What a load of waffle!
Chapter 28
British idioms tend to put Swedish translators to the test and sometimes, in TV-programmes for instance, you'll notice they are not accurately translated. Idioms are a significant part of the English language and we took an afternoon at the Café at Brunnsvikens Trädgård to talk a few of them through.
Intro
0.40 "Bob's your Uncle!" - not everyone has an uncle called Bob and this is not about your uncle at all - it's a way of saying "job done".
1.19 "Dog’s dinner" and "Pig’s ear" - Two ways of saying something is untidy or someone made a mess out of something.
1:48 "It's raining cats and dogs" - it rains a lot in England, and this is more about a heavy rainstorm, than animals falling from the sky.
2:08 "Let the cat out of the bag" – all about revealing something you should have kept to yourself.
Divulge (as in reveal, expose or display) – avslöja
Slip of the tongue - att försäga sig
2:42 "Just faffing about" - doing things in a disorganized, unfocused manner and not really achieving very much.
Achieving any objectives - uppnå alla mål
Pseudo working - låtsasjobba
3:16 "What a load of waffle" - this is not about a big stack of the waffles you eat. Instead it is all about talk, long winded and often boring chatter with a lot of details, never really coming to the point or answering a specific question clearly.
3:55 "He was totally flabbergasted" - astonished - förbluffad
4:08 "Gobsmacked" - slang for astonished, flabbergasted
Gob – slang for mouth
Smack - a synonyme for hit or strike
4:42 "The apple of my eye" - Fruit in your eyes? No, but a typical way to talk about the love of one's life!
Hint from Mike:
There really are a lot of fun and expressive idioms out there with which to enrich your communications, and the Internet is full of explanations. My advice is thus to jot them down when you hear them and then look them up to check the meaning. Then, if you feel confident with your English, I advise you to try and spice up your language by using idioms like these. It gives your listener an impression that you are in charge of the language you are using - as long as you use them accurately and in the right context, of course.
PS: If you feel you would like to be even more confident with English idioms and expressions, Mike Ward as an English coach is only a phone call or an e-mail away.DS.
