Where do you put your eggs?

“Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket”

Here’s another strange but common English expression. Have you ever heard it? If not, you’re bound to hear it sooner or later. To “put all your eggs in one basket” is generally viewed as a risky thing to do. For that reason, you will often hear the advice, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” or “We don’t want to put all our eggs in one basket,” or “I’m hesitant to put all my eggs in one basket.”

What Does it Mean?

To put all of your eggs in one basket means that you are investing all of your resources – such as time, money and energy – into just one endeavor or opportunity. You have no back-up plan. This makes you considerably vulnerable to loss. For example, let’s say a high school graduate wants to go to university, but she only applies to one university – her top choice. We could say that she’s putting all of her eggs in one basket. If that particular university doesn’t admit her, she will lose out on going to university that year.

More Examples:

Here are some examples of how this expression is used:

• He knew the risks of putting all his eggs in one basket when he invested his entire savings in a single stock.

• Instead of focusing solely on one career path, she diversified her skills to avoid the danger of putting all her eggs in one basket.

• The company’s decision to rely solely on one supplier was criticized as putting all their eggs in one basket.

It Makes Sense

Unlike many English idioms, this one actually makes sense if you picture it. Let’s say that you have two baskets and a bunch of eggs. If you put all of the eggs in one basket, and you lose that basket, well, you will lose all of the eggs. However, if you diversity – and you put a few eggs in both baskets – then, if you lose a basket, you won’t lose everything. You will still have some eggs.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

If you are learning English, I recommend that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I suggest you diversify your tactics. Instead of simply reading my blog, you should watch movies in English, read books or magazines in English, speak English whenever you get a chance, listen to English news and podcasts, subscribe to my YouTube channel, subscribe to my newsletter (at the bottom of my homepage) or contact me about taking online classes with me. The more you immerse yourself, the quicker your English will improve and the more enriching every English conversation becomes! I look forward to hearing from you 🙂

– Cheryl