Cheap as Chips: An Introduction to English Similes
The English writer George Orwell said we should never use a simile that we have often heard before.
A simile is an expression that compares one thing with another using the words "like" or "as" — such as "eat like a pig" or "as cold as ice."
Orwell was saying we shouldn't use common similes. But when we're learning a new language, these can be the best ones to start with!
For example, if you don't understand similes, you might feel "like a fish out of water."
That means you don't fit in, as if you were a fish on land!
But once you begin using similes, you'll see they're "as easy as ABC" — very easy, like the alphabet!
Often, we take away the first "as" when we're using similes. We might just say, for example: "good as gold."
This is now usually used to talk about the good condition of something, or a child's behavior. But it was originally used to say something was genuine or real.
Different English-speaking countries even have their own favorite similes.
For example, "cheap as chips" is more common in the UK and Australia than in the US. It means very cheap — although originally it may not have been about potatoes, but wood chips.
And here's a fun one that's used on both sides of the Atlantic: "snug as a bug in a rug."
"Snug" means warm and comfortable. So you might use this if you're wrapped up in bed — you're comparing yourself to an insect in a blanket!
