New expressions

Hi everyone! I am Alisson Viana with new How to.

Ok, so two weeks ago I was listening to one of Akon’s song (Right now – Do you know this song?) and I noticed a rather curious expression: the apple of my eye. When I heard it I wondered: How can something be the apple of someone's eyes. So as I am a very curious guy I decided to find out the meaning for this expression. What I found was something that I never thought it would be possible.

I found that to be “the apple of someone’s eye” means to be their “favorite”, special or the best. For example, let’s suppose you are joined by your friend at a Café and he points to a place where many beautiful ladies are and then he says: “Look at that! What beautiful ladies, don’t you think?” And as you are in love with your girlfriend you reply: “Yeah, dude! They are really beautiful. But Katherine is the apple of my eye”. That means that although the ladies are all very beautiful your girlfriend is your favorite one. And that you’ve just got eyes for her.

Yet with this same expression let’s say your father bought himself a new car a week ago and now he has no time for anything else but for his new car, so you say: “My dad’s new car is the apple of his eye now. He doesn’t care about anything else anymore”.

Now Another expression that I normally use in my classroom with teachers or with my classmates to say that something is very easy: “It is as easy as pie”. You might be wondering: "But why pie?" The reason for English speakers to use pie has nothing to do with making the pie, because they are not so easy to make, although I haven’t ever tried it. The easiness comes with the eating which means that it is very easy to eat. One example that I didn’t forget when I heard was when my teacher was giving me my test and saying: “Don’t worry; it's going to be as easy as pie”. Likewise you can say that something is as easy as pie, you can also say that something isn't as easy as pie. For example, let’s suppose you have been studying English for many years, have read many and many books, but even though you don’t think you’ve learnt much. As a result you thought about laying off English then you say, "That's it! I will lay off English. I've been studying it since I was 10 now I am 19 and I do not know much about it. Learn English isn't as easy as pie.”

Well guys, that’s it for today. I hope you like it. And don’t forget to leave your comment. And see you next time.

Vocabulary

Rather: Bastant

Find out: Descobrir

Dude: Cara

The easiness: A facilidade

Likewise: Da mesma forma

Lay off: Deixar

Como dizer: Dormir feito pedra

Hi everyone, how is it going? Well, I hope life has been treating you kind! This is Alisson Viana with a new Dicas de Inglês. Today’s “How to” is all about the expression sleep like a log.

Well, as you may already know July’s coming and that means: Holidays. Yes, that’s just great. Is there any other better thing than that? You don’t need to wake up early, don’t need to keep thinking about tests, like I normally do. Not mention that you can spend hours in front of your computer talking to your online friends and dedicate more time to learn English here with me at Dicas de Inglês.

There is something that you don’t know about me, which is I do like sleeping. When I am on holidays I usually sleep like a log. Even though my mother keeps saying: “Alisson, you should not sleep so much.” Hey, hold on a second! What did I mean by sleep like a log? It sounds a little strange, doesn’t it? Yes, it does. However there is a slightly similar expression in Portuguese, which is: “Dormir feito pedra.” Yes, I bet you’ve heard of it or even said that before.

In English when someone sleeps very soundly that even a thunderstorm wouldn’t wake him up, we say that he sleeps like a log. As you know a log is a thick piece or tree trunk or branch, specially one cut for burning on a fire, and it is not need to say that a log cannot move, right? So, if you are going to do like me and sleep for hours, you probably are going to sleep like a log. Let’s see another example with this same expression.

Everyone in our family sleeps like a log, so no one heard the thunderstorm in the middle of the night. Nothing can wake us up. We usually sleep like a baby.

Well guys I am afraid I have to go now, I hope you’ve enjoyed my tip and learned something new today. Don’t forget that whenever you have any question; just ask me leave me a comment that I will be right there waiting for you. Thank you very much and see you next time.