Idiom Lesson “Give it a shot” From Happy English New York!

MichaelAD Idioms & Slang Leave a Comment

When you are ready to try something new, you can say you will give it a shot. The thing you are trying always goes in the middle, so the structure is give + [something] + a shot:

– I’ve never gone snowboarding, but I think I want to give it a shot
– If you don’t want to wear glasses, why not give Lasik a shot?

You can also use this idiom to talk about people when it comes to a person joining a company or a team.

-I just interviewed 3 people for the job, and I think I will give Brad a shot. (This means that among the three, Brad is the person you will give the job to.)
-Hey coach, why don’t you give me a shot? (When you want to join a sports team, you can ask the coach to let you play using this idiom)

Be careful! The structure is always give + someone/something + a shot. I have heard some students say things like, “I gave a shot to snowboarding.” This is not the correct structure. We don’t give a shot to something, we  give something a shot! So, it has to be, “I gave snowboarding a shot.”

Are you planning to give something a shot? Leave a comment and let us know.

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