Extra pair of hands meaning in English

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Definition

(Do you need) an extra pair of hands?: (Do you need) another person to help you? idiom

Examples

"Most complaints are related to orders on the Delavigne website and we could really do with an extra pair of hands to help us with complaints."

Exercise 1

Trey is experiencing problems. What solution does he suggest in his e-mail?

Hiring more staff.

Placing Edward Moon in the Customer Service Department for a couple of weeks to help.

Re-designing the Delavigne online ordering system.

Streamlining the Customer Service Department.

I don't know

Trey is experiencing problems. What solution does he suggest in his e-mail?

Hiring more staff.

This is incorrect. To hire staff means to employ new people to work for a company. Trey doesn't ask Luna to employ any more people.

Placing Edward Moon in the Customer Service Department for a couple of weeks to help.

This is the correct answer. Trey asks to "borrow" Edward "for a week or two" meaning he wants Edward to come and help them. He asks Luna for "an extra pair of hands" which means another person to help. The expression "we need an extra pair of hands" shares a similar meaning with "we need a hand" or "we need more help".

Re-designing the Delavigne online ordering system.

This is incorrect. Although Trey writes that many complaints are related to the Delavigne website, he does not suggest re-designing it as a solution to the problem.

Streamlining the Customer Service Department.

This is incorrect. To streamline a department means to make it more efficient, usually by losing staff or reducing costs in another way. Having fewer team members would not help Trey in his current situation.

Excerpt: Perhaps we could borrow that intern, Edward Moon, for a week or two - at least until things quiet down a bit?

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