Como falo em inglês: Tô super doente

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Jul 24
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.

inglês: strong as a horseSo 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.

inglês: sly as a foxAnd 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.

inglês: proud as a peacockAnd 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)

Ana
Alexandre 11/08/2014

Hi, Ana! I’ve been following your podcasts for awhile and it’s been helping me improve my English quite a lot! Thanks a million!
A question! Why sometimes the structure “as…as something” is used without the first “as”? And sometimes with both of them? Such as: “Only a child can beat you at checkers and make you feel as proud as a peacock” – “My manager’s compliments left me proud as a peacock, I must admit.”
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks a lot!

jessica 27/07/2014

Ana, could you please tell me what’s the meaning of “vain even” that you used in this text?
thanks a bunch!

Jana 26/07/2014

Hi, Ana! Dogs have a nature temperature that would be fever for human being. 38/39 degrees is normal for them… I think the expression “sick as a dog” comes from this…Maybe… ;)

    Ana 26/07/2014

    Could be, Jana! Thanks.

Sergio Rodrigues 25/07/2014

It seems that you missed another well known idiom related to animal – “as stubbirn as a mule” Right?
I mean “stuborn”

Sergio Rodrigues 25/07/2014

It seems that you missed another well known idiom related to animal – “as stubbirn as a mule” Right?

    Ana 26/07/2014

    Stubborn as a mule is a good one, Sergio. I wanted to cover 3 of them and didn’t come across your example – thanks for contributing!

Diogo Higino 25/07/2014

Hi Ana. Thanks for posting an excellent content once more.

Today I’m proud as a peacock. Let me show you why. Once when I decided I needed to study English I knew that anything of my near environment required any kinda effort about it. So I, always, was reluctant into try to develop my English skill even with off teacher. Internet is a great place to achieve knowledge though.

Back to the topic, this week a manager asked for a certain person to find out a partner for specific product in China. He said he’ll try but nothing guarantee. In other words, he doesn’t showed concern about it. I hugged the cause and started searching into the internet and after three days I was lucked and found the best one I could found.

Even though I know how important English represents nowadays for our lives, I always saw it as an useless when I compared to the amount of effort I did. So today I’m proud as a peacock. It turns out been so useful. I know I need to keep in touch to learn as much as need to become a better speaker. But paid every effort so far.

Thansk for being so helpful. I’m appreciating your 101 Portuguese-English saying.

    Ana 26/07/2014

    Congrats, Diogo :) Yep – learning more and more English keeps paying off – that is my experience as well :)

Jonata fontela 24/07/2014

Hey Ana,very cool expressions I loved them! A few weeks ago I felt as proud as a peacock because I got an A on my English exam,I got really happy!!!! :D

    Ana 25/07/2014

    Congrats!!! Yay!

Fátima Regina 24/07/2014

Hello Ann, good evening!
I tried twice, but I didn’ t get to put my example here.

    Ana 25/07/2014

    Hi Fátima,
    É que o anti-spam do site às vezes pega comentário seu erroneamente como “spam”. Eu verifiquei a razão, que é o fato de alguns spammers enviarem mensagens com a palavra “Fátima” no meio!!
    Quando vc enviar um comentário e ele não aparecer, não precisa enviar de novo. Quando eu verificar a caixa de spam, libero o seu.

Fátima Regina 24/07/2014

Hello Ann, good evening!

This is my example: “It has happened things in my life that sometimes make me feel sick as a dog, but my faith in God is so big that I get to stand and, afterward, I begin to feel as strong as a horse in body, mind and feeling.”
Thanks Ann! May God continue giving you strenght to pass us your podcasts.

    Ana 26/07/2014

    Nice, Fátima- Lembrando que sick as a dog e strong as a horse estão mais relacionados ao estado físico!

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