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Omniglot: My hovercraft is full of eels. 

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Omniglot: My hovercraft is full of eels. 

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Jump to phrases

This phrase is used in a sketch about a badly translated English-Hungarian phrasebook from the British TV comedy show, Monty Python's Flying Circus. There's a video of the sketch on YouTube and a transcript on this site.

It's possibly the most useful phrase there is, and a handy one to have when you're asked to say something in a language you're learning.

Click on any of the phrases that are links to hear them spoken. If you can provide recordings, corrections or additional translations, please contact me.

To see more phrases in each language click on the language names. If you'd like to see these phrases in any combination of two languages, try the Phrase Finder.

Notes

The Judoon are race of rhinocerid humanoids in Doctor Who and their language is English words split into syllables with an o added to them all. [More information].

Al Bhed is a cipher based on English that appears in the game Final Fantasy X.

Kikristol is a constructed language based on Swahili, Old and Modern English and Afrikaans created by Iac M. and sjacik

The sketch this phrase comes from:

Translations and recordings of this phrase
https://tatoeba.org/fra/sentences/show/348790
https://youtu.be/9aaJZQpSgkY

Here are some new idioms I came up with based on this phrase:

a few eels short of a hovercraft = somewhat stupid / crazy

he has eels in his hovercraft = he's stupid / crazy

they took to it like eels to a hovercraft = easily, like ducks to water

as easy as filling a hovercraft with eels = as easy as falling off a log

can't see the hovercraft for the eels = can't see the wood for the trees

I could eat a hovercraft full of eels = I could eat a horse

People who have contributed to this section

If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, please contact me.

My hovercraft is full of eels | Stop the world, I want to get off! | Say cheese! | Colorless green ideas sleep furiously | I am the king of the chickens | Thingamajig

Silly phrases in particular languages

Other phrases

Index by phrase | Index by language | Index by language family | Phrase finder

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My hovercraft is full of eels in many languages

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Jump to phrases This phrase is used in a sketch about a badly translated English-Hungarian phrasebook from the British TV comedy show, Monty Python's Flying Circus. There's a video of the sketch on YouTube and a transcript on this site.

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​Information on Spanish Speaking Countries

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Mia Nacamulli: The benefits of a bilingual brain

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It's obvious that knowing more than one language can make certain things easier -- like traveling or watching movies without subtitles. But are there other advantages to having a bilingual (or multilingual) brain? Educator Mia Nacamulli details the three types of bilingual brains and shows how knowing more than one language keeps your brain healthy, complex and actively engaged.

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Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

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The world's leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years!

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language languages linguistics "writing system" "writing systems" pronunciation

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I'm animated about language! The history of written and spoken languages amazes me. I use stories and cartoons to bring linguistics to life. Think about it... Where do the world's writing systems come from? Does your language shape the way you think? What will Future English be like?

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By Jillian Winn
Monday, November 20, 2023 (Modified from original published 11-25-2019)

In the past, we have shared holiday-themed signs around Thanksgiving (See our article: 10 signs to know for Thanksgiving), but we feel strongly that what's more important than learning to sign a few signs like turkey and pie, is conversational signs.

If you check out the Sign of the Day each day, you will notice the Sign of the Day for Monday, November 20 is CONVERSATION (as in "talk to someone in sign language") because this week is recognized as "Better Conversation Week." Better Conversation Week is always the week of Thanksgiving and it is the perfect time of year for all of us to focus on having better conversations.

Sometimes our deaf family and friends feel excluded when they come home for the holidays. If everyone isn't signing, they may feel excluded and feel like they don't have a place at the table. In honor of Better Conversation Week, in honor of Thanksgiving, and, most of all, in honor of our deaf family and friends, let's try to sign. Signing is hard and it can be intimidating to sign with a fluent signer when you are feeling insecure about your signing skills, but the number one thing you can do is simply just TRY to sign.

To encourage and support everyone to sign this week, we have unlocked all of our member full example sentences for this week only. This is a member feature, but will be unlocked and freely accessible to everyone this week.

Click on the "Sentences" tab on the Signing Savvy website to get started. We suggest looking at the section on "Conversational Sentences." There are lots of great examples of how to sign full sentences. We hope that before you know it, you are feeling comfortable signing "How have you been?" and "It's good to see you."

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writing systems written language abjads abuguida alphabet syllabary syllabaries syllabics script glyph encoding multilingual hieroglyphs cuneiform rune accent diacritic unicode character chinese kanji hanzi hanja letter symbol foreign font phrase translation learning

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Omniglot - the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages

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A guide to writing systems and languages, with useful phrases, tips on learning languages, multilingual texts, and much more.