Touch your head. Touch your nose. Touch your shoulder. Touch your throat. Where? Do you
know where your throat is? Your throat is the front part of your neck or the space inside the neck
down which food and air can go. In English, we have a few idioms that use this part of the body…
and here they are:
cut-throat
Ruthless, merciless. Extremely competitive environment
“Politics is a very cut-throat business, you need to be strong.”
have a frog in your throat
A slight hoarseness/ sore throat caused by phlegm in the back of the throat. It makes your voice
sound strange.
“I have a little frog in my throat so I won’t say much.”
jump down someone’s throat
To become very angry with someone because of what they say/do.
“She jumped down my throat for nothing. I didn’t say anything to upset her. She’s got a bad
attitude.”
bring a lump to your throat
You get a lump in your throat when you feel like you want to cry.
“This song always brings a lump to my throat. It reminds me of my father – it was his favourite
song.”
ram something down someone’s throat
To force someone who disagrees with you to listen to your opinions.
“She loves arguing and she’s always trying to ram her opinions down my throat.”
grab something by the throat
When you grab something by the throat you completely hold its attention. You are very forceful
and determined.
“The book grabbed me by the throat from the very first page. It was the most exciting book I’ve
ever read.”
“I think we should grab the problem by the throat and not ignore it. ”
• Her speech brought a ___ to my throat. I almost cried.
lump
frog