Is a flat market good?

Before we explore the meanings of this word, let's see what the following headline tells us.

      Medium to large lorries

      Isuzu sees flat market

What does a flat market look like, then?

We are not talking about the actual physics of a market here but more about its business situation. A flat market is one that is slow and not busy. Isuzu foresees that the situation of market for medium and large lorries will be slow.

Manufacturers of expensive furniture have suffered big losses in the last quarter due to the flat real estate industry.

We all like our soft drinks chilled and fizzy, don't we? I can't stand soft drinks or soda water when they are flat; because they have lost the fizz and taste awful.

You should drink your beer before it is flat. It has been left there for some time already.

Worse than a flat beer is a flat battery; you wouldn't want the battery of your car to be flat when you are on the road, would you? A flat battery has little or no electricity left in it.

There is nothing wrong with your iPod, it's only the batteries that are flat.

Apart from a flat battery, we can also have a flat tyre; that's because the tyre has no or little air left.

What shall we do? The tyre is flat and we don't have a spare one.

We can also use flat with balloons.

 Once those balloons are flat they will fall down.

We all know that a flat object has no or little height, like a sheet of paper or a pancake; from there comes a simile that says that something that is very flat or unusually flat is "as flat as a pancake".

Bangkok is as flat as a pancake.

 Last Saturday I spent the whole afternoon enlarging my son's school pants but it fell flat; it did not come out the way I had expected.

When an event or your attempt to do something falls flat, it is done unsuccessfully and does not bring the result or reaction that was expected.

In some contexts, "flat" is used as an adverb to mean completely or to the greatest degree possible, as when someone is completely out of money, we say the person is flat out of money or flat broke.

After paying the children's school fees this term, many families are flat broke.  

Complete the sentences with the expressions explained

1. It could be that the batteries are ...... ; just replace them and see if the clock works.

2. After many hours of driving we finally reached our destination, a vast empty space ...... .

3. James tried to tell jokes to change the atmosphere but they ...... .

4. After an expensive holiday, Mike came back to work ...... broke.

5. Susan complained that her spa business is very ...... ; people are more careful about spending money now than before.

Answers: 1. flat, 2. as flat as a pancake, 3. fell flat, 4. flat, 5. flat

By Parnsap Yomanage