More Idioms

If you understand every word in a phrase or text and fail to grasp its meaning, chances are that you are having trouble understanding idioms. Be aware that British English and Australian idioms are not part of American English idioms which we use in Canada. I‘m sure many of you realize that computers don’t understand humour or the double sense.

To have a frog in the throat / Avoir un chat dans la gorge / Avere la voce rauca (voix rauque) / Tener carraspera (hoarse voice)

To have other fish to fry / Avoir d’autres chats à fouetter. (to whip, to flog) / Avere altra gatta da pelare / Tener otras liebres (hare) que correr

It’s six of one and half dozen of the other / C’est bonnet blanc et blanc bonnet / (chou vert ou vert chou) / Se non è zuppa è pan bagnato / Olivo y aceituna todo es uno

Once in a blue moon (once in a while) / Tout le 36 du mois / Ogni morte di papa / A la muerte de un obispo

To be dressed to kill (dressed to the nines) / Être sur son trente-et-un (36 en Que) Être tiré à quatre  épingles / Mettersi (essere) in ghingheri / Vestirse da mozzafiato / (estar) Vestido de veinticinco alfileres (pins) / Ponerse de punta en blanco
Go fly a kite (get lost) / Va te faire cuire un œuf / Vattene a quel paese / Va a freír espárragos

To smell a rat (something’s fishy) / Il y a anguille sous roches (avoir la puce à l’oreille)
Gatta ci cova (hide) (sentire l’odore di bruciato) / Aquí hay gato encerrado (closed in)

You can’t have your cake and eat too / Vouloir le beurre et l’argent du beurre
Non si può avere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca. No puede comer el pan y conservarlo

This is not my cup of tea / Ce n’est pas mon rayon (genre) / Non è pane per i miei denti / No es de mi gusto 

It’s all Greek / C’est de l’algèbre / Non capisco un’acca / Es Chino para mi

Although there is no cabbage harvest festival in France, the French have an obsession with the word chou:
To say “My darling” they say Mon chou;
Mama’s boy: Le chouchou de maman
Daddy’s girl : La chouchotte de papa
Teacher’s pet: Le chouchou du prof 
Brussel sprout: Le chou de Bruxelles They also seem to have a fixation for the number 36, as they say:
Voir 36 chandelles  when we  See stars for a strong pain.
We say  Once in a blue moon and they say
Tous le 36 du moisWe say To be dressed to kill or to the nines and they
Etre sur son 36, while in France they use Trent-un.

I like to encourage readers to express their remarks and observations in the comment space provided.
After a summer hiatus I’ll be posting again toward the end of august.

Most Used and Abused Idioms

These entries that you are about to read are quite entertaining and informative as they are the most used and abused expressions in the English language and that are not usually found in ordinary dictionaries. Once we learn the meaning of these metaphorical phrases we can use them for summing up a point or situation or adding a seasoning of humour to a discourse. As reported previously I’ll start with the English version, then the French, Italian and Spanish respectively.

To have a frog in the throat. (being unable to speak or losing the voice)  Avoir un chat dans la gorge / Avere la voce rauca (hoarse voice) / Tener carraspera  (hoarse voice)

To have other fish to fry (other important things to do) / Avoir d’autres chats à fouetter (to whip, to flog) Avere altra gatta da pelare / Tener otras liebres que correr

It’s six of one and half dozen of the other ( two ways of saying the same thing)

C’est bonnet blanc et blanc bonnet (chou vert ou vert chou) / Se non è zuppa è pan bagnato / Olivo y aceituna todo es uno

To go Dutch or Dutch treat or date (when each person pays his/her own expenses) / Faire à l’Anglaise / Fare alla romana / Hacer a la Americana

To take a French leave (to leave without announcing it) / Filer à l’anglaise / Fare all’inglese / Despedirse a la francesa

Go fly a kite or go jump in a lake (go away, leave me alone) / Va te faire cuire un œuf / Vattene a quel paese / Vete a freír espárragos

