heard that phrase
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before it means that someone else paid
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for something for you you got something
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for
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free and here's how this would likely
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happen maybe you go to a restaurant and
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you order something that didn't turn out
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the way that it was supposed to be
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cooked so you tell your server and they
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apologize and they tell their manager or
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the owner and if you're lucky if you're
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in a generous restaurant they may come
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back and say well my boss says that this
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meal is on the house you don't have to
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pay for for it or maybe even the manager
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or the restaurant um owner will come and
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tell you that personally it's on the
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house
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um it's uh similar to the
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idiom that goes it's on me it's
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on
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me on the house it's on me meaning
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I'll pay for whatever uh usually it's
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food or drinks if I say lunch is on me
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that means I'm going to pay for your
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lunch today so when you hear on the
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house um it's coming from the owners of
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the restaurant uh they may even give you
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a gift card that promises next
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time uh you're going to get a free meal
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on the house um the house uh implies um
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the restaurant
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itself this doesn't uh this phrase you
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won't hear this phrase happen just when
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uh bad things happen to your order or
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your meal uh it would also be
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appropriate for you to hear the owner of
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a restaurant or a coffee shop to say uh
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today is special and your drink is on
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the house or your meal is on the house
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maybe it's your birthday or something
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like that all
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right idium is to bring down the house
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so here the house isn't referring to a
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restaurant necessarily it's usually
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coming uh referring to a live theater or
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maybe a comedy
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club when we say bring down the house it
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means to make an audience clap or laugh
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enthusiastically so if you're performing
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in a comedic play or if you're a
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comedian and everyone is clapping and
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laughing at the jokes you are bringing
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down the house it's good uh it's as if
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all the clapping and laughing um is
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making so much movement that the
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structure of the building is going to
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shake and fall and come down so it's a
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way of describing a successful
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performance and usually a
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comedy so when you're reading maybe in
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the newspaper or a book or your reading
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something
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online and you hear someone
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say you better put your house in
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order it's very good to understand what
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this means um it sounds like it's saying
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H you you maybe you better uh clean up
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your house or organize your house or
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something like that that's not at all
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what it means uh specifically um it
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actually means that you will probably uh
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be be passing away soon you will
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probably die soon and so you need to put
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your house in order meaning let's make
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sure all the legal documents are taken
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care of the people that you want to
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receive whatever money you have will
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have it and um that maybe your family
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can find important documents that only
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you know about
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so uh if a doctor tells you you need to
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put your house in order um that's really
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another way of saying you don't have
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long to live so put your house in order
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now it's not a really fun idiom but it's
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important to understand it and so that's
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another idiom from around the house
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well let's move to another idiom from
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around the house it is to hit home now
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the word home in this phrase really
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represents your heart or your emotions
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and the phrase to hit here means to
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successfully connect on an emotional
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level so the phrase is almost always
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used by the person who is receiving the
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emotional hits uh the person might say
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wow that really hit home um maybe that
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emotional connection took place during a
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lecture or after watching a commercial
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or a
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movie um or after just seeing something
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in daily
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life so for example I might say say I
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never used to worry about texting while
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driving until my friend was seriously
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hurt um because she was doing that while
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driving it really hit home for me how
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important it is not to text and drive at
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the same time so to hit home is usually
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a sign or ex explanation of why some
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action will take place some future
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action most forms of intentional
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communication are designed to hit home
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uh in order to produce some kind of
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outcome so to hit
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home means that something has connected
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emotionally on a significant level which
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will probably create a change change in
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Behavior another idiom from around the
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house um that has to deal with emotions
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is to hit the
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ceiling um what do you suppose that
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means if we say someone hits the ceiling
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it means they became very
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angry it's like someone got so mad they
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were lifted off the ground around and
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hit the
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ceiling can you use this idiom about
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yourself or about someone else well you
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can do both you can say when I found out
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the mechanic lied to me about my car I
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hit the ceiling or you can say when my
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boss saw that I was late again she hit
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the ceiling she got so mad or you can
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say it in the future
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tense when my dad finds out about this
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speeding ticket he is going to hit the
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ceiling it's pretty common so hitting
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the ceiling just means to get really
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angry so what's another common idiom
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from around the house how about down the
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a
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drain you know what a drain is right
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it's that hole at the bottom of the
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sink uh or or uh bathtub or
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shower um when something goes down that
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hole it's it's usually completely lost
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right it's very hard to get back
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something that the water has quickly
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washed away into the darkness below so
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so if we say something has gone down the
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drain it means it's wasted it's lost so
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often if you'll hear it went down the
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drain so the pronoun
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it um is often referring to money uh you
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might hear someone say well that's a
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hundred bucks down the drain that just
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means I just wasted $100
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um maybe you uh bet on something and
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lost that is
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$100 down the
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drain it could reference something else
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like time invested in training maybe or
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maybe you spent a lot of time learning
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some skill or something that what you
