Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Meaning of IT'S JUST A DROP IN THE BUCKET - A Really Short English Lesson with Subtitles

So in English when we say, "It's just a drop in the bucket." we're talking about only having

a small amount of something when we need a whole lot more of something.

So a good way to look at this would be let's say you're planning on going on a trip and

the trip costs $3000 and so far you have saved up $10.

That would be a really good time to say that $10 it's a drop in the bucket.

So imagine that you have a bucket or a pail and you're trying to fill it up with water

and you're only putting one drop of water in at a time.

That's where this saying comes from.

So you need $3000 and you only $10.

You could easily say, "It's just a drop in the bucket."