What does “Cat got your tongue?” mean in English?
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Hi, I’m Joel. In this video I’m going to talk about the question,
“Cat got your tongue?”
So, this is kind of an old phrase, but you can still use it today.
The longer form would be “Has the cat got your tongue?”
but it’s probably more common just to say, “Cat got your tongue?”
This is something you say to someone who is being very quiet,
who is not saying very much.
Maybe you’re expecting the person to talk a little bit more.
We’d say, “Cat got your tongue?”
Or, if the person normally is very talkative but today for some reason they’re
being quiet you could say, “Cat got your tongue?”
So, this phrase is not related to cats at all.
But you could kind of imagine if a cat were to take your tongue, without a tongue you cannot talk.
So, if you’re not talking someone could ask you “Cat got your tongue?”
Because it’s like, if you’re not talking maybe it’s because you don’t have a tongue,
the cat took it or something like that. It’s silly, but that is the phrase, “Cat got your tongue?”
So, next time that somebody is quiet for some reason when they’re normally not or when
they should not be quiet,
you can ask them, “Cat got your tongue?”
And then you can maybe get an explanation from them or a reason why they’re being quiet.
All right, thanks for watching and have a great day.
I hoped you liked the video.
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