Idioms are an important part of learning the real native speaker English that helps you immerse in the culture and community of English speaking countries. 

But what is an idiom? I often just liken it to an expression, something that has become popular to say and a way of expressing an idea or thought quickly, in a short sentence. 

But the official definition of an idiom is:

a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words.

This means that an idiom is a group of words that have a meaning that you may not be able to guess from the words themselves. 

This makes it tricky to guess what an idiom means! But, when you learn them in context, it can make it easier. 

In this lesson I am going to teach you 4 useful idioms that often refer to work situations. 

Check out the video lesson below and the notes. 

**Stay to the end of the video for the QUIZ!

1. Give yourself a pat on the back.

To give yourself a pat on the back means to congratulate yourself (or someone else) and give praise for an achievement. 

When someone does a good job, we say “Give yourself a pat on the back!”, especially if this person has worked really hard.

“John, I really think you need to give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve worked really hard this year!”

“You should give yourself a pat on the back for studying English!”

2. Let someone off the hook. 

This means to allow someone to go without punishment when they have done something wrong or illegal. By letting the person off the hook you let them escape the blame, responsibility or difficulty. 

“I came late to work yesterday. My boss said; “Look, I’ll let you off the hook this time but please don’t do it again.”

“Sally was caught for stealing chocolates from the local store, but the police let her off the hook because she promised never to do it again.”

3. Take the rap for something.

When we take the rap for something, it means we take the blame or responsibility for someone’s mistake or crime. It could be something serious or it could be a more day-to-day thing at work. 

When we do this, it usually means we decide to intentionally take this blame for someone else.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take the rap for it!”

“I’m not going to take the rap for this! It was not my mistake!”

“Have you ever taken the rap for something that you didn’t do?”

4. Wrap your head around something. 

This means to understand how something works / to comprehend something unbelievable or complicated. 

We often use this in the negative form:

“I just don’t understand this computer software program! I just can’t wrap my head around it!”

“I just can’t wrap my head around how many people were killed in the Holocaust in World War 2.”

How did you go in the quiz? Did you get them correct?

Now you can practise with some sentences in the comments. I will come back to correct you.