/ə ˈfɹɒɡ ɪn jə ˈθɹəʊt/
English idiom, everyday. Your voice has gone rough or croaky for a moment, so it’s hard to speak clearly.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use A frog in your throat
?
Everyday and harmless, fine with your boss or a room full of people. It nearly always comes with “have” or “have got”: “sorry, I’ve got a frog in my throat”, “Tom had a frog in his throat”. It’s the polite excuse right before you clear your throat, and it means a passing croak, not a real illness.
A frog in your throat
in real sentences
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I’ve got a frog in my throat.
Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Tom had a frog in his throat.
Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does A frog in your throat
come from?
It’s American, and older than most people think. The Word Histories blog found it in a toast printed in the New-York Evening Post on 8 March 1808, wishing that France might “find a frog in her throat” when it tried to raise its voice. It took off in 1894 when “Frog in the Throat” lozenges were sold in the US and Britain, and the sellers claimed it was a forgotten old English saying (Phrase Finder calls that an advertising invention). Stories about medieval doctors putting live frogs in sore throats have no evidence linking them to the phrase.
Mistakes learners make with A frog in your throat
For learners of English: mixing it up with “a lump in your throat”. A frog is physical (a croaky voice). A lump is emotion, the tight feeling when you’re about to cry.
Other English idioms like A frog in your throat
Spot a mistake in A frog in your throat
?
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