Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[kerstin]

*in the middle nowhere
Does that mean somebody is confused and doesn't know what to do?

*my mood went south
=I 'm in a bad mood?

*be on your own


*girls are such a drag
drag =somebody who hinders things?
and why did they use "girls are such a drag" instead of "girls are such drags"?

thanks

[CP]

"In the middle nowhere" usually means physical location. When you are in some dull place, far from where you want to be, you might say you are in the middle of nowhere.

"My mood went south" just means my mood went from good to bad. When something goes south, it goes wrong or it reverses direction from good to bad. On a map, south is down; on a grid, numbers decrease as you go down the Y-axis.

To "be on your own" means to be independent of your parents, or to be free of your sweetheart / spouse, or to be a one-man business, etc.

"Girls are such a drag" means girls cause all kinds of problems or put a stop to everything that's fun. Drag is what slows down a moving body. The sky diver in a very baggy suit has more surface area, hence more drag, and falls slower that the diver in a sleek suit. Anything that kills the mood, or prevents the fun, or creates problems can be called a drag.

"Why did they use 'girls are such a drag' instead of 'girls are such drags'?" The idea is that when girls are around, they spoil the fun for us boys, making us take our feet off the furniture and switching the channel from football to a romantic movie. In other words, as a group, girls are a drag. If you were talking about two girls, and each one is a drag, you could say either "Those girls are drags" or "Those girls are a drag."
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[LucentShade]

[kerstin]

yes ,I made a typo error .
It should be "In the middle of nowhere"