YouTube / iTunes / Spotify / Radio Public / Pocket Casts / Google Podcasts / Breaker / Overcast
Listen to ArtisanEnglish.jp posts & lesson intros here.
Phrase: Until the cows come home
Oh boy, here’s another one from my childhood.
I heard the phrase until the cows come home so many times when I was a kid that I can hear it in my sleep sometimes.
My mother comes from a family of 20, yep, 18 children, and my father comes from a family of 8 (2 passed away as children).
They never had very many extras, and just like them, I, myself coming from a family of 7, never had any extras either.
That, combined with the fact I was the only boy, meant if I wanted something, I had to figure out a way to get it myself.
If I ever complained that I wanted something, I would be told I could wait until the cows come home because I wasn’t going to get it.
We never had any cows.
Well, we did have one cow for a few years, and then we ate her.
Talk about a dog’s life – imagine being a cow.
At least the dogs had Sundays off.
Anyways, if someone tells you you can wait for something until the cows come home, it means you will wait for it for a very long time.
You can complain about the weather, taxes and how hard it is to get a good night’s sleep until the cows come home.
There will always be bad weather, high taxes and never enough sleep.
You can talk to North Korea about all the benefits of democracy.
Tell them about the beautiful life we have and the fun we have over here until the cows come home, but it won’t change a single thing.
The cows never come home.
Like or follow ArtisanEnglish.jp on social media.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 6th-grade education (age 11).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 80.
The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.