Welcome to English in a Minute.

Have you heard the phrase: "get on my nerves?"

What does it mean in American English? Let's find out.

A: It really irritates me when a person's cell phone goes off during a movie!
B: Yeah, me too. It really gets on my nerves.

The human nervous system is a collection of the nerves in our bodies that helps us feel things. When something affects those nerves in a bad way, we can feel strange or troubled. When that happens in a non-physical way, we can say it "gets on my nerves."

Someone else's actions or words can "get on my nerves," if they do it over and over, and you want them to stop.

And that's English in a Minute.