play it by ear

見機行事

Today on Language Snacks we take a look at the expression “play it by ear”.

Let’s read the dialogue.

A： Where are we meeting Dave and Jenny tonight？

B： In the pub， at around 7 o’clock.

A： Ah， okay. Where are we going to have dinner？

B： Let’s decide later. If the pub has a good menu， we can eat there. If not， we can all go to that new Italian restaurant instead. I don’t mind.

A： Okay， we’ll just play it by ear then.

The expression play it by ear was first used by musicians. It meant to play an instrument without looking at the written music notation. In fact， the word “ear” has been used to mean“musical talent” for nearly 500 years， and people still say that a good singer “has a good ear”. The idiom play it by ear has a much more general use in modern English though， and means improvise， or decide what to do as things happen and not plan them.

That’s it for now—join us again for some more Language Snacks.

Exercises

1. What are you going to do if you are going to play it by ear？

a. play a musical instrument

b. decide what to do when the situation happens

c. plan what to do before the situation happens

2. This expression was originally about：

a. music

b. football

c. theatre

Answers

1. b

2. a