Welcome back to English with Catherine.

If you're new here, hi, my name's Catherine.

I'm here to teach you some English.

And hello to all my lovely loyal subscribers.

I see you in the comments and I'm always grateful.

Today's video is called 10 Darling Idioms, which kind of means 10 adorable, beautiful idioms.

I don't know if you can relate, but sometimes words just have this power to transport you to another world.

These idioms are for daily English.

They will help you to sound more natural and more friendly.

You don't have to use them all the time, but if you just sprinkle a few into your vocabulary in your daily speech, I guarantee your English is only going to get better.

I'm going to tell you the idiom, I'm going to tell you what it means, and then I'm going to tell you exactly how to use it.

And please watch to the end of the video because we have a word of the week this week, and this one is focused around water, and I absolutely love it.

So stay tuned for that.

Let's get started with the idioms.

Number one, come rain or shine, come rain or shine.

This lovely idiom means whatever happens, I will do that, or whatever happens, I will be there.

This idiom has connotations of consistency, loyalty, reliability, and trust.

You know, if you ever want to just remind your friend or someone you love that you're always going to be there for them, you can say, I will be there, come rain or shine.

If it's raining, if the sun is out, if there's a thunderstorm, whatever happens, I'll be there.

I remember saying this to one of my very close friends when she was going through a really difficult time with her health.

All she needed was people to say that to her because she needed a support system.

So I said that to her, and I really enjoyed hearing it.

Number two, on top of the world, on top of the world.

If you say that you are on top of the world, that is about pure happiness.

You're so happy, you feel like you're sitting on top of the world, just looking down at everything.

I love this idiom because it has connotations of happiness and kind of gratitude.

You know, when you just feel grateful to be alive and to be healthy.

There are a few moments in my life where I've been on top of the world, but one of them that springs to mind is when I graduated university.

I came home to my parents' house where I was living at the time, and there was a car in the driveway with a bow around it, and it was an old classic car.

Nothing that expensive, it wasn't really anything grand, it was a car that I wanted and that I dreamed about owning, and my dad had very kindly gifted it to me for my graduation present.

I was really young and I remember just seeing the car, and I was just on top of the world.

There's no other way to express it, I was so happy.

That was a really good summer.

Number three, once bitten, twice shy.

Once bitten, twice shy.

Can you get the meaning from this?

It's a really good idiom for when you want to learn from your mistakes.

So if you're bitten, it means you've had a bad experience doing something, and then you will be twice shy, meaning you learn from that mistake and you don't do it again.

This has connotations of life lessons, wisdom, experience, it's a great one for personal development.

Now the example I'm going to give for this is actually quite funny, because it's actually actually about being bitten.

So my sister has been unlucky enough to have been bitten by a few dogs in her life.

I've never been bitten by a dog, she has three times, and now every time she sees a dog, you know, coming towards her, she's a bit kind of on edge.

And if you're on edge, by the way, you're just a bit tense and nervous.

So that's an actual example of once bitten, twice shy.

Sorry, it's way too obvious, it just came to my mind, you know.

But generally in life, we should learn from our mistakes, and you know, life is a journey where you develop as you go along and you learn, and you know, you get better and better and better.

You don't have to start off being the best, you can eventually be the best version of yourself.

Number four, to have a bee in your bonnet.

To have a bee in your bonnet.

I love this idiom, it's so cute.

So this means to have a bee buzzing around in your hat.

That's not going to be very pleasant, is it, if you have a bee in your hat.

So it means you have a problem, a little problem that won't go away, and you keep talking about it because it's annoying you.

So I'm going to give you a real example.

Where we live, we live kind of near our landlady who owns a big house in the grounds of where we live.

When we wash our clothes, we hang our washing out to dry, okay, like everyone else does on the washing line.

And sometimes we take a while to take it back in, because what's the rush, you know, it's just a bit of a bee in her bonnet about this.

She likes the washing to be taken in as soon as it's dry, so we often say she's got a bit of a bee in her bonnet about our habits with the washing.

And sometimes we forget completely and then it starts raining and then the washing gets wet again and she's just seeing that happen.

I'm sure that's actually really annoying.

I will do better.

What I love the most about this idiom is that the mention of a bonnet, which is like the old hat, and I guess because of that vocabulary it just reminds me of the olden days where people used to wear bonnets, like Jane Austen times.

Number five, to wrap your head around something.

To wrap your head around something.

This idiom means that you need to try to understand something difficult or complex and you just say that, let me wrap my head around that, just give me a second.

You know when something is just nonsense sometimes or just like doesn't have any rational logic, you just have to take a second to like try to understand it.

This idiom has connotations of focus, concentration, patience, perseverance.

Last weekend there was actually this really special sky experience happening.

The northern lights or the aurora, aurora borealis I think it's called, where the sky glows green or purple.

This was happening and you could see it from London which is really unusual and all in the south of England as well.

Usually you can only see the northern lights obviously if you go somewhere like Iceland or if you go to Scotland right to the top of the country in the north.

So this was amazing and it took me a while to wrap my head around it because how can we see that down here?

How is that possible?

How?

How?

Anyway we tried to go and see it and we missed it really.

We were a bit late to the table unfortunately on this and we saw a kind of glow in the sky but some of my friends they told me they saw like swirling purple sky and clouds and it was stunning, like absolutely magic.

But it just took me a while to wrap my head around it because I didn't believe that it could be possible down here.

So I used that idiom.

Number six, to be bouncing off the walls.

To be bouncing off the walls.

This is about having lots of energy, you have all this excitement and energy.

Now you can use this if you want to describe the feeling of having too much coffee which is often what I have to describe.

I now have a rule of just one coffee, one coffee in the morning, that's it.

But you know when you've had a lot of caffeine you feel like you're bouncing off the walls, you've got lots of energy.

So this has connotations of energy and good vibes.

It can also reference having a lot of nervous energy, you can say I'm bouncing off the walls, I'm just so I'm so nervous and excited.

I remember when I made my first YouTube video and I was like kind of excited and Tom was just like look just go out for a walk, you are bouncing off the walls, you are full of nervous energy, and yeah that was the that was the feeling.

It had nothing to do with caffeine, it was more anticipation and excitement because I was actually really excited to do it.

We use this a lot with children especially when they've had sugar, you'll hear a lot of parents saying oh Sophie's bouncing off the walls at the moment, she's just had an ice cream or something.

Number seven, a ray of sunshine, a ray of sunshine.

This idiom is about people, so when you're describing someone's character or their personality which is actually really important for daily English.

You never know when you're going to need to describe someone, it could be anyone, your family member or a friend.

And this is just about someone who brings happiness to people, OK?

They're very positive, they have a lot of good energy about them, and my mum is literally this.

My mother, oh my, she is such a ray of sunshine.

And I remember my grandparents when they were going through a difficult time with their health and everything was a bit doom and gloom, which means a bit depressing, they would always say that my mum was like a ray of sunshine because every time she went round to their house she would kind of just cheer them up with her existence really and her cheerful way.

And I always remember them saying that to her, so yeah, mum you really are.

This idiom has connotations of warmth, positivity, hope and kindness.

Number eight, a hidden gem.

Do you know what a gem is?

A gem is like a diamond or a precious stone, like a ruby or an emerald.

The idiom a hidden gem is about something that perhaps hasn't been discovered by a lot of people.

It's not known about by a lot of people, but it's also maybe something to be kept secret because you don't want everyone knowing.

For example, I know a lot of hidden gems in Cornwall, which is one of my favourite places in the UK, and I don't know if I'm ever really going to tell people exactly where they are because they are secret.

They are as valuable to me as diamonds, so they are like gems to me, but they are hidden because not that many people know about them.

They're off the beaten track, they're not on the tourist path, OK?

So if you want a recommendation for a hidden gem in Cornwall, you're gonna have to get to know me on a deeper level.

Don't give away my secrets easily!

Sometimes I do, depends on the mood.

Number nine, to burn the midnight oil.

To burn the midnight oil.

I love this one.

I think I love anything to do with midnight because it reminds me of Cinderella, you know when the clock strikes midnight and her carriage turns back into a pumpkin?

Anything to do with midnight is kind of an exciting time, it's quite mysterious, and I love the word midnight.

So to burn the midnight oil is to and you burn the midnight oil by staying up late to finish the project.

It doesn't have to be working, it could be reading.

The other week I burnt the midnight oil, I stayed up till four in the morning reading.

I was just so into my book and I just couldn't put it down, so I just thought why not?

And the night time is so peaceful.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a night owl, that is not something I do all the time.

I'm definitely an early bird.

Just to remind you, a night owl is and an early bird is someone that likes to get up early and likes the mornings.

So this idiom has connotations of peace, calm, quiet, mystique, and Cinderella.

Number ten, to pour your heart into something.

To pour your heart into something.

This lovely idiom means to put all your effort into something that you are doing or have done.

So you do something in a whole-hearted way, which means you apply maximum effort, you really really try.

So it has connotations of commitment, devotion, authenticity, and sincerity.

I have to say I do pour my heart into all my YouTube videos.

Even when life is hard, I really do find that I enjoy it so much and I enjoy developing the ideas and trying to work out what you guys want.

You can use this if you do something for someone else as out with something at work and you pour your heart into it, it means you're really invested in that and you really care.

So it's just a lovely daily idiom for making a lot of effort.

Okay everyone, the word of the week.

Now I did already tell you that it is water related and this word is lagoon.

Lagoon.

So this means a body of water that usually can be found on a beach, but it's separate from the main ocean or the sea.

So usually when the tide comes in, the water fills up a rock pool.

Sometimes they can be quite big and then when the tide goes out, the water remains and you have a lagoon.

Another word that relates to the lagoon is the word ripple.

Now I don't know if you know this one, but when you drop something in a very still body of water, it creates ripples.

There are connotations of calm, peace, stillness, quiet, serenity.

This is why I love language.

Okay everyone, I'm going to love you and leave you to enjoy the rest of your beautiful summer's day.

It is summer now, so here we are.

This is it.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Maybe you can use a few of these idioms in your daily life.

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Have a great day and I'll see you next Friday.

Bye.