Overheard Today

Overheard

Eight fragments of conversation caught on a crowded street — idioms for the emotions hiding inside them, spotted, sorted, and put to work in a moment of your own.

Skill Vocabulary

Focus Idioms for emotions

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Listen In

Overheard

A worksheet in the eavesdropping genre

Skill Vocabulary

Focus Idioms for emotions

Warm-Up

Before we begin

Personal question: Have you ever overheard a stranger's conversation that stuck in your mind for days afterwards? What was it about?

A Quote to React To 🎙️

Listen to your teacher read this quote aloud. The poet Imtiaz Dharker once said:

"I eavesdrop all the time. I listen in shamelessly on conversations in cafés and in stations and on trains and on the street." — Imtiaz Dharker

Do you agree that eavesdropping is worth your time if you notice interesting things about people? Or is listening in on strangers just plain rude?

Picture in Your Head 🏙️🗣️💬👂

Picture a crowded street at rush hour — dozens of overlapping speech bubbles floating above people's heads, snippets of arguments, gossip, jokes, phone calls, all colliding in the noise of the city.

Do you ever feel on the same wavelength with a stranger just from overhearing them for ten seconds?
Do you prefer people-watching to eavesdropping, or the other way round?
What do you think today's lesson is going to be about? 🤔

Listening

Finding poetry in city chatter

Read this description of a BBC Radio programme. Where might a poet get their inspiration from?

Finding poetry in city chatter
In this programme, we talk to poet Imtiaz Dharker to find out about the kinds of places a poet might find their inspiration.

3.05–3.06

Listen to the Extract and the Poem

Listen to an extract from the programme, then listen to the poem at the end again. Answer the questions.

How does Imtiaz Dharker get inspiration for her poems?
What does she pay attention to?
What did the woman on the bus say about cooking with anger?
What did the woman on the bus do when she cooked? What was the outcome?
What do you think the meaning of the poem is?

Audioscripts 3.05 and 3.06

I = Imtiaz Dharker P = Presenter

I: I eavesdrop all the time. I listen in shamelessly on conversations in cafés and in stations and on trains and on the street.

P: Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist and film maker.

I: I think of it as part of my job to listen to what's going on around me in everyday life. Not just what people say, but how they say it. Their pauses and their hesitations. For me, that's like mining treasure and some of it finds its way into the poems. There's eavesdropping at all kinds of levels. Listening to the human voices of course, but also listening in on the world; listening to nature and eavesdropping on the heart's secret, which poetry does all the time. I heard this woman speaking on the 106 bus. It's just a regular bus in Bombay — hot and stuffy. And she got on and I heard her saying this to a friend and I knew immediately that that could be a poem. I dived into my bag and got out a scrap of paper and put it down and it's one of the best bits of eavesdropping I've ever had.

What she said: "Never cook your anger with the food. It will cause indigestion and disturbance in your house." What she said later: "I cooked my anger with the food. They didn't notice. They ate it up and said it tasted good."

First Try

Instinct check

Here are eight things overheard on the street. Read them, then match each one (1–8) to the emotion the speaker seems to feel (a–e). Don't worry if you're not sure — just go with your instinct.

"It doesn't matter what I do or say, nothing is good enough for him. It drives me up the wall."
"I always have butterflies in my stomach before a big presentation — no idea why, maybe it's just nerves."
"We were all tearing our hair out. Then he realised his keys were in his own pocket the whole time!"
"There he was, covered in paint, looking at me with wide eyes. I nearly killed myself laughing."
"I knew she'd lost her temper, but I didn't know it was because of a parking ticket. Who gets that angry over a parking ticket?"
"I shouldn't have said it out loud. I was on edge for the rest of the night."
"I believed him completely and told everyone. Now I could kick myself."
"It's a real pain that the lift's been broken for a week — I live on the ninth floor."

Emotions: a) annoyance · b) anger · c) nervousness · d) desperation · e) amusement

1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 — 7 — 8 —

Let's Look Closer

Idioms for emotions

These are all idiomatic phrases for emotions — informal, fixed expressions native speakers use instead of a plain adjective. You already know it's annoying when...; by the end of this section you'll see how phrases like drive someone up the wall say the same thing, just more vividly.

Step 1 — Look at the Examples

Don't worry about meaning yet.

Idiom	Example
drive someone up the wall	Loud phone calls on the bus drive me up the wall.
have butterflies in your stomach	I always have butterflies in my stomach before an exam.
tear your hair out	I was tearing my hair out trying to fix the wifi.
kill yourself laughing	We killed ourselves laughing at his terrible impression.
lose your temper	She lost her temper when the waiter spilled coffee on her.
be on edge	I've been on edge all week waiting for the results.
kick yourself	I could kick myself for forgetting her birthday.
be a real pain	It's a real pain when the wifi cuts out mid-call.

