Phonetics is not a subject at school. Once in a while it may be touched upon by some eager teachers, but, to the best of my knowledge, most students graduate from high school without ever learning about devoiced consonants or central vowels. Yet, in English-speaking countries a version of phonetics is indeed taught to children when they learn to read. They are told, for example, that the sequence[əʊ] is a "long vowel" and that the vocalic sounds in closed syllables like god or bed are "short vowels". Okay. That is clearly not the case. The dipthong [əʊ] obviously consists of two vowels, namely, a schwa [ə] and a "lax u"[ʊ]. Yes. Two vowels. *
However, English-speaking teachers customarily tell their pupils that a vowel is "long" when they pronounce the name of the letter. So, the vowel in the word name, for example, is "long" because the "a" is pronounced as [ei], whereas the vowel in tack is short. That clever rule of thumb doesn't always work, though. The wordgoat (pronounced[ɡəʊd]in the UK and [ɡoʊd] in the US) is spelled with two letters which, quite obviously, don't have one name. Still, the dipthong in the middle of that word is described as a "long vowel". Even if the explanation is quite messy (it mixes up letters and sounds), I understand that it can be useful in primary school classrooms. That said, to adults who are learning English in Italy or Spain, the whole thing can be extremely confusing.
And not only to foreigners. In a 2025 interview with Stephen Colbert, Daniel Craig was persnickety enough to point out that Colbert used to mispronounce his lastname. As you will hear in the video below, the correct pronunciation of the surname Craig demands that the speaker pronounce a dipthong [ei], not an "open e" [Ɛ]. However, Colbert finds (or pretends to find) the difference a little too "subtle". To me it's quite clear. Is it obvious to you?
Anyhow, if I'm blogging about this issue it's because there is a takeaway for all of you. Bear with me for a minute.
When English speakers learn Spanish they typically struggle to pronounce our so-called "clipped vowels". They tend to say [nəʊ] or [noʊ] instead of simply [no]. For the same reason they say ['balei] instead of [ba'le] when they learn French. How is this all relevant to you? Well, my dear Spanish speakers, you have the "reverse" problem. Most varieties of Spanish lack long vowels. By "long vowels" I'm referring to real long vowels such as the first [a] in the Argentinian pronunciation of Bárbara. Therefore a typical Spanish speaker will have serious difficulty pronouncing the English word father, whose vowel [a:] is slightly longer than the one we find in fad. ** Now, if you want to perfect your pronunciation you may have to polish your English vowels. I suggest you start by practising simple phrases, like let's go to a bar. Remember that the vowel in the word bar is a tiny little bit longer that its Spanish equivalent. I won't say anything about the quality of the vowel or the pronunciation or the [r]. This post is about vocalic length.
Does this make any sense? I certainly hope so. As ever, my advice is simple: practice the pronunciation of everyday words like car, bar or garden and one day you'll be able to deliver the legendary reveal in The Empire Strikes Back: "No, I am your faaaaather".
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* I know. I know. The term "lax u" is not scientific, but you will forgive me for not using the technical denomination. In my opinion mid-centralized close back rounded vowel is a bit of a mouthful.
** I know. I know. The "a" in fad represents a completely different sound, but I'm only talking about the length here.
In my previous post I dealt with gun and horse metaphors and insinuated that some idioms can become "dead expressions" insofar as they don't evoke a particular picture. That is most certainly the case of lexicalized metaphors. Unless you are an accomplished etymologist, you might not be notice that the very word metaphor is, in fact, a metaphor itself. It happens to mean "to transfer", which derives from meta (farther) and pharein (take). Similarly, when a computer programmer mentions a firewall or a political pundit refers to a cordon sanitaire, they are using lexicalized metaphors. You typically say those words without visualizing what they say or giving a second thought to their respective origins. And that can, sometimes, be problematic.
Indeed, sooner or later, an overabundance of expressions that revolve around one specific topic end up setting a particular tone which is ultimately perceived even by speakers with questionable metalinguistic awareness. You don't need to be a lexicographer to realize that many common expressions in the business world bristle with an unequivocally aggressive tone. And if you have never remarked that... just think about for a second.
