Let's Learn English! Topic: Animal Inspired Words & Phrases! 🐿️🐀🐈
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Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson about animal words and phrases.

Um you'll have to wait for the first slide to see what inspired me to make this lesson but we're gonna do a lesson on animal words and phrases like catnap or eagle-eyed or dark horse. These are all words and phrases we use in English to describe a variety of people and things around us. So once again the phrase has an animal name in it but

but it will have a completely different meaning or the word as well. There are some words will have an animal name in the word.

but it will have a completely different meaning. So, when we get started, you'll see I have a picture to represent the meaning and then I also have a picture of the animal at the bottom so we know which animal uh it comes from. Some of these phrases make sense. You can understand why it has the animal name in it but some don't at all. So, once again, welcome to this English lesson about animal words and phrases.

drowned rat. When you call someone a drowned rat, it is a phrase used to describe someone who is soaking wet. You might recognize this person as

yesterday I went for a walk and it was raining just a little bit. It was spitting, it was drizzling and halfway through my walk, it started to rain like really rain and so you can't quite see it in this picture. You can see the road is wet but uh I am soaking wet. The water went through my clothes and it was also quite uh cold. So, we use this phrase quite often to say, oh, I was like a drowned rat or uh

he played soccer outside for an hour. He was a drowned rat when he came home. So, this is a rat at the bottom and the not so nice part of the description is when a rat drowns, it goes in the water and it dies. So, I don't know why we use this phrase to describe someone who is soaking wet but drowned rat. I was certainly like a drowned rat yesterday.

squirrel away. Now squirrel is a hard word to say for English learners. This is a squirrel. A squirrel has the behavior of putting nuts away in the fall hiding them everywhere. So it has something to eat through the winter. So the meaning to put money or other things away for the future kind of makes this phrase make sense. If I squirrel away money it means I put money in

my mattress or in a bank account so that in the future, I have money to buy things or to do things. So, to squirrel away, to put money or other things away for the future. We usually use this to talk about money. Like, I'm gonna squirrel away some money for two years so I can buy a new car.

cat nap. So, a short light sleep during the day and of course, this is a cat down here. If you have ever seen a cat, a cat tends to sleep a lot. All the time. Our cats are almost either hunting mice or sleeping. Those are the two things our cats do and I think through the day, they have 10 or 11 naps.

nap is a short time of rest and sleep during the day and we sometimes call a short nap a cat nap. I'm just going to have a cat nap. Sometimes I'll have a cat nap in the afternoon. I'll sit on the couch. I won't lie down. I'll sit because if I lie down I sleep for too long. And then I'll sleep for five or ten minutes. So a cat nap, a short, light sleep during the day.

catwalk is a narrow walkway and there's actually two meanings for catwalk or two things I can describe. If you go into a large factory or large building, they might have places like this up near the ceiling and we would call this a catwalk. In an auditorium, you would go on the catwalk to put lights to point at the stage. So, it's this narrow, usually metal walkway.

Also in the fashion world when models run go down the runway we also sometimes call that the catwalk. But this to me is the most common definition, okay? At our school if you go above the stage there is a catwalk. Um if you go in our shop area there is a catwalk. Um kind of a metal walkway uh up near the ceiling so you can walk up there to access things.

don't know why it's called catwalk though. This cat is wondering the same thing. I guess cuz a cat walks narrow in a narrow way. I don't know. To let the cat out of the bag means to reveal a secret.

If I was planning a party for one of you, let's say I was planning a party for know that and it was supposed to be a surprise party and I told Modags about the party. I would have let the cat out of the bag if mode tells know that. Like if it's supposed to be a secret and one of you tells the person who's not supposed to know, they have let the cat out of the bag.

