Today I am going to present to you a group of idioms and phrases to look at; one thing that all of these phrases have in common is there are numbers in them. To make learning these new idioms/phrases more fun, why don’t you try and guess what numbers go into the idioms/phrases below.

Here is a hint: The numbers go in order from smallest to largest, starting from the top of the list going down.

Give it a try!

A. all in ______ piece
B. to kill _____ birds with ____ stone
C. to have _____ left feet
D. to give a high ______
E. _____ times out of ______
F. to divide ______
G. to feel like a ______ dollars

Alright, here is another hint, here are the numbers: 1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 50-50, 1,000,000 – two number are used more than once.

Where do you think these numbers go in the phrases above?

Ready for the answers?

Okay, take a look at these idioms/phrases and their definitions below, with examples.

on the one hand – something that is said when speaking about two different facts or two opposite ways of thinking or ideas.
For example: On the one hand, I’d like to save my money for a long vacation, but on the other hand, I really want to go out with my friends each weekend.  I don’t know what to do.

all in one piece – to be safe; to arrive safe or without damage
For example: After the long flight home, we finally arrived, tired, but all in one piece.

to kill two birds with one stone – to solve two problems at one time, with a single action
For example: If we go to the grocery store and the bank on our trip out we will kill two bird with one stone and be done with our weekly errands.

nine times out of ten – usually; happening almost always
For example: Nine times out of ten I do my homework; the one time I didn’t the teacher called on me and I didn’t know the answer.

to give (a) high five – to slap somebody else’s hand above your hand; the number in this phrase comes from the fact that you have five fingers
For example: The players were giving high-fives all around after the game. or  I gave my brother a high five after he graduated.

to divide fifty-fifty – to divide in two even halves
For example: There was only one piece of cake left, so we divided it fifty-fifty and each ate half.

two left feet – an inability to dance or to be clumsy in general
For example: My boyfriend never dances with me at parties because he says he has two left feet.

to feel like a million dollars – to feel great or amazing
For example: When I heard I got the promotion I had been waiting for, I felt like a million dollars.

Last question of the post, which of these idioms do you think is represented by the picture at the beginning of this post?