8 Idioms with "HAVE" in English

http://www.engvid.com/ Do you have a sweet tooth? A green thumb? A heart of gold? Find out the meanings of 8 commonly used idioms about what people have! Using these idioms in speech and writing will make you sound more natural and fluent in English. Don't have your hands too full to view this lesson!
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TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Rebecca from www.engvid.com. In today's lesson, we'll learn eight idioms which have the word "have" in them. Okay? Now, of course, an "idiom" is an expression where the overall meaning is something different from the individual words that are included in that expression. Okay? So let's have a look at these idioms.

The first one, "Bill has a sweet tooth." "Bill has a sweet tooth?" What does that mean? He has a tooth that's sweet? No. Remember; it's an idiom, so it has a different meaning. Have you ever heard anyone using this? Well, if you say that someone has a "sweet tooth", it means that he or she likes to eat sweet things, likes desserts, likes chocolates, likes anything sweet. Okay? And maybe a little too much. So that's the expression "to have sweet teeth." All right.

Let's go to the next person. "Susan has a heart of gold." Okay. So what does that mean? Again, don't take the meaning literally. It doesn't actually mean that; it means something else. When you say that someone has a "heart of gold", it means that that person is very kind, is very generous, is very helpful. Okay? A really good person. All right? So there we are.

Let's go to the next one. "John has a good head on his shoulders." "John has a good head on his shoulders." Okay. What do you mean, "good head on his shoulders"? Of course, you have a head on your shoulders, right? Yes, but it's an idiom, remember. Okay. So when you say that somebody has a "good head on their shoulders", it means that they're very sensible; they're clever; they're intelligent. Okay? So it's kind of like they have a good brain. They think well. Okay? So that's what it means to "have a good head on your shoulders".

Let's go to the next one. "Angela has her hands full." "Her hands are full" means that she's very busy. Okay? Because you're always doing something, in other words. She's very busy. So before we go on to the other four, let's review the first four.

So who is very kind and helpful, generous? Who has a heart of gold? Susan. Okay? Now, what does it mean -- or which idiom can we use to say that somebody really likes to eat desserts? You have to say that somebody has a sweet tooth. Good. If you want to say that somebody's very intelligent, very clever, which idiom can you use? You can say that they have a good head on their shoulders. And if you want to say that somebody is very busy, you can say that they have their hands full. You want to use it for yourself, you can say, "I'd love to help you, but I'm really sorry. I have my hands full." " I have my hands full" means, "I'm very busy right now. I'm very busy with a lot of other things, so I can't help you." Okay?

Next. All right. Let's look at the next four. "Steven has eyes in the back of his head." "Steven has eyes in the back of his head." What does that mean? How can you have eyes on the back of your head? What could that possibly mean? Well, it means that you know what's happening around you as if you had eyes in the back of your head. Obviously, you don't. But when we say this, what we're trying to say is somebody knows everything that's happening even though you don't know how they know it, but they know what's going on. So, "He has eyes in the back of his head". Okay?

Next. Now, of course, you see that I'm changing it, right? If we're talking about a man like Steven and we say, "He has eyes in the back of his head." If it is Angela, then, we'd say, "Angela has eyes in the back of her head." And that goes for all of these, okay? Whenever there's a "his", "her". If it was about me, "I have my hands full." "You have your hands full." Etc. okay?

Next. "Barbara has a big mouth." Oh, no. That's not good. What's going on with Barbara? Does it mean she physically has a big mouth? No. Not necessarily. When we say that someone has a "big mouth", it means they like to gossip; they like to talk a lot; they like to tell secrets; and they just like to talk a lot. So don't tell your secrets to Barbara. Won't work.

Next. "Mark has a green thumb." So first of all, what's a "thumb"? This is a thumb, right? This is your thumb. What does it mean to have a "green thumb"? Any idea? Okay. So "green" has to do with plants and so on. So if someone has a green thumb, you're saying that he is very good with plants, is very good at gardening. Okay? And things grow well when he plants them. Okay? He's very good at that. He has that skill.