To smell a rat or Something’s fishy (to suspect that something is wrong) / Il y a anguille (eel) sous roches or Avoir la puce (flea) à l’oreille / Gatta ci cova (hide) or Sentire l’odore di bruciato/  Aquí hay gato encerrado

To kick the bucket (to die) / Casser sa pipe / Tirare la cuoia / Estirar la pata (to stretch  the leg)

Idioms, Idiomes, Idiomi, Idiomas

Idioms are expressions that don’t mean what they appear to mean. The ultimate goal of any language learner is to acquire a large number of the everyday idioms and phrasal verbs of spoken English. Personally I’m always on the lookout for books of idioms to supplement my knowledge.

I should add that my book, Proverbs, Sayings, Clichés…A Multilingual Anthology, is packed with idioms and sayings in English, French, Italian and Spanish. You will notice the similarities and the differences between idioms in these languages. Readers interested in getting a copy at discounted price can contact me at anthony_daddese@yahoo.com  re. subject  book .

In this article I carefully selected a sampling of widely used idioms.

Eng.  It rains cats and dogs.  

Fr.  Il pleut des hallebardes/ des cordes/ à seaux/ comme vache qui pisse.

        (It’s raining spears/ ropes/ buckets, like a pissing cow.)

It.   Piove a catinelle/ a dirotto.

       ( It’s raining buckets/ violent and unstoppable rain..)

Sp.  Llueve a càntaros.  ( It’s raining in jugfulls or pitchers.)

En.  Once in a blue moon(once in a while)  

Fr.Tout le 36 du mois. (On the 36th day of the month)

 It. Ogni morte di papa. (Whenever a pope dies).                              

Sp. Cada muerte de obispo. (Whenever a bishop dies).   

Eng.  To fly off the handle.  To blow one's top.

         To hit the ceiling.        To see red.

 Fr.   Sortir de ses gonds.  Se fâcher tout rouge. Grimper aux rideaux.

It.    Montare in bestia.  Perdere le staffe.    Andare su tutte le furie.

Sp.   Ponerse como una fiera. Poner el grito en el ciel. Perder los estribos

   Eng.  Get to nitty-gritty (to the point.)   Fr.   Aller droit au but.

   It.   Venire al dunque (sodo).          Sp.   Ir al grano.   Venir a pelo.

  

    Eng.  To get off scot-free.  To get away with it. 

    Fr.  S'en  tirer à bon  compte.  

    It.   Farla  franca.

    Sp.  Salir impune

     Eng.  To be dressed to kill (to the nines, to the teeth).

     Fr.  Être sur son  trente et un (trente six en Québec).

            Être tiré à quatre épingles.

     It.   Mettersi in ghingheri.

     Sp.  Estar (vestido) de venticinco alfileres.

              Estar (Ponerse) de punta en blanco

Difficulty of Understanding Idioms

Idioms are expressions that have a meaning different from the literal one. They make the language richer and more colorful. The ability of understanding idioms is essential to comprehend the meaning of what is being communicated. An idiom may seem incomprehensible to someone who is not familiar with the language in which it is spoken. Despite the progress of computers N. Osler, a linguist whom I talked about in my previous article, recognizes the weakness of translation as it can never convey the meaning of idioms, puns and jokes. To prove his point he reports the misunderstanding that happened in 1990 among the delegates of the European Union. Those who read the report on a committee’s work in French judged it very satisfactory, while those who read the English translation believed the project had been a failure.

This difference of opinions was caused by the inadequate translation of the French word “insuffisant”which was translated as “inadequate” instead of “insufficient.”

I couldn’t agree with Osler more as idioms defy direct translation. Think of the expression

 “it rains cats and dogs”its literal translation in any other language would be laughable.

