Schlagwort-Archive: idiom

Idiom 103 – Take the cake

The LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog presents one more „cake“ based idiom. Others can be found here and here.

I spent three days last week at a conference in Frankfurt. There were many excellent presentations and speeches by industry experts, but for me it was the opening keynote speech that really took the cake (den Preis davon tragen). It was funny and engaging while doing an excellent job of introducing the wider themes of the conference.

This idiom is commonly believed to come from dancing competitions popular in African-American communities in the late 19th century. The winners of the competitions would be awarded a huge cake – and so to win was to take the cake.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Cake_walk_poster_1896.jpg

Idiom 102 – Out of the woods

In today’s LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog post, we will be looking at another popular English idiom.

300px-Crepuscular_rays_in_the_woods_of_Kasterlee,_BelgiumOur company had a very difficult first half of 2014. I was really worried that we wouldn’t make it to the end of the year. But things have improved a lot, and we have orders coming in much more regularly. I wouldn’t say that we are out of the woods (über den Berg) yet, but I am feeling much more optimistic about the future.

 

Idiom 101 – Flash in the pan

Hello and welcome to today’s military-themed idiom from the LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule team here in Berlin.

„When our new colleague joined the sales team, everyone was very impressed. His first idea for attracting new customers was very creative and, more importantly, very effective. But since then he has mostly been causing  problems. I’m starting to think that his early form was just a flash in the pan (Eintagesfliege).“

This idiom comes from the days when flintlock muskets (such as the one in the video below) were still in regular use. On top of the musket was a small pan holding gun powder. This style of rifle suffered from a type of misfire in which the gun powder burnt, but no bullet was fired. This was refered to as a „flash in the pan“ –  a dramatic flash and lots of smoke, but no real result. To see an example, have a look at the video below.

 

Idiom 100 – Off the cuff

Dear LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog readers! From Berlin I welcome you to our 100th idiom post!

A classic barrel cuff

My colleague and I have been working hard to build a good relationship with one of our more difficult customers.  He’s a very sensitive man, but after a lot of flattery we finally had him at the point where he wanted to sign a contract for a big new deal with us. But at the final meeting my colleague made a stupid joke and we were told that he wouldn’t be doing business with us any longer. One off-the-cuff (spontan) comment and thousands of euros as well as many hours of work disappeared!

The origin of this idiom seems to come from the old practise of writing notes on detachable and disposable cuffs. In other word, if you forgot to bring paper to write on, you wrote on your cuff. Therefore something off the cuff was created without careful planning or preparation.

For an example of this old cuff-writing practise, have a look at what Charlie Chaplin does at about the 30 second mark in the video below. And then watch the rest, it’s a classic…

Idiom 99 – Dead ringer

458355343_e8df022d45_oMy new colleague is a dead ringer (Doppelgänger) for our disgraced former CFO. It has led to some strange looks being exchanged in the hallways at work.

For a non-native English speaker, there are no clues about what this idiom means to be found in the words themselves. So, what is the origin of this phrase? A ‚ringer‘ is a horse substituted for another of similar looking horse to trick the bookies (Buchmacher). ‚Dead‘ has more than one meaning besides „not alive“. The meaning here is „exact“ or „precise“. This is can be found in many phrases; like ‚dead shot‘ (Volltreffer) and ‚dead centre‘ (genaue Mitte).

So, ‚dead ringer‘ is the same as ‚exact duplicate‘.

Idiom 97 – Pet hate

Our new boss is a strange character. His pet hate (Lieblingshassobjekt) is a messy desk. At the end of each work day, all of our desks must be completely cleared – not a single piece of paper is allowed. At first my colleague was resistant, so our new boss approached his desk at the end of the day and with one big swipe of his arm, sent all his papers to the floor!

An alternative version of this idiom, which is more common in the US than the UK, is pet peeve.

Idiom 96 – Break a leg!

„I’m feeling a little nervous. Tomorrow I have to give a presentation to a large group of potential investors – and I have to do it all in French!“

„Don’t worry! You’re well prepared and your French is excellent – you’ll be great. Break a leg! (Hals- und Beinbruch!)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Hamlin_theatre.jpgThis idiom comes from the superstitious (abergläubisch) world of the theatre. Among actors it is considered bad luck to wish someone „good luck“ directly – so by wishing them bad luck (in the form of a broken leg) the opposite will come true. Another example of a theatre superstition is the belief that it is unlucky to say the name of the famous Shakespeare play „McBeth“ inside a theatre. Instead, actors talk about „the Scottish play“ or „the Bard’s play“ (the Bard is a nickname for Shakespeare).

Idiom 95 – Catch-22

After many years at school and university, it was time for me to enter the job market and start earning some real money. But I found myself in the same Catch-22 (Zwickmühle) as many job starters. Every job I applied for was looking for someone with at least 2 years of experience. But to get this experience, I needed to find a job. Which no one wanted to give me, because I didn’t have any experience…

4196428467_62a7ef82ba_oIn English, a „catch“ is like the German „Haken“ – a hidden or tricky negative to a situation. The idiom „Catch-22“ comes from the  1961 Joseph Heller novel of the same name. In this novel (set during World War II),  any Air-Force pilot who asks for a mental examination — hoping to be found not fit to fly and escape dangerous missions — demonstrates that he is in fact completely sane and rational, because he has shown that he doesn’t want to risk his life. In other words, trying to avoid danger by asking to be found not mentally fit to fly, proves that the pilots are mentally fit to fly.