Colloquial English for Age: Over the Hill, No Spring Chicken

Ask for an expression meaning "too old" and you might get "Over the hump? The bump? No!" — which is exactly what happens in the first minute of this episode. Katie is in a park with Cathy, describing colloquial expressions while Cathy guesses. A few phrases in, Cathy has had enough of them: "Yeah, it's awful actually." She has a point. English keeps an unusually large stock of jokey, faintly brutal ways of saying someone is getting on a bit, and this unit collects ten of them.

What you'll hear in this episode

The episode falls into two conversations. In the first, recorded in a park, Katie feeds Cathy the beginnings of expressions and lets her work them out. Cathy gets over the hill after a couple of wrong guesses and offers a neat theory: "Maybe the…the hill is the exciting part of your life." Asked for someone so old they're nearly dead, she tries "Half way in the coffin?", which is close enough to get her to a coffin dodger — though she isn't convinced by the image: "Although I think dodging is quite a fast movement, so it's almost contradictory." She also proposes "one foot in the coffin", and Katie supplies the standard version, one foot in the grave.

The second conversation moves to a balcony with Tom, who is quicker and rather pleased about it — "Aren't I good?" after nailing young at heart on the first try. He also volunteers a rude variant of you're only as young as you feel, prefaced with "It's a bit naughty!" and followed by "We can cut it out if we need to." Asked for a word for an old, bad-tempered person, he goes straight to "He's a right grumpy git", which leads into the British TV programme Grumpy Old Men. The pair finish on in your prime, with Tom hedging: "I like to think I'm still in my prime."

Quick facts

Episode	Zapp! English Colloquial 3.19 – Age & Life Stages
Pack	Colloquial 3
Level	3
Duration	13 minutes 25 seconds
Recorded	in a park (and on a balcony), as mentioned on air
Speakers	Katie, Cathy and Tom

What you'll learn

The guessing-game format does something a straight explanation can't: you hear a fluent speaker almost get it, then self-correct. "I'm no chicken?" becomes no spring chicken; "one foot in the coffin" becomes one foot in the grave. Those near-misses are the errors learners make too, which makes the correct version stick.

You'll also pick up the fixed grammar inside each phrase, and it's less flexible than it looks. It's he's getting on a bit, not he gets on a bit. It's in your prime, not of your prime. It's one foot in the grave, singular. And the saying comes with two settings — the conversation uses "you're only as young as you feel", while the drills and glossary give "You're only as old as you feel." Both are heard; the meaning is the same.

There's a listening payoff too. Katie speaks quickly and hints rather than explains, trailing off mid-word — "I'm no…sss…?" — so you're following natural, unfinished English rather than dictation-speed teaching. One of the speakers notes she wouldn't use to get on in this sense herself and would say "I'm getting older" instead, which is a useful reminder that these expressions are regional as well as informal.

The ten expressions

The workbook glossary rates each expression for informality, from 1 (safe in most conversations) to 3 ("Don't use this with your mother-in-law!!!"):

over the hill (2) – past the best age of your life, old.
past it (2) – past the best age of your life.
getting on (a bit) (1) – getting old.
no spring chicken (1) – not young anymore.
a coffin dodger (2) – an old person; a coffin is the box they put you in when you die and to dodge means to avoid.
one foot in the grave (2) – old, nearing death.
you're only as old as you feel (1) – age is not important, it is how each individual feels that is important.
to be young at heart (1) – to have a young attitude.
an old git (2) – an old and maybe anti-social person; git is an insult, but is often used in a humorous way.
grumpy (1) – bad tempered, the opposite of cheerful.
in your prime (1) – in the best part of your life physically.

In the workbook

The 13-page unit for this episode contains the full transcript of both conversations, so you can go back and see exactly where Cathy's guesses went off course. Between the two halves there are two pronunciation drills: you're given a single word — on, hill, chicken, foot, heart — and you build the whole expression before the beep, then repeat it inside a sentence such as "You've got one foot in the grave now you're forty mate!"

After the glossary come two practice exercises. The first is a gap-fill written as a short monologue about turning forty, where you have to choose between in my prime, getting on a bit, coffin dodger, no spring chicken and as old as you feel. The second gives you six sentences containing the mistakes learners actually make — He's no spring hen now, She's got her feet in the grave — for you to correct. Answers to both are included.

This unit is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack, which bundles the workbooks for every episode across the series for €39.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Are these conversations scripted?

No. The conversations with Cathy and Tom are unscripted — hence the wrong guesses and the laughter. Only the teaching sections that set up the drills and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

Which of these expressions are safe to use?

The glossary rates them. Getting on a bit, young at heart, grumpy and in your prime are marked 1 and work in most spoken situations. Coffin dodger, old git, past it and over the hill are marked 2 — keep them for people you know well.

Is this episode suitable for my level?

It's a Level 3 unit. Katie speaks at natural speed and often only hints at the phrase she wants, so you'll need to follow fast, unfinished speech rather than careful classroom English.

Do I need the workbook to follow along?

The audio stands on its own, but the transcript, the gap-fill and the error-correction exercise are where the ten expressions move from recognised to usable.

Why the chicken and the hill?

Both come up in the recording. Cathy suggests the hill is "the exciting part of your life", and no spring chicken draws on spring as the young season — she guesses people start saying it around fifty.

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