{"id":6906,"date":"2019-01-24T15:51:59","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T20:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=6906"},"modified":"2019-01-24T15:51:59","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T20:51:59","slug":"english-malapropisms-mixed-metaphors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/english-malapropisms-mixed-metaphors\/","title":{"rendered":"English Malapropisms &amp; Mixed Metaphors"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6907\" style=\"width: 716px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6907\" class=\"wp-image-6907 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2019\/01\/Malaprop.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"706\" height=\"988\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2019\/01\/Malaprop.png 706w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2019\/01\/Malaprop-250x350.png 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 706px) 100vw, 706px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6907\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image courtesy of Pixabay, CCO<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Mistakes happen. Like the blue-footed booby bird, goofy things turn up once in a while. It can\u2019t be helped. When you are learning a language, and especially if you think you know common idioms and expressions, you just might say something that isn\u2019t quite right. Hey, even if you\u2019re a native speaker it can happen!<\/p>\n<p>The English author Richard Brinsley Sheridan once created a character named Mrs. Malaprop who frequently, and often hilariously, used the wrong word in a sentence. These words sounded like the words she wanted to use, but the meanings of these words were entirely different. Sheridan got her name from the French word <em>malapropos<\/em>, meaning inappropriate, and derived from the French phrase<em>\u00a0mal \u00e0 propos<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cpoorly placed\u201d).\u00a0 For instance, she described someone as, \u201cThe pineapple of success.\u201d She intended to say <em>pinnacle of success<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs. Malaprop isn\u2019t the only character to mangle the English language, of course, but her name is now a synonym for it. A <strong>malapropism <\/strong>is defined as the unintentional misuse of a word to create a ridiculous sentence. It\u2019s all-too-easy for someone to make a mistake in English which would lead to a malapropism, simply because so many English words sound alike.<\/p>\n<p>So\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cHe\u2019s going through that awkward phrase.\u201d Instead of \u201cHe\u2019s going through that awkward phase.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWe had to fire him, he was totally incontinent.\u201d Instead of \u201cWe had to fire him, he was totally incompetent.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe meaning of that movie was beyond my apprehension.\u201d Instead of \u201cThe meaning of that movie was beyond my comprehension.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Don\u2019t confuse a malapropism with a <strong>mixed metaphor<\/strong>. Mixed metaphors are two or more incompatible metaphors which sound ridiculous when put together. They may or may not be combined inadvertently, whereas all malapropisms are the result of a mistake. The result is still hilarious, but mixed metaphors often come from people who aren\u2019t simply confused over a word. They have confused complete statements.<\/p>\n<p>Combine \u201cYou can\u2019t teach an old dog new tricks\u201d with \u201cA leopard can\u2019t change its spots\u201d and you get \u201cYou can\u2019t teach an old dog to change its spots.\u201d Which, while true, sounds nonsensical. Both metaphors mean basically the same thing \u2013 You can\u2019t get someone to change their nature. But, combined, it\u2019s just silly.<\/p>\n<p>Consider \u201cIt\u2019s not rocket science!\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s not brain surgery!\u201d Both metaphors mean that something isn\u2019t nearly as difficult as you might think. But, what if you combined the two, resulting in \u201cIt\u2019s not rocket surgery!\u201d Now THAT would be difficult!<\/p>\n<p>So\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cIt\u2019ll be a walk in the cake.\u201d This could combine the word cakewalk with the metaphors \u201cA walk in the park\u201d and \u201cA piece of cake\u201d, all of which mean something easy. But, a walk in the cake is just ludicrous.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cHitting the ground right off the bat\u201d combines the metaphors \u201cHit the ground running\u201d with \u201cRight off the bat\u201d. Both mean to do something immediately and is usually a very positive thing. Any baseball fan will tell you that to hit a ball into the ground is just going to produce an out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Have you heard any funny malapropisms or mixed metaphors that you\u2019d like to share? We\u2019d love from you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"250\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2019\/01\/Malaprop-250x350.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2019\/01\/Malaprop-250x350.png 250w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2019\/01\/Malaprop.png 706w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><p>Mistakes happen. Like the blue-footed booby bird, goofy things turn up once in a while. It can\u2019t be helped. When you are learning a language, and especially if you think you know common idioms and expressions, you just might say something that isn\u2019t quite right. Hey, even if you\u2019re a native speaker it can happen!&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/english-malapropisms-mixed-metaphors\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":6907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[134956,135139],"tags":[6,140674],"class_list":["post-6906","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-grammar","category-english-language","tag-grammar","tag-parts-of-speech"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6906"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6911,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6906\/revisions\/6911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}