When you "target a demographic" you are effectively directing a metaphoric weapon to that population and if you "launch a marketing campaign" you act like a field marshal during a war. In the business world intense competition is "cutthroat". When you finalize a deal you "go in for the kill". Hiring someone that is already working for a different company is called "headhunting" To motivate a team you "rally the troops". When you make progress against a competitor you "gain ground" (just like you do when you invade a country). To do something secretly you do it "under the radar". When you make a lot of money over a short period of time you "make a killing". And the list goes on and on.
So, if you would rather avoid belligerent vocabulary, you might be glad to learn that there are indeed plenty of alternatives you can use without sounding amateurish when you discuss business. Instead of "targeting a demographic", for example, you can "cater to a demographic" or "focus on it" or "engage with it", "appeal to it", even "seek to resonate with it". The list is not short. Having said that, I am aware that you can't really speak the professional jargon if you always avoid those well-established expressions. Such is life.
At any rate, it is not only war metaphors that can compel you to look for friendlier alternatives. Personal taste can also make you reconsider the use of certain idioms. And no. You don't have to be a hypersensitive snowflake to feel ambivalent about the sound of some traditional turns of phrase. Take the case of animal-related idioms. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most people in 2026 don't like animals being mistreated. And yet, dictionaries are not always kind to our furry friends. A very popular expression goes like this: "there's not enough room to swing a cat". It is, of course, a colorful way of saying "this place is very small". Unfortunately it plants a mental picture that a cat lover might not appreciate. For similar reasons, someone who likes horses might take issue with the expression "it's like beating a dead horse" (meaning "it's useless") and so on and so forth. You get the picture.
Okay. Let's assume you don't like those expressions. What do you do? The answer is obvious: you use an alternative. Instead of mentioning any kind of cat-swirling you say "it's a bit of a tight squeeze" or "there's barely enough elbow room". As for the phrase about the dead horse, you can remain idiomatic and avoid the mental image of someone flogging a cadaver by simply saying "we're going in circles" or "we're spinning our wheels" or (should the context call for a more elevated register) "there's no need to labor the point". And, of course, you can always go idiom-free and say "this is pointless" or "this leads nowhere".
The bottom line here is clear: you should try and make sure that you have many options at the ready. That way you won't have to mention a dead horse when you find an activity pointless or refer to murder when you finally get a client to sign a contract. Also, by making personal decisions you will shape a speaking style that reflects your own worldview, which is what building an idiolect is all about: developing your own personality. Now, go out there and use some idioms. Happy practice!
A couple of weeks ago, when the Louisville police chief reported a significant drop in the city's 2025 crime rates, he said the following:
When we look at the end of the year last year compared to 24 you can see, when it comes to crime, we're down all across the board and that's exactly what we are shooting for. Homicide is down 21%, fatal shootings, non-fatal shootings, carjackings, all those are down. They're going in the right direction.
I'm not sure that a police chief saying "that's exactly what we're shooting for" displays good judgment (unless he's trying to be funny, which he probably shouldn't), but I understand that he was simply using a common expression. After all, when you go after something with determination, you "shoot for it" or even gun for it.
Still, I think we can agree that he could have gone down a different road. So... What could he have said? An obvious alternative would have been "this is what we were aiming for". Of course, if you're a little thin-skinned you may also object to that phrase given that you take aim at something when you mean to hit it with a stone, an arrow or a bullet. So, the question remains: can we have a non-ballistic, less hostile way of conveying the same meaning? Absolutely. How about "that was exactly our goal"? It is true that it lacks the punchy quality of "shooting for something", but it does get the message across. How about "that was the plan all along" or "that was our objective from the outset"or even "that's what we were going for from the word go". As you see, the options are always there.
Anyway, if I'm discussing that police officer's word choice is because it gives me us an opportunity to explore the wonderful world of metaphors. So, if you can spare a few minutes, bear with me as I look into gun-themed expressions, which are extremely popular in English. You won't regret it. I am well aware that some of you might be reluctant to use them, but the truth is you can't call yourself an advanced learner if you don't understand them. So, here goes.
