Como falo em inglês: Nasceu em berço de ouro

Podcast Inglês Online

How’s it going? Hoje eu falo sobre alguns idioms com a palavra BORN – aquela mesma palavra que aparece em I was born... Não deixe de ouvir!

Transcrição

How’s it going? You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast. Download the Inglês Online app at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store – search for “inglês online Ana”. Thank you for telling everyone you know about this podcast and, enjoy!

Ok, let’s get started. If you’ve read the title of this episode, well… that’s the first term we’re tackling today. Now, check this out: interestingly, in Brazil we say that someone who was born into a wealthy family was born in a cradle made of gold, right. So, we use the cradle, and gold, for a metaphor that expresses wealthy beginnings.

In the English language, however, we use a spoon and not gold, but silver, to talk about people who were born rich. A silver spoon. And there’s more: the silver spoon was in your mouth. And just like in Brazil, native English speakers don’t say that someone’s born with a silver spoon in their mouth to make a compliment. They’ll say that more in an insulting way, to express that that person always had it easy in life and so on.

Nowadays it’s not unusual to see people justifying themselves to others on social media, making sure everyone knows that they may be rich now but they weren’t born rich – they weren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Listen to what this guy tweeted out: To those who say I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I ask you, please look at this photo and point out the “silver spoon” because I must have accidentally dropped it on my way to school.

https://twitter.com/SRobertsKRON4/status/1024316716342435840

You can see an image of the place where he grew up on the blog. So, there you go: he’s telling everyone “Hey, I wasn’t born rich. Just look at this place and you’ll see that I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.”

Before we move on, let me ask you: in your opinion, what’s the best image to represent wealth – a silver spoon, or a cradle made of gold? Let me know.

And here’s our second one for this episode – and this is a very easy one. It’s exactly the same as we say in Portuguese… However, it’s always useful to hear stuff – and you know why! The more you hear it, the more it’ll get in your head and add to your English fluency. So, here you go: I wasn’t born yesterday.

And this one’s pretty much used in negative sentences a hundred percent of the time. People will say it to communicate that they’re not naive, or gullible. If someone is gullible, that means they’ll believe anything you tell them.

Actually, wait: another very frequent way to use this one is by asking “Do you think I was born yesterday?” meaning, obviously, “Do you think I’m naive or stupid?” So, the question I just said and the negative form are basically how you’re going to hear this idiom.

Let me give you another great example coming from Twitter – check this out:

Just had a customer complain and ask for her meal free after eating it all plus boxing some up to take home???? Sorry darling but I wasn’t born yesterday

So, the customer ate the food, saved some of it to take home and then asked this lady for their money back, apparently. Her answer here is “Sorry darling, I wasn’t born yesterday.” I’m no fool, you’re not going to take advantage of me or get a free meal like that. I’m not that gullible – I can see you ate the food and you’re even taking leftovers with you! Some people have no shame…

Can you think of a situation in your life where you thought “Haha. I wasn’t born yesterday and I can see you’re not telling the truth”? I think for me it was the last time I talked to a real estate agent – she said a certain flat I was interested in was in a really good area but I knew she was lying because I had done some research prior to talking to her.

So, what about you? I’m sure you’ve got your own examples. Let me know, and see you soon!

Key expressions

• was/were born with a silver spoon in your mouth
• was/were not born yesterday

Vocabulary

wealthy family = família rica

spoon = colher

make a compliment = fazer um elogio

cradle = berço (de bebê)

naive = ingênuo/a

I’m no fool = eu não sou bobo/a

leftovers = sobras, o que sobrou da comida

have no shame = não tem vergonha

real estate agent = corretor/a de imóveis