English Idioms: Animals

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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Patrick Woodward.

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And I’m Megan Nollet. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

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Animals are everywhere, even when we cannot see them. There are bugs in the dirt. There are fish in the sea. Antarctica, the coldest desert in the world, is still home to millions of animals. There is even one animal, the tardigrade, that can survive in outer space.

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It is no wonder, then, that people talk about animals a lot. This is true in every language, including English. But you may have noticed that many of these sayings make no sense. A native English speaker may talk about flying pigs. They may say something about a wolf putting on the clothing of a sheep – as if animals wore clothes!

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Native English speakers often use idioms in their speech. Idioms are words and sayings where the meaning is not clear from the individual words. They are simply phrases that native speakers say that make sense to other native speakers. But these phrases are difficult for non-native speakers to understand.

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So, on this week’s Spotlight, we are exploring seven common animal idioms. Most are not about animals at all. But using them will help you learn new words and sound like a native speaker.

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Our first animal idiom is the phrase ‘the elephant in the room’. People use this phrase when they are speaking about a subject that no one wants to talk about. The avoided subject is usually very important to talk about. It will be very clear, as if it were a large gray animal sitting in the corner of the room!

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Imagine that two married people are throwing a party. Everyone who comes knows that these two are getting a divorce. The party is no fun. No one wants to start talking about their marriage difficulties. You might say that these problems are ‘the elephant in the room’. They are a huge issue. They affect everyone in the group. But no one wants to talk about them, because they are too large or too strange to bring up.

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Our second animal idiom is ‘to kill two birds with one stone.’ Do not worry, animal lovers! You do not need to kill anything to use this phrase. Instead, the phrase means to achieve many things in one attempt.

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Imagine that a woman needs to visit her sister. It is her sister’s birthday. But the woman also owes her sister money. She can celebrate the birthday and pay the money back in one trip. So, she might say that she is killing two birds with one stone by going.

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A third animal idiom is ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing.’ No wolves -fierce creatures like a wild dog- or sheep are involved in this idiom. Instead, the phrase means that a person appears gentle, but is not.

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This phrase first appeared in the Christian Bible. This holy book often compares sheep to innocent people. A wolf will hunt sheep. But a sheep can sometimes tell when a wolf is coming. It can run away from the wolf. But if a wolf could make itself look like a sheep, the animal would not recognize its hunter. The wolf could kill and eat the sheep easily. Someone who is a wolf in sheep’s clothing is similar. They fake meaning well when they do not.

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A fourth animal idiom is ‘to take the lion’s share’. A lion is a large cat, much bigger than a person. To native English speakers, the ‘lion’s share’ is the largest part of something. A person who has taken the lion’s share of something received most of it.

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People often use this phrase in financial situations. Imagine a group of people started a company. But one of these people spent more time, money, and effort. If the company starts making money, he might expect a greater part of the profits. He would want the ‘lion’s share’.

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This phrase comes from the Greek storyteller Aesop, who lived around sixteen hundred BCE. In one of his stories, Aesop tells about a hunting party between a lion and three animals that do not usually hunt: a cow, a goat, and a sheep. When the animals succeed, the lion takes the whole kill. He threatens the other animals if they try to stop him. This story taught that people should not partner with those who are more powerful than they are. The powerful person will always take the ‘lion’s share’.

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A fifth animal idiom is ‘all dressed up like a dog’s dinner.’ This idiom is popular in the UK, but not in the US. It means that a person is wearing very nice clothing.

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But there is also an insult in this saying. A ‘dog’s dinner’ is not very clean. A dog does not care how it looks when it eats. Calling someone a ‘dog’s dinner’ means a person who does not take care of how they look. So, a person who is dressed up like a dog’s dinner is presenting themselves differently than normal. They may even seem a bit foolish.

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A sixth animal idiom is the saying ‘when pigs fly’. Do not worry! These large, four-legged animals have not learned to leave the ground. Instead, a person who uses this saying means they will never do something. They may also be saying that an event will never happen.

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Imagine that a woman is afraid of airplane travel. Her son lives across the world. He wishes that she would come visit him. But he does not believe that his mother will ever find the courage. He may tell his friends that she will visit him when pigs fly. No pig can fly on its own. So, he is telling his friends that he does not believe it is possible.

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Our seventh and final animal idiom is ‘a fish out of water.’ This saying means that a person is in a new, often unpleasant, situation.

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For example, imagine a young boy is starting a new sport. He has never trained and knows very little about it. The only reason he is playing is because his friends do. At his first game, his inexperience will be clear. People watching may say that he looks like ‘a fish out of water’.

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This saying is so widespread in English that it is the name of a kind of story. A fish out of water story puts its main character in a new situation. Sometimes, something bad happens to this person. Maybe they go to another world or their business fails. But often, fish out of water stories are funny. They put a character in humorous situations.  

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There are almost as many animal idioms in English as there are animals on the earth. But these are some of the most common. Using them might not help you talk about animals themselves. But these sayings will help you sound more like a native speaker. Practice them as much as you can, and use them with your friends!

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Do you have any interesting animal idioms in your language? What are they? You can leave a comment on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com. You can also find us on YouTube Facebook, Instagram, and X. You can also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.

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The writer of this program was Dan Christmann. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called, ‘English Idioms: Animals’.

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We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.

Question

Do you have any interesting animal idioms in your language? What are they?