Feifei Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, where we explain expressions used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them too. I’m Feifei, and I’m here with Phil. You don’t look happy today, Phil.
Phil No, I’m not. I’ve just been with the rest of the team. We’re working on a project, and they are just getting everything wrong! I tried to tell them exactly what they needed to do, and what mistakes they were making – and my words fell on stony ground.
Feifei They fell on stony ground? Maybe your ideas weren’t that good, or you were being a bit rude. But Iet’s have a look at the expression ‘fall on stony ground’.
Phil Yes, we use it to say that a suggestion or idea is either unpopular or just ignored, like all my suggestions just now.
Feifei Well, there’s an image here, think about seeds. If seeds are blown by the wind and fall on ground that has lots of stones, then they probably won’t grow. They just die – like your ideas, Phil.
Phil Don’t remind me! It’s often things that are unpopular that fall on stony ground. When a company announces a pay cut for their employees, it’s likely to fall on stony ground. If you try to tell someone that their big idea probably isn’t going to work, then there’s a good chance that your warning will fall on stony ground.
Feifei Let’s hear some more examples of people using ‘fall on stony ground’.
Examples I told my son he needed to be home before dark on his bike. That fell on stony ground – he really wasn’t happy.
A school near me has banned smartphones and it’s really fallen on stony ground – everyone is annoyed.
I really wanted to have a party for my birthday, but my suggestion fell on stony ground. Nobody wants to come!
Feifei In the same way that we can use ‘stony ground’ to talk about ideas not being well-received, we can use ‘fertile ground’ to describe a place where it is easy for ideas to develop.
Phil We could say that a good manager helps to create fertile ground for ideas. A successful university might be fertile ground for innovative research.
Feifei We hope that this programme is fertile ground for your English development. Join us again next time! Bye.
Phil See you then! Bye!