# eat your word



## vandad

How do you translate this slang into Czech:"Eat your word!" or "I eat my word."?


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## Enquiring Mind

Hello Vandad, when asking a question on the forum, it's always helpful to use the phrase or word you're asking about in a specific context. Often the phrase or word could have a number of different translations. If you don't mind, I'll use the idiom "eat one's word*s*" (it's always plural) in an imagined context to help forum users get the right sense:

Scene 1:
Mum to son: "Don't forget you have to get up at six o'clock tomorrow morning to catch your six-thirty train. I bet I'll have to wake you up!"

Scene 2: (next morning, mum comes into the kitchen at a quarter to six, son is drinking coffee ..)
Mum: "What? You're already up?  I can't believe it!"
Son (laughing): "Eat your words!"

The dictionary says "(pokorně) *odvolat svoje slova".
*There will be other more colloquial ways of translating the phrase, and no doubt Czech native speakers will be able to supply them.


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## bibax

I think there is no slang or colloquial expression for _"to eat one's words"_ in Czech. When two boys are fighting you usually hear _"Odvolej to!"_ which literally means _"Recant it!"_. _"Odvolat svá slova"_ is Standard Czech. One of the best-known Czechs didn't recant his words (_"neodvolal svá slova"_) and consequently was burned at the stake.


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## Tagarela

bibax said:


> I think there is no slang or colloquial expression for _"to eat one's words"_ in Czech. When two boys are fighting you usually hear _"Odvolej to!"_ which literally means _"Recant it!"_. _"Odvolat svá slova"_ is Standard Czech. One of the best-known Czechs didn't recant his words (_"neodvolal svá slova"_) and consequently was burned at the stake.



*Mods, sorry for off-topic, but you mean Jan Hus?


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## bibax

Yes. But first of all I wanted to use the verb _odvolati_ in all important forms (infinitive, imperative, past participle). I should add the passive participle _"slova jsou odvolána"_ and the indicative present _"nic neodvolám"_.


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## jezevci

Another useful phrase might be _"sypat si popel na hlavu"_ (to sprinkle ash on one's head) or even _"mít máslo na hlavě"_ (to have butter on one's head). 

While _odvolat_ encapsulates the literal meaning of taking one's words back, these phrases speak more to the aspect of wishing one could take back one's words. In the first case in the sense of acting humble and owning up to one's errors, while the second phrase means to be shamed (apparently from the ancient practice of making market sellers of butter who cheated customers stand in the sun with butter on their head until it all melted).


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