Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 211. The idiom today is to cost an arm and a leg. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If something costs an arm and a leg, it is extremely expensive. All right . Let's continue. There are some people who claim this phrase came from the idea that in former times painters used to charge according to the amounts of limbs that were in a portrait. However they say there is no proof to back up that claim. Yeah. So you might have heard this on the Internet. You might hear other people claim this because it's a lot of people who are spreading that this was the idea. But they don't have any real proof to back this up a hundred percent. Others believe it came from the high price many soldiers paid for defending their country in World War two. Yeah. Unfortunately many soldiers might've lost an arm or a leg fighting a battle. So there are some people believe it came from that. Finally there are those that believe it may have come from earlier phrases of one saying he or she would give their right arm for and maybe even or even a leg for .... This one sounds the most likely out of all three , but either way we have the phrase today. And it is a very common phrase and it's a very common way of saying that something is expensive or too expensive. All right. Let's just take a look at a couple of examples we have here. Example number one. I would love to buy a Tesla car, but it cost an arm and a leg. It is really beyond my budget. So I really can't afford that it cost an arm and a leg. All right. Let's look at number two. I wouldn't waste my hard-earned money on buying an LV bag . It cost an arm and a leg to own one. So if you're saying something cost an arm and a leg, you already have the opinion that you think it's way too expensive or way more costly than it should be. Anyway, I hope you got it . I hope it was clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.
A2 US leg cost expensive claim phrase proof English Tutor Nick P Idioms (211) Cost an Arm and a Leg 21 0 anitawu12 posted on 2019/05/18 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary