Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Bird Idioms

Birds appear in a variety of idiomatic expressions, including:
"A little bird told me" (a nameless person told me)
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" (one thing that you do possess is worth more than two that you do not)
"Bird-brained" (small-brained = stupid)


Then there are idioms related to specific types of birds:
"Duck or grouse" (lower your head or complain as you bang it on a low beam or doorway)
"What's good for the goose is good for the gander" (if it is good for the female it must be equally good for the male)
"You're chicken!" (You are afraid)


Of course there are many more bird related idioms to explore such as:
"The goose that lays the golden egg"
"To feather one's nest"
"The early bird catches the worm"


Remember, the most important things to find out about each idiom are whether it is in common use, whether it is used as a joke or is intended as serious, and ultimately whether it is appropriate for your intended purpose, or not.


Click here to buy the Oxford Idioms Dictionary for Learners of English.


Thursday, July 25, 2013

Puny Puns Punished?

Puns are making a comeback through social media.  I didn't realise they'd gone away.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21011778

Click here for more pun-ishment. 

Yarbles! Great bolshy yarblockos to you.

One of the many beautiful features of language is that if you know the language quite well, but you sometimes come across words you don't know, you can often estimate their meaning through the context in which they are used and your knowledge of language patterns that exist. 

The yobs (Georgie, Alex and Dim), as seen in the Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange, based on the novel of the same name by Anthony Burgess, have a fabulous language of their own.  Guess the meaning of these words in blue from quotes from the film, if you can...


Quote 1:

Ho, ho, ho! Well, if it isn't fat stinking billy goat Billy Boy in poison! How art thou, thou globby bottle of cheap, stinking chip oil? Come and get one in the yarbles, if ya have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly thou!

Quote 2:

[Alex has just struck Dim on the legs]
Dim: What did you do that for?
Alex: For being a bastard with no manners, and not a dook of an idea how to comport yourself public-wise, O my brother.
Dim: I don't like you should do what you done, and I'm not your brother no more and wouldn't want to be.
Alex: Watch that. Do watch that, O Dim, if to continue to be on live thou dost wish.
Dim: Yarbles! Great bolshy yarblockos to you. I'll meet you with chain or nozh or britva anytime, not having you aiming tolchocks at me reasonless. Well, it stands to reason I won't have it.
Alex: A nozh scrap any time you say.
Dim: Doobidoob. A bit tired, maybe. Best not to say more. Bedways is rightways now, so best we go homeways and get a bit of spatchka. Right, right?

Quotations taken from:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066921/quotes

Interested in watching the film or reading the book? Click below.



Fun side note: 

compare the similarity of the sounds Doo/bi/doob from the quotations above and tu/be/dube which forms part of the name of this website.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The Cheekiness Factor

Often used in tv and films from the 70s, slang gives us the chance to enjoy cheeky terms of endearment, the lack of political correctness of the 70s gives us amusing yet abusive terms and the general attitudes of the time offer us engaging and enjoyable alternatives to our present day lives.

'Coppers' and 'cons' from the 70s provide a whole load of material to enjoy, explore and examine.  Video clips of tv programmes and films like Minder, The Sweeney, Starsky and Hutch, Kojak, and many, many more give us a great range of material from both sides of The Atlantic.


Watch some of these clips and enjoy the cheekiness factor, the slang and the political incorrectness of them all:


An episode of Minder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5mRCQ477zs&feature=related

An episode of The Sweeney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1RiSMQ9bRM&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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