Tip 192 ”at the drop of a hat.”無料ビジネス英語学習

無料ビジネス英語学習 Words & Phrases 第192弾は、”at the drop of a hat” です。

ヒカはこれから同僚のタロウと外出をするようですが、
出発しなければならない時間が迫っています。

“Taro, can you be ready in 20 minutes? ”
「タロウ、20分以内に出発できる？」

とヒカはタロウに聞きました。

「もう準備できているよ。いつでも出発できるよ。」

と言いたい場合、あなたがタロウなら英語で何と言いますか？

“I’m ready. I can leave anytime.”

もちろんこれでも良いのですが、よりハイレベルな表現をしてみませんか？

そこで、

“I’m ready. I can leave at the drop of a hat.”

と言ってみましょう。とても自然な表現です。

※19世紀のアメリカでは、競争や決闘のスタートの合図に
帽子を振り落としたりしていたようですが、これに素早く反応する様子から
「すぐに」「いつでも」という表現に使われるようになったそうです。

発音もビデオでチェック！
ぜひこの表現を使ってみて下さい。

Hello and welcome to this Bizmates
words and phrases video series

and today's idiom is
at the drop of a hat.

A hat which drops. What does this mean?
We will find out but first let's do our test.

OK, so we're colleagues.
I'm very stressed out and I say:

You know the deadline is coming
soon and I still have so much work.

What do I do?
And you say...

That's right. We're almost there.
Keep your eye on the ball.

Stay focused.
Good advice. I hope you got that.

OK let's go on to today's idiom
at the drop of a hat.

OK, here's what I sometimes hear --
so let's imagine that Taro is my colleague and

we're in a hurry, OK? And I say:
Taro, can you be ready in 20 minutes?

We're running out of time.
We have to be there at 1 pm, OK?

And Taro says:
I'm ready. I can leave anytime.

OK, perfect. I can leave anytime.
I can leave now.

It's good. But if you want to use a natural
idiom you can say this -- so I say:

Taro, can you be ready in 20 minutes?
We have to be there at 1 pm.

And he says:
I'm ready. I can leave at the drop of a hat.

Very natural. I can leave at the drop
of a hat. I can leave now. I can leave anytime.

OK, I'm waiting for you. You know,
you sound quite confident when you

say this. I'm ready.
I can leave at the drop of a hat.

I can leave anytime is OK

but if you just want to make your English
sound a bit more high-level you could use this.

OK, so let's look at pronunciation, it's

I can leave at the dropofahat.
I'm ready. I can leave at the dropofahat.

You try...

Good. At the drop of a hat.
It's like one word.

OK, so with my sentence:
Hey, can be ready in 20 minutes?

We have to be there are 1 pm.

OK, OK then let's go. Perfect.
OK, for homework I'm going to say:

Can you be ready in 20 minutes?
We have to be there are 1 pm.

And you say with confidence...

I'm ready. I can leave at the drop of a hat.

OK, please remember this and we'll see
you next time. Thank you.