Having lived in Montreal, a vibrant multilingual society, I gradually developed an interest for idioms and sayings of the various languages spoken in the community at large, thus realizing that this frequent and extensive use of idioms is a natural way of speaking for a native speaker of a language. I find that idiomatic expressions are fascinating and their imagery intriguing. Who hasn’t heard these curious”expressions: “to be dressed to the nines”,”to bark up the wrong tree”,”to kick the bucket”, “go fly a kite”, “to be at sixes and sevens”,”to go scot free”,

“to fly off the handle.”

In my  next article I shall compare these idioms and others to French, Italian and Spanish.

Astonishing Prediction: English Will Disappear as a Lingua Franca.

At present English is the most successful language in the history of the world. It’s spoken in every continent, is learned as a second language by schoolchildren. Nicholas Ostler, an English scholar of the rise and fall of languages, makes a surprising prediction in his latest book:

“The Last Lingua Franca ”, as English will eventually go the way of Persian, Greek and Latin and over hundreds of years will die out because is not expanding as a mother tongue.

For the last four centuries the dominant world power has been English speaking, but now the global balance of power is shifting. In many countries like Russia, China and Brazil English is not part of the national tradition and is not spoken as a first language. Moreover the increasing power and cheapness of computers, combined with the advances of computer translation and speech recognition, will overcome the incompatibility between languages. Thus, according to Ostler, we are moving toward a more multilingual and diverse future where no one language will replace English.

Other linguists, like David Crystal and Robert McCrum, don’t share this pessimistic view as they think that English will somehow still be used worldwide. Undoubtedly the historical circumstances that led to the decline of other lingua-francas are very different from those in which English finds itself today. Global capitalism, global politics, global media and instant communication will make the disappearance more difficult.
Rest assured that we won't be around if and when this change will come about.

Number of Languages Spoken in the World

Linguists and scholars from all over the world agree that there are 6909 known living languages in our planet. A language is considered living as along as there is at least one person that speaks it as a mother tongue.
However, 80% of the population uses only 83 languages. Here is a table of languages spoken in the world in different geographic areas:





Geo. areas   Spoken Lang.   No. of speakers
Africa                2110           726 453 403
America              993             50  496 321
Asia                   2322         3 622 771 264
Europe                 234        1 553 360 941
Pacific                1250               6 429 788
Total                  6909        5 959 511 717


I should add that half of the world's languages have fewer than 10 speakers. It is estimated that one language dies every two weeks, thus by the end of the 21st century over 50% of the languages spoken will disappear.
473 languages are nearly extinct as only a few elderly speakers are still living in:
Africa  46,  The Americas  182,  Asia  84,  Europe  9,  The Pacific  152.

New Words Found in the 2010 Oxford English Dictionary

Like all living things the language is in constant flux. The Vietnam war brought us new words such as “defoliate, firefight, friendly fire, search and destroy.”  After Hiroshima and Nagasaki we started using“mushroom cloud, countdown, fireball, chain reaction, fallout, fission, fusion.”The new technology gave us “ATM, Pin number, e-mail.” and lately the progress of computer technology contributed to the creation of  new words. In fact we find a range of widely used  internet-related terms and particularly from social networking. However some language critics say that some neologisms were created as a marketing gimmick, others simply to compete for the title of  “Words of 2009”  The Oxford English Dictionary is constantly updating, adding new words. Have you ever defriended or unfriended someone, or organized a tweetup (tweet+meet up),or blown a vuvuzela (musical instrument used at the World Cup in South Africa)? In fact the 2010 Oxford English Dictionary has  more than 2000 of these words, such as texting, sexting, netbook, globalshift,, ecotown, interweb (internet), choice-mom, (a person who chooses to be a single mother),chill pill (pill for relaxing), bromance (non sexual relation between 2 men), refudiate, (for which Sarah Palin was awarded the distinction of coining the 2010 word of the year and that she tried to justify the gaffe by saying:“I pressed an F instead of a P), staycation (a holiday spent in one’s home country), buzzkill (a person or thing that has a depressing effect), cheeseball (lacking taste or style). Let’s hope that in the future newly created words won’t create any controversy.

