Hello and me, Phil, we speak with me, Faye and me Phil. We have an expression which is about

hard work, especially if it's physically quite hard. It's elbow grease.

Elbow grease. I think you should give us an example of how to use it, Phil.

Okay, my car is absolutely filthy. I need to get it clean. It's hard work and there are some

bits that won't be easy to clean but with a bit of elbow grease I can get it done.

It's amazing what you can achieve with a bit of elbow grease.

Yes, sometimes hard work can be satisfying.

I thought digging up my garden was going to be a horrible job, but with a bit of elbow

grease I got it done fairly quickly.

People are always looking for the easy way out, but sometimes the only way to get something done is good old-fashioned

elbow grease. There's nothing wrong with a bit of hard work. Let's hear some more

examples.

The kitchen looks sparkling now, but it took a lot of elbow grease to get there.

The sports teams are only successful because of the elbow grease put in by the volunteers, coaches and

organizers.

You call those shoes polished. You need a bit more elbow grease than that.

You're listening to the English we speak from BBC Learning English and we're learning

the expression Elbow Greece which means hard usually physical work.

It's often used to talk about the effort needed to clean things well.

Yes, that's probably the most common context, and we also often use it because we think that hard work is a good honest thing. It's seen as

positive. It's often used by people who think you shouldn't be afraid of a bit of

elbow grease. In fact we often use a bit or a little in front of it

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