Guns
The way I see it, a truly advanced learner should know that (in the U.S) the person occupying the front passenger seat of a vehicle "rides shotgun". Indisputable evidence is usually referred to as "a smoking gun". If you manage to avoid a catastrophe, you "dodge a bullet". If you decide to finally do something unpleasant that you have put off then you "bite the bullet". Someone unpredictable and dangerous is a "loose cannon". An attempt with low probability of success is "a long shot". If a person is honest and direct, they are "a straight shooter". If you start something before the appropriate time you "jump the gun". When you react without careful consideration you "shoot from the hip". The person who controls a situation "calls the shots". I could go on...
Obviously, every language has its own preferences and built-in biases, which typically crystallize in proverbs, idioms and all kinds of expressions. I, for one, have always felt that colloquial Spanish has a penchant for religious references, whereas in German there is a surprising number of everyday expressions that mention farm animals. Why that is the case I honestly don't know. After all, religion and farming have been central to the histories of both Spain and Germany. Whatever the reasons behind those preferences might be, the fact of the matter is that a competent Spanish speaker is expected to understand the expression "he is not a saint I pray to" and an advanced German learner should also know what "I've had pig" means. In case you're wondering, "no es santo de mi devoción" means "I'm not a fan of his" and "Ich habe Schwein gehabt" is a colloquial of saying "I got lucky".
Being aware of such biases gives you the chance to consider alternatives, enrich your vocabulary and shape your own a personality in English, which ideally will also make you aware of the areas where we can all meet. One such case is the expressions that revolve around horses.
Horses
Spanish is, indeed, packed with horse metaphors ("perder los estribos", "ser ligero de cascos", "dar rienda suelta a tus pensamientos", "atar en corto", etc.) and, guess what, so is German ("arbeiten wie ein Pferd", "Rossnatur", "das Pferd von hintem aufzäumen", "mit ihm kann man Pferde stehlen", etc.). Unsurprisingly English is also no stranger to that vocabulary area. In fact, we can find a myriad of horse-themed expressions. Check out this sample list:
to eat like a horse
to come down to the wire
neck and neck
to put the cart before the horse
get off your high horse!
straight from the horse's mouth
don't look a gifted horse
to be a dark horse
hold your horses
to horse around
a one-trick pony
I don't have a horse in that race
Even an expression like to win "hands down" (which I mentioned in my previous post) is connected with horse races. How? When a jockey is really far ahead the rest of the horses, he or she can drop their hands and relax the reins way before reaching the finish line. They literally win (with their) hands down. Interesting, right?
And while that particular horse expression is only used in English, many others have enjoyed a kind of success that might feel even excessive. Take the English proverb "never look a gift horse in the mouth". I really don't know where that saying originated, but I know for a fact that it is now ubiquitous. We find it in Spanish ("a caballo regalado no le mires el diente"), in German ("einem geschenktem Gaul schaut man nicht ins Maul"), in French ("à cheval donné on ne regarde pas les dents"), in Italian ("a caval donato no si guarda in bocca"). In fact it pops up in just about every European language. And if you're skeptical about it, take a peek at this website from Centro Virtual Cervantes, where you can see that very expression in up to 22 languages.
So... horses, unlike guns, feature prominently in day-to-day conversations in many European countries, which should come as no surprise given that horses have been a part of most Europeans' lives for centuries. I suppose that Arabic and Urdu must have their fair share of horse idioms. Anyway, the great thing about horse expressions is that they offer a common ground to all of us. They make up an area we can always rely on. They also remind us that languages are complex, multifaceted systems, which over time become the memory of a whole culture. And English metaphors deal with all kinds of areas: sports, music, physics, mythology, war, pop culture, plants, you name it... So, if you should find an English expression that feels a tad too "exotic" or that makes you uncomfortable (for whatever reason), just remember that you can always find an equally valid alternative to paint a different picture.
Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to stop blogging and grab some breakfast. I'm so hungry I could eat a horse. Oops...
