The Experiment is a collection of short series that are a little different to our usual programmes – but still help you improve your English.
Our first series, We Say – You Say, shows how YOUR language can help you remember English expressions.
We say…
‘Once bitten, twice shy’ to mean, because you have a bad and unpleasant experience doing something the first time, you are more cautious and worried about doing it a second time.
Examples:
After Harry was sick on the rollercoaster, I don’t think he’ll go on one again – once bitten, twice shy!
Since Debbie broke up with her boyfriend, she’s become very cautious about starting a new relationship. It’s a case of once bitten, twice shy.
Kee
In English we say ‘once bitten, twice shy’ to mean, because you have a bad and unpleasant experience doing something the first time, you are more cautious and worried about doing it a second time.
Examples:
After Harry was sick on the rollercoaster, I don’t think he’ll go on one again – once bitten, twice shy!
Since Debbie broke up with her boyfriend, she’s become very cautious about starting a new relationship. It’s a case of once bitten, twice shy.
You say…
Manoshi
In English you have an idiom ‘once bitten, twice shy’ – now in Bengali we have something similar we call ন্যাড়া একবারই বেল তলায় যায় – now nera is a bald headed man and bel tolai is a tree which bears a fruit called bel which is very very hard, as big as a grapefruit, as hard as a duce ball, so you can imagine if it lands on your head you will have a very very painful experience – so if you have that experience once you will never go under the bel tree (again).
Myint Swe
In English you say ‘once bitten, twice shy’ in Burmese we say တခါေသဘူးပ်ဥ္ဖိုးနားလည္။ – which means once you experience somebody dying in your surroundings, you will know the value of wood to make a coffin.
Graciela
In English you say ‘once bitten, twice shy’, in Portuguese we say: Gato escaldado tem medo de água fria – a cat that has been scalded with hot water is even afraid of cold water. Poor cat!
Kee
So, there are a few examples of ‘one bitten, twice shy’ in other languages, what do you say?
You say…
In Bangali – ন্যাড়া একবারই বেল তলায় যায় – if you get hit by a bel fruit, you will never stand under a bel tree again.
In Burmese – တခါေသဘူးပ်ဥ္ဖိုးနားလည္။ – which means once you experience somebody dying in your surroundings, you will know the value of wood to make a coffin.
In Portuguese – Gato escaldado tem medo de água fria – a cat that has been scalded with hot water is even afraid of cold water. Poor cat!