Learn English - 6 fun idioms about DREAMS

http://www.engvid.com/ Get your DREAM vocabulary with these six popular idioms about dreams! Learn these expressions to help you understand native speaker conversations and popular culture. Improve your vocabulary with idioms such as "dream on", "wouldn't dream of it", "a dream come true", and more... Not sure about the meaning of these English idioms? Watch this lesson to build a vocabulary "beyond your wildest dreams"! Take the quiz here: http://www.engvid.com/learn-english-idioms-dreams/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, my name is Rebecca from www.engvid.com. In today's lesson, we're going to learn six idioms that have to do with dreams. All right?

Now, what is an idiom? You probably know, but just to review. An idiom is a combination of words that together means something different than the words mean individually. All right? So let's understand what these idioms are. You need to be able to understand idioms because people use them quite often in conversation and also in writing. But remember, the rule about idioms is: don't actually use it unless you're really sure how to use it because otherwise it sounds a bit silly. But, it's still important to know them and to understand them, and maybe at some point, to get to the stage where you can actually use them in your own conversation which I hope you'll be able to do soon.

Let's get started. First one:
"It was a dream come true."
Now, what I've done in all of these is to use them in a sample sentence, a sample sentence which doesn't necessarily give away the answer, but let's see if you can figure it out. What is "a dream come true"? "A dream come true" is when something is so perfect, so beautiful, so amazing, we say: "Oh, it was a dream come true." For example: -"How was your vacation?" -"Wow, amazing. It was a dream come true. I loved it." Okay? So it's like a good dream that actually happens. But we can't analyze it that way, you just need to understand that the expression: "A dream come true" means that something was amazing.

Next:
"I wouldn't dream of it."
What does that mean? "I wouldn't dream of it." Well, this means that something is so silly or improper that I would never do that. So, "I wouldn't dream of it" means I would never do that, I would never do such a thing. Okay? For example: if somebody says: -"Oh, are you going to always be my friend or are you going to stop being my friend when I'm not so rich?" - "Oh no, I will always be your friend. I wouldn't dream of not being your friend. I really care about you." Something like that. Okay?

Next one:
"It was like a dream."
Again, this is a complimentary positive kind of idiom. -"How was your vacation?" -"It was like a dream." Okay? Which means: perfect, wonderful, great. Usually, dreams symbolize something strong and positive when they're in idioms. We do have another idiom: "It was like a nightmare." A nightmare, of course, is a very bad dream. So that's when everything goes wrong, you can say: "My holiday was like a nightmare." That's different. But now, this was a good holiday, so we say: "It was like a dream."

Next is an expression which is a little bit sarcastic. Sometimes someone says to somebody:
"In your dreams!"
When does that happen? Or:
"Dream on!"
Let's say that two friends... Two good friends are driving through a very expensive neighbourhood and they're looking at these amazing mansions and huge houses that are on both sides. And one of them says: "Wow, I'd like to have a mansion like that. I'd like to be living in a house like that." And the other friend says to him: "Dream on!" Or: "In your dreams!" Which means: "Yeah, really. It's just a fantasy. I don't think it's really going to happen." Okay, he's not being mean; he's just being a little bit sarcastic. And that's how we use something like that. Or if someone says: "Oh, what an amazing actor he is. I wish I could date him." So the other girl says: "Oh, yeah. In your dreams! Really." Okay? That's an example of how we use something like that. A little bit we're joking with people; we're not trying to be mean.

Okay, next:
"It was beyond my wildest dreams."
Again, this is like: "It was like a dream", but this is even more so, it was more than. "Beyond" means more than my wildest dreams, my most crazy dreams, my most imaginative dreams. "It was beyond my wildest dreams." What could be beyond your wildest dreams? I don't know, anything. Your wedding day. Maybe you had always dreamt of something beautiful and your wedding day was actually even more amazing than that. So you could say: "It was beyond my wildest dreams." All right?