Listen to the author reading this blog post:
by Liz Walter
We all make judgments every day about what to believe and what not to believe, so it’s not surprising that there are several nice phrases to express this process.
If you have something on good authority, you have been given information about it by someone you trust:
I have it on good authority that she’s considering selling the property.
If you have a strong belief that you can’t really explain, you might say that you feel it in your bones. In British English, if we take something as read, we accept that it is true without checking it, while if you take someone’s word for something or take someone at their word, you accept that they are telling the truth without further evidence:
I know she’s still alive. I feel it in my bones.
I think we can take it as read that they have consulted their lawyers.
He said the boat was safe and I took his word for it.
If you don’t completely believe something you’ve been told, you could say that you take it with a pinch (UK)/grain (US) of salt. If someone tells you that something is going to happen and you are doubtful, you might say I’ll believe it/that when I see it!, while if you decide to believe someone even if you have some doubts, you could say that you are giving them the benefit of the doubt:
She doesn’t always understand what’s going on, so I’d take anything she says with a pinch of salt.
“Gary’s going to paint the outside of my house for me.” “Really? I’ll believe that when I see it!”
He swears it wasn’t him who broke the window, and I’ve decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
There are several phrases to indicate that you don’t believe something at all. The simplest and possibly most common is to say in a very sarcastic voice Yeah, right! You might also say that you don’t believe a word of something:
Her boyfriend’s a surgeon? Yeah, right!
Martin says he was in the army, but I don’t believe a word of it.
If someone tells you something that is obviously untrue, especially something you would be naïve to believe, you might tell them that you weren’t born yesterday. In British English, another rather dismissive phrase is Pull the other one/leg! (It’s got bells on):
You expect me to believe you’ll pay me back? I wasn’t born yesterday!
“I walked all the way here.” “Pull the other one! I saw you getting out of a taxi.”
What phrases does your language have for things you don’t believe?
Very exhaustive
Than you so Uchida, they’re very helpful.
I feel it in my bones – Anybody knows how it sounds in American English?
I have been got good thing to get a step head of myself with your lesson; I would like to cast my great appreciation to all the team you work together.
Thank you, Liz! I love reading your articles, you provide such valuable information and insights on your language. I particularly relate with this topic since my language -Italian by the way- has many expressions which are almost the same.
For instance, instead of saying “I feel it in my bones” we most commonly use “I feel it in my blood” for intuitions whereas the direct corrispondent to “I feel it in my bones” my granny used to say it only connected to forecast weather conditions, especially humidity.
Also, the expression “I don’t believe a word” or “I weren’t born yesterday” are perfectly the same. “Give the benefit of doubt” matches an Italian expression too, probably due the common latin roots our languages share.
“Take it with a pinch os salt”, you suggested, is the one I cherish most! No need to say we share it too!
Hi,
The two first phrases are the same in arabic, although the roots of the two languages are not the same. I guess that this related to the human being conditions.
very good job Liz
Music to my ears and eyes!
It also means explitive deleted
Here, in Russia, when someone is telling you something and you obviously don’t believe them, you can say to them ‘stop hanging noodles on my ears’, which patently means ‘stop lying to me’.
By the way, this humorously colourful expression could possibly be used in English. 🙂
Thanks Liz for this insightful article and idioms you provided us.
In my region, in Italy, we use exactly the expression “I feel it in my bones” with the same meaning of the English, differently from eleonora (there are some regional variations, I’m afraid).
Also, the idioms “I don’t believe a word” and “I weren’t born yesterday” and “give the benefit of doubt” have the same meaning in Italian.
Regarding the idiom “take with the pinch of salt” we have an idiom that sounds a little bit different but with the same meaning such as “prendilo con le pinze” that sounds in English like “take it with the pliers”.
My channel
In Dutch people will not feel something ‘in their bones’ but in their water’
That’s interesting: we also have that expression, but it’s rather old-fashioned and not used much nowadays.
Wonderful!
Another one is:
“I wasn’t born in the last shower”.
or “I didn’t come down in the last shower”.
In addition to the aforementioned expression, in Russia, we also say ‘I feel it in my liver’ or, more precisely, ‘I feel it with my liver’.
Liver alone!
” Stop hanging noodles on my ears” 😄 😄 ! ! yay Denis ! ! thanks for some laughs !
Thanks so much for all the great comments!