Feifei Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, where we explain phrases used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them, too! I’m Feifei, and I’m joined by Georgie.
**Georgie
**Hi Feifei! How are you doing?
FeifeiI’m well, thank you. What about you?
**Georgie
**I actually feel quite emotional, Feifei! This morning, I watched a video about a man who was reunited with his pet dog after it had been missing for three weeks! It was a beautiful story – it really tugged at my heartstrings!
FeifeiAh, how sweet. Now, you said the story ’tugged at your heartstrings’, and that’s the phrase we’re looking at in this programme. ‘Tug’ or ‘pull’ at the heartstrings means that something brings out strong emotions.
**Georgie
**That’s right, but particularly emotions you might associate with the heart – things like love, compassion, sympathy or sadness. So, imagine something literally pulling on the nerves or strings attached to the heart. Feifei, when was the last time something pulled at your heartstrings?
FeifeiRecently, I’ve been following this soap on TV, and the two main characters really want to be with each other, and they’ve overcome a lot of difficulties and we, the audience, really wanted them to be together as well. But in the end, they still couldn’t be with each other. It really tugged at my heartstrings.
**Georgie
**Oh, I bet it did!
FeifeiLet’s hear more examples from our BBC Learning English colleagues.
ExamplesI saw my niece perform a song from a musical and it really tugged at my heartstrings.
So, my friend has just got a puppy and he is so cute! He was really tugging at my heartstrings.
I was going through my stuff from high school, and I saw all the silly things I did with my friend and all the old memories started tugging at my heart strings.
**Georgie
**Now, we often hear references to the heart when we talk about emotions, don’t we?
FeifeiYes, in a similar way, if something affects you emotionally, you can say that it ’touched your heart’, like that video you watched about the man and his dog probably touched your heart.
**Georgie
**It did. And if something ‘melts your heart’ it means you start to feel emotional about something that maybe you didn’t before. It’s the idea that your heart was icy and cold but now it’s melted.
FeifeiOK, let’s recap. We’ve learned ’tug at the heartstrings’, which means something makes you feel emotions like sympathy, love and compassion.
**Georgie
**Remember to check out our website: bbclearningenglish.com for more resources to help you improve your English. Thanks for joining us. Bye!
FeifeiBye!