In this mini episode, you will learn the interesting expression “go to the dogs.”
Episode 475 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the interesting expression “go to the dogs.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hello, everyone! This is Kevin, from Nanjing, China. And you are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 475 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 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 expression. The expression is “go to the dogs.” Go to the dogs.
That’s g-o, t-o, t-h-e, d-o-g-s. Go to the dogs.
What does it mean if we say that something goes to the dogs?
First of all, you will probably hear this sentence in the past tense, as in “Something went to the dogs.” Or you will hear it used in the present perfect tense. In other words, “Something has gone to the dogs.”
Whatever tense we are using, what does this expression mean? When do we use this expression and say that something went, or has gone, or is going to, the dogs?
“To go to the dogs” means to become worse, to become ruined, or to have less quality.
If we are saying that something became bad, or became worse, or is now of very poor quality, we can say that that thing went to the dogs. “To go to the dogs” means to become ruined, or to have lower quality than before. It means to get worse, or to become bad.
Let me give you a couple of examples that show how we use this expression.
Imagine that there is a restaurant that you used to enjoy very much. This was your favorite restaurant. Everything about this restaurant was great. Now, you visit this restaurant for the first time in many years. You notice that this restaurant is not so great anymore. In fact, it seems pretty bad. The food is not good, the service is not good, the prices have gone way up. You might say to your friend, “This restaurant went to the dogs.” Or you might say, “This restaurant has gone to the dogs.” This restaurant has become bad. The quality of this restaurant has gone way, way down. It used to be good, or it used to be great, and now it is bad.
Here’s another example of a situation where someone might use the expression “to go to the dogs.”
Imagine that there is an artist who buys a lot of art supplies. She used to buy a lot of her supplies from this one company. This one company was great. All of their products were very good. And this artist loved that company’s products. But something happened. Something happened at this company. Something happened,and all of their products are different now. The products are of very poor quality. This artist might say, “This company has gone to the dogs.” Or “This company’s products have gone to the dogs.”
In other words, they used to be great, but now they are not. They are now very poor quality. Their products went to the dogs.
And that is “to go to the dogs,” an interesting and common expression that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 475 of Everybody ESL. Remember: If you have any questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Kevin 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. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!