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thought was important to your
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career but then you found out later that
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the classes you took were not helpful
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for the job you wanted so you might say
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well that's two years down the draining
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two years of training down the drain you
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mean I just wasted two years so that's
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also a common idiom down the drain taken
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from life around the house
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okay another item we find around most
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homes is a table right this is not the
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prettiest table but you see what I mean
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it's a table and of course we have an
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idiom for that and the idiom is under
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the table oh can you imagine what that
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means well it usually means to do
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something
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secretly um specifically it usually
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means getting paid for something
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something
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illegally not paying taxes or extra fees
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that are legally
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due if I say to someone I think he's
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getting paid under the table for that um
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it doesn't mean I think he's crawling
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under the table to get his paycheck it
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means he's getting paid cash and not
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reporting it to the government so it's
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not a positive idiom it's actually
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something that implies something that's
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illegal so under the
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table well another item that you
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typically find in a house is a
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shelf um a shelf as you know is a
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support on which you place books or
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pictures or small art items so with that
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in
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mind our next common idiom is to be put
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on the
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Shelf you might think that to be put on
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the Shelf would imply something
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positive um something that displays
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worth but it actually means kind of the
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opposite and I'll explain why uh if I
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say I've been put on the Shelf I mean
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I'm no longer
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active
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useful young or
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important you would use it to describe
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yourself when you're feeling like you've
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been permanently set
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aside when normally you were in the
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middle of all the
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action um so now your only purpose is to
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be on the Shelf to collect
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dust so you might say well I'm keeping
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up my education so I won't be put on the
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shelf or since I've retired I feel like
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I've been put on the
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Shelf so that's what it means if someone
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says to be put on the Shelf it's kind of
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negative it's not positive
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well some houses have fences around them
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this is supposed to be a fence so there
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our next common idiom is on the fence on
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the
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fence you might be able to guess what
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the idiom on the fence means if you
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picture someone one sitting on the fence
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maybe with one leg on one side and one
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leg on the other oh this person this
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person needs arms anyway it just means
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on the fence just means
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undecided of course politicians must try
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to convince people who are on the on the
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fence um how to
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vote um or this idiom makes reference to
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someone who's been undecided for a while
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it's not usually about someone who's
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just taking their time carefully
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considering what's important um if
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someone is on the fence it means they
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don't really want to make anyone upset
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or they don't want to have to make a
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decision so it's not necessarily A
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positive
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descript so on the ense is sometimes a
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negative descriptor right but sometimes
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it's just describing someone who's
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waiting to
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see maybe they're trying to decide
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whether or not they will take a trip
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they're waiting to have more
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information or maybe um people are
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telling you to buy the newest computer
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and you could say H I'm still on the
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fence about buying that um I'm waiting
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to see if there are any problems or
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maybe there's a cheaper one or a
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different one that would be better than
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this new one so I'm I'm still on the
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fence I'm still undecided about that so
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that is another idiom from around the
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house on the fence
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well another idiom that includes the
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idea of something around the house is
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homesick many of you know what it means
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but if you don't homesick just means
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that you miss home you're traveling
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somewhere and you just miss home you
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miss the food or you miss your parents
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your friends or just everything you're
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homesick um it could sound like you're
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sick of home but that's not what this
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means ever uh with this idiom it always
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means that you miss your home so that's
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homesick another very
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common
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idiom that uses phrases that we take
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from around the house is House of Cards
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and maybe you you know this is a popular
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drama series and uh it refers to the
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idea of an
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organization or a plan that can easily
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be destroyed it's very weak so if you
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think of like playing cards stacked on
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each
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other it's going to fall down at any
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moment okay so we would call that a
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house of cards you might say even though
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that business looks solid from the
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outside it's really a house of cards
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like you're it's going to fall at any
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moment so that's another good idiom for
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you to
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know so our last
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idiom that takes its meaning from things
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around the house is to get one 's foot
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in the
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door what does that mean uh that usually
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means um to take first steps to get to
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get a start to get an opening usually
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often for a
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job uh people who are looking for a job
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often
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ask how do I get my foot in the door
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meaning the doors for all the jobs seem
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to be closed and locked I just want to
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have a chance to just look in and try uh
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the idea is maybe just getting one foot
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in the door U you're not asking to step
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completely inside it's just an
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entrance um so how do you get your foot
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in the door in your country in the US
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it's often if you know someone who's
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already in the company we might say I
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she got my foot in the door because she
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already worked there um another way you
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can get your foot in the door uh is to
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have an understanding of culture and
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idioms so if you ever want a job from a
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US company you have already started
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toward getting your foot in the door
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because you've watched this video and I
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want to thank you for watching this
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video and and if you like it hit
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subscribe and leave a comment below
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