This mini episode teaches you a common expression: “That’s more like it.”
Episode 140 of the Everybody ESL podcast teaches you the expression “That’s more like it.” Find out what it means and how to use it. Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
The expression I want to teach you today is “That's more like it.” That's more like it. And that is spelled that's: t-h-a-t-apostrophe-s. More: m-o-r-e. Like: l-i-k-e. It: i-t. That's more like it.
What does “That's more like it” mean? Well, this is one of those expressions, one of those idioms, that I like because it's a little bit mysterious. If you don't know what it means, you can't really figure it out just by looking at all of the parts.
“That's more like it” means “This thing or this situation is better now. This situation is now satisfactory. I like it now. I like things being this way.” It means all of those things. It means “This situation has now become good.”
Let me give you an example of a situation where somebody might say, “That's more like it.”
Let's say you have a friend who is trying to become better at basketball. And your friend goes to the gym with a basketball and keeps practicing. Well, your friend is not very good. So your friend throws the ball, but it doesn't go in the basket. And your friend keeps trying and keeps trying, and finally your friend tries something a little bit different. They hold the ball in a different way or they do something different, and now when they throw the ball, it goes in the basket. And they do it again, and it goes in the basket again. And they do it again with their new technique, with their new way of doing it, and the ball goes in the basket again. And your friend says, “That's more like it.” What your friend is saying is: This situation is much better now. I like this situation a lot more. Before, when I threw the ball, it never went in the basket, and now I can throw the ball in the basket every time. This situation is much better.
That is how we use the expression That's more like it. It means “This situation or this thing is much better now. Now it is satisfactory. I like it now. It was no good before, but now it's good.