2024-06-10 Heavy lifting – The English We Speak

Introduction

Heavy lifting isn’t about the gym. Learn this expression here.

Transcript

Feifei
Hello. Welcome to The English we speak, where we explain phrases used by fluent English speakers so you can use them too. I’m Feifei and I’m here with Neil.  

Neil
Hello Feifei. How are you? 

Feifei
I’m a bit tired at the moment, actually. Most of my team are either on holiday or off sick so I feel like I’m doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

Neil
Oh, no. That sounds hard. You used the expression ‘heavy lifting’ and that is what we’re going to look at today. What it means and how to use it. So Feifei, you said you’re doing a lot of the heavy lifting at work. But you’re not actually lifting weights in the office, are you? Your job doesn’t require you to build up your physical fitness.

Feifei
No, I wasn’t actually lifting weights. The phrase does have a literal meaning, and some jobs do require actual heavy lifting, for example, jobs in construction – if you’re a builder maybe, and sometimes as delivery drivers. But the way I used it just means that I’m doing most of the work at the moment.

Neil
Well, I hope you’re remembering to look after yourself, Feifei. That’s important. So you’re not carrying a physical load, but maybe we can say you’re carrying a mental load.

Feifei
That’s right. Heavy lifting can also mean you’re doing the toughest or the most difficult part of the job. So, Neil, when was the last time you felt you were doing all the heavy lifting?

Neil
So, my wife has a business and she’s very, very busy at the moment, so I’m doing the heavy lifting at home. So, I’m doing most of the cooking and cleaning and shopping and that kind of thing.

Feifei
Oh, I can imagine. There must be so much to do. Well, here are some more examples of people using heavy lifting.  

Examples
I’m organising my wedding, but my fiance isn’t being very helpful. I’m doing all the heavy lifting.

My oven is broken so my microwave is having to do all the heavy lifting at the moment.

My dad is quite ill, but my sister lives far away so I’m doing the heavy lifting at the moment.

Neil
OK, Feifei. So, in those examples, we heard people using the expression ‘heavy lifting’ with ‘do’ – do the heavy lifting. But are there other ways of saying it?

Feifei
Yes, the heavy lifting is almost always after the verb ‘do’ – do the heavy lifting and we don’t adapt the phrase very much so we wouldn’t usually say ‘you’re lifting a lot of heavy weights’. Well, unless we mean literally lifting weights.

Neil
Yeah. But we can use modifiers like ‘do a lot of the heavy lifting’ or ‘do most of the heavy lifting’. So, to recap then. We’ve learned the phrase ‘the heavy lifting’ which we use when we’re saying that we’re doing the most difficult bit of a job or the most difficult work in any kind of project.

Feifei
So, we’ve done the heavy lifting of this programme, we’ll be back next week with another useful English phrase. See you next time.

Neil
Goodbye!