One of the most common questions that I receive about idioms is “What’s the opposite of that?” In this lesson, you will learn 10 useful English idioms and their opposites – 20 idioms in total! You will learn that an expensive item can cost “an arm and a leg”, while a cheap item can cost “next to nothing”. You will also learn these idioms and more: "have one’s head in the clouds" & "have one’s feet on the ground", "one in a million" & "a dime a dozen", "take it easy on someone" & "be hard on someone". Make sure you do the quiz to test your understanding at https://www.engvid.com/idiom-battle-learn-10-english-idioms-and-their-opposites/ Don’t give up! Stick with it!

Get my book, 200 Practical English Idioms: https://www.englishalex.com/product-page/200-practical-english-idioms

More of my videos about idioms:Natural English:
5 Easy Idioms You Can Learn Today https://youtu.be/dtPjv7nnUYs
Learn 5 "GET" Idioms in 10 Minutes https://youtu.be/2qNUJljesCc

In this lesson:
0:00 20 Idiom Opposites
1:07 "have one's head in the clouds" & "have one's feet on the ground"
3:50 "cost an arm and a leg" & "cost next to nothing"
5:04 "one in a million" & "a dime a dozen"
8:15 "take it easy on..." & "be hard on someone"
9:29 "turn the other cheek" & "an eye for an eye"
11:32 "give up" & "stick with it", "hang in there"
13:01 "an early bird" & "a night owl"
14:28 "have time on one's hands" & "be short on time"
15:53 "be under the weather" & "be fit as a fiddle"
17:00 "be on top of.." & "be behind on..."

Transcript

Thanks for clicking, and thank you for joining us today for this lesson on 10 Idiom Opposites. So today, we will look at 10 idioms and their opposites. So today, you will learn a total of 20 idioms. That's why this is an advanced lesson. And if you are an upper-intermediate and advanced student, before we get to the lesson, just a quick reminder, I do have a book. It's called 200 Practical English Idioms. It uses, it teaches, it helps you practice idioms like the ones that we are going to look at today. It has over 1,000 examples, and as you can see, it's a wonderfully designed book, so check it out on my site at the link attached to this video. Also, that is also at englishalex.com, so you have two websites, engvid.com and englishalex.com to check out today.

Okay, let's begin. First thing, "to have one's head in the clouds". Do you have your head in the clouds? And what does that mean? If you have your head in the clouds, you are a dreamer. You are someone who likes to imagine, and you have fantasies in your mind, and you don't really have your feet on the ground. So, if you have your feet on the ground, you are more realistic, more practical. Head in the clouds? You like to daydream about fantasies, and maybe you're not a realistic person. Such as this guy over here. There's a famous fictional character. Who is this? Do you know who this is? Hmm. This is Don Quixote, a famous novel by Miguel de Cervantes. I think I said that right. And he liked to imagine a lot of different things. So, at the beginning of the story, near the beginning, he imagined that windmills were actually giants. And he was a brave knight who was going to fight the giants when, in fact, he was fighting windmills. So, Don Quixote had his head in the clouds. Now, we also have two examples here. Just a very direct example. "Jim always has his head in the clouds." So, ah, Jim. You know, I know that Barbara is together with Jim, but I don't know if Jim is a good fit for Barbara. Like, Jim, how is he going to buy a house with his dreams? So, maybe if you're not a realistic person, or you're always daydreaming, you have your head in the clouds. And here, she's really practical. "She has her feet on the ground." So, again, she has her feet on the ground. She's realistic. She doesn't have, like, these big ideas and fantasies, and doesn't live in other worlds in her mind all the time. So, do you have your feet on the ground? Or do you have your head in the clouds? Or sometimes, do you have your head in the clouds, and sometimes do you feel like you have your feet in the ground? It's not an X or Y situation sometimes, right? Okay. Oh, you can also say, "His head is in the clouds." Or, "Her feet are on the ground." You don't have to use "have". You can say, "His head is in the clouds. Her feet are on the ground."

The next one, "Cost an arm and a leg." An arm and a leg. So, if something costs an arm and a leg, it's very expensive. So, for example, "My laptop cost me an arm and a leg." Like, I had to give my arm and my leg, my body, a lot of myself, a lot of my money to pay for this. The opposite of "cost an arm and a leg", a way to say something is cheap is, "It cost next to nothing." Another idiom I will give you here is, "It was dirt cheap." So, dirt from the ground, you pick up dirt, it cost nothing, right? So, "It cost next to nothing." For example, "His car cost next to nothing. Maybe he bought a really cheap used car." […]