I've ran into this phrase or variation of it in internet a lot and I just don't get it:
"they're trying to have their cake and eat it too".
I mean, what else you're going to do with a cake? You eat it, the cake exists to be eaten. It's the purpose of the cake. If you don't have a cake, you don't eat it. If you do have a cake, why not eat it? It's not going to keep fresh for long, that cream will go sour pretty soon.
Here, have a biscuit.
:shhh
I think it means that they are trying to keep their cake, but eat it, too.
But see, I have almost the opposite problem. There are many things from back home that are really hard to find here. For example, when I got a Reeces Peanut Butter Cup, I was so excited, that I didn't want to eat it. But what is the purpose of a peanut butter cup other than to eat it? And yet I couldn't bring myself to eat it because I knew it would be months before I found another one. So I just keep it without eating it. What good does it do me? And yet the thought of it being gone makes me sad... Such a problem...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_can%27t_have_your_cake_and_eat_it
That really explains it better than anything else I've seen. But Eimi's example is very fitting.
I totally get Eimi's example! When I found the last box of a discontinued flavor of vegan cookies I loved, I held on to it until a month before its expiry date because I knew if I ate it there wouldn't be any more, so I didn't wanna eat it, but I'd bought it because I wanted to eat it one last time...
We use that expression "have your cake and eat it too" in the South to describe someone who wants things that are at paradox with one another...
For example, a woman wants to have an open-relationship and date and be flirty with other men, BUT, she doesn't want the man she's actually dating to have other girlfriends on the side.
Weell, she can't have her cake and eat it too, meaning, she has to choose one way or the other, she can't have both because they cannot exist together.
It's just one of those things you ran into when you're non-native speaker. You kind of get it but you really don't. Or you think you understand it but you're not 100% sure. Of course finnish-language has it's share of obscure idioms too. Don't hesitate to correct me if I get it wrong.
Heather is exactly right on how we use it. Wanting to have two opposing things, just like if I could both keep my peanut butter cup and enjoy eating it.
Every language comes up with some really unique idioms. I love learning about them. There's a Thai idiom, "The hen sees the snake's feet and the snake sees the hen's boobs". It means that two people know each other's secrets. That one cracks me up!
Well, that's obscure, snake doesn't have feet....
I've sometimes tried to translate finnish idioms, never ends well. How do you translate like: "vetää herne nenään" when accurate translation is: pull a pea into a nose (or inhale a pea). The meaning is that someone takes offense out of nothing. There's probably english saying for that too.
Quote from: Paula on November 24, 2017, 04:30:43 AM
Well, that's obscure, snake doesn't have feet....
I've sometimes tried to translate finnish idioms, never ends well. How do you translate like: "vetää herne nenään" when accurate translation is: pull a pea into a nose (or inhale a pea). The meaning is that someone takes offense out of nothing. There's probably english saying for that too.
The English version of that is, "mountains out of molehills" so if a person blows things out of proportion or takes offense where there was none intended you would say, "He made a mountain out of a molehill."
I love idioms!!
Here are some UK English ones
https://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/country/british+english.html
Some of those do get regionalised - I'm in the North of England, so I've heard 'More front than Blackpool' rather than Brighton, or my personal favourite, which is not on that list is 'It's a bit nowt nor summat', meaning something is bland.
For Eimi:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/Reeses-Peanut-Butter-Cups-%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%81%AE%E3%83%94%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8A%E3%83%83%E3%83%84%E3%83%90%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AB%E3%83%83%E3%83%97%EF%BC%88%E3%83%91%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%81%82%E3%81%9F%E3%82%8A4/dp/B00MUM4Z0C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1511702645&sr=8-3&keywords=peanut+butter+cups
Thank you, Len! It's amazing the things Amazon has started to carry :)