[Idiom] EARTHQUAKE

[Juank Teacher]

How do you say it in English when an earthquake occurs?
IN Spaninsh we say "está temblando¡¡¡" something like "it's shaking ¡¡¡"; or simply "temblor", like saying in ENglish "Earthquake¡¡¡".

Thanks for your answer.

 

[emsr2d2]

How do you say it in English when an earthquake occurs?
IN Spaninsh we say "está temblando¡¡¡" something like "it's shaking ¡¡¡"; or simply "temblor", like saying in ENglish "Earthquake¡¡¡".

Thanks for your answer.

In the UK, we rarely have a reason to shout anything due to an earthquake happening! We have earth tremors occasionally but we don't have a standard phrase we would shout at that point. I imagine most of the things people say when they realise their house is shaking are unrepeatable here! ;-)

 

[5jj]

How about: "Did Grandma forget to take her Rennies again?"

 

[emsr2d2]

I was thinking something along the lines of "Ooh, there's last night's curry again!"

 

[Tdol]

How do you say it in English when an earthquake occurs?

I heard English speakers say 'It's moving' when there were earthquakes when I was living in Japan, but I don't how standard this is.

 

[emsr2d2]

I really can't think of anything standard that would be said in such a non-standard situation. People surely would say whatever pops into their heads.

"Oh my god, the ground's shaking!"
"Is that an earthquake?"
"What the hell is going on?"

I could go on for hours. I won't.

 

[Tdol]

People in, say, California may have a term as they have them regularly. It's not a panic reaction, but the first person to feel it says something and it falls quiet while you wait to see how big it is and whether you need to dive under the table, etc. In earthquake areas, it is a standard situation- this year, there were hundreds of quakes and tremors in Tokyo when I was there and you do alert people. I was in a restaurant with an English speaker when it started shaking enough for the place to fall silent while everyone waited for it to pass and that was the expression I heard.

I may not know the exact term used in earthquake zones of the English-speaking world, but I know what Juank is referring to- it silences things while you try to work out how big it is. It is a skill I would rather not have acquired, but I can assess an earthquake quite accurately on the Japanese scale, may be able to tell if you're close to the epicentre and would have some some idea about the depth and what type of waves they are. Something like It's moving switches you to focusing on that. What Californians and others who get them regularly say, I don't know.