6 Dog Idioms in English

81,974 views ・ 2012-06-27

English with Alex


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hi, this is Alex, and welcome to this lesson on dog idioms. So, you might have seen the
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episode on cat idioms on www.engvid.com. Well, now we're going to turn to the opposite side
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and talk about dogs. It's actually amazing how many different kinds of idioms there are
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in the English language specifically related to animals. It's incredible. Okay? So, today
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we're going to look at six idioms related to dogs, and these are fairly common. So,
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you might hear these in movies, in conversation on the street. Okay? So, let's have a look
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at them. So, if someone says, "It's a dog-eat-dog world," essentially it means that the world
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is extremely difficult, where there is a lot of competition. So, a lot of fierce competition
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where people will do anything to be successful even if it hurts someone. Okay? So, if you
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have a friend basically who lost a promotion because someone else in the company got the
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promotion first, maybe because... not because they were the best employee, but because they
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knew the boss or something like that, you would just tell your friend, "Well, it's a
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dog-eat-dog world, my friend. No matter what you do, someone is always going to try and
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get ahead of you." Okay? So, just think of two dogs kind of fighting each other. Okay?
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It's a dog-eat-dog world. It's a difficult world where people will do anything to get
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ahead of you. Okay? If you're sick as a dog, this one is very, very simple. It just means
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you are extremely ill. You are very sick. "Grandpa's in the hospital. He's sick as a
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dog. He's very ill." Okay? "I had some bad food last night. I'm feeling sick as a dog."
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"Sorry, boss. Can't come into work today. I'm sick as a dog. I'm very ill." Okay?
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Every dog has its day. What does this mean? Well, essentially what it means is eventually
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everyone gets a chance to be successful. Okay? So, maybe you've had a difficult time of things
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or a difficult life. Someone might say, "Every dog has its day." One day, things will work
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out for you. Okay? Let's say you're playing the lottery every day. You're always losing.
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And your friend who thinks that one day you're going to win the lottery, he might say, "Just
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keep playing. Every dog has its day. One day, you will be successful. You will get what
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you want." Okay? It's a dog's life. Basically, all this means is that life is very difficult
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and unpleasant. Okay? So, similar to dog-eat-dog world, but not exactly. This just means life
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is hard, life is unpleasant. Let's see. What kind of example can we use for this? Okay.
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It's a dog's life. "I got fired from my job today. It's a dog's life, man." Something
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like that where it's just life is unpleasant, life is hard. It's a dog's life. Even though
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I think I have a dog, and he has it pretty easy. So, he just has to eat and go for a
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run every now and then. But, for some reason, we think dogs have hard lives. I don't know.
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Okay. What about "top dog"? So, the word "top" means, obviously, way up here, high. So, the
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top dog, essentially, what it means is the head or the person with the most power, okay,
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usually in a company or in a given situation. You can say, "Bill Gates? Yeah, he's the top
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dog at Microsoft." Okay? He is the chief, you know, at the very top of the management.
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Okay? So, if you're talking about, let's say, sports stars or something like that, you can
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say, "He's top dog on his team. He's the best player on his team." Someone who is the best
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in a particular category is the top dog, the best at something. Okay? So, you can't teach
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an old dog new tricks. So, if we read this, it's actually not too difficult to understand.
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What it means is, when someone has been doing something for a very long time, and they've
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always been doing it the same way, it's very difficult for them to change that behavior
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or to change their actions or their beliefs. Okay? So, let's say your dad has always walked
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to work and it takes half an hour to get to work. Okay? And you tell your dad, "Dad, we
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just got a new bus stop installed, you know, by the city close to our home. Take the bus
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to work." But your dad is very stubborn. He's always walked to work. It takes 30 minutes.
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He complains about it, but he doesn't care. He does not want to take the bus. So, he would
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just say, "Dad, oh, dad, we can't teach him any new tricks." So, we would just say, if
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you're talking to like your brother or your sister, and they say, "Dad refuses to take
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the bus." Well, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Okay? So, let's review these one
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more time. So, again, a dog-eat-dog world means it is a very fierce and competitive
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world where people will do anything to get ahead. So, this is more, you make a comment
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about a difficult situation where someone has been treated unfairly. If you're sick
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as a dog, you're very ill, so you'll be talking about yourself or someone else. If you say,
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"Every dog has its day," it means that regardless of how difficult things are today, one day
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things will go right. Things will be good. It's a dog's life. It's a hard, unpleasant,
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cruel life. "Top dog" means the top person in a particular category, and you can't teach
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an old dog new tricks. It just means it's very difficult for a person to change their
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habits and behaviors if they've been doing them in one particular way almost all of their
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lives. Okay. So, if you're sick as a dog of listening to me, you can go to www.engvid.com
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and check out the quiz on this where you can test your knowledge of these idioms. Okay?
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Once again, my name is Alex. Take care.
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