Step 2 — Match the Meaning

Now match each idiom (1–8) to its meaning (a–h).

drive someone up the wall
have butterflies in your stomach
tear your hair out
kill yourself laughing
lose your temper
be on edge
kick yourself
be a real pain

a) annoy someone intensely · b) feel extremely frustrated, unable to solve a problem · c) suddenly become very angry · d) laugh uncontrollably at something hilarious · e) be very annoying (a thing or situation) · f) feel nervous, tense or anxious · g) feel angry with yourself over a mistake · h) feel nervous, usually before something important

1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 — 7 — 8 —

Step 3 — Reveal

Check your answers, then look at meaning, form and pronunciation together.

Idiom	Meaning	Form notes
drive someone up the wall	annoy someone intensely (a)	Object between "drive" and "up the wall": drive me/him/them up the wall. Often continuous: driving me up the wall.
have butterflies in your stomach	feel nervous, usually before something important (h)	Fixed plural "butterflies", singular "stomach". Possessive changes: my/your/her stomach.
tear your hair out	feel extremely frustrated, unable to solve a problem (b)	Often continuous: tearing my/our hair out.
kill yourself laughing	laugh uncontrollably at something hilarious (d)	Reflexive pronoun agrees with subject: kill myself/yourself/ourselves laughing.
lose your temper	suddenly become very angry (c)	Irregular: lose–lost–lost. Followed by when/because.
be on edge	feel nervous, tense or anxious (f)	State, not action — use be, often with all day/week.
kick yourself	feel angry with yourself over a mistake (g)	Very common with could: could kick myself for + -ing.
be a real pain	be very annoying (a thing or situation) (e)	Followed by that-clause or when-clause.

Appropriacy: All eight are informal and spoken — perfect for chatting with friends, not for a formal report or email. It's disturbing how flat "I am annoyed" sounds next to "it drives me up the wall" — the idioms carry the emotion, not just the fact.

Now You Try

Rewrite

Exercise

Key-Word Transformations

Rewrite each sentence so it means the same as the original, using the word given. Use between three and six words, including the word given. Do not change the word given.

The constant noise from the building site next door really gets on my nerves.
WALL — The constant noise from the building site next door .
I always feel really nervous right before I have to speak in front of a large audience.
BUTTERFLIES — I always right before I have to speak in front of a large audience.
We got so frustrated trying to get the printer working before the deadline.
HAIR — We were trying to get the printer working before the deadline.
Everyone found his story about the wedding disaster so funny they couldn't stop laughing.
KILLED — Everyone at his story about the wedding disaster.
My manager suddenly got extremely angry when the client cancelled the contract.
TEMPER — My manager when the client cancelled the contract.
She's been feeling really tense and anxious ever since she got the diagnosis.
EDGE — She's ever since she got the diagnosis.
I really regret not backing up my files before the laptop crashed.
KICK — I for not backing up my files before the laptop crashed.
It's incredibly annoying that the train is delayed every single morning.
PAIN — It's that the train is delayed every single morning.

Your Turn

Make it personal

Speak

Finish the Sentence

Complete each sentence starter with something true about you, then tell the teacher — you're building your own "overheard" moment.

Something that genuinely drives me up the wall is... (something people think they can get away with, maybe?)
The last time I had butterflies in my stomach before I'd even opened my mouth was when...
I once tore my hair out trying to..., only to realise afterwards that...
I killed myself laughing at something that probably wasn't even that funny — it was when...
The real reason I lost my temper last time wasn't what it looked like — it was actually because...
Right now, one thing that's keeping me on edge, whether I admit it or not, is...
I could still kick myself for... and don't think I'll ever get over it.
One thing that's a real pain about living near my residence — something I'd never noticed until I lived there — is...

Make It Real

Speaking round

Speak

React to the Situation

Respond to each situation below — agree, disagree, or share your own story. Try to use at least one idiom from today in every answer.

drive someone up the wall · have butterflies in your stomach · tear your hair out · kill yourself laughing · lose your temper · be on edge · kick yourself · be a real pain

"Street performers can evoke the atmosphere of an entire city in one song." Agree or disagree? Would busking for money change your view?
Your neighbour argues loudly every evening — it's becoming a real pain. Talk to them, ask a parent, or just put up with it? What would make you act?
A stranger's story on public transport was so good you could kick yourself for not writing it down. Is eavesdropping ever justified for the sake of art?
Would you rather live somewhere noisy with street chatter, or somewhere silent near your residence? Has your answer changed since you were a young child?
Describe a performance where the performances feel so real you nearly killed yourself laughing, or got real butterflies in your stomach. What makes a performance feel "real"?
Is listening in on strangers worth your time if you're not a writer — or only once it becomes something, like a poem or story?
Tell me about a time you were on edge or lost your temper in public. What would you do differently now?
Some people feel instantly on the same wavelength with a stranger they overhear for ten seconds. Has this happened to you? Do you prefer it to a planned conversation?