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Welcome to the A to Z English Podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my co-host
social. And today we are in the vocabulary spotlight,
talking about some expressions. And these are similes.
So simile just means you're using like or as. That's it basically.
And you're basically comparing someone to something else,
you know, using like or as. And so,
social, the first one I have is easy as pie.
Easy as pie just means easy.
Right. Really sure why they say this maybe because pie is easy to eat,
it's not easy to make. I know right.
Making a pie is one of the most difficult things you can do,
right? Like baking.
Like press by hand and then you got to make the fruit
compost or whatever thing you are feeling it with.
That's just is a pain. So I'm assuming it's because pie goes down easy,
which means it's easy to eat, you know, maybe that's why it's gotta be.
It's gotta be is like it's probably just a shorthand for easy as eating pie.
Right. You know, because no one's going to turn down a piece of blueberry pie.
Oh, yeah. Come on. Yeah.
You'd be crazy. I love it. Yeah. Okay. How about stubborn as a mule?
No, stubborn as a mule. Now I actually this is a this is something that really goes along in
Mexico. There's a lot of people use mules for work and mules are going to have very strong
headed personalities worse than donkeys or horses and they can be quite aggressive and and again,
stubborn essentially. So what they're saying here, if you're stubborn as a mule, you are a person who
only thinks that they're right and won't budge on anything. I could see it right now like the,
you know, in a movie or something where there's like a mule that has like some kind of sack,
you know, satchels on it. It's carrying some fruit or vegetables and the the owner of the mule
is like pulling on the reins and the mule is just like, nope, I'm not moving. And you know,
the farmer or whatever is just like, come on, you know, he's hitting it with a stick and the mule
is just like, it's basically like if it could cross its arms, it would, you know what I mean?
It's like, I'm not going anywhere. And so it's got to be the most frustrating thing in the world
when you want your mule to move to mule forward, sorry, to move forward and it won't do it. So yeah,
we have that expression, stubborn as a mule. That's got to be an old expression, right?
Yeah, for when people used to use mules as work courses, it's not very common anymore.
So yeah, but we, you know, have you ever been, have you ever been like, um, called stubborn as a mule?
No, I don't think I'm very stubborn. So I've never been called that actually.
Okay. I don't think you're probably, you're not very stubborn either.
No, I'm not really, I mean, I'm sure my mom used it a couple times when I was a teenager
because all teenagers can be stubborn, you know, yeah, but it's not really my personality type.
I'm not like a stubborn as a mule, but I know some people who are
absolutely, yes, one of them like family, but it missed me. My sister and my grandpa, my mom and my dad
yet somehow, I don't know how you got away from that one. That's, I don't know how.
It's like both of my parents are stubborn as mules that I'm more flexible really.
So I think being surrounded by stubborn people just made me appreciate flexibility.
And that's the case, like, yeah, yeah. Okay. Our next one is strong as an ox.
Strong as an ox. I mean, if you can imagine, ox's oxen were also used as work animals.
Right. Right. So they had to be very strong. They were carrying these giant carts and used to
carry very heavy objects and plowing fields, you know, and doing days of work.
So strong as an ox just means someone who's incredibly strong.
Right. Right.
But all of these metaphors, one thing that really helps is like picture it.
Like, you know, a mule, you know, you can understand how it would be stubborn and ox.
You can understand, you know, the picture of a strong buff ox, you know.
So a lot of those things that, you know, that really helps.
Yeah. Yeah. And that's why I think similarly is so different than idiom because
it's like idioms you have to do a lot of mental gymnastics, you know, trying to figure out like,
what does this mean? Like sometimes it has no logical meaning at all.
Right. But, but when it comes to, uh, similarly, it's kind of just like, you know,
it says big is the skyscraper or what, you know, what I mean? Like, you know, yeah.
And especially I think like, even it's even easier than metaphors because metaphors you take out
like, like, and as and do a direct comparison, like, he's a rock. And so you're kind of thinking,
like, what about the rock is similar to him? Is he gray? Is he large? He's strong, you know,
he's gray. He's flat. He's laser. You know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's the thing here? Yeah.
The next one is again, this one is, this one makes me think of snow white, obviously,
because it's as white as snow. Uh-huh. Yeah. So white, white as snow, right. Um,
um, obviously again, pictures know, you know, that it's incredibly white. Um, and,
yeah, that's all it means to be white as snow, white as sheet, white as paper. Um, yeah, yeah.
Just super white pristine whiteness. You can't. You see this unlike detergent, uh, you know,
like, like, um, washing, yeah, like, like advertisements for washing detergent, you know,
when you clean your clothes, they'll say, like, you know, the woman will wash the clothes using
the, the advertised product and then she'll show the t-shirt and she'll say, as white as snow,
you know, it's like super white. That's all it means, you know, very white. Yeah. Um,
sharp as a tack. What does that mean? Sharp as a tap, uh, extremely sharp. And you know, it's
something that's like smart. Like, exactly, extremely smart. Yeah. If you, if you remember,
when I say extremely sharp, I don't mean sharp as a pointy. That's where it gets a little
confusing. I mean sharp as in sharp is a synonym for intelligent. Right. And so once as your sharp
is a tack, it means that you're very smart because being sharp is your own it. You know,
what I mean? That's the, the meaning. Yeah. If your boss says, you know, oh, social, she's
really sharp. That means that's a good thing. It just means she's really smart. Yeah. So it's
not talking about personality. You're abrasive or anything. No, no, no, it's intelligent. Yeah.
Don't, don't get angry. If somebody says you're sharp, that means that you are smart. They're saying
you're intelligent. You're sharp. And if I say you're sharp as a tack, well, attacks are a little
thumbtacks. They're like basically little pointed spikes that you use to put up posters or put
up maps on your wall. And so sharp as a tack just means you're really sharp. You're really smart.
Yeah. It's a good thing. And that's our last one. Awesome. All right. Well, if you have any
questions about those or you would like to hear more similar news from us, make sure to leave
a comment down below at a to z English podcast.com. Shoot Jack and I email at a to z English
podcast at gmail.com and join the WeChat WhatsApp groups to join the conversation. And we'll see
you guys next time. Bye bye. Bye bye.
