Hi there.
Today let’s do a proper English lesson.
I did a ‘Listen & Learn’ podcast about the weather and climate on Monday, so that you
could practise your English understanding.
So let’s go with a more traditional topic today - a lesson!
Except that this is better than a traditional lesson, as it’s presented
‘Listen & Learn’ style, in English, which hopefully you can understand.
But don’t forget to listen a number of times to make sure you understand it all
and ensure that your brain gets practice hearing those less familiar words.
Hello, I’m Hilary, and you’re listening to Adept English.
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OK so some English grammar knowledge today.
Do you know the difference between a ‘simile’, S I M I L E and a
‘metaphor’, M E T A P H O R?
Both of these are devices we use in English, to make
what we say more descriptive.
Can you think of the difference, if you learned it on your language course?
It’s the kind of thing that British children learn in school, the difference
between ‘simile’ and ‘metaphor’.
Well, the answer is a ‘simile’ is when you describe something
as ‘like’ something else.
And a ‘metaphor’ is when you describe something as if it were
something else, for dramatic effect, even though that’s not true.
So you might say ‘My car is a chariot, that carries me home safely’.
That would be a metaphor - clearly your car isn’t actually a chariot,
that’s C H A R I O T - what you mean is ‘it’s like one’.
But because there’s no ‘like’, L I K E or ‘as’, A S in that
sentence, that makes it a metaphor.
Whereas if you say ‘My car is like a chariot.
It carries me home safely’ - that’s a simile.
Another example?
Someone might say ‘My husband is a rock’.
That would be a metaphor.
Whereas if you say ‘My husband is like a rock’, that would be a simile.
And sometimes similes contain the word ‘as’ as well, because
they make a comparison.
So if the person said that ‘My husband is as strong as an
ox’ - that is also a simile.
And we use metaphors and similes a lot in English.
And with similes, there are some that are very common, so it’s worth you learning
them because they’re commonly used.
And there are a lot of similes in English which are quite outdated and old
fashioned, but these may be included in lists of similes online or in textbooks.
But you only need to know the ones which are frequently used.
Let’s focus today on commonly used ones, which contain the word ‘as.
So ‘as dark as night’ might be used.
You wouldn’t use it if it actually was night, because that wouldn’t be a simile!
But you might hear ‘It was dark as night in that cave’.
Or ‘It was dark as night in the cellar because I couldn’t find the light switch’.
Another simile for something being dark, or black.
You might hear ‘It was black as coal’ - that’s C O A L.
‘Coal’ is what people used to mine from the ground and burn
in their fireplaces for fuel.
Obviously coal is black.
What about if something is white or pale?
Then one of the similes you might hear used ‘As white as a sheet’.
A ‘sheet’, S H E E T - means ‘a bed sheet’ here.
Think of the sort of white cotton sheets that you might see in a
hotel room on the bed - or you may have them on your bed at home.
And ‘as white as a sheet’ is commonly used to describe someone’s face being pale, P A
L E because they’re either shocked or ill.
So that’s ‘as white as a sheet’.
Another simile you might hear - ‘As white as snow’.
‘Snow’, S N O W is what falls from the sky in winter sometimes - and what you
use to make a snowman or snowballs.
And this could be anything that’s ‘as white as snow’.
Another phrase, another simile that people use even though this is an
exaggeration - ‘as blind as a bat’.
So someone whose eyesight is not what it used to be may say - ‘Can
you thread this needle for me?
I’m as blind as a bat’.
Or ‘Can you read that label for me?
The print is far too small - and I’m blind as a bat without my glasses’.
So a ‘bat’, B A T here is an animal.
‘Bats’ hang upside down in caves and they were implicated in coronavirus - and
bats are very much protected in the UK.
If you want to do a loft conversion and bats are found in your roof - forget it!
The bats take priority.
I complain sometimes that animals aren’t sufficiently protected in the UK, but
bats are one species that probably are.
So that simile again?
‘As blind as a bat’ - because bats presumably don’t have great
eyesight, but they do hear well.
And what if you’re hard of hearing’ - that means that you don’t hear very well.
In that case, you might use the simile ‘I’m as deaf as a post’.
That’s ‘deaf’, D E A F meaning you can’t hear, or your hearing is compromised.
And ‘a post’ here, P O S T is a noun - and it doesn’t mean ‘the mail’.
Here it means here like a fence post, or a sign post - traditionally
a wooden post, which is upright, firmly sited in the ground.
Usually with a purpose - like holding up a fence or a sign.
So that saying is ‘as deaf as a post’.
I don’t know why particularly we’ve chosen ‘a post’ here - it could’ve been
any object that doesn’t hear, really!
Another simile - ‘As fresh as a daisy’ is something else we say.
I guess you could use this simile of anything that is ‘fresh’, F R E S H.
