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Six of one and half a dozen of the other
This week’s English for football phrase is the cliche ‘six of one and half a dozen of the other‘. Of course, half a dozen and six are the same thing – remember a dozen is twelve – so when we say six of one and half a dozen of the other we mean that there is little or no difference between two things. You will often hear this phrase when people are unsure about a controversial decision in a game, such as a penalty claim or an offside decision, as they cannot tell whether it was one decision or the other. Sometimes you may hear a shortened version of this phrase: ‘six of one‘ as those listening would be able to understand the full cliche form: Six of one and half a dozen of the other.
- Example: The TV pundits were unsure whether the referee’s decision was correct or not – they said it was six of one and half a dozen of the other
- You can also find many more examples of soccer vocabulary by going to our football cliches page here and our huge football glossary here.
- This post also features in our podcast show, along with a main report and our weekly predictions.