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19 November 2007 17:56 |
| | ive actually never heard of this "saying". is "taken away" to be associated with "nuthouse"/"funny farm"?
(it would also be helpful to know the exact original meaning)
CC: Chantal IanMegill2 kafetzou Maribel |
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20 November 2007 02:35 |
| | Yes - we say "you should be taken away" or "they're going to take you away", and the meaning of "to the insane asylum" is generally understood. |
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20 November 2007 08:44 |
| | Yup! 
My mother used to sing this:
They're coming to take me away
Hee hee hoo hoo ha ha
to the funny farm!
Don't know where it was from, though! |
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20 November 2007 14:26 |
| | "... where life is beautiful all the time,
and I'll be happy to see those nice young men
in their clean white coats,
and they're coming to take me a away, ha ha!" |
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20 November 2007 15:10 |
| | haha sounds funny =)
but good to know now! unfortunately it's also proof that my english-german dictionary isn't as good as i always thought it would be...  |
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21 November 2007 04:33 |
| | It's an idiom - dictionaries are notoriously poor at handling those. |
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21 November 2007 14:40 |
| | ... and you dont really learn them at school, although they would be important when talking to a native speaker. you can be grammatically and verbally perfect, but not knowing these common expressions is one if the subtle but noticeable differences to a real native speaker. |
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29 November 2007 13:04 |
| | Excatly the song I had in mind 
But literally from spoken finnish: "ready to be taken to an asylum" where the asylum should be changed to a more familiar equivalent - but very hard for a foreigner to know which word would have the same value of spoken language/humour. The song came to rescue... |
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29 November 2007 13:39 |
| | Yay!  The crazy English experts, to the rescue!
(kafetzou says: "Speak for yourself, Ian!" ) |
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29 November 2007 15:32 |
| | Ha ha, hee, hee, you don't know me, Ian! |
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