Countries limiting the use of English words

English vocabulary is expanding at the rate of 8500 words a year. Researchers from Harvard and Google, after scanning five million books, counted 1,022,000 words. Even though vocabulary evolves through exposure to other languages some countries are prohibiting the use of some English words, in order to keep the purity of their language, as they say. Lately Germany’s transport minister enforced a strict ban on the use of 150 words and phrases such as, laptop, ticket, meeting within his ministry.

China is also restricting the use of English words threatening to punish those who violate the decree. In fact TV stations have been told by the government to avoid English acronyms such as NBA, WTO, GDP or CPI  in their programs. Journalists and broadcasters have to provide explanations for unavoidable English abbreviations. Will China succeed where European nations have failed? Will this prohibition prove to be futile and counterproductive? Time will tell.

France, a nation known worldwide for its linguistic pride, has outlawed advertising in English and established a 40% quota of French songs on the radio, as reported by the Christian Science Monitor.

English Duelling Proverbs

We  all know that every action has an opposite reaction or that there are two sides of the same coin, similarly we can say that every proverb has an equal and opposite proverb.  Contradictory proverbs can be used positively or negatively. Here is a list of some duelling proverbs that have been reported in my book.

1.    1.Birds of a feather flock together    but    Opposites attract.

2.     2.The early bird catches the worm          but    It’s never too late.

3.      Nothing ventured, nothing gained        but    Better safe than sorry.

4.      You can’t teach an old dog new tricks  but    You are never too old to learn.

5.      Absence make the heart grow fonder    but    Out of sight out of mind.

6.      It’s the thought that counts                    but    Actions speak louder than words.

7.      Too many cooks spoil the broth             but    Two  heads are better than one.

8.      Best things in life are free        but    There is no such thing as a free lunch.

9.      The more the merrier                             but   Misery loves company.

10.  Wise men think alike                              but    Fools seldom differ.

11.  A penny saved is a penny earned           but    Penny wise, pound foolish.

12.  Don’t cross the bridge until you come to it   but    Forewarned is forearmed.

13.  Opportunity never knocks twice on the same door    but   If one door shuts another opens.

14.  Divide and rule         but         United we stand, divided we fall.

15.  Strike while the iron is hot     but       Haste makes waste.

Comparing English with Romance Languages

The richness of the English Language will allow you to make distinctions that you don’t find in other languages. The Italian language with its vocabulary of about 260,000 words, cannot, for instance, distinguish between house and home neither can French nor Spanish.

Here is a list of Italian words and their corresponding English meanings: casa=house, home, ombra=shade, shadow, ora=now ,hour, piano=slow, plan, musical instrument, ancora=again, yet, still, ricetta=prescription, recipe, lingua=tongue, language, pesca=peach, fishing, perché=why, because, costume=dress or suit, custom, ospite=host, hostess, guest, nipote=niece, nephew, grandchild, grandson, grand-daughter, sentire=to hear, to feel, fare=to do, to make.

On the other hand, Italians have hundreds of names for pasta and some of them don’t sound too appetizing to foreigners, such as: “capellini” (little hair), “vermicelli” (little worms), “strozzapreti” (priest stranglers).

In Spanish, the word casa is used to indicate both house and home even though the proper word for home is hogar , the word lengua indicates tongue and language, the word sombra refers to shade and shadow, the word receta is used for prescription or recipe. French is not any different as they use maison for house and home, langue for tongue and language, and ombre for shade and shadow.

I should also mention that even English has some words that correspond to more than one word in French, Spanish and Italian. Here are some examples:

English                 French                      Spanish                             Italian

To know           savoir, connaître          saber, conocer                    sapere, conoscere

Right                droite, droit, raison     derecho, razon, correcto   destra, diritto, ragione, corretto

Some say that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages in the world, others say between 7,000 and 10,000 and that two languages will die each month in the 21^st century. In addition, only a small number of the major languages will be left by the end of the 21^st century.