🤖 Literally, in English
“A bear stepped on his ear.”
Ведмідь на вухо наступив. Vedmid na vukho nastupyv
🤨 What does it ACTUALLY mean? →
🇬🇧 What you'd actually say
“He's tone-deaf.”
also: “He can't sing to save his life.” · “He has no ear for music.”
- 📖 Meaning
- Said about someone who cannot sing in tune or hear musical pitch.
- 💡 Why it's funny
- English blames biology; Ukrainian blames a specific bear, at a specific moment, that walked over your head.
- 🧭 Closest English idiom
- “Tone-deaf.”
- 📝 Explanation
- Affectionate teasing, usually at a party where somebody is singing badly and enthusiastically.
🧠 Learn
- tone-deaf (adjective) — unable to hear the difference between musical notes — без музичного слуху “I'd love to join the choir, but I'm tone-deaf.”
- in tune (phrase) — at the correct musical pitch — в тон, чисто “She sings perfectly in tune.”
🗣 In context
Я не співатиму — мені ведмідь на вухо наступив.
I'm not singing — I'm completely tone-deaf.
🎧 Hear the contrast
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