Hello Everyone,

Today, I am going to introduce a simple English expression. Study it while you keep the image below in mind (I am sure this will help you memorize this).

“I was thinking about hiring someone to trim the trees in my backyard … but then I thought: ‘I could really do it myself as well’. I am ‘kind-of sitting on the fence’ about it”. Today I would like to mainly explain “sitting on the fence”. This is a common English expression that you can say if you are undecided about something, or to say it another way, that you are “going back-and-forth” about it. To describe, let’s imagine a fence separating two people’s backyards. I imagine this expression comes from the fact that if you are really sitting on a fence then you are not really on one side or the other side – but actually on the fence. Here is another example of the expression: “She is thinking of going to the nightclub tonight … either that or relax and stay home – but last time I spoke with her she was really ‘sitting on the fence’ about it.” In other words, she was having difficulty deciding what to do. Just a brief side-note on the “kind-of” expression in the second sentence of this paragraph. It is not something one would normally write in a book, but it is used quite often in everyday spoken English to express uncertainty in whatever follows in the sentence. For example, I am “kind-of” tired or that was “kind-of” funny … or this expression is used “kind-of” often. 🙂

Sincerely,

Oliver Meissner, Teaching Director of LiveEnglishClass.com

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