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Pastsimple Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Trench Idioms

My mother tongue has a handful of idioms related to trenches and trench warfare. Do the examples below work in English as well?

1. Can I say this after I've returned to work from my holiday?

(I'm) back in the trenches.

2. When someone with no practical experience writes a highly theoretical essay about my job, can I say:

Well, he's never been in the trenches.

or

He doesn't know anything about the life in the trenches.

3. Let's say there's a man and woman, and their relationship is "mutilated" beyond hope of recovery, yet they are still staying together, living a life full of useless arguments, accusations, blame etc., can I describe this unhealthy state as "trench warfare"?

Or

A: I hear Dick and Jane are not on speaking terms.
B: Man, that's (complete) trench warfare, the thing between those two.

(trench warfare suggesting stalemate / state not likely to change in the near future)

Thanks in advance, as always.
  

Top answer

1. and 3. are used in British English, yes.

— Nona the brit

  • 1.
  • and 3.
  • are used in British English, yes.
  • 2 isn't.
  • I suspect these are not used in American English.
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8 Answers
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1. and 3. are used in British English, yes. 2 isn't.

I suspect these are not used in American English.
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Nona The Brit1. and 3. are used in British English, yes. 2 isn't.

I suspect these are not used in American English.
On second thoughts, 2. would sound a bit odd (emphasis on "a bit") even in my mother tongue, though I do occasionally use it when trying to sound original.
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Marius HancuYou know what? 2) is used in AmE:




DETROIT Tom Brown writing for Reuters reported that Nick Scheele, Ford Motor Co.'s president and chief operating officer, sees himself as a soldier in Detroit's cut-throat car wars. "My whole career I've been in the trenches," Scheele... "My whole career I've been in the trenches," Sche
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Hi - American here. They all sound fine to me.
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Grammar GeekHi - American here. They all sound fine to me.
Does the minidialogue as a whole sound natural at all, though?
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Actually, if you said it was trench warfare between them, I would think they were engaging in a non-literal form of close combat. I wouldn't think of the trenches on either side of the battlefield with neither side advancing or retreating, but of both of them in the same trench. I have to think about the idiom to mean that neither will budge.
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PastsimpleMy mother tongue has a handful of idioms related to trenches and trench warfare. Do the examples below work in English as well?

1. Can I say this after I've returned to work from my holiday?

(I'm) back in the trenches.

2. When someone with no practical experience writes a highly theoretical essay about my job, can I say:
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