How animals can improve your English!

Do you use a lot of expressions in your language related to animals? I was thinking recently about how many animal expressions we use in English to describe our everyday lives, and the list is seemingly endless. I actually hadn't realised how common they were!

In this podcast episode I've managed to put together a list of some of the most common expressions that I personally use involving animals (of course there are many others so perhaps we can look at more in the near future). The common factor is that these expressions involve animals but the meanings and situations you can use them in are very broad indeed!

This hawk does look rather surprised to be included in today's podcast by the way...

Here are the expressions we'll be looking at today...

Expressions about Animals:

• "To go cold turkey" - Giving up bad habits can be very hard to do. If we go cold turkey then we immediately quit this habit from this very moment.
• To watch something or someone like a hawk" - If you watch someone or something like a hawk, you do not take your eyes off of it. Like the hawk above when it is looking at its dinner, you don't want to risk losing this thing.
• "To pig out" - I'll admit, I'm often guilty of this. But then, aren't we all? If you pig out, then you eat more than you should. Many of us pig out a little more during specific seasons such as Christmas, only to feel rather guilty afterwards...
• "Hold your horses!" - When you want to tell someone to slow down and not rush you can use this expression. Sometimes in life the best things come to those who wait (isn't that from an advert?) and using this expression can encourage people to follow this philosophy!
• "Kill two birds with one stone" - When you complete two tasks at the same time. Perhaps you are reading this article and listening to the podcast at the same time?
• "Let the cat out of the bag" - If you reveal a secret to others that should have remained a secret you have let the cat (the secret in this case) out of the bag. Oh dear!
• "The elephant in the room" - This is something that we are trying to pretend isn't there but we are both thinking about it. It's better to talk about it and move on than ignore it, don't you think?
• "To be like a fish out of water - Have you ever found yourself in a new situation or surroundings and found yourself feeling confused and uncomfortable? If so, you can use this expression.
• "To chicken out" - If you are too scared to complete  an action then you chicken out of it. Don't chicken out of leaving some example sentences in the comments below, okay?...

Ready for some examples of these expressions in context? Listen to this podcast episode by streaming or downloading it at the top of this page. Then one you're finished, come back and leave some of your own sentences below!

Talk later,

Lloyd 🙂