Adam’s English Lessons · engVid

“Rusty”, “Fit as a Fiddle”, “Spaced Out”: Real English Expressions Explained

Are you sometimes *spaced out* during English class? Time to shake off the cobwebs and learn some fun expressions in English that native speakers often use to describe a person’s physical or mental condition. In this class, we’ll look at expressions such as *off one’s meds, fit as a fiddle, all wound up, to be rusty, out of sorts,* and more. https://www.engvid.com/how-native-speakers-describe-how-someone-feels-10-english-expressions Make sure you're also subscribed to my writing channel: @WritetotheTop More videos like this: 11 Phrasal Verbs for Emotions https://youtu.be/LvQ6NFZ8Kv0 Everyday English for People's Gestures & Reactions https://youtu.be/Gtj-CIWSsgg In this lesson: 0:00 10 Idioms to Describe Condition 0:30 to be "rusty" 1:48 shake off the cobwebs 3:14 fit as a fiddle 4:14 right as rain 4:57 spaced out 5:37 out of sorts 6:17 off one's meds 7:51 all wound up 8:49 alive and well 9:20 up and about Transcript: In today's video, I want to give you some useful expressions to describe a person's condition. It could be a physical condition or it could be a mental condition or emotional condition, but we use these as more like slang. They're very common, you'll hear these a lot. I wouldn't necessarily say you should write with them, but definitely learn what they mean because you're going to hear them and you can use them in everyday conversations. Some of them are a little bit funny, some of them you have to be a little bit careful about, but I'll tell you which ones. So, let's start with "rusty", so "to be rusty". Now, if you're not sure what "rust" is, if you leave metal in the sun, eventually that metal will turn like an orangey-brown and you can scrape off, like there's little dust particles off it. That is "rust". So, if you are "rusty", it means you have like rust on you, but obviously it's not literal. What this means is that you're out of practice. You haven't done something for a long time, so when you want to start doing it again, you're not very good at it. You're rusty. There's, you know, you have to get your body used to it, you have to get your mind used to doing this activity again. So, what you need to do is basically shake off the rust. Essentially just start doing the activity. You might not be very good at the beginning, but once you get used to it again, then you'll be good at it again. So, for example, riding a bicycle. Even if you don't ride a bicycle for many years, you still know how to do it, but at the beginning, you know, you may wobble a little bit or you may go very slowly. Once you get used to it, once you shake off the rust, then you can go mountain biking or do whatever you want with that. Now, notice I have here "shake off the rust". I have another expression, "shake off the cobwebs". This is essentially the same idea, except for here, this is about being out of practice or physically if you haven't done something for a long time. For example, if I haven't - I haven't gone skiing in many years. If I go skiing tomorrow, it will be very difficult for me at the beginning. "Cobwebs", on the other hand, is more of a mental rustiness, like you're not thinking clearly yet. Now, "cobwebs", if you think about spiders, spiders make all these, like, fancy little webs, right, to catch flies. They're actually called "cobwebs". So, if you have cobwebs, it means you're - you haven't used your brain in a little while and the spiders got in there and set up cobwebs to catch flies in your head. So, you're basically not thinking very clearly or not very focused on something. So, in the morning, for me, for example, I'm really, really not a morning person. I'm a night owl. I like to stay up late at night. In the morning, when I wake up, it takes me a little while to get my brain functioning. So, it takes me a little while to shake off the cobwebs so I can start working. And that's fine. I take my time in the mornings because I - not exactly mornings, more like early afternoon sometimes. So, that's "cobwebs". Next, "fit as a fiddle". Now, the main problem with this one is that when a native speaker says this expression, you might not understand because, remember, in terms of pronunciation, I have consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel, consonant. It's all going to blend. So, it sounds like "fit as a fiddle", "fit as a fiddle", "fit as a fiddle". Now, a "fiddle" is like a violin, basically, a small violin. So, when you're fit as a fiddle, you can be played very well. You're in very good condition. Now, I don't know why violin, why a fiddle, but that's what the expression uses. Again, remember, in English, what makes English a little bit difficult is some of the expressions make no sense, like this one. But "fit as a fiddle" means very good physical condition. So, how are you doing today? Oh, "fit as a fiddle", that means good, in feeling good and doing everything good. […]