English Idioms Challenge - Week 9 (Implying Idioms) | Miss Ren. 강사 칼럼

Hey all! This is the ninth weekly English learning challenge: to try & use this idiom in your next lesson, study session, or in a natural conversation!

Please check out my other columns for the previous weeks of idioms. There are plenty of useful idioms in the past few challenge columns. Let's jump into today's idioms:

out of the frying pan & into the fire

meaning: to go from one bad situation to another

usage: when someone's made a mistake, or changed paths to something that's also bad

image: imagine food from your frying pan trying to break free. It hurts! It's hot! So when you go to stir it, it falls out. But instead of falling onto the stove top, it falls into the fire, which is worse!

note: sometimes, we split this idiom up because it's rather long. We will also use one half of it to imply the entire idiom. Or, we'll reference the frying pan & the fire, with the rest implied.

Examples:

I'm glad you left that awful company, but the new one isn't great. Don't you think you've gotten out of the frying pan & into the fire?
I double-booked myself, which isn't great. But now I have to cancel on one of my friends! Which is really me getting out of the frying pan with one and into the fire with the other...
It's kind of a frying pan & fire situation. If you criticize your boss, he could get you in trouble. But if you don't point out his creepy behavior, your coworker will feel isolated.

pot calling the kettle black

meaning: to hypocritical (behavior or words that contradict each other)

usage: when someone says not to do something but then does it themselves

history: we don't often use them much anymore, but older kettles and pots were cast iron. These cast iron pieces were almost always black or blackened when heated over fires.

image: Imagine a very old stove with a cast iron pot and kettle over the fire. They're both made of the same material, so it's silly to call one black & the other not.

note: sometimes, we split this idiom up because it's rather long. We will also use one half of it to imply the entire idiom. Or, we'll reference the pot & the kettle, with the rest implied.

Examples:

Well, would you look at that. You told her not to use the copy machine but then you turned around & did it yourself. Pot, meet kettle.
Are you really calling the kettle black right now? You said not to touch the bench, since it has wet paint on it, and then you did it yourself.
My dad always told me not to raise my voice when I'm angry. And then, when he got annoyed at the dishes, he shouted! Is really is the pot calling the kettle black right now.

You can also remix these two idioms:

from the pot & into the kettle (going from one bad situation to another. Because it's also using 'pot calling the kettle black,' there's an amount of hypocracy implied.)
out of the pot & onto the pan (pots are often used for boiling water. So while this is also going from one bad situation and into another, the different uses of the utensils may imply more contrast between the two situations)
frying pan calling the fire hot (similar to 'pot calling the kettle black' because frying pans are also quite hot when in use. Because it links to 'out of the frying pan & into the fire' it can imply the hypocracy of one bad thing being compared to another. For example, someone working at a bad company telling another person to quit their job because it's overworking them.)
pot, kettle, frying pan, fire (using just the items listed in both idioms, the speaker is implying that it's silly to compare these bad things, situations, or similarly bad circumstances to each other. Referencing 'pot calling the kettle black' first, the speaker is implying the same attitude towards 'out of the frying pan & into the fire'. It's quite succinct!)

If you'd like to discuss more idioms, or the ways we can remix idioms to imply slightly different meanings, please schedule a lesson with me! I can also check any written practice you're doing within 24-48 hours, in case our schedules don't line up.