The English We Speak: Scratch the surface

This episode of "The English We Speak" explains the idiom "scratch the surface." Two hosts, Feifei and Georgie, discuss the literal and metaphorical meanings of the phrase, illustrating its use through examples of digging a hole and tackling a complex topic or problem. They explain that the phrase implies only dealing with a subject superficially, and demonstrate how it's often used with words like "barely," "hardly," "only," and "just." Additional examples from BBC Learning English colleagues further clarify the phrase's usage in different contexts.