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Learning English Conversations

The English We Speak: No leg to stand on

Learning English Conversations

BBC

Language Learning, Education

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2025

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This phrase means that someone's argument is weak.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.

0:05.7

Want to improve your grammar? We have a podcast for that. Listen to learning English grammar to improve your language for everyday conversation.

0:14.6

I've got a sink full of dishes, so that needs cleaning. I saw a photo of my kids when they were really young,

0:20.2

and my wife and I talked about what it

0:22.8

used to be like when they were babies.

0:25.5

onions are quite healthy, aren't they?

0:27.4

So is vinegar.

0:29.0

Oh, it's turned into a debate.

0:31.8

What do you regret?

0:33.8

Do you have a long to-do list?

0:36.0

And would you rather climb a mountain or sail across an ocean?

0:40.0

Test your grammar today. Search Learning English Grammar wherever you're listening to this podcast,

0:45.5

or visit BBC LearningEnglish.com.

0:49.5

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

0:59.3

I'm Faye Faye and I'm joined by Georgie. How are you?

1:02.3

Well, I was a bit ill earlier this week, but I'm feeling much better now. How about you?

1:07.0

I'm very well, thank you and I'm glad to hear you're better.

1:10.0

So Georgie, what are we learning in this

1:12.3

programme? We are going to learn the idiom, no leg to stand on. So I'm going to give an example and our

1:19.0

listeners can try to guess what it means. So my friend recently bought a dress and she wore it to a party

1:26.0

and spilt food all over it. She then tried to return

1:30.2

it at the shop. The shop assistant said absolutely no, you can't do that. And really, my friend

...

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