Do you know how confusing you english speaking people are with all your english expressions ?
Okay. In french we call them 'expressions'. Wiki just taught me that in english you call those idioms and that :
The meaning of an idiom cannot be deduced by knowing the meaning of its constituent words. For example, someone might know perfectly well what a bucket is and also understand the meaning of the verb "to kick" completely. However, unless they had already encountered the meaning of the phrase or were able to tell from the context the phrase appears in, they would not know that to kick the bucket is one of the many colorful idioms in the English language meaning to die.
Other examples :
Ace in the hole
Between a rock and a hard place
Bite the bullet
Break a leg
Draw a blank
etc etc etc....
Actually reading from this list, I am amazed at the number of idioms I still hadn't heard of. I thought that I was making good progress :/
All this to tell you a funny story that happened at the last staff meeting hehe. Jacques quit smoking a while back and he lost weight (about 30lbs). We were all congratulating him and Heather asked him "So, when you quit smoking, did you lose weight right off the bat ?" He looks at her and says "No no no, the bat is intact!!" ROTFL !! (A bat in french is slang for penis.. hehe)
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4 comments:
ROTFL!
funny stories like that are a common occurence in our house, going both ways :-)
BTW, an "Ace in the hole" in german is an "Ace up the sleeve" :-)
LOL...that is too funny!
I guess I should get back to the useless trivia thing, to help you out with your English Idiom education.
Although, you've found the basics on Wiki.
The girls at work LOVED that story. They laughed. except for one coworker who was laughing then her face turned to a look of horror as she realized her son's french girlfriend playfully calls him "batman", she was like EW EW EW.
LOL
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