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There are a surprising number of commonly used idioms that contain the verb ‘pull’. 1.  If you accuse someone of  pulling your leg , you mean that you believe they are teasing you by saying something that isn’t true. If we think that someone is teasing us in that way, we might say  ‘ Pull the other leg/one!’ , or even the longer version  ‘ Pull the other one – it’s got bells on! ’ . This shows that we don’t believe them. She’s just pulling your leg – she doesn’t really expect you to do all the cooking. You have a pet lion? Pull the other one! 2. We use ‘pull’ in several idioms connected with people making an effort and doing what they should do. If someone  pulls their weight , they do their share of the work and if you  pull out all the stops , you make as much effort as possible to ensure that something is successful or impressive. Anyone who doesn’t pull their weight will have to leave the project. They pulled out all the stops to make sure the president enjoyed h

How to understand native speakers Understanding native speakers is something many language learners struggle with. Whenever I learn a new language, I get a bit of a shock. I learn a lot of vocabulary and a lot of grammar. And then, when I’m ready to go out there and speak, I realise how little I actually understand. How is that possible, I think. I’ve been working so hard, I know so many words, I can even read newspapers in the language. But I can’t actually understand what people are saying to me! I’m sure you’ve been faced with a similar situation in the past. And don’t worry – you’re not the only one. Being able to understand native speakers is something that comes with practice. There are specific things you can do to make it happen, and I’m about to share them with you. Understand how letter combinations sound together Speech is, of course, made up of words but, ultimately, it’s just a string of letters and sounds combined together. Those letters and the sounds