IF WE MEANT WHAT WE SAID.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4399, 5 April 1922, Page 4

IF WE MEANT WHAT WE SAID.

QUEER LITERAL TRANSLATIONS* On taking up a course of study in a foreign language one cannot fail to be amused at times by the literal translation of certain words or phrases (says a writer in the “Newcastle Weekly Chronicle’’). For. instance, in the French language we have a common form of greeting, “Comment vous jfortez-wous ?” which, rendered into English, reads, “How do yiou 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 I do whatAt the club we might hear a fiery old colonel exclaim,, “And I gave the scoundrel a jolly good horse'-whippirig, sir,” while what probably happened was .that he struck at the object bf his ’rage with an. umbrella 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 say to her, aforesaid son, "Willie, mind you wipe your feet on the mat before you come in I” while what she really means is that Willie ipust wipe his boots! How often dp we ' hear that expression “The -kettle’s boiling," while any schoolboy knows, quite well that the kettle is not: boiling, has never been boiling, and never will do. so, but what we do mean is, that the ‘watef contained, in the kettle is boiling, but for some unknown reason we don’t like to admit iL if one is going out of a room and*is about to shut the door, some person is sure to exclaim, "Oh, just leave the door!” as though one wanted to take it with him. In America things are worse again, Even if. you are quite sure upon any certain subject it is the correct thing 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 such as when a cold person shivers and says,' “I,’m absolutely frozen,” when in reality he is many degrees off freezing-point, there are numerous examples of queer figures of speech, the above being merely some of the most commonly met with. .