In this lesson, I will teach you eight expressions in English that have to do with your tongue. The tongue is a funny pink organ in your mouth that allows you to taste delicious food and other tongues. Though we know it as a part of the body, we also use the word “tongue” in several expressions in English. Here are some examples: “Has the cat got your tongue?”, “silver tongue”, “bite your tongue”, “on the tip of my tongue”, and “speak in tongues”. The eight expressions you will learn in this video are commonly used by native English speakers. You might have even seen or heard them in movies, books, and in conversation. English may not be your mother tongue, but learning new expressions is a great way to improve your speaking and comprehension. After the lesson, test your understanding with the quiz at www.engvid.com/8-tongue-expre... .
TRANSCRIPT
Hi. You know what this is? This is a "tongue". Do you have a tongue? I hope so. If you didn't, you couldn't talk. Today I'm going to teach you some expressions or some idioms about the word "tongue".
So, first of all, the pronunciation of this word is a little crazy; a little difficult. It looks like: "tongue", but it's actually just: "tong". So, practice that at first: "tongue". Don't say the "u" or the "e"; just say: "tong". Stick out your tongue. Most people don't like it when you stick out your tongue, so do it all the time; annoy people.
I'm going to teach you expressions using this. And I usually am not a fan of idioms; I think idioms are usually outdated, which means they're old, and we don't use them, but these ones we do use and they're kind of fun. And interestingly enough, you might have the same expressions in your language. So, let's do a little culture quiz, shall we? Let's see how many of these you have in your language, or how they're different.
So, the first one, someone might say to you: -"Hey. Has the cat got your tongue?" -"I don't have a cat. What are you talking about? Why would a cat get my tongue?" So, this expression: "Has the cat got your tongue?" means you don't talk. So, they're asking you: "Why are you not talking? Why are you not answering me? Has the cat got your tongue?" I don't know why it's a cat. Why isn't it a dog? So, it just means you aren't talking. There's a reason - you don't want to. -"Has the cat got your tongue?" -"Meow" would be a good reply.
The next one: If someone has a "silver" or a "smooth tongue", this means they are able to speak very well; they have a good way with words, you can also say. For example, you can say: "She is a great salesperson because of her silver tongue." If you have a silver tongue, you are able to speak to people; you can maybe sell them things; you are charismatic, which means you can talk to people, you can charm them. Do you have a silver tongue? Mine's just a normal tongue. If your tongue was silver, I'd try and steal it and sell it. No I wouldn't.
Next one: "Bite your tongue". When you do this, it really hurts. Okay? You're eating: "Ow! Ow, what happened? Oh, I bit my tongue. That was stupid. Why did I...?" Okay. So, biting your tongue is actually a literal thing, but as the idiom, it means that you don't speak on purpose. So, you want to tell someone something, but you bite your tongue to prevent you from speaking. Example: "I had to bite my tongue in the meeting because if I spoke or if I said what I thought, I probably would have gotten fired." So, if you bite your tongue it's you prevent yourself from speaking, probably because you're going to say something that someone doesn't like. But don't bite your tongue; it really hurts. Bite a sandwich or something.
This is good for you guys that are learning to speak English: "Slip of the tongue". Oo, that sounds a little dangerous; a little slip of the tongue. Yeah? Okay. So: "a slip of the tongue" means you make a small mistake when you speak. Oh, hey, there's an expression for this. So, guess what? When you're learning English and you're trying to speak English, even if you make a small mistake, it's okay. It's called "a slip of the tongue". We... I do this all the time. So, instead of going: "Oh my god! Wow, my English is terrible", you can say: "Ah, it was just a slip of the tongue. Sorry. I used the past tense instead of the past perfect. That's fine. It was a slip of the tongue." Sometimes you can use it like this: "Oh, I was embarrassed by my slip of the tongue." So maybe you said something that was wrong, and you felt embarrassed. But, again, you shouldn't feel embarrassed; it's just a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone. No one's perfect. No, no one.
This is interesting, too, for you guys: "mother tongue". So, what? Why is my mother here? Mom? Your mother tongue, this makes sense. Your "mother tongue" is your native language. So, for example, if you're from France, you could say: "French is my mother tongue." […]