This cat is wondering why cats were in the bag in the first place and why you wouldn't just let all the cats out of the bag. But in English, this phrase now means to let the cat out of the bag to reveal a secret. The dog days of summer. So, depending on when the hottest time of year is for you, the dog days of summer would be the hottest time of the year. For me, this would be

middle to end of July. Those are the dog days of summer. It's 33, 34 degrees. It's very very hot and so we call them the dog days of summer. Why? I don't know except that when it's really hot a dog will pant a lot and dogs seem really really hot

unwilling to do anything during the hottest time of the year during the dog days of summer. So, if someone says to you, oh, I have to work outside and it's the dog days of summer. They mean it is the um the hottest time of the year. A dog eat dog world is a fiercely competitive environment or the world in general. Um I'm not gonna discuss the origin of the phrase. It's kind of weird if you think of the literal meaning. Um

But what this means is that when you work somewhere and if you want to eventually be the boss other people also want to be the boss and you kind of have to figuratively fight your way to the top. You have to be competitive. You have to be aggressive. You have to advocate for yourself because it's a dog eat dog world. If there were three people who wanted the same job at my work

other people aren't my friends. I can be friendly to them but it's a dog eat dog world. So I'm going to want to make sure I'm I'm making it look like I'm punching. I'm not punching. Um you want to make sure you do what you need to do to get that job. An underdog is one expected to lose. This happens quite commonly in a sporting matchup. Your favorite team might not be very good and they're playing the best team in the league.

would mean your team they are the underdogs. They're not expected to win. They are expected to lose. Um and sometimes the underdog will win. In fact when they make movies we often cheer for the underdog in a movie. If you watch a movie like Rocky an older movie about a boxer. He is the underdog. He's not expected to win. But we like to cheer for the underdog. We like to

the one expected to lose. We like it when they win especially in a story or in a movie. To work like a dog. To work very hard. I tried to find a dog who was working. I think this is a police dog here. Uh to work like a dog means to work very hard. It doesn't mean the person is a dog. It

could say to Jen, I work like a dog today or we're going to have to work like a dog tomorrow to get this done. It simply means to work really really hard. Um it's not always enjoyable but if you want to do well at your job, if you want to get the promotion, you might need to work like a dog in order to get there. Goose neck. Something curved like a goose's neck. So, this is a goose.

This is a trailer that we would call a gooseneck trailer. You might call it a goosenecked trailer but I would say gooseneck trailer. You can see that the hitch on the trailer is shaped in that way. Um you might also have I'm trying to think of something else that's gooseneck. Something uh other shape. There are other things but this is the second reason why I'm doing this lesson. One, I was a drowned rat yesterday and then a couple days ago I saw a gooseneck trailer. Uh

on the way home. Uh let me just do a search here. Other things that are goosenecked. Let's see here.

Oh pipes. Yeah you can have that in a house. If a pipe goes like this and then it goes over another pipe you would say that is a gooseneck as well. A pretty unique term. You're not going to use this very often but this is a gooseneck trailer because the hitch is curved like a goose's neck. A wild goose chase. This is a hopeless or pointless search. Let's say Jen needed a

dog food but she wanted a certain kind and let's say I went to five different stores and each store said, oh, we don't have it but that other store has it and then I go there and they say, oh no, we don't have it but that other store has it and then I go there and I go to all the stores and none of them have it. That would be a wild goose chase. Jen sent me on a wild goose chase. I

Apparently, that's what it's like to chase wild geese. It's a hopeless or pointless search. So, again, if you go multiple places to buy something and none of them have it, it would be a wild goose chase. Um if I send a student to the office to talk to the principal but the principal is not there and they send them to another room but the principal is not there and they can't ever find the principal. That would be a wild goose chase.

eagle-eyed, quick to notice things. Now, as I was looking at the slides this morning, I realized, I thought this guy was pointing something out like, hey, don't forget about this. Um but he's actually just throwing garbage in the garbage can. I should have erased the uh the wad of paper but ignore that. Pretend he's really smart and

he's in a room and he's like don't forget that you need to do this before you do that. He's quick to notice things. So if you say someone is eagle eyed they're quick to notice things. You show them a graph and they notice that in July you sold the most cars. You you're just quick to see and notice what's in front of you.

