Hello and welcome to the English we speak where we explain phrases used by

fluent English speakers so that you can use them too. I'm Faye and I'm here with

Phil. How are you Phil? I would say I'm very well but I'm a bit frustrated

actually. Oh no what's happened? My phone case fell apart I'm trying fix it, but I just can't put it back together.

Oh, you are so ham-fisted, Phil.

Ham-fisted. Well, that's the expression that we're looking at in this program. The adjective

ham-fisted which is all about being clumsy. Now it might help if we start by

looking at what a fist and a ham literally are.

Yes, your fist is when you close your hand and put your fingers together in a ball. It's what boxes use to hear each other.

A ham is a big round bit of pork, usually cooked.

For example, I often use it to make a sandwich, but in the expression, ham-fisted, what has ham got

to do with someone's fist?

Okay, think about it visually.

Imagine, instead of hands, you just had two big round bits of meat

and then trying to do something. It probably wouldn't work very well.

It often has this idea about having strength but no precision or skill as if you were hitting things with a big piece of meat. Things get broken rather than fixed if

you're hand-fisted. Yes, so this expression is all about being clumsy. Are you

hand-fisted, Phil? Phil? Oh, definitely.

When it comes to doing DIY around the house, if I get a hammer, I'm probably going to break

something rather than fix it.

When I'm cooking, the number of times I cut myself when I'm cutting vegetables or I drop

a plate and it smashes, I think I'm really hamfisted.

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