{"id":10700,"date":"2022-11-16T22:16:38","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T22:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/?p=10700"},"modified":"2022-11-16T22:16:38","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T22:16:38","slug":"too-much-on-my-plate-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/too-much-on-my-plate-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Much on My Plate \u2013 Meaning, Origin and Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Did your annoying neighbor ask you to join her weekly Bible study group? If you\u2019re too busy, you could thank her and say you have \u201c<strong>too much on your plate<\/strong>\u201d already.<\/p>\n<p>Keep reading to learn more about the meaning and history of this useful idiom.<\/p>\n<h2>Meaning<\/h2>\n<p>The English idiom \u201c<strong>[having] too much on [someone\u2019s] plate<\/strong>\u201d means <u>having more responsibilities than one can comfortably handle<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p>People often use this phrase to <u>decline invitations to take on even more responsibilities<\/u>. You may also use the saying \u201ctoo much on [sonmeone\u2019s] plate\u201d to explain why someone else shouldn\u2019t be asked to do something.<\/p>\n<p>This idiom is flexible, and you can conjugate it in any way, for example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u201cI have too much on my plate.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cShe has too much on her plate.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cHe has too much on her plate.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cI had too much on my plate [last year].\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Example Usage<\/h2>\n<p>Would you like to use the phrase \u201ctoo much on my plate\u201d in a sentence? These examples illustrate acceptable ways to do so:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cPlease don\u2019t ask Mr. Ryder to fix your shed. You know he\u2019ll do it, but <strong>he has too much on his plate<\/strong> as it is and it\u2019s unfair to burden him.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cAre you sure the Tokyo team can handle that project? It seems to me that they already have too much on their plates, and asking them to take on more work may lead to serious problems.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cOh, no, I couldn\u2019t possibly join the PTA! I work a full-time job, volunteer at the animal shelter, and take my son to speech therapy three times a week. I simply <strong>have too much on my plate<\/strong> right now.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Origin<\/h2>\n<p>The idiom \u201c<strong>too much on my plate<\/strong>\u201d is a fairly recent addition to the English language. The <em>Oxford English Dictionary<\/em> only added \u201c<strong>enough on [one\u2019s] plate<\/strong>\u201d in <strong>1928<\/strong>, and \u201ctoo much on my plate\u201d emerged later.<\/p>\n<p>There is an obvious explanation for this.<\/p>\n<p>The phrase \u201ctoo much on my plate\u201d refers to <u>having more food on your plate than you can comfortably eat<\/u>. If you continue eating after you are full, you start feeling very uncomfortable and may even get sick.<\/p>\n<p>When used figuratively, \u201ctoo much on my plate\u201d means having more responsibilities than you can handle. If you forge ahead, you start feeling stressed and overwhelmed, just like someone who feels forced to overeat to be a polite guest.<\/p>\n<p>Modern people living in a society where food is abundant can relate to this phrase, but people living in earlier centuries were more likely to have a food shortage.<\/p>\n<h2>Phrases Similar to Too Much on My Plate<\/h2>\n<p>Related phrases include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Enough on my plate<\/strong> \u2014 a more understated version of \u201ctoo much on my plate,\u201d this phrase indicates that you have taken on as much as you can handle and don\u2019t want more responsibilities.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Take something off [someone\u2019s] plate <\/strong>\u2014 if someone you know is very busy, you can offer to lighten their load by helping them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>I don\u2019t have the bandwidth <\/strong>\u2014 this modern version of \u201ctoo much on my plate\u201d emerged recently and means you don\u2019t have the energy to do something.<\/li>\n<li><strong>I have a lot on my plate<\/strong> \u2014 this phrase means you\u2019re busy and doesn\u2019t have to be negative.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Phrases Opposite to Too Much on My Plate<\/h2>\n<p>You may be <strong>content<\/strong> or <strong>happy<\/strong> if you don\u2019t have too much on your plate.\u00a0 It is also possible you don\u2019t have enough to do, in which case you may be <strong>bored<\/strong> and <strong>unfulfilled<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>What Is the Correct Saying?<\/h2>\n<p>The correct saying is \u201c<strong>too much on [someone\u2019s] plate<\/strong>.\u201d It means having too many responsibilities and being too busy.<\/p>\n<h2>Ways People May Say Too Much on My Plate Incorrectly<\/h2>\n<p>Remember that idioms are figurative and not literal. People will laugh if you say you have \u201ctoo much on your plate\u201d when someone serves you more food than you can eat.<\/p>\n<h2>Acceptable Ways to Phrase Too Much on My Plate<\/h2>\n<p>You can say you have too much on your plate if you have so many responsibilities that you constantly feel stressed. Someone who already has too much to do doesn\u2019t want to add anything else to their plate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-2\">Did your annoying neighbor ask you to join her weekly Bible study group? If you\u2019re too busy, you could thank her and say you have \u201ctoo much on your plate\u201d already. Keep reading to learn more about the meaning and history of this useful idiom. Meaning The English idiom \u201c[having] too much on [someone\u2019s] plate\u201d [&hellip;]<\/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\/10700"}],"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=10700"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10702,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10700\/revisions\/10702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}