Free as a bird. Carefree and unrestrained. So, you can kind of understand this one. This is a seagull. The seagull is free. The seagull doesn't have a job. All the seagull does is fly around and eat fish and there's lots of fish in the sea. So, this bird is free. So, we look at that freedom and we use it to talk about

we're on vacation for example. When you go on vacation you are carefree and unrestrained. You are free as a bird. When you retire you are free as a bird. Hopefully you have a nice pension and you can live a nice life. Um you are free as a bird. So carefree and unrestrained. A cash cow. So this is an interesting one. A cash cow is a dependable source of money. A

At our school, we have vending machines. One sells snacks, one sells drinks and I think these machines are a cash cow for the person who owns them. If you own a vending machine, you put stuff in the machine and then you come back and the stuff is sold and there's money. It's a dependable source of money. It's a cash cow.

could also say this about there are one or two kinds of flowers that Jen grows that are fairly easy to grow and easy to sell. So for us they for us they are a cash cow. As opposed to some flowers are very difficult to grow.

not a lot of people want to buy them. Um we wouldn't call that a cash cow. So, if you have a dependable source of money, it is a cash cow and I don't know why it has the word cow in it except that I guess a cow gives milk and maybe the milk, you get milk every day from a cow so it's kinda like a dependable source. I don't know. I don't know the origin of all these words but cash cow, a dependable source of money. To pig out, the

to eat a lot messily. I'm very familiar with this because I have five children and because I teach at a high school. Next week, I will be having a meeting with a club that I run and we will be having pizza and they will pig out. They will eat a lot and

they will do it messily. Okay? So, to pig out doesn't always have to be messy but it often is. If you have 10 hungry teenagers and you bring them five pizzas, they will pig out. They will probably not even grab a plate. They'll probably grab a napkin and a piece of pizza and and eat it really fast. So, unfortunately, pigs have gotten a bad name. Pigs are considered a

fast eaters, messy eaters, messy animals and so we use the phrase to pig out using the name of the pig to talk about to eat a lot and to eat messily or in a messy way.

hog something. So another name for pig is hog. So it's an equivalent name like you can have hogs or you can have pigs. We usually use the word pig in Canada. But to hog something is to take or use more than your fair share of something. So if I was to give two students a pizza. I

one student took a slice and the other student took the rest of the pizza and went to the corner and was eating it themselves. We would say they are hogging the pizza. They have decided to hog the pizza. The other student might say don't hog the pizza. Let's split it 5050. So to hog something to take or use more than your fair share of something. Until the cows come home. And

a very long time. She talked we often say till instead of until we shorten it like she talked till the cows come home came home. Um don't start talking to him because he'll he'll talk till the cows come home. It means for a very long time and apparently the

when cows go away, it takes a long time for the cows to come home. Again, I don't know the I'm joking here, right? I don't know the origin of the phrase but when you say someone does something until the cows come home, it means for a very long time. Um I'm trying to think of an example on our farm. Um there, yeah, I don't wanna give an example. There is maybe someone who talks a lot. They sometimes talk until the cows come home but I won't say who.

To chicken out, to back out due to fear. Here is a good example. Let's say four people wait in line to go on a roller coaster.

