William: Hello and [bad word] to The English We Speak. My name is William Kremer.

Li: And I'm Li. William, what's our phrase today?

William: Well, hold on a second Li, let me just play you -

Li: [bad word] on, tell me now – what phrase are we looking at today?

William: Well, [bad word] onto that in a minute but I've got some very special FX for you...

Li: More special FX?! And special music? That's not what our people want! They want authentic English phrases, and they want them now! So what's our phrase today?

William: Li, hold your horses!

Li: Eh?

William: Hold your horses. It means: be patient.

Li: Oh... where does this [bad word] from, William?

William: Well, apparently [bad word] from battles in times of war:

FX – Battle re-enactment noise

Man: Hold your horses men!

FX – gunfire, horses whinnying

Li: Wow, Will, your FX this week are really special!

William: Hmmm, I know! In that clip we heard a soldier telling his men to hold their horses before he started firing weapons.

Li: But nowadays, I am guessing, you don't need to be a soldier to use this phrase, right?

William: Exactly, yes. It means: [bad word]  be patient. Let's hear a couple of examples:

Man: I've just gone online to order us some [bad word]  What's our charge code again?

Woman: Ah, well you're going to have to hold your horses! I haven't agreed a budget yet with the management team.

Man 2: I've just spoken to Mark –

Woman 2: Have you indeed? Well don't listen to a word that man says! He's never liked me...

Man 2: Hey, hey hey! Hold your horses. We didn't discuss you at all, as a matter of fact.

Li: So in that first example, the man couldn't order [bad word] yet because [bad word] hadn't agreed a budget. He had to wait; he had to hold his horses.

William: Hmm. And in the second example it was slightly different. In that clip we heard a woman [bad word] the man because she thought she knew what he was going to say.

Li: Ah yes, the man told her to hold her horse and wait for him to finish speaking.

William: Ah, yeah, but Li we never say "Hold your horse" we always say "Hold your horses".

Li: Oh OK, I'll bear it in mind. But, er, Will...?

William: Yeah?

Li: Can you hold this for me please?

Horse whinnying