This mini episode teaches you the idiom “piece of work.”
Episode 249 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the idiom “piece of work.” 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
“Hi! This is Nitun here, from Bangladesh. You are listening to Everybody ESL. Enjoy.”
Welcome to episode 249 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 today’s episode, I am going to teach you an interesting idiom. In case you’re not sure what an idiom is, an idiom is a phrase or expression that must be learned and remembered as one complete unit.
You cannot understand the meaning of an idiom by looking at the meaning of each of the pieces, or each of the words. You must learn and remember the meaning of an idiom as one complete thing. One complete unit.
And here is the idiom I want to teach you today:
Piece of work. Piece of work.
That is spelled piece: p-i-e-c-e, of: o-f, work: w-o-r-k. Piece of work.
What does piece of work mean? Remember, it’s an idiom. You cannot look at the meaning of the word piece and combine that with the meaning of the word work, and then have an understanding of this idiom. The meaning is not predictable that way.
A piece of work is a very strange or very difficult person. Somebody who is very strange and hard to understand, or hard to get along with, or hard to deal with is a piece of work.
And if we want to emphasize how strange someone is or how difficult someone is to get along with, we often add the word real: r-e-a-l. And so we can describe someone as “a real piece of work.”
You will hear piece of work in sentences like these:
“Have you met the new boss yet? I hear that he is a real piece of work.”
In other words, I hear that the new boss is very strange in a negative way or very difficult, very hard to work with.
Here is another sentence that uses the idiom:
“I used to go to that café on the corner. But the owner is a real piece of work.” I used to go to the café on the corner, but the owner is a real piece of work.
In other words, I used to go to that café on the corner, but the owner is very strange in an unpleasant way or very difficult, very hard to be around. So, now I go to a different café.
And that is piece of work, a very interesting and useful idiom that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 249 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have any comments or suggestions for the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Nitun recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye! I’ll see you soon.