the one person doesn't like roller coasters but they're they're thinking they might go on and when they get close to the front of the line they decide to not go on. We would say that they decided to chicken out. To back out due to fear. They thought maybe they could overcome their fear and go on the roller coaster but they decided to chicken out. So apparently chickens are scared of things but to chicken out means they

to decide not to do something because you are afraid. If I said I was going to jump out of an airplane with a parachute, there's a good chance I would chicken out the day of that event. To horse around, to act silly or play roughly. This is often used to describe children in a group who are running around and

crazy. Pushing, shoving, tumbling, rolling in the lawn, playing tag, just kids being kids. We usually say they are horsing around. Um when you take your kids somewhere when they are this age they will most likely horse around in the backyard. So they'll throw stuff and they'll roll around in the grass and they'll push each other. They'll wrestle a little bit and they'll do things that kids do. Um and apparently they

similar to horses. To horse around. To act silly or play roughly. To hold your horses simply means to wait. This is a picture from Black Friday. And these people need to hold their horses. They are all trying to get into the store at once. They should probably wait and come in in a timely fashion. They need to hold their horses. That's probably what the security guard is saying. Hold your horses. You

one at a time. And I think this origin would come from when horses had reins and you would pull the rein to hold your horse to make your horse stop walking. So, to hold your horses means to wait. A dark horse is someone who unexpectedly wins or succeeds. If there is a tournament and there are three teams who are the best. Let's say there are sixteen teams.

teams are the best and one of those teams is predicted to win but let's say the sixteenth placed team. The worst team in the tournament ends up winning. We would say they are the dark horse. They were unexpected. So someone who unexpectedly wins or succeeds we would call a dark horse. Uh sometimes in playoffs there's a dark horse. A team that you don't expect to win and suddenly they start winning. So

from the horse's mouth means from the original source. There are two ways to get information from someone. One, straight from the horse's mouth. Literally, you talk to the person and the person said it. The second way to get information is to hear it from a third party. So, if I said, I

Jen said it's going to rain today. That's not straight from the horse's mouth. But if Jen came on the live stream and said it's going to rain today then you heard it straight from the horse's mouth. And it's not an insult like I'm not calling Jen a horse when I say that. But that's what straight from the horse's mouth means from the original source.

Snail mail, this is a relatively recent term. I think I heard it first about 15 years ago. It's traditional mail through the postal service. So if you know what a snail is, a snail moves very, very slowly. And when you send an email, it's instant or almost instant. But when you send traditional mail, it's very slow.

I send a a letter to my sister who literally lives down the road from me. It would take three days to arrive and so we call it snail mail. Traditional mail through the postal service. Many of you send me postcards. I do appreciate it. You have to send those via snail mail. So it is kind of a fun term to

regular mail where you would send an envelope, a letter, a postcard to someone. Traditional mail through the postal service and called snail mail because it rhymes so it's fun to say but also because snails are slow.

bull market and a bear market. I don't know if you are super familiar with the stock market but you can buy shares in larger companies. When there is a bull market it is a rising stock market. When there is a bear market it is a falling stock market. That means the price of stocks in a bull market is going up and

price of stocks in a falling market or a bear market is going down. The way I was told to know the difference is to think about how these animals attack. A bull will attack by making its horns go up and

So, if you see a bull, it'll have its horns down and it will attack like this. When you see a bear attack, it will swipe down with its paw. Now, this isn't a perfect explanation but it really helps me remember the difference between a bull market, a rising stock market, horns go up and a bear market, a falling stock market,

paw goes down. Right now, we're in a bull market. Well, I think there are conditions for each like the market has to go up a certain number of percentage points before you call it that but so far since five, six weeks, since April 8th, things have been pretty good. A lame duck. A person or thing that is ineffective. You might be on a team with ten people and nine people are

work like dogs and one person is a lame duck. They don't do anything. They come to every meeting. They don't really contribute. When the meeting's over, they don't, they go back to their desk and they just sit there and do nothing. That person is a lame duck. So, you'll sometimes hear sports journalists describe a player on a team like this. They'll say, everyone on the pitch is doing their part and

but the goalkeeper is a lame duck. He's not doing his part or the defenseman isn't doing his job. He is ineffective. Um not a very not a compliment if you know what I mean. Pecking order, a hierarchy or ranking system. So, if you don't know this, chickens have a pecking order. So, one chicken is always the boss chicken.

