I have been Language Evaluator or grammarian, a cross between an English Language Coach and member of the dreaded Grammar Police at several Toastmasters International clubs in Singapore. I was recently challenging myself to find alternatives to phrases such as it sucks. I thought this colloquial phrase was an Americanism.
I was right.
I Sucked - Did I Really?
I went into online dictionaries looking for an explanation and was surprised by what I found. I had imagined that it was some kind of sexual reference. It turns out that the phrase 'it sucks' is to do with playing jazz on a horn. He blows is good, but he sucks means he lacks skill. It has become a common saying, a metaphor, not to be taken literally, like 'he can't tie his own shoelaces'.
So what is the British English equivalent? If the speaker says, I tried ice skating and singing and learning Mandarin but I sucked at all three, ...? I was poor, useless, lacked skill, had no talent, was a dismal failure, had two left feet, had no green finger.
What of the phrase my life sucked? My life was miserable, unfair, a bad situation, troubled, joyless,
lousy, hopeless, going nowhere.
My Bad
What if the speaker says my bad? Definitely another Americanism. I would never say that. I am British. My bad translates into British English as my mistake or my fault.
Today's discoveries:
Wikipedia makes rhetoric very complicated. Try simple wiki.
Wiki's list of Rhetorical devices is comprehensive and alphabetical but very academic and used out of date English. I wonder how much of it is cribbed or copied from out of date, out of copyright editions of Encyclopaedia Britannica using articles written by highbrow academics.
s
My latest discovery is a simple to understand on the web extract from a book, with modern examples, words you could actually say or read aloud.
I also liked the amusing titled: It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences. By June Casagrande.
For anybody who doesn't know the original quotation, the book title is a parody of the well known opening line to Charles Dickens book A Tale of Two Cities, which starts, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. that's rather on oxymoron, a contradiction.
Useful Websites
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric
https://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm#Self
https://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric6.htm#Alliteration
An amusing modern best seller on absurd punctuation (and spelling) with an ambiguous title:
Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
You can look inside it on Amazon.
ps://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/
https://www.amazon.com/Was-Best-Sentences-Worst-Crafting/
You can look inside this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Eloquence-Secrets-Perfect-Phrase/
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and English speaker.
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