Have you seen the expression 'give it a shot' somewhere in a text or online and want to know more about it? The phrase 'give it a shot' is another way to say that someone should give something a try. This post unpacks the meaning, origin, and popular use of the saying.<\/p>\n
The phrase 'give it a shot' <\/strong>is a common figurative English language saying.<\/u><\/p>\n 'Give it a shot' <\/strong>is used to mean that a person should give something a try.<\/u><\/p>\n The phrase can be used\u00a0 as a third-party reference, or said directly to someone in conversation<\/u>.<\/p>\n The context of what the person should 'give a shot' <\/strong>is either said or implied by the rest of the conversation, often by the speaker.<\/u><\/p>\n The phrase can also be used in several negative forms to imply the opposite meaning of the saying, including 'not giving it a shot', 'won't give it a shot' <\/strong>and 'don't give it a shot'.<\/strong><\/p>\n The phrase does not actually refer to shooting unless the context is appropriate<\/u>, and the meaning can be used for anything from sports like golf to an implied situation or thing that someone should try.<\/u><\/p>\n Similar phrases in the English language can say that someone should 'give something a chance' <\/strong>or 'give something a try'. <\/strong>Someone can also 'give something a go' <\/strong>which means the same.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I'm saying is that you should give pineapple on your pizza a shot. It's one of those things that you might very well love if you have never tried it before, and there's only one way to know for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGive it a shot. You're never going to know how good you are at competitive naked bowling until you've tried it once.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to give it a shot, let me text you his details and you can book your first scuba diving session on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you've never given it a shot, I think you might like shotgun shooting for fun. I've never met a bigger fan of zombie movies, and you might as well try it to find out if you have got any aim.\u201d<\/p>\n According to most online language resources, the phrase 'give it a shot' is likely to have originated with competitive shooting \u2013 where a participant who takes fire after another is literally said to 'give it a shot' when they do.<\/p>\n The phrase 'to give it a shot' was already in popular, common use by the 1800s and might have originated as early as the 1700s when competitive shooting and hunting was at its height.<\/p>\n The figurative phrase 'to give it a shot' continued in use with its meaning unchanged, and today it still continues to refer to anything that someone is told (or encouraged) to try.<\/p>\n The website Urban Dictionary lists the phrase from 2009, even though much earlier use of the phrase is documented elsewhere.<\/p>\n There are several ways in which someone can use the phrase 'give it a shot' in the wrong way, or misunderstand the meaning of the expression when it is said.<\/p>\n Someone cannot say 'give it a shots' as it renders an incorrect phrase, and someone cannot say 'give it a shoot' as this does the same.<\/p>\n The phrase can be misunderstood as literal if someone does not know prior use of the expression.<\/p>\n The correct way to use the phrase 'give it a shot' is to use the expression to say that someone should give something a try.<\/p>\n The phrase is mostly figurative unless the context of the phrase implies that it is literal, which is less common except for in a shooting or sports context.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you seen the expression 'give it a shot' somewhere in a text or online and want to know more about it? The phrase 'give it a shot' is another way to say that someone should give something a try. This post unpacks the meaning, origin, and popular use of the saying. Meaning The phrase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10100"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10102,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10100\/revisions\/10102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Example Usage<\/h2>\n
Origin<\/h2>\n
Phrases Similar to Give It a Shot<\/h2>\n
\n
Phrases Opposite to Give It a Shot<\/h2>\n
\n
What is the Correct Saying?<\/h2>\n
\n
Ways People May Say Give It a Shot Incorrectly<\/h2>\n
Acceptable Ways to Phrase Give It a Shot<\/h2>\n