[General] give it hot to you/ give s.o. a good dressing-down/ issue a reprimand/scold

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vil

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Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough share with me your opinion concerning the correctness of the following sentences?

I'll give it hot to you!

to give hot to somebody = to scold somebody

I will have you on the mat

I'll take you to task for smoking cigarettes.

take someone to task = hold someone responsible for

The sergeant gave the soldier a good dressing down because his shoes were not shined.

give someone a good dressing down = administer someone a severe reprimand (a scolding) (to administer a punishment to)

The judge issued a reprimand from the bench.

The boss reprimands all employees for being late.

He scolded us for being late.

Thanks for your efforts.

Regards,

V
 

opa6x57

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I'll give it hot to you!

to give hot to somebody = to scold somebody

I will have you on the mat

To me, this is the only one I have a problem with.

I've never heard any native speaking American use this phrase in this manner. It sounds very stilted.

If you had said, "I'll give it to you hot." I think that sounds better, but really doesn't have the same meaning as your original.

Native speaking Americans would be more likely to say, "I'll read you the riot act." Or, "I'll give you a serious chewing-out." Or, "I'll really chew you out."

Frankly - most of the time, you don't get a warning like this. In advance, you might hear, "You'll get in trouble." Or, "You know you'll get in trouble for that."

After the fact - after you've been scolded - you will tell your friends, "I really got chewed out." Or, "I got called on the carpet for that." Or, "He yelled at me for that." Or, "He scolded me for that." Or, "I got repremanded for that."

Hope this helps.
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Not a teacher, 53-year-old American.
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magimagicE

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I'll give it hot to you!

This sounds like a line from a forties or fifties movie with the meaning:

I'll give it hot (off the press) to you!

ie I'll give you the exclusive.

Of course, "hot" in this context can also have rude and lude sexual connotations.
 
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5jj

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I'll give it hot to you!

I've never heard it. (I'm a speaker of BrE)
 
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opa6x57

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I'll give it hot to you!

I've never heard it. (I'm a speaker of BrE)


When I first read that line, I immediately thought this was a bad translation from another language.

The web is replete with examples of translation failures - making fun of the (sometimes) funny results when translating from other languages to English. This struck me as an example of that.

It is quite common for word order to be different in different languages - and literal translations as a result are often bad/funny/inaccurate because the word order of the original language causes the translated text to be significantly different in meaning.



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Not a teacher, 53-year-old American.
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Verona_82

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I think I know where 'give it hot to sb" comes from :) I've just found it in my Rus-Eng dictionary. It looks like a word-by-word translation from Russian, 'zadat' komu-libo zharu'.
Sorry for off-topic...
 

5jj

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I think I know where 'give it hot to sb" comes from :) I've just found it in my Rus-Eng dictionary. It looks like a word-by-word translation from Russian, 'zadat' komu-libo zharu'.
Sorry for off-topic...
It's very much on topic. Could you give a translation of the meaning of the expression (not the words alone), please?
 

Verona_82

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Sure, it means 'to blame someone angrily, or to be very angry with someone or treat them severely'. My dictionary gives the following expressions as synonyms of 'give it hot to sb': to give sb hell, to give sb strong, to make things lively for sb (these two also look like literal translations), to kick sb's ass :oops:
 

5jj

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My dictionary gives the following expressions as synonyms of 'give it hot to sb':1. to give sb hell, 2. to give sb strong, 3. to make things lively for sb (these two also look like literal translations), 4. to kick sb's ass :oops:
Thanks for that
.
IMO, #1 is natural, #2 unnatural, #3 possible, but very dated, #4 acceptable (that is, in circles where such language is used!).

ps: I prefer the English spelling and pronunciation of your last word, arse - [FONT=&quot]/ɑ:s/ [/FONT]
 

Barb_D

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To kick someone's arse (f you prefer) means to beat them up or to beat them soundly in a game or contest, in the US. If you got yelled at by someone, you didn't get your ass kicked. (Though there is another expression that means to get yelled at that is too vulgar to write here that does involve that part of the body.)
 

5jj

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(Though there is another expression that means to get yelled at that is too vulgar to write here that does involve that part of the body.)
Give us a clue.
 
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