Pete Smissen

Example number three, friendship and personality.

You've got that one friend who always cancels plans at the last minute.

I have one of those.

Every single time, right?

And somehow, you still believe them when they say, no, seriously, seriously, this weekend, I'm definitely coming.

I'm totally coming.

Then Saturday afternoon rolls around and you get the typical text message, oh, sorry, mate, something's come up.

And you think, I should have known.

A leopard can't change its spots.

All right, let's go through a little quick natural dialogue.

Try and shadow this with me, okay?

So, just imagine in your head two people talking to each other, okay?

Has Dan finally stopped gambling?

Mate, he was at the pokies last night.

Oh, no.

Yep.

Leopard, spots.

Notice how native speakers sometimes shorten expressions like this in casual conversation once everybody already understands the meaning.

So, you can simply just say leopard, spots.

And it's sort of obvious that you're saying a leopard can't change its spots.