Hello and welcome to Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English. On this program we explore common words and expressions in American English.
In the United States April 1 is a day when you need to be a little careful.
Why?
It is April Fool's Day so someone might play a practical joke on you -- a harmless trick for fun.
A person dressed as a clown holds an umbrella over a police officer in Switzerland, 2017.
We did a program on fool expressions a couple of years ago. We explained how to use foolhardy and foolproof. We talked about the idiom "A fool and his money are soon parted."
But we left out some things. So, here we are again talking about fools!
Probably the most common definition of "fool" is someone who is silly and, well, foolish. It is very easy to trick a fool.
"To fool" can also mean to pretend. For example, "The child said he was sick but he was only fooling. He was in perfect health."
If you say, "I was only fooling" that means you are not serious. You are kidding. So, if you say something to someone as a joke but they take you seriously, you can say to them, "I was only fooling." Here, you could also say, "I was only kidding."
We often pair "fool" with the verbs "play" and "act" to form the expressions play the fool and act the fool. They both describe someone who is easily tricked or deceived. Or sometimes, we play the fool because we fall deeply in love and cannot think clearly.
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