Hello and welcome back to Daily English! Today’s idiom is “back to square one.”
Let’s say it together — back to square one. Can you guess what it means from these clues?
You’ve been working on a big project for weeks, but just as you’re about to finish, your computer crashes and you lose all your files. Now… you’re back to square one. Or maybe you try fixing something in your house, but you mess it up even more. You end up needing to start all over again — back to square one!
So, what does “back to square one” mean? It means you have to start again from the beginning, usually because something went wrong or didn’t work out.
Examples: “After weeks of designing the website, the client changed their mind. We’re back to square one.”
“They thought they had solved the issue, but when the test failed, it was back to square one.”
“She broke up with her fiancé and moved out. She said she felt like she was back to square one — starting her life over.”
Your Turn! Have you ever had a moment when something didn’t work out, and you had to start from scratch? What helped you keep going, even when it felt frustrating?
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