The last straw

The last straw

Here’s an expression you need to know: the last straw. It’s related to a longer expression called “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” It’s not as common to say that full expression, but “the last straw” is very common. I want you to picture a camel. And on top of that camel you place straw—or hay, like dried grass—piece by piece, straw by straw. Each piece of grass is very light, but when you put tons and tons of them, they weigh a lot. And eventually, you will put a piece of straw on that camel that will break his back. And so that last piece of straw may not be too heavy all on its own, but it was the one little piece that was necessary to break the camel.

So, in English when you have a situation where things are accumulating, and the final thing was the one right before a bad outcome, that final thing is the last straw. It’s the straw the broke the camel’s back. It might be light all on its own, but when combined with everything else that camel is carrying, it’s enough to break his back.

Earlier in the episode I chronicled all the trouble that Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kucsynski had gotten himself into over the years. A lot of the things he had done were pretty bad, but no one single thing was so bad to ruin his career. Instead, it was the accumulation of scandals. Pardoning the ex-president. Cutting deals with Congressmen. Accepting $700,000 from Odebrecht. And then the last straw: a video came out showing members of Congress in Peru appearing to trade kickbacks for support for the president. That was the last straw—the last thing in a long line of scandals that finally caused the president to lose all his support and resign.

It shouldn’t be hard to think of a few good examples. Let’s say you’re a manager at a restaurant or a retail store and you have one employee who’s always late. He just cannot get to work on time. And then on your busiest day of the year, he comes in a full hour late. Being an hour late might not be too serious if it happens once, but after coming in late so much, this time is the last straw—and you fire him. It was the last in a long line of small incidents that leads to a bad outcome.

Back when I was living in New York, I was in an old apartment that wasn’t very nice—it didn’t have good air conditioning, it was on the fifth floor without an elevator, the landlord never made good repairs, and it was really expensive. Then my downstairs neighbor started complaining about me, unfairly—and my landlord sent me complaint letters in the mail. That was the last straw—I decided I had to go get a new apartment. I could live with a grumpy neighbor, but not after all the other things I was unhappy about. The noise complaints were the last straw, and I moved out.

Remember, the last straw is the final thing that causes you to run out of patience or that causes a bad situation.

I hope you enjoyed today’s episode of Plain English. Just a quick reminder as we wrap up that I send out emails for every episode, and the emails have links to articles in English about the main topic and an explanation of one additional word or phrase from the episode. If that sounds interesting to you, just go to PlainEnglish.com/mail and fill in your information.

Thanks again for listening. JR, the producer, and I will have a new episode for you on Thursday.