2024-06-17 Peaks and troughs – The English We Speak

Introduction

Ever felt like you’re on the rollercoaster of life and you don’t know a good way to say it? Here’s a phrase that’ll help you express yourself.

Transcript

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

Neil
Hi Feifei, how are you? 

Feifei
I’m well, thank you. Now, Neil. Have you ever experienced the peaks and troughs of life?

Neil
Oh. Of course, yes. Life is full of peaks and troughs, isn’t it? Highs and lows. So, ‘peaks and troughs’ is the expression we’re looking at in this programme. But what exactly do we mean by it?

Feifei
Well, in this expression, ‘peaks’ refer to the high points in life, moments of success, happiness or achievement. I suppose that comes from the top of a mountain, which is called a peak, while troughs are the low points so moments of difficulty or challenges.

Neil
Yep. So, we’re talking about the ups and downs of life.

Feifei
That’s right. Life is like a rollercoaster with its peaks and troughs. You said you’ve experienced the peaks and troughs of life. Would you mind sharing?

Neil
Oh, yes, OK. So, I did a masters’ degree as an adult when I had a young family. That was really challenging, but I managed to do it, so that felt good. That was a good peak. Erm, a trough? I lived abroad for a long time and then when I came back home, it was difficult to adjust so that. That was a trough, I’d say.

Feifei
Well, good examples. Thanks for sharing, Neil. Here are some more examples of people using ‘peaks and troughs’.

Examples
My boyfriend is self-employed, and he doesn’t have any work at the moment, but it’s peaks and troughs. Something’ll come up soon.

I went to a play the other day and it was all right. I liked some of it. There were real peaks and troughs.

I went to an amazing restaurant in London the other day, but it was really expensive and it took me ages to get there. But that’s living in London. It’s peaks and troughs.

Neil
So, we have lots of different ways, actually, to describe the ups and downs of life. We have ups and downs, highs and lows, ebb and flow. That’s a good one. It’s about the ocean tides and how they come in and out. But what kind of situations can we use ‘peaks and troughs’ in, Feifei? Is it flexible?

Feifei
It is actually, as we’ve seen in the examples. It can be used to talk about everyday life, but you can also use it in any situation where there are highs and lows. So, for example, if we worked in a field like economics and we probably will use a graph with a line going up and down to monitor the financial market or, for example, if you’re a doctor, you might monitor your patient’s glucose levels on a graph, seeing it going up and down.

Neil
Yeah. That’s right. So, to recap, we’ve learned the phrase ‘peaks and troughs’, which we can use when we talk about the high and the low points in life.

Feifei
We’ll be back next week with another useful English phrase. See you next time!

Neil
Goodbye!