Explaining English idioms – To sell like hot cakes; They can’t make them fast enough.

Summary: Here’s an episode all about popular items. The expressions we talk about are used when something is in demand, which means that people are buying a lot of it. You can use these expressions to talk about the trendiest items of the moment. For example, new Apple products always sell like hot cakes. They can’t seem to make them fast enough! Listen to this episode and learn more about these expressions and others. What is a Member? Maura: So, if we imagine that in the past, at a special event like a fair or some kind of community gathering, there would be a person who was making hotcakes and selling them and they were very popular. So lots of people would buy them, they were in high demand. Well, that's where the origin of this expression is supposed to have come from. Harp: OK. That makes sense. Maura: Right. So now we can use this expression, selling like hotcakes, to talk about a whole variety of items. And usually this expression is not used to talk about food. Harp: Yeah. It's usually an object, not food. Maura: Right. So this expression originated from the popularity of hotcakes, or pancakes, and now we use this expression to talk about some kind of item that people love and they buy a lot of. Expressions from this episode included in the Learning Materials: Drop someone a line To sell like hotcakes To line up around the block To fly off the shelves Tickle Me Elmo The Hunger Games They can’t make them fast enough To keep up To crave You betcha What What can you do? Podcast/ Learning Materials: Culips English Podcast, Photo: Cartoonstock.com