Know your English – The Hindu

“Is it time to celebrate? Did your client pay you well?”

“He paid me all right! He paid me a monkey’s allowance.”

“A monkey’s allowance? I didn’t know that monkeys got an allowance!”

“They do, sometimes. Tell me, what does a monkey get from its master once it has performed in front of an audience?”

“Nothing, as far as I know. Maybe the master gives the animal some peanuts.”

“Exactly! He gives the poor animal something to eat. That’s all. So when you say that you received a monkey’s allowance from someone, it means that you got paid a trifling amount for the work that you did.”

“I see. So, is it O.K. to say, I received a monkey’s allowance for the job?”

“It certainly is. I was given a monkey’s allowance for helping my uncle clean his garage.”

“Most of us are usually given…”

“…Would you please stop monkeying around with the remote.”

“Monkeying around? Does it mean the same thing as fool around?”

“Very good. When you ‘monkey around’ with something, or someone, you fool around or play around with it/them. For example, the children were monkeying around with an old screwdriver.”

“Some of my friends were monkeying around in the playground. How does that sound?”

“Sounds fine. Stop monkeying around with the scooter and start doing your homework.”

“Talking about scooters, what happened to yours? The seats are all torn up. And the…”

“…there are a lot of monkeys in the place where I work. And…”

“…of course there are. I am looking at one of the monkeys right now.”

“Ha! Ha! Very funny. Only one monkey recognises another, by the way. Anyway, as I was telling you, there are real monkeys on campus. And they tore up the seat.”

“I see. You have monkeys going about their business outside the office. I understand there is also monkey business going on in the office.”

“Do you know what monkey business means?”

“Of course, I do. It means a mischievous or an illegal activity of some kind.”

“That’s right. The students have been awfully quiet for some time now. I have a feeling that there is some monkey business going on.”

“Some people believe that there is some monkey business between your Chairman and the General Manager.”

“It’s not just the Chairman. A lot of people are…”

“…Sujatha’s father believes…”

“…How is he, by the way? Is he, like Sujatha, still making a monkey out of you?”

“Making a monkey out of me? What do you mean?”

“When you make a monkey out of someone, you make a fool out of him/her. For example, Sreenivas got so drunk at the party that he made a monkey out of himself.”

“At school, all my friends try and make a monkey out of Venkat.”

“It doesn’t take much to make a monkey out of poor Venkat.”

“That’s true. Look, there’s Sujatha.”

“Are you trying to make a monkey out of me? You know that Sujatha is in Bombay. She is there to attend…”

“…I know! I know! She went there to attend her cousin’s wedding.”

“That’s right. And she’s expected only next week.”

“Do you think she misses us?”

“I seriously doubt it. She is with her cousin Bharath. I’ve met him a couple of times and that guy is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.”

“More fun than a barrel of monkeys! Does it mean…”

“…It means…”

“…I think I can guess the meaning. If you say that someone is more fun than a barrel of monkeys, it means that he/she is a great deal of fun.”

“Excellent! Here’s an example. Renu’s husband is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.”

“Our new maths teacher is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.”

“That’s a good example. We all had more fun than a barrel of monkeys at the circus.”

“At my cousin’s wedding, we had more fun than a barrel of monkeys.”

“Some people think that Usha is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.”

“Not the Usha I know.”

Quote:

“Divorce is a system whereby two people make a mistake and one of them goes on paying for it.” — Len Deighton

Published in The Hindu on November 16, 1999

Published – March 11, 2026 08:30 am IST