Maybe you don't know this either. When we would put cows into a field from our barn when I was a kid, the cows would kinda establish a pecking order. There would be one cow that was the boss. It's kinda funny in the animal world. We call this a pecking order in the real world. At your job, there is a pecking order. You have a boss and then a manager and then maybe a shift supervisor and then you, that is the pecking order.

don't actually like chickens peck right? Like this if this is a chicken it pecks. People don't actually peck at each other but that is what we would call it. Um even if you are on a team there might be a pecking order. There might be the athletes who are better than you. Uh and then they there's kind of a hierarchy or ranking system. So a pecking order. Sitting duck. Someone or something vulnerable to attack or criticism. Uh

So, if I went to school today and there were students with water guns, I would be a sitting duck because I can't run very fast. Um if they wanted to squirt me, this doesn't happen by the way but uh a sitting duck is someone or something vulnerable to attack or criticism. Uh so, uh that's the best example I can give and I guess I

a duck sits. Maybe it's easy to catch. I don't know. Uh but a sitting duck someone or something vulnerable to attack or criticism. Fox in the hen house is when a dangerous person is in a vulnerable environment. Probably the best way to explain this is if a hacker is

got access to a computer system once they're in they're like a fox in the hen house. They can do whatever they want. So if they got access to a bank computer they would be like a fox in the hen house. No one would know they're there and they could probably do what they want to do. And so again I think you can understand where this comes from. This is a fox.

hen house is like a chicken coop or where there are chickens. You do not want a fox to be in the hen house because the fox will eat all of the chickens. Ants in your pants. This is to be restless or fidgety. Um of course you know what ants are. Um these children don't actually have ants in their pants but when kids act crazy. When they're horsing around. When they are acting crazy we sometimes say do you have ants in your pants?

meaning like are you running around and are you restless because um you have ants crawling around on you. Ants in your pants. It's kind of a funny phrase. Bird brain. A foolish or silly person. This is an insult. You should not call someone a bird brain but a bird brain would be someone who I don't know is forgetful, silly, foolish, makes bad decisions, makes

Here's how you will use this. You should use this word occasionally to describe yourself. I'm not calling you a bird brain but I will call myself a bird brain. Let's say I here I'll give you an example. If I had my glasses up here and if I spent 10 minutes looking for my glasses and then I realized they were up here I might say I'm a bird brain or I'm such a bird brain. They were on my head the whole time. So,

Don't call anyone else a bird brain but if you are comfortable insulting yourself, go ahead and call yourself a bird brain. Busy as a bee to be extremely industrious or hardworking. Uh I think we're all familiar with this phrase. It is taught as often as raining cats and dogs but we use this one. Like someone as busy as a bee. Jen is busy as a bee at this time of year. She has a lot to do.

So she is busy as a bee. I try to help her as much as I possibly can because she is extremely industrious and hardworking during the flower growing season. She is busy as a bee and again comes from the animal world. Bees always seem to be working. You never see a bee relaxing. A one trick pony.

Someone who is good at only one thing or has only one skill. So again sometimes you hear about this in the world of sports.

Maybe this player can catch the ball really well in the game of baseball, but they can't hit the baseball with a bat at all and they can't run very fast. The only thing they do well is they catch the ball. We would say they're a one trick pony. So, he is good at only one thing or has only one skill. I'm not sure why the pony, the pony is like a

was going to say small horse but it's I mean it looks like a small horse but it's it's just called a pony but a one trick pony someone who is good at only one thing or has only one skill. I'll tell you this. People who become teachers. If you're a one trick pony you don't last very long as a teacher. You have to be able to plan and photocopy and make lessons and make

keep your classroom organized and do things like you need more than one skill to be a teacher. If your only skill is you know how to photocopy, if you're a one trick pony, you will not survive as a teacher. Hi, Bob the Canadian here. Thank you for listening to this English podcast lesson. If you would like to support me in the work that I do as an online English teacher, please visit patreon.com slash Bob the Canadian.