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I tried to grow potatoes this year. They were extremely small. But do you know what “small potatoes” means as an idiom?
Speaker A: Jonathan, last night’s storm was crazy! My electricity kept shutting off.
Speaker B: Losing power is small potatoes compared to what happened to my neighbor. A huge tree fell on her house and her car. And her dog got scared and ran away.
“Small potatoes” describes something that’s not very important in comparison with other situations. You can use it to show that a problem is insignificant or minor. You can also sometimes use it to express that something actually is small in size or amount.
And that’s English in a Minute!
*This article has been edited and reprinted from VOA Learning English with permission from Voice of America (VOA) for use in English language materials.