spade a spade

[blouen]

How do you use this proverb?

Call a spade a spade

And

Let bygones be bygones

[Ouisch]

"Let's call a spade a spade" means you want to talk honestly, be blunt, straightforward.

After performing a song at a karaoke bar, I rejoin my friend at our table: "I think I sounded pretty good, what did you think?"
"Let's call a spade a spade - you sounded awful. You couldn't carry a tune if it was strapped to your back."




"Let bygones be bygones" means you want to start fresh with someone with whom you've had a previous disagreement; you want to pretend the argument never happened.

"We've been friends too long to let this little problem come between us. Why don't we just let bygones be bygones, and forget about who owes whom the $5?"

[bianca]

[quote=Ouisch;207065You couldn't carry a tune if it was strapped to your back."[/quote]

meaning?

[blouen]

thanks Ouisch!

[Ouisch]

meaning?

Sometimes when someone can't sing well, we say that "they can't carry a tune." Meaning that they are unable to sing a melody so that it is on-key. Because the word "carry" is used in the phrase, sometimes we take it to an absurb (and figurative) extreme when describing a really bad singer:

She couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.
He couldn't carry a tune if it was strapped to his back.
You couldn't carry a tune if it had a handle on it.

[BobK]

This sort of "carry" is no doubt related (not directly, but the image is analogous) to the word "tenor" (the 'holder' - Latin tenere, to hold - of a tune.)

b