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ESL forum >
Ask for help > expressions
expressions
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Pedro14
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expressions
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Hi there! Hope you �re all fine. I need your help with some expressions that my students asked me about in class. My student wanted to convey this idea: a bully is insulting a student and a possible answer for the bullied to make the bully shut up. I thought about : Your words run off me like water off a duck �s back. Yet my student told me he had heard another expression on a TV series but he couldn �t remember it. He wanted me to give him some other similar expressions but I couldn �t. Could you think about similar ones? The second one is another answer. I told my students I was going to have one of my wisdom teeth removed and one student asked me how to say in English the equivalent for a Spanish expression which somehow means "I know it will hurt you but hope not a lot" I have checked the net and found "Hope it is not too serious". Would it be a natural answer for the given context? And a last expression for which my student had heard another version but couldn �t remember it. A mum is always telling her son to stop going out with a bunch of boys because they are not a good influence. And the son replies: Stop grating on me / Stop nagging me / you �re talking my head off. These are the equivalent expressions I could think of for the Spanish expression my student wanted to translate but he told me he had heard another one. Thanks for your help. |
19 Apr 2017
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Atopy
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Idk...for the first anwser maybe: -People who live in glass houses shouldn �t throw stones. (Meaning don �t criticize if you have the same faults.) -Pot calling the kettle black. (Same as above. Pointing someones fault when you have it too.) -Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me. (This is a children �s rhyme though.) Hope this is of some use to you. If I remember more I �ll let you know. I �m sure someone will come up with more of them. :) Regards
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19 Apr 2017
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redcamarocruiser
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I don �t know how effective these are, but they were common back in the day: "What you say is what you are." "I �m water, you �re glue. Whatever you say runs off me and sticks to you." |
19 Apr 2017
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douglas
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1) "I know you are, but what am I?" (very child like to say) or "Yo Mama." (heavy street slang, offensive--you�re directing the bully�s insults to his mother) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--BslU44vWU (another option :) ) 2) I wouldn �t use "serious" for a wisdom tooth (I would for an operation though). For wisdom tooth I might say "I hope it�s not too painful." 3) "You �re talking my ear off." Could be used here, it implies the person is talking (to you) too much. "She was talking her head off." is also a phrase indicating she was talking a lot, but not necesarily to me.
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21 Apr 2017
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FrauSue
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1) I agree with using the rhyme "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me" in this context. I don �t think it �s true, though! I actually think that a more normal response would be something like shut up, as if, yeah right, go away - something short and sarcastic. 2) "I hope it �s not too bad" would be my natural choice. 3) Stop going on at me (about it); you �re driving me up the wall; stop bothering me (about it); it �s none of your business; take a chill pill. |
21 Apr 2017
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