Hello and welcome to the English We Speak, where we explain expressions used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them too.

I'm Faye Faye and I'm here with Phil.

You don't look happy today, Phil.

No, I'm not. I've just been with the rest of the team. We're working on a project and they're just getting everything wrong.

I tried to tell them exactly what they needed to do and what mistakes they were making.

And my words fell on stony ground.

They fell on stony ground. Maybe your ideas weren't that good or you were being a bit rude.

But let's have a look at the expression for on stony ground.

Yes, we use it to say that a suggestion or idea is either unpopular or just ignored, like all my suggestions just now.

Well, there's an image here. Think about seeds. If seeds are blown by the

wind and fall on ground that has lots of stones, then they probably won't grow. They just die.

Like your ideas, Phil. Don't remind me. It's often things that are unpopular that fall on stony ground.

When a company announces a pay cut for their employees, it's likely to fall on stony ground.

If you try to tell someone that their big idea probably isn't going to work,

then there's a good chance that your warning will fall on stony ground.

Let's hear some more examples of people using fall on stony ground.

I told my son he needed to be home before dark on his bike.

That fell on stony ground. He really wasn't happy.

A school near me has banned smartphones and it's really fallen on Stony Ground.

Everyone is annoyed.

I really wanted to have a party for my birthday, but my suggestion fell on Stony Ground.

Nobody wants to come.

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