Hello everybody, my name is Coach Shane and welcome to Easy English Expressions.
Come on, let's master English.
Hello everybody, welcome back to daily easy English expression, the Budcast.
Today, number 1067, so for me right now, it is August of 2022.
It's a heart of the summer.
We're right in the middle of the summer, but at the same time summer is also kind of finishing.
It's going to finish pretty quickly at this point and soon it will be fall and I love
the fall.
But today's expression actually has the word spring in it, spri and g.
Now if we think about spring, what happens?
Obviously the snow melts, the flowers bloom, trees come back to life, but another really common
thing in America, at least probably in your country too, lots of new baby chickens.
Now of course, chickens can have babies any time of the year, but for many farmers and
people who like to raise chickens at home, they like to have newborn chickens in the
spring.
And we call them spring chickens.
Now actually a baby chicken is called a chick CHICK, but spring chicken is the term we commonly
use and we like them and we also use the term spring chicken as an idiom, especially
if we say I'm not a spring chicken.
And what does this idiom mean?
I will explain that to you after you check out the dialogue.
Let's go running.
What?
I haven't run in years.
Come on, just a mile or two.
I know I look young, but I'm no spring chicken.
I'll ride my bike.
That's me.
That is me in 2022.
I don't know if I look that young, I don't think I do, but no longer am I a spring chicken.
Now I'm getting old.
My boys, they're so young.
I mean, seriously, they're totally young and they want to run and play with daddy and
I do my best, but you know what?
At the end of the day, I realize, oh my god, I'm exhausted.
I am no spring chicken.
Dramatically we should say I'm not a spring chicken, but in daily English, I'm no, I'm
not.
I am no spring chicken.
And what it means, I'm not a young guy anymore or of course a young girl or lady, you could
say too.
So don't worry women, you can use this expression too.
I'm no spring chicken.
I'm not that young anymore.
Now, the nice thing about this idiom, it not only refers to age.
So obviously I'm a little bit older.
I'm no spring chicken, but it can also refer to experience.
So if you say I'm no spring chicken to teaching English, that means I'm not a beginner at
teaching English.
In other words, I have a lot of experience, a lot of years teaching English.
And we can use it in this situation.
I'm no spring chicken, meaning I'm not gullible.
G-U-L-L-I-B-L-E or the same thing I'm not naive and A-I-V-E.
So if my wife sees me looking at some young woman with a nice body, she can say, are
you looking at her?
Do you think she's pretty?
And I would say, what?
Who?
Oh no, she's ugly.
And my wife could say, I'm no spring chicken, meaning she knows what I'm doing.
She knows what I'm thinking, but to my wife, don't worry.
You're the most beautiful woman in the world, period.
So there you go.
I'm no spring chicken.
I'm not a spring chicken.
Seriously, I'm no is much more common than I'm not, but it means I'm not that young
anymore.
Or it means I have a lot of experience.
Or it means I'm not that gullible.
So there you go.
Three usages of not a spring chicken.
And once again, we usually say, I am or he is, he's no spring chicken.
Coach Shane is no spring chicken.
I am no spring chicken.
I've got a lot of experience, I'm not gullible and I'm not that young anymore.
Oh, now I have to go take my boys outside and play for a couple hours.
I'm going to be dead.
I'm no spring chicken anymore.
You guys have a great day and together, let's master English.
Let's go running.
What?
I haven't run in years.
Come on.
Just a mile or two.
I know I look young, but I'm no spring chicken.
I'll ride my bike.
Let's go running.
What?
I haven't run in years.
Come on.
Just a mile or two.
I know I look young, but I'm no spring chicken.
I'll ride my bike.
