Hello everyone!
Welcome to Idiom 100, where we learn 100 commonly used idioms by native English speakers.
All of the explanations are in English, but don't worry.
Hang in there, study hard, listen carefully and soon you'll be using these idioms in your daily conversations.
Is everyone ready? Let's begin.
Hello everyone!
Today's idiom is: pull someone's leg.
Pull someone's leg.
Alright, so let's imagine a picture of maybe some people at a party
and everyone is standing around, drinking and talking
and all of a sudden, something pulls your leg and you look down and nothing is there.
What was that? Something pulled my leg.
And look around and you see a small boy in the corner of the room laughing.
Yeah, he pulled your leg and he's laughing.
He thinks it's funny.
Okay, so let's picture this, the boy pulls your leg and runs away and is laughing at you.
Alright, so let's listen to some examples of this idiom, pull someone's leg, and try to understand its meaning.
The best way to master English is to sleep with a textbook on your face when you go to sleep at night!
Are you serious? I think you're pulling my leg!
Okay, so the friend told him, 'You should sleep with a textbook on your face and you'll really understand English well,'
and the other person knew, 'You're joking. You're pulling my leg.'
Okay, so let's listen to the second example.
I saw on BBC news they said penguins can fly. Did you see it?
They were pulling your leg. Didn't you notice that the date was April 1st?
Oh, okay, so he saw a BBC news program saying that penguins can fly, but we know penguins can't fly, so it was a joke?
It was on April 1st, which is April Fool's Day, a day that we tell many jokes.
So, it's a common day to try to pull someone's leg or tell a joke.
Alright, but not just a funny joke, but maybe trying to tease someone or tell them a lie and try to be funny.
Yeah, so if someone tells you to sleep with an English book on your face to learn English, yeah, they're pulling your leg.
It's not the truth and they're trying to be funny and trick you.
Alright, so next time you think someone is telling you a lie, but they're not telling you a lie to be mean,
they're telling you a small lie to be funny and you can tell them, 'I know you're just pulling my leg. I know that's not true.'
And they'll say, 'You're right. Good job.'
Okay, so let's try catching someone pulling your leg or maybe you can try to pull someone else's leg.
And I'll see you around next time.