Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Hello everyone!

  • Welcome to Idiom 100, where we learn 100 commonly used idioms by native English speakers.

  • All of the explanations are in English, so it might be challenging for you,

  • but just try to imagine the meanings in your head and study hard and soon you'll be able to use these idioms in your conversations.

  • Is everyone ready? Let's begin.

  • Hello everyone! Welcome back.

  • Today's idiom is: make heads or tails.

  • Can't make heads or tails.

  • Alright, so in this idiom 'can't make heads or tails'...

  • Heads, okay, this is your head and what about a tail?

  • A tail is something a dog or a horse, an animal has.

  • The tail is the hair at the back of the animal.

  • Heads or tails.

  • Alright, so let's imagine a little girl draws a picture of a dog, okay?

  • But, the girl is only 3-years-old, so she's not a good artist.

  • And she draws a picture and she says it's a dog.

  • And you look at the picture, 'Oh... It's a dog, okay...'

  • Where's the head? Where's the tail?

  • I don't know. I can't make heads or tails of it, right?

  • I really don't understand this picture. I can't make heads or tails of it.

  • Head? Tail? Leg? Foot? I don't know.

  • Alright, so let's keep this image in our head and then listen to some examples.

  • Thank you for the e-mail, but I can’t make heads or tails of the contents. What did you want to write?

  • Oh, I’m sorry, I wrote that in Japanese. I'll rewrite it in English and send it to you.

  • Alright, so she wrote an e-mail in Japanese and the other person doesn't know Japanese.

  • So, what does it say? I can't make heads or tails of it. I don't understand it, right?

  • The next example:

  • Why didn't you help that man?

  • Well, he needed directions, but he only spoke German, so I couldn't make heads or tails of what he said.

  • Alright, so she doesn't speak German and he was speaking German,

  • so she couldn't make heads or tails of what he was saying.

  • Alright, so this idiom 'making heads or tails' or 'can't make heads or tails' means that you don't understand something.

  • Yeah, it makes no sense and you don't have any idea what it means, alright?

  • So, maybe someone is speaking in a foreign language or the situation is very confusing.

  • Yeah, maybe you are... you went to IKEA and you bought a big cabinet and it comes in small parts with many screws and bolts

  • and you don't know how to put it together.

  • So, you're reading the manual, the book, yeah, and it tells you how to put the shelf together,

  • but I don't understand the manual.

  • What? What should I do first? What, how do I do this?

  • Yeah, I can't make heads or tails of this manual and this shelf, how to do it.

  • I can't make heads or tails of it, okay?

  • So, if you're in a situation when you don't understand at all, you can say you can't make heads or tails of it

  • and we'll understand that you don't understand, alright?

  • And I'll see you next time!

Hello everyone!

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it