Phrases, or Sayings heard in Ordinary English Conversations

When two things are identical we say this. Twins

are an excellent example

As alike as two peas in a pod

Bats use sonar, not visible light, mainly because they fly at

night.

When someone doesn’t understand something

we say they are as blind as a bat. It does

not have to be something to see

As blind as a bat

As brave as a lion The male lion defends his

pride (family) with his life.  He is brave and

fearless, no wonder he is called the king of the

jungle!

Locked in combat: Mother lion takes

on deadly crocodile to give cubs safe swim across river

Watch a bee. It is always moving. Always flying from one flower to the

next. It never stops

As busy as a bee

As clear as mud

When something is explained to you, and you just don’t understand it, you say this. Mud is not clear! You cannot

see through it

As cold as ice

Someone can be as “Cold as Ice” if they do not attempt to be friendly, or they say as little as possible to you. They will try to ignore you

As deaf as a post

Someone who is “As Deaf as a Post”, either

wants to ignore you, or they

cannot hear you because of what they are doing

Conveying an untrue version of

events by leaving out the important facts. A euphemism for lying, in short.

Economical with the truth

Euphemism - Substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively

explicit

Statement by the winners

“In the fight for the city, our army

Only killed 20 of the enemies soldiers”

It sounds like a victory with little bloodshedWhat they omitted to

say was:-“Thousands and

thousands of civilians were killed”

An important and obvious topic, which everyone present is aware of, but which isn't discussed, as such

discussion is considered to be uncomfortable.

The elephant in the room

In a discussion on trade between the Chinese and the

Japanese Governments, the

Diaoyu Islands would be “The Elephant in the

room”

Something that requires little mental effort or intelligence

to perform or understand. The

term is often applied to decisions which

are straightforward or sometimes to

people who appear to lack intelligence.

No-brainer

A dumb question or response. Something one shouldn't even have to think about

it.Dude1: Hey, man,

where's the basement? Dude2: Try

downstairs, bright spark! 

Estimated average

For the world, (US included)4 Metric tons

Estimated average

For US homeless person

8.5 Metric tons

Carbon footprint

The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted

during an industrial or

domestic process; a measure of how

that process contributes toward

global warming.

I don't want to discuss that.

Don't go there

An American television personality interviewing the President might ask,

“What about these Islands that China and Japan are disputing?”

The program’s producer would be screaming, “Don’t go there”, because he wants to sell the program to China and Japan, and will not want to upset either

country

Fashion victimSomeone who slavishly follows fashion trends, whether it suits them or not!

At the centre of the Fashion

Victim’s belief system is the

idea that anything made by a designer

label is automatically

good

Selfie

A selfie is a type of self-portrait photograph, typically taken with

a hand-held digital camera or camera phone, and are usually

taken in a slightly tilted manner. Selfies are often associated with

social networking

 ‘dear’, ‘servant’, ‘hunger’, ‘coal’, ‘mill’, ‘pencil’, ‘tin’, ‘bless’, ‘plough’, ‘handshake’, ‘telegraph’, ‘comb’, ‘grammar’ and ‘gaiety’

Old Words, Rarely heard now

 ‘mobile’, ‘internet’, ‘CD’, ‘guy’, ‘climate’, ‘video’, ‘technology’, ‘drug’, ‘text’, ‘online’, ‘computer’, ‘television’, ‘traffic’, ‘cancer’, ‘email’ and ‘environment’

New Popular Words

If you keep talking about a

problem you have, you do not listen to

those helping you.

If you actually shut up, you

might hear the solution

If you have tried

everything you can think of,

then you need to have a

break from the problem. Sleep on it, you may

have more ideas when

you wake up

Your life will be more interesting if you take risks and

do some things that are not sensible

You will not have so many regrets when

you look back on your life

A bit like “If you can say nothing

nice, just say nothing”

It is telling you not to say

unpleasant things to anyone

You do not have to prove to somebody that you are brave, or kind,

or a nice person.

They will automatically know by what you do.

If you have to try to prove it then you are not brave, or kind, or really the nice person

you think you are

You do not have to tell everyone how good you are.

The successes you have will tell them.

What you do, is better than what you say you will do

If you never try, you can never fail, but your life will mean nothing

Don’t worry about things that went wrong yesterday,

especially if you can do nothing about

them.

Try to make sure you don’t make the same

mistakes today

A bit of a “No Brainer”

As bright as a new pin

As clear as a bell

As helpless as a baby

In diffi culty, faced with a choice between two unsatisfactory options.

Between a rock and a hard place

Properly conducted conditions for a game, giving all participants an equal chance. Also used more widely to mean fairness and justice in contexts other than games.

Fair play

(of two or more people) very close or friendly.

(as) thick as thieves