The adjective ‘fresh’ is usually used of things like
food - ‘fresh eggs’, ‘fresh milk’.
But often when we say ‘as fresh as a daisy’ - it’s when someone’s
had a good night’s sleep - and they wake up in the morning,
feeling good and ready for the day.
A ‘daisy’, D A I S Y - apart from being a lovely girl’s
name - I really like that name!
[One of my dogs was called ‘Daisy’ - and now one of my daughters
has ‘Daisy’ as her middle name].
A ‘daisy’ is a flower, usually with petals and a central button - dahlias and lots of
other garden flowers can be ‘daisy-like’.
But real daisies are those that live in your grass, tiny with
white petals, tinged pink if the weather is cold and a yellow centre.
At least that’s what they look like in the UK - those are ‘daisies’.
And why ‘fresh’?
Why associated with ‘freshness’?
Well, I guess it’s because daisies close up at night and open in the
morning when the sun comes up.
And often they’re covered in morning dew, D E W, so they’re ‘fresh’.
Another simile that we use frequently?
‘As cheap as chips’.
That’s ‘cheap’, C H E A P meaning ‘not costly, not expensive’.
And the chips we mean here, C H I P S?
Those are the ones that come with fish when you eat that famous
British takeaway, ‘fish and chips’.
And it’s not the microchip that you’ll find in your computer!
And ‘as cheap as chips’ is used often when someone has invented
something new as a solution to some problem in the world - and it can
be manufactured ‘as cheap as chips’.
Always good news - rather than something that’s expensive to make and isn’t viable.
Why do we say ‘cheap as chips’?
Probably because chips are easily made from potatoes and
oil - and they’re usually the most inexpensive part of a meal.
And just be aware - ‘chips’ in the US means what British people
call ‘crisps’ or ‘potato crisps’.
And in the US, they call what we know as ‘chips’, ‘French fries’
There are lots of similes - I’ve a long list - but we need to keep this
podcast to a reasonable length, so let’s just choose a couple more!
Here are a group of similes that you may hear said of children.
You know when you’ve a young child, who’s obviously intelligent and
they’re just full of joy and curiosity?
Well, it’s often said of children like this that they’re ‘bright as a button’.
Meaning that they’re intelligent, curious, ‘on it’ as we might say
in slang English - they don’t miss much and they ask lots of questions.
And a ‘button’, B U T T O N?
Well, although there’ll be buttons on the dashboard of your car, and your TV remote,
the original meaning of the word ‘button’ are those fastenings on your clothes.
Traditionally, nice buttons were bright or shiny.
And ‘bright as a button’ is used of children.
It can be used of adults too - where you’re saying they’re intelligent.
Another ‘as’ simile’ used of children - if they behave well, they’re ‘good as gold’.
That’s ‘gold’, G O L D as in the precious metal.
You might have jewellery that’s made of ‘gold’.
Or possibly a gold tooth, if you have a certain style.
We say this because historically gold was a good investment - gold had
its own value, before people really believed in banknotes or ‘paper money’.
So I guess ‘good as gold’ because gold’s an investment which ‘behaves itself’.
But we use ‘good as gold’ for well-behaved and obedient children.
And a last one which is said to children.
If it’s a really cold day - that’s not happened here
in the UK just yet this year!
But when autumn finally does arrive, say you’re out for a walk with
your child, or they’re tucked up in bed to go to sleep and it’s a cold
night - you would like to know that they’re ‘snug as a bug in a rug’.
That’s a lovely phrase, isn’t it?
And it means ‘they’re warm enough’ - ‘as warm as toast’
is another simile we might use.
But ‘snug as a bug in a rug’!
What does this mean?
Well, ‘snug’, S N U G as a noun means ‘a little cosy sitting area next to a fire’.
The adjective ‘snug’ means ‘a tight fit’ if you’re talking
about clothes, but it also means ‘warm’ - and that’s its meaning here.
A ‘bug’, B U G is an animal, usually an insect.
And ‘a rug’, R U G is something woven, like a carpet that you put on your floor.
So ‘a bug in a rug’ may mean some sort of insect that probably you
don’t want in your rug - like a carpet moth that’s eating your rug!
But in this phrase, ‘snug as a bug in a rug’ - sounds quite cute, like
something out of a children’s book.
But it means you’re warm enough.
So hopefully this winter, you’ll not be ‘as cold as ice’ - you’ll
be ‘as snug as a bug in a rug’!
So that’s it today.
We covered black as coal, dark as night, white as a sheet, white as snow, blind
as a bat, deaf as a post, fresh as a daisy, cheap as chips, bright as a button,
good as gold and snug as a bug in a rug.
There are plenty of other similes using ‘as’.
Let me know if you’d like some more of these similes that
British people say all the time.
Enough for now.
Have a lovely day.
Speak to you again soon.
Goodbye.
Thank you so much for listening.
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