12 May 2011 horse idioms

In this episode, The Teacher introduces you to three idiomatic phrases connected with horses.

 1. To eat like a horse

2. Straight from the horse's mouth

3. To flog a dead horse 

The script:

Hello, I’m a very interesting and intelligent man.

And this is Fred, who, as you may have noticed, is a horse. Today Fred and I are going to be helping you to improve your English.

I bet you’ve never been taught by a horse before.

Hungry, isn’t he? In fact, he eats all the time. He eats like a horse - of course he does - he is a
horse.

In English, if someone eats a lot we can say ‘he eats like a horse’. To eat like a horse. To eat a lot.

[Neighing and other horsy noises.]

What's that you say Fred? Ah, just that silly noise horses make. Anyway, I heard it straight from the horse’s mouth.

We use this idiom when we've got some information directly from the person responsible for
it. For example: my boss is going to fire me. Yes, it’s true. I heard it straight from the horse’s
mouth.

It means my boss told me directly. I didn’t hear it from anyone else.

Sad news, I’m afraid… Fred’s died.

Which means there's no point in trying to get him work any more.

How do we make a horse work? Yes, that's right, by hitting it, or as we say, ‘flogging it’.

Our next horse idiom: ‘to flog a dead horse’. Which as you can see is completely pointless.

‘To flog a dead horse’. This means to waste effort on something that we have no chance of succeeding at.

I sometimes feel like I’m flogging a dead horse when I’m teaching. My students, they never seem to learn… I don't quite understand what the problem is…..very frustrating…

[Horse noises]

My self-talk: