Hold Your Horses - HVOB

William: Hello and welcome to The

English We Speak.

My name is William Kremer.

Li: And I’m Li.

William, what’s our phrase today?

William: Well, hold on a second Li, let me just play you —

Li: No, come on, tell me now — what phrase are we looking at today?

William: Well,

we’ll come onto that in a minute

but I’ve got some very special FX for

you…

Li: More special FX?!

And special music?

That’s not what our people want!

They

want authentic English phrases, and they want them now!

So what’s our

phrase today?

William: Li, hold your horses!

Li: Eh?

William: Hold your horses.

It means: be patient.

Li: Oh… where does this phrase come from, William?

William: Well, apparently it comes from battles in times of war:

Example

FX — Battle re-enactment noise

Man: Hold your horses men!

FX — gunfire, horses whinnying

Li: Wow, Will, your FX this week are really special!

William: Hmmm, I know!

In that clip we heard a soldier telling his men to hold their

horses before he started firing weapons.

Li: But nowadays, I am guessing,

you don’t need to be a soldier to use this

phrase, right?

William: Exactly, yes.

It means: don’t rush,

be patient.

Let’s hear a couple of examples:

Examples

Man: I’ve just gone online to order

us some new computers.

What’s our charge

code again?

Woman: Ah, well you’re going to have to

hold your horses!

I haven’t agreed a budget

yet with the management team.

Man: I’ve just spoken to Mark —

Woman: Have you indeed?

Well don’t listen to a word that man says!

He’s never liked

me…

Man: Hey, hey hey!

Hold your horses.

We didn’t discuss you at all, as a matter of

fact.

Li: So in that first example,

the man couldn’t order his computers yet because the

company hadn’t agreed a budget.

He had to wait;

he had to hold his horses.

William: Hmm.

And in the second example it was slightly different.

In that clip we

heard a woman interrupt the man

because she thought she knew what he was

going to say.

Li: Ah yes,

the man told her to hold her horse and wait for him to finish

speaking.

William: Ah, yeah,

but Li we never say «Hold your horse» we always say «Hold your

horses».

Li: Oh OK, I’ll bear it in mind.

But, er, Will???

William: Yeah?

Li: Can you hold this for me please?

Horse whinnying