Expressions with the word Dog

Hello everyone, welcome to a new “Dicas de Inglês” here with me Alisson Viana. And today we are looking at some useful phrases using the word Dog.

So, for everyone Dog is considered to be a man’s best friend, that’s not a secret for anyone, right? What maybe not everyone knows is that the word dog can be used to describe lots of ideas in English. For example, you know that we are living a competitive world. Certainly you’ve heard that being good is no longer enough and that got to be the best one in whatever we get into. There is a good explanation for that. It’s because people are becoming aware of the importance that should be put on education and preparation for work, like dedicating more time to study an perhaps having a superior education grade. If you don’t keep up with the speed that the job market requires from you, you will be left behind. It is because we are living a dog-eat-dog world. That means many people are competing for the same thing. In this example for good jobs.

I have a couple of friends who keep this is mind that they have to work like a dog to be successful in their lives. It is certainly true, though. Nevertheless, they also have to be willing to lay off most of the things that they are used to do like hanging out with friends, going to movies and so on. As a consequence of such hard work is that they are likely to get dog tired. And because of that they won’t be able to enjoy their hobbies. I guess you are quite familiar with this expression. In Portuguese we say: “Cansado feito burro”. Another way of passing the same message is by saying to be sick as a dog, which sounds even worse.

Now, to be really successful people should learn new things to improve their skill at work. However there are lots of people, often older people, who firmly believe that you can never teach an old dog new tricks, because they do not like to be taught by someone else. It means that no matter what you say, they will never change the way they do things. Some people are so convinced of that that they may even get offended if you try to pursue them to think otherwise. The situation happened to me when I was trying to convince my grandmother that she should learn how to use a computer. She told me that it was useless and it would be better not to insist, otherwise I’d be in the dog’s house. What she meant indeed was that I should not keep nagging her about this learning how to use a computer thing.

Unlike my grandmother, my grandfather was always willing to sit and listen to whoever who wanted to share some new information with him. He was someone I really admired. Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago. But this guy was incredibly wise and smart. To be honest I can’t think of anyone who is as wiser as he was. When I was younger he usually told me this stories of when he was just a kid, which I definitely I loved to hear. He told me of one night when his mother had to go out to pick up one of his brother. He described that night as raining cats and dogs. He was petrified for fear that his mother could not make all the way back home at the heavy rain. All he could hear was the sound of the thunder and see the lights appearing on the wall.

As you noticed in the context above, the word Dog can also be used to describe the weather. If it is raining to heavy we say that it is raining cats and dogs. But do not worry you won’t have any dogs or cats falling upon your head.

So, what about you? Could you tell us of your example using the word Dog? Leave your comment and see you next time.