Idiom, word, or expression meaning an easy-to-do task
I am looking for a term, expression, word, or idiom to describe a task as an easy one to do or to go through.
What I’d normally say is:
Actually it’s not difficult, it’s as easy as drinking a glass of water.
Does that make sense to a native English speaker? Is there a common idiom?
Solution 1:
Piece of cake -- “A piece of cake literally refers to a slice of cake. Idiomatically, the phrase refers to a job, task or other activity that is considered pleasant – or, by extension, easy or simple.” See examples in Google books.
Doddle -- “A job, task or other activity that is simple or easy to complete.” For a dozen brief examples, see page 34 of Materials Development in Language Teaching, edited by Brian Tomlinson.
There also is a slew of “as easy as falling off an X” expressions, where X typically is a log, a horse, a barn.
Solution 2:
Actually it's not difficult, it's as easy as _________.
- 123
- ABC
- pie
- falling off a log
- can be
- shooting fish in a barrel (often used as "It's like shooting fish in a barrel")
I'm sure that there are plenty of others ...
Solution 3:
I am particularly partial to "breeze":
The exam will be a breeze if you review your notes.
The wiktionary page provides a lot of other similar words:
- bagatelle
- cakewalk
- cinch
- doddle
- piece of cake
- walk in the park
- walkover
Make sure you know whether the word you're using is meant to be a metaphor or a simile; sometimes it can only be one. For example "The exam was a doddle" (metaphor usage) is correct while "The exam was like a doddle" (simile usage) misuses the word.
Solution 4:
In New Zealand, I often hear "easy-peasy". I've never seen it written down, so don't quote me on the spelling. Obviously, there's an element of rhyming involved and it is more likely to come up in a primary school than in a board room. :-)