Bed and breakfast, fish and chips

Answers to the Quiz

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    The answers to the quiz are:

    • ladies and gentlemen
    • bacon and eggs
    • bread and butter
    • gin and tonic
    • loud and clear
    • safe and sound
    • cheap and cheerful
    • black and blue

Comments

GIN AND TONIC

If you like Billy Joel, you probably know these lines from his song, The Piano Man:

It's nine o'clock on a Saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Makin' love to his tonic and gin.

Although Billy Joel sings "tonic and gin," the usual phrase is
gin and tonic. I guess that Billy Joel changed the order to fit the rhythm of the song and because gin rhymes with in.

LOUD AND CLEAR

This expression means easy to understand. It is often used for example, in radio messages:

  • I can hear you loud and clear
  • You're coming through loud and clear.

SAFE AND SOUND

Typical ways of using this phrase include:

  • It was a terrible journey but we got there safe and sound.
  • The missing children were found safe and sound.

CHEAP AND CHEERFUL

This is often used to describe restaurants, cafes, hotels etc. where everything is reasonably priced and the atmosphere is good.

  • I don't want to spend a lot of money, so let's look for somewhere cheap and cheerful to eat.

BLACK AND BLUE

This is used in the expression, beat someone black and blue. It refers to the colour of bruises on the body. I remember it used to often come up in fairy stories when I was a child:

  • "I'll beat you black and blue," said the wicked step-mother.

Click here to try some other one-point lessons.

© Robert E. Jones, 2003