Learn common English expressions... that come from shoes?!

Lace up, and get ready to learn some new English expressions and idioms that come from the vocabulary of shoes! As with most idioms, these shoe expressions have unexpected and unpredictable meanings. Don't worry -- they're not just about shoes. In fact, some of these expressions are used to talk about very common and everyday situations, so you will encounter them often in English conversation, shows, and books. I will teach you the meaning of sayings like "arch-villain", "sole purpose", "laced with something", "stepping out in style", and more. If you are on a "shoestring budget", don't forget to complete the free quiz at https://www.engvid.com/learn-english-expressions-shoes/ after watching this free video!

Take your English learning further today and watch these two videos next:

1. 12 ways to use body parts as verbs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT-sMGYMB5g&index=6&list=PL1MxVBsQo85pZXMyUuh-4tXB4Zv2oMDOS

2. Learn English color expressions to talk about situations & emotions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQLwxxjSXWg&list=PL1MxVBsQo85pZXMyUuh-4tXB4Zv2oMDOS&index=9

TRANSCRIPT

Batman slowly turned over, and he saw his arch-villain or arch-nemesis, the Joker. Hey. Sorry. James from engVid. Just reading about the Batman. And Batman is famous for having his utility belt and tools to solve crimes. I'm going to use this shoe to teach you some vocabulary and some idioms. You guys ready? Or and some phrases. You ready? Let's go. Use this shoe. "Wa-cha."

All right, so Mr. E says: "I'm a shoo-in for this job." What the heck does he mean? He's actually wearing a nice pair of shoes, so it must be something serious. Let's go to the board and find out. Hmm. Here is a shoe, and you may notice in brown I have put one, two, three, four things about a shoe you may not know. I know you know what a shoe is-right?-basically, but did you know that these things here, we call them "laces"? Yeah, that's what you tie up. Someone will say: "Do up your laces." But there's also an idiom that comes from this. Now, what do you call the back of the shoe? We call that "the heel". Right? The heel of the shoe. Now, this part you can't really see, but it's the part that bends like this, we call that "the arch". That's where your foot kind of goes like this. And then finally, this is "the sole". Now, I'm not talking about the soul that goes to Heaven. Right? I'm not talking about the soul that goes to Heaven, I'm talking about the sole of your foot. So, it's heel, arch which is the middle part, and then the sole, and we've got our laces, and now we're ready to do our lesson. Let's go.

So, let's start with the shoe itself, the whole shoe and nothing but the shoe. The first one I want to talk to you about is about a "goody two-shoes". Now, if you're a goody two-shoes, it means you're a good, good person. You know, the person who does all their homework, comes on time, is very nice to everybody. You might be religious even, I don't know, but you're a really, really, really good person. You don't smoke, you don't drink. I know, if you're an engVid watcher, that's not you. Okay? Because you're on the internet, so I don't know what you're up to. But a goody two-shoes only does good things, never does bad things; no bad words, no alcohol, no anything that's bad. Goody two-shoes are usually children. Okay?

The next one I want to talk to you about with the shoe is "a shoo-in". And notice I said: "shoo-in". It looks like the word "shoe" here, but it's spelt differently, which might be a bit confusing. Well, that's because when we as English people say it, we don't really think of this particular verb, but we use the word, and when we use it we mean... If someone's a shoo-in, and usually for a job or a situation... He's a shoo-in for... To be her girl... Boyfriend. She is a shoo-in for the job. When we say it what we mean is they are the person candidate or the perfect person to get it. Okay? So, if you're going for a job, and let's say you're a lady and you're going for a job, and go: "She's a shoo-in for the job. She's got the right education, she has the right connections, she has the right experience." We mean you're the perfect one for the job. Now, remember I said it looks like this, but it's not like that? I've got to give you the real meaning behind it. See, this "shoo-in" comes from horseracing. You know horses? Well, way back what would happen is horses would be racing and then one horse was... That was winning would kind of go back and fall back, and the second horse would win, and it would become the winner, and it was called the shoo-in. "Well, why?" you're thinking: "That's like perfect candidate, right?" Not exactly. This is in what we call the fixed race. It means that the first person in the race... So let me get you some markers so you can see the difference. […]