You're listening to Away With Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I'm Grant Barrett.

And I'm Martha Barnett.

In English, if you want to express skepticism about something somebody's telling you, you might say,

stop pulling my leg or pull the other one.

It's got bells on, which are a couple of phrases I really like,

but there are really picturesque phrases in other languages

that express that same kind of skepticism.

One of my favorites is,

Now Quintemé One of De Bakeros,

which is Spanish for,

Now Tell Me One About Cowboys.

Enough of your tall tales.

Tell me one about cowboys. And in Tagalog, there's a phrase that literally translates as,

you're making a rope out of sand, which I also really like. Oh, that's lovely. And French you might say,

I taste a lot, which basically means stop with your salads, which I think refers to the idea of just a mishmash of ideas that you're throwing around. And of course, Missouri, where I'm from,

you might say, I'm from Missouri, you're going to have to show me. Oh, right, the show me state.

I like stop your salads, enough with them already. Stop for your salads.

Wherever you are in the world, we know that you've got a way to tell people to stop with the nonsense.

What is the way that you tell them to shush?

877-9-2-9-6673, email words at waywardrad.

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