WHAT WE SAY

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLIII, Issue 2568, 22 April 1922, Page 4

WHAT WE SAY

AND WHAT WE MEAN

LITERAL TRANSLATIONS

On taking up a course" of study in a foreign language one cannot fail to b«'amused at times by the literal translation of certain words or phrases (says a writer in the < Newcastele Weekly Chronicle'). For instance, in the! French language we have a common form of greeting '' Comment vous portez vous?" which, 'rendered into English, reads: "How do you carry yourself?" Imagine the effect of putting these words to a portly old dame! 'On the other hand, the English equivalent, "How do you do?" would prompt a foreigner to ask, naturally enough, "How do Ido what," At the club vrc might hear a fiery old colonel exclaim, '' And I gave the scoundrel a jolly gooi horsewhipping, sir," while probably what happened was that he struck at the object of his nage with an urn brella and missed him. Then we have the irate mother calling out to her erring offspring, "Just come here, my boy, and I'll dust your jacket for you ' •but at the same time she would be very much surprised if the boy did "just come here" and if he were to it would not be his jacket that received the dusting. The same person would also to her aforesaid son, "Willie, mind \o«\ wipe your feet on the mat before y.-u come in!" while what she really means is that Willie must1 wipe his boots! Honoftcn do we hear that expression "The kettle's boiling," while any schoolboy knows quite well that the kettle is no;, boiling, has never been boiling, and will never do so, but what we do mean is that the water contained in the kettle is boiling, but for some unknown reason we don't like to admit it. If one is going out of a room and is about to shut the door, some person is sure to exclaim, "Oh, just leave1 the door!" although one wanted to take it with him. In America things are worse again. Even if you are quite sure uppn any certain subject it is the correct thiag to "guess it" and if somebody says "I think so and ,so, don't you?" you must reply "Sure," although you are far from being so. Apart from • sheer

exaggeration, such, as when a cold parson shivers and says "I'm absolutely frozen," when in reality he' is many degrees off freezing point, there are nt.mcrous examples of queer figures oi' speech, the above being merely so ue of the most commonly met with.