Phrase of the Week: All But

執筆者 | 2013年08月10日 | Phrases

I told you not to ride so fast. You’ve all but killed that poor horse!” “All but” means “almost” or “very nearly”. It’s used to say you have come just short of doing something, or something that is very close to true. For example, “all but impossible” means something...

Phrase of the Week: How come? What for?

執筆者 | 2013年08月03日 | Phrases

Child: How come things fall down and not up? Parent: Are those my keys? Don’t drop them down there! Argh! What did you do that for? Child: I wanted to see if it would fall up. “How come?” is another way to ask “why?” It asks the reason something happens. “How come the...

Phrase of the Week: All bets are off.

執筆者 | 2013年07月27日 | Phrases

Commentator: “Normally I would expect the Tigers to win this game easily, but with their star player injured, all bets are off.” When something unusual makes it impossible to predict what will happen, we say “all bets are off”. When you bet on a sport, you can see how...

Phrase of the Week: That really hits the spot

執筆者 | 2013年07月20日 | Phrases

“That pizza was delicious!” “Yeah, I’ve been craving pizza all week. That really hits the spot!” When a food is very satisfying, we say it “hits the spot”. 「ピザ美味しかった！」 「うん、今週ずっとピザが食べたかった。満足した！」 食べ物がとても満足させるときに、それを「hits the spot」と言います。...

Phrase of the Week: He stood me up.

執筆者 | 2013年07月13日 | Phrases

Paul: “How was your date with George?” Cynthia: “I can’t believe it. He stood me up! I waited for hours.” Paul: “That’s terrible!” If you make a promise to meet someone somewhere and then never show up at the meeting spot, you have stood the person up. This is a mean...

Phrase of the Week: She hung up on me.

執筆者 | 2013年07月06日 | Phrases

Ethel: “Hello, Janice? This is Ethel. I wanted to—Oh! She hung up on me! Can you believe it?” Hanging up on someone is ending a phone call before the conversation is finished. If you don’t want to talk to someone, you can hang up on them. However, they might be...