Out of juice

Hello welcome to The English We Speak, I’m Helen.

Hello everyone. I’m Neil. It’s great to be here today, Helen.

You are very cheerful today.

I feel pretty good, I walked from the train station to the office and it seems to have really energised me.

That’s my phone. Hello, hello? Anyone there? Hello?

Oh, it looks like you may be out of juice.

What? I am not drinking any juice, but my phone has just gone dead.

That’s what I mean. Your phone isn’t working because it’s out of juice.

Please explain: what’s juice got to do with my phone?

When you’ve used all the battery power of something like a mobile phone, so that it doesn’t work anymore, we can say it’s ‘out of juice’. It’s a slang expression. Have a listen to these examples:

My laptop’s out of juice. This is so frustrating.

I am packing three spare phone batteries so I don’t run out of juice on my climbing trip.

I see. Can we use it for anything else apart from batteries?

Sure, sometimes if a person feels low on energy, they could say ‘I’m out of juice’. Also if your car is low on petrol, you could say ‘The car’s running out of juice.’

Thanks for explaining this phrase. Now I’m feeling quite thirsty - a glass of juice would be most welcome.

Let’s go and get some then. Meanwhile, charge your phone, so it’s got plenty of juice.

Will do.

See you next time.

Bye!