Hands and Fingers !

Hoy le toca el turno a algunas expresiones idiomáticas  con las manos y los  dedos como protagonistas. 

Now it’s time to look at the hands…

When I want to help somebody I say: “Let me give you a hand.” To give someone a hand means to help someone. When I want somebody to give me what they have, if I am angry I say: “Hand it over!” as a very direct way of saying, “Give it to me now!” 

As we are still in the midle of a crisis, many people find it difficult to make their salary last until the end of the month. They often only have just enough money to pay their bills and for their food. This is called living hand to mouth (so we actually have two body parts!): “Until Jane gets a full-time job each month she is living hand to mouth and often has to borrow money from her parents to pay the bills.”

If we discover somebody doing something wrong, like stealing some money, and we

actually see them do it, this is to catch somebody red-handed: “Bob walked into the

kitchen and caught his two sons drinking his whisky from the drinks cabinet red-handed.”

Let’s talk about fingers…

When we really hope that something good will happen, we often use the expression, Keep your fingers crossed! Here is a typical context: “Keep your fingers crossed that Jamie passes his driving test tomorrow. He’s already failed it three times!”

If we are clumsy and often drop things that we are carrying, we sometimes say butter fingers:   “Hey, butter fingers! You nearly dropped your cup of coffee all over the clean floor!”