Christmas table

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Used in the December 19 Christian Science Monitor in the article “’Holiday’ doesn’t need to mean ‘perfect’” in the sentence

Perhaps an elderly parent dies, leaving an empty place at the Christmas table.”

“Is there really something known as a Christmas table?” a non-native English speaker may ask. In this case, the phrase Christmas table refers to the family gathering on Christmas and literally eating dinner on Christmas day.

Popularity: 32%

Nov

16

crowded, jam and stuck

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A crowd is a group people, so when we say the word crowded, it means too many people.
A jam refers to not being able to move, so we use this to refer to too many cars on the road as in “a traffic jam“. Jam means stuck as in “I am stuck in traffic.” （つまちゃった）
However, jam can also be used to refer to too many people in one place as in “The shoppers are jammed in here.” This means their are too many people in the store and it is very difficult to move around the store.

See stuck/jammed.

Popularity: 34%

Nov

15

dog-eat-dog

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Used in the article Small Town, Hot Idea by Jessica Chen in the sentence

As these entrepreneurs prove, starting a business in a small town can eliminate the dog-eat-dog mentality and allow the owners to focus on their products and services. And being passionate about their businesses has helped them prevent their ventures from becoming short-lived fads.

dog-eat-dog means competitive in the sense that two competitors are almost fighting like dogs over the same food.

Popularity: 47%

Nov

11

What are the odds?

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Seeing mathematical expressions like 1/4, 1/3 or even 1/2 are easy for non-native speakers to understand when they see it, but what about when they hear phrases like “one in four”, or “4-to-1 odds” or “…80 percent of businesses fail within the first five years.” The article Startup in 30 Days used a lot of these phrases.

If you hear the phrase “What are the odds?” it means what is the chance or probability that something will happen. A typical response would be in the form of NUMBER to NUMBER as in “4-to-1″. Here is an example:

I can’t believe that the Boston Red Socks one the World Series again. What are the odds of that happening?

So, what are the odds you understood my explanation?

Popularity: 43%

Nov

8

hard call

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Used in the November 7 International Herald Tribune in the article “Gadgets getting glitchy? Advice is a few clicks away” in the sentence

For everything else, especially when a new device is cheaper than the one you bought, it is a hard call.

hard call means a difficult decision. You will often hear it used by sports announcers when a referee has to make a decision on a play such as when an American football player scores a touchdown but has only one foot stepping on the line that marks the end zone.

Another expression using the phrase call is “You make the call.” which means you make the decision. This is often used in business when the boss tells their worker to make the decision on something.

Popularity: 43%

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