Can't see the wood for the trees

Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, where we explain expressions used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them, too! I'm Feifei, and I'm joined by Georgie. How are you?

I'm very well, thank you, Feifei. How are you?

I'm very well, thank you, Georgie. So, what are we learning in this programme?

Well, the other day, I thought of quite an old idiom – can't see the wood for the trees. Now, it's old but it is still quite commonly used. If you can't see the wood for the trees, it means that you're so focused on the small details of something, that you aren't looking at the situation as a whole and what's important.

Oh right! Because 'wood' in British English can mean something similar to 'forest'. So if you're standing in front of an individual tree, maybe looking at the details of the bark, you can't see the entire forest. You can't see the wood for the trees.

Right, which is why in American English you might also hear 'can't see the forest for the trees'.

Yes. Why don't we have an example, Georgie. How would we use it in the context of work?

Right, so imagine a team working on a document. They spend hours thinking about the font size, but the content of the document is unclear and the overall structure doesn't make sense. If you're obsessing over the font size, you're missing the bigger issue – the document itself isn't working.

Yes. The team can't see the wood for the trees. This idiom is often used gently to give advice rather than criticism. Shall we have some more examples?

When I was writing my novel, I couldn't see the wood for the trees. I kept getting stuck on the same sentence, writing it over and over again. When I was planning my wedding, I just became obsessed with the seating plan. I couldn't think about anything else. I couldn't see the wood for the trees. I've been working on this project for so long, I can't see the wood for the trees at this point – I've forgotten why we're doing it in the first place. I think I need to get an outside perspective.

So, 'can't see the wood for the trees' is about not being able to assess the whole situation because you're too focused on small details. It's about losing perspective.

Yes. And there's some other useful language to use in this context. If someone can't see the wood for the trees, they should take a step back and look at the bigger picture. 'The bigger picture' is a phrase meaning the situation as a whole.

Yes, they shouldn't 'get bogged down in the details'. Now, a bog is an area of wet, muddy ground, so if you get bogged down in the details, the details are slowing your progress.

Those are all useful phrases to use. OK, let's recap.

We learnt the idiom 'can't see the wood for the trees', which you focus too much on smaller details that you forget to look at the whole situation.

Join us again next time. Goodbye!

Bye!