vectra
Member
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2005
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Russian
- Home Country
- Ukraine
- Current Location
- Ukraine
Hello everyone,
What would you say to the following comments?
I have never heard anyone say "a storm in a teacup". It's always "a tempest in a teacup". You can see that the alliteration is important in this expression.
You can't really say that someone will "throw their book at someone". This is fixed as "throw the book at someone". It's always "the".
The word "tempest" is so archaic that it's doubtful that the expression "tempest in a teapot" originated in America. This has to be one of those British expressions that the British have stopped using but that remain in the US and Canada. They have also stopped using the participle "gotten" and stopped using "fall" to mean "autumn", both of which came from Britain also, so it's not unusual that they would lose an expression like that.
we don't use British slang where I live.
With "storm" it sounds to me like someone trying to simplify the real expression for ESL learners.
Sometimes people and publishers do simplify the English language for that purpose. Since I had never heard the expression said that way outside an ESL context, I assumed it was one of these simplifications.
These are exchanges of opinion about the idiom 'a storm in a teacup' between an American scholar living in Detroit and some people living in Europe. Is it possible that people in America have never heard about this expression, I mean 'a storm in a teacup'?
Thank you for the time and help.
What would you say to the following comments?
I have never heard anyone say "a storm in a teacup". It's always "a tempest in a teacup". You can see that the alliteration is important in this expression.
You can't really say that someone will "throw their book at someone". This is fixed as "throw the book at someone". It's always "the".
The word "tempest" is so archaic that it's doubtful that the expression "tempest in a teapot" originated in America. This has to be one of those British expressions that the British have stopped using but that remain in the US and Canada. They have also stopped using the participle "gotten" and stopped using "fall" to mean "autumn", both of which came from Britain also, so it's not unusual that they would lose an expression like that.
we don't use British slang where I live.
With "storm" it sounds to me like someone trying to simplify the real expression for ESL learners.
Sometimes people and publishers do simplify the English language for that purpose. Since I had never heard the expression said that way outside an ESL context, I assumed it was one of these simplifications.
These are exchanges of opinion about the idiom 'a storm in a teacup' between an American scholar living in Detroit and some people living in Europe. Is it possible that people in America have never heard about this expression, I mean 'a storm in a teacup'?
Thank you for the time and help.