Thursday, May 10, 2007

AS WHITE AS A ?

I can't draw to save my life but even I can manage a pin man standing under a few raindrops, so this, along with the words "a bit under the weather" is the image I use to introduce the concept of idioms to students.

One of the English colour idioms I was working on with students yesterday was "as white as a sheet". As Italians pronounce "shit" in exactly the same way as they do "sheet", you may imagine what they made of the expression at first!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny post. As white as a sheet or the other.

James Higham said...

...As Italians pronounce "shit" in exactly the same way as they do "sheet", you may imagine what they made of the expression at first!...

Same situation over here and another good one is "beach".

Anonymous said...

WL -

Don't you wish now that you'd said, "white as a ghost"? Or, following the Blackadder formulation, "white as a very white white thing"?

Chris at 'Chrissie's Kitchen' said...

Hmm.. yes indeed WCL. I kinda remember a dire "comedy 'sheet'" put my way some years ago that also recorded, in writing, the Italian 'accent' of the word 'fork'. It was, in fact, quite funny at the time. (About hotel stuff & so on.)

Lee said...

Hehehehehee...those Italians must think the British sheet in a strange colour! ;)

Eurodog said...

In North Cornwall where we spend a lot of time, there is a restaurant called Life's a Beach. The Italians would be the only ones to get it right.
The owner is a mate of Rick Stein. It is noisy and overpriced. But that's just an interlinea.

elleeseymour said...

My mother, being Greek, has the same difficulty with her pronunciation

Whispering Walls said...

As white as the sheets of a ship

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Glad it made you smile, Steve. Didn't realise there was the same problem in Russian, James. Do Russians also have a problem with tonic stress in English? Well, Ludlingtonian, at least they had a good laugh so they might remember the expression! Lizzie, I can just imagine! [Actually that reminds me of something I'll post in a minute.] Lee, I think they do! That's a witty name for the restaurant, eurodog. I can imagine a meal there costs the earth! Ellee, yes, it's a pronunciation problem most continental Europeans have. WW, quite so!

Shani said...

Toby loved this when I told him !!

hugs
Shani

Liz Hinds said...

Must have been fun! Plenty of opportunity there for 'innocent' mistakes.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Glad Toby liked it, Shani. Hi, Liz. Yes, it was rather fun.

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