This mini episode teaches you the phrase “the pick of the litter.”
Episode 247 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the phrase “the pick of the litter.” 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.)
Intro
“This is Bing Su from China, and you are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 247 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you an interesting phrase. And that phrase is “the pick of the litter.” The pick of the litter.
That is spelled pick: p-i-c-k, of the litter: l-i-t-t-e-r. The pick of the litter.
Before I tell you what this phrase means, I need to talk about the word litter. You might know the noun litter, meaning “a kind of garbage—usually dry garbage, often garbage made of paper.” And you might know the verb litter, meaning “to leave or drop litter on the ground.”
But in this expression, “the pick of the litter,” litter means something very different. In this expression, a litter is a group of puppies. Do you know that meaning of the word litter? A litter is a group of brother and sister puppies who are all born at the same time.
When you think about that meaning of the word litter, you might be able to guess the meaning of the phrase “the pick of the litter.” Because “the pick of the litter” means “the best one in a group of something.” If we are talking about a litter of puppies, the pick of the litter might be the puppy you like the most or the puppy that is in some way the best puppy. When we say “the pick of the litter,” we mean the best choice, the best one to pick or select.
And so if you want to describe one member of a group as being the best, or maybe your favorite, you could describe that thing as the pick of the litter. It’s like you are saying, “This is the best puppy out of this group of puppies that were just born.”
Of course, we do not use this expression only when we are talking about actual puppies. We can use this expression when we are talking about any group of things that were made at the same time.
For instance, let’s say that you were thinking of buying a car. And let’s also say there is one car company that you are interested in. You tend to like the cars made by that company. You might look at all of the cars that that company made this year, and you might choose your favorite and say, “That one is the pick of the litter. That one is the best of this group.”
That is “pick of the litter,” an interesting expression that I think you should know.
Outro
That’s the end of episode 247 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions about the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Bing Su recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with another episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye! I’ll see you soon.