Como falo em inglês: Tô super doente

Hi, all. No episódio de hoje, falo sobre quatro idioms em inglês que te comparam a um animal.

Transcrição
Hi, all. Here's a new episode of the Inglesonline podcast. Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app. Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven't yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglesonline podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes. Thanks for telling your friends, your neighbor, your family and keep listening!

Today I'm gonna talk about four idioms that compare people to animals. Yep, that's right. You know when a quality stands out in an animal, and then when you see a human being display that same quality... You compare that person to the animal? Here are the four animals for this episode: Peacock, horse, dog and fox. So these four animals are apparently capable of displaying certain qualities, or a state, in such a prominent way that they have inspired these idiomatic expressions.

So here are the qualities associated to these particular animals: Strong, proud, clever and sick. Which one do you think is the strong one - peacock, horse, dog or fox? What about proud - which one of these would be associated with being proud? Clever? Sick?

So here you go: The strong one is the horse, or so they say. When someone is as strong as a horse, this person is doing well health wise; they're very strong. It's a very useful idiom when someone has recovered well from illness, for example. You could say that your dog was so sick last week, but it's recovered and is now strong as a horse! Yep, you could say that your dog is strong as a horse. Sounds kinda funny, but... Totally fine to say. I mean, I came across a tweet that said "My legs are fine now. They're strong as a horse." Legs strong as a horse, so there you go.

And when someone is very smart, very clever, we can say that this person is sly as a fox. Sly means smart and clever, but sometimes in a cunning way. If we say that Mary is smart and cunning, we could be saying that Mary is capable of using deception in her favor. And beware... Deception does not mean "decepção." Deception, to put it simply, is the act of fooling someone; of making someone believe something that is not true. So Mary can use deception; she can deceive you in a smart way to get what she wants. Cunning and sly are not always negative qualities necessarily; sometimes no one gets hurt... And sometimes doing something in a cunning way means nothing more than being very bright and doing that thing in a very clever way. I guess sly in a more negative sense could mean malandro, and in a more positive sense could mean just esperto. So people can be sly as fox.

And what about when someone is proud as a peacock? That's not a compliment. We're saying that this person is too proud; they're vain even. But this idiom is frequently used in a good-natured way by parents who are proud of their kids, for example. Someone tweeted "Only a child can beat you at checkers and make you feel as proud as a peacock." Or you could say "My manager's compliments left me proud as a peacock, I must admit." Have you ever felt as proud as a peacock? What happened that made you feel that way?

And finally, we have sick and dog. Yeah, that's how the saying goes: sick as a dog. That means very, very sick. I don't really get how this one originated. Anyway, here's an example I found: "I'm sick as a dog and my grandpa came over and is staying to take care of me." Lucky girl. Here's what this guy said, though: "I'm sick as a dog with a 102-degree temperature. I tried to call work and they said "Sorry, you still have to come in."

What was the last time you were sick as a dog? I remember mine. I was so sick I could barely walk and I bumped into a man in a shopping mall 'cause I didn't know where I was going.

Hi, all. No episódio de hoje, falo sobre quatro idioms em inglês que te comparam a um animal.

Transcrição

Hi, all. Here’s a new episode of the Inglesonline podcast. Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app. Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglesonline podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes. Thanks for telling your friends, your neighbor, your family and keep listening!

Today I’m gonna talk about four idioms that compare people to animals. Yep, that’s right. You know when a quality stands out in an animal, and then when you see a human being display that same quality… You compare that person to the animal? Here are the four animals for this episode: Peacock, horse, dog and fox. So these four animals are apparently capable of displaying certain qualities, or a state, in such a prominent way that they have inspired these idiomatic expressions.

So here are the qualities associated to these particular animals: Strong, proud, clever and sick. Which one do you think is the strong one – peacock, horse, dog or fox? What about proud – which one of these would be associated with being proud? Clever? Sick?

So here you go: The strong one is the horse, or so they say. When someone is as strong as a horse, this person is doing well health wise; they’re very strong. It’s a very useful idiom when someone has recovered well from illness, for example. You could say that your dog was so sick last week, but it’s recovered and is now strong as a horse! Yep, you could say that your dog is strong as a horse. Sounds kinda funny, but… Totally fine to say. I mean, I came across a tweet that said “My legs are fine now. They’re strong as a horse.” Legs strong as a horse, so there you go.

And when someone is very smart, very clever, we can say that this person is sly as a fox. Sly means smart and clever, but sometimes in a cunning way. If we say that Mary is smart and cunning, we could be saying that Mary is capable of using deception in her favor. And beware… Deception does not mean “decepção.” Deception, to put it simply, is the act of fooling someone; of making someone believe something that is not true. So Mary can use deception; she can deceive you in a smart way to get what she wants. Cunning and sly are not always negative qualities necessarily; sometimes no one gets hurt… And sometimes doing something in a cunning way means nothing more than being very bright and doing that thing in a very clever way. I guess sly in a more negative sense could mean malandro, and in a more positive sense could mean just esperto. So people can be sly as fox.

And what about when someone is proud as a peacock? That’s not a compliment. We’re saying that this person is too proud; they’re vain even. But this idiom is frequently used in a good-natured way by parents who are proud of their kids, for example. Someone tweeted “Only a child can beat you at checkers and make you feel as proud as a peacock.” Or you could say “My manager’s compliments left me proud as a peacock, I must admit.” Have you ever felt as proud as a peacock? What happened that made you feel that way?

And finally, we have sick and dog. Yeah, that’s how the saying goes: sick as a dog. That means very, very sick. I don’t really get how this one originated. Anyway, here’s an example I found: “I’m sick as a dog and my grandpa came over and is staying to take care of me.” Lucky girl. Here’s what this guy said, though: “I’m sick as a dog with a 102-degree temperature. I tried to call work and they said “Sorry, you still have to come in.”

What was the last time you were sick as a dog? I remember mine. I was so sick I could barely walk and I bumped into a man in a shopping mall ’cause I didn’t know where I was going. I had a fever and my whole body ached. I’m waiting for your story in the comments…! Talk to you next time.

Keywords

strong as a horse
sly as a fox
proud as a peacock
sick as a dog

Glossary

or so they say = pelo menos é o que dizem

health wise = no que diz respeito à saúde

so there you go = então é isso aí

checkers = dama (jogo)

 

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