Fall flat meaning in English

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Definition

(My plan) fell flat!: (My plan) failed, did not work! idiom

Examples

"My attempts to quiz Bruno on the green measures taken by his company all fell flat."

Exercise 1

"My attempts to quiz Bruno on the green measures taken by his company all fell flat."

From the list below, choose the sentence which best describes what Sigourney is telling us in this sentence:

Sigourney tried to ask Bruno why the environmental initiatives failed.

Sigourney tried to ask Bruno about environmental initiatives, but her efforts failed.

Sigourney wanted to ask Bruno if the value of the company's shares has fallen since the green initiatives.

Sigourney succeeded in making Bruno answer her questions about the environmental initiatives.

I don't know

"My attempts to quiz Bruno on the green measures taken by his company all fell flat."

From the list below, choose the sentence which best describes what Sigourney is telling us in this sentence:

Sigourney tried to ask Bruno why the environmental initiatives failed.

This is incorrect. It is not the "green measures" or environmental initiatives which fell flat. Rather, it is Sigourney's "attempts" to ask Bruno about these measures which failed.

Sigourney tried to ask Bruno about environmental initiatives, but her efforts failed.

This is correct. Sigourney's "attempts" or "efforts" to ask Bruno about the green measures "fell flat". The expression "to fall flat" means "to fail", in other words Sigourney's efforts "did not succeed". Example: "The teacher's jokes always fell flat - nobody laughed at them".

Sigourney wanted to ask Bruno if the value of the company's shares has fallen since the green initiatives.

This is incorrect. The expression "to fall flat" is unrelated to the value of a company's stocks or shares.

Sigourney succeeded in making Bruno answer her questions about the environmental initiatives.

This is incorrect. Sigourney writes that her attempts to encourage Bruno to talk about the environmental initiatives "fell flat". The expression "to fall flat" does not mean "to succeed". In fact, it is quite the opposite: "to fall flat" shares a similar meaning with "to fail".

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