English Help Online's Blog

I recently saw an article on the Internet about a famous actress who was really angry at a photographer, and in the article they used today’s idiom: to “give someone a piece of one’s mind”. So, this is used when we want to talk about a person confronting another person directly when they are angry with that person and telling them directly how they feel about them. So, of course, the feeling is always negative. For example:

Julia Roberts gave a photographer a piece of her mind after she saw him taking pictures of her children.

Did you hear about Daniel? His boss tried to make him work on his day off, so Daniel really gave him a piece of his mind.

Beth is late again! She always makes us wait for her! When she finally gets here, I’m going to give her a piece of my mind!

So, you can remember this idiom by imagining that there’s a small piece of your mind with all your negative thoughts in it about this person. Usually we don’t share that, but sometimes we are so angry that we need to share, or give, that piece of your mind and tell the person how we feel. This can be used about people we know or with strangers.